Tuesday, early afternoon

     Callum was impatiently tapping his foot, knowing the gesture wasn’t very polite or friendly, but he had more things to do.

He still needed to apply for colleges if he was ever going to become a teacher in primary education, or possibly even a boarding school. His mother had asked him and his brother Freddy to pick up some groceries and he had practise that same evening.

So, waiting for his sister Ayla to finish her school for that day felt time-consuming and useless. If it were up to him, she’d take the bike to school like he had always done. But his parents didn’t want Ayla to ride the bike by herself too much. With her tantrum-fests, Ayla wasn’t exactly a careful girl.

Callum himself knew how she could be when someone rode the bike too close to her, or would ring the bell one too many times to warn her they were going to overtake her. Not to speak of her reactions when someone in a close range would honk the horn of a car.

Ayla could become mad over every little thing.

Callum agreed she wasn’t the most trustworthy bike rider in the world, but still, he thought she needed to get used to loud sounds and annoying people. And riding a bike was great practise.

When Callum was still in school himself, he would always ride with her and try to keep her calm. She made some progress in the few months their parents allowed him to take her with him.

“Stop tapping your foot, Cal,” Freddy mumbled, nudging him with an elbow. “Aren’t you supposed to be this calm and collective guy who’s always patient and polite?”

“Am I not that guy because I tap my foot?”

“People are starting to stare. You know people always pay attention to everything we do.” Freddy waved his hand in the direction of a few mothers who were indeed looking in their direction. “You should give the right example.”

“I’m just bored, Fred. It’s not like I’m losing my cool,” Callum answered, chuckling because he always thought it was funny when Freddy worried about what people thought about them.

As a part of a prestige family like the Marlowe family, people indeed always paid attention to what they did. As if one small misstep could throw them of their pedestal.

A pedestal Callum didn’t even want to be on to begin with.

It was simply too much pressure, and Callum didn’t understand why it was so special to have control over your emotions or knowing exactly what you feel every second of every day.

He knew about their history. He knew all about it. How humanity exhausted a planet’s resources, how they polluted it until it was becoming uninhabitable. How they found Terraqua and moved everyone strong enough, and not to mention worthy enough.

That the founders of Terraqua had created a society that spoke one language, on a planet that knew no countries like before. That everyone got the same primary education and in theory, had an equal chance to succeed in life. Equality was all that Terraqua was about these days. Providing everyone with equal treatment. Everyone living under the same law, getting punished in the exact same way.

In theory, Terraqua was flawless. On paper, it was the perfect society.

But Callum also knew that was just in theory. In the real world, there were people who simply didn’t have a high EQ. In reality, segregation—to Callum—was worse than ever.

People weren’t able to pick jobs, or educations. No, it all depended on your ability to feel emotions, to control them, to use them for a better purpose.

And if you didn’t have an high EQ, people looked down upon you, as if you were less worthy.

Those people were treated poorly, and Callum hated everything about it. But he couldn’t voice his opinion. Not since his parents were part of the upper-class of society. They were part of the schoolboard and they both had high positions in Terraqua’s government.

If Callum would voice his opinion, he would get in a hell of a lot of trouble.

“If only they knew the truth behind families like ours,” Callum muttered while staring at his feet. He had subconsciously stopped tapping his foot as soon as he noticed people watching him.

“That again?” Freddy asked, rolling his eyes. “You really think there’s a cult of people using the system to their advantage?”

“Yeah, I really do.”

“Terraqua is a planet of equality on which all humans are working together for the greater good…”

“Yeah, yeah, save me the speech,” Callum said, waving Freddy’s words away.

“You do know why people with a low EQ are watched by others. Do you remember what happened during World War 3? Who started…”

“Yes, I know history, Fred. I was in school too. I know everything about Terraqua, why we focus on EQ as much as we do. But you can’t tell me we’re all about equality, while we don’t even try to help those who have a lower EQ.”

“We do help them. We have jobs for them, we have boarding schools, we have…”

“No boarding schools for those who come from less fortune families,” Callum again cut his brother short.

“If they’d do their…” Freddy started again, but Callum zoned out as soon as the doors to school opened and Elliot Ainsley walked outside.

He followed the boy while he walked towards his mother. A mother who was wearing old clothes that had seen better days. They looked as if they had been used on Earth, over 50 years ago. Still, Mrs. Ainsley was a pretty woman. He brown hair long and curly, always looking as if they were soft as silk. Her skin was still glowing and to Callum, she seemed happier than his own mother.

A mother who was always wearing expensive clothes, following the latest fashion, using tons of make-up, creams, masks and whatnot to make her look younger than she was.

Not that it was helping.

But Callum wasn’t so much focused on Mrs. Ainsley. No, he was focused on her only son, Elliot.

Elliot Ainsley was a natural handsome guy, with his mother’s flawless skin, her tick brown hair, her bright hazel-brown eyes. Elliot was textbook model-looking. Elliot Ainsley was the one thing Callum was obsessed about, other than Terraqua’s hierarchy.

Elliot Ainsley was the reason Callum had no idea what his brother was droning on about, until Freddy grabbed hold of his shoulder, and pulled Callum closer to him.

“Why don’t you talk to him?”

“What?” Callum snorted, and let out a nervous laugh. “You just said people watch everything we do. Talking to Elliot, isn’t on the list of things they expect me to do. Remember, he’s not like us.”

“Just offer to tutor him,” Freddy said, as if it was that simple. “That’s a reason to talk to him without others frowning upon you. On the contrary, if you tutor him, they’ll admire you for helping him.”

“Me, tutoring? I haven’t even started secondary education.”

“So? It’s great practise, and it’ll give you some one-on-one time with your crush. I’d say do it.”

“Even if it’s clear as day we can never be together?”

“Hey, Cal, you’re the big talent around here. If anyone should be able to help him catch up with the right level and emotions, it’s you.”

“Hmm…” Callum allowed Freddy’s words to sink in while he watched Elliot, his younger sister Raleigh and their mother walk towards an old beat-up car. “Tutoring… that could work, yes.”