“And you two are absolutely going to be alright?” Simone had her arms on their shoulders looking up at both of them. They had gotten so much taller than she was.

“We’ll be fine Mom,” Lila gave a smile.

“And you won’t cause too much trouble?”

“Not too much,” they answered together.

Simone looked nervous and upset that she was letting them leave the nest. “And you’ll come home for holidays?” Lewis had his hands on his wife’s shoulders. She looked like she was going to start crying. “And you’ll write home too?” There were the tears.

“We’ll write to you every week,” Lila reassured her mother as she hugged her.

Simone was barely staying composed as Lewis drew his wife into a hug. “Good luck and don’t kill anyone… I would have to have to do the paperwork for the unenrollment.” They ended up excusing themselves because Simone wasn't handling it like she thought she would have. As long as Janus and Lila had it handled they could leave. The twins were in agreement they could figure out where they were going and bid their parents farewell.

Lila was standing next to her brother when Myrri walked in. There was a curt wave from Xeik. “You just missed them Uncle Xeik… Mom isn’t taking it so well,” Lila commented as Mia brought in the heavy suitcase and dropped it on the ground with a heavy thud.

Janus was holding it together fairly well. It was an exciting time in their lives, one where they’d take the first step of their adult lives and learn to live on their own. He was proud that he was handling it so well, too. When the portal closed behind Lewis and Simone, though, his heart sank just a little.

No, no, it’s fine. He saw Myrri and Xeik, and immediately bottled his emotions. “And here comes my buddy,” he said as he ran over to Myrri and slapped his back. “We’re going to do great here, right!?”

Myrri seemed surprised at how well Janus was taking being separated from his mother, and nodded. “Right. Pretty convenient that we ended up roommates too. At least I won’t have to worry about trusting you.” He thought for a moment. “Well…at least you won’t steal my stuff,” he amended.

Xeik smirked, “I’m proud of all of you. I’m sure Simone is just worried, but I know you’ll all be fine.” He was practically beaming. “Mia was worried that Myrri might not be ready for it, but I think everything will turn out just fine.”

“I know it will,” Janus said with confidence. “This is the first step of the rest of our lives. Our best day ever!”

—

“This is the worst day ever,” Janus said as he collapsed on his bed. He hadn’t even started unpacking. “I’m not going to get to see Mom again…”

“She’s literally a portal away,” Myrri said with a dead expression. If this was how it was going to be for the whole school year, there was going to be a problem.

“Gone. Abandoned. She just left me.” He rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. “What do I do, Myrri?”

“Uh…go to class? Meet cute girls?” He blushed, the thought of Lila.

“You’ve already met a girl you like,” Janus replied as he sat up. “And no girl can compare.”

“Janus…you really have a complex.” Myrri walked over and held out his hand to help Janus stand up. “Just get to unpacking. I’m sure everything will work out in the end. Remember? This is the first step of the rest of our lives.”

“Yeah. It’ll be fine,” Janus replied, trying to psych himself up. “I can do this. One step at a time. One step without Mom…”

“This is going to be a really long year.”

Lila was meeting her own roommate. A very quiet girl, coincidentally half Rosenite, named Neomi. She had light purple hair and almost matching purple eyes. Her elvish ears brought the whole innocent persona together.

“My name is Lila,” Lila held out her hand to which Neomi took it.

“Neomi…”

It didn’t take them long to bond over the fact both of them knew Angela. Neomi was one of Angela’s grandchildren as it turned out. Since Lila also called her grandma Ang they got along great right away. “Why don’t you come with me to meet my brother and our friend?”

“That might be fun,” Neomi said after they got done unpacking.

–

There had been a small conversation between Janus and Lila about where they should meet up.

“They’ll be at the school cafeteria. Left side,” Lila said.

“How do you know that?” Neomi was shocked.

Lila mulled it over how to answer, “Just this twin thing that Janus and I can do. It’s a bit of a long story.” She swirled her finger around as she side stepped what resonance was.

They got to the cafeteria and met up with Janus and Myrri. “Good news, my roommate is a friend. Everyone meet Neomi Kyrie. She is the granddaughter of Grandma Ang. Neomi, this is my twin brother Janus and our friend Myrri.”

It would be best if we keep the resonance thing a secret, Janus said. They had silently agreed that it might cause more problems. It was a good thing that twins were known to be unusually connected in most cases, and they could easily play it off. He told Myrri that they were going to meet Lila and her new roommate, which got a blush from the other boy.

“You really should just ask her out,” Janus replied with a dead stare as they left the room. As they walked down the hallways, Janus noted all the entrances and exits. His father had instilled a certain behavior in all of them from a young age. When it came down to fight or flight, Janus was definitely a fighter, but even he knew that not everyone could be beaten. Running was sometimes the best option.

They met up with Lila and Neomi in the cafeteria, and immediately Janus bumped Myrri closer to Lila. “I see you’ve acclimated well, sister.” He looked over and noted Neomi’s presence. “She snores sometimes, but I promise she won’t be a bother.” He smirked as that earned a look from Lila. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Myrri noted that all of the girls in the cafeteria were giving them side glances. “That’s…a little weird…” It took him a moment to figure out where they were looking, and it dawned on him. They were all staring at Janus.

“Oh this is really going to be a long year.”

“What are you talking about?” Janus asked, oblivious.

Lila was glaring at Janus, just a full-on deadly glare that even got Neomi a bit concerned. “And Janus is a mama’s boy. He probably was going ‘I’m never going to see Mom again.’ In his room.”

“I was not!” Janus replied to his sister’s jab. However, Myrri was in the background confirming that Janus was indeed mourning the loss of his mother’s presence. This was going to be a long year.

–

They were in their first few classes of the day and Lila was bored out of her mind. The teacher was going on and on about crap their mother had already taught them. Simone was worried their education wasn’t going to be good enough so she had given them an education boot camp before they left… However, like all things done by Simone Terrowin… She did it a little too well and she had covered most of their first-day class materials by accident.

Hey… Let’s plot a little. Lila was about to grin but she was containing herself. What can we do to these little brats to make them remember their places? Oh, Lila the ever devious one was always ready for plotting.

Hey… Hey… JANUS. Lila was glaring at her brother now as she spotted him staring at a girl in the front row. STOP THINKING WITH YOUR NEWLY DISCOVERED DICK AND TALK TO ME.

Not having Mother around was a serious determent to her fun as it turned out. Janus had discovered girls as soon as he let go of his mother’s tit.

Janus was bored. Very bored. Lila was too, and he could feel it, but she was at least making an attempt at paying attention for the moment. That left Janus looking around. As the teacher droned on and on, Janus couldn’t help but notice a blonde girl in the front of class. He had never really thought of other girls much…they were usually just targets for a prank. But now…

She’s kind of cute. He cocked his head to the side and stared for a moment longer. Even from this angle, he could tell that she had a fit build. Probably played some kind of sport. Either that, or she grew up with a bit of manual labor. Her hair was streaked back and in a nice ponytail, but Janus preferred looking at hair when it was down. And blond wasn’t really his color, now that he was really considering it. He preferred a darker hair color. And the eyes had to be blue. And she was definitely too ta-

“What do you want!?” Janus said out loud in a hushed whisper. Damn it Lila, I was thinking! He huffed loud enough to get a few looks from the other students, including the blonde girl up front. Now that he could see her more clearly, she was kind of cute. Maybe he would talk to her later…

But for now..

So I wonder if the plumbing is the same style as the old schoolhouse. Maybe we could…

By the third class, there was an announcement that the bathrooms would be closed for the remainder of the period. Evidently, the first floor toilets were flushing in reverse, and no one was quite sure how to stop it just yet.

Janus held out his hand, and Lila high fived him.

Janus and Lila were testing the waters with their pranks. They were escalating them every few days. One teacher’s room had all the desks in reverse and no one knew who did it. Again Janus and Lila high-fived in the cafeteria.

“… So… You two have been busy,” Myrri called out to them.

“Whatever do you mean,” the twins said together as they tilted their heads at him.

“You’re doing the creepy twin thing again…” Myrri sighed a bit and rubbed at his hair.

If anything the Terrowin twins had a reputation for being ethereal and unapproachable. It was the way they answered together in a timely manner that almost seemed planned. How they always knew where the other was even if they hadn’t been together in the same class.

Hell, Lila had thrown a piece of chalk at the back of her brother’s head and Janus turned around and caught it in mid-air much to Lila’s displeasure. “I’m not that distracted.”

Lila mocked her brother lightly. “You are distracted by most of the girls in class.” She rolled her eyes.

–

That was when they escalated their pranks even further. It was the day when all the parents would come to check up on their children after two weeks. So Janus and Lila changed out the school statue for a statue of Raine with a bird rights sign. There were little paper birds everywhere. The statue was rainbow from head to toe.

Simone stood there with her husband in utter amazement, “So this is what happens when we leave them unattended for two weeks.”

Janus and Lila were both proud of their work. They even started a small chant as the students realized the prank, and soon the whole student body was chanting about bird rights, though none of the students really knew why. The two slipped away of course once their parents arrived, and both of them walked up to Simone and Lewis with proud, but creepy grins.

“Bird rights, bird rights!” The two chanted with their monotone ‘Lewis’ expression.

“I really wish you’d put these talents to better use,” Lewis said with a heavy sigh. “Can you…maybe not get kicked out?”

“Oh no one knows it's us,” Janus said. “And it was her idea for the statue. I just worked the magic.” He smirked.

“He stares at girls all day in class,” Lila said abruptly. She smirked at Janus gave her the meanest glare he could.

“Yeah, well the only reason you’re not staring at boys is because you’re too distracted by one in particular,” he shot back.

“SHHH STOP, YOU’LL SCARE HIM OFF!” Lila replied as she tried to clap her hand over his mouth.

“I’m glad to see that you two are handling this well,” Lewis said with a chuckle.

“Why wouldn’t we be?” Janus replied with a half smile.

“Why would we ever struggle?” Lila replied as she settled down.

Once again, they were doing the creepy twin thing.

Janus took a moment afterwards to compose himself, and walked up to Simone with a smile on his face. Lewis was dragged off to meet one of the teachers, leaving Lila to her own devices while Janus had his ‘Mommy’ time.

“It’s been awhile,” he said, a little embarrassed. “I missed you, Mom!” He gave her a big hug. “I did it! I made it two weeks!”

Lila was talking to the swooning girls who were watching. “You guys will never compare to the one girl in his heart.” She pointed at Janus picking Simone up off the ground in a big hug.

“Oh!” Simone hugged her son and was gently sat back down. “I’m so happy you are doing well.” Simone was cupping his face. “I was so worried about you Janus.” She kissed his forehead.

“Exhibit number one of who the number one girl is to him,” Lila told the girls around her.

Lila slinked off to where Lewis was and hugged her father. “Father I have to tell you that Janus went on two dates and both dates ended up in failure. Girl one he did nothing but gloat about Mom. Date two he did nothing but compare her to Mom. He got ghosted on the first one and dumped on the second one.” She pointed to her brother who was still hugging his mother. “I think you need to have words with him least he’s going to be a virgin forever.”

Lewis took one look at Lila, and then looked over to Janus. “I understand. I’ll talk to him.”

Janus was still hugging Simone when Lewis walked over and pulled him aside. “But wait, I wasn’t done!” Janus exclaimed as he tried to make his way back into his mother’s loving embrace.

“She’ll still be there when we’re done talking,” Lewis said as he sat Janus down on a bench. “We need to have a serious heart to heart here,” he said as he sat down next to Janus. “Simone is a great person and an ever better mother, but son…” He sighed, and looked Janus in the eyes. “This isn’t going to be easy…”

Myrri wandered over to Lila, and blushed. “H-hi. Lila. How are you doing?” He blinked. “Wait…why is Janus over there with Uncle Lewis? Is something wrong?”

Janus seemed to take the words hard, and looked down, disappointed. He got up and thanked Lewis, walking over to Myrri and Lila. “I get it. I really do. It’s hard to really come to terms with it, but I’ll manage.” He clenched his fist. “I get it now that no one can understand Mom’s greatness…that I must hide it away from the world, and keep it locked within my heart…” He took his fist, and beat his chest. “No one can know…”

“You are such a momma’s boy,” Lila said.

“I AM NOT!” Janus shot back.