"Yawwwwn".
"You're still tired?" Nada asked, seeing Malakai lazily stroll towards her with his hands in his pockets.
"Look how early it is", Malakai replied with a little husk in his voice.
"It's only half nine".
"That's early", Malakai said, taking off his backpack, pulling out a chair and flopping into it. "What you saying though? You good?".
"Yup, all good", Nada replied, brushing her hair with her hand. Her hair was down, it wasn't tied like usual. "Do you wanna order anything?"
"Nah, I can't be arsed", Malakai replied mid yawn. "Did you order something?".
"Nope. I only got here like two minutes ago", Nada said, shaking her head.
"Is Delilah awake? She needs to check out", Malakai asked.
"Yeah, she's up, don't worry", Nada said, glancing at her phone. "Check out is at ten. She's got time".
For context, Malakai and Nada were sitting at a table outside a cafe connected to a hotel. You're probably wondering why Malakai, Nada and Delilah are at a hotel. Well, the three of them went on a road trip. The next question you probably have is how this happened. For that, we have to rewind a little.
"I should probably try cooking something", Malakai mumbled to himself, staring blankly at the shelves stacked with food. "So many options, but... I don't know how to cook. I should've helped Will more in the kitchen".
There were a lot of options in front of him. There were even options where he didn't have to do anything. All he had to do was warm it in the microwave, but,
"Tch. I'll cook another time", he said, reaching for a packet of instant noodles. It was a cheap meal, but Malakai liked noodles.
Malakai had all the things he needed: a drink and a packet of noodles. A fulfilling meal (for Malakai). He went to the self-checkout machines and noticed only one was free. He made his way over and when he reached it.
"Oh…"
Someone approached the machine at the same time as him. Malakai looked up at the person and,
"What are you doing here?!" they both exclaimed in unison.
Delilah was in front of him, holding a strawberry milkshake and a bag of sweets.
"When did you come back from the UK?" Delilah asked, bemused.
"Like two days ago", Malakai casually replied, like it was common knowledge. "Why aren't you in Brazil?".
"Brazil?" Delilah said, looking at him like he was crazy. "I already told you I wasn't going there. My family doesn't live in Brazil".
"Oh yeah".
Malakai smirked. He knew that already. He said it to take the piss.
"Ahem".
Malakai and Delilah turned around in sync to see a store employee not giving them the friendliest look. The two of them were making a bit of noise and wasting time at the self-checkout machine.
"Sorry", Malakai apologised, raising a hand still with a little smirk on his face. "Yo, put your things down", he told Delilah, nodding to the loading zone while he scanned his items. "So where were you staying?".
"I stayed with my parents for a bit, and then went to my grandma's place", Delilah replied, putting her sweets down. "She lives nearby, so it's pretty convenient for me. I can go back to her place whenever I want".
"Why you back then?" Malakai asked, scanning her milkshake.
"I was bored", Delilah shrugged. "Why are you back?".
"What do you mean, why am I back?" Malakai asked, paying for everything. "My plane ticket had a return date. Duh!".
Delilah smirked and looked away. She realised she was back, stuck with Malakai's humour.
"Here", Malakai handed Delilah her bag.
"Thanks", Delilah replied. "I've seen a few people from our year already. I thought I wouldn't see anyone yet".
"The next semester starts next week, innit", Malakai said. "Not everyone is gonna come on the last day".
"But it's only Tuesday. I thought most people would come back on Friday or the weekend. All of our friends are coming back during that time", Delilah replied.
"True".
Malakai and Delilah walked out of the store through the automatic doors and then,
"Oh…".
They bumped into someone who was walking into the store.
"What are you guys doing here?" Nada asked, blinking in surprise.
And just like that, the three of them hung out and decided to go on a road trip as they had a couple of days until the next semester started. Delilah picked up her car from her grandma's and the trio went on a road trip.
"I don't think either of us is gonna be driving anymore", Malakai said, gently shaking his head and fixing his hair as he sat across from Nada.
"We've stressed Delilah enough", Nada replied, grinning micheievously. "Honestly, it's a good thing if you don't drive anymore. You don't even have your license on you".
"I know. Every time I saw a police car, I got paranoid", Malakai admitted.
"Just get a wallet and keep your license in there", Nada told him.
"There's no point in a wallet. I've got everything on my phone", Malakai said, lifting his phone.
"I listen to a lot of your advice, but this isn't one I'm listening to", Nada smiled.
"This isn't advice. This is a me thing", Malakai smirked.
"Why don't you keep your license in your phone case like your dorm key?" Nada asked.
"Nah, I've thought about it, but if I lose my phone, then I'll lose my license", Malakai said. "I ain't risking that".
"For someone pretty fearless, you're paranoid about a lot of things", Nada replied.
"Heh, you can't trust anything in this life", Malakai smiled, stretching his back.
Nada laughed through her nose, shaking her head.
The two sat in silence, enjoying the view in front of them, watching people stroll past and cars whizz down the road. It was a little chilly, but it was nice. Peaceful.
"Yo Nada".
Nada turned to Malakai.
"I've always wanted to ask this, but I've never had the chance", Malakai said, vacantly looking at the scenery before looking at her and asking. "Why did you want to be my 'apprentice'?".
Nada scrunched her face, visibly cringing after remembering that whole interaction.
"At the time, I was taking the piss and playing along. But you were genuinely asking for my advice and acting on it", Malakai continued. "I was thinking, why is this girl asking for my advice? Cuz at the time I was only at the top of the leaderboard because of the hundred points I got from that third year. Obviously, the apprentice thing now is a joke between us, but I just wanna know why you want my advice". Malakai looked at her and smirked, "I ain't no genius. I'm an idiot".
Nada smiled faintly and turned to the street.
"It's my first time saying this out loud", Nada said, a little hesitant. "It's for my dream".
"Your dream?" Malakai repeated, confused about how he was related to her dream.
"In high school, I was nothing like this. I was a nobody", Nada said, fiddling with her hair.
"Did you have no friends?".
"No, I had a couple of friends", Nada quickly said, shaking her head.
"Then being a nobody can't be that bad. At least you had a couple of people who liked you".
"Yeah, and I was fine with that", Nada said. "Well, I thought I was..."
"When you said you were a nobody, did you mean that no one knew you?" Malakai asked, interested.
"Kinda. In my high school, I was one of the smarter kids. I know it might not seem like it because of how dopey I can be sometimes, but I was one of the top kids. And I did have my own bubble of people", Nada replied.
"That sounds good", Malakai said.
"It was. But then one of my friends told me about Astral Academy, and said I had a chance to get in. So I dedicated myself to getting accepted. It was the hardest I worked in my life, and you know how hard it is to get accepted. All the different application stages", Nada replied.
"Heh, yeah", Malakai chuckled.
"Then I got accepted into Astral Academy. It was such a crazy achievement for me. I thought it was the best thing someone had done at my high school... but people barely knew who I was... Hearing people say Who's Nada again? Hurt you know", she said, looking down at her hands, hurt, reminiscing about that moment.
Malakai kept quiet. He had no idea what to say to her. He didn't know whether to ask another question or comfort her in some way.
"I never had a proper dream until then. After that moment, I said to myself I'm going to be someone memorable", Nada continued, looking determined "So I decided my dream is to travel the world, help people, and try to improve their lives".
"So you wanna be famous?" Malakai asked.
"No, not famous. Anyone can be famous nowadays", Nada replied, waving her hand. "I want to be that person where you could go somewhere random in the world and some random person would know me. Hopefully, they will remember and say how I helped them. I want to give a lot of people happy memories all around the world".
"That's a sick idea", Malakai said, leaning back, impressed by it.
"It's a tough dream, but I really want to do it someday, Nada smiled, appreciating the comment. "Before I came to Astral Academy, I dyed my hair pink and got this tattoo. This was the start. I wanted to look memorable", she turnt her head and showcased her purple butterfly neck tattoo.
"Wait. How do I help you with your dream, though?" Malakai asked, confused.
"Because of how you act", Nada replied, smirking and pointing at him.
The look on Malakai's face told Nada he didn't understand.
"On the first day when I watched you do all those crazy things, I thought to myself, I wanna be like that. So after that, I watched you whenever you were with your friends. Then I realised how you act is how I wanted to act in high school, but I was too scared. From then, I knew I had to be your friend... but I didn't know how to approach", Nada said, her eyes drifting away and brushing her hair.
"So your best idea was to ask to be my apprentice", Malakai grinned.
"Yep", Nada grinned back. "I knew you were fun. If I approached you seriously, you wouldn't have trusted me, so I thought if I approached you like I knew you, you would accept me".
"Yeah. It worked, innit", Malakai said, shrugging. "When you randomly hugged me, that caught me off guard, though I can't lie".
"Yeaaaah. That was a bit too much. I'm sure you noticed, but I am a handsy person", Nada said, waving her hands.
"Yeah", Malakai replied. He leant forward, still unsure and uneasy about something. "But how are you sure that I'm gonna help you with your dream? Your dream is a pretty big dream. I don't think my advice is gonna help much".
"But it has", Nada said with her arms out. "I wouldn't be in the position I am if it weren't for you".
"I hear that, but it's not like I'm giving you crazy life advice, it's just shit I would do in certain situations", Malakai replied.
"Yeah, and it works. You do a lot of shit people don't even think of. Like in the last challenge, I know I already told you, but when I popped Alexander's ball or raided 1-B's safe zone, my old self wouldn't have done that. Heck, my old self wouldn't have been picked to be a representative", Nada said, leaning forward with her elbows on the table. "Seeing you do crazy stuff and it works, motivates me because it's stuff I want to do".
"I don't do shit people don't think of. I do dumb shit", Malakai said, discrediting himself.
"But when it works, it's genius".
"You're giving me too much credit ", Malakai said, slightly smiling and looking away. He wasn't the best at taking compliments. "You did better than me in the last challenge".
"You said you didn't do your best, so that doesn't count", Nada replied, shaking her head. "That's another goal of mine, actually. To beat you in a challenge".
Malakai looked at Nada. Nada was grinning at him like she was declaring something to him.
"Aryt, you can try innit", Malakai said, matching her grin and leaning back again.
"If we ever go against each other, you'd better give it your all. I don't want you to go easy on me and let me win because I'm your friend", Nada replied.
"I would never do that", Malakai sarcastically said, putting his hands up.
Nada grinned, remembering that he let Ray and Maria beat him to win the minigames.
"About your dream, though", Malakai seriously said. "It's a sick dream, but you're gonna need much more than my advice to achieve it".
He wanted to make sure Nada didn't just listen to everything he said and expect her dream to come true. He was happy he was helping someone working towards their dream, but he felt a weird kinda pressure from it. Malakai understood what Nada meant, but at the same time, he didn't because he didn't see himself as this special guy.
"I know… but it's a start", Nada replied.
The conversation died down after that, leading to silence. Not for long, though.
"What about you? What's your dream?".
"My dream?" Malakai repeated, looking at Nada unprepared. "My dream", he mumbled, resting his head back and looking up at the sky. "I don't know. I don't really have a dream", he said, looking at the passing clouds.
"You don't?" Nada questioned, expecting to hear something crazy.
"Nah", Malakai shook his head. "I've never really thought about it, to be honest".
"Really? I thought you would've had a list of dreams. Like travelling the world, taking over the academy, going to the moon".
"What?" Malakai laughed, not expecting to hear about going to the moon.
"If you said any of those things, I would've believed you", Nada said.
"I can't lie, I haven't thought that far in the future", Malakai replied, stretching his arms. "I've just been living in the moment".
"That does sound like you. Hmm. Okay, think of a dream right now", Nada said, putting him on the spot.
Malakai looked at Nada and saw he wasn't escaping this conversation. With that loaded question, he leaned back in his seat and stared at the clouds in the sky again. Thinking.
"My dream…. I don't know", Malakai said calmly. "Live a fun, happy life".
"Boooo", Nada quietly jeered with a thumbs down.
"What's wrong with that?" Malakai chuckled, looking at her and smiling.
"You could've said anything, but you said a fun, happy life", Nada replied. "You could've said I want to travel to twenty countries or become a millionaire".
"That's basic", Malakai said, quickly cutting her off.
"And a happy and fun life isn't basic?" Nada shot back.
Malakai smiled and looked away, "Aryt, aryt. When I figure out a better dream, I'll let you know".
"It better be a good one, my sensei can't have a boring dream like a fun and happy life", Nada said, wagging her finger.
"You still calling me sensei?" Malakai asked, surprised to hear that.
"Once in a while", Nada smiled.
"Why are you two smiling?"
The two of them turnt and saw Delilah walking towards them with her hood up and backpack on.
"You checked out?" Malakai asked.
"Yeah", Delilah nodded. "Were you waiting long?".
"Nah, not that long", Nada replied.
"What were you guys talking about?" Delilah asked, interested.
"We were deciding who out of us two is driving your car next", Malakai said.
"None of you are driving my car!" Delilah sternly said.
Malakai and Nada burst out laughing without even looking at each other.
"Aryt, whatever you say", Malakai said, getting up and picking up his bag.
"Damn, I wanted to drive again", Nada said, getting up and picking up her bag.
"For the rest of the trip, neither of you are getting in that driver's seat", Delilah said. "The reason I slept in was because you two have stressed me too much. I thought I was gonna die ten times already on this trip".
"It wasn't that bad", Nada said, walking past Delilah.
"I know right", Malakai sarcastically joined in, walking past Delilah.
Malakai and Nada walked side by side, leaving Delilah behind. They both looked at each other and silently giggled.
Delilah watched the two of them walk and shook her head,
"Malakai's made a mini version of him".