|| Friday, early evening ||

Two weeks later, Callum was still trying to get his parents to let him tutor Elliot again; to no avail. Both of them were still furious about their kiss and had been working for days on end to work on their reputation.

For as far as Callum knew, they had claimed he had been ill and delirious when he kissed Elliot, and the picture had mysteriously disappeared from the internet.

Callum felt like more was going to happen, but after two weeks of silence, he had started to grow hope things were simply being swept under the rug and forgotten about.

That was until Elliot called him, after they hadn’t talked in over two weeks. Callum hadn’t expected to ever talk to Elliot again, and he had started to pick up his old life again after about ten days of sulking in his room.

But now his phone was buzzing on his desk while he was playing games with Arlon and a few other friends. And the fact it was Elliot’s name that showed on his screen, caused him to drop out of their game session without a warning. He pulled his headset off and answered the call with shaking hands.

“Hi… Elliot,” he mumbled, not wanting anyone in the house hear him say his name out loud. For all he knew his mother could barge into the room and confiscate his phone as soon as she would find out he was calling with Elliot Ainsley.

But then he realized both Ayla and Freddy disagreed with their parents to forbid him to help someone like Elliot. Even if they would overhear him talk to Elliot, they probably wouldn’t tell their parents. Parents, who Callum remembered, weren’t home yet, so he felt safe enough to speak louder and more confident.

“Hey, Elliot,” he recovered his initial weak greeting.

“Turn on your TV,” Elliot demanded. He sounded calm and collective—more so, emotionless—but the order gave Callum a bad feeling.

“Oh, eh, hold on,” Callum said, turning his chair to face his TV. “Which channel?”

“Channel three,” Elliot told him while he still sounded like he was ordering Callum around.

But the fact he actually told him to turn on channel three, told Callum this was going to be bad indeed; channel three was the one political channel there was. All the channel did, was focus on their political system, show commercials about their self-claimed ‘perfect’ society, and try and influence those who were against their global government.

“They can’t do this, Callum,” Elliot said, though there was no hint of fear or anger in his words.

As soon as channel three showed up on his TV screen, Callum felt his blood run cold. He saw his very own mother, making an official announcement in the local press room.

“And therefor we have decided that, in order to nurture our society in it’s search for a perfect society, those who do not finish level 4 in their primary education are no longer allowed to marry those who do finish level 4.” Callum’s mother Eleanor reorganised her papers before she continued. “We have also come to a new law that will forbid people with lower EQ’s to have children…”

As soon as she announced the second law, every person in the room went ballistic, screaming and shouting questions and profanities at Eleanor and other political figures standing behind her.

“Callum, tell me this isn’t true.”

“I… I… I don’t… know,” Callum sighed in defeat. “This is because of our kiss, I just know.”

“Yeah, mom said the same thing. People around here like you because of it.”

“People around here hate me because I did.”

“How is it that people who have low EQ’s are more considerate, welcome and open to all and any relationships, while people who’re supposed to know how to sympathize are restricting us?” Elliot asked out loud, though Callum didn’t know if the question was directed at him. Elliot sounded like he was talking to himself.

The question hit Callum pretty hard. He bit his lip and wondered if he should voice his own thoughts about the sympathizing skills—or the lack thereof—when it came to his own parents.

“Honestly, I don’t think they are able to sympathize,” Callum eventually admitted when a silence lingered. “I’ve always thought my parents suck at it. I just never said it out loud.”

“But, aren’t your parents people with high EQ’s? Aren’t they supposed to master emotions and feelings? Isn’t that the whole reason they made it into our government in the first place?”

“Well, technically votes got them into the government,” Callum drawled. “But the fact they could run for government is because they have high EQ’s.”

“Callum, even I know how to sympathize with people. Not because I feel shit I’m supposed to feel, but because I’m smart enough to know what it means and how you do it.”

Callum opened his mouth to reply, but he had no words to reply. Elliot’s words hit home pretty hard. For years, Callum had wondered how his parents could look so perfect to the outside world, while at home they lacked certain emotions that Callum had already mastered years ago.

And the ability to sympathize with others was just one of them. They hardly ever showed Ayla any pride, or love, or even remorse.

If Callum thought about it, his parents mainly showed negative emotions. But wasn’t that proof enough they knew their emotions? They were able to control their anger. They never lashed out. They cried, they showed Freddy and himself more than enough love and whatnot.

The negatives were just concentrated on Ayla, whenever she wasn’t controlling her emotions.

“Callum?” Elliot asked, his voice causing Callum to realize he hadn’t answered to Elliot. “Are you going to try and stop them from actually doing this?”

“I’m going to try, but I doubt it’ll do any good.” Callum knew damn well what his parents were going to say; the same as always. That Freddy and Callum shouldn’t bother them with official governmental business. That it wasn’t their problem yet.That they should save their fighting spirit, and the need to change the world for the better, for the time when they would be in government themselves.

Callum, just like Freddy, was allowed to choose their own occupation. As long as their job would fit with their EQ’s, they were free to do whatever the hell they wanted. There was just one thing their parents expected of them; run for a spot in their global government.

Their mother loved to remind them of the fact that their grandparents had been in government—the first one on Terraqua—too, and that Callum and Freddy, just like their parents, should run in their footsteps.

“Cal, we need to do something. People over here are riled up over this and I doubt that this will be the end of things.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know, but we caused this, so we need to try and fix this too.”