A Hard Day's Wor

1.

From her birth Katie Cumming has been gifted with a precocious virtue: something less like a pure genius and more of an excessive persistence and concentration. She has a high pain threshold when it comes to self-realization. A quality, one would say, that is proven to be rare among her generation.

Out of her childhood friends she was the first to learn how to ride a bike without the training wheels and not fall, and how to hold your breath underwater against the will of your own body. She did cry on the first day of her kindergarten, but that was the first and last time her mother ever saw Katie shed tears. In school she did generally well in all subjects and really excelled in literature and biology. In sports she was a reliably good swimmer and rower. The girl is a great favorite among the teachers and largely admired by her peers. At the end of high school, Katie's efforts have been amply rewarded: she would start studying medicines this fall at a very prestigious college in New England.

Her not-so-affluent mother was surprised to learn that Katie would ride a full scholarship and need only minimal financial support from her. On the eve of her turning 18, her mother gave Katie the family heirloom, a piece of silver cross passed down through generations. You're a woman now, and it is yours to keep from here on. Her mother's voice was grave and sincere. Katie thanked her mother and repeated the words to herself, I'm a woman now, I'm a woman now. She did not cry. She's going away from home for the first time, and great expectations awaits her in all certainty.

And oh, I forgot to mention what our heroine looks like: she is of average stature, her limbs lithe and graceful; she has a very pale complexion, with a little freckles on her face that have persisted from her childhood. She was an only-child raised by her mother in very sensible manners in a small town. Above all, she is a redhead with a distinctive look. Her impression is not the outright stunning kind of beauty but a more subtle and profound influence. Strangers passing her by often turn back trying to another glance, and, having forgotten her during the course of the day, they would dream later that night about the girl and doing naughty things to her.

2.

Sometime that summer, while finding closures with her friends at home and waiting to begin her new life, Katie received a mail from her college. In the mail it congratulated her again on her admission, and delineated a list of things she was expected to do before the commencement in September. Katie read through the usual expected chores until she came to a line of words quite alien and disconcerting: "Due to your stated ethnic background, you may be required take a Diversity Initiatives Test..." Following this was a link to an official website and some explanation as to what to expect.

Katie opened the website and read carefully through it; she found the nearest test center to be in a big city two hours drive away from her home. Nevertheless she booked herself a date and paid for the fees with her own savings. The test was quite expensive - $150! - but it would be reimbursed by the college later. She also downloaded the guidebook and buried herself in it for the next two weeks, until she could absolutely recall every important concept from each chapter. She had found the content to be helpful and informative as someone growing up in a largely white small town. When the day of exam arrived she felt readier than ever.

That Saturday morning Katie had a simple breakfast her mother made her, said goodbye to her and the three canine members of her family, and drove alone to the city. Along the way Katie was thinking how this already felt like she's leaving for college, leaving everything she knew behind her. She tried to listen to some music but became distract. So she let herself sunk within, becoming part of the car she was driving, a soul among thousands of other wandering souls on this asphalt highway to oblivion.

Slowly the city appeared on the horizon. The skyscrapers came first: a pyramid-like tower, a tower with a tall lightning rod, a tower that was twisted around its waist. The matchboxes in monotonous yellow concrete. Still she found the city a place of energy and power. Following the direction of her map app she left the expressway and entered a grimy neighborhood. Three minutes to arrival. She scanned around the place from inside the windshield. Is this the place? She wasn't certain at all. Around the corner she turned and came into the back of a large warehouse. There was a door, and above it said: "Diversity Training Center."

3.

Katie was puzzled. She checked again on her phone, and then the official website. She called the listed phone number. A woman picked up. Katie told her where she was and asked if this was the place. It looks a little run-down, she said. The woman assured her that she was in the right spot, and that it was a temporary site for the examination as they were going through extensive renovation. She told Katie that she could change her booking to another center if she wanted it but there would be extra costs. Katie thanked her and hang up. Well, I don't have another 150 bucks, she said to herself. So she locked her car and headed to the door.

Once inside she was pleasantly surprised: however sketchy this place looked from outside it was actually quite clean and regulated. She gave her name and her booking number at the reception, and in a little time she was ready for her test in front of one of many computers in a spacious makeshift exam room. There weren't a lot of people that day, but several other girls about her age were also taking the test. As expected they all looked white to her. One girl in front of her was wearing a pair of pink bunny ears and looking about her like Katie did; they narrowly avoided eye contact. Katie laughed at herself for her previous overreaction. This looked normal, almost exactly like when she took her SAT last fall. She entered into a meditation, shutting down her brain from distractive thoughts. There was now just herself and the test before her.

It began. Katie read through the instructions carefully and clicked "next." There was twenty five minutes and fifty questions, so she had to budget her time wisely and adopt a quick pace. "Next." The content of this exam is confidential and the participants are legally obliged not to disclose the test questions.

"Next."

The first question struck Katie like a thunderstorm. She blinked again to see if she was hallucinating; she was not. She glanced around quickly and looked back at her screen.

"What percentage of female population between 18 to 25 who are self-identified as white or Caucasian are committed in a sexual relationship with an African American male in the U.S.?"

This was a multiple choice question. The choices were: A.7%; B.15%; C. 24%; D. 36%.

What is this? Katie heard her own heart pumping. Was she in a dream? She looked up again, there was no one guarding them, and the girl in front of Katie lowered her head to read something so that only her erect bunny ears could be seen. Katie stared at the question and the choices. This was not in the guidebook at all. She felt her palm sweating against the mouse. If I have to pick one answer it might as well be rational according to its own logic, she thought. A is probably too low and D is too high. Between B and C she pick the latter, because she liked odd numbers more.

The page loaded. Then a green icon - instant feedback! Katie was right on her bet. There are this many white girls doing that? She was surprised - in her town there was hardly any black people, but what did a small town girl know? Now the next question. "Choose from the following the correct average number of orgasms per sex reported by women in an interracial relationship according the 2016 research by Johns Pumpkins University."

Another blank in her memory. Katie applied to Johns Pumpkins but they didn't give her a need-based scholarship. She didn't know they were into researches like this. What were the possible criteria for such a topic? It must be highly subjective - she had read that female orgasms were peculiarly illusive, with some women claiming never to have any in their whole lives. Katie was still a virgin but she knew a thing or two. Okay, let's look at the numbers, she said to herself. A.2. Probably too low? B.3. An improvement - what about the next one? C.5. Five is not impossible I guess? D. 12. Okay, D is clearly a joke.

After some quick thinking, Katie picked B. A red icon - she was wrong. But she was astonished by the correct answer which was D! What on earth...? She looked up again and everyone else seemed to be concentrated on their exams. What were they doing here? If this proved to be some sort of outrageous joke after she had driven two hours to come here then the people running this place shall face the full rage of an angry redhead. She raised her hand but no one came. She didn't think she could leave her seat without her test automatically resulting in a zero. So after a minute of burnout Katie had to return to her task. Whatever this is I'll finish what I've started. She clicked for the next question.

The questions came more and more bizarre.

What is the most common misconception surrounding anal intercourse? A. It leads to anal laxity. B. One will contract diseases. C. It is always painful. B. All of above.

True or false: an average African American man's penis can reach deeper into a woman's vagina than an average white man's, thus resulting in greater chance of achieving orgasm on part of the woman.

Which combination of interracial marriage reports the highest sexual satisfaction in both short & long term? A. Asian female/White male. B. Black female/Hispanic male. C. Hispanic female/Asian male. D. White female/Black male.

True or false: sperms produced by an African American male are three times as potent as that by a white male.

True or false: It is perfectly safe to not use contraceptives when having group sex with strangers as long as it involves anal-penetration only.

True or false: Katie Cumming is totally going to fail her exam.

4.

She finished the test with 23 out of 50 correct. That was brutal - towards the end she was running out of time and just picking random nice-looking numbers like lotteries. She stayed in her seat, feeling very low and sweating badly. There was little air-conditioning in this facility and with the sun baking outside it started to feel like a grill. Other girls were finished too, by the looks of it, and some apparently did better than her, because they were grinning at their screens and stretching their bodies. When everyone was leaving Katie went with them. She caught up to the girl with the bunny ears and started to chat.

Those questions are something aren't they, the girl said; she glanced around and whispered to Katie, that she only managed to 18 out of 50. I'm toast, am I, even if I get the next two sections of the test with perfect scores there's no way I'm passing the exam. You look surprised. Wait you didn't know there's more coming? LOL I almost missed that one too, I was on the train and checking my email in the spam there was this email they sent me saying that they're changing the curriculum of the exam, the girl said rather nonchalantly. She had heavy eyeliners which made her look older than she probably was. I'm totally screwed right? Right?

Katie went with the girl who called herself Max down some hallway. Everyone else was heading in this direction. On the way Max introduced Katie to some other girls she apparently knew, and they all said Hello Katie! She told them she needed this test for her college; she asked if that was their case as well. No, Max said. We're not going to college, at least not right now. Julie, Sam, and I, we're going to do some volunteering abroad! Where? Katie asked. A-FRI-KAAA! Behind them Sam gave a little soprano singing at the word, and they all started to sing along some chorus they knew about. Katie laughed; she liked these girls from the city. Africa! What a place! Never had she dreamed going somewhere that far away - and she thought New England was on another planet.

So for some reason the test was recommended to the type of volunteer work they would be doing there. But they looked pretty surprised that Katie had to take it. "I mean, why would they require you to do this?" Julie the blonde girl turned to Katie, "I thought New England was pretty white part of the country." Well, Katie replied, isn't it always good to have more awareness about inclusivity and diversity? There will be people from all around the world in her college, and this is the school taking some proactive steps to protect those in need. The other girls agreed that Katie sounded exactly like the type of students for a prestigious private university - they meant it really - so considerate and global-minded! But aren't you going to do volunteering work in Africa too? Katie was a little puzzled. The girls looked at each other and smirked.

Alright, Katie, Max said. You really are as naive as you look. Either your college made a mistake or they're really this hardcore now, it's not up to me to decide. But know this: when we said we're going to volunteering, we don't really mean 'volunteer', like doing good stuffs for free. It's just a code word we use, you see? We're not smart girls like you and once out of high school there's just not that much to do around here, you know, in terms of making money. So when Sam found this place in Lagos that would pay an ungodly sum for any decent-looking white woman we knew our chance has arrived. You see what I mean, country girl?

Katie's face turned pale. You mean you're going to be-- like-- the kind of work-- She was struggling to find words for it, women of the street? Call girls? Prostitutes? Darn that sounds clinically brutal. WH-O-RE! Sam yelled from the back again and gave Katie another good start. Others in the hallway looked back at the group a little annoyed. The girls then started rapping together some lines quite vulgar but funny at the same time that Katie had to laugh with them. You're walking among some real whores. Yeah. Totally cool with that Kate.

And what came form Max next plunged Katie into real panic. So Katie girl, she said to her. Katie just noticed her friend had a nose ring between the nostrils, and it was shinning a little as Max raised her chin. So Katie girl, you know the remaining parts of the exam are gonna get physical, right? Like, it'll involve sex, like men's pee-pee in your wee-wee? Wait, please don't tell me you're still a VIRGIN?

OMG SHE'S A VIRGIN A VIRGIN A-V-IR-GIN! Sam was getting up again and Katie felt her vision started to spin.

5.

Katie was sitting on a desk. In the wall she was facing was a hole, not too large and not too small. Correction: she was really sitting on one section of a really long desk that was separated out by plastic screens on both sides, so she could only hear what the other girls were doing. Right now they were not doing much: Max was tapping her fingers on the wooden surface of the desk, and to the right Julie just coughed a little and cleared her throat.

Psst - Katie - Katie - She turned right and saw Julie's silhouette on the screen. Did others tell you what's gonna happen in this part of the test? Did they? Her whisper was a little too loud but no one seemed to mind.

Katie was too nervous to reply. Could she still get out of this nightmare at this point? It was 150 bucks but this was just too much for her. She didn't care about being a virgin or not, but she was kind of waiting for the right guy to come along, preferably in New England - not some random stranger in a test center!

Seeing that she didn't respond Julie kept going. So - you see that hole in the wall - it'll come out from there in a minute and you need to do the following - Julie's words got mumbled together as she spoke and only a few words got to Katie's ears. Lube. Handjob. Your mouth. Careful. Skin. Teeth. Watch out for. Katie decided she had heard enough. So this is it, this is the real deal. Oh god, I've only seen one in pictures, she thought to herself. She calmed herself down - she was hyperventilating.

Okay, this is still a part of the exam. So there must be rules and ways about it. She looked at her desk to check what was available - she had been distracted since being here and not seriously examined the items on the desk. On the left was a dispenser of some transparent liquid. She pushed some out and it was cool and slippery. Lube - she wiped the rest clean on her jeans. She hated how it felt, but she guessed she had to apply some of it to ease the job.

Next to it was a box of candy - mint by the looks of it. She popped one and the refreshing taste quickly spread through her mouth. Thanks, this might actually help. And what is that? She opened the black box. Condoms! She used to dread these things whenever seeing one one the streets, but now, unopened and clean they were less intimidating. So she would soon use it for the first time, and put it on an actual male member. This still sounded unbelievable to Katie in her head. Below her was an empty trash bin with nothing in it.

Then it came through to Katie from the other side. It appeared to belong to a black man, for it was dark from the head to the base of the shaft, and the ballsacks - Katie decided she's going to use that word from now on - were almost pitch-black because of how the skin folded there. The ballsacks actually got stuck a little on their way out because of how thick the shaft was. Katie had never seen anything like it. This was not part of her education - the penis on the physiology textbook looked like a miniature in comparison.

Deep breath, deep breath. Let's think - let's work this out, baby steps. Before putting the condom on this thing would need to be lubricated first. So she put some lube on her hands, and then some more, until her fingers were absolutely glued by the thick oily substance. This actually felt numbly satisfying, she thought. Now her hands were protected with this coat of lube, which meant she wouldn't be directly touching this gigantic black penis in front of her. She put herself to work.

The self-deception worked well - she didn't feel much uneasiness. This was after all just an exam, another thing she needed to get through in this life. Whatever her hands did to the penis it must felt good, for the member was now hard as iron and throbbing as if nodding at her. She gave the ballsack some squeeze too, and the excess lube was dropping from the base unto the desk. What a mess it's making! She could hardly suppress her excitement: she was about to taste her very first penis, and this size was not how most women started with!

As Katie tore open a little bag of condom, she heard from around her the unmistakable sounds of sucking. The strange noise one's salivas could made was a little disturbing. Perhaps they were exaggerating it to get better scores? If so, Katie was determined to outdo them all. She aligned the small round rubber with the head - how strangely fluid she was executing this task, as if she had been a sex worker in a previous life - when a problem occurred. As she pushed slid the rubber down the head, the ring got stuck in the area between the head and the shaft and refused to go down further. Katie gave it another push but to no avail; perhaps this particular penis had a special physiology? She realized that this was a serious emergency and she needed to act fast to make a decision - keep trying it or just ditch it and go without protection.

Katie knew she had no time. So she took the half-extended condom from the penis and discarded in the bin below. She knew she might be making a big mistake but what choices did she have? She pulled herself closer to the wall and swallowed some of her own saliva first. There was no way she was not nervous. In fact Katie was terrified, but was also determined to push through. She placed her lips around the head; it was a most foreign taste, probably because of the lube left on it, and she couldn't wait to put more of the penis into her little mouth.