After the calligraphy class, it was finally time for a break. A kind of short siesta was induced in the school, which the students used to get familiar with the school environment, fellow students or even teachers. The class president was naturally Andrew and the assistant was given to Alex. They also had a girl helping them in their duties who happened to be a girl who came from an ordinary family and managed to make one of the highest cuts among the girls. She was the fourth on the list but since the third mysteriously died, she has moved up to the third position. Without much thinking, it’s easy to guess who would get to do the work in the class, since one was someone who just came to school to dibble in the learning environment and the other was the adopted prince. The girl needs to be prepared for all the work that would get dumped on her as the other two wouldn’t even bother about taking care of the class.
During the siesta, unlike the other children, Andrew finally decides to act as a serious student by going to the library. During the short while he attempted reading, he noticed that although rare, he was among the two percent of people who were blessed with the renowned photographic memory according to Earth’s standard. Now a lot of things made sense about why he wasn’t able to forget stuff easily and he was also able to retain the memories for a very long time. He was pleased with such findings but reading still seemed boring to him. He was looking for the library not really to read but to understand the power structure in this world.
After a little while of being courteous and flashing smiles at the older students, he was finally able to locate the library. But he was short on time as the thirty minutes siesta break which was allocated to the students was almost used up. But he doesn’t give up hope since he had a lot of time as long as he doesn’t die anytime soon. He returns to the class for their next class, which happens to be arts. During their first years, they had to partake in various classes in order to broaden their horizons and understand which kind of job is best suited for them based on their results, although some would still adamantly go for courses which don’t align with themselves.
Andrew pays rapt attention to other classes which was different from the way he behaved during the etiquette class, although some students could be seen sleeping out of boredom. Two breaks were allocated during a day’s lesson. The second break, unlike the first, was a bit longer but Andrew was hungry as a lot of energy has to be placed into concentration. He and Marian went off to the cafeteria to get something to eat.
The cafeteria was huge, just like the hall which they had used to write the entrance exam or maybe more than that. There was various canter to get a meal from, so the line was pretty much very short. After getting their meal and as usual, Andrew’s tray was pretty filled up to the brim, Andrew was grumbling about how this place was a rip-off as he had just spent half a gold coin for both the meal of him and Marian. He even decided to start bringing meals from home to school, not minding if other students looked at him in an awkward way. It was at that moment that a voice sounds out from behind him, “If you want I can bring meals for you”.
Andrew was scared and almost jumped with the food in his hands. He didn’t imagine that someone was listening to his murmurings and even replied to him. His heart almost came out of his mouth. Both he and Marian turn to meet the ever-familiar face, Eve who was blushing seriously after saying those words.
“You scared me there”, Andrew said. Eve just smiled, she has been looking for Andrew during the first break. She even asked for help of Marian to find him but to no avail, since he didn’t tell her where he was heading to, but now that she has found him, she was smiling foolishly like a bride who was about to be wed to the love of her life. “Come sit with us then”, Marian offers, for which Eve was grateful. Although it was noticeable, she didn’t want it to seem like she was actively pursuing Andrew. Andrew doesn’t object to her sitting beside him. They sat down and were eating and that was when some ground-shaking tremor disturbed their meal as it was proceeding in their direction. The whole cafeteria was quiet and just some murmurs could be heard as the sound continues echoing out.
Marian and Eve have already seen the person walking towards them and a frown was seen on their faces. Only Andrew was still eating his meal with a casual expression on his face. When the person was just in front of their table, the sound of his earth-quaking footsteps recedes. “I have been looking all over for you, and I never imagined to find you here”, those were the first words that came out of this fat young man’s mouth.
Looking up at him closely, every part of his body was covered with excess fat, there could be a huge debate about how he could function on top of a woman if he would crush her.
But we are getting off track here, although he seems fat, it doesn’t remove the fact that he looks a bit handsome. Perhaps there are dozens of women who would line up just to be with him based on his status and cuteness. He has short black hair, he seems not to be a fan of keeping his hair and his eyes although not visible because of the fats and the fact that he seems to be squinting them whether intentionally or not, they were black. He stood there while casting a huge shadow upon them and probably stopping ventilation.
It was at this point that Andrew finally raises his head to look at the person in front of him. He stuffs a mouthful of food into his mouth while saying, “To what do I owe the honour?”. Although he was talking with food in his mouth, none of the food seems to escape as they stayed well put and he continued grinding them before swallowing. He doesn’t wait for his reply as he took a huge chunk of meat and starts greedily devouring it. “Can we be friends?”, the fat young man replies while showing off his white and shiny set of teeth.
On hearing such words, Andrew almost chokes on the meat he was eating. He immediately grabs the juice and gulps it down while beating his chest lightly. Immediately as he was able to swallow it down, he turns and looks at this fat boy in front of him. Saying he was fat was like demeaning his stature. He looks like a huge ball of meat. Even the girls were shocked at his words, they had thought he had come to make trouble for them but it was the direct opposite. This wasn’t even a way to make friends, someone you just met for the first time. It seems absurd.
“No no no no. Such a relationship seems too much for me to handle”, Andrew says immediately while his eyes rove through this huge embodiment. The oddball looked hurt by Andrew’s reply and seems like he was about to cry. “What about me don’t you like? I can change it for you”, he says with a tearful look on his face. If he hadn’t said that and behaved in such a manner then maybe Andrew could have thought about it for a little longer, but now Andrew felt like he was about to puke just from the way the guy behaved cordially with him.
“Please can you stop behaving in that manner, it irritates me”, Andrew says with an unsightly expression on his face. “You are talking to me in this manner. It means you have finally accepted me. Bestie”, the fat meat runs and was about to hug Andrew. But Andrew was able to get out of harm’s way quickly and avoid death by crush hugging. He quickly breathes in relief and never wishes to come face to face with such a death.
He doesn’t even bother about the words which go to show that the guy has just proclaimed him as his bestie. He just took it that this person in front of him was mentally deranged and didn’t want anything to do with him at any cost. But seems like the fat chunk of meat does not intend to give up on hugging him and tries various times but Andrew was able to deal with every situation properly. Alex could be seen at a not-so-far distance while eating with an amused expression on his face as if he was watching clowns perform.
After a little while of performance in which a huge audience has been gathered, Andrew asks while dodging a hug, “Don’t I get to know the name of the person that intends on making friends with me?”. The fatty stops on hearing those words, then he smiles sheepishly before answering, “Seems like I forgot that little detail”. He straightens out his clothes which the tailor must have made a lot of adjustments on and worked seriously hard on before continuing, “The name is Sebastian”.
Andrew notices a huge change between this new personage of Sebastian and that of which he had formerly. It seems like a completely different person and he would have perhaps thought it was his twin if he hadn’t seen it all happen by himself.
This was a true shrewd player in the game of life. He was exactly like one of those who played outside the rules of the game. Andrew was even put on edge by this change but he was able to recover very quickly unlike the girls and the surrounding people who were also seeing this for the first time.
“It’s nice knowing you, Sebastian. I think you already know my name then”, Andrew says while shaking hands with him. “The pleasure is all mine”, Sebastian replies.
Although Andrew was impressed by his change, he still made a mental note to always avoid this boy. Sebastian left them to their meal, which they ate quickly and returned to class. The crowd which was watching the spectacle quickly dispersed.
After their other classes for the day, Andrew together with Marian waited for Eve to be through and they went home together. Unlike before, they took their time and trekked home. Admiring the whole scenario as they walked home and talking about various stuff.
It was almost evening before Andrew got home, Marian went to freshen up while Andrew just went towards the old madam’s room to apologize for being late. But on getting towards the room, there were faint sobs which were heard a bit distance away from the room and they came from the room which he hadn’t usually found anybody in. This shocked Andrew and he almost returned to his room after all, it wasn’t right according to his moral code of conduct to poke his nose into other people’s issues. But he remembers he has promised to take care of her for Olivia.
‘I should probably try to stop promising I guess. It could lead to my ruin one day’, he says inwardly while forcing himself into the room.
On getting to the room, he just pried through an opening and happened to see the old madam there. ‘As I thought’, he thought.
She was just kneeling on the ground while her hands were caressing the stuff which was on the ground. There were clothes, toys and other sorts which were laid out. They seem well taken care of and as such looked almost new but time has taken its toll on them a bit.
‘Hmm, who owns those stuff? Was there a boy in this house before now?’, he asks himself. This was due to the fact that the clothes were the ones worn only by boys, except if the person was a tomboy though. He tries to look closer and on staring close, he happens to see the picture of the person hung on the wall. The person seems kind of familiar to him but he still couldn’t quite put a finger on it. He decides to take a closer look and on getting close to the picture, he finally remembers. This person couldn’t be any more recognizable. But he happened to have made a sound on trying to get a closer look and the madam notices him and was startled and quickly cleans her tears.
(Author’s note - Hello, it’s me once again. When I was still in high school, I would always dream of having the almighty photographic memory since I was too lazy to study. But I guess I was not among the lucky lot to have gotten it. And fat people are usually introduced in most of the novels I have read and I find it nice to some point hence I just had to input it here. I would have to tailor the rest of the story with this new addition though. More work for me to do. And I would always like to assure you that if this sub-arc follows the kind of line I have in mind for it, which none of the sub-arcs ever has though. It won’t take more than twenty chapters, so please be patient with me, but don’t put your hope on that though cause I know how to end this sub-arc but I don’t know what will transpire in between. Even writing the story is like an adventure to me. Inspirations just keep popping out of nowhere. Sorry for this long note. That’s all, bye for now)