Chapter 14: Villain Literature Club
"And here is the Student Union, which you’ve no doubt seen." Val said as she walked ahead of the trio. Her hands behind her back as she dodged between the gaggle of students flooding out from the student unions many doors.
As ducked and dodged her gray colored skirt skirted back and forth, complimenting the black student vest she wore with it.
’The people here really are in a hurry to get places, kind of like back in the city’ D thought to himself as he ducked out of the way of a guy with long black mullet carrying a box of what smelled like burgers.
The Student Union laid right across from the main quad of the university, positioning it right in the island’s center.
The trio were a lot less graceful in getting around the other students, but with the occasional bump here and sorry there they made it to the doors of the black and gray building and entered.
They walked through the first floor aiming for the stairs to the second. As they passed the food court the group began lagging behind, definitely the first time they’d seen the food court Val thought.
"Don’t worry we’ll be sure to get some food after the meeting so lets get moving you three" Val said as she made a mock clapping motion with her hands before speeding up again to get to the stairs.
As they left the stairwell and made it to the club rooms Val only seemed to speed up as she started silently counting the room numbers to herself, no doubt looking for their specific one. The trio looked at each other with slightly concerned looks, this was their club leader now.
Val blew a piece of one her curls out of her face, likely a sign of mounting frustration. She took out her V-band and after scrolling for a few seconds looked up to the correct club room and threw open the doors with a sigh of relief.
"Woah what’s with the dramatics? You get lost on the way here?" A shorter tan skinned student with medium straight black hair sat at a lone table in the room, with some sort of small welding project sat in front of him.
"What? No, how would I get lost...?" The man at the table just starred at her for a long moment, like he already knew the answer to his own question.
"Okay okay I got a little lost towards the end, but we made it here..." Val looked down at her V-band for the time. "Only 5 minutes late this time Nashoba!"
The man at the table broke into a small chuckle as he got up and walked over to the group, his button up shirt untucked and one of his shoes untied.
Max leaned down a bit as he asked, "who’s your friend Val?"
seemingly remembering her own manners at Max’s question she stuttered over words as she said, "guys this is the other member of the literature club, Nashoba Smith."
"Hey, it’s nice to meet all of you" he said as he gave a small wave. He turned his attention over to Val and gave her a small nod. She nodded back and turned to the trio.
"Now that all members of the literature club are in attendance its time to kick this meeting off, please everyone have a seat." She said as she walked to the table in the center of the room and sat at its head. There was a little name tag in front of the seat that said President on it.
Max and Roxanne took their seats but D kept standing, not yet convinced.
"Before I sit down I just have a couple of questions Val." D said finally breaking his silence since the walk over. Not too happy about damn near being forced to join this club he’d gone along with it but now he wanted some answers.
This slightly cracked Val’s thin veil of demure demeanor as she said "Oh, okay, what’re your questions?" D walked a bit away from the other two as to get closer to Val.
"Well for starters what is the point of this...literature club? What do we do?" He asked in a serious tone.
"Ah that’s an easy one, the purpose of the literature club is to study, create, and catalogue literary works from great villains of the past."
"Hmmm, okay why?" he asked, finally taking a seat at he table next to Nashoba. Nashoba had begun putting the small project he was working on back into his bag. Even while preoccupied Nashoba cut into the conversation.
"Well, knowing about great villains can only serve to make us greater in turn, I’d say that’s why" He said putting the main piece of his work into his black duffel bag. Nashoba eyed D with suspicion and threat due to the way he was questioning Val.
Sensing D wasn’t fully satisfied with that answer Val continued, "And it helps with missions to know how great villains acted in the past."
D slowly nodded hearing all of this, slowly getting what the point of this club was but two things didn’t make sense. "Where are all the other members? Earlier you said all the members where already here."
Val’s eyes became slightly downtrodden at his words, as she said "Majority of the members of the club ended up graduating or leaving last year, leaving only me and Nashoba."
Nashoba nodded as he added on, "truth be told if we hadn’t gotten any new members this year they would’ve canned this club and we would’ve had to find a different extracurricular to join." Val nodded in solemn agreement.
"Ahhh so that’s why you were such a pain about getting me and Max to join huh?" Val looked down at the floor, not proud of the tactics she’d used to procure new members. "I’m sorry if my approach was a bit...harsh but I needed you to join, the deadline for new club members is today and it was all i could do." Tears began welling up in her eyes and streaking down her tanned cheeks.
D let out a mock scoff and turned his chair fully towards her as he said, "listen it’s alright it’s nothing to cry over y’know." Val nodded as she wiped the small tears from her face and continued the meeting.
"The second thing that I don’t get are these mission things, I keep hearing people mention them, what are they?" he said lightly slamming down a hand onto the table.
With that question a sly smile spread across Nashoba’s face.