Stop posting pictures of them. My feed has been flooded with their face.

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Current Date: October 13, 2023

Character: Noel Semasin-Rochemont
Race: Human
Age: 20
Current residence: Yamanashi Region, Japan
 

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Nattie hasn’t been keeping in touch. I can’t say I’m surprised. Papa hasn’t kept in touch either, but I can’t tell which of the two actually hurts worse. Neither one of them actually hurts when I don’t spend all my time thinking about them and, well, most of the time, that’s how things do go.

I don’t think anyone will think me the ungrateful brat if my days aren’t spent thinking about the two people who flew their way back halfway across the globe to be away from us. Papa did so to be with his family—and to be away from Father—and Nattie… well I guess he just needed to get away.

While we were at school, we used to go out of our way to make sure that no one really knew we were related to the principal. Those who knew did, but considering we were adopted, we didn’t look like him and I guess that it was just easier to hide, in a way. That didn’t stop some people from knowing and others from fawning, for some reason. While some went gaga over that knowledge, maybe because we looked like foreigners, some turned their noses and just, all in all, it wasn’t all that easy growing up in that situation, but it wasn’t the end of the world either. I know that plenty of others had it harder than we ever did out there.

As it turns out, though, despite the fact that we were twins, we still looked just different enough from one another that most people could tell us apart. While he would have never admitted to it openly, I know that Nattie actually loved the attention. He often claimed otherwise but I knew better, really. I remember how he’d preen some, when someone came up to him asking for a photo because that was a thing. It still makes me feel uncomfortable to think about it.

With all that in mind, clearly, some old classmates were quite fond of him, and it means that some of them might very well have kept in touch with him. Who am I kidding? I know that some of them have kept in touch with him. One such person is someone I did spend a bit of time with outside of school hours myself, but once Nattie left, I sort of got left behind. I can’t say I’m surprised. I did, however, keep that one person on a friend’s list on that one platform most of us would use while we were at school.

Well, recently, I don’t know what my brother did, but he must have posted quite a few photos of whatever trip he’s gone on while out there because my feed was filled with photos of him. That’s the one thing I really don’t like about this platform is that you don’t need to be the one to post the photos for others to see, so to speak. If someone likes a photo that someone else has posted and you have that first person on your list and you see their feed, the photos they’ll have liked will appear on your own feed. It’s the weirdest thing. It’s sort of why I’ve barely used that application. I mostly keep it in case someone needs to reach out to me. It’s uncommon but it happened.

I couldn’t take my feed being flooded with photos of my twin, though. Since he’d left, I’d slowly come to realize how much of a bad thing he’d been in my life, and I’d been too blind to see. It’s through Lincoln that I’ve managed to realize these things and come out of the shell I’d inevitably put around myself. So, I unfriended the one person in question who’d been liking all of my twin’s photos. I didn’t feel like reaching out to them to tell them to stop liking all of the pictures would do me any good.

If it had been anything like that other app where you really only see what people have posted themselves and he’d been the one swarming his feed, and thus mine, with photos of my twin, I’d have maybe said something because that’s just a little creepy but it is what it is. I’ve unfriended him, my feed has cleared up instantly and now I mostly just have photos of family and of places that have had their landscapes done up in beautiful ways. There also are a few photos scattered here and there from Father still looking at home to buy since he’s retiring in just a few months.

It’s been strange, trying to wrap my mind around that particular fact. The fact that once Leandros is done with his schooling in March, none of us will really have anything left to do with that school where we spent most of our growing years in. Well, we might still hear about it if the guys still work on the upkeep and the landscaping but that’s not my decision in the end. I have no real bad memories attached to the school itself, just to certain people I spent my time with, back then.

So, I’m okay with whatever comes next.

Final Word Count: 869

Every time I look away, you manage to make a mess that’s impossible to fix or at least hard to.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Foreign Songs
Characters: Noel Semasin-Rochemont
Race: Human
Age: 18
Current residence: Yamanashi Region, Japan
Final Word Count: 783 words
 

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The last few weeks with Nattie before he left with Papa were hard. I’m not sure if his behaviour changed because he was moving and he was bitter, or if his behaviour changed because he finally realized he didn’t have to act nice anymore. I just don’t know. I’ve asked myself these questions again and again and, honestly, I haven’t found an answer that doesn’t hurt one way or another, so I’ve tried really hard to just not think about it.

Spending time with Lincoln helped, it still helps. There are mornings when I admit that I still wake up and I expect Nattie to be one room over. It’s been long enough that this shouldn’t even be a thing, but I guess that it’s just one of those things. Once a twin, always a twin. I loved my brother, not in any weird, creepy way that some people seem to think of. This is real life, not an adult movie. I mean, I won’t judge others on things like these, but I still think it’s just really weird, in the end.

Those last few weeks, though, there were mornings when I told myself he was acting out so I wouldn’t hurt when he left, but just moments later, my brain would bring up the fact that he was the one that had decided to leave. No one was forcing him, so it was his decision to go.

On one of the very last mornings, we’d both gotten up a little later than usual, it was Sunday, and it was quiet everywhere in the house. We both were in the kitchen but, for the most part, we were just doing our own thing. Now, I’m not great with certain food preparation and one of those so happens to be the use of the juicer. You’d think it’s really easy. You put your fruits and vegetables in the tube, the machine does all of the work, you have pulp coming down one side, juice the other.

Okay, yeah, it’s easy but I was tired that morning and a little cranky so, when Nattie told me to move because he needed something, I startled. I hit the juicer containers, it was jarred just enough out of its spot that the juice spout now was free to do its thing everywhere but in the container and, of course, there was Nattie right there beside me sighing deeply as though I’d done something superbly stupid again.

He didn’t even have to think about it, it seems like. Just like that, he rolled his eyes, turned the machine off and gestured to the mess that was now dripping down the counter and along the cupboards. He muttered something about how he was so sick and tired of how every time he looked away, I was making a mess that was near impossible to fix. There was so much bite in his word that yeah, sure, I teared up almost instantly and that only made matters worse.

It’s not as though I’d gone out of my way to make the mess. He’d startled me. Last I’d heard him, he’d been at the other end of the kitchen island. So, for him to be right behind me, it’d been startling, and I wasn’t that much of a problem maker, it’s honestly been rare that I’ve made a mess in the kitchen for any reason unless it was through little things like these.

I remember not paying much attention to what he did after he called me a stupid crybaby. He just disappeared from my mind as I turned back to my mess. I did clean it up. It didn’t take that long. I had everything cleaned and put away just as Father was coming into the kitchen. I don’t know how I managed to keep my head high and told him that everything was all right. I’m pretty sure he didn’t believe me for a second, but I guess that he knows better. I recall how he just softly told me that I knew where he would be if I needed to talk to him; I did. I knew where he would be. Instead of managing a reply, though, I know I just took my covered glass of juice, and I went on my way. I think I hid in my room for the better part of the rest of that day.

For years upon years, I thought we’d be the best of friends forever. That I’d like whoever he would decide to date and that he’d do the same for me, but I guess that someone, out there, had bigger plans. It’s just one of those things, I guess.

That’s one heck of a twist I didn’t expect. I didn’t plan this, either. What a shame.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Noel Semasin-Rochemont
Race: Human
Age: 17
Final Word Count: 694 words
 

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Somehow, so far this year with the student population now grown thinner after school let out for the summer break in late July, we’ve managed to keep most newcomers from knowing we’re related to the headmaster.

When school started in April, we had decided that we would try to lay low. I mean, that’s how we were most of the time but we figured that for our last year, we’d try to mostly keep our heads down. It’s not as though we’ve ever really caused any trouble but most of the people who bother to get to know us, do so because of who we are. The others turn their nose at us as though they think we don’t deserve to be in this school.

I think Nathaniel hated it at first, being here. It’s not like the learning is difficult, even if it is for the gifted, but we are here in this school because of who our father is. I know that if we hadn’t been able to keep up with the learning, he would have seen to finding us another school but we never once fell behind on homework and our report cards were always pretty flawless.

A little before the summer break, both of us had managed to befriend one transfer student who had come from another country and we’d sort of made it our goal to help him settle in because we both figured that the odd school terms would likely be a little difficult to settle into. As far as he was concerned, he’d finished his school year but ours had just begun. As the paperwork cleared, it showed that he was actually a little behind. Yes, he’d just gotten out of a school year back in his country but ours had begun in April of the year so he had some catching up to do.

So we helped him. It was easy at first, he was more than willing to learn and he didn’t seem to mind learning during the break, we’d be back in school at the beginning of September as he would have normally been for a school year back home.

A week ago, though, I’m not sure what happened exactly. We learned that he knew exactly who we were and somehow, that didn’t seem to bother him. He wasn’t sticking with this friendship of ours out of obligation to be nice to us. It’s like he didn’t care about who our fathers were, he was just a genuinely nice guy who just wanted to fit in. Nathaniel took to that sort of little plot twist easily, as though it didn’t bother him at all that just maybe, there could be something more to this guy. I mean, it’s not like he can do much of anything about, well, anything during our summer break.

I’m wary about what September will bring. I just can’t help but be a little distrustful of everyone around us because, up until this very point in our lives, no one has ever been nice to us just because they could. There always was a reason, something they wanted or needed and reaching that goal required our presence for one reason or another. I’ve always hated that.

So yes, I’m actually expecting something to just go terribly wrong in September just so I can brace myself for it. If nothing does turn up or happen, I’ll be happy to tell my brother that he was right. I’ll be happy to tell him that it’s all okay, that there finally was a twist I didn’t expect—someone not having ulterior motives—and just, it’ll be that. Of course, I’ll have not planned for that sort of thing because I’m a sad excuse of a person like that and that’s what it is. Nathaniel will likely give me the stink eye for being an overly dramatic idiot but I just can’t help it. I am how I am and I’m too used to people not just wanting to be our friends out of the goodness of their hearts.

One day, I guess, that might change but for now, I don’t think it will.

Do you even want me around? ‘Cause you certainly don’t act like it.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Noel Semasin-Rochemont
Race: Human
Age: 15
Final Word Count: 593 words
 

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Making friends when you’re the headmaster’s son isn’t always easy. Even though we’re adopted, we still are the sons of the headmaster and people have had a tendency for settling into one of two categories. The first being the ones where they turn their noses up at us as though our presence at the school wasn’t deserved and we were only there because of ‘daddy-dearest’; the other groups are the ones Nathaniel has been calling the brown-nosers. They’ll do anything to be your friend if it gets them in the headmaster’s good graces.

Thing is, that doesn’t work, not really. We don’t get treated any differently than anyone else. We’re still students, we work hard, we study hard, we write essays, we do everything really.

I’m sure that some people would likely try to tell us that we should just keep the information to ourselves, that information that makes it clear that we’re related to the headmaster, except there’s no one else in the school with surnames like ours and it’s really unlikely that anyone else in the world will have that surname as their own besides us.

I thought I’d managed to make a friend last year but as it turned out, he was an arsehole like the others. His name was Carlos. He was surprisingly smart—as one was wont to be, to be accepted into this school for the gifted—and he was a little quiet when I first met him but he was fun to spend time around. I think the friendship lasted maybe six months at the most, six months. How sad is that?

The more time we spent together, the more I could feel that he was pulling away from me so I eventually confronted him about it. I asked him if he even wanted me around, he’d turned down every invitation I’d offered him over the last two weeks. I told him that he certainly didn’t act like he wanted me around, it was frustrating.

The look he gave me. I think that if looks could kill, he would have wounded me pretty badly. I didn’t waste much time trying to figure out what his ‘angle’ had been. It was clear that I’d overstayed my welcome at his side and that he’d likely had just accepted to spend time with me because he wanted to see how long it would last. That or a dare, it wouldn’t have surprised me. It’s been done before. I wish I’d listened to Nathaniel about it, he told me he felt something off about Carlos but I’d wanted a friend I wasn’t related to.

This ugly lesson of life has been learned for the time being. I might try again in a while or I might just not. I don’t really need friends, I’ve got my brother though I know that some people would say that siblings aren’t really friends, not in that particular way but they’re wrong. I don’t really need anyone besides him, I know this much but now and again; I guess there’s just something about trying to see if people still only judge you because of your parents.

Maybe once we’re out of school and old enough to move elsewhere or at least no longer be students here, things might change. I don’t know. It would be nice but I’m not holding my breath, not really.

I know I’ll always be able to count on my brother if I need anything but I don’t want to depend on him until the end of everything.

Who was there to light it?

Timeline/World: Modern Monotony – Beyond the School Grounds
Characters: Noel Semasin-Rochemont
Race: Mineralite
Age: 15
Final Word Count: 537 words

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Watching the news station report the fire was frightening enough on its own. Knowing that we’d been right there, just an hour or so before the fire started, was the truly terrifying part. I kept on looking at Nathaniel while we watched the report and I could tell he was as disturbed as I was about it. It was a place that wasn’t very far from where we tended to spend our free time when we weren’t at the house. There was an old abandoned house just a couple of blocks further off, lost somewhat in nature, reclaimed, as father would say. We loved spending time there, just exploring the nooks and crannies.

We’d stopped by that little shop on the way to the abandoned house, picking up a few snacks as we’re in the habit of doing. We only got to explore for a little while before we heard the sirens coming nearby. It frightened us, we were afraid that we’d trespassed despite the fact that we’d been coming to this place for a few years at this point and never had been in trouble. We biked all the way back home, almost breathless and just settled out of the way.

The fire was already on the news; it was blazing away, eating at the old structure of the store. The firefighters were able to keep it from jumping onto the next building over but it was clear there would be near to nothing salvageable from the store. There were rumours of whom might have been at the source of the fire but nothing concrete. Everyone had their own idea but no one had any proof.

I was just personally hoping that the old man who ran the shop had somehow gotten out of the place all right. He was a kind elderly man who mostly manned the store because there was little else to keep him occupied. He was long since retired from his previous job and the store truly was only for distractions.

No amount of looking through the gathered crowds on the screen would give me sight to the man and I felt something constrict in my heart. Giving my twin brother another glance let me know that he was thinking the same thing. We both were pretty worried but it would be useless to bike back down there. For one thing, it would take us a long enough while and two, there was already a pretty big group of gawkers out there and they didn’t need two more. We didn’t need to be in the way.

In the morning, however, it was likely we’d both be heading down to try and find out more about the storekeeper. He felt a bit like a grandfather to me. That was something we didn’t really have. We had both our adoptive fathers but on one side, there was no living family beyond him and on the other, it was confusing. The family was huge but we’d never met anyone who fit the term of ‘grandparent.’ We’ve met plenty of uncles, aunts, cousins and other such people but never a generation up.

If I find out who set the fire… I don’t know what I’ll do.