Sanders Sides (power rangers au)

Chapter 49.

Virgil had been able to convince his mom to take Janus home, before he and his mom had gone home as well. Then they’d had dinner with Virgil’s dad, which was spent in complete silence. After a while, his dad started telling them about the incident at the park, and how he was thinking about the basic descriptions, before Virgil’s mom had turned on the news. Videos of Virgil and the others were everywhere. There was already video of them from the helicopter that afternoon that showed their suits. And an interview with the woman Virgil had saved.

“He saved my life.” She had said, holding a little girl that Virgil hadn’t remembered being there in her arms. “I wish I could tell him thank you.”

His dad had been able to find an article online, and a picture someone had taken of Janus while they were helping everyone out. He’d lost his mind, jumping into the air and shouting things about it “all being real” before he’d darted outside. Virgil had waited for a while for his dad to come back in, but hadn’t really had the chance. His dad stayed outside on the phone, talking with someone about what he’d seen. Eventually, Virgil had figured they could talk tomorrow and had wandered upstairs. His mom had come in at one point to ask Virgil how his lunch with the group of jerks had been.

“They were fine, I guess.” He’d answered with little detail.

“Really? They seem like a good, active group that will get you into productive activities. Do you have any other friends?” His mother had asked.

Virgil had debated answering, before he’d shaken his head no. His mother already went on rants about how she hadn’t liked his actual friends. She was convinced they had all been involved in the prank on her first day, and she didn’t like Patton because of GSA. She hadn’t pushed further. Instead telling Virgil that she was going to be at school most of the day tomorrow to help with the rest of her settling in as principal. Virgil had shrugged, putting on his headphones and blaring Noah Kahan in his ears until he’d fallen asleep.

His phone ringing had woken him the next morning. He’d checked to see Roman calling him, and forced down the sudden beating of his heart and heat in his face as he answered.

“Hello?”

“Don’t tell me I woke you up?”

“I won’t.”

Roman laughed. “I wanted to ask where I was supposed to meet you. I told my mom I was meeting a, quote on quote, friend today. I wanted to see where that was.”

“This quoted friend is pretty lucky. I would say that they will send you their address to come here.”

“This friend is too kind.” Roman’s smile could be heard through the phone. Virgil pulled the phone from his ear and quickly sent Roman his address. “I’ll be there in a bit. I’m taking the bus.”

“How horrible.” Virgil joked. “See you in a bit.”

“Okay.” Roman hung up, and Virgil pulled his phone down with an annoying grin on his face.

Virgil stood, stretching his arms and legs, before a dull pain pulled his arms down. Those bruises. He’d completely forgotten. Virgil pulled off his hoodie and shirt, and saw his ribs were covered in halfway faded bruises from yesterday. He checked through the rest of his body, but he only had those for new ones, aside from the fading cut on his nose. After a moment, Virgil grabbed clothes, and changed into clothes he thought he would enjoy being out in, before tossing back on the hoodie. It was an old, gray thing. With small, darker gray patches that covered spots where it had torn over the years. He wasn’t a huge fan of the design, ironically wishing it had a bit of purple in it, but it was what he was comfortable in. It had at one point been soft on the inside, but years worth of washes and wearing it had rubbed all the softness away and left it as slightly scratchy.