Blackthorn - Top Secret Villain School-Chapter 33: Cheaters Never Prosper
"Well there’s no going back now." D said as he sat around the table of the literature meeting room, his friends huddled by him the brown leather seats. "And now the whole school knows my real name." He let out a somewhat regretful sigh at his choice to reveal his actual name in front of everyone.
"What even made you do that? You didn’t have to-" Val began to say, but D cut her off.
"It’s better this way, I’m done running and I’ve got nothing to hide Val..."His eyes lingered on her for a bit too long. He was still curious as to why she’d dropped out of the trials last minute, but thought it better to just drop the subject.
"Alright, so the first trial is tomorrow. Does anyone have any questions?" Nashoba said as he looked around the room at the ragtag group of people he’d come to know as his friends.
Silence fell over the room as each of them thought about what the first trial, the exam they called it, would entail.
"I think we should all try to get some studying done tonight, we don’t know what they’ll throw at us on that thing." Roxanne said raising her petite tanned hand.
"I agree" said Val. She began rummaging around her purple bookbag for some supplies to help get them started.
Nashoba raised up a hand to her, and she stopped looking through the bag.
"I actually had a different idea on how we should tackle this trial..." Nashoba said with a mischievous grin across his face.
"Nash, no! I already know what you’re going to say and absolutely not."
Nashoba turned to the rest of the group away from Val, ignoring her, and gave a shrug as he said, "I think we should all cheat."
The meeting room erupted into all of them talking over each other, trying to get a word in before Val finally raised a hand and everyone slowly stopped talking over each other. All except D who simply sat there lost in his own head as he had a habit of doing.
She motioned her hand at D, wanting to hear about his answer first for some reason.
"D what do you think?"
D scooted back from the table and let out a long breath.
"I think in terms of what’s right, we shouldn’t cheat-" Before he could finish the room erupted again into more arguing as Nashoba yelled "BOOOO" through cupped hands.
"Wait, You didn’t let me finish." D said as he looked over to Nashoba and asked "How do you propose we go about cheating."
"That’s the thing, I’m really not entirely sure yet. It would have to be a different method based on each person’s-"
Roxanne shouted and pointed at him, saying "I’ve worked way too hard to go around being buddy buddy with people who’ll stoop low enough as cheating."
D turned in his chair, confused. "So you’re fine with assault and battery but you draw the line at cheating?"
Roxanne gave him a sharp look, if her eyes were knives she would’ve sliced his head off by now.
"I’m fine with necessary evils, but cheating isn’t necessary if we study. I vote we don’t do it"
"I’m inclined to agree with Roxanne on this one D, I think everyone here is more than smart enough to pass the written exam on their own merits." Val said softly.
"Alright then, how about we call a vote." Said Nashoba as he stood from his chair and placed his hands on the table.
The group all looked at one another and nodded to each other.
"All in favor of not cheating raise your hand." Roxanne said as she raised her petite arm high above her head. Val followed along and raised her hand, and surprisingly Max also raised his hand.
D and Nashoba both looked at Max with the same look of disdain. They were sure that Max would be on their side for some reason.
"Hah, that’s a 3 to 2 vote. Looks like we’re doing this my way." Roxanne said smugly. Both Nashoba and D groaned at the results.
"What the heck Max, you’re supposed to be on the guy side." D said as he pointed both thumbs towards him and Nashoba.
"Sorry, my dad always said cheaters never prosper. I don’t think he’d be proud knowing that his son is cheating on an exam. Villain exam or not."
D crossed his arms at Max’s overtly naive stance on the matter.
"Fine lets get to work then, we’ve only got one day to get some studying done." As if waiting for permission both Val and Roxanne immediately reached into their bags and began pulling out supplies they would need to study that night.
After many hours of studying the clock finally hit 11:00 PM and the group decided to call it quits for the night and return to their dorms. D, Max, and Roxanne left out of the south exit to the student union while Nashoba and Val left out of the west exit.
As the trio entered their dormitory D said, "You two go up without me I’ll catch up in a bit. I’m going to get a snack from the vending machine."
Before either of them could even say anything in response he made a B-line towards the backside of the first floor lobby where the vending machines were. D stood in front of the machine and tapped his foot on the ground like he was waiting for something, or someone.
He looked down at his V-band and pulled up the message board where he scrolled through his messages, like he was looking for something in particular.
That’s when an arm reached out from behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. D immediately spun around ready to attack whoever had surprised him, only to see Nashoba was the one who tapped him.
"So how’re we going to do this...?" D asked.
A large devious grin spread across Nashoba’s face.
