fandomhighdorms | Fourth Floor Common Room, Friday Afternoon

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Fourth Floor Common Room, Friday Afternoon

Wes was having a... strange day. For one thing, he still had a few globs of pie filling in his hair from his Badass class earlier, and he was still annoyed at the way his Science of Deduction teacher had criticized his "tiny brain." So he retreated to the common room to decompress. Showering might have been a better choice, but sitting in the common room with a stack of books seemed more appealing. So he did.

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Rilla nodded. "I heard from one of the older students that King Arthur himself was a student here last spring," she said in awestruck tones. "Though this student was not terribly impressed by him. He said he was not at all like the tales."

Ooh. Now that was interesting. "Oh? How so?" he inquired.

"He was apparently quite arrogant," Rilla said, looking wide-eyed. "And Merlin was the same age!"

Huh. Weird.

"That's quite odd," Wesley mused. "I've always pictured Merlin as rather aged, though I suppose he must have been our age at some point beforehand. As to the arrogance, I suppose it's only natural that a well-respected king and warrior would develop a slightly inflated ego. It's the people without much in the way of success who still appear rather arrogant that baffle me, really."

Well, Rilla had gotten her information from a rather biased source. Not that she knew that.

"Oh, I know one of those at home," Rilla said with a small wrinkle to her nose. "Mary Vance is an expert on everything, at least according to Mary Vance."

"Yes, there's a rather irritable student here who feels similarly about his swordsmanship," Wesley complained. Oh, man. That Percy Jackson was a piece of work.

Rilla's initial reaction was to wonder who in the world still used swords, but since Wesley seemed to, that would have been terribly rude. She sniffed. "He can't be that skilled. He's only a student."

"An excellent point," he observed dryly. "He's certainly no better than I am, for instance. However, his, ah, inflated ego and presumably the compliments of his friends have allowed him to conclude otherwise."

Bitter? Oh yes.

Rilla knew how this would be settled in Glen St. Mary. "Did you thump him, then?"

Wesley laughed. "No. Perhaps that would have been smarter, though. No, I just... well, I lost a spar to him," he admitted.

"Everyone can have an off day," Rilla said stoutly. "Will you ask for a rematch?"

"I'm uncertain if I wish to spar with anyone quite so unsportsmanlike in the future," Wesley replied stubbornly. Yeah, because Percy was the only one being a snot in that fight. Definitely. Not.

"Well that makes some sense as well," Rilla admitted, "but perhaps your example would be a good influence upon this other student?"

"Likely," he mumbled. "Well, I'll consider bringing it up, though I doubt he'll take me up on it."

"Then it will be his loss," Rilla decided. She smiled. "Shall we switch to a more pleasant subject?"

"Please," he laughed. "Do you have one handy?"

"What courses are you taking this term?" She laughed. "It's not a very original subject, I'm afraid."

"I'm taking..." Crap. He knew there were four. "Ethics, How To Be A Badass, The Science of Deduction and Personal Weapons." Right. That was it.

"And yourself?"

"Cultural Appreciation and a course on how Canada isn't that odd," Rilla said. "The classes here aren't at all like what we studied in the Glen. Do you suppose it's an American issue? Do they not taking learning seriously?"

Not that she did, either.

"Very likely," he said somberly. "I spent some time at another American high school earlier this year - though not as a student - and it seemed drastically ill-equipped as an institution of learning. Shoddy infrastructure, too," he added as an afterthought. Which seemed like it wouldn't matter, but the school was destroyed by a giant snake, so...

Rilla glanced nervously about the room. "Do you think that's common?"

"I'm certain that it is not," he assured her. "Except for a small town in southern California that is rather prone to such things."

"Oh, well, California," Rilla said in a tone normally reserved for unsavory things tracked into the house.

He laughed. "Yes, quite."

Thinking the time was ripe for another topic change, he tried to recall what he knew of Rilla. Seizing the first thing that came to mind, he inquired, "So, ah, how has your... church been?"

Remember, Wes. No agreeing to go this time.