the elite (pirro)

Whenever Preston got back from school breaks, he was pretty miserable for at least the first week or so. Not only did he have to sacrifice all his no-maj electronics, including his PC gaming rig and VR headset, but he could only communicate with his girlfriend while in town, and even then it was only a few texts. He missed staying up until 5am doing raids with her on World of Warcraft, or falling asleep at his keyboard after talking with her all night long.

Feeling lovesick and irritated about losing his favourite entertainment, Preston felt like he could only stomach a bowl of jello at lunch. Even that he was pushing around inside the bowl, leaning on his palm until his mouth sagged sideways, feeling the lowest of lows. At least none of the jocks were around yet. Everyone was mostly ignoring him. He hoped Pirro would appear soon and make this a fraction more tolerable.

@Pirro Rodriguez

It never failed for him to take a while to readjust to being back at Ilvermorny; despite the school's diversity, he had to remind himself that he'd have to speak English much of the time. His household and neighborhood had Spanish as their primary language, with him often playing translator as needed for his older relatives, so it was always a culture shock going all the way up north for school. He always managed to forget just how cold it got in Massachusetts.

He never quite figured out how to dress for winter in all his years at Ilvermorny, and it especially showed when he had to head to the Night Building for curfew. For much of the day, he felt quite sleepy from the lack of heating. There was heating, but it wasn't like what he was used to in Miami.

Once it was finally lunch, Pirro went through his bag to find his collection of Magic The Gathering cards before making his way to the food hall. His family wasn't as nerdy as him, so he missed out on some of his preferred activities while away from Ilvermorny. It took him a while, but he finally found Preston. "Hola, dude," he greeted breathily as he sat in a chair across from him, plopping his bag to his side.

@Preston Tolliver

When Pirro appeared his insides lifted somewhat, but it didn't show on the surface. He grunted some kind of greeting, and chopped through the jello with his spoon gloomily.

"Maria likes lime jello the best. Who the fuck likes lime jello the best?"

He groaned.

"I miss her so much, Amigo..."

@Pirro Rodriguez

"¿Qué bolero?"

That was quickly answered by Preston's mood; poor dude had to leave his girlfriend and his tech yet again. Pirro frowned as he began shuffling one of his decks of cards.

"Lime jello?"

He looked down at the jello cup wearily. "You're down bad, amigo!"

Was Jello even a thing in Sweden?

"Did you and your chica exchange gifts?"

If he had an Internet girlfriend, he'd send one a gift card to Steam or something of that sort. It was what he could afford without eating into his dice or cards budget.

@Preston Tolliver

"Yeah..."

He actually felt like he was going to cry, but he only did that in the bathrooms or broom closets where no one would notice. Instead he made some over exaggerated hand movement over his eyes like he was getting a stray hair out of them, and the impact was what made them water. He sniffed a bit.

"Dude... my account is completely wiped. My Mom's gonna go nuts. I spent everything I had on her: got her everything on her amazon wish list! There was even some things on there that was for her Dad. So looks like I got all her Christmas presents and all her family's Christmas presents..."

He didn't regret buying her everything she wanted, but still.

"I asked her again if she'd come to visit."

@Pirro Rodriguez

"You bought her entire wishlist?!"

What if that branded his friend as a SIMP? It's like slur-adjacent as a terminally online dude! His buddy was fucked!

He began shuffling the deck more intensely to deter any eyes towards Preston's display of emotions. Those jocks needed to stay occupied talking about beer kegs or whatever they did over break.

"Did your chica get you anything, amigo?"

@Preston Tolliver

"Y-yeah... I love her. That's what you do when you love someone!"

Well... Pirro was a virgin like he was. In hindsight, neither of them had the slightest clue.

"She got me some gold on WOW, but I needed it for the new mount. So that's pretty much like buying me my own pet dragon."

Definitely the same. He looked downcast again as he added: "But she said she can't come and visit anytime soon..."

@Pirro Rodriguez

"You're going to need to get a weekend job, dude!"

If he managed to empty his entire account, how was he supposed to do or get anything whenever they went down to the mall?! Pirro knew hw didn't have the money to consistently pay for the both of them!

Pirro handed him a random card as he began divvying up the deck between them to play a game during the lunch period. "You have your chica on Discord, right? Have y'all ever used video or voice chat?"

How else could a long-distance relationship work?

@Preston Tolliver

He grumbled and sat up slightly once the cards began to get dealt.

"Are you kidding me? Voice and video chat?!"

They'd been together since the summer between fourth and fifth year, but he'd never spoken to her.

"I can hardly get a single word out around girls, if she knows I'm a stuttering freak then she's not exactly going to a blow me, is she?" He sighed loudly. "I mean... if she actually came to visit, I'd just have to suck it up because... well she's stuck then, isn't she? At the very least I'd get a pity hand job or something before she dumps me."

@Pirro Rodriguez

"Amigo, if y'all have been dating that long, and she plays WoW with you, your chica will like you stutter or not."

As someone with even less dating experience, Pirro was being generously optimistic. Hell, it never occurred to him that Preston's girlfriend probably wasn't actually a girl.

"What if she has a stutter too?"

Pirro needed to find himself an internet amiga so they'd have that common ground...

@Preston Tolliver

"Yeah I doubt that."

He snorted, tapping one of the cards.

"She doesn't have a stutter, she's perfect," he said dreamily, smiling. "She knows every single deleted scene from the original Dr Who and she has a signed copy of Tom Baker's autobiography. She is ranked number sixteen in our entire server, she rides a cruiser and she got up on stage at an Arch Enemy gig. She's literally the coolest human being alive. She doesn't have a damn stutter, man..."

He sighed.

"I'm so lucky that she isn't into Swedish guys. She doesn't even like Europeans. She says she wants to move to the States eventually."

@Pirro Rodriguez

His jaw dropped hearing that factoid about her. "Every single deleted scene?! Does she know how many episodes of it are lost? Amigo, we're lucky that we have the audio recordings!"

He preferred Star Trek more, but he wouldn't pass watching Doctor Who if he saw it on the TV Guide.

"Do you have a picture of her? Does she look like Belle Delphine?!"

@Preston Tolliver

"She knows them all, I'm telling you!"

He was smiling from ear-to-ear now. He knew that one of them would get a girlfriend eventually, even if it was just an online one.

"Better. I'll show you back at the dorm."

He shovelled the jello into his mouth, and a bit dribbled down his chin.

"We need to get you a girlfriend, man."

@Pirro Rodriguez

"Dude, you're so lucky!"

He had something better than a photo?! This wasn't going to disappoint! His brain was running with all of the possibilities of what it could be.

Then his stomach grumbled disrupting those thoughts.

'I'm gonna go grab a jamberger. Want me to get you one, amigo?"

@Preston Tolliver

((jamberger = hamburger c;))

Preston grinned, pushing his glasses up proudly.

"Yeah... jello's kind of bland. Get me lots of onions with it?"

He smiled at him. He didn't realise how much better he felt now that he was talking to Pirro. At least he had him while he was at school. There were a few of the 'geeks' that hung around together, but Preston considered Pirro to be his best friend. He just wouldn't say that to his face. It just wasn't something you admitted to.

"And pickles!"

He was the only one who actually liked pickles. Huh.

@Pirro Rodriguez

"I got you, amigo!" He got up and shot finger guns at him before entering the buffet queue for the hamburger building station. After he made Preston's burger, Pirro went for a double patty topped with shoestring fries. Nothing like a good Frita Cubana for a lunch!

Holding the tray with both plates and a bunch of condiment packets, Pirro returned to the table with his glasses nearly sliding off his face. "Lonche is served!"

@Preston Tolliver

"Nice! Thanks, dude!"

He gazed hungrily at his burger, salivating, and scooping it up into both hands. Opening his jaw wide to take a big bite, suddenly a large shadow moved over the entire side of their table, and Preston rotated his eyes upward - frozen in the jaw-locked position. It was Fedele, glaring down at him. Several pickles escaped the confines of his bun and slopped unceremoniously back onto the plate.

"Hey. You said somethin' about helpin' me out with my assignment earlier?"

Preston shut his mouth, put the burger down, and nodded vigorously, swallowing.

"Y-yeah man, for sure. I can - I can do that... bro."

Fedele's facial expression didn't change. He still looked like he was going to punch him off his chair.

"Yeah. I'll take ya up on that."

Preston was turning white, nodding nervously.

"So you got the last hamburger, uh?"

"You can have it." Preston said quickly, sliding it over to him. Some of Fedele's jock friends chuckled, but Fedele himself just grinned.

"Maybe when ya mitts ain't been all over it, yeah? Later." He stomped off, and Preston sunk inside of his chair, eyes darting around as he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Fuck..." he said, his heart racing, then groaned. "I don't know what came over me. He caught me listening in on his conversation between class, talking about this Potions assignment he had to do. He looked like he was going to hit me, so I just... blurted out that I'd help the asshole... urgh."

He put his head in his hands in dismay.

@Pirro Rodriguez

Right as he was about to start munching his burger, he froze when Fedele and his friends towered over their table; he didn't even have to look at them to figure out who was there. Were they about to give the both of them swirlies? Wet willies? Maybe even a wedgie? Oh no...

Gulping, Pirro listened to the conversation, crossing his fingers tightly and praying to himself that Fedele would leave them alone. He did whatever he could to look physically smaller without moving an inch. He slid down the chair slightly.

Assignments?! Oh no! What happened to his buddy??? What if Fedele was pretending to be his girlfriend to strip him of his money?

No, no. That was insane! Fedele probably didn't know how to turn on a smartphone!

His eyes shot open widely with his body tensing up from the fear. As the shadows moved away from the table, he inhaled his burger not wanting to risk them taking his.

A piece of a fry was poking out of his mouth as he breathed, "Dude..! What are you going to do?"

@Preston Tolliver

He groaned, sliding down his seat.

"I don't know..." he moaned, clutching his forehead. He was such an idiot!

Now he really was going to cry...

"How am I going to get out of it?! Potions isn't even my best subject! I'm average at best. I'm such a... argh!"

There was a reason why you didn't eavesdrop on a conversation between meatheads.

"But if I do help him, maybe, just maybe? They'd lay off us a bit?"

@Pirro Rodriguez

Grabbing a bunch of napkins from the dispenser on the table, Pirro hurried them over to his friend so he could try to compose himself.

"Do you know what the assignment involves? If it's an essay, at least there's the textbooks! But an actual potion?!"

@Preston Tolliver

"It's an essay. I think. I mean, I'm pretty sure..."

He hoped. Now he was panicking. Taking the tissue, he turned to one side and wiped around his nose a bit. No tears actually fell out. If they had, he'd be running from the food hall right now.

"Yeah... textbooks. Seventh year textbooks?! I'm only at the start of sixth year, how am I supposed to understand that stuff?"

He groaned, then looked at him desperately.

"You have to help me. Come on, please, I'm begging you!"

@Pirro Rodriguez

It was clear that Preston's anxieties were contagious as now he was starting to feel as if his body was trying to stir up a panic.

How was his friend supposed to get out of that now? What a horrible way to start off the semester!

"We can go to the library after classes, amigo! I don't think he's ever been in it!"

It would be simple, wouldn't it? All they had to do was check out the right book and use it for the essay. Easy peasy.

@Preston Tolliver

"I've got serious boss music playing in my head right now. Wesker - Resi five..."

Shit.

At least Pirro was on his side. He could hug him right now. Preston grinned at him.

"Thanks... yeah, you're right. He can't be smart, can he? You can't be that built and have brains to match..."

He looked around when he said that, just in case they were near. They weren't. He sighed in relief.

"Let's just... talk about something else. Enjoy the burgers."

He took a small bite of his nervously.

@Pirro Rodriguez

Nodding in agreement, he realized the bit of fry had fallen out of his mouth and onto his lap. It was his lap, no five second rule needed! Pirro grabbed the fry and stuck it right in his mouth before nodding in agreement. He didn't want to think about Fedele if he could help it.

"Want to see the new Magic expansion pack I got for Christmas? I haven't opened it yet since nobody at home would play with me..."

He wasn't going to a hobbyist store every time he wanted to play Magic.

@Preston Tolliver

He made an over exaggerated hand gesture, then banged the table.

"Yes - thank you. I want to see that. Right now."

He slid a pickle out of his burger and slipped it in his mouth. This was it - Magic the Gathering, burgers, geeking out. Fedele was just... another boss they could beat.

@Pirro Rodriguez