Chapter 6: •

DISCLAIMER!

If there were some subject that you might find offensive, it's not a form of mocking or ridiculing a certain subject. Some of the SCENES here were INSPIRED from real-life experiences. Thank you!

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Thursday. If Thursday could be Friday, that'd be great. Thursday is one of the cursed days on the calendar because I'm always unlucky every time it comes. I swear to God Thursday is just Monday's second ugly sister. I remember that I broke my glasses back in middle school while playing basketball in our P.E. class, and it was on Thursday. 

I will never forget that day due to a very embarrassing situation. 

 The frame of my glasses split in half. I became blind for the rest of the day. Andy helped me with everything that I needed, including writing everything that's on the board on her notes for me to see, assisting me in getting down the stairs while we head to the cafeteria, helping me with my tray of food since I can't see my way.

 I would never have survived that day without Andy. I felt like a person with disabilities that needs constant care and attention. I have poor eyesight, you guys, and that's how I perceived everything that happened. Thank God! it wasn't night time or else I will not see anything. For real. 

 The only thing that Andy couldn't do was to help me pee. What I mean was accompanying me to the restroom. I've been sticking to my oath that I'll never ask for Andy's help to go to the restroom, whatever reason it might be.

 I'm not scared of ghosts anymore. I already conquer that fear of mine. The only problem is that I can't see clearly. I wouldn't be surprised if I went to the wrong restroom. Yea, and that's what... happened. I went to the men's bathroom. Unconsciously, without knowing.

 How did I know? Simple. When I was washing my hands in the sink, I saw a man come out of one of the cubicles. He got startled. I got startled. We both got startled! I didn't have the chance to process everything, so I face him and said ㅡ "I'm trans." Then I walk out, head high, flipping my hair with confidence. It was so embarrassing! I went out of the restroom as fast as possible, and I almost stumbled on the hallway.

 The most annoying part is, I don't know who saw me in the men's restroom, and avoiding that person is going to be difficult since I didn't see his face due to my poor eyesight! I told the dude I'm transgender! I'm so sorry transgender people. I'm very ashamed of myself... IㅡI didn't know what to do, I PANICKED! If someone's going to ask me about that embarrassing incident out of nowhere, I'll just straight up deny that he got the wrong person. Luckily, no one asked. Aaand I stopped wearing glasses ever since that humiliating incident.

 Why am I telling this again? Oh, right! Thursday. The unluckiest day on the calendar. Why do you ask? It's because I failed the test! I thought that memorizing Shakespearean insults might help me pass the exam, but it didn't! The exam was an essay type! What's annoying about it was, it says in the direction there's no right or wrong answer. It's fine to just express your opinion, and it was something like this...

Question 1: What can you say about Romeo and Juliet's love story?

Well, their love story is doomed from the very beginning since Shakespeare was the author. The dude fancies torturing people. So before the story even started, they're already destined to meet a tragic end. It might have a happy ending if Shakespeare wasn't the author.

Question 2: Do you think Romeo and Juliet's love story is relatable?

No. Who would marry someone who she just met for the first time? Well, certainly not me, Anna.

Question 3: If you were Juliet will you drink the poison?

If I were Juliet, I would never involve myself in this nonsense from the very beginning.

 One question is equivalent to ten points. Out of ten questions, I only got 50 points. What's wrong with my answers?! I thought there's no right or wrong answer?! What's the point of the instruction if it's useless?! What am I supposed to say to Andy now?!! Speaking of Andy, she'd been spamming me weird random messages that I can't even understand. They were like this...

"•—••"

"• •••— • —•"

 She sent the first message yesterday evening while I was watching Adventure Times and the other one earlier when I was in the middle of taking the test. Now she sent me these two just right now.

"•— — —— —•——"

"•••• ——— ••— ••• •"

 I don't even understand these things. Give me a break Andy. My brain was tortured already by the exam. You should've typed it in a language that I can understand, Andy, goodness gracious. Why do you have to be so complicated? Sigh. I do have a feeling that I need to solve this immediately. I don't know why, but there's this urge inside me telling me that I should interpret it.

 I look at Andy curiously. She gave me a confused face as a response. Then we were having a conversation with just our faces. I don't know how we did it, but we managed. She took her phone, after a moment, I heard mine vibrate. I look at the message she sent, and it says...

"—•• ——— —• •————• — —••• • •—•• •— — •"

 Andy and her indecipherable language. 

 You must be thinking how Andy and I were able to communicate properly for years. I've no idea either. Andy always likes to give people a hard time, and what she's doing now is an example of it. I remember those kids who bullied me when I was young. I was such a scaredy-cat that time, that's why I always get teased, and I remember what Andy did to avenge me.

"Andy, I'm scared..."

"I'm here. You're doing great. I won't leave you. You just have to touch the door while I'm filming you."

"Okay... Stand to where I can see you..." I heave a sigh and walk forward towards the haunted mansion's door and touch it. After that, I sprint to where Andy was standing.

"Did you get it?" She nods.

"You did great," She pats my head and said, "Those toads will pay from what they'd said to you," I saw a glimpse of anger sparking in her eyes, "We'll make them crawl like dogs and beg for their lives, they'll see."

"Do you see me as a coward too, Andy?"

"No. You wouldn't touch that door if you are, and if you were one, so what? There's nothing wrong with that."

 What she said made me smile. I hugged Andy as a thank you. The day after tomorrow, we met with the bullies.

"You said you're all going to eat sand and bark like dogs in front of us if Fiona can touch the door of the haunted mansion without peeing her pants." Andy showed a recorded video of mine touching the door of the haunted mansion in the woods. Then she took a small bag of sand from her pocket and threw it in front of the three people in front of us. "Now, eat you witless toads." 

"W-We never said that!" One of the boys shouted, looking terrified. Andy played a recorder that proves that they bet on it.

"And you're saying?" Andy nonchalantly said, "Listen, dolts. Do you wanna do this the hard way or the hard way? Either way, you don't have an option. You know I won't kid if I want to humiliate all of you in front of a bunch of people." The three of them look horrified. I feel pity but at the same time not. They were bullies anyways.

"You won't stop until I'm satisfied." Then the three poor bullies obeyed Andy without a complaint, "Just so you know; you brought this upon yourselves."

 I'm not sure if Andy did that for my sake or she just wants to mess with those bullies. Either way, it doesn't matter since they stop bothering me. It's not obvious but Andy has a soft spot for the people she cares about a lot. Her heart is not completely frozen—yet.

I've been decoding Andy's messages up until now, and it's already midnight. I've been bugging her earlier to tell me what it's all about. She just said — "I'll leave you to ponder." I already have two brain cells in my brain, and she's making me use them! Andy is such an oddball. She's always been an oddball ever since we're kids. I remember the time she gave me a walkie-talkie as a gift on my 10th birthday. I asked her the purpose of it. She said —"If an apocalypse breaks through, we can use that to communicate with each other." I have no clue what kind of apocalypse she was referring to. Then after that, she gave me a piece of paper with squiggles written on it. She said I have to memorize all of it in case aliens invade our planet.

Those squiggles...

 I rummaged through my closet and under my bed to search for that piece of paper. I found it, inside a box where I put my walkie-talkie. After reading everything on it, I know that this is the answer to decipher Andy's message.

Morse Code.

"Great. You figured it out."

"You should've written it in English. I pulled an all-nighter just for that," I pout, "And there was a missing letter. I thought it was a typo, but I remember you sent me a dot (.) the other day."

"I wouldn't have done that if you had passed the exam." I huff.

"I didn't understand why I failed the exam and the instruction was kind of misleading."

"Your answers were pretty good. It's just that, there's a process on how to write essays Fiona."

"Did you check my paper?" She nods.

"Moving on, are you ready to go?" I nod bashfully.

"Let us go." She holds my hand as she smiles sweetly.