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3. Virgo

On the way to Virgo, I thought of whatever was following me last night. What if they're a murderer waiting for the perfect time I close my eyes until they jump in to kill me? What if it's a robber who wants to break into my house? I mean, the only thing valuable in my apartment is my high school certificate and medals for being a nerd, and maybe a really cool looking lamp. I'm not the right person when it comes to money. Education is expensive, even though it shouldn't be. At this point, people are not even paying to learn. We're basically just paying to get a degree. There are people who have college degrees who don't know shit, and people who have potential to win a Nobel Peace Prize but they can't pursue a legitimate career because they cannot afford it. It is a privilege to be able to go to school. If it wasn't for my job as an assistant at Virgo and the bit of financial aid I receive, I wouldn't be able to continue my path on becoming a scientist.

Virgo is nothing compared to NASA, but it's a pretty large research center located in such a small town. I've been working here for a year and a half now, and it's been everything I've wanted and more. Most people I've met are nice and respectful, though there will always be the few rude and stuck up ones. My team, which consists of four members, are thankfully all amazing and I love all of them very much.

"Here's your coffee, Cat Daddy."

Orion looked away from whatever he's tinkering with. "I told you never to call me that ever again."

"Sorry. Father of Cats." I corrected, sitting on his messy desk. "Whatcha doing?"

"A machine that goes 'DING' every time something evil comes near it." He held up the small device the size of his hand. It's just a transparent box full of wires. Its antenna pointed towards me and the box let out a 'Ding!' afterwards. "Oh, it definitely works."

I rolled my eyes and smacked his shoulder with a rolled up Marvel comic book that has Scarlet Witch and Loki in the cover. "You're welcome for the coffee." I skipped over to my desk, not far from him. We are in our team's main office, which consists of one big white desk that has a massive desktop computer, three smaller desk for Orion, myself, and a chemist named Sharlene Miko. Our team leader and boss, Ava Nox, has her own office in a private room located next door.

I sat on my spinning chair and opened the red laptop on it. It's not my laptop, but one provided by Virgo. It contains pure projects that our team has ever done, as well as notes, records, charts and tables, and other important documents. At that moment, Nox and Miko entered the office, both holding some documents.

"Good afternoon." Nox greeted, handing me a folder. "Astoria, please put this on our to-do list. We've been asked to research about that new drug going around."

Orion snapped his fingers. "Oh, I heard about that. I think people are calling it Horcrux."

"Like the Harry Potter thing?" Miko frowned, her bob-styled blue hair swishing as she tilts her head to the side. "How do you know?" She narrows her brown eyes at him suspiciously. She's a lot like Rosa from Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

"I didn't take it." Orion replies quickly. "If that's what you're thinking. But if you're not, then that's cool." Orion is more like Terry. Tall and muscular, but a big softy at heart. He was a football player in high school and was planning to be in law enforcement afterwards, but he decided to go after what he truly likes rather than what his parents wanted him to do, and so here he is in Virgo.

"I heard about that too." I shared, taking the attention from the father of cats. "We were talking about it in my chem class today before lecture. People say that it supposedly is like an anti-aging drug. Not only is it supposed to help with appearance, it prevents you from looking older, but also biologically. Like, it keeps your body from changing the way they do when humans get older, or some shit like that. My professor said it's not possible and it's all just words to promote the drug."