I’m a normal little boy, like everyone else. I woke up, brushed my teeth, and went to school like other children my age did. I sit in the place I hated, heads down, doing things I’ve never liked before, just like all the students around me.

Through the window, I saw the sky. Within the dark clouds, there’s still some birds flying across, chasing the last sunlight before the heavy rain.

We look the same, in the same age, wearing the same custom, doing the same thing, pretending we have the same personality and the same interests. But we are different.

They are lambs in a fold. They are apathetic, content, innocent enough to believe what they’re doing is what they really wanted, and can eventually lead them to the place they dreamed.

I’m not a lamb. I’m a falcon. I’m clever enough to know what I really want. I stand high enough so I can see the knife of the butcher right beside the fold. I can see the man in the high castle is waiting for the lambs. I saw his servants washing their cutting board, heating up the pot and using numerous dreams and hopes to fuel the stove. But eventually, I will fly up to the sky, leaving all those things behind. I will reach my promised land.

The shepherd, standing right in front of the flock, is blaming the lambs and the weather because she thought the storm made all the lambs lazy today. She’s feeding them with forages, that the so called “experience” taught her this can raise the fattest sheep. But the “experience” could be wrong, just like it is not working on everybody. Lambs can walk. They can walk anywhere they want, to the forest that has the lushest grass, to the mountain that can train their thighs, to the hill that can bask in the sun. But she locked them in the fold, because the experience told her so.

The shepherd hates falcons. She calls us “rats”, which means the one who lives in the sewer, doing untoward things for life, merely surviving on charity from the others. She Howled this out in front of other lambs, saying being a rat is our future, only she cares about their future, only following her steps can have a better life. Thus, I became the “rat in the porridge”, the one who breaks class discipline. I got isolated, like the falcon, staying alone. A loner in the flocks.

She’s lying. She doesn’t really care about those lambs’ future but her own future.

Sometimes, falcons would stay together for prey, just like me and Mark. He’s tall, thin, and has long black hair that is over the school hair code. When we sneaked out of the classroom we saw other falcons already waiting for us. We walk together downtown in the rain for dinner, and go to the riverside to watch the sunset on the horizon, and back to our dorm before study hall ends.

We do this through my high school year, until the last year before the “test”.

That “test” is the test that ends all the tests. After that, we graduated from high-school, all the lambs rather applied to college or applied for work.

Past years, only one third of the lambs can apply for a college, the rest who couldn’t get applied would leave the town, move to a bigger city for jobs.

My grades are getting better and better year by year, but other falcons don’t. One Day I saw on the school notice board, my name on the ranking passing the “pass red line”, I realized that we might separate with each other someday in the future.

I felt sad, pain. I found after that test, I really would stay alone, like a falcon. I would lose my companion, my friend, my youth.

As time approaches graduation, my heart is breaking. I cherish the time when we sneak out of the campus, treasure the time we stay, and hang out together. I want to stay with them more.

One day, like what we usually do, we walk to the riverside together, watching the sunset.

As the bright sun turns red, other falcons whisper to each other, and turn around, facing toward me.

“We are so nice to meet you, and we really enjoy the time we spend together. But we have to tell you, we are not going to invite you to prey anymore. ”

I was shocked, opening my mouth with my shivering lips:”yeah…… but, why?”

Mark puts his hand on my shoulder: ”We all know that you are the one who can pass that test. Me and other guys don’t want to disturb you from the test. We are different, you are the real falcon, but we are the rats.”

“I don’t understand what you are talking about, I really want to be together with you guys! You guys are not! ”

He rubbed his eyes:”You’ve got a college degree? What are you doing here? You deserve a better future than we do! ”

“You guys are not rats! We are falcons, we prey together, and fly together to the highest place!”

“Yeah? Then come back with a college offer letter! ” He holds me tight, looking straight into my eyes. “Promise us, and we will wait here. Telling that old fat woman that she’s wrong, vents our anger. ”

I can’t see anything. Tears covered my eyes. More and more hands are put on my shoulder, and I can hear them sobbing.

“I promise you guys.” I dyed my sleeves with tears. “When I come back here, I will slash her mouth with my offer! ”