I awoke the following morning feeling content and just lay there for a bit, staring up at my ceiling. Now, I have to ask myself… Were the events of last night real? Or a dream? What was the name that he gave himself? Ichthys? Yeah, that sounded right. But who knows. Sighing to myself, I hopped out of bed, headed towards my balcony doors, and pulled back the curtains, which revealed a beautiful spring morning. 

“Good morning, world!”

I couldn’t help but say with a smile and, with that out of the way, I headed off to do my usual morning routine. Firstly, I headed to the bathroom, where my uniform was laid out. I got the feeling that we were the only college who have a uniform, but I didn’t mind it. It meant that I didn’t have to pick out different clothes each day. Our particular uniform consisted of a dark purple blazer and skirt, with a dark grey shirt. Each year has a different coloured tie and, since me and my friends were all in year two? We sported a burgundy tie. After I got changed, I spun around in front of the mirror. Perfect. As always.

I then grabbed some hair ties from my bathroom cabinet and I pulled all my hair up to put it in a high ponytail. After I put my hair up, I then styled my bangs a little, just to spruce it up. Makeup wasn’t exactly banned but, as I examined my face, I noticed that, as per usual, I had no imperfections. Honestly, my skin was always perfect, I never had any bags under my eyes and not to mention my eyelashes were just naturally long. Putting makeup on just seemed to be a waste of product. I then thought to myself: is this what people refer to as natural beauty? This, however, did bring its fair share of attention. I think I lost count of the amount of times that I have been asked out, but every time they asked me? I turned them down. I think I got the reputation of being called the Ice Princess, thanks to me turning them all down. But it didn’t bother me. As I gave myself another smile in the mirror, I headed back to my room to scoop up the rest of the cookies and made my way downstairs. When I reached the bottom step, I heard a familiar knock at my front door. Grinning to myself, I took out a cookie, and armed myself with it, like it was a weapon. After I did that, I opened the door.

“Good morning….Mmmphhnn?”

I shoved the cookie in the awaiting mouth of the person who was at the door. It was another girl, who was sporting the same uniform as me, but with red hair. I watched her as she took the cookie out of her mouth.

“Well, that’s an interesting way to greet me. But these are nice, so now I shall expect them all the time.”

“I shall have to deny that, since they are Arlo’s cookies.”

“Well, now you spoiled my mood….”

“Anyway, good morning Junie.” I said with a smile, as I sat down to start putting my shoes on. Luckily, there were no uniform specifics for footwear, so you can wear whatever, as long as it was appropriate. Junie liked to wear her vast collection of ballet flats and, as for me? I liked to wear variations of boots, mostly ankle or knee high. Today, it was a knee high kind of day.

“Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth you wearing those stilettos that I got you for christmas….” Junie pondered out loud, as she watched me put my boots on.

“I think I will keep them for private events.” I informed her, as I stood up and reached for my bag that I had left by the door. “Comfortable footwear is needed for college.”

“Well, I really can’t deny that. Considering the fact that I really like wearing these….” Junie showed me her foot which, as usual, sported her ballet flats. I noticed that today, she was wearing her black and red ones. “Well, are you ready?”

“I am now.”

With that, we left the house, and I locked the door. We then left via my gate, and started to walk into town, as we usually do.

“I love Spring, but damn, I cannot wait until summer, and all the glory that summer brings!” Junie cheerfully announced whilst spreading her arms wide to bask in the crisp spring air.

“Summer glory equals ogling.” 

Junie moved a little ahead of me and performed a victory pose. “Damn straight! I mean there’s nothing wrong with looking. And, you know me? I LOVE to look!”

I smiled at her and shook my head at the same time, she will never change.

We both continued walking for a few more minutes, until we saw another familiar silhouette appear a short distance from us. Leaning on a wall, wearing the male version of the college’s uniform, was Arlo.

“Morning, Lassie.” Junie waved at him, as she walked by him.

Arlo ignored her, and addressed me.

“Morning.”

“Good morning.” I greeted him with a smile. This was more or less our daily greeting, however, it was another daily greeting that also included that sorry excuse of a tie that Arlo was sporting. It was small and stringy, and it was barely even done up at all. Honestly, it looked more like a knot than an actual tie. This man never gave a reason why he had such a shoddy tie, but I did, in fact, offer to teach him how to tie one. But he declined my offer, stating that the teachers don’t seem to care that it’s like that, so why should he learn to tie a tie ‘decently’? I mean, that was fine, but it still irks me every time I see it in the morning.

All three of us continued walking to the college and, as we turned one corner, we could make out a fair amount of other students piling into a large white gate.

“Ah, yes. Mr Grease awaits us, so welcome back to Hell.” Junie complained.

“I’d say it’s more like ‘Infernum’.” Arlo chimed in.

“Err, you’d say what?” Junie looked at him dumbfounded, at what he just said.

“‘Infernum’. The lower end of Hell, more or less.”

Junie didn’t say anything back to him, she just blinked several times before walking ahead of us again. As I was about to follow along, I felt someone grab my arm.

“Wait a second…”

I turned round, and I saw that Arlo was stopping me from going forward. “What’s up?”

Arlo let go of me and scratched his temple, sheepishly. “I had a real… Interesting dream last night, and…. ‘Infernum’ is real. Also, there was a cat. A real lazy one….” Again, he scratched his temple, looking rather confused about everything he just said. “Well, never mind, odd dreams are just odd dreams.”

I got the feeling that he was only telling half of his story, maybe even less. But I didn’t pry him about it any further, since even talking about it made him feel stupid.

“I had a dream that I lived in a candy floss house.” I lied to him to make him feel better. In truth, I never remembered my dreams, which made me question if I ever have them.

“I’d much prefer that one to the dump truck mess I had.” He laughed to himself as he looked ahead. “It looks like there is a mad woman waving at us, so I suppose we should go?” 

I watched him walk towards Junie but, as I took a step forward, I felt the feeling that someone was watching me. I turned around and I saw that there, off in the distance, was a lone figure. The figure didn’t move, it just stood there, watching.

“Hey?! We are going to be late if you keep standing around!” A loud feminine voice calls out to me, and I tear my eyes from the figure. There was Junie, with her hands on her hips, shouting from the gate.

“I’m coming!” I shouted back. I took a quick glance back and I saw that the figure was gone. As I pushed the figure out of my mind for now, I trotted over to where Junie was standing. “What happened to Arlo?” I questioned her.

“He said that he had something to deal with...” She shrugged. “But whatever, we must soldier on!”

Without any more words shared between us, we made our way through the gates and into the college’s grounds. All three of us shared a form class that always happened for morning classes. This was where we had to learn the basics, to learn skills to get through adulthood, like maths and language. It was always the afternoon where we had our main subject classes. All three of us had chosen different subjects, so after lunch break was over, we separated for that day. Junie did business studies, Arlo was in food tech, and me? I chose travel and tourism.

We all arrived at our form class, which was always a set class, and Junie flung open the door.

“Ah, the sweet smell of pain!” 

The classroom was empty, we usually arrived early because our form tutor was, for the lack of a better word… Nasty. If you were late, even by a millisecond, he would tell you off, so both me and Junie decided to always come at least half an hour early, to avoid that. Junie went over to her desk and slumped over it. I sat on the seat next to her, unfortunately our tutor had a set seating arrangement, so we didn’t sit next to each other. As I watched Junie, a thought occurred to me. Maybe I could get her point of view from last night? If I hide it under the guise of a dream, that could work.

“Hey, Junie? Can I ask you something?”

“Hmm? Go ahead.” Junie mumbled. “But….” She raised a finger to me. “Nothing too deep, my brain can’t handle it.”

“Hah... Ok... Well, the thing is… Last night, I had a dream.”

With that one sentence, Junie became more alert and sat up, listening more intently than before.

“It was really weird. So many weird unnatural things happened, and I didn’t seem bothered by it? At the moment, I can’t tell if it was real or not, since it felt so real. Do you perhaps ever get that? Dreams where you think they are real, that you start asking yourself what even is real anymore?”

“Hmm… I say about once or twice a week. But those kinds of dreams make me happy, so I wouldn’t really be bothered about it so much. Embrace those types of dreams. Although…” Junie moved her hand to her chin. “This is the first time you talked to me about dreams.”

Oh, she noticed… Hah…

“It’s been the first time in a while that I really remembered one so vividly.” 

That was good enough for a little white lie, right?

“Really? Hmmm...”

Junie continued to ponder as I watched her, but in the corner of my eye, I managed to catch a glimpse of something. It was only for a brief moment, but it felt like something moved. As if it moved in the direction of the front of the classroom and, as I turned to face it, what I was greeted with made my eyes widen. For there, at the front of the classroom, was that strange boy again, casually sitting on the teachers desk. I was surprised that Junie couldn’t see him, as she was also staring ahead towards the front of the classroom, and she wasn’t reacting to him at all. Was I perhaps imagining him? As I rubbed my eyes and looked again, I saw that the weirdo was still there.

“This is a weird set up here…” The weirdo finally said as he picked up a pen and started examining it. “Is this perhaps a weapon? Rather small, ain’t it?”

Testing the waters, I spoke to Junie.

“Do you see something on the desk?”

Junie looked at me and then at the desk. “What am I supposed to be looking at?”

“You don’t see it at all?”

“What should I be seeing?”

Could Junie really not see him?

“Well, anyway….” Junie slapped her hands on her desk as she stood up. “I need to go and grab a sandwich, so I will be back before class starts.” And with a wave, she started to leave the classroom, leaving me behind with the invisible weirdo that only I could apparently see.

“Ok… You!” I called him when Junie left, and he looked in my direction. “How could my friend not see you? Are you even real?”

The weirdo titled his head. “Birds and the bees, probably.”

“That doesn’t answer my question!” I stormed up to him and plucked the pen from his hand. “What is going on?”

Letting out a sigh, the weirdo hopped off of the desk.

“I somehow got it working.”

“Got what working?” I demanded from him.

“I don’t really know what it is or how it really works. BUT! For now, I can only be seen by you.”

“I’m still dreaming, I didn’t actually wake up this morning…. I’m still in my comfy bed…”

“But you’re standing right there? I see no bed.”

I blanked that comment, and sat down on a nearby chair, and held my head in my hands. So seeing this weirdo and everything that came with it last night, was very much true? Seriously, why was I STUCK with him?

“Hey….” A soft voice made me lift up my head and I saw that the weirdo’s turquoise eyes were staring right at me. “You good?”

“Ichthys, right?”

“Yes. but most people call me ‘Ikky’.”

“Ikky, then…” I let out a deep sigh. “Why are you here? In this room, with me, right now?”

“Now, that…” He pulled back and scratched the back of his head. “Is a very good question. I can’t actually explain it but it feels like I need to be here, with you…”

“With… Me? Huh…” I hung my head again, and I could feel a migraine coming on.

“Erm… It seems like I have caused you some distress…”

“Eh?” I looked up again, and I didn’t realise that his face was way too close, which startled me.

At that time, the door to the classroom opened again, and I heard a familiar voice call out to me.

“Erm… Luce? Who is that?”

I was about to say ‘no one’, since I thought they said ‘who was I walking to’ but what they actually said ‘WHO is that’ and, with that comment, I turned to see who it was. I saw that there, standing in the doorway of the classroom, was Arlo, who was looking directly at where Ikky, the weirdo, was standing.

“Wait, you can see him?” 

“It’s kinda hard not to.”

Noticing that there was someone else in the room that could see him, Ikky backed off and turned to face them. For a split moment, he froze and titled his head.

“Have I seen you once before?”

“No. But, more importantly, what are you doing to my friend?”

Ikky seemed to be a bit taken aback that someone else could see him, and he folds his arms and started rambling nonsense to himself:

“I’m so confused now, I don’t know if this is working. That other one couldn’t see me, she can see me, but him? Apparently he can see me. I'm totally confused….”

“Whatever you’re mumbling about, I don’t care.” Arlo strode over and stood close to me. “Who are you?”

“Me? Well, it’s just Ikky…”

“Uh huh….” Arlo looked at me, and gave me an eye signal to check if I was alright, and I nodded back to him. “Arlo.”

“Dario?”

“Ar. Lo.”

“Are you a loo?”

“Is this guy the village idiot?” Arlo addressed me, and I just shrugged.

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, are you a loo.” Ikky outstretched his hand, to be shaken.

“Are. Low.” Arlo corrected him.

“That is what I said!”

Arlo let out a massive sigh and mentally facepalmed, as he tried to converse with Ikky.  “Who even are you?”

“I don’t understand the question.”

“Then answer this. Did you mean her….” Arlo pointed at me. “Any harm?”

“Of course not, what do you take me for?”

“That’s the thing! I don’t know! But as long as you are telling the truth? Then we are fine.”

Ikky raised an eyebrow, like he was confused with Arlo. “Then I guess we are?”

“Good.”

“However…” Ikky turned to me. “I think I shall, erm… Head off.”

“If you were going now, I have to ask…. Why did you come here anyway?”

Ikky shrugged, and looked at Arlo again. “Well, I hope we meet again sometime.”

“I hope not…”

Ikky gave him a smile and walked towards the window, and opened it. With a wave, he started to hop onto the window frame.