The Academy of S.I.D.E.

No. 40: Original

Wednesday had become Virgil's favorite day.

Well, okay, strike that. It had been his favorite day during quarantine, since all he had to do was do a brief check-in to his classes in the morning, and then binge-watch whatever TV show he was interested in while his dad was working and his mom was doing her therapy session. Once in-person school started back up again, though, Wednesday just became the middle of the week, and Friday became his favorite again.

Now, of course, he was at the Academy. And being at the Academy meant virtual simulations in Ability Usage on Wednesdays.

"I'm hoping dragons today," Roman said as they walked in, doing little air punches at an invisible enemy. "My cousin Nina says that we start doing stuff like dragons during sophomore year, and we haven't done any yet."

"We already deal with a dragon daily," Virgil reminded him. "And Madame Maeve is infinitely more terrifying than anything Remy could come up with---except on Fantasy Friday."

"Be grateful for her," Logan told him. "My father told me that when he was a student, the Etiquette teacher was ancient and used a cane if you did something incorrectly."

Virgil winced. "Never thought I'd be grateful for Madame Maeve."

"Yeah, my mom told me about that teacher, too," Roman remembered. "She said that she ended up dying after Mom graduated."

"Didn't your dad go here, too?" Virgil said.

Roman shook his head. "The legacy families have the benefit of being able to homeschool their kids when it comes to powers. As long as there's at least one operative or operative-in-training in the family, the majority of the family can take whatever career path they want. My dad's a neurosurgeon."

"So... your mom's the op?"

"No, she just has op training."

"My parents are both ops," Logan told Virgil. "The Jacobi family is the exception to that rule, since our powers are best used on the field, and a good number of Aberrations become operatives---the reasons vary from having more freedom to use your powers, the thrill of the chase, or simply because you don't have another career path in mind."

"Yeah, I'm gonna be the last one," Virgil decided.

Roman looked surprised. "Really? Because you'd make a really good clothing designer."

"Eh, I might do that on the side," he said, shrugging. "An op sounds like a pretty cool job. And me and Nox can definitely handle it, right, Nox?"

"You can handle it as long as you have me to get your ass out of trouble."

"Awesome, glad you agree."

Logan gave Nox a curious look. "What's he saying?"

"Tell him I think he needs to get rid of the stick up his ass."

"Uh, he says that you're a leader he aspires to look up to," Virgil told him.

Nox groaned. "No, doofus, that's not what I said."

"He also says you rock."

Logan gave Nox a smile. "Thank you."

"Bitch."

"Does he have anything to say to me?" Roman asked, smirking.

"Tell Roman that his hair's the fluffiest thing on the planet."

"He thinks your hair's the fluffiest thing on the planet," Virgil said, ruffling it. "And he's right."

Roman blushed slightly. "Awww."