Vial Happiness

Chapter Two - Extinct

            Derrick caught up with me just as we entered the school. Derrick and I had been friends for as long as I could remember. We had always attended the same classes, and hung out together many times. He was a reserved individual, always following the rules, like me. But he had always gone the extra mile. Some would call him an overachiever.

            “Are you excited Scott?” asked Derrick gleefully. He was the only person besides Father who called me by my nickname.

            “Yes, but not as excited as you are.” Derrick laughed as we entered room 205, our classroom. There were already a few kids in class already. They all had the same smile and were eager to learn.

            Amidst all the smiling teenagers entering the room, a unique girl walked in. She did not smile, obviously a Heartless. But I had never seen her before. There was something mysterious about her, almost exotic. The others in the classroom glanced at her for a slight second, and went back to talking to their friends. She sat alone in the corner of the room, staring off into the sky.

            Derrick tapped me on the shoulder, “Stop staring at the Heartless, you will look weird.” He laughed and got out his notebook. The professor walked in and our voices came to a silence.

            “Good morning everyone!” He exclaimed. We all said good morning back.

            “I am Professor Elkgreen, and I will be teaching you all about extinct human emotions. Before we begin, can anyone tell me our basic emotions?” A boy in the back raised his hand.

            “Yes, you in the green.”

            “Well, the four basic emotions are empathy, peace, love and joy. And then the overall emotion is happiness.” The boy in the green answered.

            “Perfect! I could not have worded it any better myself. We classify our emotions as four basic emotions, and one overall emotion. The same goes for the extinct emotions used in the past. The other emotions that we have eliminated are anger, sorrow, hatred, and selfishness. They all add up to an overall emotion of sadness.”

            My listening slowly veered away from the Professor, I could not keep my eyes off the Heartless girl.   Her dark, green eyes seemed to encapsulate the extinct emotions the Professor stated.

            “Now, one of the major parts of this class, along with learning about how these emotions work and what they do to the human mind, we will also learn how they have made humans act in the past.” The Professor continued, “One of the main reasons as to why our Government created the vials of emotions was to eliminate the problems that came with sadness, such as war and laziness. I am sure some of the Heartless out there know what I am talking about.” Everyone glanced back at the Heartless girl for a second and then returned their eyes onto the Professor.

            “And for those who want to know, yes, if you do not take your vials of emotions on the scheduled days, you will start to feel these emotions. That is why when you run low on Happiness, you begin to feel sick. These extinct emotions are extinct for a reason; they are poison to the human society.”

            After much lecturing, the class ended. Just as I expected, the class was enjoyable. But I had seemed to care more about the Heartless girl. A quick thought swept through my mind, could this be what Father calls ‘Special Love’? No, of course not. I would never have a special love for a Heartless.