"What possible skills could a freak like you even have?" Sarah asked.
Zoe smiled. "Do you like to write?" she asked.
It seemed so off-topic, but Sarah answered anyway. "Yeah, sometimes I write poetry."
"Oh yeah? Like what?"
"Well," Sarah began, feeling a little awkward talking to this freak about her personal writing. Her poems were private. She never showed them to anyone. "There's one called 'My Bleeding Soul' and it's about ..."
"Yeah, I know that one," Zoe said.
"What? How could you know about it?"
Zoe leaned forward and grinned. "Because it's my poem. I wrote it." Sarah didn't seem to understand, so Zoe clarified. "That's one of my memories."
"It can't be. I remember writing the poem. I was in my bedroom when I did it."
"Doesn't matter. It's my poem. I can recite it if you don't believe me." Zoe paused for a moment. "But, really, how could you think that you wrote it anyway?"
"What do you mean?"
"I wrote that poem because of experiences that I had. At school, at home with my family. Sarah, your family spoils you. How could someone like you ever write dark and gothic poetry?"
Zoe had a point, but that didn't make her memories of writing poetry any less real to her. She remembered writing the poems, feeling the power and emotion that was attached to every word that she wrote.
"How do you feel?" the doctor asked, walking into the room.
"Zoe says that I don't write poetry."
"That's because you don't," the doctor said. "Those are her memories."
"But I remember what happened. I was in my house when I wrote them, not hers," she said, pointing at Zoe.
"Well, that's how this procedure works. It integrates memories into your mind. The way it's done, your new memories are indistinguishable from your old ones. The way you think, those memories are as real as your original ones. Right now, they are your memories."
Sarah turned and looked at Zoe with wide eyes. The Goth girl said that she had given her other memories, some that maybe the doctor didn't know about. How was she supposed to deal with this if she thought they were real experiences?
"With your new writing skills," the doctor said. "I'm sure you'll score much higher on the aptitude test, the next time you take it. You two are free to go."
