The Academy of S.I.D.E.

No. 11: Wildfire

The next day, Virgil went through the mild indignancy of going to class with kids three years younger than him. In some of his classes, he caught on really quickly, especially in chemistry---which surprised him, since science had never been his best subject. When it came to stuff like computers, though, he was totally lost. Not to mention that he could barely follow the classes that taught different languages, except for Japanese. And that had three different alphabets, with four different variations to the first two (plus, the third one had a level of complexity that required years of learning and practice).

Scratch that. Japanese was the hardest by far.

Thankfully, he got to take the Ability Usage class with kids in his age range, because that class was measured on the amount of time spent with their powers. Unfortunately, the Clothing Design class he'd signed up for was right before it, so he had to sprint all the way across campus to get there.

"Woah, slow down, kiddo!" Patton said as he skidded to a stop in front of the Field Skills building. "You sure your power isn't superspeed?"

"Nah, I just wanna get here in time," Virgil answered, leaning over and panting for breath.

"There's ten minutes in between classes. Y'know, this school is smaller than it looks."

"Well, I just got here, so it's still pretty big to me." He ran a hand through his hair as he stood up straight. "Everyone else here?"

"I think they're already inside," Patton responded, checking his phone. "I just wanted to say hi to my sisters---they've got Combat Training before this, so they should probably be coming out soon."

"You've got sisters?"

Patton smiled and nodded. "Twins! They're in the same grade as Janus's sister is."

"Does Logan---"

"Older sister and younger sibling."

"So I'm the only guy without siblings," Virgil concluded. "Perfect." He raised an eyebrow. "Your sisters anything like you?"

"PATTON!"

Two girls in pastel-punk clothing raced out of the building and tackle-hugged him. They looked practically identical---short, choppy hair dyed light blue, freckles, pierced ears, and fairly short---but the one on the left wore a black jeans jacket and the one on the right wore a white one. They looked sorta like Patton, but you couldn't really tell.

Patton untangled himself from them, beaming. "Guys, I'd like you to meet Virgil. He's the newest member of the crew---Janus brought him in yesterday. Virgil, this is Pamela---Pam for short---and Pearl. Pam's the one in black, Pearl's the one in white."

"Hi, Virgil!" the two girls sang, waving. Virgil paused, then waved back.

"What kinda powers do you have?" Pam asked.

"Uh... I can make stuff out of shadows and I have complete control over them," Virgil answered, scratching the back of his neck. "And I can talk to my shadow."

Pearl gasped. "Oh my gosh, that's so cool! All I can do is hear and talk to ghosts, and they're boring 99 percent of the time."

"She just says that because she's not the one who can see and control ghosts," Pam countered. "They're really cool-looking. Especially the ones who've been murdered."

Ghost stuff, huh? Virgil looked over at Patton. Is that what his ability is?

"Wait, wait, wait!" Pearl pointed at him. "You're Roman's new roommate, aren't you?"

He nodded.

"Oh, this is perfect!" Pam squealed, jumping up and down. "You're almost exactly his type! He loves the dark and brooding guys!"