Valhalla High (A Magnus Chase Fanfic)

My Type of Roommate

April 10

"AP exams are coming up soon," Odin said.

Great, I thought. There's no better way to start class than reminding us of our future torture — I mean educational opportunities! "In light of this," Odin continued, "we will begin reviewing for the AP exams next week."

"Next week?" Magni groaned.

"Yes," Odin said, "and to celebrate the countdown to your AP English exam, I'm going to start our class with a motivational PowerPoint!"

    The best that can be said was that it was mercifully short (by Odin standards at least). We only had to endure thirty minutes of how to achieve our best AP score. "AP scores matter," Odin said. "Your marks on them may determine whether a college with accept that course as credit. For a more in-depth dive into how to succeed in AP read my latest book 'High Fives: How to Get All Fives on Your AP Exams!'"

    Odin was one of those people who was always coming out with new books that he self-published on Amazon. Between being a teacher, a principle, a husband, and a father (as well as grandfather), I wasn't sure how he had time to write them. Maybe he had ghostwriters, but I doubted his salary could cover that.

     We spent the rest of English class analyzing Edgar Allen Poe poems and trying not to think about the upcoming exams. When the bell rang, I bolted to Advanced Ceramics. I got there before anyone else (even Sif) and took a seat at my usual place. People trickled into the classroom. Alex sauntered in just as the bell rang.

        "You're gaping at me," Alex announced as she sat down beside me.

    I quickly shut my mouth. "I was merely admiring your outfit."

     Alex was wearing a green and pink plaid button-up over a tank top with a chameleon on the front. Her pants were the same pink hue in her plaid shirt and her black boots were jazzed up with sparkly green laces. The outfit might have looked ridiculous on anyone else, but Alex wore it as easily as most people wore jeans and a t-shirt.

    Sif walked in while I was appreciating Alex's style. "Sorry kiddos," she said. "I was held up by a phone call with my ex-husband."

     "Ex-husband?" I asked. "Are you and Coach Thor divorced now?"

    Sif laughed. "No, silly. My ex-husband before I met Thor. We had a kid together. Thor is always sensitive about that."

     She sounded as if she didn't mind her husband's jealousy at all. It made me wonder about their relationship and how healthy it was. Then again, I was friends with a couple who'd broken up about a thousand times, so I had thin ice for judging. "What did he want?" someone asked.

"To get back together, of course," Sif said, laughing. "I told him no for the — how many times had it been so far? — oh yes — 4,237th time."

"That is creepy," I said.

"You should get a restraining order on him," Alex said.

Sif shrugged. "Class time should be spent making ceramics — not discussing my highly complicated and entangled love life."

Alex rolled her eyes once Sif went away. "She enjoyed every second of it," she muttered.

Sif came back with a bag of fresh clay and we all stood up to get some. With the end of the school year around the corner, I had more homework than ever and classes were spent reviewing for AP exams. School had never been so exhausting and so I always found a solace in Sif's classroom. Here, we had no homework and we could give our sore minds a break as we shaped clay. Best of all, I got to spend every minute of class beside my favorite person in the world.

***

     When I got home, I checked my email (not my school email, but like my usual email) and found out it was time to fill out my roommate selection survey. I clicked the link and was taken to a clunky looking website that looked like it was created by someone who just started using computers three days before they made this. There were questions (in teeny, tiny print) and blank boxes to type responses in.

    Some of the questions were basic like: would you prefer a single room or a double? Since I figured double rooms cost less, I decided on that route. I just hoped my roommate didn't smell like goat-breathe or worse — I hoped my roommate wasn't a jerk.

    I moved through the questions. Most of them entailed one word responses (are you open to gender neutral housing?, do you snore?, do you prefer PowerPoints or Prezis?), but one was more complicated. Describe your ideal roommate. Wow, they somehow managed to make the hardest open-ended question I'd ever encountered.

    I was stumped for a bit and I thought of asking Alex for help, but I didn't want to interrupt her video game time (interrupting Alex while she's playing video games is only slightly less dangerous than fighting five lindworms at once). I stared at the question until my screen went black from lack of use.  I moved my mouse and it lit back up and I read over the question again: describe your ideal roommate. Why did this question sound like it had destiny-altering powers?

    An inkling of an idea sprouted in my mind and my fingers flew. Beside I knew it, I had my response: my preferred roommate has green hair, cusses so colorfully sailors are put to shame, and has an affinity for clay — especially wet clay.

    I looked over my response and I felt pretty good about it. Then, I scrolled down to the next question: is there another student you'd wish to room with? I facepalmed. Really? I hadn't needed to waste all that time and brain cells trying to formulate a response. I sighed and typed Alex Fierro in the box. Then, I looked over all my responses and submitted the form.