Do My Calculations
I'm back from the
exhaustion of exams and ready to face the grueling year of
pre-university. That's right, kiddoes, college, and since I base my
DMC drabbles on daily experiences, I doubt I could continue Drabble
Might Count as a school-based fanfic, not to mention that none of my
classmates took the same course as I did. I wish my fanfic-writing
abilities hadn't faded with time. I think it'll be easier to
write about college where there's no fixed 'designated' class
where you have to stay with the same group of people the whole time.
College makes my life flow smoothly… except for the Math subject!
That's what
contributed to the title!
Without further ado,
here's a take at writing about college life… with the Sons of
Sparda. I know I don't own them, but we all know where they belong.
I also don't know how
tall they are exactly, so spare me the detail-check.
Entry One: Orientation
The twins sat in
silence inside the Toyota Harrier, the elder wearing a blue collared
shirt and black tights, the younger wearing a red short-sleeved
T-shirt and jeans. Ever since the Education Certificate examination
is over with, they had hardly seen anyone except for their neighbor,
and even so, she frequently kept to herself within her untidy room.
No matter how much she had wanted to attend the school prom, she had
been missing due to her family's trip to Perth. As a result,
neither twin went either, refusing to sit around and watch as each
boy in their class dance with a partner; they could not, must not,
dance with each other.
Confident of his
results, Vergil had prepared himself for college three months before
the end of the year; it was then when he browsed through the right
brochures that would serve him the purpose of helping him decide
where to head for after school. Dante will always let Vergil pick for
him, since a twin is the best help a twin could get anywhere he goes.
It was on Orientation Day when they realize she was also taking the same course.
Dante and Vergil walked
down the porch to a common area for students to gather or study
before classes start. Registration to their respective programs will
start at half past eight, so they decided to find a place to settle
in before then.
"Nay?" Dante asked,
seeing the familiar downcast head belonging to a girl who wore an
orange shirt and beige cargoes.
Hearing that voice, she
raised her bronze-spectacled eyes – her heart skipped a beat.
"Dante? Vergil? What are you doing here?"
"We're here for our
orientation," Vergil responded, seeing no reason why she should ask
that.
"So are you planning
to take any fancy-schmancy course while we're here?" the less
mature twin asked with genuine curiosity.
"I'm taking Monash
University Foundation Year."
Dante stood stiff as a
board and turned to Vergil. "We have a classmate," he announced.
"Don't jest. Just
because the three of us take the same course, it doesn't mean we'll
all be in the same class," Vergil snapped.
"You said 'jest'."
An inactive
conversation followed up next with Dante doing most of the talking;
Vergil and Nay had nothing to recap. Come the time the counter opens
for registration, the three proceeded to line up.
"Is this the line for
MUFY?" a young man with shoulder-length black hair wearing a hat of
the same color asked Dante.
"Yep," he replied.
Behind the hat-wearing
man are four more people who joined him in the line. The tallest of
them pointed out that they did not have to ask the platinum-haired
teenager what the line is for.
"Of course, Jimmy;
your glasses always see the farthest," the shortest of them
sarcastically remarked.
With directions
provided by the registrar, the future students made their way to the
north portion of the building where the elevator is. Should they wish
not to waste time waiting, they could use the stairs. "Fourth
floor! Imagine how high that would be!" Dante exclaimed.
"This isn't the
first time I hear you complaining about tasks you could perform so
easily," his twin remarked.
"Oh, yeah, climbing
four sets of staircases with a pair of ten steps is as easy as
ringing a doorbell."
"Where's Nay?"
Vergil had posed that
question on purpose to make Dante look forward and notice that the
four-foot-eleven girl is close to being out of their sight.
"You couldn't press
your finger on the doorbell, could you?"
"No, fool; I stayed
back to make a mockery of you in comparison to a girl eleven inches
shorter than you."
Dante is unwilling to
carry on with the argument while lugging his red single-strap
bag-full-of-books up two and a half more floors. He would be huffing
all the way while Vergil blissfully ignores his whines.
The Multi-Purpose Hall
where the main parts of orientation will be held could as well pass
off as a mosh pit if the stage at the very front is large enough for
a seventeen-piece drum set. Keeping her habit started in secondary
school, Nay went to take one of the front seats, since people who
recently enter do not bother to walk all the way there.
It was easier to follow
the nerd since the emcee later asked them to fill up the front seats
and save the space on the back for latecomers.
Their first day had
been very uneventful. The fresh entrants basically learnt that their
attendance can be taken on a list generated by a computer-based
registration of the students, which will be done on Monday. They also
learn that the local authorities ensure their safety and that the
library now occupies two floors.
Dante waved goodbye to
the man in a black hat who sat at the passenger seat of his friends'
red convertible. Vergil proceeded to call his father and tell him
that the day's orientation is over with. Before he could access his
in-palm phonebook, though, he could not help but overhear Nay's
conversation with her mother:
"I'm sorry, dear,
but you know how busy I am these days."
"This is why I wanted
to learn how to drive as soon as I can. How am I supposed to get home
now?"
"I really dread this,
but you're going to have to take the cab home. You did bring your
allowance, didn't you?"
"Yes, Mom."
Mother said it all. Eva
had been using the Fiat; not only did she not want the boys to have
to pay for the parking at the campus everyday, but due to her
conservative ways, she does not trust either of them – not even
Vergil – to take their neighbor home safely if she needed
transportation.
Sparda always has free
time after four in the evening, so whether or not they are in a hurry
home, Papa will always be around for them.
"Don't take rides
from strangers," Nay quoted her mother. "But I've known you
guys in my final year of high school, and you live just next door."
"Enough said,"
Vergil told her, speed-dialing his father's number.
"I still don't
understand why Mom wouldn't let us drive ourselves or Nay to
college," Dante remarked after the call was made.
"The problem is that
if you drive, there's a tendency you'd crash the Punto, and if I
drive, you'll distract me and make me crash the Punto."
"That doesn't
explain anything to do with Nay, though." So he has decided to
bring their neighbor to the main topic of their conversation.
"I predict that if
Father comes alone, she'll have to take shotgun because he won't
trust either of us not to misconduct ourselves around her."
"What…"
"He's here –
there's a new record," Vergil muttered.
Regardless of the short
time-span between when the call was returned and the driver's
arrival, the Harrier arrived in its regular splendor with the exact
same shine it had in the morning. "Ahoy, kids!"
A vein on Vergil's
temple pulsed. "We're in college, Father," he said coldly.
"What does it matter
to me? Both of you are still my kids, and we have a younger guest
with us today, so you have told me – welcome aboard, young Nay."
The under-aged girl
nodded, her silence in greeting being regular amongst people she
rarely meets. Vergil made sure Dante is on the seat behind the
driver's and not the passenger's.
"Excuse me, sir –
if you will be driving me home from now on, will my family or I have
to pay you at all?" she queried, however.
"Nonsense! And call
me Uncle Sparda if you wish. We're neighbors, aren't we? I just
hope you could stand my driving."
"I think that's the
least I can do to thank you."
Not seeing his younger
son's face right behind him, he was unaware of Dante pulling the
most surprised expression of the fortnight.
'Powers above…'
Vergil thought of this absurd hospitality of his father's. 'This
will carry on forever.'
I wanted to add a part where I found a City of Evil album in Papa Sparda's in-vehicle collection of CDs, but I couldn't figure out how to work it in. If being driven to and from college by the Dark Knight himself is a dream, it depends on who dreams it. Dante will be motivated to be punctual because the hour of rushing would be a total nightmare.
I hope you enjoyed the twins' first-day view of college with the only student there that they knew the year before.
By the way, these days my doorbell takes the part of my hand near my wrist to press, not just two of my stronger fingers.
