Chapter Text
*BEEP BEEP BEEP*
“Oh fuck off….” Zephyr mumbled and buried his head back into his pillow. A yell was heard from downstairs before he finally got up with a grumble, pushing himself out of bed.
‘Ughh, why are the floors so cold,’ Zephyr whined in his head and begrudgingly walked across the room, putting his slippers on and making his way downstairs. At the bottom, he could see his mom standing in the kitchen making a pot of coffee.
“Zephyr, can you grab me the creamer please?” His mom asked him without giving him a glance. Zephyr walked over to the fridge and pulled the door open, “You couldn’t have gotten it yourself?” He asked with an annoyed tone but still pulled out the creamer, passing it to her and grabbing the milk out for himself.
“I could have but would you have gotten up by yourself?” She asked, finally turning to face him and raising one of her eyebrows with a flat look on her face. Zephyr just waved a hand at her with a mumble along the lines of, “Yeah yeah.” She turned back around with a smirk on her face and poured herself a cup of the now finished coffee, adding a decent amount of creamer to the mug after a moment.
“You want some coffee with that creamer?” Zephyr sarcastically asked from behind her, only getting shushed in response. He shook his head and chuckled before sitting down at the table, starting to eat the cereal he had gotten.
“I have to go into the office early today, will you be okay getting yourself to school today?” She asked him.
“Yeah, I can just walk. It’s not supposed to rain, right?” He asked rhetorically as he pulled out his phone to check the weather. His mom smiled, walking over to Zephyr, giving him a kiss on his forehead and grabbing her purse from off the table. “Have a good day and remember you have the classification test today,” she said and frowned slightly at the small grimace on Zephyr’s face.
“Hey, no matter what you get, it doesn’t matter to me,” she said with a serious look as Zephyr turned to face her, “You’re my son and that’s all that matters. Caregiver, neutral, or little you’ll still be my boy.” She finished with a smile on her face, lightly cupping one side of Zephyr’s face.
“I know mom,” Zephyr replied after a moment before glancing at the clock, “Shit shit shit, I’m gonna be late.” He said with wide eyes and shoved one last spoonful of cereal in his mouth, jumping up and bolting upstairs to get dressed. His mom chuckled and put her, now empty, mug in the sink, yelling up to Zephyr, “Have a good day, honey!”
Zephyr scrambled around his room, trying to find something decent and clean to wear. Finally he picked up a black and white striped sweater, along with some grey shorts. ‘They’ll have to do,’ he thought to himself, pulling off his pajamas and sliding on the outfit. With a quick grab of whatever socks were in his drawer, Zephyr made his way downstairs, putting on his shoes and grabbing his bag. A glance at the clock showed him he was right on time, stepping outside and making his way up the street, Zephyr waited for his bus to show.
The bus finally arrived about five minutes later and Zephyr, among other teens, piled in. Zephyr took his spot as normal and listened to some music during the ride to school, tuning out the other people chatting on his bus. When they finally arrived at the high school, Zephyr made his way off and into the cafeteria, set on finding his friends.
“Yo Zephyr, over here!” Zephyr turned around to see Aris and Finn waiting for him at a table. “You ready for the test?” Aris asked as Zephyr sat down. Zephyr just let out a groan, tilting his head back and grumbling, “Don’t remind me.”
“Haha, what you aren’t excited to see your classification?” Finn asked him.
“No, frankly I think this is pointless,” Zephyr said indignantly, “they just started saying a couple years ago that all of this was real and somehow related to biology. I think it’s just another way to separate, oppress, and extort people.”
“Oh come on Zeph, don’t be a downer,” Finn said, “I think it brings people closer together and honestly? I think you’re just scared of being labeled a little.” She finished with a smug look on her face, one that was matched by Zephyr’s grimace and blush.
“Shut up Finn, I’m not so stupid fucking baby,” He countered annoyed.
“Oh really? Then why do you act like one?” She equally edged on.
“Alright, stop it, both of you,” Aris finally butted in, “Zephyr, I have to agree that you’re being too cynical about this,” Finn gave him a smirk, “but I can agree that you’re just trying to antagonize him, Finn.”
Finn put on a facade of shock, “Me? Antagonize? How could you even say such a thing?” She encapsulates with a mask of fake hurt. “Oh go fuck yourself,” Zephyr retorts, getting up from the table.
“And where are you going exactly?” Aris asks him.
“I’m going to go wait in my test room and hope the building explodes,” Zephyr says to them and starts to walk away.
“That’s not very funny after the threats from a couple weeks ago!” Aris yells in a jokingly flat tone, only getting a middle finger from Zephyr in response.
Zephyr puts his headphones in again and continues down the hallway to his testing room. All the students getting classified had been given a special room number for the day, the school citing something about ‘secure testing’ or whatever. As Zephyr made his way to the room, he failed to notice the figure walking at him, bumping into them moments later, falling flat on the floor.
“Oh! Are you okay?” The figure asks as Zephyr grips his head, slightly dizzy from the fall.
“How about you watch where you’re going, you…” Zephyr trails off as he finally looks up, realizing it wasn’t a student he bumped into. Mr. Winzel stands above him with a hand outstretched, one of his eyebrows was raised, as if daring Zephyr to finish his sentence.
Zephyr quickly took the help, looking down in embarrassment, “S-sorry, Mr. Winzel,” Zephyr said, more embarrassed than apologetic.
“It’s okay Zephyr, just watch where you’re going next time,” He responds in a warm tone. Zephyr just nods his head, refusing to meet Mr. Winzel’s eyes. This action prompts a sigh from the man, who just pats Zephyr’s shoulder and walks down the hallway.
‘Fuuck.. There goes that plan of calming down before the test,’ Zephyr communicates in his head. He quickly makes the rest of the way to his room, watching out for anyone else in the hallways, and sits down, playing on his phone. He’s the first one in the room, even there before the proctor, so he takes the time to mess around, trying to calm his nerves.
To soon, the room fills with more students, some looking solemn, others joyful, and some ready to get it over with. The proctor finally walks in, a teacher Zephyr’s never seen before, and introduces themself before starting to explain the test. It starts with a one hundred question multiple choice with varying answers followed by two open-ended questions. They go on to explain that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer for any of these questions and to not stress out over them if you can’t answer. That test will be followed by another, if the results come out caregiver or little, in hopes to match as many pairs as possible. Finally, they say that the results should be given by the end of the day and all done privately.
The test booklets are all passed out and soon it begins. Zephyr rolls through the questions, trying to fill in the bubble as neat as possible and answer truthfully. The open-ended questions seem a bit personal to say the least, asking you to describe your childhood and aspirations for getting older. Either way, Zephyr breezes through them, handing back his booklet just before the clock strikes eleven.
He pulls out a book to read, phones not allowed until everyone has handed their things back in, and tries to pass the time. After about an hour, the proctor asks everyone to hand in the remaining booklets, promising extra time for any who are not done. Soon the room’s all file out for lunch, and Zephyr makes his way to his normal table with Aris and Finn.
“How’d it gooo?” Finn asks with a long drawl. Zephyr sat down with a sigh and took out his phone, “It was fine,” he responded flippantly.
“Someone’s in a bad mood today,” Aris mumbled from the side, getting a pointed glare from Zephyr, “Oh don’t look at me like that. You’ve been pissy all morning. Did something happen?” Aris asked suddenly, seeming concerned.
“Nothing happened, Aris, I’m fine,” Zephyr said, getting annoyed, “I just hate this stupid test.”
“Well that’s fine, but don’t take it out on us,” they eventually responded and started scrolling on their phone silently. Lunch between the three was quiet from there on out, an air of uneasiness settling over the group. The lunch bell eventually rings and students go back to their rooms.
The proctor stands at the front of the room and looks over the names of a couple people in there. They start off by stating that the first round of results are back and if your name is called, to follow them to the next room for the second part of the test. Zephyr zones out after that, listening to the footsteps of a few people and tuning out the names getting read off. That is until he hears, “... Zephyr Cordelia, Tom Maddok, Janus Plithe…” and his gaze immediately looks up. For a second he doesn’t move, shocked by the information. After a moment he forces himself to move, getting up from his seat and going to the front of the room. Zephyr tries to keep a calm demeanor but can feel himself start to panic.
‘There’s nothing to worry about,’ he thinks, ‘there’s a fifty percent chance you’re a caregiver now,’ he grimaces at his thought, ‘but that also means there’s a fifty percent chance you’re a little…’ he trails off in his mind. Panic starts to settle in as the proctor leads the group to the next room, sitting them down and handing them new tests. It has the same format as the first but has half the multiple choice and three open-ended questions. Zephyr internally groans at the thought of writing anymore but begrudgingly gets it done. He hands the test in with nerves that won’t settle and sits down, trying to distract himself from thinking of the outcome as he waits.
Too soon for Zephyr’s liking, everyone is done and after a little waiting, all are handed a letter with their results inside. Zephyr holds his breath before opening the envelope and unfolding the paper inside. After a quick scan of the paper he feels his heart drop, sitting in bold letters right at the top is LITTLE: Age Group 2-8. He feels his chest tighten and tears start to gather in his eyes. He shoves the paper back in the envelope and pushes it away as though it burned him. He didn’t want to look at it. Didn’t want to accept that because of one test he’ll never be taken seriously again. He knew what the bias was against littles, especially those in the work field. They are often thought of as incompetent and many court cases have proven the ease there is to taking away their independence, often quoting some bullshit about being ‘unable to care for themselves’.
The proctor started talking again but Zephyr couldn’t hear them, to caught up in his own raging thoughts. His eyes darted across the room trying to see if anyone could tell he was panicking, thankfully no one seemed to have noticed. Zephyr tried to calm himself down, taking deep breaths and focusing on the fact that the proctor was still talking. He could faintly make out some words about matching littles with caregivers and for everyone to stay in the room to be matched. Zephyr took a deep breath in, he could do this, he could stay calm, just accept his pairing and move on. But as his name was called and he rose from his seat.
He bolted.