It was the same gorilla- no girl. Seeing up close, she did seem more like a girl than an actual monkey. Her pure black hair might have made me think otherwise at first but gradually I found it charming.

And she actually had a slender build, kind of athletic looking, but definitely not a gorilla. Though after that elbow blow, I wasn’t too sure. 

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t know how to face you so-” She stopped and didn’t look me in the eye. Her ears twitched a little. They weren’t monkey ears but rather a little like raccoon ears. 

‘So that’s why you were outside. ‘

I couldn’t hold a grudge against her. I didn’t like this but I had better things to worry about. “Just don’t do anything reckless like that from now on.” I didn’t want her around anyway. The more I talked with her the more I’d feel bad about my arm. So, I tried to play it cool and take my leave.

“I couldn’t help myself. All my life, I’ve had this dream to climb!” Was she for real? 

It was an intriguing thing to say: really intriguing, considering she almost fractured my shoulder. So I couldn’t help but ask. “Really?” My tone was as sarcastic as ever.

“Yes. I really like to climb. And I have this impossible dream to climb forever. I know I should forget about it but…” But, she had a few screws loose.

It took me a while, but strangely she wasn’t wearing a uniform. Rather she had this eastern dress that I knew nothing about: so, I pretended not to care too much. Never really had much fashion sense anyway. 

‘Just forget about it! There are plenty of better things in life!’

But there wasn’t any way I could tell that to her. Her eyes were too damn sincere. So, instead, I chose an easier way. “Anyway, now that this is over. I better return to my tour and I’ve to be at the auditorium before five.” I was probably giving out too much information but oh well. Anything to escape. 

She stared at me with questioning eyes. “Tour?”

“Oh yeah. I was checking out the school.” And I was getting late too. I had a habit of being punctual and I didn’t want to go through the same thing twice on the same day. I didn’t want to be late. 

“I can give you a tour.” She was pretty enthusiastic about it too.

“You’re a senior?”

“Yeah!” Apparently, life could be really deceiving. All this time I’d assumed she was a freshman like me and yet… I was wrong!  “Is something wrong?”

“No, not really. I’d love to go out with you,” I said.

“Okay then. Let’s go… wait, what?”

I might have had said something rather outrageous without even noticing. “It-it’s not what you think. I phrased that wrong!” I tried to correct myself. Of course, I had no intention of dating, but my subconscious might have been wandering in places it shouldn’t have.

“Ye-yeah. I-I know.” She stuttered a lot for someone who knew. “Anyway, let’s go.”

I almost felt too embarrassed to go on. 

***

“This is the cafeteria.” She started off by showing me the cafeteria on the second floor in the west wing: she never really introduced herself, so I didn’t feel the necessity to, either. 

The school only had two buildings. One building had only classrooms labs while the other had clubrooms, faculty rooms, training rooms, etc.

Now I understood why people were telling me that the dorms were just on the other side of the school building. By school building, they meant the classrooms. And I just happened to go to the other side of the clubrooms. Amazing. No wonder I ended up in the girls’ dorm. 

‘I guess I shouldn’t make his Excalibur weak the next time we meet.’

The cafeteria was mostly empty. There was hardly anyone in here. Then again, classes were long over and today’s just the first day. It was only natural.

But since there were only a few people, a particular conversation floated my way. 

“Did you hear that there will be a Romswell coming here this week?”

I wanted to sigh. Not that rumor again. 

“Yeah, and actually a Battlesuin just transferred and a Rodwich is also enrolling this year. It’ll be one heck of a year.”

My face felt a bit hot. 

“Something wrong?” The girl next to me asked. 

“Nothing, let’s go.” My voice was cold. 

Up next came the various clubrooms. There were plenty to choose from. I didn’t feel any affinity towards the clubs so I didn’t ask. She still told me anyway. “You see, in order to draw out your best; you need to join a club. Through friendship and bonds, you’d achieve your dreams!”

Even world leaders would have been embarrassed with a speech like that. Did she seriously believe such things? Probably so.

“Anyway, guess which club I’m in?” she said, puffing up her chest. 

I stared. “Climbing?” I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was such a club. I didn’t picture it happening though. Surely the headmaster wasn’t that dumb, was he?

By the way, I couldn’t look away but forced myself to anyway. 

“Unfortunately, the headmaster didn’t give me the permission to create one. What do you say we start one together?” At first, she was sad but that sadness slowly turned into excitement. She was a fast one. And she wanted to drag me down with her. 

Unfortunately, I had no such ambitions. “No thank you. And I thought we were talking about which team you were in?”

“Not team, but club. Anyway, I’m in the volleyball club.” She gave me a victory sign and proudly puffed her chest, again. She was quite gifted in that region though.

I averted my gaze. Whenever I didn’t have a proper response, I went with, “I see.” It was better than standing around like an idiot without saying anything and just nodding.

“SO which club are you into? I mean what clubs do you like.” She looked at me with curiosity. I didn’t like that look. She had the same look when she was climbing that pole: That curious and serious face.

“Frankly, none of them.” I was blunt. People hated me for it but I didn’t care. 

“Really? But we have a lightsaber club too you know. I thought it was popular with the guys.”

‘I’d rather not play with plasma sabers and end up blowing up the thing with radiation.’

I mean she wasn’t wrong. I did have a fascination for lightsabers but… this was a big but. If I ended perhaps losing control of my power in the middle of a fight, let’s just say only a certain portion of the city would blow up in the best-case scenario.

The worst-case? Let’s not imagine that. 

“No thank you. Can we move on?” I tried to pass the whole thing up with a smile. 

She sighed. “Alright.”

Then came the Gym. It was fairly big. There was a basketball and volleyball club. I think might have seen a cricket pitch in the field too. I wondered why people still played such primitive games: no soccer though. And then there was the lightsaber court. This was the trend for the last two decades. Strangely, people were obsessed with hitting things with plasma. I couldn’t deny that I might or might not have been one of them.

I never cared about sports so this really didn’t excite me. The same couldn’t be said about the girl beside me though. Her tail was waving back and forth: she was excited, no doubt.

***

  “All that leaves is the library and the auditorium.”  She didn’t really seem all that enthusiastic for once and walked silently. 

Eventually, we reached the place.

The library was not what I expected. I thought they’d be plenty of books and a lot of kids would be reading and stuff. But apparently, no one was here besides just one girl and the librarian. 

“I don’t think anyone reads books these days…” she started.

“What are you talking about?” I had to read books whether I liked it or not, so though I knew what she was talking about, I couldn’t help but ask, just for the sake of asking. 

“People imprint the knowledge directly on their brain. It’s most efficient.” She was right. I might have expected a bit too much of humanity. 

Technology had progressed much and it made people a bit too lazy. And I wanted to be one of them.

“Can your parents not afford a proper imprinter?” She tried to act as humble as she could. It still came out a little rude though.

Actually, the main reason behind my reading physical copies was because we were relatively poor. But after reading and finding the joy in it, I sort of gave in. “I like to read hence I read.” At least I consoled myself that way.

“I-I see.” The gorilla, rather my senior didn’t really seem all that convinced. Even I wasn’t convinced. 

The only girl in the library waved at me. I recognized her. It was Marg.

The library was empty so it didn’t hurt to speak normally. I’d seen in the old movies how librarians used to silence people in the libraries. If only I could go back in that sort of time.

“Didn’t think I’d see you here,” I said.

“Me neither.” As usual, she didn’t strike as enthusiastic.

The gorilla or rather my senior opened her mouth to imprint wisdom upon us. “You know this kid?” Wasn’t it obvious already?

“I do know her, but I don’t know you. You haven’t even introduced yourself, you know.” I stared at the girl- our self-proclaimed senior. Granted, I didn’t either but maybe she should have first?

She patted the back of her head and laughed in an awkward way. “Oh right! I’m Selene. Nice to, meet you, you know.” And this just got more and more awkward.

“Margeretta.”

“Jintel.” I sighed as I introduced myself. I really didn’t like my name.

“You mean Helio.” Marg didn’t like my name either. But unfortunately for her, I had to use this name for specific reasons.

And for those reasons, I couldn’t just yell my surname out in the public and I had to get it into this thick-headed girl. “No, I mean Jintel. And please don’t call me Helio.” 

“I refuse.” Marg dismissed me without a second doubt.

“Wait, I’m confused!” Selene wasn’t having any either.

Why the hell did it always have to come to this? Why did my parents just have to give me two worthless and weird names?