Once in the Moonlight: Chapter XIII: I'm Running Out of Titles

CHAPTER XLIV1

The way Topleaka walked, one would dare wonder if she had won a war. And in some ways, I suppose she had. For one, she had been in her first film (the premier was no more rescent than a month ago, and yet she continued to remind us of it), with her favourite actor (Rei’s name was still the most common word after “like”) who seemed to be able to tolerate her presence now (no restraining orders were filed to my knowledge). The best part (the one she reminded us of every waking moment of our lives) was that she was in a new film (with a leading role) which wouldn’t start filming for a couple of weeks. That (to some’s misery and other’s delight) meant that she would be able to bond with friends once again like an almost normal teenager. 2

I hated to bring Topleaka to reality—to shatter her weeks of attempting to be almost normal, but it wasn’t physically possible. Ignoring the inner voice and the alter-ego faerie, the part time actress, the homicidal preps such as Britteni, and the body of inhuman energy, Topleaka had one incredibly abnormal problem to interrupt any normal teenager plans: anti-fan girls. 3

Anti fan girls, in the case of Topleaka, were fan girls of Rei who “detested Topleaka’s guts for being in the studio with him like day after day”. Topleaka, putting my naivety and absent-minded-ness to shame, hardly noticed their presence. So delighted by her new career by Rei, her secret secret faerie identity, and getting to go non-stop-mall-spreeing with her best friends (of whom, I was proud to say, I was included), Topleaka had no time in her life to notice anti fan girls (no matter how violent they may be). But when direct confrontation came forward, I think Topleaka finally realized, “Oh. I’m not the only girl who seeks Rei’s heart. Darn it.”4

It all started a week or so after the premier: the looks of hatred and jealousy, that is. In the distance, I heard a few voices mutter hoarsly in a durge-like way, “You stole Rei…” I could have sworn one girl was holding a boxed up rabid hamster, her eye glinting evilly towards Topleaka, but I hoped that was only my imagination. Then came the angry text messages in the middle of class and the phone conversations in the bathroom stalls that I overheard. When they dramatically increased their stalking of Rei and began to verbally declare their hatred for Topleaka, that’s when a canary eye at long last noticed. 5

Now of course, Rei had a strong dislike towards people. We called him a misanthrope. Seeing his crowds of fangirls multiply only made him more reserved, less easily sighted. That new “hunt”, along with the newest film and the passionate hatred for Topleaka only encouraged fan girls to stalk his every move even more. I couldn’t help but pity poor Rei. 6

“Wait, Rei kun!” Topleaka frowned when she saw Rei shuffle out of class as soon as the bell rang. Little did she realize that she had just brought scores of girls’ unwanted attention to him. 7

As she tried to follow him, she found her way barred by a large crowd of anti-fan girls. Not just regular anti fan girls, but the one in the very front was a very large anti-fan girl. When she slid before Topleaka, the world itself seemed to fall into utter darkness, and I could have sworn that Sephiroth’s Theme came from an undefinable corner. 8

“Don’t think Rei’s your pet. You’re not his number one fangirl; I am!” The plus sized anti-fan girl’s black uniform polo bore the initials “BK”, apparently her own name’s. 9

But Topleaka, unable to hold her tongue from repeating everything she thought, giggled, “BK? One could easily mistake you as Burger King’s number one fan girl,” 10

Shocked at her boldness, my eyes nearly burst from their sockets. Now that would have been an interesting sight to behold. “You can’t control him. He’s never claimed you, and he never will. He shall be mine,” Said anti-fan girl rebutted in delight, clearly ignoring Topleaka’s bold comment. 11

Topleaka had to laugh at how ridiculous that sounded. But she soon found herself slammed against a wall. Apparently, plus sized anti-fan girls are as tough and manly as they look. What was wrong with these people? When one unnamed girl from the back of the group dared to report, “He’s getting away!” the said plus sized anti-fan girl leader ended with a fierce glare, “You will fall from your state of glory.” And with that, the anti-fan girl pack moved on. 12

I was shocked that Topleaka was not terribly shaken. “Who does she think she’s kidding?” she asked me with a sheepish smile, which seemed terribly ironic to me, considering Topleaka’s slave like fan girl state towards Rei less than a year ago. 13

“She does have a point: you’re not the only one who’s attracted to Rei,” And what, I asked myself for the umpteenth time, was so terribly attractive about Rei? I was amazed Akihiro didn’t have hundreds upon hundreds of fangirls. Only scores. 14

“Really?” Was the aquamarine blonde so oblivious?15

“Yes,”16

“…Oh,” she seemed to need a minute to take that in. “I suppose that’s true. Well, no matter what, I shall win Rei kun’s heart! Cha!”17

Now if only I could say the same thing aloud concerning a certain Hanazaki… But before I could blink, Topleaka was off, clearly on her own quest to find the ever absent Rei Kaedo. With a sigh, I headed downstairs, glad that I had a life (more or less) and that I was free to go home, as opposed to stalking one man or another. 18

However, I found myself in a head-on collision with none other than Roxy. Her smile was no different than a cat’s, clearly having discovered something delightfully horrific. I knew I didn’t want to know, yet I found myself asking, “What did you learn Roxy?”19

“Adair’s real name,” she replied prompty with a raised chin, as if she were the victor of a rescent battle.20

“But—I thought—“21

“Must know the enemy’s weaknesses,” And without my prompt, she began to explain, in the form of a flashback…22

“Your name isn’t Adair,” Roxy had a look of complete victory over her face. 23

In contrast, Adair had an expression that would make little children cry. Glaring, he replied, “And?”24

“I want to know what your real name is,” 25

“Why?”26

“Because,” her eyebrow twitched, “There must be some reason you’re hiding it. Something you don’t want the world to know. A weakness.”27

His expression stayed fixed; finally, he asked, “If it was a weakness, then why would I tell you?”28

“Because if you don’t, that horrid English assignment will never get done and you will fail,” Somehow, he knew exactly what she was talking about. 29

“Alright, fine,” he closed his eyes in complete annoyance and hatred, finding the words to explain as succinctly as possible. “You see, I’m Native American by heritage. My family’s real big on the ‘cultural pride’ bull, so they gave me a Native American name, as if I’d actually use that,”30

“Why don’t you care about your culture?” she fumed.31

“Its not like I’ve ever lived in America,” he refuted.32

“So…what’s your name then?”33

“…Patamon,”34

“Patamon!” Roxy’s eyes lit up in childish delight. “Isn’t that the name of a Pokémon or something?”35

“Digimon,” Adair corrected, clearly having heard the joke many times before. 36

“Oh well, it sounds like Pokémon.” Roxy grinned evilly, making Adair instantly wonder what possessed him to tell her this. “Isn’t that right, Pokémon?”37

“?”38

“Pokémon! I’m gonna call you Pokémon everywhere now!”39

“Its Patamon, dobe,”40

“Pokémon!”41

“Patamon,”42

“Pokémon!”43

“Patamon,”44

“Pokémon!”45

“PATAMON,” his voice rose, making Roxy jump slightly, but she only laughed once again. 46

“Well, it doesn’t really matter what you want to be called, now does it? From now on, you are no longer Adair, but Pokémon,” 47

At that, Adair banged his head into a nearby wall. But Roxy hardly seemed to mind. In fact, it seemed to bring in her a whole new level of delight. “See you later, Pokémon!”48

I wasn’t quite sure how I was supposed to react. Was that one of those things that God would say was “something one ought not laugh at”, or was it so mentally scarring that I hardly found it funny? I tried to laugh, but it sounded like the sound of a dead pony, whatever that may sound like. 49

“You sound like a dead pony,” Roxy keenly observed, which brought yet another flashback to the surface…50

I wasn’t quite sure what it was supposed to be. Something between a blob, a splatter, and paint. I frowned at it, turning it this way and that…51

“It’s a dead pony!” the cute voice interjected through my thoughts.52

“?!!?!?!??!” I jumped. 53

“A dead pony,” she looked at me with wide, serious canary yellow eyes. “I drew him in Biology.”54

“But…but WHY?” I looked at the newly defined blob in disgust and horror.55

“Because.”56

“…Because why?”57

“Because…ITSA DEAD PONY!” She pushed the picture in front of my face. “Baraloof!”58

“THAT’S THE SOUND ELEPHANTS MAKE!” I screamed in horror. It was perfect timing too; people were filing into the classroom. So now the world could stand witness to see the trauma I suffered daily, Topleaka’s insanity, and the insanity becoming part of me because of her insanity. 59

I felt the blank stares of my fellow classmates, even though I couldn’t see through the picture of the dead pony. Topleaka stopped, staring at the multitudes of people. “Anyways, hello!” she waved to them. “We’re totally normal!” 60

Apparently they were used to this, turning to their desks without another word. I glared at her mentally, thinking about the words “We’re totally normal!” Oh yah. We were normal. We were just mutant nocturnal faeries from another world controlled by music. Totally. Normal. 61

“You think they have dead ponies in Musicana?” she asked to herself, but apparently it was to me as well. 62

“There are dead ponies in Mexico.” I replied, a look of annoyance creeping over my usually calm features. 63

“No, not dead dead ponies.” She laughed. “Like dead ponies that still run around and go BARALOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFF”64

What is this child on?! I thought to myself, hoping Topleaka wasn’t overdosing on Asthma medicine or something peculiar like that on accident. 65

The silence ate away at Topleaka, who suddenly grabbed her picture, shoving it in my face once more. “DEAD PONYYYYYYY!!!!!!” I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach I’d be seeing lots of the dead pony. And, sadly, I was right. 66

“Wow. You just awakened two flashbacks within the interval of five minutes,” I thought I would observe. “That’s impressive,”67

“Thank you,” Roxy’s victory was adding upon itself as her grin widened, “Well, I suppose I shall see you around later…and Pokemon!”68

“Don’t worry!” I added under my breath with the wave goodbye. “I won’t tell anyone!”69

CHAPTER XLV70

ITS IN TIMES LIKE THESE THAT I FEEL YOUR PRESENCE71

“What did you do, you fool!” Queen Arelyan demanded. “You were luring her for so long-“72

“Perhaps she is no longer so foolish,” the young man stood next to her, disinterested in this conversation. 73

“It means you are failing in your job,” the Queen turned her head sharply to him. “You must win her back,”74

He said nothing for a few moments. “I still think it best that we just kill her…”75

“Do you question my methods?” the chillingly cold voice rose, anger seeping through the cracks of her words. 76

He shivered at the touch of death hidden in her voice. Deciding this was getting far too troublesome, and not worthy of risking his life, he responded neutrally, “If you think it best…” 77

“That’s what I thought,” she smirked, sitting back more relaxed. “Then I command you to win her back, whatever it takes. Of the four, she is, in many ways, the strongest. It is most important that she…be weakened as best as is possible,” 78

“As you wish,” he muttered through gritted teeth, with a short bow, taking his leave. 79

~80

There was a melody that continued to play through my head. It was curious, for I was sure I had never heard the song before (and I had quite a collection of CDs). At the same time, it looped and looped as if it was my favourite song of the week. But how could an unknown song ring through my ears so familiarly: as if I had always known it?81

There were fragments of the song missing, I noticed. So when my song reached a blank, it just repeated what it did know, which got terribly annoying after a while. But I noticed that as time went on, more pieces of the melody came to me, as if I were rediscovering pieces of an old puzzle. Could it be possible that there was a time when I knew the entire song?82

Before me rested the scattered pile of papers and staves, scribbled with notes and chords that I had been divinely inspired with. Nothing much happened to them; I rarely bothered to put pieces together and make entire songs. Yet every once in a while, the pieces would fit together to create a lovely melody. I found myself often subliminally playing their simple tunes across the rows of piano keys. Somehow, it helped me think. 83

I realized in a moment of revelation that I almost had time to myself: time not taken by friends, school work, family, church, or Musicana! It seemed like it had been so long since I had had mindless time that I had no idea what to do. The feeling was overwhelming, but the only word that came to my lips was a sporadic allusion to the fish Hikari often mentioned still, “Alfredo.”84

It was in empty moments like this that I felt that song rise up within me: the nameless song. When I focused on it, I felt something foreign, something that seemed to connect me to Musicana. It was a voice. 85

It, like the song, seemed to be trying to tell me something. Of course, I never told anyone, for even in confiding this on paper, I sound mentally unstable. But it was odd, curious, something I wanted to strain to hear. 86

I rarely understood anything it tried to tell me. One time, I remember it saying something about a name…some name starting with B. The Queen’s name? I had heard her Atlantean name Arelyan mentioned across Musicana, but as I had been told, all beings have a name they are born with within their hearts, and one that they discover in the second world. Those who never travel to the second world, of course, never receive a second name. It was a double edged sword, for a second name increases one’s power and one’s vulnerability. Knowing two names of a person places them in another’s hands. 87

That was why Eron had told us to find Queen Arelyan’s second name (for it was clear she had been to Earth before): to bring a peaceful end to Atlantis’ rebellion. If the Queen was under our control, then surely, we could use her to stop the uproar in Atlantean hearts. But how were we to find her name? 88

When we asked, Eron looked to us rather stunned. B-but, you are from the H-house of Eden!” Prince Eron replied naively, “You are born with a song in yoru heart, and that is all the power you really need-“ he explained. It was still hard for him to conceive pure bred Edens in such confusion and disarray. He himself had been raised in the House of Pompeii, though a tint of Eden’s blood ran through his veins. Before the princesses came, he was the only suitably aged remnant of the House of Eden. 89

Even then, he was in awe and respect of the royal home. Pompeii held many a legend concerning the Edens. It said their power exceeded that of twenty warriors each! Their magic, it was believed, was a naturally born gift, in the form of a song. No one knew the song another possessed, except for the Eden himself. When he discovered his own song (which was almost always at an unnaturally young age), his power increased ten fold. This being said, Edens were known for havng the fairest music in all the lands. 90

Eron had heard all of this as a child and believed every word. When the suggestions of conspiracy from Atlantis arose, he sincerely believed that when the true heirs of Eden’s Garden would return, everything would go back to normal. But he was badly mistaken. 91

What made Musicana think that we were “their only hope”? From Eden to Roanoke to Pompeii, Sabrina, Topleaka, Roxy and I saw how the people looked to us in fear, in awe, in delight. They saw us as their redeemers, as if we knew exactly what to do to save them from what could destroy their world. But we knew nothing! Couldn’t they see that?92

In anger, I struck a sharp C minor chord, which seemed to echo for several minutes through the house. I didn’t know if I could be more confused; did I even know what I was trying to think or say? Almost in reply, I thought I heard someone reply behind me, “I will be with you always,”93

Startled, I spun around on my piano bench, only to find the room still empty, silent, wrapped in streamers of sunlight. Was it the “inner voice” Eron had spoken of? Perhaps I was slowly loosing hold of my sanity? Or was it the God I had thought would never speak to me?94

“And I shall provide you with all of your needs…just as I clothe the sparrow,”95

There it was again! Hesitatnlty, I leaned over the piano, peaking into the rows of hammers and strings, wondering if it was a squeak on those that I defined into words. But I was only met with dust. Whether the words were inventions of my own mind, some faerie-power inner voice, or some holy message, they made me smile slightly. I shall provide you with all of your needs…It made me feel for a moment as if…I could relax once again. 96

Letting my eyes wander around the room, I found myself especially looking over the postcard Sabrina had given me. She told me she had had a collection of postcards when she lived in England. The front was glossed over with a picture of Fougeres Castle, an imposing wall of stone surrounded by misted green waters and flowers of red and pink. The text read: “Fougeres Castle, Brittany”. I had always asked her why it said Brittany, rather than England. Sabrina laughed, only to explain that Brittany was a province of England, once separate, but now considered an almost interchangeable term for England. For some reason, the name always caught my eye. Maybe, one day it would make sense. 97

CHAPTER XLVI98

It didn’t take much to discourage me. But this time, I had just reached the end of my tether. How many problems could a person have? There were all the mini soap operas floating around in life, like the girl whose name was Eurika apparently liking Hyru the prodigee director, yet him not noticing since he was not romantically inclined, and Tien worried about Eurika’s love slump, but at the same time, she was jealous of her friend and began to flirt with Akihiro’s music producer Zane, who apparently had a thing for Tien even though she never intended him to, so on and so forth. There was Topleaka’s whole mini-depression over thinking Rei didn’t like her, even after all of this. Roxy and Mitchell’s constant fights were another thing all together. Yet somehow, we had all continued living on. 99

There were of course all the Musicana problems, school, friends, family-Oh, I’ve already told all my life problems, haven’t I? Well, Sabrina knew of most of them. All the same, I felt as though I were about to burst at the seams from holding all of this. 100

“Sabrina-“ I began while we sat at her piano. “How do you handle it?”101

“Hm?” she looked up from playing her version of Bach. 102

“I mean-with everything that’s going on in our lives. Mainly-“ I blushed, “romance.” 103

“Romance?” she half laughed. 104

I nodded, a new romantisist within me budding. “Romance…”105

“Does that mean that Haruka chan has affections for some boy?” she grinned knowingly. From her look, I knew she knew it was Akihiro. Reluctantly I nodded. “Don’t tell me this is another Topleaka-like I’m too ugly for him to notice me! Feeling,” 106

“Sort of…” my finger traced over middle C. 107

An emerald hair fell over her frown. “Well that’s a shame, because I think you are missing something,”108

“What?”109

“How he looks at you,” she smiled happily. 110

A strong blush painted my cheeks. “He doesn’t look at me differently…”111

“Well,” Sabrina got up. “Even if he didn’t, you’re a great girl, and you should wait, until you know he’s the right guy. Trust me from experience,” she walked towards the kitchen. 112

“Experience?” I pirked up. “Wait, Sabirna!” 113

“What?”114

“What do you mean-from experience?” I asked pleadingly. I thought I had a hint, but I wanted to hear Sabrina explain herself. 115

“Must I tell? Don’t you already know?”116

“I’m-not sure,” I replied honestly. 117

Letting out a sigh as if to cast down a hundred burdens, she explained, “As soon as I moved here, I needed to forget Ashton,” regret lingered in her voice. “And so-when I was offered ‘love’, I was stupid enough to go after it…”118

“By whom?”119

Her crimson eyes narrowed, “By Jack of course,” she thought I must have known this already. “Remember at the Bowling Alley?”120

Images of the Bowling Bash freshman year came into my head. “So that was why you were so sad?” I asked. Hearing the words come out, I realized just how stupid of a question that was. 121

Her head nodded slowly, “He was my ‘boyfriend’,” she clarified with in-the-air quotation marks, “Then he just wandered off without me with some other girl-the French exchange student. But when I first moved here, he was the only one kind to me…” she rubbed her arm with a laugh that released her foolishness. “I should have figured out he just played with the new girls who knew nothing about him…”122

I nodded, though I wasn’t sure I understood. Sabrina had always seemed to wise, so perfect. Even she had had a moment of stumbling? “The thing is that he keeps coming back,” she continued, eyes down, “As though I’m stupid enough to come crawling back to him!” her fingers slipped, dropping the phone she had grabbed in her fingers. A dial tone echoed in the kitchen. 123

“D-do you think he may have realized he loved you?”124

“He is a fool,” she replied, “I don’t think so,” Seeing Sabrina this dark was troubling, especially as she left, leaving the dial tone to ring through the hall. 125

CHAPTER XLVII126

Roxetta grew to adore her new powers, giving birth to all sorts of elaborate dances across the surfaces of the ever prevalent water. I saw one once, and I knew I had never seen a more beautiful dance before in my life. Her wings in flight, combined with her fingers’ mastery over water-the waves faithfully following her every movement. The shimmers of moonlight added a spotlight on her dance. Every step was carefully planned, yet usually hidden in the shadows of secrecy. I wondered then why I had never seen her dance before. Why would she hide such a beautiful talent away?127

Her eyes darted towards the tree I had hidden myself behind, making my adrenaline rush. In a moment, it was clear she had noticed me, her eyes flaring. 128

“Who told you you could watch?” she belted, not afraid to send scores of birds fleeing overhead.129

“D-do you not want people seeing you dance?” I asked, shocked. 130

“That should be implied,” she threw back with gritted teeth. 131

“Why not? You’re amazing!” I frowned.132

“Its-“ she began, then asked herself, Why do I stoop myself to explaining my reasoning? “Its not your business. Just begone.” She paused. “And tell no one of what you saw, unless you wish to die.”133

“Figuratively or literally?”134

“Both.”135

“Oh,” I gulped. “I still think your dance is beautiful!”136

“…Begone.”137

“Well, have fun!” I said stupidly, unsure of what to say, running for the shade of the brush. I never did see another dance from Roxetta in Musicana again. 138

~139

“Hey, Roxy!” Topleaka wore that usual devious grin. Why was it that nearly every school morning began more or less like this?140

“What?” Roxy groaned like a run over cat. I noticed her hair wasn’t a sperfectly curled as usual. Her thick ponytail was falling out of its usual place. Surely, the world was about to fall into the apocalypse. 141

“What’s wrong?” I asked concerned. Topleaka didn’t notice. 142

“You totally wanna come on a shopping blowout to Neopolitan Girl with me! They gave me a new special deal-spree-thing!” she squealed cutely, but it couldn’t phase Roxy’s gloomy cloud. 143

“Can’t,” she replied simply, dragging herself to class. 144

Topleaka’s smile instantly evapourated. “Why not?” she demanded with a sharp pout of disappointment. 145

“Got something later,” the bags under Roxy’s eyes began to show as a deep blue. Nothing else needed to be said, so off she went to class, leaving Topleaka and I speechless. 146

Even as the hours passed, Topleaka’s frown did not die. “Since when has Roxy officially ‘got something later’?” 147

I shrugged lightly. It was Roxy’s life, Roxy’s business, after all. 148

“There’s something suspicious,” Topleaka mused on. 149

Again, I shrugged. I wouldn’t interfere with Roxy’s life. But did Topleaka ever consider one’s privacy and rights to one’s own life? Of course not!150

She smiled determinely, like a cat whose eye is on a ball. Tiptoeing across the school, she spied the popular Greek one all day. The funniest thing about all of it was that Roxy never noticed. She was often so wrapped up in her appearance (as in this very moment), that she took no notice to her background. Though in denial, she still had a tinge of preppiness hidden beneath her cloak of self found strength. 151

“She’s got some sort of-concert tonight!” Topleaka explained excitedly. 152

“That’s interesting-is it a DJing gig or something? I would think she’d tell us if it was another one of those,”153

Her thin shoulders shrugged. “No clue. But I think we should hitchhike and see what she’s doing!” Topleaka grinned. 154

“?!??! That’s another half brained scheme-“155

“Another half brained scheme? Haruka-since when have any of my schemes been half brained? It took my full brain to concoct all of them, thank you very much!”156

“It means they’re crazy!”157

“No they’re not!”158

“Yes they are!”159

“So?” Topleaka admitted. “You make it sound as though you have a choice,” an evil grin tugged on her lips. 160

“What does that mean?!”161

~162

I found myself unconscious, gagged with Bounty® paper towels, and duct tape keeping me to the side of a tree, space pirates watching my every move, preparing to shoot me with a double barrel hand pistol if I did so much as murmur. Well, that’s what I thought when I first woke up. But actually, I just found Topleaka next to me with her scheming smile, in the back of a pickup truck. So I mental broke down, scolding Topleaka for once again having hitched a ride from some random guy on the side of the road. 163

“Relax, its only Adair,” 164

“Adair?” I searched her confused. My head spun, studying the truck, not knowing that Adair even could drive, let alone own a pickup truck. “What’s Adair doin’ driving us in the back of a pickup truck?!” 165

Topleaka’s smile widened like the Cheshire Cat’s, uncasing a row of shimmering teeth, “He wanted to see our friend Roxy and what she’s up to as well!” 166

“What are you-“167

“Our suspicions were right!” she beamed, referring to herself with our. “Adair, whether he’s a meanie and denies it or not, like our Roxy!” 168

“?!” Perhaps I wasn’t fully awake. Perhaps this was a horrible dream, and I could go back to being bound up with duct tape and paper towels, waiting for space pirates to devour me. The concept of emo love, as Topleaka had endearingly called it, as in the case of Roxy and Adair, was inconceivable to me. I couldn’t and wouldn’t accept it. Besides, romance was not my interest at heart. “No way.”169

That’s when the truck came to a dramatic halt. We sled across the bed of the truck, banging against the fold down door. Adair turned the key out, jumping out of the front, raising an eyebrow at us. “Well, aren’t you two coming?”170

In my mind, the Missions Impossible theme looped over and over again, to the point of utter nausea. Light was beginning to dim as we crawled into the intimidating building. Well, I was never quite sure (nor did I particularly care) of what it was, so I just called it The Hall of Boring Agony, since the only times I had come, it was by force for some evil long and boring lecture, or something of that nature. We had to weave through all sorts of people that I had never seen around Mihama before. Colours of cloth brushed before my eyes as we crawled through the great doors of the hall. I asked Adair about tickets, but he just covered my mouth and pulled me into the hall. 171

I knew the walls were rather beautifully adorned from childhood memories, but the shadows hid them from the back of the auditorium. Which was where Adair forced us to kneel. The arrogant punk apparently unofficially proclaimed himself leader and plotter of said schemes. Oh, perhaps I never said precisely what these said schemes were. Perhaps that was because we never had a planned out scheme. He was just like that. Everything we did was pure improvisation on his part. 172

It was entertaining, I must admit, to see Adair so adamant about anything. Usually, he was the indifferent emo kid in his own corner that he refused to share. In fact, he talked to us more this day than in the past two years combined. It was a revelation to that secret inner Adair. 173

“What is this?” The young man with long jet black hair looked around with disgust. 174

But there was no real time to answer, considering that the curtain was already rising. The red fabric was the only thing visible in the total darkness. But in a flash, we all saw Roxy draped in blonde lights, alone on the endless stage. From so far away, it took me a while to realize that she was…wearing a leaotard. 175

A leaotard? Was this-ballet? Roxy, the alleged queen of popularity, determined to lead her people and de-throne the megalomaniactic Britteni, was a ballerina? What a secret passion! OF course, she was very good, gracefully hopping across the stage. It just, did not seem to fit Roxy. The Roxy. The rising goddess of our school. 176

Topleaka’s eyes widened in utter awe and admiration, following the complex dance that soon begun. I was still not sure what to say. Roxy being a ballerina was just so hard to swallow. 177

In the silence of the beauty, the only male worked to not reveal our hiding spot, suppressing uprising laughs. “You’ve-gotta be kidding-“ he muttered. 178

“She’s even more awesome than I could have ever imagined!” Topleaka, in contrast, breathed awe-filled. 179

“Is that-really Roxy?” I repeated. Well, the first few times I asked, it was mearly in my mind. Now, I realized that no one would reply if I was mearly saying it all in my head. 180

Adair snickered, “Pathetic. So much for the queen of Waterstone,” Though he said that, I found it ironic that there was a hidden glint of admiration and love for her in his eyes. So Topleaka was right; perhaps it was possible for the lonely enemies to love. 181

~182

After the show, the fake chandelier’s lights slowly arose ot the surface of out burning eyes. The velvet red curtain fell softly, veiling us from Roxy, who was still receiving melded together countless applaudes. Not to mention rainbows of roses. 183

Before I could sense Adair’s tension, I felt my arm pulled nearly out of its socket, being dragged out of the theatre. The sky outside the hall was already dark when Adair jumped in to the front seat of the truck. 184

Topleaka blinked confused. “Why the hurry?” 185

“Before anyone notices-“ he began, but never got to finish, considering that out of the twink’ling shadows suddenly arose a disgruntled Roxy. 186

“YOU!” she demanded in her loudest voice, her glare boring into my eyes. “WHY AND HOW ARE YOU HERE? ANSWER BEFORE I KILL YOU,”187

“Eto-ano—“ I began, unsure of where I was going. Apparently, Adair knew where he was going though. The hot headed teen turned the key in his truck, beginning to back out. What a traitor! I bet Topleaka bribed him to come... I concluded. 188

“YOU COME BACK HERE YOU BAKA!” Roxy screamed, grabbing for the driver side door. Adair stopped in surprise. Honestly, how could he expect that Roxy was bold enough to jump a moving vehicle? 189

“What?”190

“Why were you here, Pokemon? How did you figure out about this? WHY ARE TOPLEAKA AND HARUKA HERE?!” 191

“Them?” The boy shrugged, ignoring the troublesome nickname. “You know kids. Troublesome. The aqua handed me a fifty. Might as well.”192

“Kids?” Topleaka frowned at such an insult. 193

“A Fifty?” I looked at Topleaka in disbelief. “How do you have fifties floating around?”194

“I don’t buy that,” Roxy was always analytical about such things. “Why you?”195

Well, this was getting harder by the moment. So he resorted to shrugging. “What’s it to you?”196

Now it was Roxy’s turn to race. “Its just-that-“ 197

To everyone’s surprise (especially the Greek ballerina), he playfully ruffled the top of her head. “Not half bad for a prep,” again, backing up the truck. That was my cue to jump in with Topleaka. 198

The raven haired beauty was admittingly stunned for a moment. That was most unexpected. But she shook it off with her overwhelming anger. “Don’t think you can get away like that!” she shouted, but of course, she didn’t feel like racing after the truck, already heading out of the dim lit parking lot. With a sigh and a shake of her curled locks, she walked back inside. Curious night, she resolved, curious night. And none of them better speak a word of any of this. The results if they do would be…most unfortunate. 199