Joe held the pill up against the desk light in his dorm room. The translucent amber gel captured his imagination as it seemed to sparkle or do something magical in the light. And in some ways, it was full of magic, even if it had been banned. This little pill, no bigger than a Tic Tac, contained the power to change the chemistry in the body. It enabled DNA repair within neurons in only twenty percent of the time it took a normal human. In layman’s terms, a person would only require one to two hours of sleep per day rather than seven or eight. The effect from one pill was permanent and irreversible.

The scientific breakthrough occurred right at Fenmore University, the institution of higher learning, where Joe was a graduate student studying mechanical engineering and physics. Even while the drug was undergoing FDA testing, news of it spread like wildfire across college campuses. The reason was simple. It only worked on people under twenty-five. After that age, the brain was fully mature and no longer developing. An entrepreneurial lab tech smuggled the recipe out and sold it for a rumored five hundred grand to high-end drug dealers. It was a staggering sum, especially considering that the business prospects of such a drug might appear suspect with such a limited market. The customer demo was about 16 to 25. But even with a niche market, it became incredibly popular. Three months after the lab tech smuggled out Amped, as it was known on the street, became more prized than cocaine and ecstasy combined—at least on college campuses. That was until the side effects became known. Fifteen percent of the people who took Amped had the opposite effect. Instead of needing a normal seven or eight hours of sleep per night, the body required around sixteen. Drugs always carried a risk, but to put it in context, a side effect is considered common if it occurs 1-10% of the time. So who would take such a gamble? Apparently, lots of people. Think of it this way. If someone offered people the opportunity to be a billionaire or spend of the rest of their life in prison and the odds were 85/15, do you think anyone would take the risk? There might be takers even if the odds were reversed. How else do you explain the ever expanding multi-million dollar casinos in Las Vegas? Most people believe they’re lucky, or maybe they’re just desperate. 

The engineering required to manufacture the drug was complex, so the supply was limited, and it’s believed that the biggest supplier of Amped produced three large runs before the Feds shut it down. At first, the demand soared, so a single pill cost two thousand bucks. That might seem like a lot until you did the math. An extra five to six hours of waking hours a day meant you got ten more years of life, and the advantage such a gift provided was massive. For ambitious students like Joe, they could learn way more than their peers, dominate in classes, get the best internships, get hired for the most lucrative jobs, all while partying like a rock star. It was the closest thing to a superpower that any human could possess.

For those that took the drug, the effects were felt within a couple of days. Instead of getting tired at night, the energy just kept coming. That amazing sensation of hopping out of bed feeling refreshed lasted all night and into the wee hours of the morning. Eventually, the person needed a break, but they’d go to bed and a couple hours later, their eyes would pop open, and they were ready to get after it again. People compared it to LASIK, where you wake up one day and your world is changed for the better—except for the unlucky few. A few hours after taking the pill, their eyelids became so heavy they passed out. It didn’t matter if it was in the middle of the day, either. They’d sleep for hours and hours. When they woke up, they seemed fine, but then only a few hours later they’d be tired again. That’s what happened to Joe’s roommate, Tyler. He couldn’t keep up with the workload. After going to class, he’d conk out and couldn’t stay current on the reading in his engineering courses.

Rampant in the early days, it’s estimated that about twenty percent of the kids enrolled at Fenmore had taken Amped, which meant that after one year there were 250 students with superpowers and 42 who drew the short straw. All but five of the heavy sleepers dropped out. One knucklehead figured he’d gotten a bad dose, so he bought a second pill and now he sleeps twenty hours a day. Sloth, as he became known, was the butt of many jokes. 

Joe stumbled upon his pill about a month after the crackdown started. He was walking home late at night from a party, frustrated because the girl of his dreams, Trina, still dated Kurt. When Joe and Trina finished their undergraduate degrees, they assumed they’d go their separate ways, and at the time, there was a part of Joe that felt like he wasn’t good enough for Trina. He hadn’t accomplished anything with his life, and when he graduated, he still didn’t know what he wanted to do. But as soon as they broke up, Joe regretted it. Then, in a cruel twist of fate, they both ended up at Fenmore for graduate school. At first, Joe thought it was destiny, but then he learned Trina followed her new boyfriend, Kurt, to the school. Now, every time he saw them together, it made him sick. And, of course, they were at the party that night. 

Kurt was one of those guys who seemed to have it all. With chiseled cheekbones and a politician’s pearly smile, he looked like a Ken-doll. Plus, he was a straight-A student with a future as bright as a star. He was also rumored to be Amped. Kurt was working on an MBA and already had plans for two companies based on apps he developed in his spare time. If Joe wanted Trina back, he’d have to compete with Kurt. She was in a physics class with Joe, and he felt like there was still a connection. He’d helped her twice with homework, and when she’d smile at him, he felt something. But was it just in his head? Maybe she was just being polite or worse, maybe she felt pity for him.

As Joe grumbled about Kurt, he passed Nazeer, a guy from his physics class, sitting alone in the grassy area between East and West campus, staring at the pill. 

Out of the blue, Nazeer asked, “Do you want this?” 

The question caught Joe off guard. He’d heard of the pill, of course, but he didn’t have close to the amount of money to buy one, and at 23, his clock was running out. He stared at the pill between Nazeer’s fingers. “Why don’t you want it?” 

Nazeer pursed his lips. “I’m afraid, I guess.”

“There’s only a small chance of the side effect,” Joe said, even though he’d seen the negative of Amped first-hand with Tyler.

Nazeer eyed the pill. “There’s change on the other side, too.”

Joe arched an eyebrow. “Isn’t that the point?”

“Yeah. I guess. I don’t know why I bought it. So, do you want it?”

Nazeer held out his hand and Joe held his underneath. The amber pill plopped into his palm, and just possessing it, gave Joe a jolt of adrenaline. “Thanks.”

Nazeer nodded and already seemed relieved to have the decision taken out of his hands.

Since that day, Joe wore that albatross around his neck, now realizing why Nazeer stressed about the decision. Once he took the pill, everything would change. It wasn’t a question of if his life would change, it was only a question of how. For the last month, he spent hours analyzing all the pros and cons. If he swallowed the amber pill, it wouldn’t take long before he’d be a sloth or amped. The negatives of being a sloth were as obvious as the positives of being amped. But were there downsides to being amped? Yeah, he could manage school easier, but did he want to be studying for fifteen hours a day? Being awake for 22 hours a day while everyone else slept might be lonely. There’s a saying that nothing good happens after 2 a.m. Joe would live that almost every day. He’d be able to go to bed at 5 a.m. and be good to go by 7. Who would he hang out with? But the real internal debate centered on Trina. If Joe wanted a girl like Trina, he’d have to compete with the Kurts of the world. Why would she want an “average Joe” when she could have super Kurt? For his entire life, Joe fought to be anything but average. A double major, most thought he was crazy for pursuing two degrees in such challenging subjects. At times, the workload overwhelmed him, but he powered through with coffee and caffeine pills. Quitting was never an option, but he also didn’t see an end to the struggle. Even when he graduated, he’d have to find a job in a ridiculously competitive market. His career path wasn’t a 9 to 5 set up either. He could expect late nights and piles of work. How do you manage a family and a relationship? Even if he won Trina back, how would he enjoy being with her if he was always working? Amped could solve those problems. So why couldn’t he take it? Every night, he beat himself up over whether to take it, and he inevitably didn’t because of one colossal gut-wrenching fear. What if he became Amped, and she still chose Kurt? How could he deal with that? It would mean that even the best version of himself wasn’t good enough.

He stared at the pill one last time, then opened his desk drawer and put it away. Each time, he felt like a bigger coward than the last. Why did he take the pill from Nazeer? It was so easy to tell himself that he couldn’t afford a pill, and he didn’t even know where to find one. This pill just fell into his lap, and it forced him to confront insecurities he didn’t even know he had. All the worry had taken him away from his studies and his A- in aeronautical engineering had fallen to a B. That wouldn’t cut it. He glanced at the clock—9:30. The parties would start soon. He still had time to read a couple of chapters. Joe opened his backpack and cracked a thick textbook. Determined, he leaned over the book and forced himself to dig into the material. Terms like aeroelasticity, computational fluid dynamics, and Bernoulli’s principle assaulted Joe’s mind, but they weren’t registering because his focus remained on the pill and his weakness. How long would he tear himself up over this decision? Joe slammed the book shut. He needed to take the pill or get rid of it. Joe ripped the window open and a cool breeze whipped in from the courtyard. He opened the desk drawer and pulled out the pill. Just as he was about to hurl it out into the night sky, Joe saw Trina and Kurt holding hands, strolling across campus. His heart beat faster, and even with the icy breeze blowing in, his body felt like it was on fire. He couldn’t continue to fight average. It was too big of a foe. Every day, it seemed to come back stronger and more determined. 

He fought back a tear and the cowardice and swallowed the amber pill.