Chemistry - A Sander's Sides Fanfiction

- 38 -

Hey y'all, it's been a while. Sorry about that! (And sorry it's so late.)

Anyway, just a few more chapters now and we'll get to that camping trip I promised haha.

In the meantime, enjoy:

The long-awaited Christmas break soon came to an end. As the last day slowly disintegrated before Virgil's eyes, he found himself reflecting on his favorite moments of the the holiday season: Roman, sending him an eclectic bunch of pictures from skiing up north -- Virgil's favorite of which was a photo of a kid in all black winter gear who was sporting perhaps the lowest, darkest emo fringe that Virgil had ever seen in his life, captioned with, "I didn't know you were up here too." Another moment was the small sludge of snow that fell one morning, and though most of it melted soon after sunrise, it was a pleasant surprise to wake up to. Finally, eating Christmas dinner and opening presents with his mom; it was a simple celebration and didn't involve much excitement, but it was nice and Virgil never really got to spend time with her anymore.

But it was over so soon. On one hand, Virgil was tired of sitting around, doing nothing, and wanted to go back to school -- mainly, he wanted to see Roman again. On the other hand, he was worried to go back, for finals were in a little over a month. And that was a can of stress that Virgil was not looking forward to opening any time soon.

Regardless of his concerns or desires, winter break had ended and Virgil was once again starting down the familiar path to school. He found himself peeking hopefully up at the gray sky, which had dispensed nothing more than mere drizzle for all of the time it had spent looming above Virgil's house during break; he was really hoping for rain -- maybe even a thunderstorm if he was lucky; the clouds certainly looked dark enough.

Monday was sluggish, as every first day after break often was. It would have been nearly unbearable had rain not begun to fall around fourth period. The only inconvenient thing about this fact was that Virgil had art fourth period, and the building was so detached from campus that it was connected to the rest of the buildings by a long stretch of open concrete and grass. Virgil's previous excitement at hearing Zeus unleash his hellish power upon the roofs of the mortal world in the form of electric, tempestuous clouds, beating wind, and a raging torrent of ice water faded as soon as he found himself faced with it. Drenching thunderstorms are wonderful until you are the one getting drenched.

Virgil hugged his math textbook from the previous period to his chest (for there was no more room for it in his crammed backpack) as he stared out across the flooded lawn from under the leaky canopy. Unlike the rest of the rest of the heavily prepared students in his art class, Virgil had quite inconveniently forgotten to grab either an umbrella or raincoat that morning, for the idea of it raining had completely skipped his mind. I've got to start checking the weather, he thought.

Even as the last few students from his class filed out of the building, pulling their hoods on tight and opening up their jealousy-evoking umbrellas, Virgil found himself unable to move. He wasn't ready to be soaking for the rest of the day. For a fleeting moment, he contemplated ditching class and hiding in the art closet until the clouds went away, but that would mean missing out on chemistry -- and plus, Virgil loved the rain, right? This shouldn't be so bad.

So Virgil made the final decision to barrel out into the sheet of ice water, his good-for-nothing hood pulled tightly over his hair and the edges of his textbook digging furiously into his ribs. He was only halfway across the grass and Virgil already felt too soggy for his own physical -- and emotional, for that matter -- wellbeing.

But he made it, eventually, to the awning above the next doorway. Virgil had to admit, it was sort of fun to run through the rain like that -- just, maybe with a raincoat next time. He took almost no hesitation before pulling the door open and trudging, wet-footed, inside.