Lucio was led into a room by one of the assistant professors. The room had a few props placed in the corner and there was a lady sitting on a director's chair as she flipped through some papers.
"Professor Isabel, the student is ready for the test." Said the assistant professor before leaving Lucio behind.
Isabel looked at Lucio and said "Take this paper and sit on one of the chairs. You have thirty minutes to answer all questions."
Lucio nodded before taking the paper from her. He sat down on a chair before looking at the thirty questions which needed no knowledge other than the understanding of oneself.
Lucio thanked Georgia inwardly as he filled the paper with answers in just ten minutes before handing over the sheet to Isabel, who looked at the answers before writing something down on her notepad.
"You finished answering everything in just ten minutes, impressive. But are you satisfied with your answers?" Isabel asked as she set his paper aside.
"Well… honestly, there was nothing to think about before answering. I just wrote what I knew and there is nothing more that is needed to be written."
"Hmmm… valid point. Alright, read these books. You have an hour." She said and continued writing things on her notepad.
Lucio looked at the first five parts of a comic book which were given to him and started reading. His reading speed was slow at start but he started to pick up the pace and turned pages every ten to twenty seconds.
He finished the first part in twelve minutes but the rest of them barely strained him as he finished every single one of them in seven to eight minutes each.
When he gave back the books, Isabel asked "Do you books a lot?"
"Well, yes. I used to read books a lot." He said as he nodded calmy.
Isabel noted it down before looking up at him, "What character seemed the most interesting to you?"
"Hmm… Interesting huh?" Lucio said as he thought for a while.
"The gun slinger."
"Why not the main protagonist?" she asked, raising just her left eyebrow.
"It's simple. He is too plain and boring. A cliché naïve man with superstrength and flight who wants to save the mankind? Nah, not for me." Lucio said seriously.
"Noted… What do you think makes the gunslinger interesting?" She continued to ask questions about the comic for the next thirty minutes as she wrote down a few things as Lucio answered her.
"Alright. There are only two steps left and you will be free to go." She said and Lucio nodded.
She opened a page from the fourth part and gave the book to Lucio before speaking, "I want you to act like the gun slinger in this scene. I'll be your employer."
Lucio nodded as he stretched casually, before walking onto the stage.
He took a deep breath to calm his nerves before getting into the character mentally.
He then turned to look at Isabel with a deadpan look as he walked towards her, acting like there was a door in between them, he kicked the empty space in front of him.
"Eylo madame, I eard you goth some wok fo me." Lucio said as he threw his imaginary pistols into the air before catching them.
"Yes. I want my husband dead. Ten million dollars, I'll pay you ten million for his life."
Lucio nodded as acted like he was contemplating.
"Das it? Your husband paid me a billion for your life." He said before smiling widely, showing his teeth.
"Wha... What?" Isabel's lower lip quivered as she stood up from the chair before taking a step back, not noticing that his accent was suddenly gone.
"Bye byee, miss dominatrix." Lucio said, smiling widely as he raised his imaginary gun, aiming straight at her head.
"Bang!" Lucio mouthed and Isabel nodded instead of acting dead.
"Good acting. Although you have a lot to learn."
"Thank you."
"Mhm, now do you know the relation between acting and lying?" She asked as she looked at her notepad before she continues writing down stuff.
"Yea, acting is lying with your body while lying is the most basic form of acting. A person who is good at lying is someone who is good at acting but a bad liar simply uses his mouth. In short, lying is basic mathematics while acting is like the advanced calculus, algebra, etc."
"That's a very creative answer… Hmm, okay last question. Tell me about half-truths and its relation with acting."
"Umm… I know what half-truths are but I don't know how its related to acting. Since it's one of the best ways to make a person believe a lie, I'm assuming that it is related to one of the best acting methods."
Isabel nodded before she smiled. "You have passed the test. The last two questions weren't supposed to be answered in normal cases and they wouldn't be asked if I wasn't the invigilator. Anyways, you passed. So, congratulations."
Lucio nodded as he shook her hand, "Thanks a lot, but if you don't mind, can you please give me the answer to the last question?"
"Quiet curious, aren't we? Well, It is related to method acting. It is one of my favourite acting methods."
"How…."
"How you say? You convince yourself that you are the character and forget that you are simply playing a character, that is the lie. The small truth is that you are not actually the character.
It works opposite to half-truths where you have to mix your lie in a lot of truths as you have to cover the little bit of truths with lies. This form of acting is bad for an actor sometimes.
Anyways Mr Lucio Tiano, you can take the classes starting tomorrow." Isabel said before dismissing him.
"Thank you."
*****
Georgia was pacing near her car in anticipation as Lucio walked out, grinning widely.
"I got in." he said as he raised his hand for a hive-five and Georgia hit him so hard that both her hands went red.
"That's my boy!!" She said proudly as she ruffled his hair.
Lucio pushed her hand away in annoyance, "Don't touch my hair."
"Oops, I'm sorry. I got a bit too excited." She said, looking not a bit sorry. Instead, she looked like she wanted to ruffle his hair more.
Lucio frowned before saying "What are you doing here? You said that you will pick up my siblings."
"Yes, get in and we can go. You came out at least one hour before you were supposed to come." Georgia said as she unlocked the doors.
"Oh okay." He replied as he got into the car and made himself comfortable.
*****
The sky was dark, with a barely any stars visible to the naked eye. A man sat on a chair in his balcony as he poked the fire in front of him with a metal rod. A few skewers of chicken Kebabs were poked into the ground with the end that had chickens, facing upwards to heat them up.
Lucio opened up his system and bought the auto-play and the media recorder, leaving a bit less than two million dollars in his bank.
He activated the auto-play as he thought, 'I'd rather sleep normally instead of going through a whole week of doing nothing.'
The four of them walked out with a few items and sat with Lucio, around the fire.
A few hours passed as they talked, sang, danced and gossiped away before they fell asleep on their spots, with blankets wrapped around themselves. Emiliano hugged Lucio while Emilia hugged Georgia to sleep, leaving George all alone.
The fire slowly burned away, leaving just the ashes.
-----
Lucio woke up and carried Emiliano inside before placing the sleeping kid on the couch. He then went into the bathroom to take a bath and do his daily routine.
By the time he came out, the breakfast was ready as they didn't make anything too fancy and just ate milk and cereal. He then got his siblings to freshen up before they all left the house in George's car.
After dropping the two kids off at school, the three headed to their university. After parking the car, George walked in to the nearest building while Lucio and Georgia had to walk a bit to get to theirs.
"We rarely have lectures and all the professors teach us through practical application. The few lectures that we have are very important as the practical classes are mostly for ingraining the theory into us." Georgia said as she covered her face from the winds, which made her wavy hair sway.
"Understood. Do we have a lecture today?" Lucio asked while he checked the time on his phone before rubbing his hands to warm them up.
"No. The last lecture was three days ago and we have a lecture only once a month. In exceptional cases, we might have a lecture every once a week."
"Got it. By the way, are there any unspoken rules that I might have to follow?"
Georgia's expression changed for a second before going back to normal.
'Well…. Yes. Rule no-1, isolate Georgia...'