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.