vance warden. d6. fin.

There is a lot of pressure that comes with being the disappointment of the family. You have a reputation to uphold! And it was so much easier when you were an only child. You were the center of attention, nobody could miss any of your questionable decisions. Now you're buried beneath the greatness of somebody else's shadow, but you can't really complain. It wasn't her fault her parents died in a tragic accident, therefore forcing your parents to adopt her. That's just nature telling you that you need a sister!

It was kind of weird, actually. Your parents had a lot of family friends, and you remember your sister's parents inviting you over to watch her performances. It was a miniature party to celebrate her 'talents.' She was your exact opposite - a prodigy in music and in mind. She was a genius, and that sort of thing is worshipped in Six. You would always sneak off to raid the snack table. So many biscuits, so little time. You also remember enjoying the violin music as you stuffed your cheeks with butter. Such a talented young girl, and she was half your age!

And then her parents had the audacity to die. You're not sure what happened - your parents claimed it was a tragic freak accident. The poor girl had nowhere to go, and they couldn't bear to send her to an orphanage, so you got a new sister! You had always wanted a sibling. Preferably a brother, so you could pass all of your bad advice down to a young, pliable mind, but a sister would do. Your lack of talent was even more obvious the moment she moved in. She loved music and homework - god, who likes homework? And when you asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said a musician, but 'nuclear physicist' was her backup plan.

Excuse me?

You had once considered working at a pasta restaurant down the street, and you thought that was pretty accomplished. You don't even know what a nuclear physicist is!

The first night she moved in, you knocked on her door and offered 'brotherly advice'. She called you weird; an acceptable answer. She never once took that offer, but some nights she knocked on your door and asked to sit in your room just to escape the pressure everyone put on her. You remember thinking man, someone is gonna break her back with all of that pressure! That's illegal!

Meanwhile, your parents looked at you with disdain. "Why can't you be more like her?" They asked. Because I'm not her, duh. She read books and played instruments and tinkered with tools - you danced and played with fake cars and occasionally attempted parkour on the roof. You can't be held to such an impossible standard! You love her to death, but that's not you. You border on 'irresponsible idiot' territory. When you're high, you switch 'irresponsible' with 'philosophical.' Yes, surprisingly, you have the capacity to think about stuff. Real deep stuff, like why Mr. Hopkins down the street cheated on his wife. You think, deep down, it's because of mommy issues. There is just no other explanation.

Your life reached a new low when they sent you away. In your own defense, you didn't think a random drug at a random party was going to turn your eyes into buttons and turn the night sky into a disco ball. All you remember is stumbling home, saying some weird shit, and they freaked out. Whatever you said made them think you were literally insane. To this day, you still have no idea what it was. Did you say you were hearing voices or something?

Either way, they sent you to one of Six's 'rehabilitation facilities'. Everyone else called it the 'crazy home' or the 'loony bin'. They put all the weird kids in there and pumped them full of medications and breakfast pudding. You couldn't deny that the pudding was delicious, but where was your freedom? You didn't belong in a place like that! It was even worse when you realized that most of the other kids didn't belong there either. They weren't 'crazy' they were just sick, or failed to meet the system's incredibly high mental health and educational standards.

It felt more like the reject house than anything else.

You were locked up in there for a whole year. A glorified orphan hospital, minus the orphan part. Then again, they never sent you a letter, so you might as well have been an orphan.

Lucky for them, you are a fairly forgiving person. You returned home after your horrid adventure and promised them you would be less annoying in the future. No promises that you would finish school or become a 'nuclear physicist', but maybe you could get a job or...something? To keep them happy?

Anything to keep you away from that place.