Talk, talk, talk, this is all I’m gonna do and you will be here to listen to it,

Talking about her, because she is the one glowing with energy and the one that is in the main light without wanting to be,

    The bell of the bar’s glass door rang, it wasn’t there for modern times, but it was there for tradition, to keep its authenticity as a bar, that’s maybe the owner’s intentions, maybe like a “We have started then, and here we are now, but let’s not forget with what we started and where we came from.

The glass door has moved towards the inside, remaining open, letting the winter wind come in. She did a few steps, dirtying the wooden floor with the bottom of her shoes, covered in crushed and fresh snow. 

The steps were slow and steady. She was grunting, just imagine putting alcohol on an opened wound, that’s the noise she was making, without opening her mouth, while holding her left arm that was carbonized, pitch black, just like fresh coal. The wounded arm was very recent, where it was steaming in the hot air, with as much steam as an old train from the 1800’s. A samurai sword inside her mouth, the toque with the sword inside it, probably to bite onto something to ease the pain a little bit, but it didn’t seem like it was working, where her mouth muscles looked like they got some serious cramps. Her clothes were suiting her blonde wolf cut and looks, but they were dirty, like a mechanic’s; dirty with blood, burning marks, cuts and dust.

She was shivering, her teeth closing and opening at light speed, in constant motion, her eyes lowered, her vision blurry, as she continued hardly taking a few more steps inside the bar, getting the barman’s attention, who was drinking a beer and savoring a steak with baked potatoes on the hip-level counter

It was itching, it was tiring, everything was bad.

Somehow, she succeeded in speaking a sentence before her vision blurred out entirely and her head felt like it was about to explode.

“Bernard… one Amaretto Sour please… and make it extra flamey… ha, ha…h”

Then she fainted, just like that!

(Cling-cla-lang) (THUMP!)

“Ili–ILINCA! ILINCA!”

Shouted the barman, jumping over the counter towards Ilinca.

       Ilinca’s routine was this… 

She would wake up at exactly 6AM; she takes a short and warm shower, brushes her teeth and from the different breakfast meals up on the table, made by the mother who was enjoying the coffee with the father who was doing quizzes on a newspaper, wearing reading glasses, she took a piece of honey bread in which she took a humongous bite.

“Where are you in such a hurry, honey?”

Asked the father

“I got school dad, I can’t be late”

“I was always late when I was going to highschool”

The mother kicked the father in the shin with an upset expression

“Tom!”

“What? It’s true”
Continued the father, rubbing his shin with his hand to ease the pain

Ilinca laughed

“Mom, you should really stop bullying dad, he can’t protect himself from you”

“It’s true, it’s true!”
Exclaimed the father, raising his hands in the air, acting hurt inside

“Oh stop it, you!”
The mother reached at the father and they kissed, disgusting Ilinca

“Bleah! Get a room for you two!”

“We will go after you leave—”

Ilinca quickly covered her ears, closing her eyes and turned away

“No, no, no, stop that, dad! Come on, it’s really disgusting”

She then took her palms from her ears after she saw that the father continued the quiz on his newspaper.

“It’s seven past five”

Said Ilinca, checking her digital watch

“And you're going already?”

“I can’t be late for school”

“But how are you late?”
Asked the father, really confused, while having his sight at the mother who shrugged her shoulders, both not understanding

Kissing both parents, Ilinca rushed through the door

“Love ya both, bye bye!”

“Byee!”

“See you dear!”

Ilinca was a jolly girl, always smiling with her bright and perfectly aligned teeth; she was always in a good vibe, which has caused her to be loved by most of the students from the highschool. They say that on rainy days, she was the one who took the sun out from between the gray and upset clouds.

On her way to the highschool, Ilinca met up on her street with a few colleagues from the same neighbourhood and they all went together to the bus station.

The bus would come a minute maximum after they would arrive; they were very calculated.

3C. That was the bus’s number and the one that they just embarked on towards the Glo-lo High School. The colleagues accompanying Ilinca were Richi and Terry, Ilinca’s best friends.

The bus ride was one of the most nerve wracking moments of the day for Ilinca’s friends because everyday, at least three boys would try to hit on her with a line or just something that they do to catch her attention, since she was the prettiest of them all, and which also didn’t bother them, because they loved Ilinca as well, actually agreeing to this fact.

When they were flirting or just talking with her, Ilinca unintentionally has an mechanism, where she would smile awkwardly, nod her head and say small sentences to answer the waves of questions coming towards her; that’s where her friends come in, pushing the rest away to let Ilinca breath.

Even if all these boys were flirting with her, she never felt “special” or “the prettiest”; she was Ilinca, a highschool student and nothing more, and she was very modest about this as well.

She could act all high and mighty about it, for example making it her personality, but she didn’t, she was nice and calm about it.

Inside the bus, there were many types of boys that were into her: the quiet ones, usually the one that stayed in the front seat of the bus, right behind the driver; they were the ones that were looking over the chair at what was going on and what was the talk about, but they were just there to fill the seats. The thugs who were spamming flirts for Ilinca, these were the ones that were muscly but didn’t care that their brain was the same size like a nut, and because of them, the quiet ones were staying in the front. the thugs that stay in the back, also the reason why the quiet ones were staying in the front.

The Highschool she was going to, was pretty much like a normal school like the ones you see daily all around the city, but Ilinca made most of it and made sure that she was remembered (in a good way).

Unfortunately, for our student, she was known for her beauty and not for her intelligence, knowledge and team building experience.

The lovely geography teacher always asked Ilinca, who was sitting in the middle of the class, how is her family, how has she been, and she was always smiling towards her; towards the boys, she always looked angry, like she had locked in on them with an extra-serious expression. 

Ilinca was so smart that she was even doing the homework for her pea-brained classmates, some boys that were into her intelligence more than they were into her beauty, because she was giving them an escape card from a one point three gpa. 

One day, her friends gave Ilinca an idea to tell the boys to learn each, a card trick in exchange for a card trick, and they were all getting a good laugh out of it, especially Ilinca, Terry and Richi.

Coming back to sim—I mean coming back to the people that liked her, just like tenth, eleventh and even  boys from twelfth grade would go to her to ask her out, and most of them would frequently show up to the class and would not leave until she would reject them, but this was the thing she hated the most. She didn’t want to hurt their feelings but she was hardly influenced by her friends that told her to just be direct with the others and tell them directly in their face to not waste her time anymore; but her friends still had to intervene sometimes and push the guys away from her if Ilinca wouldn’t be direct with them, annoying Ilinca in the process, because her friends were too “brutal” with the guys.

Another day, around twelve guys were sitting on benches or standing up near Ilinca who was sitting down on a chair. They kept making conversation with her and Ilinca seemed to have a good time. Richie and Terry were sitting behind her sides like two bodyguards, putting on some brutal and serious faces.

“Will you participate in any band in the upcoming high-rise festival? I heard you like rap music”

“Indeed I love rap music, the melancholic type, but I’m too awkward to play in a band, I would just mess things up, haha”

“Aawwhh, what, pshhht, what?!”
Exclaimed the boys, scoffing in the crowd, trying to make Ilinca feel better about what she just said.

“Ilinca!”

“Hey Ilinca—”

“Did you know that—”

Continued the crowd, like they were investigating her, asking all these sudden questions, so like that, the bodyguards of Ilinca, her friends, took her and they all left the class, cruising on the hall towards another floor, and when they saw they were free, the two gave Ilinca a quick lecture.

“Ilinca, what was that? Didn’t I tell you to tough-up and tell them no?”

“But I am tough!”
Exclaimed Ilinca with a deeply upset voice, flexing her small biceps

Terry gently touched Ilinca’s face, squishing her cheeks, making her gave out a smirk

“Of course you are, you honey coated gummy bear”

“Yes!”
Joyfully exclaimed Ilinca, like she hit the jackpot in a cards game

“It wasn't positive feedback…”

Sighted Richi and Terry

“Maybe you’ll get better at it when we get into tenth grade”

“I don’t need a year to tough-up!”

“Oh you do, you need more than that, honeybun”

Continued the two

In the late evenings, Ilinca would have her daily training session for the fencing classes at the same highschool. The training place was something that looked similar to something that site constructors would do, eating with one hand and working with the other one. It looked DIY, but still, it didn’t bother Ilinca, because she only cared about the training, she didn’t care where she was training. 

There were other students as well, but only one or two years over Ilinca. In there, there were two boys that would stand out, a pair of friends, Ore and Archi, who gave their best each training, more to amaze and catch Ilinca’s glimpse at them, instead of training for themselves to become better.

It was the time for sparring and Ilinca was placed with Ore, who knew Ilinca and knew her style so he played more defensive and waited for an opening, but little did he know that Ilinca didn’t have any open spaces or chances to strike; she was like a fortress. On the other hand, Ilinca played hard attack, striking one swing after another, not letting Clay take a breath and with a flick of a fake hit to the stomach, Ilinca ended the round by swinging her sabre into Clay’s forehead, making her the winner of the round.

“Good Job everyone, see you on Thursday!”

Shouted the trainer with a deep voice, thanking his students.

Outside, Ilinca was in front of a vending machine from the “backstage” of the training place, which looked like an abandoned jungle. Looking around to see what to get, she didn’t know if she should eat some sweets or eat some food like tuna and a chicken and mayo sandwich from the back of the vending machine. 

Her skateboard, graffiti on the bottom; the wheels seemed used a lot from the black lines all over them; this was held inside her hand, horizontally.

Ore and Feis make their appearance, pushing out their backs when they see Ilinca and stopping with the jokes and laughter, locking in. Both saw at the same time that Ilinca was buying something from the vending machine, and both went up to her, trying to buy the food for her.

“Let me get that for you, Ili”

“No, Ili, I can get that, no worries”

The two buddies had their bills in their hands, ready to pay for whatever Ilinca would get, and in the end… she got strawberry milk in a cardboard box, that’s how nice she was; she didn’t even buy more, since it was for free, she just bought the necessary.

“Thanks guys”

Ilinca started unpacking her chicken sandwich

“Are you guys headed home?”

Asked Ilinca, looking at them with curious eyes, dropping down her skateboard with graffiti drawings underneath, continuing too much with small bites on the sandwich.

“We are actually heading to town”

Said Archi

“Neat! Then I can go with you guys”

Like this, the three friends went home together. Ilinca was cruising with her skateboard, Archi was riding his bicycle and Dan had his electric scooter. Even though lots of boys meet her daily, hanging out with boys would be just like breathing; she couldn’t stop doing it and she was forced to do it, but hanging out with these two, Archi and Ore, she was smiling, but a genuine smile, not awkward one, maybe this is a sign that Ilinca may have found her future boyfriend?