Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Good morning District Two: North Union. It is zero-eight-hundred. It is the first of June, year fifty-six. Currently, it is partly-cloudy with a temperature of twenty-one degrees Celsius; today, there will be a high of twenty-five and a low of eighteen. In thirty minutes, all Secondary School students are expected to have reported to school.”

“Bonjour Quartier Deux: North Union. Il est huit heures. On est le premier juin, cinquante-six. Maintenant, il fait un peu nuageux, avec une température de vingt-et-un degrés Celsius. Aujourd’hui, il y a une plage de température de dix-huit à vingt-cinq degrés. En trente minutes, tous les étudiants du lycée doivent être à l’école.

A familiar four-note chime concludes the announcement played over every loudspeaker in the district. Outside her home, Erin mentally checks herself. 

School uniform in place? Check. She pats her breast pocket, embroidered with a golden 2 and the letters ATS. Her ID and transit cards are both safely within. Check. School bag? Check, although she doesn’t know how she can ever miss the presence of a heavy school bag on her back. 

Finally, she reaches around her neck for her Tier necklace, twin gold circles hanging on a simple black cord. Check, and she sighs in relief. If she was caught outside without it (almost guaranteed, due to the cameras in every corner), her family would have been fined for a first offense, with escalating consequences for subsequent offences. 

Satisfied, Erin starts walking, only to be met with her friend Lauren Huang on the sidewalk. Who has, apparently, been waving at her for the past minute. 

“Finally,” she says, exasperated. “I thought you were never going to come out. Hurry, or we’ll miss the train.” Erin realizes that is true; they can’t afford to do that when there are only thirty minutes left until school starts. They start walking together towards the underground train station, at a slightly faster pace. 

“Are you ready for the ranking update today?” Lauren asks, shuddering at the thought. 

Erin blinks. She blinks again. “The…what.” She says slowly, a pit of dread settling firmly in her stomach. 

Lauren squints. “Please don’t tell me you forgot. It’s the first of the month. They’re updating the rankings today.” 

Right, the rankings. A board right in the lobby of their school displays every student’s name, average grade, projected Tier as compared to the rest of the students in the country, and ranking for everyone to see. It is an endless source of public humiliation and parental pressure; colloquially, students dub it the ‘wall of shame’, an apt name if Erin has ever seen one.

Erin groans dramatically. “Please don’t remind me. My parents are going to kill me if I drop in the rankings again. ”

Lauren winces in sympathy. It is, after all, only yesterday when she was lectured for hours for a poor grade on a recent physics test. “A grade below 90% is failure,” she can still hear the voice of her father ringing in her mind. 

“At least it won’t matter, not when the Exam comes around,” Lauren offers. It is cold comfort, but Erin appreciates it nonetheless. 

They soon pick up Lily Wystrin, their mutual friend, as they walk through the Tier 2 neighbourhood. She is wearing the same white shirt and black skirt as they are, the same twin-circle necklace, but she has chosen a longer style from the list of acceptable hairstyles (as opposed to Erin and Lauren, who have near-identical short haircuts); her dark hair drapes past her shoulders.

She falls in step beside them; today, she is all fired up, hoping for her victory this month. “I won’t lose to him. Not in the last month of school.” She swears to her friends. 

Him, of course, is Aaron Wu. Born into the highest Tier, Tier 1, he is a veritable genius. Him and Lily have been competing with each other since the start of Secondary School (Lily has declared him her arch-nemesis); this year, Lily has been holding the impressive number one spot at their school, but Aaron is at a close second. 

As they walk onto a major street, they pass a Tier 8 sanitation worker, still sweeping the streets. Erin averts her gaze, as do her friends. The higher one’s Tier, the higher one’s place in society. This fact has been hammered into them since they were young; those of such a high Tier as them, Tier 2, were not to interact with members of the lowest Tiers.

At this hour, adults of the higher Tiers, generally from 1-3, are starting to swarm the streets, going to subway stations and office buildings to be at their workplaces by zero-nine-hundred. Students, like themselves, also walk the streets in large numbers, hurrying to school. 

It isn’t long before the trio are on the subway, their transit cards scanned and put away neatly in their bags.

At zero-eight-thirty, all of them are seated in the auditorium, waiting with bated breath for the rankings to go live. Students chatter nervously among themselves, and an air of unease permeates the space.

When the principal walks up to the podium, the chatter stops, replaced by a tense silence. A holo-screen flashes to life, a bright white with the seal of the Republic of Aceria in the centre. Another flash, and the national motto: Scientia potentia est. Knowledge is Power. The current rankings then display on screen. It is a massive chart, separated into three columns for each grade, each column 600 lines long. 

The hall has gone completely silent by now. No one dares to speak.

The charts blur. When they become clear again, all the students lean forward, eager to see their new ranking. 

Lauren sees her name first, and she whoops in joy. From last month’s ranking update, she has risen an impressive thirteen places. That last physics test must’ve not been entered into the system fast enough to affect the rankings, and she is forever grateful for that.

Lauren Huang. Average grade: 98%. Projected Tier: Tier 1. Ranking: 24.

Erin sighs in relief as she sees her own name on screen. She has risen two places instead of falling like last month. She has avoided her parents’ wrath successfully.

Erin Williams. Average grade: 97%. Projected Tier: Tier 1. Ranking: 30.

Erin and Lauren high-five. They turn to Lily beside them, but to their shock, they find her fuming. 

“That bastard! ” She all but hisses, and nearby students look at her furtively from her use of profanity (an offense punishable by contacting the child’s parents). “How did I lose to him in the last month of school? Was it that last calculus test?” She wonders to herself.

Erin and Lauren look at the screen. Sure enough, instead of first place like it has been since the start of Grade 12, Lily’s name has fallen to second place.

Lily Wystrin. Average grade: 99%. Tier: Tier 2. Projected Tier: Tier 1. Ranking: 2. 

And above her, was the name of one Aaron Wu. 

Aaron Wu. Average grade: 100%. Tier: Tier 1. Projected Tier: Tier 1. Ranking: 1.

“It’s going to be okay,” Lauren tries. “It’s the last ranking update before the Exam. All that matters is the Exam now.”

“Yeah,” Erin chimes in. “These rankings don’t matter anymore. The Exam is the last important thing in our childhoods.”

Lily takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She manages to plaster a weak smile on her face. “You’re right, guys. Congratulations on rising,” she says at last.

Their conversation is cut short by the principal tapping the microphone once, twice, three times. He then starts to speak. 

“Good morning, students of Azalea Technical School. I hope most of you are pleased with this month’s ranking updates?” He begins. “For those in Grades 10 and 11, your next ranking update will be on the first of July, to begin your summer school period. However,” he sweeps his eyes over the right third of the auditorium, where the Grade 12s sat, “for our graduating class, this will be the last ranking update of your childhoods, for at the end of this month, you will be taking the most important exam of your academic careers: the Exam of Adulthood. Your performance on the Exam will determine your Tier– and thus your place in society– for the rest of your lives.”

These are words that all of them have heard many, many times over. Yes, the Exam is supremely important; and yes, fucking up on the exam means that one has fucked up their entire life. 

If one somehow fucked up so bad that they performed at the bottom of the population, they were basically destined to be relocated to some poor, remote District like Polaris or North Bay to work resource extraction for the rest of their life.

To the students of this school, entirely consisting of those whose parents are from Tiers 1-3, that is unthinkable. 

“Further instructions for Exam day– such as your test location and other details– should have already been sent to you and your families’ personal accounts, and can be accessed from any of your devices,” he continues. “You have been working hard preparing for this moment ever since you all started Secondary School. We hope that your preparations will bear fruit, and that your performance on the Exam will bring honour to your families, your school, and your District.” He smiles, then, full of expectation. “Remember, always: Intelligence is Strength. Scientia potentia est– Knowledge is Power.” 

“You are now hereby dismissed. After the playing of the national anthem, please proceed to your first class of the day.”

They stand for the daily playing of ‘Aceria the Glorious’, and as soon as it ends, students are rushing out the door to get to their first class in time for zero-nine-thirty. The low whispers of the students pick up again. Variations of ‘my parents are going to murder me’ appear more than once in nearby conversations.

Erin and her peers are used to this, really. It is, after all, what life was always like as a student in the Republic of Aceria. 

~~

When Erin arrives home, bidding goodbye to Lauren at her door, she sees her parents sitting on the couch, eyes to the television. She soon sees the reason why, and winces. 

“After this year’s Exam of Adulthood for our soon-to-be adult citizens, the borders for each Tier will be shifted.” The lady on television announces. Her four-golden-circle necklace glitters in the light, shiny on her dark dress. Every three years, the Acerian Government shifts the percentile boundaries for each Tier depending on the need for jobs in certain sectors, Erin recalls. Among the adults, it is a constant source of anxiety. Those near the lower boundaries of each Tier always face the risk of dropping a Tier, while those near the top have the coveted chance of rising. 

The current percentile boundaries show on screen, a familiar sight to Erin and her fellow students by now. 

Tier 1 - >98th percentile on Exam of Adulthood

Tier 2 - 95th-98th percentile

Tier 3 - 89th-94th percentile

Tier 4 - 78th-88th percentile

Tier 5 - 65th-77th percentile

Tier 6 - 52nd-64th percentile

Tier 7 - 40th-51st percentile

Tier 8 - 30th-49th percentile

Tier 9 - <30th percentile

Erin’s parents always get like this whenever the borders shift. Both of them performed on the Exam near the top of the cutoff for Tier 2 their year, and they have been bitter about it ever since. Her mother always says that it was because of her subpar skills in calculus that she didn’t make it to Tier 1, and Erin sympathizes. 

The lady then repeats the information in French, the country’s second official language. It is then that Erin’s parents notice her presence behind them, and Erin’s father immediately asks a single question. 

“Erin. What is your ranking this month?”

Erin smiles, almost out of relief as she is able to give a satisfactory answer. “I rose 2 places,” she answers confidently.

Her father nods, while her mother says a curt “good”.

Erin is allowed to go to her room to continue her preparations for the Exam of Adulthood, but not before her mother gives her a final reminder. 

“Remember, Erin. You must do well on the Exam. Get into Tier 1. Make us proud.”

She sighs, as she stares at the list of topics on the datapad before her. English– consisting of Reading and Writing. French. Mathematics– Calculus and Statistics. Sciences– Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Social Studies– History, Geography, and Government. 

She still has much to study, much to do. 

And so, she gets to work.

Chapter Text

Erin bites into her sandwich–standard cafeteria fare–, watching as Lily and Lauren debate over something or another. By the words that she can make out, it seems that they are talking about Aaron and Andrew again, she notes with amusement. 

“Lily, I refuse to believe that you don’t like Aaron,” Lauren declares. “I’ve seen how you look at him, even when you want everyone to think you despise him.” She takes a bite out of her sandwich in conviction.

Lily sputters indignantly. “I do despise him! I hate that bi- ahem, that idiot for stealing away my number one spot in the rankings! My spot! And what about you, huh, Lauren? You’ve got no right to talk when you’re head over heels for a certain Andrew Liu. ” She gestures wildly to another cafeteria table, where a different group sits. The two people featured in the conversation are talking and laughing, oblivious to the fact that Erin’s friends across the room are having a heated “chat” about them.

Andrew Liu was born in Tier 3, the lowest Tier that can attend their school. However, that did not stop him from being an academic weapon; everyone predicts that he will get himself to Tier 1 just by his own merits. Lauren, unfortunately, has developed a hopeless crush on him. 

“What– how does that stop me from making a completely valid point?” Lauren asks. “I’m just trying to get you out of denial.” She says coolly. 

Erin can’t help it. She starts laughing her head off, nearly choking on her bite of sandwich. “It’s so funny hearing you guys debate this every other week,” she manages to say in between coughs. 

“Hush, Miss My-Crush-Graduated-A-Year-Ago,” Her two friends say in unison, and Erin raises her hands in surrender. 

“You know what,” Lily says, ripping another bite out of her food and putting it down on the table forcefully. “I need to find out what happened with the last calculus test.” She stands up, and with purposeful steps, she marches over to the table across the room.

Lauren tracks her with her eyes, watching as she taps Aaron on the shoulder with more force than necessary, then practically drags him off into the hallway. “What do you think she is going to do?”

Erin shrugs. “Kill him. Kiss him. Could be both. You know she takes the rankings very seriously.”

Lauren nods solemnly in agreement. 

Minutes pass. Erin and Lauren eat their lunches, now with one person less at their table than they’re used to. When they both have finished, Lauren checks her watch, then glances at the hallway; still no sign of Lily or Aaron.

“What’s taking them so long?” Erin wonders out loud. She soon gets her answer, when Lily and Aaron burst back into the cafeteria, turning a few heads at the tables closest to the hallway.

Wait, why do they look flushed?

“Is it just me, or do they look like they’ve been doing unsavoury activities.” Lauren intones flatly.

“It isn’t just you,” Erin replies. 

It is true. Both of them have a healthy blush on their face, and look like they’ve been exercising. Aaron’s hair is messed up, sticking out different ways; so is Lily’s, in fact. Their uniforms are wrinkled, too, and Aaron’s black tie is crumpled like someone pulled on it.

Lily’s hand is also in Aaron’s hair, apparently trying to fix it. However, she soon realizes that, in fact, they are in a crowded cafeteria, and she quickly retracts her hand, flushing even harder. Aaron isn’t doing much better in that regard, and he backs away from her quickly.

Erin and Lauren share a knowing glance. 

When Lily finally sits down at their table, breathing hard, there is only a beat of silence.

Before Lauren and Erin explode into questions. 

“Were you– were you making out with him?” Lauren asks incredulously. 

“What were you doing?” Erin questions. 

“What? NO!” Lily yells, before struggling to bring her voice back down to a reasonable level. “I would never make out with my number one academic rival, no sir, no thank you! Absolutely despise the guy. He’s terrible. I would never.” She bites back a smile. 

Neither of them are convinced, not at all.

“Then what were you doing, Lily?” Lauren asks. 

“I was— it was just— calculus, remember?” 

“Right. Calculus .” Erin says in a monotone. “As if that explains why you look like you’ve just kissed him passionately.” She says bluntly. 

“The poor guy looks like he’s just been choked by his tie,” Lauren adds. “It’s calculus, Lily says. It’s totally calculus.”

“It is!” Lily insists. “It was a very intellectual discussion we had. Very intellectual and very enlightening.” 

“Uh huh.”

“Sure it was.” 

“ Please believe me, all we talked about was math.” Lily says. She is really struggling to hold back a smile, now, and her friends notice.

However, to their chagrin, they are forced to drop the topic with the ringing of the five-minute-warning bell, reminding them all to go back to class for the next period. As they walk out of the cafeteria and into the hallways, Erin and Lauren look at each other, sharing a single thought: this conversation is not over. 

Of course, with all their talk about teenage loves and crushes– they know one thing for fact.

It all means nothing if in adulthood, they are not in the same Tier as those they desire to be with; for in Aceria, though one can choose who to partner with upon turning twenty-two, they may only partner with someone of the same Tier. No higher, no lower. 

All the more reason why they need to study hard for the Exam at the end of the month. 

~~~

The bell rings to let them out of school at zero-four-hundred sharp. When they make it out of school grounds, Lily cheers. “Time to visit Kayla!”

Kayla Quill is the trio’s longtime friend; they have known her since they were small. She graduated high school two years ago and is now in Tier 1, attending Sequoia University in the heart of District One, the top university in the country for those in Tiers 1 and 2.

Of course, it is also this combination of traits that have allowed their parents to let them visit her instead of studying for the Exam.

“Kayla? She’s a good girl.” Erin remembers her father saying, when she asked her parents for permission to visit her. “She’s in Tier 1 now, isn’t she? Very smart, then. I hope you learn from her.”

Erin believes that her parents are absolutely right about Kayla– especially in the way that she is smart, which constitutes the perfect model citizen in society’s eyes– but of course, more than that, Kayla’s like an older sister to her. Why would she ever miss out on more time with her pseudo-sibling?

They make light conversation as the train makes its way towards District One. Lauren and Erin are teasing Lily again about the events that occurred earlier in the day– and of course, Lily denies it all. There aren’t many people on the train to Union at this hour; people who work in District Two don’t tend to live in District One.

Soon, after the routine stop at the District border checkpoint, they see the Spire on the southern horizon, sharp against the skyline. They do not get to go to District One all that often; all of their daily activities are all within District Two, and it is rare that they truly get any leisure time between the government-mandated extracurriculars and constant studying.

All studying, now, as from the start of Grade 12, Erin and her friends were pulled out of their extracurriculars like many others, to focus all of their energies on the Exam.

“Arriving at: University. University Station–On est arrivé à la station: Université.” 

“That’s our stop,” Lauren says, and they stand up, filing out of the train car and entering the Sequoia University campus. 

Kayla once told them that if they ever wanted to visit, to find her at her dormitory; so that is where they are headed today, checking the University map at the entrance. 

It doesn’t go quite as planned.

“Do we know where we’re going,” Lauren says in a monotone. They seem to have been walking in circles– is it just her, or did they pass that building already?– and they are nowhere close to finding where the dormitories even are.

“Nope!” Lily says, a bit too cheerful for the situation.  Erin is scrutinizing the map beside her, cube in hand and finger flipping through the holographic projection of the university campus. She looks up in defeat. “No. No we don’t.”

They must look like quite the trio, a group of high school students standing in the middle of campus grounds, very, very lost. Nearby university students in their dark red blazers and long bottoms only spare them a glance (probably wondering what a bunch of high schoolers are doing at their university) before moving on with their lives.

Well, at least the architecture here is nice, Erin thinks. The buildings here are distinctly pre-Aceria, the government apparently having decided it was too much effort to demolish and rebuild the university back up again. There is also a clear lack of cameras around, which comes as a surprise to her, having been accustomed to cameras covering every public space, including her school.

Against common sense, they pick a road and keep walking, taking another path between two unfamiliar buildings. 

Unfortunately, it seems to have been the wrong path, as the amount of people passing by gradually thin out, until there is basically nothing around them but various buildings and the trees, with people walking in the vicinity only very occasionally. 

“...I’m pretty sure we took the wrong way, Erin.” Lauren says. 

“...I guess we did.”

“You guys are hopeless,” Lily sighs. “Look, there’s someone that we can probably ask directions from, which we should have done when there were more people .” She points to a red-clothed figure leaning against a nearby wall, seemingly engrossed in their datapad.

She jogs over to them, and at a more leisurely pace, Lauren and Erin follow, lamenting their lack of directional ability. If only they arranged to meet Kayla at the subway station, instead of at her dorm, which they don’t even know how to get to. 

“Hello!” Lily says. “Would you mind telling us how to get to the dormitories?”

He– for it is a he– looks up, and with a sinking feeling in her gut, Erin realizes that she knows this person. She is quite well acquainted with him, in fact, though she hasn’t seen him in about a year or so. 

Lauren glances at Erin knowingly.

“Just go along this path-” he points down the way they came, and Lauren winces– “make a left there, and keep walking until the end. Then you’ll reach the dorms.” Before any of them can thank him, however, he seems to notice their lack of blazers; their high school uniforms; and the letters ATS embroidered on their chests. 

He stares at their faces, recognizing them as underclassmen from high school, Erin in particular as a person who has shared an extracurricular with him for many years. “What are you guys doing here?” He asks. 

Thankfully for Erin, they hear pounding footsteps behind them, and she turns around with the rest of her friends. To their immense joy, it is the face of a certain Kayla Quill, her black hair slightly disheveled from her running. “You guys!” she says, as she stops behind them. “I told you to meet me at the dorms!” She scolds, but the smile on her face shows her true feelings.

“In our defense,” Lily retorts. “We got very, very, lost. Extremely lost.”

Lauren nods solemnly in agreement. “I’m pretty sure we walked in circles.” 

“Hello, James,” Kayla greets the university student, and he nods in recognition. “I hope my friends didn’t bother you too much.”

“Hey!” 

“No, not at all.” He says, waving it off. 

With that, Kayla sighs and turns to her friends. “Come on, let’s go to my dorm.” After they tentatively wave to James (Erin looking away, her face just ever so slightly flushed), they follow after Kayla like a bunch of ducklings after their mother. Necessary, since she is the only one who knows where they are supposed to be going.

“Why were you guys over there?” She asks. “There’s not much in that direction, not many people go there.” She fiddles with her hands as she walks, her steps seeming slightly jilted and tense.

“I told you,” Lily responds. “We got very lost, and ended up there.”

“Oh, you guys!” Kayla laughs. It is a high-pitched sound, not quite natural. Erin squints. Is it just her, or is her older friend nervous? Evidently, she isn’t the only one to think so, as her friends exchange looks. 

“Are you okay?” Lauren tentatively asks, after a short period of silence.

“Me? I’m fine,” Kayla responds. Now, she does sound more normal, and with another shared glance, her friends decide not to push the topic. 

Soon, they are lounging in Kayla’s dorm, in various positions around the room: Erin, slumped upside-down on Kayla’s bed, Lauren, sprawled out on the armchair, Lily, sitting primly in a desk chair, and Kayla herself, sitting at the foot of her bed.

“So,” Kayla claps her hands. “How’s everything going?”

Lauren groans. “Just studying for the Exam, you know. And nothing other than that.” Erin nods in agreement, sliding deeper into her upside-down position on the bed. 

Lily, however, sits up straight in her chair, eyes blazing with still-burning fire. “I dropped in the rankings. Aaron’s first now, and I’m second.” Erin and Lauren laugh as Lily talks all about her desire for vengeance to Kayla, who attempts to comfort Lily the best she can, reassuring her with the standard phrases of how the Exam is the only thing that matters now, and how all that is important is to do well on the Exam.

The air sobers, at that, and Kayla grows serious. “You know you all have to study really hard, right?”

They all groan, at that. “Kayla,” Lauren says. “We’ve heard that since we were babies.”

“No, I’m serious!” Kayla raises her hands. “You’re lucky to be born into Tier 2, but you must understand that it’s you against all those wealthy Tier 1s and Tier 2s in the Capital, or right here in Union, or back home in North Union, or even across the country in Pacifica. Those kids’ parents put them into more tutoring classes than legally allowed, and they yield results. Those kids tend to do very, very well on the Exam. You know those people, right?”

They nod. There are many of those in their school, Aaron Wu being one of them. His parents are rich, high enough in Tier 1 to afford private tutors for him, pushing his academic success even further. 

Kayla takes a deep breath and continues. “They will likely fill up all the top slots in the higher Tiers. And if you slip against them, you could fall even farther than Tier 3. You know,” her tone lightens, “If you do well, you get to go to school with me, and I’m sure all of you love spending time with me.” She smiles mischievously. “And for Erin…”

“Shut up.”

“Okay, okay, fine. My point still stands!” She checks the clock, then, and winces as she realizes what time it is, her young friends following suit.

Nineteen-hundred. Two hours before standardized curfew, but not long before their parents would have words to say about them ‘wasting time’ instead of studying for the Exam.

Where did all that time disappear off to? An excellent question, and none of them have the answer.  

“I think you guys have to go,” Kayla says with a sigh. “I’ll sneak you all some food from the dining hall.” She says nonchalantly, and they stare. Though Kayla has been willing to turn a blind eye to their shenanigans in the past, she has never done something to break any of the rules so blatantly. 

When has she turned into a rule-breaker? What changed? 

She does as she says, and they eat their portions of mashed potatoes and gravy in almost complete silence. Soon, they are ushered out into the campus again, escorted towards the subway station. The sun is still halfway in the sky at this hour, though the tallest buildings have blocked some of it, creating stripes of light and shadow across the grounds. 

They wave goodbye to Kayla at the platform, and as they step on, the doors closing with a three-note chime, they watch Kayla turn around and go back up the stairs towards campus and her dormitory.

The train starts running.

Erin is the first to break the silence, putting her head in her hands and groaning. “F- Damn, my parents are going to kill me for this one.”