Burning Hope

Chapter 11: A New Friend

The morning was awful. To start off with, I couldn't find my schedule. Then, I got stuck in a traffic jam of people while I tried finding out which room I was to go to my first hour. Along the way, I was also subject to catcalls, pickup lines and one case of my butt and boobs being groped. Let's just say that guy would have bruises in the morning where the sun doesn't shine.

I groaned, thinking I'd never find my way to class. The hallways were full of gross and scary people, and the halls themselves were confusing. There goes my perfect attendance record. I was about to give up all hope entirely, until I saw a familiar face among the crowds. What was his name...Adrian! Adrian Skalanias from dinner. I walked over to him and tapped his shoulder.

"Hey..."

He looked around towards me. "Scarlett Kaida, daughter of Ignacius and Prince of Sciana."

I laughed nervously. "Please drop the formalities, I'm not here to kill you or anything. I'm sorry to be a bother, but could you tell me where room 2140 C is? I'm supposed to go there to take my AME."

Adrian nodded. "My first class is just across from it."

"So is it okay if I just creepily follow you, then?" I joked.

"Sure, but trust me, you're far from creepy compared to some of the things I've seen." Adrian assured me.

I looked down at the ground and brushed a lock of hair away from my face. "Well, according to a lot of people, that's not true."

"Yeah." Adrian cast his eyes to the ground as well. "People are kind of stupid like that."

"The real trick is just ignoring them." I said. "People are always going to be cold-hearted little butt wipes, so the best thing you can do is not care—or pretend you don't care-" I added under my breath. "Just do what they say: be your own person. Don't get caught up in what other people think you should be. Do what you like to do and take pride in that. For example, I love music. It's what keeps me sane in this mental asylum of a world.

Adrian laughed and scratched his head anxiously. "I guess. I mean, I'd like doing that, but there's not necessarily a lot of time for my kind of hobby, though."

I looked up at him. "Well, what is it?"

He looked away and let his midnight black bangs fall over his purple eyes. "It's...um...well, don't laugh. I mean...It's really dorky and, um, heh heh, I...uhh..."

I silently wondered if I was talking to the same person I had met last night. He had put on such a show and seemed so charismatic, which conflicted with the obviously insecure boy that now stood before me. I saw some part of me reflected in him. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, though. Maybe he just needed someone to show him a bit of kindness. God, that sounded like something straight out of the mouth of a Disney princess.

I flashed him a friendly smile. "Don't worry. I won't judge. If it makes you feel any better, I know more genres of music than anyone would care to hear about."

Adrian took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the messenger bag he was carrying. He smoothed off his purple jacket and finally said, "Medieval live action roleplay."

I nodded. "Nice, that sounds cool, I haven't been exposed to much of that sort of thing. How does one exactly get involved in that, if you don't mind my asking?"

Adrian smiled, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "Well, when I first came here to Eternal, I was having some...issues, getting along with people. Talia decided that I needed to get out more, so one day she took me out to the city and told me I could do anything I wanted to do, outside of the judgemental school environment. To be honest, the city was so big and intimidating, I had no idea where to start. If anything, the city was stressing me out more than school.