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THERE ARE TWO things in life for which no one was truly prepared for: twins.
Vivane Todd had left the womb first, pale and screaming, all the attention and lights on her. The family's first born, wispy and pale hair glossed to her head and lungs that made the doctors proud. And twenty minutes later, Davina had come and been whisked away, no more impressive than the first twin. She would find that much of her life would be spent like that, her feats no more impressive or worth mentioning than the mirror of herself that had already done it.
Because in every facet, Viviane would get there first. The first to start walking, the first to speak, the first to win an award of recognition in school, the first, the first, the first. Davina would roll over the scenes in her head, the moment she had that flicker of hope that for once, it was her turn, followed by the realisation that life was a cycle and Vivane was always a step ahead of her.
"Don't even worry about it," her best friend, Edward, would tell her. "You're both adults now. It doesn't matter."
It sounded an awful lot like giving up to Davina. Like admitting she was the lesser twin, admitting that her mother would never look at her with that pride she coated Viviane in. Davina saw it, she always saw it. It did not matter that once they had turned eighteen their performance no longer mattered, it did not matter that in mere hours they were to take the aptitude test, it did not matter until Davina could stand an equal to Viviane.
Did Viviane even know? Davina wondered, as the pair woke up that morning. Did she even know she was everything Davina wanted to be? That she was the perfect daughter and the perfect student? If she did, she wouldn't look so nervous in that moment, standing in their shared bedroom, staring at herself in the mirror and tugging at her skirt.
The only mirror Davina needed was her twin. They were both blonde, fair-skinned with an upturned nose and wide eyes, square-jawed and hard-eyed. Except Davina's were green as the landscapes she painted, and Viviane's were the same blue as the sky. Not quite identical, not quite different enough for Davina to not see a mirror in front of her.
"Are you nervous?" Davina spoke up as she got dressed, joints cracking as they woke.
Viviane paused, blue eyes widening slightly. They were neatly outlined, and her shiny lips turned down. "What a stupid question," Viviane bit out.
Davina scoffed at the response. "Well, at least we know you won't be a Stiff," she mused.
A beat of silence passed at the thought of Abnegation, the plain and simple grey-coloured Faction that the Todds' own had been attacking in the news reports for months. Davina only kept up because of her parents, otherwise she couldn't care less. Abnegation had never been in the cards for her, but she felt no reason to attack them. Question them, think of them negatively, but physically take action seemed illogical and pointless.
