Warhead by Jeff Henigson

Author:Jeff Henigson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2019-07-01T16:00:00+00:00

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The whole morning at school, I didn’t listen to a word coming out of my teachers’ mouths. All I could think about was the neuropsychological test Dr. Gourevik was so hell-bent on me taking—not only whether I could pass the damn thing, but what it was in the first place. I had to figure it out.

Halfway through my Russian class, while I pretended to be reading a sentence in Cyrillic along with everyone else (it took me twice as long as my classmates to make out the letters, even when I was paying attention), it struck me that Sean, our school counselor, might know what the test involved. He had to, actually—he was a psychologist, after all. I decided I’d stop by his office during lunch, which was what he was always asking people to do anyway.

After grabbing a sandwich from the food truck, I hurried over to the administrative building. I’d never visited Sean’s office, and it took me a few minutes to find it. The door was halfway open. I knocked.

“Come in,” Sean said.

“Hi, I’m Jeff—in my junior year. I was wondering if you had a moment.”

“Sure, Jeff,” Sean said with a smile. “Have a seat—the couch or one of those chairs, whatever you prefer.”

“Thanks. So, like, I was wondering if you could explain to me what a neuropsychological evaluation is.”

One of his eyebrows rose, which made me nervous. “Is your doctor making you do one following your surgery last year?”

“Oh, no, it’s someone in my cancer support group. She’s kind of nervous about it. So I thought I’d ask you—you know, so I could reassure her.”

“I see. Well, I’d be happy to talk with her directly if that would be helpful.”

“She’s at a different school, actually. You can just tell me. I’m pretty good at communicating details.”

Sean smiled. “All right. Well, neuropsychological evaluations—or comprehensive neuropsychological testing, which is what it was called when I was in school—are a series of tests to measure how a person’s brain is functioning compared to the norm. They’re usually given to people who are experiencing a brain illness, like Parkinson’s disease, or to someone who has had a brain injury, say, from a car crash.”

“What kind of tests, exactly?”

“It’s all paper-and-pencil-type stuff, often timed. They don’t use any diagnostic equipment, like scanners or that kind of thing.”

“Gotcha.” Sean’s explanation had made things clearer—mostly. A piece was still missing, and Sean could tell.

“Is there some other aspect of it you’d like to hear about?”

“Well, I guess most of what you said sounds like neurological testing. I’ve done stuff like that. You heard I had brain cancer, right?”

“I have.”

“My neurologist had me do tests like these in his office. But this is neuropsychological testing we’re talking about, right? What’s the psychological part?”

“Sure, I get what you’re asking. Yes, most of the tests, as I recall, are neurological. But in addition to an interview, there’s typically at least one psychological test—a long series of questions—that looks at personality type, quality of life, and things like depression.

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