It was a few years ago. Specifically, it was several months way after we started our 2nd year of our high school. School was over for the day and everyone has started to leave the school compound while some of the other students that stayed were on their way to their clubs. Around this time, I would usually go home together with my classmate, Cyclone White because both of us went back home by riding the same bus. We stop on a different station, though. Usually that will be our usual routine after school. But on that day, I decided to spice things up.
I went towards White desk and asked him, "Hey, White. Are you free today?"
"Free? We're leaving home as always."
"You're free then! Come." I suddenly grab his arm and dragged him out of the classroom.
White quickly let go of my grasp and questioned me, "What's going on, Fitz? Where are we going?"
"This." I showed him a piece of paper.
There was a picture of a cat that goes by the name of Mr.Nuzzle. And it looked like the cat was missing. The owner even provided a reward for helping them find their cat. That was what we're up to.
"What is the meaning of this?" White was still confused.
I simply answered, "We're going to look for Mr.Nuzzle! Come on, White!"
"Wait. Wait!" White stopped me and said, "Why are we doing this?"
"Are you kidding, White? There's a reward for this thing. Don't you want that?"
"They didn't even specify what kind of reward we'll get. It's probably a fluke." White remains to be cynical as always.
I, however, was positive, "Oh come on, White. Think of it. At the very least you aren't at home doing nothing, right?"
He sounded very tired of me, "I could be playing my video games, right now..."
"Stop being such a shut-in, White. Come on, we're going out hunting!"
"Even if we do this. Where do we even start, Fitz?"
"I! ...Have no idea!"
White then proceeds to cover his face with one of his hands.
White sighed and told me, "If it makes you happy...I'll help you."
"Awesome!" I gleefully jumped in joy.
Without further ado, White immediately began analyzing the paper, ":Let's see if we know who is the owner to Mr.Nuzzle here..."
I looked at the bottom corner of the paper and notified him, "There! His name is Roger Downy."
White then noticed something else, "And judging from the address provided over here, it is the same Mr. Downy that I know of. He's in my neighbourhood."
"Awesome! So do you know where the cat might be?"
"I'm not exactly sure where the cat is right now but I do remember that Mr. Downy have 2 cats. They are siblings. So, it looks like one of their brothers is gone."
"Well then, let's try looking for it around your neighbourhood!"
We both nodded and made our way to White's neighbourhood. We tried asking around people nearby whether they have any information about the cat. Well...I tried asking around. White didn't really do much aside from looking around the place. He really was a shy kid back then. But he has been different from what I see of him recently.
In any case, we came across a bunch of cats near one of the garbage collection area over there. We figured that the cat might be over there considering how there was knowledge of cats all being all over that place.
White sighed and said, "It's all stray cats...Non of them look like the ones in the picture."
"Maybe if I try using my wind manipulation ability..."
"And what does manipulating the wind would help us with?"
I explained to him, "You know that I can manipulate the air right? Perhaps, maybe I can try to detect the cat's scent."
"So, what? You're like a dog now or something?"
"It's basically like that but I'm not a dog, stupid!"
"You don't need to shout at me like that. But where are you going to find the cat's scent?"
I shake my head and said to him, "We go to Mr. Downy's home and asked for the cat's belongings of course."
"Oh...ok..."
And so we did that. Well...I did that. White only stood there acting as my support of some kind. He was as useless as he was. It's not that I'm mocking him for the lack of any magic that he doesn't have. It's just unfortunate for him to not have any kinds of magical ability at that age.
I might have gone off tangent once again. Anyway, once I'm done confirming Mr.Nuzzle's scent, we immediately found out that the cat was sleeping right outside of White's home. Since it was his home, it was time for White's turn to do something. Surprisingly enough, by the end of it, White end up carrying that cat and directly gave it to Mr.Downy. We didn't really get a nice reward but it was a good enough reward I guess. But what I got from all of that was that White also enjoyed the activity.
"We should do this more often, Fitz."
"Are you serious? I thought you were the one who feel like this is a chore."
He then shyly said, "Well...it just so happens to be a fun activity to be done after school. So how about it? Partners?"
White suddenly handed out his hand. I hesitated at first but at the very end of the day, I happily shake his hand.
"Partners."
It really brought me back a lot of things that I shouldn't have take for granted. Perhaps next time, I'll be able to truly show him what his partner is capable of. With that being said, I continued to blissfully sleep through the night without anything else bothering me...
TO BE CONTINUED