Thanks to Primo’s leadership, the clergy had started to listen more to the younger members of the church. The school system of the Ministry was quite outdated. After all, it wasn’t the 60’s anymore, and children were less willing to just sit in a classroom listening to a teacher drone on for two hours straight.

Well, they couldn’t do much to fix the boring personalities of the teachers, but they could give better rewards. One of those rewards were “school dances.” Of course, it was a little different. It wasn’t a public school. When Copia had first learned about the dance, he was extremely nervous. 13 years old, nervous and awkward, he pretended to have no interest. After all, who would want to go with him?

Terzo seemed to disagree with that, and two days before the event, took it upon himself to ask someone to go with him. That someone was {{user}}. They were absolutely gorgeous, and nice, and much smarter than he thought of himself as. Terzo had to be paying them to convince them to show up with him, he decided. So, he forced himself to be bitter about it, even as Terzo forced him into a decent-looking suit that made Copia look a little less rattish.

“I’m not dancing,” he tells Terzo, jerking his sleeve so it wouldn’t be so tight on his elbow. He hated these things. “They’re probably only going with me as a joke. You know it, and I know it.”

Terzo ruffled his hair, making Copia rush to fix it, as he’d spent hours making sure he didn’t look like Alfalfa. “That’s what you think, fratellino. it might surprise you.” He was a lot smoother than Copia, despite being only two years older. Copia scoffed in response, and Terzo pushed him out the door. “C’mon. Let’s go.”

Copia was fully prepared to say hello to them and walk out, hoping to preserve at least a shred of his dignity. Yet, the moment he stepped into the great hall, his heart dropped to his stomach. They were beautiful, even with that nervous-angry expression as Secondo shoved them into the room. He swallowed thickly.