8

Ricky

Ricky stood silent in front of the hanger which have his cleanly washed and dried clothes. Deeply sighing, he put on the clothes and went downstairs to see a freshly cooked breakfast; a jambalaya and some orange juice placed nicely on the kitchen counter. He sat down in front of his breakfast and ate slowly.

These incidents have happened to him for over two weeks since the first time it happened that it no longer startled him. He did try to not eat the breakfast that was served, only to find it inside his suddenly empty fridge that was usually filled with leftover food from when he didn't know.

His house were also cleaned thoroughly that no speck of dust were seen on every corner of his lving space. Not to mention his whole mountain of clothes—that were living freely on the floor of his bedroom—were all washed, dried and folded while also arranged inside the closet.

He looked around his house while he ate. His living room that was usually very dusty and smelled like trash can, wafted a gentle smell of lavender from an aromatic candle that was lit and placed neatly on the cabinet beside the television.

Wait.

Since when was that candle there?

Ricky fluttered his eyes, stunned.

"...I better head to school now."

He stood up and put the plates and glass into the sink. While looking around the house again to see it's surroundings as he searched for his car keys, he found it hanged nicely on the key holder that was attached to the wall beside the door.

"What the...?"

Confused by the presence of many unknown things that suddenly appeared inside his house without him knowing, he took the keys and head to the garage to start his grey Ford truck.

He just didn't feel like walking to school.

***

Taylor looked at Ricky with a horrified expression. His mouth was agape and his eyes wide as he inspected his friend.

"Dude, you hit your head or what?"

Ricky's eyes twitched. He side knocked Taylor on the ribs, causing Taylor to wince.

"Ouch, dude calm down."

Adam who just entered their circle also stared at Ricky as he shot him a surprised look. Weird, they have been friends since the beginning of university days yet he never saw Ricky took a bath every morning just to go to school. His blonde hair is as messy as ever but there’s a gentle lavender scent wafted from it, and his clothes are neat. Adam looked at him in disbelief.

"No way, who are you?"

Ricky could feel his nerve throbbing. Just a few more seconds and it might snap, and the school hallway would become a battlefield of chaos and despair. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

"…I gotta go. Class will start soon."

Ricky packed up the books from the locker into his bag and walked along the hallway followed by the still confused Taylor and Adam towards the first lecture of the day, History. Because of how strange the education system in Saint Iriha is, History class is mandatory to all engineering students; whether electrical engineering or chemical engineering alike.

Lucky for Adam and Taylor. Their course didn’t require credit hours in History class to pass this year’s exam, which means Ricky was the only one who had to face that dreaded class.

Halfway through the History class, boredom started to strike Ricky on his five senses. Well, he's still impressed by himself to not fall asleep the moment Madam Ziga entered the classroom. He glanced towards the other students. They were asleep like a log, as if the lecturer that was teaching in front of them were some invisible being. He heaved a sigh, admiring their bravery.

Then, his sight expanded as he looked around to see the scenery of almost half of the class being dead corpses lying on their table. Madam Ziga who was still teaching the class just let them be, because she knew they will suffer from the upcoming mock quiz based solely on her teachings.

As his blue iris randomly drifted about, he caught a familiar figure of a dark blue haired and grey coloured eyes person who was sitting at the innermost lecture hall table just beside the thick glass window. Focusing his sight on the target, his mouth gaped slightly before he closed it soon after that.

His mind immediately recalled their dispute about two weeks ago. Because of how big the humiliation that he received from that impudent brat, he remembered his name until this day.

Noel Kieran.

That’s the name of that nerd bastard.

"What the heck...."

His eyebrows creased into a deep frown. All of a sudden, an instant surge of hatred welled up inside of him. He clenched his fist, determined to exact revenge today.

After the lecture end and all the students had left, Ricky scooted near him, blocking his exit. Noel noticed something huge blocking his way, looking around to see what it was before glancing up to meet Ricky in the eye.

“Hey. Bastard.”

Ricky snarled as his face grimaced into a face of disgust. He’s disgusted of the nerd in front of him.

Noel stared at him emptily, before he countered.

“Who are you?”

Ricky’s eyes gradually widened, before he let out a roaring guffaw inside the lecture hall, rendering his deep voice to echo inside the air tight room. 

"D-Didn't you know who I am?"

Ricky asked sarcastically. They’ve just clashed two weeks ago, so there’s no way that nerd would forget.

Noel pondered, a hand on his chin.

"Are you the mayor?" He suddenly blurted out, startling Ricky.

"Uh, no?"

"The king?"

"What? No."

"Then, are you the son of any important person in the educational or governmental industry?"

Ricky paused.

His forlorn father is a co-founder of an oil company with several international branches. That being said, he didn’t care whether his father got involved in governmental or educational or even anything else related to them.

He just simply don’t.

"...no."

"Then I don't know who you are."

Noel smiled nonchalantly, gaining a sneer from Ricky.

Is he for real?

"I'm sorry. Although my memory is good, I'm not the type of person to remember unimportant parts of life. So do remind me of who you are."

Noel’s words strangely ticked Ricky off to the core. He threw his bag onto the table and indignantly grabbed Noel by his collar before pulling his face closer to him.

“You son of a-!”

Suddenly he felt a numbing electric zap from his hands that was grabbing Noel. Noel let out a soft wince before he yanked himself away from Ricky’s hands.

They both looked at each other silently, without any words uttered.

“Please…”

Noel cleared his throat and adjusted his highneck. From his red face, he looked like he’s suffering something more than what Ricky suffered.

“…Don’t ever touch me like that again.” His tone mixed with warning as he glared at Ricky.

Ricky immediately went blank. He stared at both of his hands, still not believing of what happened while Noel quickly grabbed his backpack and went away.