Vonaias Aleanvalsa

Cheetos, Cola and One Piece

Andrew woke up to his alarm. He did not want to get up, his bed was deliciously cozy and warm, and he sank into the sheets like seeping into warm marshmallow. The number seven blinked white as Andrew rubbed his eyes sleepily, then he remembered he had sports at eight and felt slightly excited about it.

He got up and reached for his watch, and yelped when he drew a thumb over the glass and felt a little dent.

"Holy hamburgers—" he exclaimed, narrowing his eyes at the little thing. "It's broken!"

Dread fell like an egg yolk over his head, dripping lead all over him as he realized he must have bumped into something hard the night before and not noticed it then.

Two horrible possibilities presented themselves: he might be forever stuck as Andrew without ever being able to go back to the fantasy world, or he might make another trip back to the fantasy world, but get stuck there and never return to the real world, the former being worse than the latter.

"Boong!! Boooonnnngg!!" he yelled, and the magic cloak appear from under his pillow, shoulders raised in curiosity. Andrew was frantic now. He handed the watch to the floating cloak with trembling fingers, silently beckoning him to inspect the crack.

"Can you do something about this?" he asked desperately.

The cloak shrugged and shook his collar and Andrew wanted to scream.

It was the longest day Andrew could remember. By the time he made it down to the library for detention, he was utterly exhausted, in a foul mood and wanting nothing but to go to bed and or never speak to anyone ever again. The day had not been improved by Andrew's sighting of a wild Logan during dinner, looking all healthy and surrounded by happiness.

As Andrew reached the library, his eyes landed on the golden-haired boy who was humming a tune while mopping the floor, looking like he was in a disgustingly good mood. This more than anything made Andrew want to scream again.

Why did it seem to him that Logan was having the best day of his life while Andrew was still going through the worst?

Logan caught sight of Andrew and raised a hand. "Hey," he said, then appeared to catch himself and lowered his voice. "Uh, I mean. It's you."

Andrew ignored him. He moved to his side of the library, picked up a duster and began dusting bookshelves.

It wasn't long before Logan found an excuse to approach him again, saying he needed another duster himself.

Andrew ignored him.

After ten minutes, Logan came to ask if Andrew had seen the thing with the thing, you know? That thing you use for, you know.

Andrew ignored him.

It was halfway through detention when Logan finally came up with two bags of chips and two cans of coke.

You're an egg, thought Andrew. Logan Dillifon—Lovan Dilfondon's real world persona—was not Andrew's friend. He had no business coming here with bags of Andrew's favorite Flamin' Hot Cheetos and coke, especially because Andrew's mouth started watering the moment his eyes landed on the flaming packages and... he stopped. Was that what he thought it was?

"Are those One Piece limited edition cokes?" he asked, shocked.

Lovan turned one of the cans to inspect it. "One Piece of what?"

Andrew's mouth fell open. "You don't know One Piece? It's only the most watched cartoon ever!"

"Well, I've only been here a few days," he said softly, sounding a little embarrassed. "There's still a lot of things I don't know. Like these. I don't know what these are, but a guy at the vending machine told me they were good." He raised the bags of Cheetos.

"Cheetos are gooooood," said Andrew, salivating.

They semed to have struck a momentary peace as they sat down on the floor, backs against a bookshelf, and began eating and drinking. Andrew brought out his laptop and a projector he secretly carried in his bag, and set it up.

"You are going to LOVE this," he said, with passion. "It's the best show ever."

"You've said," he said, not sounding very convinced but scooting closer and stuffing his face with Cheetos. "These are sooooo gooooood."

"Told you!"

Andrew pressed play, one eye on the projection, one eye on the door just in case the librarian decided to come in. They were definitely definitely definitely not allowed to have screenings in the middle of detention.

Luckily, no teachers came in whatsoever during the show.

At some point, Logan started asking questions. What are those called? Who is that? Why is he doing that? How can he do that?

Andrew took a deep breath and felt so happy to be talking about one of his favorite things ever, that he simply began explaining.

"There are devil fruits that give you super powers when you eat them, but you lose your ability to swim because the devils don't like water," he began.

Logan interrupted. "What's the point of being a pirate if you can't swim?"

"Not everybody has a devil fruit, so some of your crew can swim."

"Can you swim?" Logan asked.

"I think so... I don't have a devil fruit, sadly. I would love to turn into a dragon. They're so cool they can breathe fire and spit fire and fly," said Andrew.

"Dragons are too strong. I couldn't imagine being one."

They talked on for a long time after the episode was finished, and by the time they wanted to continue with a new episode, the door to the library suddenly creaked open and they both jumped. Andrew rolled on the floor like an action hero and put his projector back into his bag while Logan tried and failed to turn invisible, as he could probably do very well in the fantasy world, but not here.

Andrew smacked his own forehead, dismayed. "You're not a wizard here!" he hissed, then fell instantly quiet as someone approached them.

To his surprise, it was Kestrel, putting away a book. He turned and spotted Andrew and Logan, and his face grew increasingly confused.

"Huh? What are you two doing here?" he asked, sounding as if he had never expected the two of them to be able to share one room without killing each other.

"Detention," Andrew and Logan said together.

"Oh," said Kestrel, eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And are you allowed to have chips and coke during detention?" he pointed at the empty bags of chips and cans on the floor.

"Obviously," said Andrew.

"Not," Logan finished.

Kestrel's eyebrows flew into his forehead. "You're finishing each other's sentences now, I see."

"Shut," said Andrew.

"Up!" said Logan.

Kestrel smiled and pulled something out of his bag. "Well, I have snacks too." He pulled out a large bag of Lays and a 2L bottle of lemonade Sprite. "I thought we could share."

Andrew and Logan shared a look. They told Kestrel all about One Piece and the fact that Logan had never seen it before, which Kestrel couldn't believe, and two minutes later, they were sitting on the floor, projector back on, eating and drinking and watching One Piece.

Every once in a while, Kestrel threw an amused look in Andrew's direction, but Andrew ignored him. If they were going to have a conversation about Logan, it wouldn't be now. Now, all Andrew wanted to do was watch One Piece and eat chips and not think about his broken watch.