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The two of them had started doing lesson plans in Roman’s side of the imagination. Remus’ side was still a little too much of a blank void for any inspiration to actually come from it.
Roman had regretfully set a section of the imagination apart for more “sciencey things” that could relate to lesson planning. He’d also given Remus free reign to have an area near there too, but the few times he’d actually tried to do something in that area hadn’t produced any effect. And while, if he was being honest, Roman did prefer his side of the imagination without any potential gory pornos being created anywhere, the fact that Remus couldn’t make anything was more concerning than anything else.
“I thought you could still create some things in your side of the imagination,” Roman said.
“Those are Thomas’ students,” Remus said. “It’s easier to make something if it’s just a copy.”
“Fair enough,” Roman admitted. That didn’t help with the concern at all.
Virgil and Janus showed up sometimes, and though they couldn’t be expected to help much since this wasn’t really their area, Remus did find it fun to try and twist the imagination with Virgil (despite not making much progress there either).
Currently, they were looking at the lesson plan that had already been mostly outlined by Logan. Apparently Roman was enough of a threat to him that he decided giving Thomas’ creativities even less control than they’d had before was a good move. Roman had tried a couple times to add even a single day of fun activities, but Logan had always changed them again to the point that they might as well not have even been added.
“Hey, Roman?”
Roman glanced over and met gazes with Virgil. Janus must have disappeared at some point, because Roman didn’t see him there.
“You coming back over for dinner? Janus is grilling burgers.”
“Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute,” Roman said, waving as he turned back to the lesson plan. Remus wasn’t looking at it anymore, and was instead looking at the chemicals on the nearby table in a way that meant he definitely wanted to mix them randomly without knowing what it could do.
“Yeah, you say that, but we haven’t really seen you all week, and—”
“I’ll be there in a second, just gotta finish here,” Roman said. “Remus, you can mix those chemicals, but if they make a mess you have to clean it up!”
“Deal!”
Roman turned back to the lesson plan and bit his lip, trying to think of something different they could try.
“Hey, Remus?”
Remus looked up from the chemicals that he was about to mix. “Yeah?”
“I have an idea.”
Remus dropped the chemicals where they were and let the test tubes shatter on the table. He hopped over the table and landed next to Roman. “What’s your idea?”
“I don’t think trying to subtly add things in overtime is working. Maybe we should try negotiating more directly.”
“Meaning what?”
“What’s something you would want to do? If someone gave you complete freedom to come up with any kind of class you wanted?”
Remus blinked at him a couple times. “Uh… I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it.”
“Well, we’re not on a time crunch. Give it a moment of thought.”
Remus wandered back over to the other desk, and sat down right on top of the chemicals. “…Frogs,” he said finally.
“Huh?”
“I wanna dissect frogs.”
“Alright,” Roman said, turning back to the paper. “Let’s put that in for every day next week.”
Remus hopped off the table again. “You’re just straight up putting it in there for five days?”
“Nothing I do is straight, Remus. Look, I doubt they’ll actually let us do that, but this lets us have a stronger point to negotiate from. If they’re getting rid of all of the subtle things we try to add, let’s take a firmer stance. How about we shoot for negotiating down to doing this on Friday. That gives Logan four days to do whatever he wants to do, and we still get a day to experiment and let the kids have fun. It’s a good starting point.”
Remus peered down at the lesson plan for a moment. “You think we can get them to agree to that?”
“I think I’m not going to stop trying until we’re screaming at each other over dinner. Let’s go.”
“Now?”
“What are we waiting for?”
Remus started grinning, and they both turned to head back towards the light side commons.
“Oh. Uh, actually, Remus? You might want to change first. The chemicals burned a whole in your butt.”
…
Logan hadn’t been happy about the idea, as Roman suspected, but after a good two hours of negotiating/arguing/almost screaming, they finally got Logan to agree to let them dissect frogs the Friday after next, mostly just so they would have time to run it by everyone who had authority over them and prepare everything they would need. Remus looked like he hadn’t been happier in years, and though Roman could safely say he hadn’t been more exhausted in just as long, the fact that they got to run the idea by Thomas the following day made it well worth it. Roman finally headed back to his room at half past midnight, and was planning on going straight to sleep.
But when he flicked on his lights, there was another side sitting on his bed. “I thought you were coming back for dinner,” Virgil said.
“Shit,” Roman realized, smacking his forehead. “I’m sorry, Virgil.” He headed over to his dresser to pull out his pajamas. “I had a good reason.”
Virgil muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “You always do.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing. What’s your reason? What happened?”
Roman turned around and started explaining everything that had happened that night, ending with the plan for dissecting frogs on the Friday after next.
“Woah,” Virgil said, sounding impressed. “You actually got Logan to agree to something like that?”
“Well… theoretically. Technically we still have to run it by Thomas, but if we got Logan to agree I don’t see too much of a potential obstacle. Oh, fuck. Do you think Patton will be upset that we’re hurting frogs?”
“Yes,” Virgil said instantly. “And in case you’re wondering, I’m pretty sure Thomas is also going to be thinking about how to make sure none of the students hurt themselves in this activity, because I definitely am.”
“Goddammit. Okay, maybe this’ll be harder than I thought.” Roman bit his lip and sat down on his bed next to Virgil, looking up at the ceiling in thought. “I can bring Remus down tomorrow and we could all try and brainstorm a way around that argument?”
“What? Roman, tomorrow is Saturday, man. I thought we were all going to spend the day in the Imagination like we usually do.”
“We can do it next week, Virgil. Please? I don’t know if we’ll be able to get Logan on board for something like this again!”
Virgil sighed. “Alright,” he muttered, though he didn’t sound very happy about it.
“Thank you!” Roman called and pulled Virgil into a hug. “Okay, if we’re doing that we should probably both get some sleep.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Virgil grumbled, standing up and giving Roman a wave as he headed for the Imagination to go back to the dark side commons. Roman waved back.
He changed into his pajamas and all but collapsed into bed, thoroughly exhausted and already knowing he was going to have to fight an even harder battle tomorrow.
…
Patton was clearly already aware something was going on when Roman got there after breakfast the following morning. He was giving that tight Patton smile that meant he strongly disapproved of what was happening but wasn’t going to say anything directly. That was going to make any kind of deal quite a bit harder.
Remus clearly also knew what was going on if the looks he kept shooting Roman were any indication.
“Look, I know I’ve said that I want to make them mad, but I didn’t really picture myself… actually doing it,” Remus said, once they both joined Janus and Virgil in the living room downstairs. He hesitated for a second. “…That sounds stupid.”
“Nah, I totally get it,” Virgil said. “You can’t even imagine how many times I’ve thought of comebacks that are absolutely amazing and that I already know I will never use.”
Remus seemed to consider that for a minute. “Do you think I should kill a cat in front of Patton?”
“Not if you want to get a chance to dissect frogs,” Janus said. “So you said Logan is on board already?”
Roman nodded. “It wasn’t easy, but yes. But Patton is going to provide an entirely different problem.”
“Logan might be ‘in charge,’” Remus said, adding air quotes, “But Patton still has a hell of a lot of influence. I’m sure you all have noticed how deeply Thomas cares about being boring— uh, I mean a good person.”
“So, first of all, how are we going to get around the ‘dead frog’ issue?” Roman said, pulling a notebook out of the air to write in.
They stayed there for a couple hours going over points and ideas. Virgil created an over-the-top plan to keep all the kids safe that hopefully even Patton would think was a little overboard. Remus and Roman came up with tons of ways to connect the frogs to the main theme they were working on in class at the moment, definitely more than enough to satisfy Logan. Janus had even figured out a way to streamline the permission process if necessary.
Unfortunately, none of them had been able to figure a way around the dead frogs. The closest they ended up getting was the fact that the frogs would already be dead anyway.
“Okay,” Roman said, standing up with the notes all gathered in front of him. “We’re just going to have to hope everything else we’ve figured out is enough to convince him to overlook the dead frogs.”
Virgil and Janus exchanged a look.
“Good luck,” Remus muttered from where he was staring down at the floor.
“Yeah, I know, but we have to start somewhere!” Roman exclaimed. “Come on, let’s do this.”
Remus glanced up at him. Roman gave him the best hopeful smile he could, and Remus returned it, albeit with a much smaller one. “Okay,” he said with a nod.
With that, they both sunk out to the light sides commons.
Logan and Patton were both waiting in the living room, and clearly neither of them were even remotely thinking about the possibility of dissecting frogs right now. They did glance over when they both rose up.
“So.” Roman clapped his hands together. “Are we all ready to go speak to Thomas, then?”
“You’re… coming again?” Patton asked, sounding not at all pleased with that fact.
“I am!” Roman said, smiling brightly. “Remus came up with an idea that we’d like to share with Thomas!”
Patton looked less pleased the next second too. “What’s the idea?”
Roman glanced over at Remus.
Remus looked back at him. “What?”
“It’s your idea. You want to share?”
“Oh. Well, I was thinking since we’re in the middle of a unit about different climates and how animals and plants are different in each one, we could try dissecting some frogs—”
“What?!” Patton exclaimed. “Absolutely not!”
“It would relate to the material,” Logan pointed out. “And potentially be a more hands-on experience.”
“Yeah, and the class is really lacking in those!” Remus called, seeming to grow a little more willing to share with Logan already on his side. “Think of how much fun the kids would have!”
“How would we make sure they’re safe?” Patton asked, crossing his arms. “We’ve never done anything like this before.”
“We have a plan for that!” Remus said, and Roman handed him the notebook and took a slight step back. It seemed like Remus could handle this for now. “Anxiety helped!”
“You’re getting help from more dark sides?” Patton asked, standing.
“Patton, you’re not making much sense,” Logan said, his brow furrowing. “You said you wanted the students to be safe, and now you’re getting angry when they’re offering a solution.”
“How are we supposed to trust a plan that came from Anxiety?” Patton asked, crossing his arms. “Logan, have you ever even spoken to Anxiety?”
“No, but I have spoken to Remus and Princey.”
“So you’re choosing to trust a dark side we barely know and the side that murders the students in Thomas’ class as a pastime instead?”
“Patton, you’re being unreasonable.”
“I’m not going to hurt cute little frogs!”
“They’re already dead,” Roman said, trying to keep from rolling his eyes in exasperation.
“Not the point!” Patton exclaimed. “This is absolutely not happening! Revise the lesson plan!”
Before anyone could say anything else, he sunk out.
Roman would have screamed in frustration if that wouldn’t have been unbelievably petty and childish.
Logan turned to face the two of them. “I’m sorry,” he said, though he didn’t sound terribly so.
Roman didn’t say anything. Remus sighed and crossed his arms, looking down at the ground.
“If you can manage to convince him I’m still open to trying this,” Logan said before sinking out himself.
Remus glanced up again and looked after Logan before turning to Roman.
“Okay, that was unexpected,” Roman said. “I really thought his agreement was going to be short term.”
“I thought so too,” Remus said, sounding very surprised. “Maybe he’s more excited at the prospect of trying something new than we thought.”
Roman smiled a little wider. “Then this isn’t over,” he said. “Come on, let’s go tell Janus and Virgil what happened. I think I know something else we can try.”