1 Let's use this Magical Thing to Become Rich!

Chapter 1

Damn it. This setting is all wrong. Disgusting—no, that's not it—dreadful, it's like I want to puke. I need change; I need to change this place for the better. The whole plot will crumble if I decide to keep this setting as it is. But the thing is—how am I supposed to change it? How am I supposed to find the perfect location for my story?

The setting is the first thing you decide on when writing, or it could be just me, but that's what I wanted to focus on. Without an attractive setting, the whole environment surrounding the characters you had created would become awful. Imagine this—you create the most wonderful of characters, maybe she's the protagonist or a side-character, it doesn't matter. What matters is that she's perfect, with no flaws at all. A unique backstory, dark or bright. Mind-blowing character development. Perfectly paired relationships. And most importantly, an intriguing personality. Well, I guess I always would be able to dream, but my story won't have any of those beautiful things.

Now, the setting that appeared in front of my eyes, the little harbour of my little town. In reality, it was a quaint, picturesque little harbour. That was if you sat on the bench I was sitting on and only—and I mean only—had your eyes focused on the horizon. Because the moment you turned your head around, that little quaint, picturesque harbour would turn into something only seen in a dystopian movie. It had run down, left in a state where the walls of the small wooden buildings surrounding the harbour were starting to lose their colour. No one had emptied the bin at my bench, and it was now overflowing with garbage, with the lid not able to keep it inside anymore. In a matter of days, that lid would probably become futile, and all the rubbish once stored in that bin would be flown out by the wind or perhaps investigated by the birds in the area. Well, whatever. I didn't really care. I wasn't going to use this setting anymore, anyway. There was, therefore, no need for me to focus on stupid things. Oh, and I said stupidly. I guess it was terrible letting garbage flow out into nature. The bin was there for a reason in the first place. But, whatever. It wasn't like me to care about something like that.

That Sunday afternoon ended pretty fast. I wasn't up to examining another place for the day, so I returned home. My house that was my home was located on a narrow little street. It was as suburban it could get—no, it was the mother of all suburbias. Every house had the same colour, the same layout, the same dull looking garden (even if some tried to spice it up a bit), the same driveway, the same windows, the same... I wouldn't go into more detail, but it was all the same for everyone. Hell, most people even drove the same SUV or estate car, too.

I was greeted by my two-year-younger-sister when I entered the hallway. No one else was at home, so I could relax. Just a few years ago, she'd been really loud and forward, but as she grew older, she became more like someone you actually could manage to live under the same roof with. Also, it was unusual for her to greet me like this; usually, she would just be in her room sunken into her realms of fantasies. Or whatever, I didn't have any idea what she did all weekends when she wasn't outside. It wasn't my place to ask, either, nor did I have the slightest interest in knowing. After greeting me, she started going on about what we would eat for dinner. Like I would know? Sure, our parents weren't coming home in time for dinner, so obviously we had to make it ourselves, but she was fifteen, for god's sake, it wasn't like she was unable to cook. Also, she was probably better or more suited than I was.

"Wait. Do you want me to cook, or are you just asking what we'll eat tonight?"

"I don't know," she said bluntly.

"You don't know?! Couldn't you just have thought of that before asking the question, or were you unable to?!"

"Saying 'unable' is an exaggeration. A more appropriate word would be—too lazy."

"You just admitted that you are lazy!"

"No, I didn't."

"You did!"

This is how we usually went on. It wasn't like any of us were stupid. We just enjoyed teasing each other—in rather silly ways. Rest assured that we didn't hate each other, or at least I hoped. Hey, do you hate me? I wasn't going to ask that question—it would be suicide—but I was still wondering what her answer would be. Now, if she answered with a 'yes,' I would be somewhat worried; it wasn't good for siblings to hate each other. Plus, it would be childish. I was seventeen, after all. Not me asking the question, no, but her answering it with a 'yes.' To be honest, it was probably childish to ask that question in the first place. But as I said, I wasn't considering it, so why was I still going on about it?

Let's just drop that. It's stupid.

We ended up ordering takeout that Sunday evening. I wasn't in the mood for cooking, and my little sister probably wasn't either. Oh and also, it appeared that our parents had left money for us to use, paying for the takeout food.

As I was enjoying my takeout Indonesian staple-of-cooking, Nasi Goreng, I couldn't avoid thinking about school. It was Sunday, after all, and tomorrow was the day before a rather important test. I had decided that I wanted to pursue my dream in writing, and I was therefore hoping to get into a university of literature. My grades weren't great, so a good score on this test would have a noticeable impact on my grades. I mean, even the teacher had said that, so it had to be true, right? I was hoping to get help from my more academically skilled little sister. The only problem was that she, being two years younger than me, had no idea how to solve those math problems. She was good in most other subjects, but math was a problem for even her, just like me. She'd apologised, and of course, she didn't have to do that. Her apologising was even worse, to be honest. Think of it like this—it wasn't a good feeling hearing your younger sister apologising for not being able to solve a problem when you yourself have an even harder time solving it. It's like you're being hammered into the ground, lower than anyone else. That wasn't her intention, though, I hoped. Or whatever her purpose was… Well, I guess apologising if you tried to do something and eventually failed belonged to the normal. Yeah, it made sense. Say you offered yourself to carry a couple of bags for an old lady and ended up failing to do so. Yeah, you would apologise. Not that I understood why I had used that as an example, I mean, who would not be able to carry a couple of shopping bags?

"Say, Olivia. Do you reckon I can make it on Tuesday? With the test that is…"

"I'm sorry, I'm unable to answer that question… Because it's up to you! Have you studied enough—that's what you should be asking yourself."

She had almost finished her plate of food. But when she spoke with me, she avoided doing so with food in her mouth. She knew it was disrespectful and disgusting, even. I hoped I never did so myself, either. Thankfully, no one had ever pointed it out, so I guess I was safe.

"So basically, you have no idea?" I asked.

"That's right; there's no way for me to know."

"But why is that?" I asked, without knowing what I just had asked.

"'But why is that?' Oh man, it sounds like you're actually stupider than I thought. Oh dear god," she said and held her hands together, "save my dear big brother from this stupidity."

"There's nothing to save me from!"

"Only someone who needs to be saved would say that."

I hated to admit it, but she was right. I couldn't rely on my little sister like that. First—it was weird. Second—there was no way I should expect her to be smarter than me.

I only had myself to blame. I had put myself in this position.

If I wanted to pursue a career in literature, I had to get better at the easiest of school subjects.

It might be a clique, but you should continuously pursue your dreams and never give up. Oh well, that sounded extremely clique. Hehe.

Or whatever. Cliques aren't bad, right? They exist for a reason; they're popular phenomenons. If people use them a lot, why wouldn't I be able to use them?

You know what the opposite of 'hate' is, right? I mean, it could have a couple of opposites, but the one I was thinking about was—love. That's right. I didn't have the guts to ask my sister if she hated me. But maybe…

"Hey, Olivia."

"Huh?"

"Do you love me?"

Now that I think about it, it was a weird question. Or more so inappropriate. I had no reason to ask that question. It just sorta' came out or something. As with nearly all stupid questions, a smart answer came in return. Or was it smart? Ahh, I had to decide that later on.

"Love is a rather strong word—it's a word usually used by lovers. We aren't that sort of thing, Ethan, no matter how much you'd like it to be so."

"I never said I wanted it to be like that. Just forget about it!"

"Well, you were the one saying it…"

"I meant—what I wanted to ask you was if you cared about me."

"What kind of stupid question is that?"

"Do you want me to pass the test or not?!"

"Indirectly—yes. And what I mean is that you passing the test doesn't hold any real value for me. It's not going to make me a better person, nor will it help me with my studies. However, while I don't really care, you passing the test would increase the morale in this house, essentially creating a better mood in our family. Though, as I specified earlier, you passing the test doesn't hold any sentimental value for me."

"So you don't care at all, do you?"

"You're spot on!"

And with that, she left the kitchen table to return to her room where she'd come from. She didn't even bother to dispose of the one-use cutlery and plates, nor did she say "the food was good" or "we should order from them again." Well, if she disliked the food, she wouldn't have said that, but the probability of a "this sucks" or a "this is disgusting" was even likelier in that situation. Ah man, she probably thought I was weird after that conversation and wanted to distance herself. Not that I cared, though. I wasn't going to get any help either way.

After cleaning the kitchen table from the mess my little sister had made, I went upstairs to my room. My room was so ordinary that even if you tried really hard to see it, it didn't look like a boy's room at all. Not that I knew what a "boy's room" looked like… because I never had one. Or you could say I had one—because I was a boy—but not one of the ordinary ones you see in tv-shows and films—no, none of that ordinary boring stuff. But wait, my room was therefore extraordinarily ordinary because it really looked like any room. One could even guess that it was a hotel room. It had plain white walls, an oak-coloured roof, and a wooden floor. That wooden floor had suffered a lot from my constant "banging on the floor" with my feet. I thought it was a perfect way to get your anger out. Instead of banging your fragile plywood desk, you could just bang the floor. The floor could withstand a bed and a bookshelf with over 500 books—so why couldn't it handle a mere kick?

I woke up on Monday at the same time as I always did on weekdays. The alarm rang at 7:30. I was dressed at 7:35, skipped breakfast and left my home when the clock showed 7:40. I took a pleasant walk through the suburbs of my town and arrived at Scarlett City High School at 7:55. Thus, I had 5 minutes to spare before morning class started. I usually just went straight on my phone during those 5 minutes, scrolling through the news or whatever had happened the last night. However, I was often interrupted by the girl who sat behind me.

"How's your weekend been? Boring as always, I suppose," she said with a giggle.

"What do you know," I muttered.

Kogy—that was her name. I couldn't quite remember what her surname was, though. Maybe it was an insult in itself not knowing the surname of the person sitting behind you in class. But what did I know? Frankly, I didn't care.

"I invited you out, remember? But as always, you declined and said, 'do you take me for someone who hangs out?' You're a boring person. You know that, Ethan. No wonder you're depressed. Gloomy-looking E-than."

"Why do you have to say my name like that? And no, I'm not depressed!"

"You know, gloomy-looking E-than…"

"Drop that name already!"

"Hmm. I needed a catchphrase, or perhaps, a punchline. Don't you think 'gloomy-looking E-than' is good enough?"

"Everything is wrong with that name. Don't call me that!"

"So what should I call you then? Depressing-looking E-E-E-E-E-than?"

"Koooooooooooogy…"

Our conversation came to an end when the teacher, who'd been silently reading the newspaper behind her desk, decided to start speaking. She began our homeroom lesson—you know, the utterly unnecessary lesson. Or I guess it involved important stuff sometimes—, but that was only at some times. The word sometimes was also the one one could use when they wanted to describe the amount of times I talked to people besides this one person who was sitting behind me in class. Don't get me wrong. I wasn't a loner. It's just that I didn't have any interest in people at all. They always seemed to have something on their mind, so I decided to not bother making friends with any. If a person wanted to befriend me, I would gladly accept—unless they were like Kogy, then I would never accept them as my friend. She was merely an acquaintance, more like a pain in the back (literally) or a nuisance.

I think my way of thinking proved that I had massive respect for people's private lives. I wondered if it could get me far in life. Probably not, though; they always said you needed to be social, or else you would never become someone.

I guess I just describe someone who definitely is a loner—

That's not me, though.

Class just happened to end right in the middle of my monologue, giving me little to no time to be able to compress those feelings inside of me. It wouldn't get any better, either, because Kogy approached me from behind. She slammed her left hand in my back.

"Errk."

"Since you declined my offer of doing something yesterday, we should do something today, or are you against it again?"

"I don't have time," I said, "don't forget the test we're having tomorrow."

"Ah, right. Dang… the test."

"Don't tell me you've forgotten about it…"

"No, no, not at all. I have the memory of a—what is it again? A goldfish?"

"That's surprisingly accurate."

"Okay, so let's say I didn't study, hypothetical that is. We could form a study group!"

"It's a bit late for that. Plus, who would want to study with someone like you?"

"Okay, maybe it's too late. But, let's say we study together after school today. What do you think of that?"

I guess it was okay; her academic ability was—even if she'd forgotten to study—way above mine.

"I guess we could do that…"

"Great! After school, kay'?" she said ecstatically.

"Don't go thinking we'll do it at my place, though."

"Ahh, but come one," she said, now sarcastically disappointed. It definitely wasn't a lie that she tried to toy with me and get approval for the idea that we should study at my place.

"Why can't we just be at your place instead?"

I'd never been at Kogy's place, nor had I ever been invited. Maybe she didn't want people to visit her or something. I didn't think she had any terrifyingly scary parents or anything like that, no. Was she scared of bringing home people of the male gender? Nah, probably not. Because I'd never seen her bring any of her girl friends home, either, not that I knew for sure, though. I wasn't exactly stalking her—no, she was probably the one stalking me.

"Because—" she said, "because it's so—messy."

"Now that's a straight-up lie!"

"No, it's not," she said with a blush.

But it definitely was—it was a definite lie. Her room wasn't messy, I could tell right away when she said it. The way she phrased it and the way it was implemented into the conversation… she gave it away all too easily. She was a terrible actress and a terrible liar, too.

Whatever. I just proposed that we visited a cafe instead. She seemed to give in, even if she exuded some deep kind of will to visit my house.

"Erkk, ahoo. What are you doing?!"

She started to slam her hand into my back over and over again, you know, the way you do it when you're trying to save someone from choking.

"Just view it as a sign of appreciation," she said with a laugh, "and as punishment for not inviting me to your house."

And with that, our conversation ended for that break. She headed off to her class, and I went to mine (we didn't always have the same one). A familiar feel lingered back in my mind as I sat down once again. Why did I agree to this?

Because there was no way I would've ever considered it being worth it if I'd been in a right state of mind. No, it wasn't worth it—not at all. Sure, I got to study… But I could do that alone—I could ask for help from someone else, too. Yet, I had agreed to it… Why? Am I this easily deceived by a girl to form a study group (of 2 people that is)?

It couldn't be it—there had to be some other reason.

A reason, I couldn't put my finger on just yet.

"Oh, there you are."

I was once again approached from behind by Kogy. I was looking to leave school a bit earlier that day, so I wouldn't need to have her following me. There was no way I would follow along on her proposals. No, not a chance.

Of course, I ended up being convinced once again.

"You noticed what I tried to do right there, didn't you?" I asked, vexed.

"Uhm, not really. Wait! Do you mean that you purposely left class a few minutes earlier so that you could avoid me? No, I never noticed that. Plus, you aren't that type of person… Or are you?"

Crap, she saw right through me. But I guess I already had confessed. I wasn't innocent; I had lied to her. But her knowing about it made me feel a bit better. It's just that if she never had catched on to me when I left early, we wouldn't have ended up in this dire situation.

Right, that's it—I just had to turn her down. No matter how hard that would be…

"Listen," I said, "I think we should call this 'study group'-thingy off."

"Hmm, how come?"

"I'm just afraid it won't work, that's all."

"How are you so sure it won't work when you haven't even tried having me as your study partner?"

"Uuh, when you say 'partner' it sounds like we're going out…"

And then suddenly, she for some reason decided that our normal walk from school together would turn into a lovey-dovey-couple walking down the pavement headed for a date. She grabbed my left arm and held on to it steadily. I looked her straight in the eyes, and she did the same.

"What's the meaning of this?"

Because of the height difference, her chest pressed against the left side of my body. It was admittedly above average, and hadn't it been that we were walking in public, with a lot of people from our school walking around us, I would probably try to keep her in that position. I hated to admit it, but the feeling of those two cushions pressed against the side of my body wasn't all that bad.

Kogy—she wasn't an academically skilled person.

Yet—she wanted to tutor me…

"Is this what you picture when you say 'going out'? Because then—you're spot on. We are outside, and we are walking, essentially, we're going out. Don't ya' think?"

"That's an utterly flawed idea of a couple going out. I'm afraid, even."

"How cute! You actually care about me!"

"No. I'm definitely not," I said to try and correct myself, "I'm just pointing out potential flaws in your warped personality, that's all. Consider it a gift, a sense of gratitude for you tutoring me."

Yeah, her personality was certainly flawed. Kogy's personality couldn't simply handle society. Or… maybe it was the other way around. Perhaps society couldn't keep up with Kogy?

After a little while, we arrived at the cafe the two of us had agreed on—at least we could agree on something, after all. It was a small, family owned cafe. Nothing like the big chains you see in the big cities. We lived in a rather small town after all, it wasn't like the big chains could make a profit if they opened up a shop here.

I decided to avoid any sweet-sugary stuff and just ordered myself a cup of black tea. I didn't bother asking for any milk, even if it tasted bitter. I wondered if the cafe owner would become angry at us, because after all, we were high school students who took up valuable space in the cafe. Sure, it was okay for us to sit and have our tea, but we were supposed to leave after that, right? Others wanted to have a seat as well, and considering that the cafe was quite small, our table which we currently occupied would probably become more sought after later in the afternoon. But… At least for a while, we could sit down and do whatever studying we were supposed to do. If I knew her right, though, we probably wouldn't study at all.

And with that inner thinking—I was spot on.

"You did bring your books?" I asked as I put mine on the table.

"Aha, so you thought we were going to study… I hate to break it to you, but I was lying."

She said that with a grin on her face, it was truly the highest point of teasing. I wasn't to lose so easily, though, no—I fought back.

"You know, you can do whatever you want," I said and brought out my headphones. "Because I… will not listen to you. Ha ha, you didn't see that one coming, did you?"

"Hmph. If it's going to be that way—" She quickly grabbed my phone I'd placed beside my cup of tea. She flashed it in the air, trying to tease me even more. I wasn't having any of it, though.

"You didn't see that one coming, d-d-d-did you?"

"Why stutter on purpose?"

"It makes my quips more impactful, don't ya think?"

"No, it makes you sound like you have disfluency!"

Our conversation was plain and simple, and therefore she'd almost succeeded with her goal—to not make me study. Luckily, I still had time to get on the right track. I wasn't going to lose to Kogy, there wasn't a possibility in the entire world.

Hey, I also managed to reclaim my phone, which she had carelessly put away on the side of the table. It was on the brink of falling to the ground, if that had been the case I would make sure she'd be in charge of any repair costs.

But I guess I was moving closer to victory.

The victory we both sought after—Kogy didn't want to study, I wanted to.

Or well, that was a complete lie. I didn't necessarily want to study, but anything is better than listening to her chitchat.

"Please," I begged her, "focus."

"Please," she mimicked, "focus—on not studying."

"Ah, come on. Stop it!"

"Ah, come on. Stop it—with the studying!"

This conversation more or less was similar to the ones I had with my little sister. They were sarcastically bad, dull, and most importantly—unimportant.

Why did she want to hang out with me this badly? It wasn't like she showed any romantic feelings towards me. No, I couldn't quite understand her reasoning. I'd understood it if she wanted to study, but she had lied. Couldn't she just ask one of her girl friends if they wanted to join her or something?

"This tea is really good," she said and took a big slurp, so loud that the people sitting next to us turned their eyes towards us.

"You're not even drinking tea. The contents of that cup is two thirds milk…"

"Since when did you become a purist?"

We'd gotten off track again—correction, I'd gotten off track, Kogy was probably enjoying this more than anything else. I needed to focus on my goal and not lose.

"But ahh, man, I can't take it… Tea is just too bitter for my palate and tongue."

"Then don't drink it?"

"What else am I supposed to drink if I want to look grown up?"

So she was one of those…

"Have you ever considered the black gold?"

"Do you want me to die?"

Deep down, I probably wanted her to.

"What do you mean?" I asked, perplexed.

"Well, considering the amount, crude oil can be lethal."

"I meant coffee, you idiot!"

"Aha. No, that wouldn't work; too bitter. I'd rather drink crude oil in that case."

She was a monster, a terrifying creature.

My cup of tea was finished. I was considering heading over to the counter and ordering another one, but I wanted to get away from here as soon as possible, so it was out of the question. No, I would just stick around until she'd finish her plate of pastries, so I was still showing some manners, even if I was on the brink of raging hard right now.

"You know," she said, and contrary to the way she was drinking her tea, now took a small bite from her pastry to try and extend its length, and thus, the time with me as well. "This pastry is rather good."

"It does look good, I'll admit that."

"So why didn't you get one for yourself? Did you think I wouldn't be able to finish and that you would get to taste mine?"

"No, I didn't. Don't take me for some stingy person!"

"Relax. I can treat you if you want one."

"As I said—if I wanted one, I would've ordered one!"

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden? We just had a nice talk, but now, you've gotten quite moody. I guess everyone has that side of theirs."

I wondered what she meant by "that side of theirs." It wasn't like I had a different-personality disorder or anything like that, no matter how cool it sounded.

"Nothing's gotten into me. As a matter of fact, I've been like this all the time."

"So you say…"

Exactly—that was exactly what I had said. I didn't intend to lie to Kogy, I was just here for the studying, but had been failing miserably.

No, miserably was an understatement.

"Okay," she said, "I'm going to get some more tea. You don't want any, I suppose."

Now that she said it, and I'd be stuck here for longer, there was no reason for me to decline. But she wasn't going to treat me—no, I'd pay for my own beverages.

I looked at her when she walked back from the counter, having her hands occupied with both of her new cups of tea. Her short brown hair was wavering in her movement, and her skirt, which was part of our school's uniform, seemingly kept the rhythm.

"You know… I've been waiting for a while…"

What do you mean? Waiting for what? Her voice was lowered slightly, and I could definitely tell that she was embarrassed. What was she going to say? Was I getting confessed to right there and now?

Obviously not.

"You're in the making of a movie, right?" she asked.

"I think you've got it wrong…"

Wait a minute, she must've assumed that I intended to make a movie, while I in reality only was gathering information for a novel I wanted to write. Whatever, I had to explain that to her later. However, what bugged me was how she knew about it. Technically speaking, I wasn't trying to keep it a secret. If someone came up to me and asked "are you writing a novel?" I wouldn't have lied and said "no." But you know, why tell anyone? If someone wants to know, they are free to ask, simple as that.

She must've heard from my sister—that's the only way, because she was the only one who knew.

"You're telling me I spent all this time with you, and that you're not making a movie?"

"Ouch, that's rather harsh coming from you. I thought we were friends," I said, trying to be as funny and sarcastic as possible. I don't think I failed, either.

"So what are you making then? It has to be something, because Olivia told me—"

"Did she say that I wanted to make a movie?"

"Exactly," she said bluntly and crossed her arms.

I had to take care of that later—or, rather, ask why she'd lied.

"I intend to write a novel," I said, "a piece of fiction that only needs one person to create."

Well, you needed editors and such, too, but I don't think Kogy knew about that stuff.

"I have a proposal," Kogy said with a smug look, "why not make it into a movie instead?"

"That's out of the question."

"But why?"

"Because I intend to write a novel, nothing else. If you want to make a movie, ask some of your friends. I have no idea how to make one; I don't know how to edit, I don't know how to film, I don't know how to write scripts…"

"Do you think I know any of that stuff?" she asked with a serious tone.

She was right. She needed expertise on how to make one. After all, I was a mere amatuer when it came to fictional writing in the first place. But, would that matter? It wasn't going to be a masterpiece of a move if they managed to complete it. There was probably zero to nothing in budget, lack of any professional actors, and an airhead like Kogy directing… It would all turn into a mess. At least a good script could solve some parts.

Wait, I was seriously considering helping Kogy out.

Whatever, I guess I could—as long as it didn't impact my own work, that's to say.

We remained quiet a while after that, before I stated my proposal.

"Okay. Say that we make a movie—I write the script, you do the directing, because that's how you want it to be, right? You're not going to be an actress or anything?"

"That's right," she said ecstatically.

"So who's acting anyway?"

"I don't know," she said, once again, bluntly.

She'd come and ask me to write a script, and yet she had no idea who would be acting. Isn't that something you consider in the first place?!

Wait—

"What type of script do you intend to make me write?"

"An erotic romance."

"Huh?!"

I wasn't having any of that. If she was going to make that type of movie she could go and find herself some other script-writer. Besides, who in their right mind would act in such a movie. If she was going to ask some of her friends to act, they would probably run away when they heard about what they were supposed to do.

She was a high school student who wanted to make an erotic romance movie. She was an amatuer—it would turn out to be some amatuer-porno.

Crazy thoughts.

"Relax, it won't feature any smutty scenes."

Still—

" I was against it from the beginning, even without knowing what type of movie it would be, but now this, ha ha, there's no way."

"Are you sure? I'm willing to pay, you know."

So she had a budget, after all…

"....."

"So… What type of novel are you writing?"

"I'm glad you asked that question, because I will tell you!"

I probably sounded extremely motivated and extremely cringe.

"I'm making—a dark fantasy."

"That's dull."

"Huh?"

She was starting to piss me off more and more. Could this girl shut her mouth?

Yeah! That's exactly what she had to do—shut her damn mouth and finish her tea and pastries so I could leave. Well, I could leave now, but with keeping up with good manners, I decided to stay a bit longer.

It was apparent even now—I had already lost.

She'd steered me away from the subject which we'd agreed on earlier this day. I hadn't had the chance to study even the slightest. She was just going on and on about that stupid idea of hers, and also, teasing me in ways that a three-year-old would find stupidly awkward. Imagine if someone actually got offended by her teasing. Now that would be the event of a century. That person couldn't hope to sustain themselves in the social society for any more than a day.

She had simply taken the idea of me scoring an E or higher on the test away from me.

Abruptly—away from me.

I hated it so much—I hated her so much!

I was nearly offended when she'd said that dark fantasy was dull. Exactly who does she think she is? A literary critic? A nobel literary prize winner?

"I'm curious," I said after calming myself down a bit, "what part of dark fantasy do you find 'dull'?"

"Pretty much everything."

"Have you ever had the chance to read one—wait, you don't read books—have you ever had the chance to watch a dark fantasy movie?"

"They exist? Also, I've read plenty of books to be able to state an opinion…"

"Is that so?" I said slowly.

What possible book could she have read. If she was a movie-fanatic, maybe she was into books that had received movie-adaptations. There wasn't exactly a lack of books being adapted into movies. I wondered if she was one of the people that actually decided to watch the movie first, then read the book, and not the other way around. It was a sin, really.

I have to admit it—movies aren't exactly terrible. There are masterpieces, like with everything that's fiction. Simply put, if it's fiction, it doesn't matter in what media form—it can always be good; books, movies, series, games, visual novels, comics… the list can be made long.

"Let's say I agreed on your little movie—"

"Yes, I would pay you 20% of the earnings."

She said it like she was going to make money out of it. I tried to hold myself from laughter. Well, maybe she was planning to show it at the school's auditorium, with an admission of like 2 pounds, it was definitely worth it. 40 pence per person… 100 people—that would make me 40 quid richer. It wasn't much, but the project would probably last a mere 1 week, and fail miserably, too. It was worth it.

"I'll do it," I said.

"No way."

Apparently, I was easy to manipulate—or should I say—bribe.

"Now then," I said and took a sip from my tea, "who's acting? Have you come up with someone yet, or are you having trouble finding out?"

"You say it like you have someone in mind," she said, vexed.

"No no, not at all," I assured her.

Maybe it sounded like a lie, but I didn't know a single person that could be suited for a role in this movie we were going to make. Hell, we didn't even have a script, and not to mention a story. It wasn't easy looking around for potential actors when you couldn't even tell them the premise of the movie you were trying to make. Not to mention that I didn't know anyone at the school besides Kogy and a couple of guys in my class, and I had barely spoken to them lately, either. It wasn't like they were abandoning me—no, it was more like I was the one keeping my distance. They probably wondered why I had spaced off the last couple of weeks, well I wondered, too. It was rather harsh; I didn't know why I'd spaced off, either.

But enough about my so-called social life.

"Well, I do be having someone in mind," she said.

"Really?" I said slowly. It really sounded like I didn't believe her.

"Yes, really… Do you know who Melicia Hurdle is? That redhead in class 2F. You know, the one with those massive bangs and pigtails. She's rather short, too, I think."

"Red hair, massive bangs, pigtails, short… I think—no I know—"

"Spit it out!"

"Why so angry all of a sudden?"

"You're making it into a joke or something. I can tell."

"Now that would be a big ass lie," I said and chuckled.

"The thing that's a 'big ass lie' here is that you don't know who Melicia Hurdle is, right? You're just making things up, aren't you? You're just trying to pretend to know her, don't you? You're just being annoying, or are you not?"

Hmm, she was certainly throwing those hypothetical questions around. I couldn't help but release a little giggle as I tried to calm her down. In fact, I was getting rather comfortable during this afternoon out with Kogy. You couldn't call it a date, not at all. I hated her, she probably hated me—no, that's not right, she teased me.

But the teasing she was practicing was all nothing but a failure.

But I guess coming from the one who's been teased, you should take that with a grain of salt.

"Okay," I said, "I don't know this Melicia Hurdle, albeit that's a funny surname."

"Hey! Don't make fun of her surname. She would be perfect in the leading role. I can tell, because I'm her friend."

I'd never seen Kogy walk around with this girl who had massive bangs and pigtails. But then again, I didn't really care who Kogy was friends with, so it made sense in the end.

"I'm going to ask her tomorrow, and you are coming with me!" she said and stared into my eyes. She looked frightening, so if I didn't want to be murdered on an open street tonight, I sure had to go with her.

"Sure, I can come with. It will be rather amusing seeing you fail, though."

"She's my friend, I'm sure she'll listen to me and do what I say. She's getting paid, too."

"Ha ha, you actually think she's going to agree to act in a movie which doesn't even have a storyline nor a script yet? Wishful thinking…"

"That's fine, though."

"Huh?"

"Well, it's 5 PM now. So if my calculation is right, you have about 15 hours until school starts tomorrow. You better hurry!"

Sigh. She decided to pay the bill, too. The bill which I swore to not let her pay my part of. Now, there wasn't a chance that I could possibly finish a script in a mere 15 hours. But I could certainly try and think of a storyline. However, I'd never thought on how to create an erotic romance before. All my experience—if you could call it that—was from writing fan fictions to dark fantasy-novels.

Then I realised—what if I combined Kogy's lewd idea and my epic dark fantasy genre. It would make for the best romance, action-packed movie ever. Sure, we had a limited budget, but there was always piracy. Plus, I knew a guy who was pretty good with special effects.

Wait, I started to get rather into this.

What was going on?

Did I seriously want to make a movie?

No—I just wanted to create a script, that's it.

I exited the cafe with Kogy following me closely, we said our goodbyes and left in two complete opposite directions. It wasn't really a vexed goodbye, but it could need some improvement, especially if we were to be film-making partners the upcoming months. First I thought of calling her out, saying "you cheated." But what do I know, for better or worse, she hadn't considered this a game at all. I wondered why I had, though. Was it that I hated losing? And especially to her.

Well, whatever.

I ping-ponged some ideas in my head. Some were rather rubbish, some better. 5 cups of tea later, the clock turned to 10 and Olivia knocked on my door. I decided to go and open it instead of just yelling "come in." I could absolutely do with stretching my legs after I'd been thinking of potential scenarios for the last 4 hours.

The door, which opened outwards, smashed into Olivia's face.

"Erk."

"Oopsie…"

"You did that on purpose! Didn't you?" she yelled.

Sure, after living in this room for more than 10 years, I knew that that door opened outwards. But come one, that made it even more fun. Seeing her suffer a bit made the day for me.

I couldn't constrain myself and started laughing.

"You couldn't at least try to not laugh?" she said and massaged her nose.

"Well, ha ha… I guess I could, when I think about it."

I blocked the doorway, but she apparently decided that my room was unrestricted to intruders and squeezed past me.

"What do you want?"

"I just wondered if you'd met with Kogy earlier today."

"Why do you wonder? And more importantly, why do you know?"

"So you met up with her, after all. To be honest, I thought you were going to avoid it—because you do, you always avoid interacting."

"Don't say it like I'm some sociopath!"

She turned to my computer which was located on a desk. Instead of sitting down on the chair she bent down; that couldn't have been good for her spine. She already knew what I was up to, so there was no need trying to stop her. As I said before, I never tried to keep my writing a secret to anyone, if someone wanted to know, I would tell them—or in this case, show them.

Well, for now, the only ones who knew were my sister and Kogy, but I guess that girl Melicia would soon know, too.

Why were they all girls?

"This is pretty rubbish," Olivia said as she continued scrolling through the 20 pages or so I'd written.

"I guess you'd do the job better then."

"I never said that. All I said was that I think it's bad, not even a child would take enjoyment out of this."

"You're really motivating, you know that, right?"

"I know I am. Plus, it's my duty as your sister to motivate you, don't you think?"

"I guess," I murmured.

"So redo it!" she yelled and left the room.

Of course, there was no way I was going to rewrite it tonight. If Kogy was as delusional as she appeared, she probably wouldn't notice that my script was half-bad. However, what scared me was this girl Melicia, I had no idea if she was into literature or if she could tell if a story was bad. Well, apparently my fifteen-year-old sister could, so there was a high probability that she could, too.

The next day I woke up at the usual time. I did my normal routine which included making my bed (I know right? Pretty awesome), dressing myself in my uniform and doing all the necessary things in the bathroom. I avoided breakfast, I didn't have time nor was I hungry. Without talking to anyone at home, I set off outside towards school. I did have a bike, but in regards to the rather warm spring, I avoided using it. Walking didn't take much longer and it felt better for the body as well. Plus, I wasn't going to be drenched in sweat when I arrived at school. Because no matter how cold it was outside, I always got warm when I cycled.

Our school's May ceremony was coming up next week. With it came the May break, a week of peace and quiet and time off school. I could focus on other things—for example, the movie. Because the faster we got it done, the better. Yeah, I was really looking forward to May break—not so much to the ceremony, though, it was a pain to say the least. Last year's May break I actually had rather fun. It was before the times when people started to say that I was "spacing out" and stuff like that. I and two of my friends went on a trip to the capital in our country. We did some shopping, some sightseeing, and some going to restaurants. All in all, we had a really good time together.

Those days were now gone.

However, I would probably be able to ask them if they wanted to go on a trip sometime again.

Or did they think I now was being weird?

Was that the reasoning for them avoiding me or—

—no, I was the one avoiding them.

I probably had to try and stabilise my relationship with people. After all, I had less than one and a half years before going to university, so some social interaction could end up being for the better, right?

Oh well, I asked that question to myself as if I wanted to do something like that. Of course, I didn't have the slightest interest, so why had I asked that question inside my monologue? I was the only one who could answer such a question, and surprise—I couldn't.

I was already caught up in this movie-making-thingy and didn't have any spare time to invest in socialising with other people. Well, I got to speak to a girl, and perhaps, one more, too.

Why are they all girls?

There surely had to be some male actors in the movie as well. Oh, come to think about it, I was the one writing the script, so I had free roam, right? Free roam—that sounds nice. Of course, my script was rubbish from the very start, but a few improvements here and there and it would turn out to be a respectable piece of amatuer movie script.

I entered the school building, it housed numerous students from the years 1 to 3, with the youngest ones being fifteen and the eldest nineteen. It had seven classes per year, with around 25 students in each class. That summed up to around 500 students scattered across the three grades at our school—in other words, it was pretty large.

The door to the classroom opened with a squeak, so much that Kogy, who was sitting at the table behind my seat, turned her eyes to me. She smiled and then returned to looking down to her phone. The class was about half-full when I sat down, waiting for the teacher to arrive. Five minutes left, like usual.

I could feel someone's hand poking me in the back. I turned around and found Kogy talking in a quiet voice.

"Have you finished your script yet?"

"If you thought fifteen hours was enough, then you're a maniac. However, I've got an idea and have written down a few pages for you to read. I'll hand them over to you during lunch break."

"I guess that's to be expected… But, we're seeing Melicia after school today—and you're coming with."

"Fine," I muttered.

And with the ending of that short conversation, our teacher arrived and began class. We didn't do much, so I took the time to study on—

But wait.

This was bad.

No it wasn't bad, it was fine… but it was bad. Hmm, I hadn't studied at all last night. The test was scheduled for the lesson after lunch break. If I failed it, I would have to redo it some time later—I didn't want that, but I guess it was inevitable at this stage.

Damn it. How could I be so stupid and forget about something like that?

I was indeed stupid, so stupid in fact, that I couldn't even answer one of my teacher's simplest questions. I imagined everyone in class laughing when I gave the wrong answer, but they didn't. They did pity me? Well, if they did, I would probably care… just a little bit.

I didn't want attention at all.

I wanted to be known as—unknown.

Now that I think about it, it sounds rather depressing. But what can I say? I might be a depressing-looking person, however, I certainly didn't feel that way myself. And that was a good thing, too… I think.

First lesson ended with me trying hard to study for the test and not doing what I actually was supposed to. Thankfully, though, the teacher didn't notice. We had a short break before the lesson prior to the lunch break, most people exited the classroom to hang out in the hallways or do something else, but I remained. I found myself alone in the classroom with three other people. I didn't know any of them, but I'd at least spoken to two of them. The third person, however, remained a mystery for me. Or I say a mystery but in reality it probably is just a normal person, it's just that I hadn't spoken to him that made him mysterious.

After doing the same thing the next lesson, too—studying for the test—I left for a much-deserved lunch break. At first, I had no idea that it would turn out into an abnormal lunch break, one where I didn't get to eat my lunch…

"Come on, we're heading this way!" Kogy yelled at me when I left.

"Why? Isn't Melicia also having lunch right now?"

"She does… But we've agreed on a spot to talk, so we're not disturbed inside of the cafeteria."

I guess that made sense.

We headed for the agreed-on place at a normal pace. Kogy, who was the one knowing the location, took the lead. We passed our old homeroom-classroom which we'd been in during our first year. It looked almost identical to the one we had now, only a bit smaller. We walked down the stairs and exited through the east side-entrance and left the main building. The cold spring weather immediately catched my attention; it was cold, really cold.

"Where are we heading?" I asked.

"You'll see," she said with a smile.

I looked behind me and spotted the main building in all its might. It was really big with four floors stretching from the ground to the top. Sometimes, we were allowed to enter the roof-top terrace. This was almost only during special events the school held, though. I'd been there once during my first year, during the christmas ceremony. We set off a bunch of Khom loys for some reason. To our side lay the sports building, it housed a number of courts for recreational activities. There was a table tennis room, an all-purpose arena suited for basketball, floorball, football, and tennis as well as a smaller room for the likes of gymnastics, dance, and yoga. It was well fitted with the latest technology, hell, it even featured a fully-fledged gym.

Kogy opened the door and we entered the main hallway. It was entirely quiet and no one was to be seen. I guess no classes were running since it was the middle of lunch break.

To our left in the long hallway lay a door labeled HALL C2. Kogy pushed the handle down and opened the door. At first glance, the run-down little sports hall was completely empty, but to the left sat a girl on a yoga mat.

It was indeed—Melicia.

But she was nothing like Kogy had described her. Sure, she had red hair—but it was deep crimson red. Sure, she had pigtails—but they were extremely elegant and breathtaking. And sure, she had huge bangs extending down below her eyes, but it was something in the way she starred straight across the room through them, that made them beautiful.

She sat cross-legged on that teal yoga mat with her hands together, and began speaking:

"Gaaah! You brought someone else!"

What's up with that, I wondered.

"Oh no… You've got to see me like this. I'm so embarrassed… Please don't tell anyone, I beg you!"

Instead of sitting cross-legged like she used to, she was now on her knees, bowing for us. I couldn't avoid getting a bit embarrassed myself. It wasn't always someone begged you for forgiveness. Then again, it was probably I and Kogy who had to apologise, apparently we were early.

"I'm terribly sorry," I said and tried to sound convincing.

"That's…" Kogy began, "why were you doing yoga just now? If you get so embarrassed about it, why not do it some other time?"

"It's not like you said you were bringing someone else," she said, vexed.

Apparently I was there only half-invited, if you could call it that. Had Kogy really lied? Or had she just forgotten to tell her that I was coming? The earlier was probably the more obvious answer.

Kogy, not even trying to apologise, gave away an agitate sound.

"This," she said and pointed at me, "is our dear scriptwriter."

Why'd you have to add "dear?"

"Pleasure to meet you," Melicia said in a polite tone. She had managed to calm herself down rather quickly. Impressive, I thought.

I took out the 30 or so pages I kept in my rucksack and handed them over to Melicia. She immediately began reading. After only reading about 4 of them, she put them down on the yoga mat.

"This is awful," she said bluntly.

Oh god, my worst fears had come true. The fear of being scolded for my script—by her.

"I expected you to say that…"

"Then why not redo it?"

I gave Kogy a demonic look. Implying that she was the one who had demanded me to write a script in less than a day. She answered back with putting her feet together and whistling quietly into the air, like it was some kind of kids movie.

"Ask her!" I then said.

I didn't expect her to follow my demand… She turned to Kogy.

"Why hasn't he redone the script?"

Third-person… It was like I wasn't there at all.

"Ohm, well… Eh."

"She wanted me to do it in less than 15 hours," I chimed in.

Melicia looked perplexed, like she didn't understand the situation at all—or perhaps, maybe she showed sympathy for me? Well, I didn't deserve it. But then again, seeing Kogy hurting was always a good sight.

"So," Melicia began, "in place of Kogy, I'd like to apologise to you—wait what's your name?"

"Ethan. Ethan Coombe," I answered.

A chuckle could be heard from Kogy, standing next to me. Melicia gave her a glare and continued her apology.

"As I said, I'm terribly sorry."

"No no, there's no need for you to apologise because of Kogy's stupidity."

"Now that's a big fat lie," Kogy, who'd almost been alienated from our conversation, muttured. "Who's going to fail the test we're having after this break, huh?"

Kogy, now trying to exaggerate—at least according to me—continued:

"That's right," she yelled and pointed towards me, "you're the one who's going to fail. Not me. Not Melicia. You!"

Wow, slow down, I wanted to tell her. But seeing the state she was currently in, I refrained. Doing so would probably be the end of me. She would probably go and fetch a baseball bat from the storage room and smash it into my head. I'd probably end up in the hospital—or worse, dead. I think Melicia wanted to say something similar, too, but she was as understanding of the situation as I was.

I think I had managed to get Melicia on my side, revolting against Kogy. Not that that was my plan in the beginning—no, I wasn't that smart to come up with something like that. But now that it turned out this way, I couldn't be anything but happy.

As such, I believed we'd managed to form some sort of friendship… Much to Kogy's dislike, as it appeared.

Yeah, Kogy wasn't happy with the situation at all. Like a crybaby she slammed the handle to the door and walked out of the hall, leaving with steps that sounded like an elephant's.

"There she goes…" Melicia said in a calm manner.

"Is she always like this?" I asked.

"You know… I'll tell you something. We've known each other since middle school now. I believe we've become more than friends, if you could call it that."

"Wait a minute… Romantically?"

"No no, not that. It's just like when we have a fight, every fight resolves itself. Before when we used to fight, we wouldn't talk to each other for over weeks at times. It was really painful when you think about it."

"I can imagine…"

"But now," she continued, "now, I bet I could just walk up to her after school and say that everything is OK. Do you know what they say? They say that siblings can fight a lot, because they know they can't lose each other—because they're siblings."

"So you feel like your relationship to Kogy is like a siblings-thingy?"

Melicia nodded. Then she turned her eyes, which she'd kept down towards the yoga mat when she spoke, up to me.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why I opened up to you like this. We've barely talked before—actually, I think we've never talked before."

She was right, I'd never talked to her. I hadn't even noticed her at school before, something which was weird, because she was extremely cute in her own way. But then again, not noticing people was kind of my expertise.

"I'm sorry," she said, "but I have to ask one more question… Do you think I can ameliorate my relationship to Kogy, or would it be futile?"

As much I wanted to answer that question, I knew I couldn't. I could lie, sure, but seeing this girl—Melicia—in despair made me not.

I had to preserve that smile—no, she didn't have a smile.

I had to preserve Melicia—as the friend of Kogy.

My new made friend.

"There's no way I can answer such a sensitive and personal question… I'm sorry, I can't help you."

"I figured. It was stupid of me to ask such a question in the first place. Just forget about it, will you?"

I gave her a nod.

"So…" I began, "are you on even if the script's terrible?"

"Oh my, I've been 'on' ever since Kogy asked me—or rather, threatened me."

What's that idiot now done? I better talk to her before the day ends. She doesn't deserve to be the director if this is her way of recruiting people. First, bribing me with money. Second, threatening poor Melicia. It wasn't okay—it wasn't okay at all.

"Oh, actually. I think I might know someone who could do the script."

"What am I supposed to do then? There's no way I'm acting, not even a chance!"

"Relax, I'm not asking you to act. But I believe it would be good for you to work alongside a pro, because this script is utter garbage… Sorry," she said politely.

There was nothing for Melicia to be sorry about. I knew very well that the script was rubbish. She said a 'pro.' Who could it possibly be? Apparently Melicia knew this 'pro,' so getting this person along on this project wasn't a distant dream… I guess. Besides, it could be good for my future writing if I got help from someone more experienced.

"Who's this 'pro' you're talking about then?"

"Oh, I think you know who it is…"

I probably had no idea…

"Everleigh," she said, "Everleigh Tilbury."

I'd never heard of that name.

"Who's that?"

"Oh, she's one grade above us. I'm surprised you don't know her."

"Well… I don't really take the time to learn people's names…"

So she was our senior then. I wondered who this person could be? Oh, right—another girl was potentially joining…

"The reason," Melicia said, "the reason behind me calling Everleigh a pro is because she writes novels—by the pen-name Everbee."

"Everbee?"

Everbee—I had heard of that name before. Yes, that's right. I had seen it in the bookstore on the romance shelves. The covers she used were almost always plain with only her name and the title written in Cambria.

But wait.

She was a successful author at such a young age—and she went to our school?

What a dream…

Melicia sat up from the yoga mat and grabbed her white thigh high socks she'd conveniently hung on one of the many Swedish ladders that surrounded the hall's walls.

"So…" I said, "how come you know Everleigh? You mentioned that she was famous, but that doesn't mean she would tell everyone that she's an author, right?"

"I never said she kept it a secret, though."

"But she's using a pen-name. Wouldn't that imply that she wants to keep it a secret?"

Melicia chuckled and then gave a hefty sigh.

"The contrary, actually. She likes to brag about it, too much sometimes. It's a pain, really."

"I see…"

Melicia rolled the yoga mat up together and put on her shoes. Then she put it inside of the storage room and pressed the light switch. It instantly became dark inside of the hall. The only light entering came from the windows which were located really high up so that the spring sun didn't have the height to enter through them.

"Let's get going or else we'll miss class," she said and hurried away through the entrance.

And with that, my lunch break—or should I say break, ended. Because I still hadn't eaten lunch yet.

It went rather smoothly—the test that is. I'd managed to answer most of the questions and I was pretty confident in the answers I gave, too. Maybe I wasn't going to fail, after all? Well, too early to tell…

As I left school that afternoon, I came across this girl who wrote stories by the pen-name "Everbee" outside of the lockers. It felt like she had zero manners, but then, she also felt like the most well-mannered person I'd ever met.

Her verbal abuse was even greater than that of Kogy.

But—her manners extended to even higher levels than Melicia's.

In a sense, she was a mixture of the two.

Most people at this school know the name Everleigh Tilbury. She isn't popular—just famous. There might have been a reason for this. She wasn't quiet, but still, a highly intellectual girl who liked to brag about being an author.

Everleigh—my upperclassman, my senior; one year older than me. She had waist-long black hair, beautiful hazel eyes, and possessed a look so deep that anyone would fall for her. The way she wore our school's uniform could only be described as something worthy of the Paris fashion show.

She was a goddess in her own way.

And that's why—I couldn't understand that we just held a conversation together.

I stopped for a second at my locker, and put some things I had used during the test away. Then I saw her… As the self-proclaimed "person without interactions" I am, I had never noticed that her locker was this close by. Only about 15 or so away from mine. Oh, and now you wonder: "you'd never seen her before, how do you know it's her?"

It's easy. Because somehow—I already knew.

As Everleigh closed her locker she held her black leather gloves in her left hand. I wondered why she used gloves this late into spring. Sure, it was cold, but not that cold. As she locked it she managed to drop one of her gloves. Not noticing, she walked away with her skirt waving in the movement.

At first, I thought she would notice herself and walk back to pick it up.

She didn't…

Then I thought—someone else would probably grab it for her and run after her so they could give it to her.

No one did that…

The third potential outcome of the situation—someone would, much sooner, pick the glove up and give it to the guidance teacher, who surprisingly, was in charge of the school's lost and found.

Our school didn't have a guidance teacher…

Damn… Was I going to be a good human being or just not care? I hoped to get her attention, I could confess that much. But still—

I decided.

"Here! You dropped your glove."

I handed over the leather glove from the side where you put your fingers. The inside was stuffed with uncoloured wool and felt pleasantly soft. I imagined that they would probably be very comfortable if used during the winter, but not, as she was now, using them over spring.

She turned around in a pirouette and looked straight at me with her glimmering hazel eyes. We were already outside, and small drops of rain had started falling from the sky above.

"Oops. Seems like I dropped my glove… Thanks, Ethan."

"W-wait a minute, how do you know my name?"

"You know, I have to know the name of garbage, otherwise I don't know where to recycle it. I'm a good human being, at least sometimes; I recycle my garbage, that's right."

Hmph. What was that all of a sudden? That's not the way you thank someone for picking up your dropped glove—or at least that was what I wanted to say, but I chickened out.

"Oh, and also," she continued, "do you know where you're supposed to be recycled? Well, I guess you didn't… You should be disposed of in the—brace yourself—non-recyclable bin."

"You're a funny person, I get that," I said and tried to laugh it off.

"Oh, but I wasn't joking."

"I get that…"

"But wait. First, you got that I was a funny person, but then afterwards, you got that I was joking. How are you 'getting' both these things at the same time?"

I was fundamentally confused and didn't have much more to come back with. And to be honest, the conversation hadn't even been going on for long, so how was I supposed to regain the dignity that had been abruptly stolen away from me?

Well frankly, I didn't know.

"I heard you needed my help," she said with a glint in her eyes.

"Maybe," I muttered.

So Melicia had already told her… Well, that was to be expected in the end.

"You know, what a coincidence—that we met right now, that is."

"You think?" I asked, perplexed.

"Mm, that's right. I wanted to see if you were going to make contact with me. Haha, I was so naive to think that you actually would. After I got the word, I waited all day. Stupid me… So, I decided to give you a final chance—a setup."

"Please don't tell me…"

"Yep, that's right, Ethan. When no one was around and I saw you looking at me—because that's a totally normal thing to do for a guy—I dropped my glove on purpose, to see if you would come and return it to me."

"What a horrible thing to do!"

"You think? Then see it as a—social experiment."

What a horrible person she was.

"You call that an 'experiment,' are you dumb?! That's deceiving, you idiot!"

"My, my. Don't start with the insults, it's hurting the conversation, don't you think?"

"What's hurting is you, and only you!"

With those words, Everleigh's face turned into something I'd never imagined possible from her before. She looked at me with a questionable look and then decided to speak, now a bit anxious.

"You know," she changed the subject, "I'm sure we'll get through this. We're going to make an amazing script, so much that Melicia will be moved to tears, okay?"

"Sounds great to me, I guess."

She gave me a nod, then a smile, and finished off by walking away looking back at me with an exciting look.

I was left alone. Not that it bothered me, though, I always walked home alone—most of the time, at least. Also, it turns out I wasn't going to be alone for much longer, as a certain someone decided to visit me just 30 minutes after I had arrived at home. I hadn't even had time to change out of my uniform nor had I gotten anything to eat, I was almost starving, that's how bad it was.

"How do you know my address?" I asked with a sigh. Melicia and Everleigh stood in the doorway, both with casual clothes on, Melicia had even let her pigtails go loose. My sigh didn't give them the sign that they weren't welcome as I had intended. Instead, they forced themselves through the door—or I say them, but in reality, I meant Everleigh, Melicia just casually followed suit.

"Got it from Kogy," Everleigh said and held her phone up. Displayed was a text conversation with the girl in question. I noticed that the conversation hadn't gone on for long; only about 5 messages had been sent between them, implying that they didn't know each other prior to today.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"We just talked about this only an hour ago, didn't we?" Everleigh said carelessly.

"Did we? I can't remember…"

I was obviously lying, of course I remembered. But any option to get them out of my house was worth trying—even a bad lie.

Melicia was casually standing beside the loud Everleigh, trying to act invisible. I wondered if Everleigh had forced her to come, or if she actually wanted to. I couldn't ask that question, though, it would sound weird. Plus, I would probably make Everleigh mad, something which would've probably resulted in her staying and ruining any chances I had on forcing her to leave.

Then Melicia decided to speak.

"Oh. Hi, Olivia!"

Did she know my sister?

I turned my back towards the staircase and saw my sister giving a small wave to Melicia. She looked disturbed and tired, maybe she had the same opinion on letting visitors in at this hour as I?

Nope, I was wrong. Olivia's gloomy side instantly changed into the cheery little sister she was. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place; in other words—the possibility of not letting them into my house was equal to zero. Or, physically speaking, it wasn't zero. I believed we had some bitter almonds in the kitchen, perfect for a situation like this.

"I believe this is the first time you've had anyone over for at least over a year," Olivia said and chuckled, "and they're girls, too. Impressive!"

"Don't make me sound like some kind of sociopath!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Have fun, though, I'm heading upstairs again."

I turned to Melicia who was now smiling. However, she quickly retracted that expression once Olivia disappeared up the stairs. Was she embarrassed being at my place? It wasn't like I could ask that, either, it would sound weird.

"A very warm welcome, indeed," Everleigh said and laughed.

"You want something? Coffee? Tea? Lemonade?"

They both nodded in unison and I gave a deep sigh. Whatever, I could make some tea for myself in the process.

While I was making tea in the kitchen the two took a seat on the sofa in the living room. Or I say "took a seat," but in reality only Melicia did. Everleigh laid down on her back and placed her feet on Melicia's lap, essentially taking up the entirety of the sofa. My only options left were sitting on the floor or taking a seat in the antique fauteuil I usually was prohibited from touching. I opted for the earlier option as to not make my parents mad. I wasn't going to try and squeeze myself beside Melicia either way, so the floor had to be plenty.

"Now then," Everleigh began, "let's redo everything from scratch. Melicia."

She pointed to Melicia's bag which she'd placed leaning against one of the sofa's sides. Melicia stretched her arm down and brought out a laptop covered with cute stickers; there was a selection of travel destinations, fruits, cute animals, and other miscellaneous cute stuff.

Melicia turned the screen in such an angle that all of us would be able to see it. She opened up a word processing program and started typing a prototype title, as well as entering our names at the bottom of the digital page.

"Your idea seemed decent and I believe we could work out of that," Everleigh said, "however, the execution is terrible, the pacing is all over the place, the action is poorly written, and the use of metaphors is very high, something which isn't ideal when writing a script. All in all, you do know how to make exciting stories, but writing them… That's a blunder if I've ever seen one. I can't express how terrible it is, surely a ten-year-old would be able to do it better."

"I don't think it's that bad," Melicia said in sympathy for me.

"No no, there's no need to say that, Melicia. I understand, we'll redo it," I said.

"Okay," Melicia murmured.

Everleigh grabbed the laptop from Melicia's hands and placed it in her own lap. She opened up the story I had written so far on one page and started re-writing it on the blank document, switching seamlessly between them.

"Wow! You're so fast at writing," Melicia praised.

"My record is 123 words per minute."

Of course it was… A fast writer, a novelist… What more could we need to make this the perfect amateur low-budget movie?

After a while, Everleigh dismissed me to go and make some more tea. I hadn't asked Melicia, but I made her some more, too.

As I was pouring the hot water over the teabags Olivia entered the kitchen.

"I see you've got the help from a professional."

"Ah, you mean Everleigh? You know her?"

"We aren't acquainted, but I do know who she is."

"Oh, is that so. I didn't know you were friends with Melicia, though."

"We aren't friends, she's just my friend's big sister, that's all."

That explained things. However, it didn't explain why Olivia seemed to dislike the sight of Melicia being at our house. Sure, she'd returned to her cheery state, but that happened when she left for her room. Did my sister have something against Melicia?

I wanted to know, but I was probably, once again, better of not asking. I wouldn't want the situation to explode into some sort of fight between girls, especially not since I would probably be caught up in the middle of it.

"Want me to make some tea for you as well?" I asked her. She had already finished the business she had in the kitchen (getting a scissor for some reason) and had started walking back to her room.

"No, thank you."

"Beats me, though, why didn't Kogy come?"

"Huh? Why should I know about that?"

"Because she's your actual friend, right?"

Olivia looked at me and gave off a big sigh, then returned to exiting the kitchen. I didn't bother to stop her, I wouldn't get anything else out of her anyway.

I wondered why Kogy hadn't come. Come to think about it, she was the only one I actually knew before this day, the other two I had come to befriend just today. So—

Why were they here—without her?

Everleigh didn't seem like the person who would refrain from visiting a stranger just because of that reason… Melicia, however. I guessed she'd been forced by Everleigh to come with since she didn't want to be alone with a guy. But then again, Everleigh didn't really strike me as the person to care about something like that. Perhaps she intended to not only work on the script, but do some role-planning as well. Melicia was, at least by appointment from Kogy, the main protagonist of our movie. Plus, it didn't seem like Everleigh was against that idea; she probably didn't like acting in the first place.

But the question still stays—why isn't Kogy here? If Everleigh brought Melicia with her, why not Kogy, the director, arguably the most important person involved with this movie.

The only reason was probably that she was busy with something else. But that didn't make any sense. It was a normal Tuesday evening, after all, nothing special going on and considering Kogy had been the one with the initiative… Why wasn't she here?

"How long can it take to make a cup of tea?"

Everleigh yelled from the living room like I was her personal butler. She had, in a spectacular manner, just decided that she lived here… At least it felt like that.

I decided to answer her with the same attitude.

"Well, there are many ways one can make a cup of tea. First, there is the Organisation Internationale de normalisation's way of doing it, then there's my grandma's, my uncle's, mine… Well, I won't count them all but rest assured you'll never run out of ways to make a cup of tea."

"Like that's something you can run out of," Everleigh said, vexed.

"I heard Olivia in the kitchen. Did she want something," Melicia, who had been keeping quiet, said.

"Nothing of importance," I assured her. Although, Olivia had acted a bit weird when she got down to get those scissors from the kitchen.

She had acted very weirdly indeed…

Everleigh and Melicia left after a hideous and exhausting session of writing the script for the movie we, eventually, would make. It was past midnight when I finally got to bed and could finally catch a breath and get some alone time. It had been somewhat of a strange experience working with the likes of Everleigh and Melicia. Everleigh, the bossy type of person, still had a heart… At least to some extent. She revised my script, made changes, sure. But in the end, she decided to keep my story, almost like it never was changed in the first place. I appreciated that, truly. I was worth something, at least.

Now… What did Melicia do?

Well, she chimed in on potential ideas and what type of protagonist she would like to play. Everleigh didn't hesitate to make changes to Melicia's liking, much to my pleasure. In reality, we were a great team. Sadly, I got the feeling one person would spoil it all—sooner or later.