Is perfunctoriness really the word you wanted to use? It just sticks out to me and seems to not convey the right impression to me. It seems like she was trained to be careless. Maybe something like “Little did I know this was training me to an unconscious standard of perfection. It was the only lesson I was allowed to play.”
@sindasilva: Let this be a lesson in trying to write a story with a pressing matter at hand. I had to be somewhere and just couldn’t stop writing. I was so harried, I even forgot I could save it as a draft. Yes, it is a word, but not one this character would use, she’s too young and only people who what to try to make other people look stupid would use this word. Horrible choice on my part. Now I’m home and relaxed and rewrote that section. Thanks for your comment and picking at my scab. OUCH!
Nice set up to the story thus far. I like the idea of jumping in with a prequel instead and giving far more depth to the narrator. Not who I pictured as the narrator, mind you, but that’s the beauty of cooperative writing.
smdasilva {LoA} 
32 Squared 
THX 0477