Supreme Sovereign

"Morning Henry!" I turned my head back as I heard a familiar voice. The voice that greeted me for as long as I could remember.

"Morning John." I greeted him back in the same manner, as he put his arms around my neck. Being taller than me, John always played this way. He had dark skin, an athletic figure and was 185 cm tall. He had short dark hair that seemed like a miniature afro.

"Man do I need to repeat myself every time? Do something about that look in your eyes." John always liked to mess with me, so he always touched upon this matter. My black eyes and black hair gave me a sinister look according to people. People even referred to it as a dead look. My stature didn't help me much since I barely touched 175 cm, and was on the skinny side.

"How long have you been telling me this, sixteen years? Even before we could even talk, you used to tell me using baby language! How are you not tired?!" I joked around with John while we made our way to school. We've known each other for sixteen years. We were both raised in the same orphanage, and we became inseparable since we first met. I think it's safe to say that we were closer than brothers. We even chose to live next to each other after we left the orphanage. We could have waited until we were 18 to leave, but we thought that the sooner the better.

"Man, if only that damn bus would come this way!" John complained as he was tired of walking every day to school.

"You know damn well that it only picks up people from the rich area. It won't come to a rundown place like this." I said as I pointed to the apartment building I just descended from. We both go to a prestigious high school, but only thanks to a scholarship. We only got it thanks to being among the top five in our previous school. We ranked first and second.

The school had a designated bus to pick up students, but it only went through areas of mansions and palaces. Basically, it only visited the residential district of rich people. Since we lived in a ghetto-like area, the bus won't even come near us. We had to walk the whole way there, which is a long way. We woke up an hour earlier in order to make it on time. Both of us could have chosen a close school, but we wanted to become big in the future. We wanted for us, and our children, to live a better life.

"But still, man, it's damn tiring. Especially since we need to work. Oh, that reminds me! You have your shift tonight, right?" John remembered that I had work that night.

"Yeah, I'll come back later." I sighed as I also remembered work. I needed to work from 5 pm until 11 pm. The only good thing about work was the fact that our boss was a nice person. He let us both work three days a week and paid us as if we worked every day. He was a rich old man that lacked many things, but money and kindness weren't one of them. We were surprised at first when he accepted us. I even thought that he was a mafia boss looking to harvest our organs after gaining our trust.

"Say hello to the old man for me."

"You met him on Saturday." I teased John who always felt grateful for our boss. I won't lie, I was grateful too. It was thanks to him that we managed to live on our own. He was like the father, or the uncle, that we never had.

"John, do you think we should visit Mary this week? Or keep it until the end of the month as usual?" I asked John what he thought since we always visited together. Mary was the lady that took care of us in the orphanage. She treated us like her own children and raised us to be men of valor and principles. We agreed to visit her every month and give her part of our salary. She needed it, as the orphanage wasn't receiving many donations over the years.

"We'll visit this time and buy some things for the children. It should be the birthday of Alan and Christy on Friday, so we'll go then." John answered me as he had thought about the same thing as me.

"Alright then, we should buy them a cake. I wonder if we'll have enough for two," I mumbled the last part to myself as I thought about our financial situation. We didn't spend much so we always ended up having a decent sum left. "We'll just have to make it work somehow."

We talked as we walked, and the school soon popped in front of us. It was, in fact, the gate that appeared, as the school was still a little further away.

"Morning Ross." We greeted the gatekeeper as usual while showing him our school IDs. We showed him our IDs by habit, as we didn't even need to. We're the only ones that needed to do this, as no one else was stupid enough to walk to school. As such, we developed quite a friendly relationship with Ross.

"Good morning boys." Ross, as an old man, had no energy so he spent his time lying around. He only moved from his spot to greet us.

"See you at four o'clock." We waved as we left towards the school building. We always arrived before the time, so we would hang around before heading to class. The same routine happened every day, and we always met the same person around the same time and place.

"Hello, John! Hello Henry!" A sweet melodious voice greeted us from afar as its origin descended from the bus.

"Morning Alice." Both John and I greeted her back at the same time. She walked towards us as her golden brown hair swayed in the wind. She wore a blue blouse that complemented her honey-colored eyes. Her fair skin made her look like a doll or a porcelain sculpture of a beautiful woman instead of a human. She waved and smiled from ear to ear, showing her pearly white teeth.

"Pretty as always, Alice." I teased her as soon as she reached us. We knew that she got easily embarrassed by compliments, so John and I took turns to embarrass her.

"A-And You have dead-eyes like usual!" Alice seemed to use her entire will to retort to me. Both John and I were surprised. We were used to her getting flustered and hiding her face.

"Woah! What happened to you?!" John couldn't help but ask her. She opened her mouth wanting to answer, but instead, turned red. The embarrassment caught up with her in the end.

"Ah, it's class time. Let's head there." I checked my phone for the time and told the two of them. We started walking and heard the school bell.

"Uhm, Henry. I'm sorry for earlier." Alice addressed me while apologizing as we walked. A confused look took over my face as I didn't really understand what she apologized for.

"You know. For calling you d-dead-eyes." Alice seemed bothered by the fact that she used that as a way to get back at me.

"I noticed John making fun of you sometimes and I wanted to do that too. But, I couldn't. I'm sorry…"

Alice had her head down. I didn't mind her remark since I figured it was for fun. It was a trait that I was born with, so I was not embarrassed by it, nor did I look for a way to change it. I knew that Alice was a sweet person who looked forward to helping others, unlike some of the people that went to school. But, I never figured that she was this innocent. It made me want to tease her even more.

"About that, huh? Yeah, I never stopped thinking about it. My heart hurts every time I think about it." I put my face in my hands while faking some crying noises. Alice, who's shorter than me, peeked at my face from below.

"I'm really sorry! I won't do it again!" She apologized in full seriousness while trying to get me to show my face. A chuckle mixed in with the fake crying until John stepped in.

"He's teasing you." Alice seemed to be surprised by his words and then turned around to look at me. Only then did she notice my chuckling.

"Hmph!" I received a punch to my stomach which made me let out an 'oomph' in surprise. Alice is a lot stronger than she lets out, which was thanks to her father being a master in karate.

We only got to meet her father once since she invited us to her house. John and I were overwhelmed by the gigantic house, and by her father's intimidating aura. We didn't get to breathe until her mother dragged her father away by force. He was most certainly a doting father.

We spent a painful day in school like every other day. We started heading outside, while Alice strolled over to the bus area.

"See you tomorrow guys!" She waved us goodbye while we did the same.

"Take care, Ross!" We greeted Ross on our way outside. John decided to walk with me for a while on my way to work. It was in the direction of our apartment building anyway.

Before getting far away from the school, however, we heard the sound of a speeding car. Instead of a car, it was more of a large vehicle. 'A truck' I thought to myself as I turned to see the origin of the sound. John was also looking in this direction, and we saw a truck barely a dozen meters away from us. We didn't even notice it before it got this close, which was unbelievable.

"BOYS!" Old man Ross noticed the noise as well and screamed hard. His lungs must have used their whole power to do that, I thought. But, he didn't need to worry so much, as John and I reacted instantly. Our bodies seemed to release their full potential as we jumped back to avoid the truck. It missed us by a hair's width. Our hearts were beating harder than I could ever imagine.

"Not today truck-kun," John spoke in relief while looking down. I understood what he was referencing, so I smiled and looked down as well, my thoughts raced as I thought about how close death was. But, we then heard the sound of breaks and a crash. We turned our heads to the side and saw a bus flipping down the road. It was coming in our direction.

"So truck-kun had an accomplice. Huh, Bus-san?" I thought to myself as the bus was mere inches away from my face. My consciousness left my body, and the last thing I heard was old man Ross calling our names in despair.