\Armin/

If you’ve ever been a science experiment, you know how hard it is to be going to school and then go to a science lab right after going to school.

Very hard. I swear. You don’t want to be a science experiment. I didn’t even know I was one, ‘til I turned seventeen.

Literally, a few days ago.

“ARMIN! YOU’RE GONNA BE LATTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEE!” Eren screams.

I blink back to reality. Mikasa raising a brow is the first thing I see.

“Armin, buddy, you good?” Mikasa asks me.

I smile slightly. “Yeah. Fine. Totally. . .fine.”

Eren leans over my desk. “You don’t look it. You’re pale.”

“I’m always like this!” I lie. You may ask, why?

Well, the thing is, they don’t know what the scientists have been putting me through. And I want to keep it that way. I don’t want them to worry about me. My grandparents put me in this science experiment thingy.

So, Eren and Mikasa shouldn’t have to go through a phase where they worry about me. “Don’t worry about me, Eren! I’m fine!”

He nods. “Whatever you say.”

The walk to the science lab is long, dreadful, and quiet. Oh, and HOT.

When we arrive, the scientists, they look mad.

Like, really mad.

One of them forces themself to smile. “H-hello, l-little o-ones. H-how a-are y-you t-today?”

I force myself to smile back. “Good. . .”

“That’s amazing. . .I guess. . .” another one says.

“Well, come this way now. . .” the one who forced themself to smile says, waving their hand to the entrance.

I pray Eren and Mikasa don’t go through the same thing as me.

The one with the forced smile, pushes me into a separate room than Mikasa and Eren.

“Do you know what we’re doing today, young man?” they ask me.