▪Deadly Thorns and Violent Storms▪

Chapter 36

Inosuke's POV:

My new friends are great! They're so cool and totally showing me the ropes, and I'm not going to lie, but Openeye and Bubblegum were pretty bad with advice, but that's okay!

Monichi and Monjiro never gave me advice! What they would tell me was don't do this, don't do that, but Openeye and Bubblegum were like do this, and do that!

Much better and supportive!

The next day at school was different, all my new friends waved hi to me and were treating me like one of them! Lord Tengen and Aniki even dropped me off at my class!

Monichi and Monjiro tried to talk to me again, but I brushed them off flashily.

I seemed to be getting more work done in class because I'm not talking to those two. It's honestly really boring, but I have to do it for the sake of my new friends!!

On my way to the next class I ran into Salami, he seemed annoyed at first, but then said "Hey, sit next to me at lunch, okay?"

He didn't give me enough time to answer, he must recognize our great friendship already.

In the middle of class Nutella leaned over to me and asked, "Inosuke, why were you talking to Sanemi earlier?"

"What's it to ya?" I glared at her. "Are you a spy for Monichi and Monjiro??"

"No! I just wanted to know. Sanemi's not that nice, that's all."

I grunted. "How dare you talk about my best friend like that?!"

"Doesn't he bully one of your other 'best friends'?"

I paused. "Well, they're still friends so it's fine."

"It doesn't seem like he's friends with any of them."

"What do you mean? Gayu loves us!!"

"Gayu? Really?" She shook her head in disapproval.

"Did you need anything else? Cause I need to get back to my work."

Nutella ignored my question, how rude! My new friends would never ignore me!

After class was over it was lunch time and as soon as I walked in the cafeteria Lord Tengen and Aniki escorted me to the table!

As I was about to sit down Salami shouted at me to get my attention. "HEY, YOU."

I jumped, nothing really scares me, but this guy.. he looks like he's been hit by a train.

I remember that he wanted me to sit with him at lunch, and it's lunch. I quickly switched seats, cause it seemed like he was going to explode.

"Hey, have you ever messed with anyone before?" Salami asked.

"Uh... what's messed?"

"Y'know... picked on."

"I guess. Why?"

"I was wondering if I could show you a few things." Salami said rather ominously.

"Okay. Show them to me!"

"I can't show you them here! I'll show you after lunch."

"But what about class?"

"Who cares."

I thought about that for a second. My teacher might care... or he might not. You never know! "Okay, I'll skip class."

"No, it's not skipping class, it's taking a mental break. We've already had so many classes today, and our lunchtime is so short." Salami was really convincing, so he must be right.

So at the end of lunch the others all left to go to classes while me and Salami took our mental break.

"Follow me!" Salami said and took off down the hall. That must be where his mental break room is.

Instead he brought me to the bathroom, maybe he has to pee? He pushed the door open and walked inside.

"Ah perfect!" Salami exclaimed while he saw a boy washing his hands at the sink. "Our first... volunteer!"

The boy turned around and looked terrifed. "I was just about to leave!!"

"No you weren't." Salami said. Okay, that was kind of weird... how come he gets to pick when this kid goes to the bathroom?

Salami grabbed the boys shoulder and led him over to a stall, is he helping him?

"Come watch this, Inosuke."

I walked over hesitantly, Monjiro tells me that I shouldn't watch people when they go to the bathroom, but he isn't here right now, so it's fine.

I watched as Salami pushed the boys head into the toilet, huh, that's interesting.

"How does he breathe in there?" I asked him.

"You only do it for a few seconds, that's your first lesson."

I nodded. "Should I be taking notes?"

"What? No. You're taking a mental break so you don't have to take notes."

Salami seems really confident about this like Openeye is with girls, so I have to take his word for it.

He let the boy go and he ran out before Salami said anything.

"Sooo... Why did we do that?" I asked.

He thought about it for a second. "Because it's fun. And it's your turn now."

"Oh... but I don't really want to do it."

"Okay, fine. I'll just go have more fun without you." He started to walk out of the room, too.

I thought about it for a second then chased after him. "Wait, Salami!"

He turned around slowly, "I thought you didn't want to come."

"I changed my mind!!"

"Good." Then he continued walking away.

I caught up to him and asked, "Where are we going?"

"Well, I'm going to go find another volunteer. If you're up to it, you can help." He said casually.

"Yeah, I'm up to it!" I have to prove myself to him so we'll be even better friends.

We walked through the hallway for a few minutes then Salami noticed someone coming out of a classroom and told me to stay behind him as we followed.

We followed the person into the bathroom and then Salami snuck up on him and scared him.

And when he yelped in terror I realized I recognized that scream.

How did I not notice this boys bright yellow hair before?

The boy we've been following is my ex-friend.

Monichi.