Secrets of Light Academy

Chapter 8: Eyes

NEBBIA

Solis! She's gone. Where's Solis? Where'd she go? Where am I? Why am I here? Who are these people? I don't know, but Solis would know. But she's not here. She's not here. She's not... 

"You sure look stressed, Neba....It's Neba, right? ....... I know, I'm kind of nervous too. Usagi and Solis still haven't come back, and the lunch bell's gonna ring soon! Hopefully they managed to get their hair done or whatever." That's Aoi's voice. He's one of Solis' friends. I wonder who he was talking to. 

"You should have gone too, Aoi! They say that well-kept hair brings out inner beauty." Hiroko said. Oh, he must have been talking to her. 

"But if you decide not to go, that's fine. No use trying to "bring out" what was never there." Hiroto grumbled. He sounded angry. Angry people are scarier than normal people, so I'll just sit in the corner over here and not bother anyone. 

"We're back, we're back!" Someone called from across the hallway. It sounds like Solis' friend Usagi. Solis has a lot of friends.

"Mission accomplished!" Solis called as well. Solis? Solis is back! She's here she's here she's here...

"Does that mean you made peace? Where's Yoru?" Aoi asked. I always found Aoi's name difficult to pronounce. It's only vowels after all.

"She woke up and she got to see her hair. It looked like she liked it." Usagi grinned.

"What do mean by she woke up and got to see her hair? " Hiroko asked.

"Wait, we've got it..." Hiroto started.

"So you asked her to come with you and she said no, so you knocked her out and dragged her to the salon to get her hair done, and when she woke up she was completely angry and confused." The two said together.

"Actually..." Solis responded. "... That wasn't too far off..." 

"Knew it." Hiroto commented, barely glancing away from his phone.

"But! Some parts were different! We didn't knock her out, she was asleep. And we didn't drag her unconscious body to the salon... Usagi cut her hair on the spot..." Solis' confident voice trailed into a whisper. There was a pause.

"Wait... USAGI CAN CUT HAIR??" Hiroko and Hiroto gasped. 

Aoi seemed unfazed.

"Yeah, she cuts my hair. I'd asked her to cut it shorter, but she said it looks "cuter" this way, or something. Also, it covers up my ears nicely. She's pretty good." Aoi fruffed up his hair.

"Hee hee. Oh you flatterer, you!" Usagi punched Aoi in the arm. He didn't even flinch. He must be strong... or maybe she just isn't. 

I don't understand why people punch others when being complimented. I've seen it happen before, I don't think I'll ever understand. I've been avoiding complimenting people for that very reason. And also because it's difficult, if I mess up I sound creepy. Then again, I always sound creepy. I'm a creepy, weird, freak show of a person, who is a suicidal, unsightly, scary, awful, disgusting monster. Or that's what my brothers and sisters say. They sound like mean words, but I don't know what most of them mean. Selena refused to tell me. Maybe I should look them up in the new dictionary I got for my birthday.

"Why'd you want to cover your ears? Do they get cold easily or something?" Hiroko squinted her eyes in suspicion. 

"My ears? No, they... uh, I mean... yeah they get cold really easily so..." Aoi stuttered an unusually large amount of times for one sentence. He sounded like a well-spoken person until now, but when someone stutters more than I do, it's not a good sign. 

"Cold ears, huh? Mind if we have a little peek at those cold ears of yours? 'They deformed or something? No use hiding it, we'll find out one way or another." Hiroto sneered, closing in on Aoi. 

It's funny, I kept my distance from that scary person because he seemed angry... then how come seeing him happy scares me even more...?

Aoi backed away from the twins grasp, covering his ears.

"What's going on with you two, poor Aoi has cold ears! Do you want a look at his piercings or something? I have pictures here." Usagi swiped through her smartphone's album.

"Piercings?" Hiroko blinked. By the time she finished saying the word, Hiroto had already begun to take pictures of the pictures on Usagi's phone, with his phone.

"That's weird. I could just send them to you, To ." Usagi put her phone away. 

"I don't have an email or social media and DON'T CALL ME THAT EVER." He glared at her with angry eyes that would put Yoru's to shame. It was just for a split second, but that was definitely long enough to make me sink much further into the corner. 

"Hey stop that! You can't just go around exchanging pictures of me without my permission!! And Usagi, when did you take those?" Aoi flailed his arms around wildly. "It's not my fault, I didn't get them on purpose and it was a long time ago!"

The four of them argued and argued. I started to tune out. 

Solis, where is she? She quickly disappeared from the conversation, but where is she now?

My eyes panned around the halls, until I spotted her. She stood up against the wall, looking out the window. It was a strange sight to see, Solis looking so... not Solis.

She's one of two people I can see properly. When anyone looks my way, I find myself looking away from them. Eye contact is a scary thing. But Solis has warm eyes. They're happy and cheerful and honest. They're so unlike my own dark and foggy sad excuses for eyes. In fact, I cover them mostly with my hair, so no one has to go through the trouble of looking at them. 

Seeing Solis starring so blankly, made it look like she lost all that warmth. I'm her friend, so it's my responsibility to help! I think. 

"S-s-solis! Solisolisolis!" I called. My voice isn't very loud, so if I want to be heard, I have to scream it out. That's what Selena's always said. I have to scream it out. 

"S...s...!" I took a deep breath in. "SOOOOLISSSS!!" I screamed, cupping my hands around my mouth. I was too loud. Everyone anywhere near me stopped what they were doing and starred. 

"A-ah... I..." I stuttered. After fiddling with my sweater for a bit, I couldn't take the starring and waddled over to Solis as fast as I could and hid behind her. 

"Nebbia? Are you alright? I didn't even notice you, huddled up in that corner." She asked.

"M-me? No, are you alright Solis? Your eyes are all cloudy." I whispered.  

"Cloudy?" She blinked and looked back at her faint reflection in the window. "....Can't have that now can we?" She shook her head and smiled. "I'm fine. Thanks for always watching over me, Nebbia." She patted my head. I like when she does that, because her hands are always warm. This time, when Solis opened her eyes, they were bright again, but still a bit sad. 

"Hey Solis... I... um, y-you know that I'm your friend... I'm not really 100% sure what that means... b-but if you're sad or something like that... I..." Oh no, I'm going to sound super creepy again!

"You can always talk to me about stuff! If... if you really want to that is..." 

Her face froze. AAAH THAT WAS SUCH A STRANGE THING TO SAYYY. I should talk to Solis less or else she might want to not be my friend anymore. And if she's not my friend anymore then...

"Aw, Nebbia! Thanks!" She smiled even brighter. "You've changed so much since I met you!" 

"H-huh?" 

"I'm kind of bummed right now, and it would be bad to start our first mission with a quitter attitude, right?" She said, enthusiastically. 

"Um, Mmhmm!" I nodded.

"We've got eight minutes 'till lunch ends, let's go outside and I'll tell you a story." 

"I like stories."

"That's good!"