The meeting at the Cafeteria

The corridor was empty when Rey got out from her class. Her mind muddled and her heavy as lead. Stomping on the floor, her step echoed at the desolated corridor.

Everyone at the school must be in the cafeteria right now.

Her eyes clouded, her face darkened and her lips pursed. Hunching in gorilla walk, as she just lost the war.

"FUH" she blew a strand of bluish hair from her nose. Her eyes was fiery.

Damn it, I have to do remedial tests. For the SECOND TIME! And nothing could change Miss Heather's mind!

The cafeteria filled to the brim with students. Some chatted, some crowed, or munched and slurped with gusto or disgust. Rey spotted a free table near the large windows. Running a bit, she flopped to the chair as soon as she arrived at the corner, without even taking or glancing at the food.

I gotta learn before I get kicked from the class.

The bluish haired girl opened her math book and sighed really hard. Her eyes glanced to the park, where her best friend Ara played with his friend. Their boards were flying in the open air as they swished and swoshed on the ramp in the park just in front of the windows, where her seat was. Her blue eyes filled with longing. Forcing herself to look away, she shook her head several times to clear her mind.

Not now Rey, you got to do this first.

She grimly got her book and her pen. Her white small hand twirled the pen around and her face pouted a little, thinking very hard...

"Hi... is this seat empty?" It was a boy voice.

"Yeah yeah, go ahead."

She busily blew her hair strands that covered her nose again without even looking up. The girl heard the sound of chair scratched the floor, and through her hair curtain, she can tell that someone sat in front of her. Disgusted and confused with her lesson, she grabbed her pencil and stabbed the book.

"DIE vampire equation! DIE!!"

A deep rather cold voice said calmly.

"I bet the vampire died. But the equation needs your brain, not your blood if there is any."

Rey frowned a bit, but the boy continued and a biggish and venous hand stretched to her book and scribbled.

"Here, do this part first. Then you should finish this. After that, then multiply both. Now you do it."

"Huh...?"

Glancing up, she saw the boy she 'rescued' earlier sat just across her table. Now she could look at him properly. Before, he was just a hazy person with the flag written 'boy' in her mind.

He had fair skin, platinum hair, and ice blue eyes, just like her. Unlike her skinny scrawny thin hand, his hands were quite sturdy. He wore a black knitted wool T-shirt bulged a bit with his muscles.

"Just do it," He said, almost order her.

Her bluish head tilted a little, and her face scrunched in disapproval. She tried to remember what was exactly the thing that felt odd.

Ordering me around? Not that... but did I miss something?

After hesitating, the scrawny hand scribbled as she tried his way. Her eyes widened when she thought...

"YES! I understand!"

He grinned haughtily.

"Now that wasn't too bad was it, little girl?"

Rey sneered.

"Little girl? Thank you very much, grandpa sir!" She mocked a military salute.

"Well, consider it as thanks for helping me back there."

His smile was really handsome but, a tad of sadness lingered for a second. Then the haughty face came again.

"Don't you want to know my name? You rudely left, without even introducing yourself!"

Damn, he is really arrogant. Isn't it the OTHER WAY around?

Thought Rey, a little upset.

"Oh, I seee. Your Highness, nice to meet you. My humble name is Rey." She mocked a sickly sweet and polite tone, while moved her head to remove her bluish hair to place. Her hand twirled elegantly and she bowed.

"Ryuzan" Raking his platinum hair, he smirked as he looked at her displeased face. "Now what? Still have some math problem?"

Rey silently scoffed, but braced herself "How about this equation?"

"This thing is different, "He said, then stopped. "You a thing. Here, eat mine!" He roughly pushed his food.

"Uhm, don't bother!"

"EAT! Recess is done in 5 minutes" He forcefully stuck the burger to her face.

"Ck, could you pleaseee, not push it to my face! It's dirty!" She said, a little upset

"I think that's better than the idea of throwing it to you." He smirked.

Cursing silently, she finally took his offer, just to silenced him.

" Okay, I'll take it then" Rey took his burger and ate.

"Are you free after school? If you want, I can explain it to you REALLY SLOW" He snickered, definitely teased her.

"UM? Are you just imply that I'm stupid?" Rey furrowed her brow.

Ryuzan chuckled. "Okay then. Meet you at the library. No escaping"

Rey scoffed. Her mouth full.

He is really weird. Rough, cold but what he did is kind. Strange boy.

After one long glance at Rey, Ryuzan left her without even a single goodbye wave. The bell rang, and Rey ran among the students, once again glanced to the ramp, where she longed to be.

09. At the skateboard ramp.

Outside, at the skateboard Ramp, Ara slides up and down the U ramp easily but his mind was elsewhere, busy with thought. He read many articles label his people as such, but hearing that out loud himself at his own school is something else.

Terrorist? Yea right.

Swishing up and down the ramp, the familiar constant voice of the skateboard wheel hitting the ramp calmed him.

Ah yeah, the media. They all just need sensations.

As his feet make an ollie on the end of the ramp, he jumped and slide down, jumped and back, sliding over and over again. He snorted.

The human, the unbeliever. They wouldn't understand. Don't they know that so many Iceblood committed so many crimes against the Lava Gods? And so many Lava people fallen to the Ice people! We have our own statistic to proof that, it just that the media never show them!

He felt something hot on his hand, stopped at the bottom of the ramp and sit in the shade. Channeling his power to his hand, a green flame appeared and he could hear his father voice clearly in his head.

"Meet Cerberus this afternoon."

Ara closed the firecomm.

❅❅❅❅❅❅❅

The library was nearly empty, it was an old building built from stones with lots of arches and carving. There were only a handful of students lingering there after school. Ryuzan was already waiting for her when Rey ran into the library.

"You're late" He glanced at her accusingly. He raked his hair with his hand, impatient.

She threw out her arm, exasperated.

"Okay next time I will say 'Sorry Mr. Devon, I got more important lessons with Mr. Ryuzan today."

Her remark dripping with sarcasm.

He chuckled and pat the chair beside him "Here!"

She sat obediently.

"Thanks for your time by the way."

"Yeah, yeah, I need to get my mind busy anyway" He answered, impatiently.

"Hey, you are in senior class right?"

"Yea, 2 years above you."

"How do you know?"

"Well, the bullies from that morning said something about you being a junior."

"Oh yes, he is" she frowned. "I won't get into any more trouble with them again. They seem like too much for me."

"Ha! I bet that you'd jump in the next time there's a danger in a heartbeat!" The platinum-haired boy scoffed.

He glanced at her again and poked her hand with a pencil. He stated, "You should focus on the remedial for now."

"Hh okay. Here, I don't understand this parabolic thingy." She frowned.

"Oh, I see. Let me see the problem."

She opened the book and handed the problem to him.

He explained "Okay standard form is (x - h)2 = 4p (y - k), where the focus is (h, k + p) and the directrix is y = k – p. Did you understand this part?"

She shook her head. Her bluish hair waved ceremoniously. "Totally have no clue"

He sighed "Let's start from the very beginning"

"The very good thing to start.. when you read you begin with A B C" She sang.

He stares at her unbelievingly, a smile formed in his eyes. "Really? Do you wanna sing Do Re Mi song? You really have no clue on time!"

"You are no fun." She rolled her eyes.

"You have little time for mastering this you know. Your remedial is tomorrow right?" His tone is little harsh and demanding.

"Damn, what are you, my Dad? I hate it, you're right. Okay, so how should I start?" Rey gave up and put her pen case on the table.

Ryuzan eyed that recycled tin with one eye. It has a big Rainbow dash cutting plastered on one side. He opened his mouth, ready to comment but after a second he decided to just start the whole damn thing.

"Okay, I think we just start with the problems...."

"How about this....?"

"No, it's this way.."

For a while, the library interrupted only with the sound of pencils scraping the paper and some whispered explanation. Sometimes they heard sounds of books being taken from the shelves and the murmur of other people from the other table or bursted laughter. But after a while, the ambiance sound decreased as the library near it closing time.

Ryuzan put his head on his palm, watched the bluish hair swayed, as the owner think. "You know, two days ago, I saw this unusual sight," He said.

"What unusual sight?" She continued to scribble, didn't even bother to lift her head.

"A girl, in a burnt room, sprouted bluish wings, and flashing lightning and snow to put off the fire"

The Altoid tin-recycled pen case dropped with a loud crash. It sounds like a bomb in the mighty silence.

"Sshh" The librarian shushed them, but then went away.

Rey scrambled to the floor, scraping her things in a rush. "Sorry, I kind of dropped that kind of things haha, er you must be joking, who gonna believe that kind of things anyway, and I heard that some people like that captured by government who search for those uber humans in the web, I think there's no one like that in this neighborhood and also maybe you saw something like cloud or else? Aha ha, haha" Her words ricocheted as she laughed nervously.

Ryuzan waited for the librarian to go beyond earshot.

"Why is that face? I didn't even mention that this girl has blue hair and wear pink skates, and oh, yeah, Rainbow Dash T-shirt" He casually picked one of her pen from the floor calmly.

"WHAT?" She shouted.

"SSHH!" said the librarian. "Keep it down!"

"Sorry ma'am," she gritted her teeth, and her eyes glared to the boy.

It was so peaceful at the moment, birds chirped at the humongous vent above them, and the only sound beside that was the sound of the cart, pushed around by the librarian. But the air between the two of them was so thick, someone could cut it with a knife.

After a while, Ryuzan whispered. "You shouldn't ice-warp this morning then if you know the risk." He rolled his eyes.

"Said someone who just fainted the whole gang of bullies" She whispered back scathingly.

Ryuzan snorted "I wonder, who aggravate me to do that. Oh, yeah, of course, the girl with a blue hair" He pointed to her.

"You didn't exactly need to show off" She hissed.

"Back there, it's a needed action, to erase their memories of our strange behavior, dumb. Why oh why do you think I just let them beat me up? To hide my powers!" He hissed back.

For a while, Rey silent. But her eyes still throwing daggers.

"If I can use it in secret, why can't I use the powers? My Dad use that too" She pouted.

"Ha, from my source of info, I think he was the one who scolded you silently at the back of the ambulance. He disliked the idea too" Ryuzan sneered.

Rey gaped. Then after a while, she frowned and whisper. "Why do you know the incident so well?"

"I have eyes everywhere."

She eyed him unbelievingly "I just see two eyes on your head."

He rolled his eyes. "Spies silly"

"You have spies?" Rey snorted "Really...Who are you anyway"

Ryuzan froze at that question but then he slyly smiled. "Well, I just have a lot of connection. Next time, hide your powers. There's so much danger lies in showing them rather than hide them here. Especially for someone who is so inexperienced like you. Who in the world, wasted her strength and ruin the opponent shirt, rather than hit him."

Rey stared at him unbelievingly.

He stared back, then scold "Do your math, time and tide wait for no man"

Rey rolled her eyes "Really". But she bent her back again to the math problem anyway, yet, something still bugging.

Several hours and a basket of crumpled paper later...

"Sorry. It's library closing time, please leave," said the librarian.

Rey stepped outside and looked at the sky.

The day veiled, by dark velvet night that scattered with thousands of shiny beads. The street lamp starts to light, one by one along the lined trees at the park in front of their school. They stepped down from the stairs, and started their journey home, in a cold breeze.

"Whoa, I don't realize that it was this late" She frowned as she glanced at the time.

Ryuzan looked at her for a second "My bad. Wanna walk home?"

"Yea, I got my skate see?" She took off on her skateboard, at a walking pace, with an ollie here n there.

"You like skating?" He narrowed his eyes.

"NO" Her tone was serious.

"Oh, really?" He stared, unbelievingly.

"HA HA HA, it's obvious that I like it, duh!" She laughed at his face.

"Where is your home?"

"It's just around that block. Where's yours?"

"Huh!" He scoffed "You're lucky that I willing to share my precious time to get you home safely."

"I have honored, your majesty" She mocked again.

He smirked.

"You called me your majesty, yet, you never thank me"

"er sorry.. thank you"

"Do you have any better way to say thanks?"

"Thank you very much" She smiled innocently.

"I mean like work. Washing dishes, or else"

"Meanie"

He stared her for a few second then sigh "You really are a child aren't you? This world is no Ponyville"

"Huh? Me? Child? Pardon, I am big enough!" Rey widened her eyes.

"How old are you anyway?"

"15, next week."

"It figures. Really" He chuckled.

"And you grandpa?" Rey teased.

"Haha, I'm 17 to 18" He laughed.

Rey eyes twinkled "Figures, you're older than my Dad."

"Ho ho, your dad had you at 1 year old? Nice try child" He snickered.

Then she stopped at a small rented house.

"This is my home.. " Rey said. "Thanks"

For a minute or two, Ryuzan silent. Then he said, "Don't you know me?"

Rey frowned. "Know? We just met this morning didn't we?"

He scoffed and shook his head.

"Until we meet again" He waved and left.

====

Ryuzan turned around and walked back home slowly.

It looks like her father never tells her about me. Or maybe they were so isolated here from the rest of our community. Albert right, her power was promising, while still raw and poorly trained. At the fire, Albert said her wings were just wings and not a full ashoura. But one poorly trained someone is better than no one. And her family name, I remember reading that name somewhere, so is her profile. Somehow, something really felt familiar with her.

It's almost like home.