I like pies. How about you?
Good morning to you!
So, what are we doing today? Well, frankly, I got no clue. All I know is that Yin's visiting later today. Great! Absolutely brilliant!
I got off the floor and made my way over to the bathroom to finish my usual routine. When I got properly dressed for school in that drab grey uniform, I brushed my hair and put my contacts on.
I left my room while adjusting my tie.
"As I said, I just don't like mushrooms," I could hear Fable arguing.
I stopped to see Fable and my Mom getting into a heated battle. Don't know about you all, but considering that my Mom has a spatula in her hand, I think she has a slight edge if they decided to fight. On the plate in front of Fable, were mushrooms. Yeah, not the cooked variety, raw mushrooms.
"Just eat them," My Mom ordered. "It's still food."
"Even if I were to eat them, who would eat them raw?" Fable countered.
Dad was just to the side, his paper in hand. He wasn't paying attention to reading the paper though cause he was too busy watching the argument happen. My Mom noticed me and greeted me, "Good morning dear."
"Morning~" I replied, sitting down in my seat.
She then turned back to Fable. "Come on, don't be such a picky eater. I went through all the trouble of picking these out and preparing them."
"I swear I've seen this selling in the supermarket for like, a dollar a box!"
"A dollar fifty, actually," My mom confirmed.
When Fable was just about to reach the peak of his anger, she patted him on the back, laughing. She pulled the plate away before saying, "Sorry, didn't have time to make breakfast today."
"It's fine," I told her.
Fable let out a long sigh and scrolled through his phone instead.
"Yin's coming to visit today," My Mom got the ball rolling.
"She is?" I asked. "I never heard of this."
"I told you on Wednesday," Fable stated.
I thought about it, but for the life of me, I cannot remember a darn thing. Well, whatever. Yin's coming over, great.
"---, are you going to get breakfast in school?" My Mom asked. "If not, you could follow us out for breakfast before school starts."
"I'll eat at school," I confirmed.
Dad started reading his paper again.
"So… since Fable's girlfriend is coming over for dinner, what are we going to have?" I questioned, just to see whether or not I could skip out on it.
My Mom folded her arms as she thought about it.
"Fable, what does Yin like?" My Mom asked.
"What she likes to eat?" Fable responded without even looking up from his phone. "Pretty sure she likes Japanese food."
"Well, dinner's set," My Mom chuckled. "I'll get some takeaway unless one of you wants to cook."
"No," Fable immediately denied.
"You know guys that know how to cook are in high demand?" I teased. "They're like a designer item."
Fable gave me a look.
"What? It's true!" I defended myself.
My Mom laughed before facing me. "So, you want to do some cooking?"
"I don't cook," I waved her off, a smile on my face. "I can barely even bake."
My Mom shoved Fable lightly. "Your sister's gonna be an actress and your girlfriend's gonna be an athlete! What are you planning to do?"
"I don't know, get a job?" He answered honestly.
"Yeah, and I don't even know if I'm gonna be an actress or not," I added on.
I pushed myself onto my feet and waved my family off. "Well, I better get going soon or else I'll starve for the rest of the day."
"Be safe, okay?" My Mom told me.
Considering the number of injuries I had on me, that sentiment made sense.
What a wonderful day, innit?
The type of day where I would lie down on a hammock and do absolutely nothing throughout the day.
The bus goes vroom.
Saw a homeless man on the bus. Saw most people ignore him. I waved at him, but he wasn't looking, so I just went along with the crowd. But you know one place where I'm usually the one being ignored? School.
At least, I used to be the one being ignored.
But recently, I found myself being elevated to a normal status.
It's surreal, man.
Seriously, what happened?
I made my way over to the cafeteria where my breakfast would be awaiting me. I hovered around the noodle stall I always went to, but it was closed. When I got closer to read the letter they had taped on the shutter, a group of people walked by behind me.
When I glanced back, I noticed a whole clique of girls.
It's like, an hour before school starts, what the hell are these girls doing?
In typical fashion, I turned back to read the note.
'This stall shall be closed temporarily as the vendors will be out on vacation until early August'
Great, tell people it's early August and not give them a proper date. Besides, what's with the sudden closure? I could have sworn they were opened yesterday. Either that or I never read any form of warning letter previously.
Sighing, I hopped over to the next stall.
"Good morning," I greeted with a wide smile
"Morning," The vendor replied, looking down at her phone.
I looked through my options.
"Could I have a salad?" I requested.
"No."
I'm sorry?
"Wait, I can't have a salad?" I asked to confirm.
"Yeah, you can't," She replied.
"Did you guys sell out?"
"Nah, we just haven't properly opened shop yet," She said without much care toward me. "If you want breakfast, the Skewers stall might be open."
Well, okay.
"Thanks for the info."
I made my merry way over to the stall the lady had so kindly requested me to go to. If I remember correctly, it was the stall that sold skewers. No clue why they were opened so early in the morning, but I guess they believe people want to eat these sorts of things first thing in the morning.
"Good morning," I greeted with some enthusiasm.
"Good morning to you too," The nice old lady replied with a smile of her own. "Rare to see someone come to this stall so early."
"I was thinking the exact same thing!" I agreed. "Not many people would have skewers for breakfast, huh?"
She chuckled. "I don't have much out now, but which one would you like?"
I scanned the options before replying, "Could I have the chicken skewer and a mushroom skewer?"
"If you pay, of course, you can!" She laughed heartily.
She heated up the skewers and handed them to me. I brought out my wallet to pay while commenting, "Wow, really gives me festival vibes."
"Speaking of festivals, have you been to the Town Fair yet?" She asked, probably out of curiosity.
"I have," I confirmed. "Once this month though."
"The month's going to end soon, best to make use of your time wisely, huh?" She joked.
"Ma'am, have you been to the Town Fair yet?" I asked out of courtesy.
She shook her head with a light laugh. "Nah. The Town Fair's a place for youngsters to enjoy. An old lady like me has no business being there."
"You could always just look around," I recommended.
I waved her off and walked in the direction of my classroom with the skewers in hand. I noticed the group of girls that had gathered earlier, so I just stopped there and watched them. Kind of like how you would stop to watch animals in a zoo. What? I'm not trying to offend anybody. I'm just saying they're interesting to observe.
A couple of them must have noticed me, cause I got a few glances from them. I gave anybody who turned to look at me the peace sign.
The last time I ever saw a group of girls this big was at the shopping mall. The last time I ever saw a group of girls this big in school was when they stalked Mr Popular. Heh, wonder what they're doing?
Wait a minute…
Nope, I'm out.
I continued making my way over to my class. Literally, the only reason such a big group of girls would gather in this hellhole of a school is for Mr Popular himself. Otherwise, it would be because a couple of famous male actors visited.
For some reason, I don't feel like famous actors visited our school.
When I turned the corner, I almost impaled someone's eye out with the skewers in my hand. Some guy with a short ponytail stared at the skewers in fear before greeting me, "Um… Good morning?"
Right, I know this guy.
"Right, teddy-boy," I pointed at him with the skewers.
He backed off slightly, which is completely understandable.
"Are you in a rush or something?" He asked me. "And why are you carrying stakes?"
"Had skewers," I explained, gesturing to the food still left. "Also, there's a whole group of girls over there fawning over Mr Popular. You should go watch, they're pretty entertaining."
"Mr Popular?" Teddy-boy asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, the most popular guy in school?" I emphasised.
"You mean Otto?"
"Yeah, him."
Teddy-boy pointed up the flight of stairs before telling me, "But I saw him upstairs just a couple of minutes ago."
There was a pause.
"Were you stalking him?" I asked.
"What?"
"I mean, coincidentally you just saw him around?" I continued asking.
Teddy-boy was starting to sweat. "I was walking around…"
"Without any reason?"
He put a hand between us. "Please don't try to gaslight me."
I laughed and walked by him, patting his back. "I would try no such thing! So, where are you headed to?"
I was behind him, so he turned around.
"I was going to report to the General Office to ask them to turn the AC in the nurse's office on."
"Oh right, you help out the nurse," I nodded.
"It's just something I do in my free time," He smiled, shrugging.
"Good luck with that then."
Before I could completely disappear from sight, Teddy-boy called me out, "You're not allowed to bring food outside of the cafeteria."
I paused to point my skewers at him. "See no evil, hear no evil."
"I don't think you're using that phrase correctly," Teddy-boy cracked a smile.
"It's fine," I told him with a smile. "Besides, I'm your senior, so you gotta respect my decisions."
"I also don't think that's how that works…"
"Aight, bye!"
I disappeared from sight, meaning, he also left my field of vision. Now I'm left with a couple of questions. If Mr Popular isn't at the cafeteria, why was there a group of girls just gathered at the cafeteria?
Could it be?
A new transfer student that is hotter than Mr Popular himself? But if that was the case, then how would there have already been such a large group of girls?
While casually enjoying my skewers, I started hearing footsteps rapidly approaching me.
I turned in the direction of the noise, declaring, "Don't fuck with me, I have a pointy stick!"
Mr Popular himself, in the flesh.
There were only a couple of students walking by, all of them too tired to give two shits about what was happening.
He put his hands up.
I checked my skewers again and ate the last piece of mushroom. I pointed the skewers back at him. "Make that two pointy sticks."
He laughed lightly before I pointed the sticks to the side. I commented, "Don't know about you, but my junior from the club might be stalking you."
"And why do you bring this up?" He asked.
"I don't know, just thought you might want to know," I shrugged.
He scratched the back of his head before asking me, "So, I've been meaning to ask for quite a while, but never really got a chance to talk. I mean, I've tried texting you, but it says that you haven't read the messages?"
"You texted me?"
He stared at me in pure disbelief.
I pulled out my phone and swiped through the notifications. I set it aside, "Huh. Turns out you did text me."
"You don't check your phone?"
I shifted my balance onto one leg while speaking, "Well, I mean, with so many scam calls out there, who would want to pick up their phones, am I right?"
"It's texts though," He stated.
"You make a great point and I'm willing to listen to reason," I replied with a cheeky grin. "Next time."
Mr Popular brushed my comment aside before telling me, "I was thinking about meeting up with you in the evening at the cafe."
"Oh, what's the emergency?" I joked. "Kind of sudden, innit?"
"It would have been less sudden if you checked your texts," He defended himself.
I tapped my chin to think about it. "Hm… you know what?"
"What?"
Fable's girlfriend is visiting tonight. This might be a great opportunity for me to skip out on it. Maybe not the whole thing, but at least the whole dinner experience. You know what? This sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Besides, Mr Popular calling me out? I'm just dying to know the reason.
"I'm down," I finally gave him my answer. "There's this house special carbonara thing I'm been meaning to try out for quite a while."
"Great!" He brightened up ever so slightly. "So… by five?"
"I have supplementary classes," I stated.
"By six, then?"
"I could just about make it," I confirmed.
I pointed in the general direction which I came from. "Hey, did you know there's a whole gaggle of girls in the cafeteria? I'm quite shocked that you aren't over there."
"Gaggle?" Mr Popular looked rather concerned.
"Ignore that."
"So a group of girls are gathered in the cafeteria?" Mr Popular thought about it before coming to a realisation. "Oh, it's probably because one of the girls is selling some limited-edition merchandise to students in the school. It's all over the school's student's Social Media page."
"The school's student's Social Media page?" I raised an eyebrow. "That's a thing?"
"Yeah," He said. "Don't you have social media?"
"..."
"You can't be serious."
I put my hands up, simultaneously almost scratching his face with the skewers. "I used to have social media, but I deleted it some time ago."
"Why?"
"Geez, ask the bullied girl why she wants to delete social media," I joked.
"Oh, my bad."
I waved his apology aside. "Nah, don't worry about it. So later today at six?"
"Yeah," He confirmed.
He stood there awkwardly for a couple of seconds while I was messing around with the skewers in my hands. Just as he was about to walk off, I commented, "I don't know why, but playing around with these sticks is kinda fun."
"Just don't kill anybody," He cracked a joke before walking off.
I continued walking, whispering to myself, "Don't kill anybody? Why would I ever want to kill people?"
That brings up a fun little question I have. If you really hate seeing people around you, but you have no choice but to interact with them, what would you do? You are also given the option to kill just one person in the world to make everything go away, who would it be? Has to be human.
Think about it long and hard.
Along the way, I ditched the skewers in a trash bin.
Upon entering my class, I noticed the lack of silence. Normally it's quite quiet and people do their own things. Today, however, there was a lot more chattering. One sweep through the classroom and I noticed someone standing at the back of the class wearing a clown outfit. The guys were obviously having a blast, and some of the girls decided to join in on the fun as well.
"What's poppin'?" I announced my presence.
"Ivan lost a bet," One of the guys explained to me.
The guy in the clown outfit was named Ivan? I kinda just stood around while the clown just stood around with a frown on his face. I asked him, "What kind of bet did you even lose for this to be the punishment?"
"I challenged Jonathan to an eating competition yesterday," Clown guy grumbled. "Fucker challenged me to who could eat the most vegemite."
The guy with curly hair had his girlfriend beside him. She was also rather humoured by the whole situation. Jonathan laughed, telling Ivan, "You were the one who said I could choose what food to eat."
"Yeah, but I forgot you don't got no taste buds!" Ivan shot back.
I decided to leave the rest of the class to do whatever it was they were doing and to sit in my seat. You know, I'm already kinda missing my skewers. I don't know, something about holding them makes me feel a little more comfortable.
Lo and behold!
Candace is here.
"Good morning," I greeted Candace.
"Morning," She grumbled, walking directly to her seat.
The class was too occupied with Ivan the clown that they barely even noticed Candace's entrance. I got up from my seat and approached Candace. Neither of her friends was in class yet, so it was the perfect opportunity.
"Hey, Candy~" I approached her as smoothly as I could.
"Don't call me that," She shot that whole idea down.
"Right. Red flags."
Candace covered her face and let out a groan, asking me, "What do you want?"
"I was wondering if you were interested in having a date," I suggested to her.
Please be noted that I was squatted in front of her desk with my chin resting on her desk. Candace did look rather pissed off at my actions. Candace covered her face and let out another groan.
"Okay, so I was thinking we hit an ice cream parlour," I told her. "Get some ice cream to cool off this summer heat even though it really isn't that hot. But still, we could get some mango ice cream."
Candace finally put her hands down.
"I like you a lot better when you don't have makeup," I noted.
Candace pushed my head back lightly before telling me, "I'm lactose intolerant."
"Vegan ice cream?" I suggested.
"What's your obsession with ice cream?" She grumbled.
Honestly, no clue!
"I've been meaning to get ice cream for the longest time," I explained. "But I've never gotten around to having it."
"Just get it then, you dumbass."
"One day."
Candace pushed my face away when I tried leaning close to her. I extended my arms in her direction, asking, "What's the matter? We had something going on yesterday, you can't possibly be thinking of ending things between us!"
We got a couple of looks from our classmates.
Candace shot back, "There is nothing between us!"
I slowed down and gained some distance before whispering, "Really? I'm heartbroken. Are you leaving me for Mr Popular?"
Candace scowled and dragged me closer, whispering back, "I don't know what you're talking about. I've already given up on him."
"Really?" I beamed.
I chuckled and grinned. Candace noticed and ordered, "Wipe that grin off of your face."
"Did you know something, Candace?" I mentioned, basically shoulder to shoulder with Candace. "I've been interested in you for the longest time~"
Candace looked rather stunned.
"You know, I've been secretly admiring you even though you were bullying me," I added. "I like that you're strong, you're confident, you're everything I had always dreamed of becoming!"
I leaned in to whisper, "I really love you."
"And I fucking hate you," Candace replied, pushing me away.
I still had a smile on my face as I laughed, saying to her, "That's fine. That's what I like about you."
Our classmates nearby had caught on to our conversation. It would be really nice if rumours started to spread.
When Candace's friends walked in, I returned to my seat after waving Candace off. She looked and sounded quite tired for some reason.
The short and cute girl that was the girlfriend of who I think is called Johnny left soon after. Clown guy remained a clown until Mr Dohl, our homeroom teacher walked in. He walked in and immediately did a double take. He leaned closer to him and asked, "What in the pennywise?"
"I lost a bet," Ivan stated.
"Could you change to your school uniform at least?" Mr Dohl requested. "The hair's fine, but you still have to wear the school uniform."
"I'm wearing the uniform underneath," He confirmed.
"Okay?"
While the class was laughing, I was busy just trying to listen in on their laughs. Don't you think it's nice to know how everybody laughs? Mr Dohl set his stuff down and lessons were underway.
Today, unlike yesterday, Candace seemed rather detached from me.
"Are you on your period?" I asked her just as the break started.
"Fuck off," Candace pushed me away.
"I would usually make a joke, but seriously though, what's up?"
Candace ignored me and walked away with her friends. Is it me or is she just not that into it anymore? Maybe she lost all her energy yesterday? Did I do something to piss her off yesterday?
Nah, couldn't be me.
So school went on normally. Or as normal as it usually would go. Not gonna lie, it's a lot different from what I had to experience a long time ago. It's actually kind of… boring? Where's the drama? Where's the action? I want to see the raw emotions pouring out of people!
Class ended and it was on to supplementary classes.
I was kind of distracted during class. Don't blame me though. I was too busy trying to figure out what was up with Candace and why she wasn't interested in me anymore.
By the end of the class, I had come up with my final conclusion.
She's probably on her period, so I have to be a little bit more gentle with her.
"---," I heard my name being called.
"Yes?" I looked up at Mr Dohl who was standing at the front of the class.
"I came to pick something up… What are you doing here?" He asked.
One glance around and I finally noticed how empty the classroom was. I smiled apologetically and put a hand up, saying, "So sorry about that! I guess I spaced out for a moment?"
"Are you feeling alright?"
"Never been better!"
He looked rather concerned about me.
"You don't have to worry about me," I laughed it off. "By the way, what was I doing the entire time?"
"You were staring at your desk," He confirmed.
"Shit."
I got my bag and left, waving Mr Dohl off, "Buh-bye!"
Just like that, I was off.
School's rather isolated compared to the usual business. Guess everyone already left. I was just thinking about what I was going to do when I reached home when I remembered a previous appointment I had already planned.
On the way out of school, I rang up my Mom.
"Hello?" My Mom picked up her phone.
"So turns out I'm meeting a schoolmate of mine in the evening," I told her cooly. "Don't get mad, I'm not skipping out on meeting with Fable's girlfriend. I'll be back around maybe seven?"
"Where are you headed?" My Mom asked, looking concerned.
"A cafe nearby the apartment," I answered. "It's pretty cool. We should go there sometime."
"Are you going home first or heading there directly?"
"Going there straight."
"Get home safely, okay?"
"You got it."
Now that I was legally allowed to go meet up with Mr Popular, let's go, shall we? Just gotta take the bus, notice a group of kids playing some mobile games, and then get off. So so so, I was thinking about this recently, and yes, it is about Candace. Is it just me or has her popularity decreased? Was she ever popular in the first place?
She really did just seem scary, huh?
Man, I even made that bold confession early this morning, and she rejected my ice cream date!
That's frustrating…
Before I knew it, I was in front of the cafe. I pushed the door open, making sure I had a friendly smile on my face. The moment I stepped in, I scanned the room and locked eyes with Mr Popular.
"Well, well, well," I said, making my way to him. "Look who it is!"
Mr Popular turned around. He had a cup of milk tea and a half-eaten pizza in front of him. He turned his phone off and shoved it into his pocket as I was taking a seat across from him. He was wearing casual clothes instead of a school uniform.
"Guess who decided to get dapper-ed up?" I joked after taking a seat.
He scoffed before responding, "I didn't want to go to a cafe in a school uniform. I'm surprised you didn't go home to change."
"What's the difference?" I shrugged.
"What's your average outfit looking like?" He asked, just a hint of concern on his face.
I thought about it for a grand total of six seconds. "When I'm out? Uh… long pants, a t-shirt, maybe a jacket? I got this Beetlejuice outfit that makes me look like I belong in prison."
"Beetle- what?"
"Alex Brightman?"
"Uh…"
I waved it aside before getting up. "Well, I'm gonna go order my food now. Be back real quick."
"Sure."
At the counter, I was looking through the options when I brought up what felt like a valid point. I asked the guy behind the counter, "So… why don't you guys have a seafood option for your carbonara?"
"Huh…" The guy rubbed his chin. "From what I heard, the owner's allergic to seafood."
"Oh," I nodded. "He's losing out."
I pointed at the menu. The guy leaned down to get a better look at what I had just pointed at. I brought it up, "Don't bother looking, I'm not pointing at my order."
"I would love to have the house special carbonara!" I announced.
"Could I have your name?"
"---"
Aight, back to Mr Popular. He was looking at his phone while waiting for me. When I sat down, he asked me, "What did you get?"
"House special carbonara," I replied, staring at the counter. "Hey, did you know the owner apparently has an allergy to seafood?"
"Is that why they don't have a seafood option for carbonara?"
I pointed at him. "That's what I thought!"
After just chilling there for a bit, the counter called my name. In case anyone is wondering what the house special looks like, I can give a clear image. Imagine carbonara. Imagine the colour green. Now imagine bacon. Now imagine more green. Imagine everything arranged in a swirl.
Great! Nice! Very good!
"Is something the matter?" Otto asked.
"Is something wrong?" I countered, looking up. "I don't think there's anything wrong with me though. I'm just peachy."
"Well, ever since you entered, you've been… erratic?" He said, not too sure about his own answer.
Have I?
I took a dramatic deep breath before smiling at him. "I think I'm calm now?"
He smirked playfully and continued eating his pizza. I started eating the carbonara and hoooooolyyyyyy shiiiiiitttttt-
Otto must have noticed how I was doing, so he asked, "Um… is it spicy?"
"Why the hell is it this spicy?" I demanded. "It's green!"
Otto laughed and extended a hand in my direction. He requested nicely, "Could I have a bite?"
"Sure thing," I handed him the fork. "Can you handle spice?"
"I like spice," He confirmed. "Though I don't eat too much of it anymore."
He took a bite and handed the fork back to me. While he was chewing, I was just staring at him and waiting for his reaction. He swallowed and nodded, commenting, "Yeah, that's pretty good."
"Fuck you man," I told him.
He then proceeded to randomly comment, "The pasta kind of matches your hair and eyes."
"You don't say."
While I was sweating my ass off trying to eat the damn carbonara, Otto kind of just watched me attempt to not immediately rap the entirety of Godzilla in an attempt to quell the spice. He even did me a favour and got me a glass of milk.
When I was halfway done and about half my life gone, I was sipping milk while Otto talked.
"So I asked you to meet me here 'cause I wanted to talk to you about something…" He got the ball rolling.
"Okay, shoot," I pointed a finger gun at him while putting the glass of milk down.
He gestured to the top of his mouth. I wiped my face before pretending as if nothing happened. Otto took a shaky breath before looking me directly in the eyes.
"I like you."
Pardon?
I just stared at him, registering those words. I brought up, "Weren't you after the President of the Chess Club?"
"That was a lie," He admitted.
His face was starting to redden and his eyes consistently darting off to the side. I took a deep breath myself before asking, "So… when did all of this start?"
"It's kinda embarrassing to answer that in a public space," Otto said.
"Sorry, I'm not too used to getting confessed to," I laughed lightly and for once… awkwardly?
"I know we don't really know each other too well," Otto continued. "You probably don't like me because of the type of guy I am. But well… I thought I needed to get this off of my chest, even if you don't feel the same way."
Oh god… he's serious.
"This isn't a joke, right?" I asked just to make sure.
He put his hands up. "No, I would never joke about these things!"
I hid my hands under the table and fidgetted with my fingers as I rapidly tried to find out what to do. He seems serious and sincere… no idea why the most popular guy in school was trying to confess to me…
Besides, as mentioned before, I don't really have an interest in this romance stuff anymore… well… this is awkward…
An image of Candace flashed through my mind.
My smile widened.
I locked eyes with Otto. As genuinely as I could, I replied to him, "You know… I've had a crush on you for quite some time now. It's kind of surreal to have you… you know, confess to me."
I could see the hope swelling up inside of him.
"Yeah," I nodded. "I like you too."
Guess what people? I think I just got myself a boyfriend.
"Then let's spend more time together to get to know more about each other," Otto suggested with a wide grin on his face.
He covered his face, apologising, "Sorry, I just can't control myself. I'm just really glad that you feel the same way."
My face was probably still red from the spiciness of the carbonara, but I doubt he would notice the difference anyways.
"Yeah, today's been… almost like a dream," I said. "Are you a part of my dream?"
He let out a laugh, a light, but genuine laugh. He put a hand between us, telling me, "No, no. This is definitely reality."
We chatted a bit more before we finally parted ways.
My mind's kind of full and fuzzy at the moment.
When I reached home, I chatted with Fable's girlfriend for about half an hour before she had to leave. After she was gone, I went to my room and opened my diary. Today's really one of the days of all time, huh?
I think…
I think I better get to bed.