"If you're lucky to have the finest of genes, then you're perfect."
Paragon is known to be the haven of perfection. A society built on walls, dividing different cities for people with different genetic levels.
Perfect citizens will be automatically...
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"Are you ready, sweetie?"
Cole never likes the idea of their school's yearly show-and-tell event. The Bureau assumes that it's a nice way to hone their newly found talents but Cole thinks it's only going to humiliate him in front of a thousand eyes.
"Are you nervous? Do you want to carry Pempem with you? It won't hurt to have a bear at your side, you know."
"No, please. I'm already a big boy, nanny Rose," he says with a flustered cheeks, hardly looking at the lady's eyes. "I'm just scared. What if they laugh at me? What if they don't like me? What if-"
"Hey, hey, ease up, darling. You got this, just remember what you've practiced in the house, okay?" Rose says as she places her hands on top of Cole's shoulders to pamper his growing anxiousness. Although still hesitant, Cole trusts his nanny's advise more than anyone. Those words might have given him a tiny reassurance but it didn't take the unsettling atmosphere around them at all.
In the Nursery, nannies have a special role. They take care of anything and everything. They become the parent that these children had once but are now gone. All the defectives are given a respective home upon arriving in the city, and together with it is their assigned nanny that will supervise them until they attain their maximum perfection.
At the moment, Cole is still far from reaching it. The little boy is in his second grade, shivered by his social anxiety. He's next in line and his heart is racing already. The little girl with robotic legs is almost done with her ballet performance and the thought of it causes Cole to wobble in sheer nervousness. He's been having a hard time taking the air in his nose almost like it's clogged, his feet can't stop tapping on the floor. He badly wants to cry right now but he can't. He shouldn't. Cole doesn't know what to do. He just wants to get this done but his body seems to dislike the idea of performing in the first place. Everyone knows that it's too late to back out...or is it?
The time has come. The whole auditorium has been filled with applause and cheers as the little girl takes her bow. Cole's going to be next. At some point he wished someone would burn the school before he could even take a step out of the curtains so that he wouldn't need to perform anymore, but even a 10 year old boy, like him, knows that's it's completely impossible.
The ballerina proudly makes her way towards the backstage, the way her roguish smile intentionally strikes the reserved composure of everyone in queue shows how much of bragging brat she is. She giggles with a mocking voice and hearing it is enough to drain Cole's confidence.
"Good luck," she whispers. "wierdos."
"Don't listen to them, sweetie. I will stay here backstage. I won't leave you. You can do this!" she gives him a final kiss on his forehead before gently pushing him to get his feet moving.
