Again, a new day had arrived. The day decided for the 'Welcome Party.' I was super-chilled as no work was assigned to me. Jason joined me as usual. For me, joining Jason on the way to school is like a sign that I am not late 'cause he is rarely late to school.
As we were walking, "So, you asked your mother?" I asked him.
"Yeah, I did, and this is what she said;
I think I've seen it before, but I don't remember who gave it to you, but your uncle might have gifted it. He is fond of these kinds of things." He replied.
"So, which means the probability of the girl being real is now 50%" I made my point but though this little watch, it was looking a complicated puzzle that had to be solved.
It made him pale. I think he thought the complications are now reduced and maybe we could find this girl.
"Hey, something's bugging me from a long time." I said unblinkingly, "Why do you want to find this girl? Why are you so crazy about finding her? Is it because you just want answers to your questions or you like her?"
"I don't know, maybe I just want to find the answers or maybe I like her or maybe both," he answered in a thoughtful face, "But one thing's for sure, we made a promise that we would find each other and if she is real, then I will—I will definitely find her."
After some time, we reached the school, and as we entered, we saw Amy standing right there at the front as if she was waiting for someone. She looked at us and then waved. She started walking towards us in haste I had an intuition that she had messed up something.
"I really messed up. I need your help. Please help me." she said in a horrified look.
"What happened?" we both asked her.
"I-I—The restaurant won't provide us with the catering services," she said while looking downwards.
"Why? Didn't you tell them?" Jason asked.
"I did—I don't know—I guess," she answered. What are you supposed to even reply to a triple-layered answer? The only thing going in our mind was which one answer is true.
"Wow, next time you're smoking weed, please do call me," I said sarcastically as I smirked and started looking at the clock.
If Carol learns about this, she is definitely going to be mad.
"Oh! Shut up, help me, you sarcastic maniac.," she said furiously. I stepped down as soon as I saw that face of hers, which reminded me of Carol.
"Ah—leave him be. What are you going to tell Carol?" Jason asked, 'cause it was the most challenging task. After all, it's the Devil Queen we are talking about.
"I don't know. Will she be cool with this?" she asked with a concerning voice. Yes, she should be concerned; It's a life and death situation. But looking at that face, I wanted to help her. She was so doleful. I really felt sad for her.
"Nah, I don't think so. What do you think, Kyle?" Jason asked me.
"Um — I think we should go to the restaurant a try talking with them. But to do so — we need to skip classes." I said as I was feeling uneasy seeing Amy like that.
"Yeah, we should. I have no problem with skipping classes," said Jason, "What do you say?" he asked Amy.
"Yes, thank you guys." she greeted us.
"Okay, so we go in and tell Mark and Staci to cover for us, and then in the break, we sneak out." I came with a plan, and it was an obvious thing to do. No one had any problem with it. So we went in, where Mark and I had a chat, and on the other side, Amy and Staci had.
It was break time, and everything was perfect. So, we three got out, and no one noticed us going out.
On our way to the restaurant, we had to go through a commercial space. We entered and were talking and laughing. As we were walking, I took out my phone to check something and suddenly tripped off the floor as something came under my legs as I was walking. I went sliding down with my phone facing upwards in my hand and face downwards. I remained in that position to figure out how I actually fell down and to take a moment as I thought I had become a laughingstock for people around us. But then, I started hearing the commotion of people, and just by listening, I realized there was an uneasiness spreading. So, I looked upwards and saw a horrible sight above me.
As I looked upwards, I saw a lady standing with her hands holding her skirt down. She had weird looks, like I was some kind of pervert trying to sneak under her skirt.
"Ah!" she screamed, "What are you doing? Get away from me. Are you a pervert?" she said.
At that moment, I realized that the expressions on her face were not because of the uneasiness, but she thought I was a pervert. I was happy for a second because I guessed it right, but then I realized that I was in a weird situation of perplexed misunderstandings. Because right when I fell down, I had my phone facing upwards in my hand, which almost pointed to the thing that I was trying to take a picture of the lady. But I wasn't. So, I tried explaining her, "Uh—I'm sorry, but you misunderstand things. I actually slipped and fell down. I wasn't trying to take a picture of you."
"Oh! You must've fallen on purpose, ain't that right?" she questioned my explanation. While she was throwing questions at me, everyone in the crowd started staring at me. I don't know what that meant, but it was sure that they weren't happy with what was going.
"Wh—Why would I fall on purpose?" I said to cut the conversation because why would someone hurt themselves to see under someone's skirt and that too in front of the crowd.
"Because you're a pervert," she said boldly. I guess she didn't understand what I meant by that statement of mine.
"I am not a pervert," I said in a loud noise as all the staring was making me uncomfortable.
"Hey, I don't think he did it on purpose. I mean, look at him he looks gay." said the other woman standing beside her.
The situation was getting tense, and we really needed an escape route because we currently were the center of attraction. Everyone stood there watching us as if it was a skit which we were performing.
So, Amy said, "Yes, he is." with an appealing look but with a shattered voice as she knew she was doing this for us to get out of this situation as quickly as possible, but she also knew that I was going to react weirdly. So, to silence me. She turned towards me and whispered, "Just say yes. I'll give you a treat. Please, just say yes."
As a matter of fact, I reacted to it and said, "Like hell, I would."
"Oh! Come on now, it's not a big deal," she said to me, trying to make me understand the situation we are into and to tell me don't make it any worse.
"It is!" I said in a brooding manner.
"Why?" she asked.
"First, I am not popular right now, but if this gets out, then I will definitely become. Second, what are you trying you achieve? That is ten years from now, it wouldn't be Mr. and Mrs. Garrison but Mr. and Mr. Garrison?" I said with a lot of concern as I thought that this might change my future.
As I was talking with Amy, the people around started getting convinced about me being gay. So, I turned towards the lady and tried to break the silence, "Hey, I like women." I was trying to break the silence, but while doing it, I got too excited. As a result, I blared in the middle of the hallway, which made things worse than before because now the eyes staring at us were doubled. It felt like even the CCTVs of the area were turned towards us. I looked around and said, "Okay—now that came out really weird."
After listening to me, the lady in front pulled out her phone and called, "Hello police, I want to report a person. He says he likes women...."
"Why is she telling them that?" Jason asked me. I mean, it's right she should've at least reported about me being a pervert, "What are they going to do? Set a date for you?" he continued.
"I don't know, pal. Try asking her." I said.
"Guys, I think we should leave," said Amy in a concerned tone because the situation was now out of control.
"Yep, we should run," I said as I agreed with Amy.
"There's an opening," said Jason, pointing us the way out.
As soon as he lowered his hand, we ran the hell out of place.
"This is all because of you. You should have kept quiet," said Amy to me as we were running.
"Oh, it's me now. Who was the one who said I was gay? If you hadn't said that then, this would have ended as a peaceful conversation."
We quarreled all the way while we were running. After a lot of running, we then finally made it to the restaurant.
"We made it." exclaimed Jason as the three of us were panting because of running, "Come on, let's go and ask them," he said while pointing the way towards the entrance of the restaurant.
We went in and pleaded the owner, but he refused to give us service. His policy was that anything about catering services was to be informed a day earlier, at least. So, we stood outside the restaurant, about the situation, and tried to develop a solution.
"Now what?" asked Jason with a tired look.
"I don't know," said Amy with the same look, "I wonder what the Prez might do in this kind of situation."
"Um—probably she'll take the owner as the hostage and force the chefs to serve," I replied with a face as I had given a lot of thought to it.
"Yep, she would have done that," added Jason with a more serious tone than I had.
"Wow! You guys really gave it a lot of thought," she said in a deadpan voice.
"So now, this means that we have to tell her the truth," Jason said in a trembling voice. We were all terrified; you could have seen fear on our face and the appeal for help in our eyes. It was clear that this might be the day for us to die, 'cause Carol doesn't like excuses and always wants her plan to succeed.
"Um—You guys tell her on behalf of me," she said.
"And why should we?' asked Jason.
"Because I don't want to die this early," she said in a trembling voice. I never knew she feared Carol so much, but when you think it about anyone will fear her after seeing that action of hers the other day.
"Oh! If that's the case, then we were born yesterday." I said sarcastically 'cause I was pretty sure what Carol is capable of.
"Eh?" she reacted as she didn't understand what I just said.
"He means, We don't want to die either," Jason explained her.
"You're right, I should be the one apologizing her. I'll do it, don't worry," she said with guilt in her voice.
At that moment, I looked at her face and felt very sorry for her. I had never seen her so sad. It was aching for me to do something for her, which might help her.
"Um—Don't worry; you don't have to apologize to anyone." I said with a confident and consolidating tone, "They'll be there to serve us food." I completed it as I turned back and looked towards the restaurant.
I asked them to leave without me and assured them that I'll join them in a short while.
Finally, the time had come. Everyone gathered in the hall as we announced it early this morning that there's going to be a party, and it was indeed a splendid party. The restaurant which Amy had us taken to, they agreed to serve us, and the food was delicious. Everyone was enjoying it, and so were we.
Jason and I were standing in a corner discussing about the watch and then came a voice,
"Here you are, I've been looking for you guys all over the place." We looked sideways and saw Amy and Staci walking towards us.
"Everyone's enjoying, thanks to you, Kyle," said Staci with a warm tone of gratefulness in her voice.
I nodded at her.
"By the way, how did you manage to pull this off? 'cause from what I recall, he was a man of his policies," said Amy as she pointed towards the owner of the restaurant who was busy serving everyone.
"Oh, that! I bought the place, so they had no choice but to obey me." I said with a smile on my face.
Amy crack busted with laughter as she thought I was joking. But I wasn't.
After a moment, she realized that I am being serious and asked me again, "This is a joke, right?"
"Nope," I replied with a straight face.
"Kyle, what was your name again?" asked Staci curiously.
"Kyle Garrison," I replied.
"You mean — 'The Garrisons'?" she asked with a quizzical face.
"Yes," I replied.
****
Oh right, I never gave you guys a proper introduction about myself.
I am an idiot.
Sorry!
Okay, so my name is Kyle Garrison, and to keep it short, I am insanely rich. My father holds a big firm that works globally in every sector of the economy. You can say I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. And to tell more about myself, I have spectacled almond-shaped eyes, white skin tone with a triangle-shaped face with fringed blondish- brown hair.
****
I had no reaction to what was going on because what I could see were two freaked out faces, which wasn't that uncommon for me, 'cause people in past were also surprised after listening that I was rich, and I never got to know why.
As these two were bouncing like some kind of primates, Mark walked towards us curiously and asked, "What are you guys talking about?"
"Kyle said he bought the restaurant to make them serve us," Staci tried explaining Mark.
"Oh! No-no-no," he said with a brooding face, "Kyle, come one — you don't have to do that. Don't act like you are rich so that girls may fall for you. You can't buy a girlfriend, and trust me, I know what I am saying, I searched them on E-Bay, and they are not selling one." he completed with immense confidence as it was normal for people to search girls on E-bay.
"Okay, Master Shifu," I replied with a weird look on my face.
As soon as I finished talking, I looked at Amy and Staci and trust me, those were the most horrified faces I had ever seen. But I guess it's obvious for them to react this way. I am sure Mark got his promotion for his pervert behavior in their minds.
He took his leave after the little lecture he gave to me.
"Is there something wrong with me? Am I incompetent of being rich?" I asked with the greatest concern for myself.
"No," said Amy hesitantly, "It's not like that."
"Really?" I replied.
She smiled, "Thank you! I cannot tell you how happy I am for escaping the clutches of death." she said and started walking towards Carol. As she was walking, she turned back, "I can't believe it." she said while looking at me.
Well, that was the party Carol wanted. I was glad it turned out to be a success.
*********
"What is it? Why do you want to meet me alone?" asked Staci.
"Uh — we wanted to ask you something," replied Jason.
He handed the watch to her and asked, "Do you know anything about this?"
"Um—looks some kind of vintage and is pretty old," she curiously.
She flipped the watch to look at the backside and asked, "Where did you find it?"
"Wh—why is something wrong with it?" I asked with a concerned face.
"No—nothing," she said as she took a pause, "Its just that it has a royal emblem carved on it."