att(pirated)

I shouldn't have tried to overachieve.

If yesterday's day out in Paris had told me anything, it was that I'd gotten the attention of the people in charge of this little program. And they must have liked what they saw. After all, they'd not only given me a not-so-subtle introduction to a business that they probably wanted me to work at, but they'd also arranged for an introduction between me and Alexia. They must have some interest in whatever the young Ashford was doing, and figured that getting us to meet was a good idea. I didn't know for sure what the end goal was. Maybe they wanted someone to keep an eye on her, and figured that I was smart enough to keep up with her and loyal enough to keep her on the right path? Or maybe they simply wanted the girl to have a friend who could crack that icy shell of hers?

Either way, the most important fact was that I'd been singled out above everyone else. And that was a massive problem, because it made my original plan of blending in with the other children completely infeasible. I couldn't just find the comfortable middle ground and coast my way to the end. I'd tried that with Biology, but as it turned out my plan to appear like a good student had backfired, and now I was expected to be a prodigy that could keep up with a genius. Now I couldn't rest on my laurels, and just expect that things would work out. I'd have to work hard to keep up with what was expected of me.

And that's the reason why, rather than spending the weekend resting or playing with the other children, I found myself in the grand library. Nose-deep in some dry textbook on Phagemids, and trying to generate the skills needed to keep up with people's expectations of me. The massive room dominated the west wing of the mansion, but in spite of its sheer size and the huge number of windows, it was surprisingly warm. Unlike the people walking around in the rain outside, I was snug and cozy inside the building. I'd probably be warmer curled up in bed, like some of the other children, but I was against that on principle.

Lie-ins, while gratifying in the moment, ultimately wasted the day. If you wanted to get anything done, the first step was to actually get up.

I was so engrossed in watching the rain outside, that I almost jumped at the sound of the door opening, and the rhythmic clack-clack of a woman in low heels walking on the marble floor. A few seconds later, the woman sighed as she spotted me, and spoke as she approached. "Ah, there you are Tanya. I was worried when you didn't show up for tea."

"I didn't feel hungry, and am I ever anywhere else, Ludmila?" I asked, turning to face my minder. My relationship with Ludmila had remained fairly solid. I wouldn't really say we'd gotten close, given how the only chance we'd really had for a bonding experience had been the trip to Paris. And while that had gone well, one event can't truly change a relationship. But given how many of the other children were either growing more distant with their handlers, or outright ignoring them in favor of their new "family," merely maintaining our relationship was good enough.

"Well, you might have snuck into one of the study rooms for a nap. That's one of the first places I'd go if I didn't want to be disturbed." Ludmila replied as she approached, before looking out through the window that I'd been gazing through not a moment earlier. She had enough confidence in me to let me wander the mansion alone on the weekend, which gave me the chances I needed to slip away to work on my skills. It wasn't something I could afford to push, but every bit of book time helped. "You know, if you're that interested in the outside, why don't we go for a walk? There's a few covered places we can walk through, and I'm sure Valerie would like it."

"As much as I'd like to, I can't. I need to keep on top of my education." I replied, patting the book in my lap. Ludmila glanced at the contents of the page, before raising an eyebrow at me. It was no secret that I was punching above my weight, but a dry textbook on DNA cloning vectors was definitely out of my league. And in all reality, it was. But I needed to keep up my act. Especially if the worst came to pass, and I had to spend more time with Alexia. If that happened, I needed to know enough to appear competent, and then try to get her talking so that she'd be too busy to care about how smart I actually was.

"You know, all of this preparation work won't do you any good if you neglect your health. And I wouldn't be properly looking after you if I allowed that to happen." Ludmila sighed, shaking her head at the book before fixing me with a concerned expression.

"Oh, don't worry. It's not all work." I gently smiled as I cocked my head towards a small pile of magazines from the staff area. Most of it was boring gossip, like which actor looked the hottest, or the trendiest new clothes. But it gave me something to read that had been published within the past year. More importantly, it gave a glance at what was happening outside of the mansion. It wouldn't be as good as a newspaper, or a radio broadcast, but I'd take what I could get.

"You should probably avoid those magazines, they'll rot your brain." Ludmila shook her head at the magazines, before repeating another one of the 'lessons' that had been hammered into the other children here with about the subtlety of an artillery barrage. "Don't forget those stories we've been telling you, dear, it's the duty of the strong and the smart to lead everyone else."

I sighed, and nodded my head as I remembered yet another of the normal aspects of life that had been twisted to suit Henry's agenda. As fairly young children, it was still common for us to spend some time every day listening to some story that one of the handlers read for us. The narratives were simple enough, they were basic children's stories, but subtly twisted to show the main character leading other people to victory or otherwise lauding their achievements over others, rather than them saving the day. So as an example, in a normal children's story the brave knight would defeat the dragon to rescue the princess. But in these stories, the brave knight would rally the local towns folk to defeat the dragon. It was sort of like the stories I was told back in the Soviet orphanage, but with more focus on the main character's intelligence and charisma instead of focusing on how common people could work together to defeat the big bad.

I was about to bring that up, when I was interrupted by a low rumbling sound. The sound of my own gut deciding to protest the fact that I'd only had a light breakfast today, by giving a comically loud grumble. The sound killed the conversation immediately, and provoked a polite giggle from my handler. "Well, even if you didn't want to eat, I think your body would disagree. Come on, I think there's still some leftovers in the dining room that should tide you over until lunch."

I sighed, stood up, and let Ludmila lead me towards the dining room. I couldn't just say that I wasn't hungry, given how my stomach had decided to give such a clear signal to the contrary. And while I could probably push Ludmila into allowing me to hold off on eating until lunch, she would probably be disappointed. And I wanted to avoid that where possible.

"So, Tanya. Have you thought about what you'd like for your birthday?" Ludmila asked as she led me out of the library. The question took me a bit by surprise, as we were still in the middle of spring. My birthday was still a good few months away.

"Isn't it a bit early to be thinking about that?" I asked as we made our way into the corridor beyond.

"Maybe, but I would have hoped that our day out would have given you some ideas to think about. Besides, you're only seven once!" Ludmila replied with a smile, and I had to force myself to return the gesture. You're also only six once, but I'd spent almost all of that year of this life bundled up in the mansion.

"I guess that you're right, but I still don't get why it's such a big deal. We were never asked what we'd like for our birthdays back at the orphanage, we just took what we got." I answered with an idle shrug. While the orphanage hadn't celebrated christmas -a point that had shocked everyone when I brought it up a few months back, and had absolutely backfired in my face- we had celebrated birthdays. Though given the overall lack of funding, a lot of the time we'd only ever receive a single gift and, if we were lucky, a muffin with a candle in it.

"Well, unlike that place, we take our duty of care very seriously." Ludmila huffed, before nudging the conversation along with practically no subtlety. "It's best not to think about the past, and that place. So let's instead make this a proper birthday, something worth celebrating. Does that sound good?"

I simply sighed and nodded, and Ludmila took that as me doing as I was told. But in reality, my mind reflected back on what she'd said, and other examples of times where the other children had been told to stop remembering their past. Once again, I suspected the old Frenchman's hand in that affair. There was a major focus on making the kids either forget where they'd come from, or to stop viewing it in a positive light. For example, if one of the kids made a drawing of life here, then they'd be praised for it. But if the kid drew themselves with people from their past, for example; the kid at their last orphanage, they'd be subtly reprimanded for it. Nothing serious, mind you, just being reminded that they had a new home. Or telling the kid that it wasn't a good idea to think about the past. But it still struck me as incredibly weird. They weren't forcing us to completely reject our pasts, we were still taught our native languages on top of our English lessons, but they still wanted us to stop thinking about our lives before we came here.

All of it combined to make everything feel wrong. Sure, you could easily argue that kidnapping twenty kids and shoving them into the world's most expensive boarding school was wrong on some level, especially when you added the fact that this was all to suit the eugenicist beliefs of the guy behind it. But when you combined everything together, and realized that we were exposed to it on a near-daily basis, then you'd start to see something close to indoctrination kicking in. And that was a problem, because even an idiot would be able to see how easily the other kids were accepting things. If the messages about their innate superiority over others didn't get to them, then the desire for them to fit in with their new "family" would. And that was a problem. If I didn't appear to tow the line, then I'd be in trouble.

"There has to be something you'd like." Ludmila asked as we descended the main staircase, making our way down towards the dining room. "Maybe a book, or a nice dress?"

I made a show of humming to myself as I considered her question. In my past life, I usually asked for nice coffee or chocolates whenever anyone asked, never clothes or anything like that. It even got to the point that in my adult years, people stopped asking what I wanted and just sent me one of the two. And seeing as there would probably be some reservations around giving a child a coffee set, I instead suggested the latter. "Maybe some nice chocolate? I'd like that."

"I meant something other than that. Chocolate won't last, and you should get something that will last for your first gift." Ludmila frowned at my answer as we reached the bottom of the stairs. I could certainly see the wisdom in what she was suggesting, but then we circled back to the original problem.

"I guess. But that doesn't change the fact that I don't know what I'd want. I don't want a dress because we got a coupe in Paris, and I can't think of a book that I'd want." I pointed out, earning me another disapproving look from my minder as we made the short trek from the bottom of the stairs to the dining room door.

"No dolls? No toys of any sort?" Ludmila suggested, before shaking her head at my unenthusiastic response. She simply sighed, and idly commended as she opened the door to the dining room. "You're an odd one, little misha."

I was about to answer, when I was instantly cut off by a familiar and squeaky voice from inside the room. "Sister! Where have you been? I haven't seen you all morning."

"Sorry, I've been reading." I replied automatically as I searched for the speaker. I didn't have to look long, because as it turned out I'd managed to stumble into my friends. Valerie had been the one to call out my arrival, while the two other members of my friend group -a Scandinavian boy called Anders and a French girl called Christine- acknowledged my arrival from their far end of the table. Jonah had yet to be reintroduced to the rest of the wider family, as he was still confined to his room. Finally, the three minders for the respective children were all standing in a group by the fireplace, listening to a radio that someone had brought in.

Valerie gave me a confused look, before pouting at me. "Reading isn't fun. You need to start having fun!"

"See? Even your sisters think you need to relax a bit." Ludmila chuckled as she ushered me through the doorway, and began inspecting the leftover food. From the looks of it, there was a mixed assortment of fruit, small biscuits, and other things that had survived. Not enough for a proper meal, but more than enough for a snack.

"Well if that's not fun, what have you three been doing?" I huffed as I walked over to my seat, and sat down. Sure, there wasn't much to do in the mansion, but it was always polite to ask. And given how I wanted all three of them to keep being my friends, I needed to at least sound interested in what they were doing while I was away.

"We've just come back from seeing Jonah. He's doing ok, but he's sick of being stuck in that room. We played some games with him, and we'll probably go back after lunch if you want to join us?" Christine replied as I tucked my chair in. As everyone was sitting in their specifically labeled seats, having a conversation was a bit more difficult than I would have liked. Anders was almost at the head of the table, Christine was in the middle, and myself and Valerie were on the opposite side to them. So in order for us to clearly hear each other, we had to raise our voices, just so that they would carry over the distance.

"Thanks, I think I will. How was he yesterday?" I asked next. While I'd been out in Paris, I'd asked Val and the others to check in on Jonah, and to keep him company when possible. And seeing as I'd only made it back after lights out yesterday, I hadn't been able to check in on him.

"I think he was fine, not too different from when we saw him earlier. But you'd have to ask him, he… he didn't seem like he wanted to talk with us. But he was fine earlier today, so maybe he just needed to relax a bit." Valerie answered, training off at the end as she recalled Jonah's frosty reception. But before I could inquire further, she changed the subject. "Anyway, how was Paris?"

"It was nice. Paris is a very beautiful city, even if it's a bit crowded." I answered with a genuine smile, even if it was only because I enjoyed being able to just pick a direction and walk without hitting a wall. "We went to some nice cafes, some shops, and had a nice time."

"Did you go to Le Procope? Or Café de la Paix?" Christine asked, staring at me with rapt interest. For a second I wondered why she was so interested, before remembering that she was French. If anyone here was likely to know about important cafes in the city, it was her.

"We went to Café de la Paix. It was nice, though some of the food there was a bit… fancy? I guess. Some of the food was practically the same thing we have here, just presented in a fancy way." I replied, shrugging as I recalled the memory. Though as Ludmila stated a few seconds later, a lot of that was my fault.

"That's because you only ordered the things you recognised, rather than trying new things." Ludmila stated as she put a small plate of food in front of me, a mixed selection of sweet and savory snacks mostly consisting of fruit slices and crackers. "You also made a friend there, isn't that right?"

"I wouldn't exactly call those pigeons my friends…" I grumbled, providing my handler with a convenient off ramp for this line of questioning. A funny tangent on how I got attacked by some pigeons who wanted my sandwich would help lighten the mood.

Unfortunately, Ludmila either didn't get the hint, or she completely ignored it in order to bring up my encounter at Umbrella. "I meant Alexia. That girl from umbrella?"

"Ah, Alexia." I nodded, acting as if I'd merely forgotten her name rather than trying to avoid talking about her. Frankly, I would have preferred to let the topic lie, but if Ludmila insisted on bringing her up then I didn't really have much of a choice.

"What was she like?" Valerie asked, turning her full attention to me at the news.

"She's ten years old. Imagine Christine, but taller and you'll have a good idea of what she looks like." I replied, gesturing over at the French girl before starting on my food.

"Is she… like us?" Christine was the next one to ask about the Ashford girl, with an almost hopeful tone in her voice. It took me a second to place it, but if I had to guess, Christine was probably searching for a sign that we weren't the only people in the world with our intellect at our age.

"Yes, I'd say so. She's only a few years older than us, and she's really smart. She's a researcher at a company called Umbrella, studying ancient viruses to make vaccines for them." I explained, before taking a bite out of a slice of apple. It had been out for a while, as the core of the fruit had discolored. But it was still nice and refreshing.

"Is she nice?" Valerie asked, showing a surprising interest in the girl she'd only just heard about. Even if her voice remained unnervingly neutral.

"She's… well…" I stumbled over my words as I tried to describe the Ashford girl in a way that didn't come across as rude, but also wasn't disingenuous. After a few seconds of pushing food around my plate, I settled on a description. "She seemed a bit… cold? I don't know, she didn't seem like she wanted to talk at first, but after a while she opened up a bit."

"From what Mister Gräfe told me, she came to Paris alone. She has a brother, but he's back at their home, so she doesn't have any friends." Ludmila stated, giving a plausible explanation for the Ashford girl's behavior, even if I figured that she was just a natural diva rather than simply lonely.

"Oh, that's terrible!" Christine gasped, looking particularly shocked at the idea of being alone. "Being there alone, without any friends and only doing work, it must be horrible."

I simply shrugged, slowly eating some food before replying to my pseudo-sister's concerns. "I guess? Honestly I don't know. She seemed like the kind of person who enjoyed working more than having fun."

"I'm surprised you didn't drag her back here! You'd get along well!" Anders yelled from the tip of the table, and I almost choked on my food at the remark.

"What? No. I'm not like that…" I replied between coughs. It took a few seconds for me to finally choke down the food, and when I did I addressed my friends. "I don't come across like that, right?"

The room was silent for a couple of seconds, before Valerie giggled. I turned to my German roommate, who found an opening between her giggles to explain what she found so funny. "Sister, you spent the whole morning in the library. I think that says everything."

"If you had the chance, would you want to see Alexia again?" Ludmila asked, bringing the conversation back on the track that she'd set it on earlier. I sighed at the question, and considered it as I ate a bit more of my meal. Personally, I didn't want to see her again. But I couldn't just say that. It would send the wrong message to my friends. Not to mention that there seemed to have been an obvious attempt to make us interact, which was something that I needed to consider.

"That would be up to her. For what it's worth, she seemed like she was starting to open up to me at the end, but we had to leave so I can't be too sure." I eventually replied, adding a shrug to sell the fact that I simply didn't know what Alexia's reaction would be. If she really was the ice queen I figured her to be, then I could probably suffer through one move visit.

And if she really is lonely? Would you really damn her to a lonely existence just because it's inconvenient? The snide side of my mind asked. I clamped down on that thought almost instantly, it didn't merit consideration. Not in the current circumstances.

Thankfully, the answer was at least satisfactory for Ludmila, who replied with a verbal shrug. "I guess you're right. At the end of the day, it's up to her to ask."

And with that, the conversation died out. There were a few more questions about what we did in Paris, such as what attractions we saw and what I bought in the shops. But thankfully, the Alexia questions ended there, and I hoped that would be the last time I needed to talk about the weird Engishwoman. The conversation was going so well, at least until Anders brought up something that I'd brought up earlier, and hoped that everyone had simply forgotten about.

"So, what happened between you and those pigeons?"