Space and Time

Normalcy Really Isn't That Overrated, Is It?

Aika even had a black witch costume on, the most normal of normal things. And then there I was with my eight layers of glitter, wings, and fluff, babbling a mile a minute. I definitely caught myself and tried to play it cool, but what if I came off too strong? She seemed frazzled initially. But then she seemed to get more comfortable when we talked about the NCC a bit. Right? Oh, shoot! I need to add her to the group.

"Evren, your mother is speaking to you." Oh, Baba's poking me.

I look up to see Iida eyeing me suspiciously. "Finally. I'm asking you if you want to clean up your room full of glitter anytime soon," she says. 'Want to?' She definitely means I should get to it ASAP, before I unleash her fury.

"I'll get to it," I say.

"You said that yesterday."

"I had a fight yesterday!"

"And then you had the energy to help Faith rearrange her bedroom, but not to clean up your own."

"That's different. That was helping a friend. I'll live in mess an extra day, no problem, if a friend needs me."

"We'll live in mess. Might I remind you that the longer that glitter stays in there, the more likely it is you will spread it around the rest of the house?" Ahh, she's got me there. She's smiling but I know she'll easily about-face and pull major irritability if I don't hurry it up.

I cave. "All right, all right. I'll do it now." I get up from my chair and head into the hallway toward my bedroom. I hear Baba chuckle and start a conversation with Iida about something work-related. I'll have to ask Baba about that later, actually; I need to hear the rest of the story about his new math students.

...There really is a lot of glitter in here. Where's my cleaning rag? Oh, in the laundry basket... Ah, it's probably fine to use just once more. Actually, wait, let's put that back down. I need to add Aika to the group chat before I forget. Ok, Visalogue... chats... Oh, wait, I don't even have Aika on Visalogue. I am doing this completely out of order.

Aika... Inoue... Search. Huh, she's not the first person. Oh, that looks like her, though. 'Aika In.' Let's send that friend request. Now while we wait, maybe some snooping? What's Aika got on her profile anyway? Huh. Not much. Last time she posted was her high school graduation. Last year. She has a nice smile. Her friend – Lev, was it? – is also in the photo. Oh, I should add him too. He seemed nice. He got along with Maeva, at least, and that's not always so easy.

Ok, done. Hm, Lev's profile is a lot more active. He's into a lot of TV shows. And he goes to the local uni for engineering; that's cool! Doesn't Faith go there for business? Oh, Aika's accepted my friend request! That was fast.

There's still nothing on her profile, though. Looks like it's not privacy settings giving me blanks. She's not an avid poster. Now we can put her in the group chat, though. She can see everyone's awesome photos from the Haunt. Justin's costume was especially amazing; I haven't ever seen a better Miss Tressle. Actually, I don't think I had ever seen a Miss Tressle before... but whatever. It was still great.

"Evren, you'd better get off your phone and back onto the floor before Iida gets here," I hear Baba say as he passes by my room.

"I was getting to it!" I say defensively. Listen, I'm responsible. You just have to let me do things in my order.

Rag in hand, I get to wiping up the glitter from my floor. Just as Baba predicted, Iida comes by and pokes her head in the door a minute later. She says nothing but nods in approval before she leaves again. That's a relief.

I smile as I remember Aika's reaction to my costume. She was funny, blurting out whatever was on her mind. She spoke really eloquently when she got over the embarrassment, though. I felt really flattered. I can feel the fluttering in my chest again now. I mean, I worked hard on it! The wings were especially a big pain. What can I say? I like some good shazam in my outfits. I'm really liking the blue hair, too, though it always takes ages to bleach. And to relax on top of that. But dress-up is fun, especially for impressing other people.

Definitely a win for me. I've gained a new friend, and not intimidated her too badly as evident by her accepting my friend request, and I'm getting closer and closer to finally fighting her. Santeri told me she won her last fight. I can feel my mouth twitch. A new challenge.

Maybe it's a good thing I can be intimidating sometimes, then.