E9: Awkwardness and a New Friend
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February 7th, 2014 (8:00 am)

Zack woke up at his usual place, his home. Opening his eyes, he rose and sat up on the bed. The rays of sun touching him from a window fitted on the right of his room. Looking the birds chirping outside and the sun rising, he said to himself, “Truly, last night was a very, very long one!” He smiled at the view outside when suddenly a thought struck his mind. “Gotta get ready for the training!”

February 7th, (7:31 pm)

The drills had just ended and everyone was chatting with each other while walking home. “Hey Zack!” A voice called Zack when he was quietly going towards the exit through the corridor. Zack looked behind and found Adam waving his hand and running towards him.

“Oh, hi Ads!” Zack said when Adam reached towards him. Adam was smiling, but there was something awkward in it, like it was a fake one. Zack noticed the same and asked, “Well, is there anything that’s troubling ya?”

“N-No, w-why?” Adam asked with his forehead full of sweat now.

“You look a kinda… tense,” Zack said. “Maybe you should see a doctor.”

“Oh, no, I’m fine. Trust me,” Adam suddenly replied. “Don’t worry.”

“But—” Zack was about to say when a feminine voice cut him.

“Hey!” The voice said. Zack turned around and saw Olivia and Miley.

“You all right now?” Zack worriedly asked Olivia. “You were very badly beaten last night.”

“Yeah, I know. I still have many injuries but I’m fine now. I’ve to skip some of the drills, but I now I can do some of them.”

“Good to hear,” Zack replied. Zack suddenly noticed the fakeness even in her smile. He thought, “What’s happening? Is everyone hiding something?”

“So, are y’all a’ight?” Miley asked them. “I wasn’t in the town last night, but I heard what happened and you two, along with Lucy Johnson, heroically saved the day.”

“Yeah, it was the hell of a night!” Adam excitedly said. “Wanna listen?”

“Sure, tell me what happened,” Miley replied and Adam started the whole story.

“And Zack was being beaten by the masked woman, but Zack didn’t…” Adam told the story to the group. Even Zack was listening to Adam with great interest and a smile on his face.

February 7th, 2014 (11:02 pm)

Zack was lying on his bed, with all the lights of the house turned off. He was constantly tossing around the bed for an hour and was unable to sleep. Fed up by this, he turned and turned on the lamp on the bed-side table. He turned upwards and kept his hands on his head while still lying on the bed. He sighed and talked with himself, “What’s goin’ on? All this mess is making me go mad! Are Olivia and Adam really hiding something from me? Or I’m just making things up on my head for entirely no reason? Plus, the tone of the mysterious masked woman. It reminds me of someone, someone close to me, but still far away. Something’s not right here. Either I’m right that something’s going on, or all this is just my imagination. But, my intuition is giving a strong feeling. I think the woman will come again. I needa be prepared for others.”

Zack opened his eyes and found himself lying inside an empty room with black and white tiles on the floor. Zack sat up and looked sideways. “Where am I?” He thought as he got up. He was turning his head all the ways and rotated to saw the whole room.

Suddenly, a child’s voice behind him said, “Hello!”

Zack turned behind and saw a small child, with his head tilted down, who had long hairs. “D’ya remember what happened years back?”

“What?”

“So ya don’t right?”

“At least tell me when, many things happened with me every-day, all right?”

The little boy suddenly tilted his head upwards and by directly looking inside Zack’s eyes, he said, “Jean Jennifer!”

“AAH!” Zack shouted and opened his eyes. He got up and found that he was lying on his bed. “W-Was it a nightmare?” He observed his hands trembling and said, “W-Why are my hands trembling and heart-beat is so high? W-Who the hell is Jean Jennifer?” He turned towards the clock, which displayed the time 03:41 am. Watching the time, he thought, “Better get to sleep, or I won’t be able to concentrate on the drills tomorrow” and laid down on the bed again.

February 8th, 2014 (7:36 pm)

The drills ended and Zack was waiting on the corridor for his gang to arrive. Adam came running towards him, with another man following, and said, “Hi, Zacky! Here he is, our third member!” The man following him brown hair with a porcelain skin tone and blue eyes. He wasn’t so muscular, just like rest of the group and also had the same height as others.

“Hello!” Zack said, giving a hand.

“Hi!” The man replied, shaking his hand. “So you’re the last one, Zack Will, right, the one who was found by Adam while crying beside a dustbin?”

At this, Zack angrily looked at Adam, who refused an eye contact. Zack turned towards the new arrival and said, “Nah, I’m Zack Will, and I wasn’t found crying beside a dustbin!”

“I know! I just wanted to convey 'bout the fake news Adam is spreading about you!”

“What?!” He angrily looked at Adam again and asked, “Who else know ‘bout this fake news?!”

“N-Nobody. I didn’t tell anyone except him!” Adam tried to calm him.

“Sorry. By the way, I’m Harry, Harry Brown. Nice to meet ya!”

“Nice to meet ya too!” Zack replied.

“Hey, both of you, did ya saw the announcement-board today?” Adam asked.

“No, is it that important?” Harry asked.

“At last, it’s updated after months!” Zack commented. “That’s why many people, including me, left watching the board. It’s just a waste of time.”

“Yeah, but, hear me out. Today, a new poster was pinned on it! And, it’s very important!”

“Really?” Zack asked. “It happens after two-thousand years! How did this happen now?!”

“Ya got a bad sense of humor, Zack. Now, hear me,” Adam sarcastically replied. “See, our second test is a competition!”

“What?!” Both of them freaked out in unison.

Adam nodded, “Isn’t it very important news? See, there’re at least thirty-two other groups out there and every group is divided into four pools, with every pool consisting of EIGHT other teams!”

“It’s too much. Seven matches is… I mean… How can we play so many matches?” Harry commented.

“Not just seven, Harry!” Adam scolded him. “Seven matches each in eight different games!”

Both of them smiled. “S-Suddenly, I’m feeling like being a part of a big tournament!” Harry said. “And how long will it last?”

“Eight weeks.”

“Oh, we needa win this tournament first if we wanna advance, and even after that we needa give the third exam where the chances of winning are lower. In a nutshell, there’re vary low chances that anyone will be elected this year,” Zack calculated. “What ‘bout a simple team like ours?”

“No, Zack, ya got it wrong!” Adam scolded. “See, the top two teams of each group will qualify to give the third exams, got it?”

“Oh, then a total of eight teams can give instead of just one. Then, one of the teams can surely get the job.”

“By the way, you free today?” Adam asked them. “I know a great bar. We can go there today!”

“Uh, sure,” Harry answered.

“Okay, but—” Zack replied, but he was cut before he can give his condition.

“YES, IT’S FIXED!” Adam cheered.

February 8th, 2014 (9:07 pm)

Zack, Adam and Harry were sitting on white bar-chair beside each other, facing the bar shelf where the bartender was making cocktails for the customers. Adam saw Zack not drinking and so he asked, “Hey, Zack! Give it a try buddy! It’s great!”

“Sorry, I don’t drink,” Zack replied.

“How much are ya gonna act like the ‘good boy’ here in front of Harry? Wanna give a good first impression?” Adam chuckled. He was drunk now.

“No, really, I don’t drink!” Zack replied.

Giving a glass full of cocktail, Adam said, “C’mon man! Drink! No one’s gonna think of ya as a thug!”

“Adam, please,” Zack was irritated now.

“C’mon, Zack! We can have a good talk on drinks!” Harry explained.

“Really, I’ve left drinking.”

“Go on buddy!” Adam said, pushing the glass on his mouth. “Let’s drink!”

Pushing his drink back, Zack said, “Please, Ads, I won’t.”

“C’mon, what’s so bad in drinking?” Harry asked. “They’re all kid’s thoughts that drinking is very injurious to health. Nothing happens if one drinks in limit.”

“I know, Harry, but…” Zack replied him. “Uh… how should I explain? A-Actually I used to be an alcoholic and drunkard. I-It was just because I was with some friends who used me for their greed. That’s why this vodka brings some bitter memories and angriness.”

“Well then, I think you should definitely drink it!” Harry cheerfully replied.

“W-What? I can’t get it,” Zack asked.

“Well, see, I think you should give it a try so that you can just… forget all what happened and don’t remember all that crap while drinking and chilling with your friends,” Harry replied and took the glass from Adam’s hand. Moving it towards Zack, he asked, “So, wanna give it a try?”

“Uh…” Zack murmured as he took the glass of vodka and saw it disgustingly. He saw the reflections of Jason and Lucifer drinking and talking.

“Hey, gimme the drink!”

“It’s mine, motherfucker!”

“You!”

Watching the two playing, Zack told them, “You know, the two were always fighting with each other. Jason always treated Lucifer as the smaller one and they both had a fight! But, they used to patch up in just a minute and start fighting with the third person, sometimes even me.” A drop of tear fell from his eyes as he continued telling them, “It was just days after my parents’ death. I used to cry every-day because I missed them a lot. My life was so miserable at college that… I can’t just explain. I wanted to run away, but then I found those two. We always had fun with each other.”

Zack sniffed as Adam patted his shoulder, still half-drunk, and said, “Ya don’t need to remember them, buddy! Ya got us now!”

“Yup, Ads is right,” Harry said. “Ya got us!”

At their replies, Zack tilted his head down and began to sob on his forearm. “T-Thank you!” Then, he gulped down the whole glass at one and wiped his lips with the sleeve of his shirt. “Aah, it’s great!”

“Now don’t see it as a problem, but a problem put-off, ‘kay?” Harry replied.

“Yeah, I got it,” Zack replied.

After some times of chill and drinking, Zack asked, “Hey Harry, where’d ya come from?”

“Whaddya mean?” Harry asked.

“What I meant is that Mr. Carlos brought me in when I just left my friends, lost my wife-to-be, and a charge-sheet was being made against me! So, did something like that happen with ya when Mr. Carlos showed you a ray of hope?”

“Uh…” Harry replied. “Um… My parents died at that time when he showed me that ray of hope.”

Zack saw him with a sense of guilt in his eyes. “S-Sorry, buddy, I-I didn’t know actually.”

“Nah, actually, they didn’t just die, they were killed!”

“What? How?”

“You see, I’m actually poor. My dad and mom worked together at a construction site, where they were exploited very inhumanely. Still, they somehow ran the house and I completed school. Then, it was out of their pocket to teach me further. I left the hopes to go college and started to work with my parents. We worked day and night; still we were unable to earn much. That day, an accident occurred. Some large rods of steel slipped from the crane, killing more than twenty people under them. Two were my parents.” Zack’s eyes were filled with tears as Harry continued, “No such accident occurred in years, so why my parents? Then one day, I over-heard the master speaking with another person. ‘Those pieces of garbage,’ he said," Harry was trying to control his emotions and tears while narrating the story. "‘Those pieces of garbage were just wasting my money. Now that they’re gone, my business will flourish!’ I black-mailed them to raise salary, or Imma tell everything to police. H-He readily agreed, but that night, my house was raided. Everything burned just in front if my eyes.” He remembered his house, his one-storey building being burned in the middle of the night. The raging fire took over the whole house, leaving away nothing but ashes. “That day, I lost everything, everything I had.” A drop of tear ran down his cheeks as he told them, with eyes full of rage eyes, “That day, I sought to avenge my parents!”

Zack’s eyes also leaked a drop of tear as he asked, “Hope your story finds a good ending.”

“Hope it does,” Harry said and stood up. “I-It’s too late now, guys. I needa go home.” He got up, turned back and advanced towards the exit.

“Wait Harry!” Zack stood and yelled, trying to stop him, but he already left. “Maybe he didn’t wanna talk about it.”

“Yeah, he went away crying,” Adam commented.

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