Leaderboard

A Week Ago Thirty minutes. Tess was already thirty minutes late when Gabriela and Melissa left Coffee Cards, swearing vengeance upon him (in the case of the former) and wishing him a good day (in the case of the latter). Hitomu slurped the remnants of his water and watched out the window for anyone approaching, but soon his mind began to wander to the events of the day. Gabriela really was something else; as boisterous and overbearing as his best friend Todd, God rest his soul, though she didn’t ooze self-confidence in the same way he had. It was closer to the opposite really. She had shifted and squirmed her way out of his questions for the most part. In his experience, that meant she was probably hiding something—not that it took a detective to figure that out—but that wasn’t really important. Everyone and everything came with a little bit of baggage. The more important thing was that she had the drive, the desire to improve and hone her skills, to get back up even when she lost and learn from it. That drive was what separated the good duelists from the truly great ones. Another fifteen minutes passed. Hitomu fished his sketchpad and pencils out of his bag and flipped to the first empty page. He had been stuck on what to work on for a few weeks. Everything he did start on just ended up torn out, crumpled up, and throw in the garbage bin. He had been meaning to go and talk with Yusuji since that usually helped him break out his artistic ruts, but something about Gabriela had struck a chord in him. He stopped watching the clock after that. At some point the bell above the door jingled and a cool breeze swept across the cafe. “Hitomu! You’re still here!” Tess all but wheezed. She was bright red and her hair was a windswept mess, but her face lit up and she smiled when she saw her boyfriend sitting at the table. “I meant to call you to tell you I was going to be late but I got caught up talking to Mrs. Ellis and… That’s not an excuse I just--” “Hey,” Hitomu interrupted. He set his pencil down. “Slow down and breathe. You look like you’re about to pass out.” Tess sighed and slipped into the seat opposite of him, dropping her book bag onto the floor with a ‘thud’. “I seriously expect the floor to crack every time you drop that thing. How do you even carry it around ? I can barely pick it up,” Hitomu said. It wasn’t his best joke, but it was worth it to see her frown twist into a begrudging smile. Tess slumped back in her chair. “Stop trying to make me laugh, Hitomu. You’re supposed to be mad at me right now.” “Am I?” Hitomu said. “Guess I missed the memo. You know how bad I am about checking my messages.” “Hitomuuuu,” Tess groaned. “I keep messing everything up. I missed your first duel with Elizabeth in ages, and then when I try to set up a lunch to make it up to you, I’m almost an hour late to that.” She buried her head in her hands. “I’m the worst.” “You are not,” Hitomu insisted. “You’re at least better than Hitler.” Tess shook her head. “You really don’t have a problem with the fact that I see the school librarian more than I see my boyfriend?” “Not really?” Hitomu smirked, a grin that Tess knew all too well meant he was about to say something that he thought was hysterical. “Mrs. McCarthy is a beautiful lady, don’t get me wrong, but she’s in her seventies and she’s been married since before my Dad was born. Not really stiff competition.” Tess wasn’t laughing. “Would get serious? Please?” she said, biting the corner of her lower lip. “I’ve put a lot of thought into this lately, but it seems like you don’t even care whether we see each other or not.” Hitomu’s heart dropped into his stomach. No good conversations started like that. Hitomu’s smile faded for the first time since Tess had entered the café. “That’s a little unfair, don’tcha think? You know I care. I move my whole schedule around every time you say you have a few spare minutes.” The moment the words left his mouth he knew he had chosen the wrong thing to say. He rushed to amend what he said before Tess could respond. “Not that I mind. I don’t. Hattie can handle the Duel Team and you know you’ll always come before any other plans. Just… I don’t know what else I can do.” Open mouth; insert foot. He was terrible at these kinds of conversations. “I don’t think there’s anything you can do.” The sheen of unshed tears welled up behind her eyes. “It’s been my fault most of the time, but that doesn’t change the fact that we never get to see each other. That’s not a relationship Hitomu.” Hitomu struggled to talk through the lump forming in his throat. “By whose standards? You’re getting ready for college, Tess. I knew you were going to be busy -- you’ve always been busy. We just gotta last until you have more time. Things are bound to slow down eventually.” Tess looked away from him. She couldn’t look at him and say it. “Not for a long time. I’m going of to college next year and you’ll be in the professional circuit, traveling constantly. We can’t even keep in touch while we live on the same campus, how would we do on opposite ends of Ambrosia?” Hitomu refused to acknowledge how valid her concern was. “We can figure that out when it comes up Tess.” The sinking feeling in his stomach was getting worse, and the stone in his throat had become a boulder that weighed heavier on him with every words. “Where’s this comin’ from? So you missed one duel. It’s not big a deal. I duel all the time!” Tess shook her head. “Hitomu, when was the last time we were even in a room together for longer than an hour?” “You helped me practice for the duel with Elizabeth,” he answered immediately. “For maybe two hours. We went to lunch after that and I had to leave before we had even finished eating to go work on a group project.” The dam silently burst and tears slid down Tess’ face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do this today Hitomu. I know you have the Duel Team starting and… I’m just sorry.” She started to get up and grab her bag. Hitomu wanted to get up and follow her but his legs felt like lead. She was almost at the door when he finally managed to call after her. “Tess, wait!” She didn’t stop. “I’m sorry Hitomu!” she called over shoulder, then sprinted out of Coffee Cards. The bell over the door jingled as it swung closed her behind her. Hitomu collapsed back into his chair. He was struggling to process what had just happened. He felt numb, the same way he had felt the day he found out his Mom had died. “Are you alright?” a hesitant voice called from behind the counter. Julie, the barista working at the moment. He had forgotten she was there. “That sounded rough.” He shook his head. “No. Maybe? I don’t think so. I don’t really know what I am right now.” Julie nodded softly. “I understand. Breakups are tough” The word ‘breakup’ knocked the wind out of them. Was that what it was? Were they broken up? He couldn’t begin to imagine a life without Tess in it. She had been with him since they were fourteen. She had been his rock when his Mom died, the only thing that stopped all that anger and hatred for the world from completely taking him over when he so desperately wanted to let it. She had been there the morning he got the news his best friend was dead, had held him when his knees buckled and he couldn’t do anything but bawl. How was it she thought a few missed dates mattered in comparison to that? Hitomu never went back to the Duel Team. He spent the rest of the day in Coffee Cards, looking at all of their old messages to see where he had gone wrong. The last thing he did that night before heading home was to change her contact in his phone. What had once read “Cartoon Queen” was now “Theresa Holden”. Episode 4: Feather and Flame A week dragged on painfully slow. Rumors had circulated around campus by the next day (damn it Julie), so Hitomu had dealt with pitiful stares from strangers and random texts from friends who never talked to him constantly. As for his own emotions, he ran from them as much as he could, volunteering for all sorts of extra shifts he normally wouldn’t have taken before because he was trying to keep his schedule clear. That didn’t really matter now. At least today he had the Duel Meet to keep him busy. He had done most of the work for it this time; their time in the gymnasium was scheduled, new uniforms had been ordered and sized, and he had pre-planned his presentation for once. That had all been done by Friday. Saturday he had accepted a challenge from an upperclassman whose name he suddenly couldn’t remember, but he had won that in a few minutes too. He had burned up all his recreational activities in the first week of being single. He still hadn’t heard from Tess, which probably meant she was serious and they were over. Tess. Hitomu. Over. Even just rolling the words around in his head felt wrong. Hitomu ended up going for a walk around campus to preoccupy himself. Too lazy to actually fix his hair, he just shoved it into his Chasden Chopper beanie and threw on a light jacket on his way out of the door. He still didn’t know what he wanted from the walk, but whatever it was, he didn’t find it; he just wandered until he wound up at Jo’s food truck. His appetite was gone, but his stomach rumbled, so Hitomu bought a burger. He was halfway through eating it when he spotted a familiar face seated at one of the tables. Hitomu walked over to her. “Is this seat taken, Lizzie?” he asked. “You look like you could use a friend.”

Zorua

Have mercy on me, Oh Lord, a sinner. Wipe away my transgressions, and let me be reborn anew in your glory Help me turn away from sin, and move towards your eternal light. Are my efforts in vain, Lord? Will tomorrow be the same as yesterday and the day before? Am I destined to be pulled apart, torn between service in solitude and spreading your word? Nevertheless, let it be as you, not I, would have it. If I must drink this cup, your will be done. In the name of The Father, and of The Son, and of The Holy Spirit, Amen Melissa woke up at three-whatever in the morning for no particular reason at all, and, for that same lack of reason, couldn't get back to sleep. It wasn't an uncommon experience for her -- in fact, on multiple occasions, she'd just given up trying and instead was up and out the door before even the crack of dawn! -- but that didn't make it any less of an issue. There wasn’t a remedy that worked, either. That wasn’t to say she hadn’t tried, though. She knew, for example, to stay off her phone and to avoid eating too close to the end of the day and to breathe in a specific pattern and all sorts of other things, but nothing was consistent enough to matter. Sometimes, her brain just insisted on being awake, lost in its own idle thoughts. Not that her idle thoughts were very interesting. She hadn’t had any dreams recently to reflect on, it was still too dark to properly look at anything in the room, and getting anywhere close to thinking about the events of the day (outside of a quick prayer, of course! But even then...) was just asking for another breathless trip to the restroom. Instead, she ricocheted off various topics, from a song lyric that just would not leave her head, to listing off obligations she had, to adjusting her position from on her back to her side and back again, all the way back to that persistent song lyric. What eventually stuck out, though, a line of a poem she’d only heard a few times and was honestly surprised that she still remembered: At night, turn back your sheets And climb into your bed And WHACK! Your little rock Will hit you on the head It was that classic of Sunday School syllabi all across Ambrosia: the prayer rock! It was the perfect arts and crafts project for it, anyway. The requisite materials were simple enough: some decently-sized rocks (fist-sized was optimal, but Melissa had seen it done with smaller), some paintbrushes, paint, some ribbon, and small printouts of the accompanying poem. Once you painted your rock with whichever symbol or bible verse you wanted, you got it all tied up with a little poem to remind you how to use it. Using it was simple. You put it on your pillow so that when you went to sleep, you’d remember to pray. When you were done praying, you’d put it on the floor so that you’d step on it when you got out of bed in the morning and pray again. You’d put it back on your pillow and so on and so on and so on. It was a useless piece of clutter, really. At that age, children that prayed at sunup and sundown didn’t need any reminders, and the children who didn’t certainly weren’t going to start just because a rock told them to. And yet… Melissa’s rock, from way, way back, back when she hadn’t yet decided that attending the concurrent adult-oriented Bible study was a better use of her time, had been a dark grey stone, the darkest of the ones available, with a golden yellow cross painted on top. No frills, no accompanying Bible verse, nothing. Just that. She lost it soon after -- she didn’t need it, after all -- but the image had clearly stayed with her. And now, in the middle of some random night, Melissa found herself getting nostalgic for the thing. Not that she suddenly had a need for it. It was probably for the best that it was just in her memory and not a physical object she could lose somewhere in the dorm, probably confusing whoever eventually found it. But she liked the idea of losing it in her mind, dropping it onto some mental beach where it could only be affected by the surrounding elements, which in turn would grind away at her prayer rock, bit by bit. First, the paint would fade away -- perhaps it would wash off in the rain or the waves -- but the rest of it would slowly follow. Everything her imagined nature threw at it -- from wind to tides to even animals chipping at it with their beaks or claws -- would slowly erode away the stone until there was nothing left. Dust to dust. Wednesday, September 20, 909 PD Feast of The Martyrs of Korea “[Job] said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.’” -Job 1:21 (NIV) Idle hands were the devil’s plaything, so the saying went, but Melissa still tapped away at her phone for want of anything else to do. If she were doing anything important, it might be different, but no, she just scrolled through old text messages as if she’d glean anything new from them. From: Melissa To: Elizabeth Hey, it’s Melissa. I keep running over that conversation we had yesterday in my head. I’m afraid something I said might have scared you off. I know, I know. It’s stupid. But if I ever do something that makes you uncomfortable, just tell me, okay? It had taken three or four revisions before Melissa had been content enough to send that message along, and even then she still had some reservations. Like the message said, it was stupid -- hadn’t she refused to send something similar the day before? -- but she wouldn’t have stopped thinking about it if she didn’t. It took an uncomfortably long time for Elizabeth to respond (something that didn’t help), but she did respond: From: Elizabeth To: Melissa I was going to say the same thing. So that was how that had gone. There were more messages in that chain, mostly messages like “Hey, how are you?” or the standard response: “Fine, thanks”, but her phone kept buzzing to remind her of the other series of messages she'd have to go over eventually. Despite her predictions, despite how little interest Melissa herself had managed to generate for the Community Service Club, they'd still managed to pull in six new members for their first meeting the previous day. Six new people! So instead of a small group pushing some desks together to sit in a circle, everyone in the half-filled classroom had to face forward as Connor went over introductions and the general agenda. Icebreaker question: What’s your favorite icebreaker question to answer? Answer: None of them please why are you making me do this they’re all the worst. Melissa didn’t exactly make the best first impression. Even though the classroom was only half-full, she still felt claustrophobic. The worst part, though, was how Connor had set up a group chat for all ten of them. Because it was ten people, they only really talked about community service matters a tenth of the time at best, and the rest was, well… Wow its 2 weeks in and classes alreaady suck Lol I know right? When am I ever going to use this? Anyone want to meet up? Maybe play some games? And so on. Melissa looked up from her phone. The library really was a nice place to be, now that Recruitment Week was over, at least. There wasn’t really anybody else there besides a few of the more diligent students, and none of them were particularly interested in bothering anybody else. All in all, it was a good spot to take a break, and today’s had been, despite the idle stress at the end, a good break indeed. But she couldn’t stay forever. It wasn’t that Melissa had places to be (she didn’t), just that she decided she wanted to walk around for a bit. She gave a quick nod to the person at the front desk as she headed out, then stepped through the doors out into the open air… …aaaaand, moments later, also Gabriela, who Melissa barely avoided crashing into by the skin of her teeth. Melissa let out a small “whoops!” as she just caught herself, and stumbled off to the side. She didn’t fall, but she almost did. “Sorry, your- your majesty,” Melissa said. “Um, we seem to keep running into each other, don’t we?” What else was she supposed to say? She couldn’t exactly talk about the weather with royalty. But she still felt like she had to say something. It was her fault, after all; she could have been paying more attention (right?). Was her posture off? Melissa did a quick, unpracticed curtsy to make up for it, and thought a quick prayer, hoping she’d be easily forgiven.