The Nova Ranker - The Sword Almighty

Chapter 10. Roses are Red, Water is Blue.

Not gonna lie, not much happened while we waited for dinner to come. We decided to go to our rooms and freshen up. It was in the bedroom, while we were both changing into somewhat more presentable clothes, that Joey walked up to me and tapped my forehead with his index finger.

"Are you okay, bud?" He sat down beside me and leaned his skinny shoulder against mine. "I know we kinda talked about this during lunch but if you wanna talk some more, you got me here."

I looked up at him, trying to see any sarcasm in his eyes, or detect any maliciousness in his mind. I couldn't feel anything in his mind, but maybe that was because I felt so miserable. He did say he was my best friend. Maybe that was just a rushed thing, but if he really meant it, then we could trust each other, right?

"I'm sorry. I just..." I felt him squeeze my hand. "... I've faced comments like those before. I look very Asian for a Colombian but... this was different."

"First time a comment actually hits deep?"

It clicked with my brain that Joey knew first hand what it was like. He's a black kid, after all. "I've never really cared about the comments on my asian heritage because I've never identified with that part of me. But... well being insulted for what I actually identify as? That hurts a lot."

"You'll be fine, dude. It's just the first time someone talks to you like that, of course it'll sting."

I felt guilty. Of course Joey had experience with that kind of thing. "I'm sorry."

"You got insulted and you're apologizing about it?" He raised an eyebrow at me and chuckled. "Lighten up, you nerd."

"I apologize a lot."

"I can tell. I was almost convinced you're Canadian. Now, how about you stop moping around and help me choose a good shirt to meet my mentor? Gotta make sure I look good if it's a cute girl."

I think Joey may just be the actual best friend on the entire planet. I'd known him for about a day and a half, and he was doing his level best to cheer me up. How often can you say that about someone you just met? In case you wanna know, I had him wear the best short sleeve shirt I could find between his things. Not too much fancy stuff in his wardrobe but I made him look classy with what he had.

I put on a white shirt and black pants my mom forced me to pack. I'm not sure if my mom can read the future or if she just knew I'd need to dress fancy but I greatly appreciated it. As we made our way to the dining hall, I started to try and read minds, just sort of leaving it activated in case I came across the hissing voice again. Soon, we were in the dining hall, and were waiting for Franny and Andy to come join us.

A trickle of fear ran up my spine as I heard the mental voice of Loggins behind me, though as I turned around to see, he was just chatting with someone. I wouldn't say he's the kind of person who is able to have friends, so I have my reservations about describing the person he was talking to as a Friend. I suppose I could've read his mind a little bit deeper to find out if he was still thinking about hurting me, but I'd had enough of that toxic waste in my brain. So I started trying to tune him out.

"Hey, Elly, stop that." I felt Joey's foot touch my shin and turned my head to him. "Don't look for him. If you let him know his words hurt you, it'll just make him pick on you more."

Franziska and Andy joined us, and they also were a pair of encouraging sweethearts. I felt a little weird about it. I guess I'm just used to wallowing in my misery on my own, bottling all that negative emotion for years until all of it spills out and I need 'an intervention'. My psychiatrist used to say I shouldn't be like that, but what does he know?

I wanted to give the room a quick scan for the hissing mind, but I realized everyone had turned around and were facing the podium. And then I followed suit. There he stood. Mitchell Rose, holding a small fireball in his hand. "Thank you, everybody!" This time he was wearing fancy clothes. By which I mean he'd replaced the hoodie and blazer combo with just a pink blazer. Or Magenta. I think Magenta is the term he'd prefer.