Nallie had her head buried in her assignment papers for most of her classes. She must have gotten the messy-organizer disease from Nate, because her papers were all crumpled up together ever since she stuffed a heavy textbook inside, which she received from the Standart High Library.
"Tsk, nice one, Nallie. Keep it up, and then your own room would be a slob like your brother's. He always keeps unnecessary stuff like a hoarder..."
Deciding to organize the papers later and save on her brain power, she surveyed the area around her to see arcade cabinets lining up in rows next to her.
The digital 8-bit chirps that rang through the air were mostly the classic vintage games that were powered on.
Looking elsewhere, Nallie saw the splotches of paint plastered onto the wall, giving off a retro vibe from being messy and all.
From the machines scattered around and the colorful decorations adorned throughout the room, a person would be correct to say that the area was the arcade, specifically the Fun Zone Arcade on the first floor of Honoway Mall.
Nallie was here in the arcade, but it was not of her own accord, but rather from a request from one of her friend groups. But for clarification, her friend group was different, and not the Sharpstack Gang with Luke, like most people would assume.
Her three friends, like almost the whole student body in Standart High, had the idea to spend time at Honoway Mall, specifically going to the Fun Zone Arcade, where one of them wanted to try out their skills at a certain game cabinet.
And speaking of friends, there was someone who was rigid in her stance and her hands clasped in front of her chest as though she was anxiously waiting for something to happen.
Nallie saw the girl standing right next to her. She wore a blue and orange pinafore dress with only skinny straps to hang around her light-skinned shoulders. It served to highlight the ordinary brown hair, besides the pink, long hair tinsel strand that stood out.
"Nallie, look here. Did you see that on my plate? Cuz I don't want to touch food that might have been infected. Will you, please?"
Nallie's germ-fearing friend, Tara Jacobs, huddled closely to her in fear. She looked at her own plate with wild bewilderment in hopes that it wouldn't jump out at her somehow.
"Tara..." Nallie tried to say gently, "Wasn't this your idea for all of us to go to the arcade? Not that I don't mind, except for the fact that I have to do piles of homework when I get back late."
"Yeah, I really wanted to show you all that this place doesn't seem so bad once you're in the vibe..."
As soon as she said the word "vibe", Nallie could only flash back to when Nate's friend, Sam, once hung out with her brother at her father's old bookstore when they were young.
Nallie would creep up behind the dusty bookshelves as she listened to Nate and his friends. She didn't know why, but she was especially drawn to their conversations whenever they were around.
Sam, in particular, was always the loudest among the group called Quad Four, which Nallie didn't know why they still had that name for them. He would always mess up the bookstore, but for young Nallie, it kind of amused her for a little bit.
She softly chuckled to herself. "Heh. Sam, why do you say weird words like that so much..."
"What was that, Nallie?"
"Wh-what?!" she sputtered, as she didn't expect Tara to hear her quiet chirping. "I'm not weird for saying things under my breath! I'm just saying how good the weather is right now...!"
Tara looked confused as she glanced up at the covered ceiling, her hand checking for raindrops to fall. "Aren't we inside and not outside?"
"I know that. I'm just—let's go check on Danika and Jelani. We'll ask them if they can spare a dollar or two on new snacks for you."
"O-oh, okay, thanks..." Tara said as she was yanked by the arm by Nallie.
With her hand still gripped on Tara's wrist, they left the table and managed to maneuver around the crowded spaces until both of them reached the air hockey table, with two familiar faces that Nallie recognized.
On the left side, a girl with brown hair and a copper complexion stood, while the girl on the right side stood rigid in her stance with her poofy black hair and dark skin.
Both of them were Danika and Jelani, respectively. Nallie's other friends in her primary group.
"Wassup, Nal? How you been?" Danika asked. She raised her air hockey striker in the air to signal her enthusiasm.
Jelani looked like she was trying to reach around the play table for something like a puck.
"Hi, Nallie, Tara, nothing wrong at the table currently?" Jelani said with worry. "Any guys trying to be creepy, cuz I'll handle them no sweat."
"No, thankfully not. I'm here to ask Danika if you could spare a bit more cash for Tara. She wants another hot dog, since... a fly landed on the sausage. I think... There were like larvae eggs on it."
Danika gasped in disgust as Jelani stopped trying to search for her lost puck with her nose scrunched up, as she heard flies.
"You're kidding, right?" Jelani questioned. "Where is the jerk who let the fly inside the arcade?"
"Seriously?! Super gross! I am so going to put a two-star review for this place. Tara, don't worry, I'll avenge your taste buds for this," Danika stated.
Nallie held her arms up defensively, trying to rewind what she said. "I was joking—being dramatic and all that, seriously! There weren't actually live maggots on the food. Sheesh, you all are acting like there is a bomb on our table or something like that."
"But... a yucky icky fly is just as bad as a ticking time-bomb..." Danika tried to reason.
"Whatever, Danika, do you have the money or not?" Nallie asked softly once again.
"Well, I do... and I was going to use it to buy more tokens to play that fighting game that I wanted Tara to teach me... Hypercosmic Battlegrounds: Powerfall, was it?"
"Yeah, that is right, a 2D traditional fighting game to be exact..." Tara affirmed.
"...but looks like I'll have to trade it for more food," she gloomily said, but quickly put on a determined look afterward. "But I don't want to be such a gloomy, sad-face like that Manson guy at school, and it's to calm Tara's stomach, so I have to be glad to put that money to good use!"
Danika pulled out her bag and dipped her hand inside. After a couple of seconds of shuffling through the seemingly endless amount of stuff inside, she pulled out a couple of bucks.
"Here it is," she said as she gave the money to Nallie. "I know, I'm a nice person, don't you worry, so yo—"
"Hey, watch where you're going, pipsqueak!"
"Back off, Dawson! I'm warning you!"
"You wanna fight, brah-ski?!"
"It's your fault for walking into me! Are you blind as you are stupid?"
"Shuddup, Brandin, you're a losing loser!"
Two voices from afar landed right inside Nallie's ear. She could hear one of them possessing a rough and gruff tone, practically overcoming the other's ordinary voice.
"What is going on over there?" Jelani said as she put her stuff down.
Danika was the first to rush towards the loud voices. "Eeeeeehh! Is there a fight? I totally wish there was; it'll be awesome to see the brawl with my friends here in Honoway. I'm so going to tell the others about this."
Nallie, Tara, and Jelani were in pursuit as a crowd started to form, with more incoming bystanders going to thicken the circle around whoever the two might be.
A crowd formed in an open space with sparse arcade cabinets. Some people were watching with their eyes peeled, and others were recording the whole thing with their cellphones. There were even people that Nallie knew from school, such as Marlene Toberwell and Randall Evans, individuals who were her upperclassmen.
Nallie and Tara huddled together as they made their way to the front, as Jelani shielded them against the crushing force from a large clump of living bodies.
She saw that the one who possessed the aggressive tone was none other than the notorious school-skipping delinquent named Dawson, who stood tall over another boy.
"That short guy next to Dawson, I feel like I've seen him before... Brandin... Brandin Fiborr, I think his name was. He was always hanging out with one of the school celebrities, Aliana Augero."
Brandin was in his black and white shirt paired with his striking blonde hair.
Nallie didn't feel surprised at seeing so many people that she knew; after all, Honoway Mall was one of the places that people always go to when they need a breather.
Dawson grabbed the collar of Brandin's shirt and looked directly into the glint in his eyes.
"You better not be dissin' about me, Brandin, or do you want to be like the last guy I beat up?"
"Kick him in the nuts, Brandin," Marlene mockingly said. "... Come on, you could do it."
"He's gonna die, for sure..." Nallie heard Randall say beside her.
"This is really scary. I hope they don't hurt each other too badly. Shouldn't someone stop them?" Tara said to Nallie.
Jelani punched her own fist as she walked forward slowly. "If there aren't any security guards around, then I suppose I should intervene."
"If you're going to beat them up, then make sure not to mess up their faces too much. Lucia Morgans would pay a lot for pictures of guys who looked like they got beaten with a club," Danika requested of her.
Before anyone else could chime in on the conversation, one of the two fighters in the middle made their first move, and it was none other than brutal brute, Dawson Bright.
He yelled as his punch flew in the air, intending to land on the soft spot of Brandin's cheek.
With the gasp of the crowd being evident, Brandin somehow dodged the first strike as he fell to the ground, tripping on a non-existent block.
"Get up! Get up before he hits you again. Dawson's gross germs might infect you and might cause you a lot of pain!"
Tara screamed as she jumped in the air, making her other friends also jump, but mostly from the shock of her yelling.
Her scream seemed to distract Dawson for a second, because he turned towards her in confusion. Utilizing the opening made, Brandin immediately grabbed his legs and made them topple each other to the ground.
Brandin countered with light pummeling before he got socked in the stomach from a blindingly fast fist from the rising delinquent.
With his stomach in shambles, Brandin wheezed and coughed as he tried to hold it in, which must be the vomit that was rising almost past his throat.
"Oooohh, that has to hurt so bad. Dawson, go for the finishing blow!" Marlene Toberwell announced, with the crowd behind her erupting with cheers.
"Can't you guys just talk it out?" Nallie heard a girl named Paula Griffin say.
Nallie glanced at Tara, who was clasping her hands in fear as she breathed heavily. She tried to say Brandin's name, but to no avail. It was like her dreams were falling apart, and there was nothing she could do at all.
Nallie tried to put her hand on her shoulder and tell her that someone would intervene before things got serious. But instead, that action caused Tara to drop in despair, hiding away the tears with the curtains of her shaking hands.
"I don't want people fighting. Please... no more conflict, I'm so sorry..." Tara silently wept. Her hand stance looked like it was meant to block any contact that could be made against her, causing Nallie to stay away for her own good.
"Take this, shrimp," Dawson said as he held his clenched fist over his head before putting all his weight down. Nallie could see Brandin breathing heavily as he closed his eyes, prepared to take the punch without much defense.
Tara tried to look away.
But one voice had saved him, not to stop the fight, but for others to take a look at another incident in a different place.
"Yo, guys! Check it out, a lot of people got knocked out in the first-floor bathrooms. I think a brawl went all out in there, right downstairs. A lot of cops there, too!"
As soon as that guy said those words, it was as though the people forgot about the fight between Dawson and Brandin, and proceeded to exit the arcade without much thought, like a swarm of animals escaping the zoo, leaving only a few people left inside.
As soon as the scenery changed, Dawson seemed to lose interest in what motivated him to fight in the first place. He paused his assault and left the area without anything else.
"Ehhh, I'm bored, time to mess with some whiny dweebs outside..." Dawson said as he exited the store.
"Brandin!"
Tara immediately went up to him and knelt. Nallie and her friends soon followed. She checked for any bleeding wounds that would need medical care. But as she tried to touch him, she pulled back her hands, as though something was repelling her from doing so.
"Y-you saw the whole thing...?" Brandin managed to let out barely.
"Please be okay, Brandin, don't die, please!"
Brandin groaned, pulled over to his side, facing the group. His hand was still over his stomach as visible bruises began to pop up more clearly in Nallie's perspective. "Jeez, Tara, you say that like I'm gonna die..."
"..."
Tara sniffed as tears rolled down her rosy cheeks. She wiped them away with a napkin she got from the table.
"Brandin, why do you have to be in these fights? You know how you always get hurt when you try to face off against bigger people. You could've been badly injured, or worse... gotten killed..."
Brandin stood quietly and blankly looked up. "I know... but the reason is that I have to prove to myself that I have the strength and courage to be important, not for my family, but to show Aliana that I'm stronger than her."
"Brandin..."
Without anything to do if she couldn't physically get close to him, Tara turned to Nallie and the others.
"Guys, he needs to be patched up, or his wounds will get worse. Let's help him out of here before it's too late."
"Oh, u‐uh, yeah..." Nallie instantly said as soon as she was brought into the conversation. "Let's take him to the medical office; it is on the same floor that we're on."
"Okay."
Tara turned towards Jelani and Danika. "C'mon, help him up and carry him there..."
"Wait, I can walk there by myself..." Brandin tried to reassure them. He attempted to stand on his own two feet before getting caught by Jelani, before he could hit the hard floor.
"Sorry, but you really need help to walk out of here, so let us," Jelani stated. She put one arm around her neck.
"Hard agree! And by the way, the talk between you and Tara was like it was straight out of live-action dramas; I was almost moved to tears," Danika said to him, as she put his other free arm around her neck. "And you should really deal with the smell around your pits."
"Heheh, guilty as charged."
Tara went up to the front of the entrance of the arcade to survey the interior of the mall.
"Nallie, you go ahead and see if there's anyone that might hurt Brandin. I'll stay with him to lead the way."
"Right..."
All five of them exited the Fun Zone Arcade, with the intention of getting supplies for Brandin to take. And what Nallie thought would be a quick trip to the arcade to leave to continue her studies led to getting an injured person to Honoway's medical office.
"You know, I could have beaten that guy if I unleashed my full power right there," Brandin mentioned.
"Yeah... no," Jelani firmly said.
"I thought it was over for you," Danika stated.