5. At Eleven, I Made My First Friend!

The girl was small and petite, appearing to be around my age. She had shoulder-length blonde hair with a frilly blue dress, and evenly pale skin. She sat amongst the daffodils, making what seemed to be a flower chain.

She looks up and we meet eyes.

'S-shoot! I was staring.'

She stands up and pats her skirt, before wandering over to me.

'What do I do? I haven't talked to someone my age in this world before...'

AlI look up and flinch as she is right in front of me.

"Hi! I'm Alice! Would you like to join me? I mean, because you were looking for a while..."

She fidgets with her fingers and looks at me sheepishly.

"Oh, s-sure. I'm Rei, by the way..."

'Eh? Why did I stutter? I guess I really am nervous.'

I jump over the fence and join her within the endless array of flowers.

"So... How old are you?" She asks.

"I'm eleven! You?"

"Really? What a coincidence, I'm eleven too!" She giggles, putting her hands together.

Her smile was radiating warm rays of sunlight, drawing me in and in.

She sits down in a grass patch and I hesitantly follow her.

"Ah, here, you can have this!"

She lifts up a flower crown she made. There was an assortment of daisies and forage that was all intertwined with each other very delicately. Even at one glance, you could tell she put vast amounts of effort into making it look so enchanting.

"Seriously? Thank you, it looks beautiful!'

She gives me a wide smile and my heart skips a beat.

'What... My heart skipped a beat?'

She gasps and looks at me, sparkles illuminating in her pink eyes.

"Do you want me to teach you how to make one?" Alice keenly asks.

I blink a couple times, trying to calm my face-beating heart when her face is so close to mine.

"U-uh, sure!" I spurt out, wearing a crooked smile.

'But wait, my mother has probably finished her shopping.'

"Um, actually, I think I might have to go now. My mother might be looking for me..."

I scratch my nape and her expression darkens.

"Oh... Well, nothing I can do about that."

I watch Alice and notice the glimmer in her eyes had dissipated. My heart ached a bit.

"I-I'l come back tomorrow! At this same time."

"Really? You promise?"

I nod.

Her face immediately lit up and you could practically see the unicorns and rainbows around her.

"Hehe, sorry. I just haven't had a friend before... Wait, can I even call you a friend yet? Sorry." She shyly claims.

"Of course! I'd love to be friends with you." I exclaim, with probably a bit too much eager.

I tightly grasp the flower crown Alice gave me and put it on my head.

"I'll be off, then. See you tomorrow!"

I look back at Alice, who was waving goodbye.

I smile back and jump over the fence.

-

"You seem happy today, Rei. Did anything happen?" My father questions, before putting some food in his mouth.

I play with the cabbage and carrots in front of me, before realising that I was smiling more than usual.

"Yeah, mum let me go shopping with her today! I also... Made a friend."

My father starts to choke on his food and my mother rushes over to help him.

'Is it really that shocking?'

He recovers quickly and starts to composes himself once again.

"So... What's he like? Is he nice? Fun?" He bombards me with questions and my mother just laughs.

I already told her about what happened, since she was worried as to where I went. She just thought it was quite cute. I am worried that she may not let me go out tomorrow, but I'll just have to see.

"Well, it's a girl, not a boy. And she's very bright and bubbly." My smile unknowingly widens.

My father, once again, starts to choke. But I think he was choking on his saliva.

"Finished!" I shove the rest of the plain food into my mouth before leaving the table.

He just watchs me in in bewilderment, but that swiftly changes to pride.

"That's my son. He takes after my good looks, after all."

'Good looks?' I fall down onto my bed, and fiddle with my bangs.

'Now that I think of it, I haven't seen myself before.' Ever since I got into this world, I haven't seen a mirror. This would stem from my family being poor, but either way it's shocking. The only thing I know is that I have the similar hair to my dad's; navy blue but with a touch of grey. My parents have also told me that I'm special, as I have multiple colours in my eyes. Apparently, there's a light green, blue and yellow. They got really excited upon noticing that, as people with multi-coloured eyes normally have an affinity with magic. Not that I'll ever be able to go to a magic school, though.

But, my dad is really handsome, so I can just assume that maybe I am just like him.

I open my 'game' menu and look at all my stats.

'It's been a while since I've seen them, so maybe I've gotten some changes.'

Stats

Strength: 7

Agility: 14

Intelligence: 23

Stamina: 18

Skills

Dash

Can run 10% faster. Uses 5 mana per second.

Talents

Musical Genius

This person has a natural connection with music.

Memory Genius

This person is has an extraordinary recollection ability.

Synethete

This person is able to see sounds as colours.

My stats had improved tremendously, despite my vague effort to increase them. 'I guess this is puberty work...' My intelligence stat, which regards magic, is also incredibly high. I guess I am supposed to be good at magic then.

I also got my first skill! Even though it seems to be quite basic, I'm very proud of myself. I had probably needed to walk a certain amount to achieve this, and I did it unwittingly.

My eyes soften with content as I stare at the ceiling. I had done much today, and even made my first friend.

'I can't wait until tomorrow...'