The War on Hormones

By Francis Bass

In the near future, bioengineering companies create neutralizers—unicellular organisms that can destroy sex hormones in the brain, improving the academic dedication of students. Silver Path, a new performing arts school, is a pioneer in requiring that its students be neutralized. This kind of environment is perfect for Edward Warwick, a 12th-grader intensely dedicated to acting and intensely wary of romantic distractions. But over the course of his senior year at Silver Path, it becomes clear that there are many hormones other than testosterone and estrogen, and making it out of high school without any drama may not be as easy as a monthly neutralizer check-up.

This publication also contains an afterword by the author, in which he describe how his own final year of secondary education directly lead to, and provided fodder for, this story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Francis Bass
• Release date: May 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370227594

Francis Bass

Francis Bass is a writer of science fiction and fantasy. His work has appeared in RECKONING, ELECTRIC LITERATURE, and others. He lives in Philadelphia.

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The War on Hormones

Copyright © 2017 by Francis Bass

All rights reserved.

Title, subtitle, and byline font junko’s typewriter by Junko Korhonen

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Table of Contents

The War on Hormones

Afterword

May twenty-third of my junior year, in a moment of absent-mindedly checking my phone, I received the best email of my life. Heading it was the Silver Path Performing Arts School logo: silver lettering on a purple field with a winding road cutting through the middle. Beneath this, they congratulated me on my acceptance into the school. I read it on my cell during AP Language and Comp, my last class of the day, and I strained to contain myself. Though I wanted to, I didn’t shout or jump or punch the air in triumph. The deadweights sitting around me wouldn’t have understood. They didn’t even know the difference between theater and theatre. They thought Medea was a movie series from the 2000s. The one kid in that class involved in theatre thought that acting meant just reading lines—at least, that’s what he always did on stage.

And not a one of them was neutralized. Which is fine, if you have no ambition.

While they were all talking about plans for summer—going to some beach or enjoying being out of school or totally hanging out, like, a lot more—I kept thinking I couldn’t wait for summer to come and go. But as long as I had to wait two and a half months before going to Silver Path, I was going to use them. I started then a list of plays I would read or watch that summer, ones I’d heard of but never seen.

When I got home and told my parents, they showered me in praise and smiles. Whether they really cared about me getting into a performing arts school or not, I don’t know. They were definitely excited that I’d be attending a school exclusively for neutralized students. Just like with prescription schools, Silver Path could only require students be neutralized if they paid for the monthly check-up that ensured the neuts didn’t spread out from the brain and destroy testosterone elsewhere in the body—a relief to my parents’ budget.

Even so, they didn’t want to give me the money to buy all the scripts I wanted, so I exhausted my own savings buying physical copies of all the plays on my list—physical copies so that I could mark them up with blocking and notes. I took over the basement and spent most of the summer down there. It was a large, private space where I could watch recordings of plays, read aloud from scripts, and practice monologues.

Of course, I stayed neutralized over the summer. I even started eating brain food smoothies that were supposed to especially nourish the neutralizers. My brother James couldn’t wait to kill the neuts, and he started going out with this girl Amy. I really didn’t care that James wanted to throw his life away, but it was irritating, studying in the basement, then having the two of them burst in with their hands crawling all over each other, and having to argue with him about how I could only study down there and they could go over to Amy’s house if they wanted to fuck.

When it came time to get neutralized again, James flipped out at mom and dad and said he was in love with Amy. It didn’t matter, because Amy got neutralized and instantly lost interest in James.

So I was glad I’d chosen to stay neutralized over the summer. I didn’t want any part in what James went through. Soaking my hypothalamus in testosterone and getting used by some girl—or using some girl myself. No thanks.

I was going to be an actor.

* * *

Silver Path was brand new, a pioneer in requiring that it’s students be neutralized. Because of this, our there were only twelve kids in our senior class. Not many others saw the value of attending a school for one year, but one year was better than nothing—especially for getting into a good college.

We still had core classes. I had to take an English class and a social studies course, other students had to take math or science depending on what credits they still needed to graduate—but the other four classes were strictly theater. Even though we hadn’t gone through all the other courses, we seniors were automatically placed in the advanced classes—Acting IV and Advanced Theatre History being the ones we were all in. Other classes included Dance IV, Vocal Music IV, and Advanced Playwriting. I wasn’t interested in the musical theatre stuff, so I took Advanced Playwriting and Advanced Theatre Tech.

The first day, my excitement built as I drove out through the strip malls and suburbs of the Athens outskirts and into the pine trees, then down a road just off the highway that lead to the converted ministerial college. It was just a few tall buildings, but they looked impressive. The newest addition was an edifice