Cleaning/Pawn Shop

Again, a new day.

It had almost been two days since the Welcome Party we organized. There was nothing much for us to. We were siting in the club room chilling and playing some board games to pass some time.

"Hey," exclaimed Mark as he was rolling the die, "I think I am going to write a book. 'cause you know, I think I have a great imaginary mind. What do you think?"

I smirked, "Well, your name's Mark doesn't mean you become Twain," I completed as I took the die from him.

"Oh! Come on now, I can do it," he said with utmost confidence.

Now, I don't disagree with him. He has an imaginary mind, but the problem here is how it works. He can't leave being a pervert, not even for a second.

"Oh, really? Then let me guess the name of your book," I replied as I rolled the die, "Playboy?" I asked him as I saw the die rolling onto six.

Everyone in the started laughing except Mark, who just fell down in the dumps.

As we were speaking, "Um — Can I meet the President?" a girl asked in a soothing voice as she entered the room.

"Yes," said our caveman sitting upright as if she was not the president of the club but was the President of United States of America.

"I had a complaint—more like a suggestion," she said, as if she was bothered by that particular thing, "The classrooms have not been cleaned for a week now, they stink. I think you guys should take a look at it."

"Sure, it was on our list," she replied and just so you know it wasn't on any of our list, "Okay, Mark note down her problem" she order him.

Mark took a notebook and a pen, "Name?" he asked.

"Sophie Gerad" she answered.

"Address? Phone number? Email address? And if you have, your social media handle?" he asked her with a plain intention of stalking her.

As soon as he finished, came a book flying as if it was a boomerang and then struck Mark's head. It was Carol with her perfect aim.

I took the book and noted down her problem as Carol got busy hitting with Mark with things she found lying on the table. After a brief amount of time, the holy war between the perverted saint and the devil stopped.

"This will be our new task. We will clean the entire school and make it shine like a star." Carol said as she stood up on the table. I don't know why she does that, but it makes it feel like she is superior to normal human beings.

"All by ourselves?" asked Jason in an apprehensive tone.

"Yes," she replied as it was no big deal. I mean, it is simple, right? Cleaning the whole damn school, yes it simple.

"Oh! There's a glare in my eye." I said while covering my eyes.

"Want me to pop them out?" replied the 'She-devil,' with a dark face.

"No, thank you. I'm good." I replied with my dismayed face.

So, it was decided that the Jason, Mark and myself do the classes on the right side and those three will the ones on the left.

As we were cleaning, I started thinking about our meet with Staci two days ago.

*********

[Two days ago]

"What the hell? A royal emblem?" I asked with a shaken voice.

"You sure it's real?" Jason asked her with a muddled voice.

"Its looks like it is, I mean the emblem's carved on it." she answered with a hazy expression as she wasn't confirmed either.

"What is this thing? The deeper we dig, the more complicated it gets." I said with a vexed face.

Now, it was like I wanted to end this thing once and for all.

I put on a thinking cap and said, "My uncle runs a pawnshop. He might know the origin of this. We'll at least know if its real. What do you say?"

"Yeah, then arrange our meet." Jason said with a glowing face.

"Yes, your majesty," I scorned.

*********

So, it was decided that we would meet my uncle on the weekend which is tomorrow.

We completed our work. So, we checked on how the girls doing.

We opened the door of the classroom that they were in and guess what; it was like a seeing a battlefield. Everything was thrown aside, chairs were upside down in a corner. I didn't know what was happening; I don't think neither they knew what they were doing unless it was some new technique of cleaning.

"I am glad the earthquake didn't hit our classroom," I said sarcastically as I looked inside the class.

"What the hell happened in here?" asked Jason in an inquiring manner.

"We were trying to clean one side at a time." replied Carol as she really knew what she was doing. Did she? I doubt it.

"Yep, that's one way to do it, throw everything in a corner so the room looks clean as well as empty." I said.

Finally, after a lot of reasoning with them, Jason and I ended up doing the work. Carol took Mark with her to help her out in office.

Jason went with Staci as he wanted to discuss the watch.

So, it was me and Amy.

As I was moping the floor, "Hey, can I ask you something?" she asked me.

I nodded in response, showing her to go on and ask.

"You don't have many friends, do you?" she asked, which made me look towards her in a surprise as I didn't expect her to ask this question.

"I mean, I don't see you with anyone else other than Jason." she spoke in her defense of asking that question, "I just wanted to ask you that you are friends with him knowing that he is popular. Does it not hurt you? You maybe are used to it, I don't know."

She had an innocent face.

Cute girl plus innocent face equals to 'you have to answer her' no matter what.

"It's not like that, I am used to it—but it still hurts. It hurts to see a kind of situation wherein you don't get things you want just because nobody recognizes. I mean, you achieve things with hard work, but friendship? — It is different. It's the bitter truth of the world that the one who is popular has tons of friends and is never pushed down to a corner, but the one who is not would never be heard. It is just like a ship whose anchor was left loose which separated it from the land and is so deep inside the sea that now the only thing visible to it is the ocean which surrounds it. What I mean is that you keep getting ignored and separated till one day where you find yourself alone and all by yourself. Just as you have water all around you but can't drink it because it is salty." I replied as I continued cleaning the floor.

"So let me guess, this the reason you started using sarcasm as to annoy people and stay alone but Jason was the only one who accepted your sarcastic gesture and remained friends with you?" she guessed it right so I smiled at her.

I never thought she was so observant. It was surprising me, as I never had someone like this in my life, someone who would address me.

"But, you should have asked your mom, making friends isn't that hard." she said curiously.

"I would have, but she passed away when I was 5 years old." I replied with a slight hesitance in my voice as I didn't want to bring that topic.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know." she replied with guilt in her tone.

"It's okay, it happened a long back." I replied.

We completed our work, and then we all went home.

Next day,

Jason, Staci, and I met at my uncle's pawn shop near the main street.

Yup, we ended up telling Staci everything about the watch and the dream. I don't know why, but she joined our little search party and to be honest, this search party didn't even knew what we were actually searching for.

We entered the shop, and I saw my uncle, a middle-aged man, muscular but balding with lampshade moustache. He was sitting in the corner waiting for us.

We approached him, Jason removed the watch from his pocket and handed it over to him.

He took a brief look at the watch and then said, "Hmm — this explains why he has this watch." while looking at the emblem.

"What? Is it real? The emblem?" I asked.

"Yes, it is" he replied with confidence, which was enough to confirm that it really was.

"Its quite rare, I see something like this brought to my shop." he said.

"Is it that precious?" asked Staci curiously.

"You see, these watches were gifted to five royal families by the king himself. Of course, when he ruled this region." he answered, "And to tell more about this, the king personally asked the watchmakers to make these watches, which makes them one of their kind. These watches were originally given to Royal pairs and they still hold on to those as souvenirs." he completed.

"Then how come he has one of those watches?" I asked

"As I said there were five Royal families had these, but the thing was not all Royal families were respected equally," he answered as pointed his finger towards the watch kept on his desk, "And this one belonged to the 'Gerads', lowest of those aristocrats,"

"By pair, you mean.." Staci was interrupted by my uncle.

"Yes, there is another one with the same kind of emblem which this one has." he said while showing the back of the watch.

After hearing everything, we thanked and started moving out.

"Kyle?" he called me. I turned around and looked at him while Jason and Staci continued walking towards the exit.

"You know what that means, right? He asked me.

"Looking at your face and the description you gave, they were a symbol of Love." I answered with a straight face.

"Not just love, but the bond. A bond which makes them meant to be." he said, "Look — I don't know how he got that, but my gut tells me that he'll find her soon."

I nodded and resumed my walk towards the exit.

"Gerad?" said Jason suspiciously.

"Yep, the one we met yesterday." supported Staci.

"Maybe, she is the one. I'll ask her," replied Jason.

He was well dressed and it looked like he was going somewhere else after our visit.

"So you got a date with her too?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah, we're meeting today at noon." he answered and then asked, "Is there a problem?"

"Nope, have an auspicious date." I encouraged.

As soon as I finished, he took off.

"Okay — kill me, kill me now." I said hesitantly, staring at Jason running towards his date. I mean, come on now, how could someone get so many dates? God, damnit. This world is so unfair.

"Tell me, why do you want a girl?" asked Staci as she laughed at me reacting.

"You should know it," I replied with an obvious reaction, "To have someone with you who doesn't judge you and will be with you all the time."

"I want the same things, but I am too afraid to confess them." she whispered to herself.

************

(Kyle's House)

"You're keeping a close eye on Kyle, right?" asked Bruce, Kyle's father.

"Yes, sire. You don't have to worry about it," replied a man with a black coat as he served a drink.

"Why would I not? He is my child," said Bruce with concern, "Make sure he doesn't overexert himself."