Cyanide

Two

The Birchall twins started school at three years old. Via, the girl and oldest of the two, was much like her parents in that she had near-perfect control of her emotions. She slipped quite a few times as children below six were only allowed two aPills a day, but that was expected. Maria and Jacob were incredibly proud of their daughter, but not so much of their son. Oliver, the boy, was completely different from his twin sister. He was very emotional, even taking the pills, and clung almost incessantly to his sister. Via found it quite annoying, but she took an aEpinephrine, an anti-anger pill, whenever her brother got too irritating. Five months after the twins had started school, they had their first Test given to them when they could do something that would affect their results. The first Test, given to all children when they were born, only consisted of an injection and they didn't have any influence over the results. The Test when they were three was an injection and a physical. The injection they could still do nothing about - no one could do anything to change the results of that even in their last Test at eighteen, but the physical they could change. No one wanted to end up a Rat or a Producing Experimental so they all worked as hard as they could to change their scores. The twins were six when the school decided that Oliver would do better at home. This wasn't technically allowed. School was mandatory for everyone and homeschooling was just something that was read about in the history books.

The President, however, had always bent the rules for the Birchalls. Every President had since the rule of Thomas Birchall. Even though no Birchall had been President since Thomas, they were still one of the most, if not the most, powerful, influential and wealthy families in the City. Everyone from that line was either a Keeper or a Patroller, guards of the Lab and the City, the highest on the social hierarchy. The simple fact that Oliver was a Birchall allowed him to leave school and remain at home with his mother and father. He was their secret, their shame. The emotional boy whose Test results veered dangerously close to Rat levels.

Oliver returned to school at fourteen. With two years left to go before he was sixteen and had to graduate, it was hoped that he could raise his Test scores up so he could at least become an Experimental. The day he returned was a day in winter and the teacher that met him was as cold as the temperature. He was an abnormality. He shouldn't be out in public. He was a secret to be hushed up, not to be seen. But he was. He was there. His aPills were in his pocket and his neutral expression concealed the turmoil of emotions raging inside him.

Oliver and Via had been as close as was allowed until he'd been removed from school. She'd started becoming more distant from him and their parents, as the rules demanded. As the years had gone by, even her own twin couldn't know what she was thinking, even without aPills. Via was scarily controlled, with Test results even better than their parents. In the City's eyes, she was perfect but Oliver could only see his twin as flawed. He was the only one who knew about her secret refusal to take the aDopamines, the anti-happiness pills. He was the only one who knew that she scared herself with her icy detachment. The talks that they had late at night, when Via crept into her brother's room with her face stained with tears, enabled Oliver to see that ignoring her brother killed her inside. In the daytime she did ignore him, always icy cold, as she did when he walked into his new classroom the morning he returned.

No one took much notice of Oliver at first. He'd scanned his new student card and the door had opened for him easily, allowing him to walk in. Everyone in the class, about thirty students, was sitting on the high-backed chairs, a holo-screen base on the desk in front of them. They were talking among themselves quietly, seriously, no hint of a smile on their faces. There were only two in the class who appeared to be anything close to emotional; two girls, both with white-blonde hair and smiles on their faces. People were starting to notice him now, standing awkwardly in the doorway. Conversations died off until the whole class was staring at him in confusion. Via was the last to look up. She made direct eye contact with him and he saw a barrier of cold indifference in her eyes.

Via rose from her seat and walked towards him, the classmates she'd been talking to behind her. Reaching him, she stopped and crossed her arms.
"What are you doing here?" Via asked sharply, an undertone of panic in her voice. "No one told me you were coming to school."
The hostile glares of the teenagers in the room was starting to feel uncomfortable.
"Yeah, the board cleared me to come," Oliver tried for a smile but it disappeared quickly in the face of his sister's glare.
"Why wouldn't you come in the first place?" One of the girls behind Via asked, brow raised.
Oliver opened his mouth to answer, but was beaten to it by one of the boys standing behind Via.
"Isn't it obvious?" The boy sneered. "He's a Rat. You can see it all over him."
There were a few cruel snickers from the group. Oliver looked at his sister, but Via didn't look back.
"Leave him alone, Harry," a voice came from behind Oliver.
He turned to see the blonde girls who'd been smiling before standing behind him. They weren't smiling now, they were glaring at Via and her gang with great dislike.
"Shut up and take the pills like you're supposed to, freak," the boy snapped.
Via rolled her eyes at Oliver and the girls behind him before walking off. Her little posse, after sneering at the girls, followed her to the back of the classroom, leaving Oliver stunned.