adaline teroux | district seven | fin

{ i'm a ruin
i will ruin you }

The Eden Institute: the perfect place to dump off your unwanted children and pretend it is for their own good.

Crystal chandeliers and assholes trying to teach us things we won't ever need to know, like lost languages and fucking calculus: home for the snobs. Not that I'm not a snob as well, but the point I'm trying to make here is that navy blue sweaters with a raven emblem on the front of them probably shouldn't carry as much weight throughout the district as they do.

I never gave a fuck, to be honest. As long as Dad kept money in my account and Mom kept trouble off my back, I preferred not living under their roof. There was a certain freedom to it.

I practically invented using the secret tunnels to get into Abadeer Institute, our brother school. Eden's is great, and boobs are nice, but I would much rather find a hot boy in the middle of the night to make mine for a while. Erys was always hesitant about sneaking out with me, which sucks, because do you know how many guys drool over the mere idea of twins? A lot.

Erys has always been soft. Too soft, in fact. When we were younger we would pretend to be each other for shits and giggles, but now she mostly just pretends to be me for tests that I haven't bothered studying for.

It is nice having a kiss ass in the family. Sometimes. And her boyfriend is cute enough and dull enough to keep things interesting, so for now, I'm content with her holier-than-thou attitude.

That's funny coming from me, the most self-righteous bitch in the entire institute, but whatever. It is how it is. The difference between Erys and I: I have a backbone, and she is malleable. End of story.

Dad always called me "the complicated one." Ha. The silver spoon up his ass makes it impossible for him to just come right out and say I'm a problem child: the one who seeks night thrills with pretty faces and the taste of alcohol. I'm the one who gets in trouble for wearing my skirt too high, for missing classes and getting caught out of bed past curfew.

I'm on the verge of losing my place here. Honestly, if Mom wasn't: A) Eden Alumni, and B) A real contender for Mayor next election, I would've been out on my ass years ago.

The only thing worse than being associated with the Eden Institute: being ostracized by it. Once people catch wind that a person has flunked out or been expelled from Eden or Abadeer, they're done for. They would have been better off to attend some lame ass public school that was lucky if its students got jobs at all.

So I do the bare minimum: walk the knife's edge with precise and delicate steps. I teeter on the edge of possibilities. On one hand, I get kicked out and snubbed by society. On the other, I become a total douche with too many expectations thrown my way.

By that logic, I am easily the smartest person around.

And really, I could be the smartest person in the room, if I had just applied myself. "So much wasted potential." My Mom used to say. "Used to." Every holiday break she catches me at the dinner table and says it while everyone is watching, hoping I don't make a scene. (Hint: I don't give a fuck what people think of me.)

Call me cold. Call me a snake. Call me a spoiled bitch, if you want. Call me the most colorful words you can think up in that tiny little mind. It doesn't matter. Because at the end of the day, the good guy never comes out on top. People, (my sister,) spend their entire lives trying to build futures to their satisfaction, only to have it all come crumbling down when people like me enter the room. I wish Erys would stop fighting for some kind of recognition from the district when it was her birthright to have a crown on her head, anyway.

She has everything she needs. I do too. Actually, we both have more than we'll ever need. A politician for a mother, a renowned entrepreneur for a father, and a golden ticket to live inside heaven's gates until we decide to take our kingdom for what it's worth: that is what we have.

That is what no one can take away.

That is what anyone who dares to get in my way will have to face.

"Addy," my father once said, "You're mother and I have built an empire here. Why do I get the feeling you're going to be the reason for the downfall?" (Translation for the non-pretentious: "Why are you gonna fuck this entire family in the ass?") I just smiled at him and winked.

"You give me too much credit, Old Man. And don't call Addy. I'm not your little girl anymore."

"That much," he remarked with a sigh, "is obvious."