14: Evening Catchup

Recounting the various events and conversations of the day, Nyssa answered each of Kaiser and Slade’s questions to the best of her ability. She found it comfortable too, they didn’t ask anything too invasive which was always a plus. Slade, now helping her cut the vegetables in a two-man industrial manufacturing line, had also helped her speed up her work by many times.

Once the main part of the day was done though, Nyssa hesitated as she got to her conversation with Troy. The two of them, seeing her pause, just stayed silent and let her work through her thoughts while continuing their various cooking endeavors.

This pause, Nyssa felt, was the most invaluable part of her family. They... really understood how much of a social trainwreck she was. Instead of a social butterfly she was more of a social caterpillar—and they accommodated her for that...

Thanking and blessing the heavens once more for their kindness, Nyssa decided to just say it. Sure, the whole situation didn’t feel right, but there probably wasn’t going to be a perfect situation ever either.

Slade was in winter clothes, Kaiser was in a muscle shirt with a towel still draped over his neck post-workout, and she herself was still fighting the lullabies of sleep to keep control of her consciousness.

Everything was a little mismatched, but it was her family nonetheless.

Describing her whole conversation with Troy in as much detail as she could recall, she didn’t notice as her vegetable cutting speed dropped off a cliff. Shrugging as she got to the end of her story, she paused before resuming her vegetable cutting journey.

“Aha, the classic,” Slade laughed while taking a sip of water. “I ran into these types plenty during my time at the Luminary Institute. Granted, I was more ingrained in the Institute than you. Roxanne probably had it worse than me though.”

“Yes, it is a sentiment quite uniform across all eras of the academy,” Kaiser agreed while searing a steak on the pan. “Even before I took over as the headmaster, there have been issues regarding this as well.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Slade chuckled while leaning over to nab a bit of a vegetable with a mischievous grin. “The message is true, one-hundred percent. All of the classes at the Luminary Institute are tailored quite nicely towards getting people a job that fits them in the future. In fact, in my team right now, I work with a fair amount of people from each of the classes.”

“It’s just that people from lower classes are often dissatisfied with the lack of immediate prestige they get...” Kaiser shook his head. “Yet, we allocate resources accordingly to meet all the students’ needs to the best of our ability.”

“Also, they’re probably just a little delusional. In my time there wasn’t a single person in Class One who should’ve been in Class Zero,” Slade explained while tapping his chin. Turning towards Kaiser he shrugged. “Dad, are people moved much?”

“One in my time at the academy,” Kaiser shook his head. “An interesting case where more powers manifested later though. To be honest, addressing this issue isn’t much of a priority among the administration. Very few people are in the lucky position to even feel this way. Only ten each year among the Class One students. A small subset in the grand scheme of things considering maybe half of them will actually end up with those types of feelings.”

“And it's those who aren’t as successful usually,” Slade shook his head. “We can talk more about it later, let’s focus on getting this meal done. I’m feeling the hunger pangs ricochet around my stomach.”

With murmurs of agreement coming from both Nyssa and Kaiser—especially since Kaiser had just finished a grueling workout—the three of them focused up and finished cooking dinner while Slade went through and updated them about what he had been up to over the past several months.

Plating the food and bringing it to the dinner table, the three of them set the table and sat down. Slade, having participated in very few interesting activities over the past several months, finished catching both of them up. “That reminds me, Dad, do you still want me to come to the school and give a talk? I’m free for the next couple weeks so if we can squeeze something in I’d be down.”

“Oh, really?” Kaiser raised his eyebrows. “Perhaps Nyssa agreeing to come to the institute has been its lucky charm. Roxanne let me know yesterday that she was also able to come visit the students in two months.”

“She really copied me before I even decided on it, what an underhanded tactic to be first,” Slade huffed with a smile tugging at his lips. “Great minds think alike then.”

“Wait, that reminds me,” Nyssa perked up and changed the topic with a quick apology, “Do you know why Roxanne doesn’t respond to my texts as often as of recently? I feel like I haven't heard much about what she's... up to.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Slade waved his hand while covering his mouth to let out a burp. “Pardon me. Anyway, yeah, it’s just that she’s back in the general area for the first time in a while. So she’s been spending as much time with Angelica as possible.”

“Oh. Yeah. Should’ve expected that.” Nyssa shook her head as a robotic tone slipped out from her mouth. “Alright, yep, that’s the end of that thought. I don’t want to think about my sister being with my new teacher...”

“Yeah, maybe don’t do that,” Slade lamented with a few sympathetic pats on the back. “You think she’ll come back to grab a meal one of these days?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll try and get her to come back soon for a meal. Even if it requires a little bit of stern talking to. I think it’d be quite nice to see her in-person again. Perhaps for one of the spring holidays? One that you have off, Nyssa?” Kaiser proposed while cutting his steak.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Slade interjected with a faint grin. “Make sure to count me in. I’d love to see her too, it’s been a hot minute since we’ve last exchanged blows. Both physical and verbal. I’d like to see how I match up to her these days.”

“Ohh, that’d be interesting,” Nyssa took a sip from her cup as a faint grin spread across her lips. “Could I try and spar with you two a bit too?”

“Of course,” Slade laughed while pointing a pair of finger guns. “You better be prepared for my best though. I won’t go easy on you!”

“Trust me, I’ve been practicing with Dad, you can’t be worse than him,” Nyssa grumbled while pushing some of her food around. “It feels like a team of chiropractors used me as a practice dummy every time I'm done sparring with him.”

“Well, that’s what you signed up for,” Kaiser just chuckled while sipping from his glass of wine.