Upon hearing Arlo restate the question, Meeta’s bravado shrunk rapidly, after which, she started mumbling something.
“I can’t…”
Arlo was puzzled at why she was being like this. “You what?”
“I can’t tell you right now!” Is what she screamed out before heading to the window and getting ready to jump out before pausing and turning back “Also remember Karaoke night on Friday! I got some jams you gotta listen to”
Arlo was annoyed with how she was acting, but he was looking forward to Karaoke night on Friday. It was Wednesday currently and only two days away.
The thing that made him the most curious was that Meeta said she’d be carrying a friend with her to karaoke night.
This made Arlo happy to know that Meeta still had other friends but he’d be lying if he said that he wasn’t curious about who it is.
After saying that Meeta jumped through the window and went off to who knows where.
Arlo would usually tell himself that he’s gotten used to this girl’s antics by now but he knew that was just a lie he told himself in order to cope. Just because she stressed him out at times doesn’t mean he disliked spending time with her.
A good example of how random she acted was shown just a while ago, she came in during the last 30 or so minutes of the class and then as soon as the school day was finished, she left.
Like how the teacher was acting during the lesson, when Meeta left, no one paid her any attention. This was the total opposite of when Meeta first arrived.
When Meeta just transferred in and everyone saw how cute and adorable she was, they flocked to her in an attempt try and be her friend.
After she started her antics however, the amount of people that tried to befriend her lessened and lessened until there was none. After a period of time passed however, Arlo and her met and then became friends.
After packing up his stuff, Arlo put on his backpack and then walked to the school’s entrance to put on his shoes to leave and go home.
While walking to said school entrance he remembered that he forgot to remind Meeta about the maths assignment due on Thursday.
He knew she wouldn’t submit it in time either way but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t remind her about it. He took out his phone and started looking for the app he needed.
After opening up the messaging app most people in his country used, Monsapp, he saw his recent messages.
The first one was Meeta reminding him about the maths homework.
Normally, if a friend who was forgetful finally started remembering homework and the type, one would be happy for that friend and even celebrate it but in the case of Meeta, Arlo felt a bit differently.
Seeing this message almost gave him a heart attack, the chances of Meeta remembering something she deemed as irrelevant such as school work were so low, it was basically impossible.
He knew that something crazy was gonna happen in maths class tomorrow. He just felt it in his gut but atleast that solved his problem of reminding her about the maths homework.
He knew after months of trying to stop Meeta that it was basically impossible to prevent her antics, stopping her was as hard as stopping a vehicle moving at a high speed. It made no sense to even try in the first place.
After that the other new message he had was one from his step uncle. The message was that he was going on a trip overseas. Arlo didn’t live with his parents as he disagreed with what they wanted for his future.
Originally he thought that because they were his parents he should have gone along with everything they said even if he didn't want it but when they left for a trip overseas and left him alone with his step uncle, he realised that thinking like that was wrong.
Arlo’s step uncle was called Patrik and was bald, well built and funny. He loved joking about how a dragon fried off his hair follicles to the point they can’t grow back. He was usually sarcastic and loved joking around.
To him, his step uncle, Patrik, was a great person who almost everyone liked, Arlo’s parents disliked his step uncle though so he was originally wary of him but as he went around with his uncle to do odd jobs and visit shops and so on, he started liking him more. As a kid those were some of his best memories.
Patrik also told Arlo that if he had followed what his parents had told him to do when he was Arlo’s age then later on he and a bunch of others who he helped out would have most likely had miserable and unfulfilling lives.
His step uncle was the person he admired the most, the job he had was one he enjoyed and loved, the job his step uncle had was one of an idol manager.
He communicated with idols he managed and helped them achieve what they set out to do while dealing with any problems that arose and making sure to encourage them to put their best foot forward.
He’s helped out plenty of talents to create a fanbase who loves them and he just sits back and takes little to no credit for helping them achieve success
This humbleness was just one of the things Arlo really liked about his uncle, another one was his view on the future. Arlo asked his step uncle once about what he would do if he ever lost his job and way of life and the answer he got in response was
“If I can’t help someone out in a certain way then I’ll just change the method and continue to help, if that doesn’t work then I’ll just keep changing them until they do work, haha”
Even if this was a cringeworthy line, As a child who was just taking the road which his parents were paving out for him, just this alone was able to hand him his own brick, trowel and cement he needed to start paving out his own path.
Arlo didn’t know what he wanted to be or what he wanted to know in life but he still had time to figure out all that, so he preferred taking it one step at a time.
After seeing that his phone had no new messages apart from the ones he read already, he put on his bland, and worn out black and white shoes. After that, he went to unlock his bicycle and started cycling home on a road that was east of his school.
The scenes happening around Arlo would have been deemed impossible years ago but currently it was his norm.
On the sidewalks, you had dragons and dragon kin working on buildings. Shops run by different races of all kinds, bakeries run by slimes, Cafes with girls of different species inside of them, ghosts flying around the place working in amusement parks. Skeletons carrying heavy loads, doing moving work and much more.
As his journey went on, those kinds of sights became more and more rare as the route Arlo took to get home was more and more desolate. He didn’t live in the countryside but his home from the school was around 40 minutes by bicycle.
The sights that had been bustling with buildings had become construction zones, as the city his school was in started expanding in the direction of his home, and in order to reach home he had to cycle through these zones on his way to and back from school.
He had been through these zones numerous times and as such had gotten accustomed to them.
‘They seem dangerous at first but the more you go through them, the more you realise that’s all they are’
With that thought in mind, Arlo kept cycling through the construction site.
Something unexpected happened though. As he was about to exit the construction zone, a large Iron pillar crashed in front of his bicycle and crashed into him, launching him off his bicycle.
After picking himself up off the ground, Arlo felt his head spinning and was a bit Woozy but seemed to be fine for the most part.
Before he could question anything though, a body flying through the air with a ton of force crashed into him, not only was the force tremendous, akin to a charging bull, but the person’s body was as tough as steel.
While barely staying conscious laying against a destroyed construction pillar, all Arlo saw was red which he knew was his blood
‘What!? What happe…? My bloo…? Am I dyin…? Seems so… Death? I haven't done anythi… I haven't beco... any more confi… Why m...?'
Arlo’s consciousness was fading away quickly and he knew that so he did his best to stay awake but still felt his life slipping away.
