Weak Hero Short Stories

The Olympiad Pt 1

This story is going to be a little different. Sorry in advance. And none of my stories happen in the same timeline unless I say they do, though they may have similar features. 

Alex's POV:

"Hey Rowan!" I yelled from the other side of the hallway, waving my hands in the air. Rowan sprinted over, "Hey Alex!" I was standing next to the bulletin board, I hardly ever checked it but today I found something interesting. "Look at this." I said, while motioning to a specific poster that had been posted on the board. "An Olympiad? What's that?" He asked while skim-reading the piece of paper. "It's like a super-smart person test." I replied with a smirk. Rowan paused for a moment before asking, "Do you think Gray knows about this?" Hmm, maybe, and if he doesn't we could show him, I really don't see anything wrong with this plan. It's foolproof.

"I don't know," I said, "Do you think we should show it to him?" I patiently waited as Rowan seemed to spin the idea through each and every inch of his brain. He hardly ever thought before he did something, none of us really do, except Gray. However, when something involves Gray, we start to second guess ourselves. We really don't know a ton about him, and we don't want to make him mad just as he's started to come around and be our friend. "Yea," Rowan started, "It's a smart person test, and Gray is the smartest person we know, so he should try it. I'm sure he could win." Rowan seemed to have read my mind, these were the exact things I had been thinking while looking over the brightly colored paper, reading each word four times.

I grabbed the paper and folded it neatly. "We can give it to him next free period." I said to Rowan who nodded in agreement. If we gave it to him now right before the bell rang, he would complain about how we would be late to class. So, we all tried our best to avoid that. The bell indeed rang only moments later, and we rushed to our classes. I shoved the paper into my pocket and went through the door of our class. As I headed to my desk I saw Ben, I stuck my hand in my pocket, eager to show him the paper and the great idea me and Rowan had, but then something hit me. Ben was really weird when it came to Gray. 

Once, I asked him if we should invite Gray to the roof and he said "Absolutely not, let's go to the Annex." Another time I asked if we should invite Gray to the arcade across from his cram school, since it would be a convenient hangout spot for all of us but he said, "How about we just go play pool, we shouldn't bother Gray." We shouldn't bother Gray, is something that Ben said quite often whether it was playing pool, going to the arcade, hanging out on the rooftop, or retrieving him from his classroom every free period.

I quickly removed my hand from my pocket. If we told Ben about our idea he would probably veto it immediately, it would probably be a "bother" for us to even show it to Gray. Besides what's the worst that can happen, he says no? Ben just overreacts all the time when it comes to Gray, because he's nice and wants to be friends with everyone. It's a trait of his that I admire, but sometimes his nagging is annoying.

I knew I probably couldn't hide my idea from Ben for long, we have always been best friends. Always have been always will be. Maybe I could hint the idea to him. "Hey." he spoke, looking up from the book he was reading. I was surprised, Ben never read unless he had to. As I took my seat next to him, I noticed that behind his book, he had his phone and he was playing a game. I shot him a look, how dare he get my hopes up, I thought he was doing something productive.

"So," I said, "Did you see that poster about the Olympiad?" Ben paused for a moment and pretty much dropped his book and his phone on the desk with a "Bang". I looked up and around the room, nobody looked back here and the teacher wasn't here yet. It seemed as if nobody cared that Ben was loud. "What?" he asked me. "The Olympiad," I started "You know the test-thing for smart people. I was thinking we should tell Gra-" 

"No." Ben replied and turned away from my gaze.

"But why I think it's a good ide-"

"No." Ben repeated. I turned to meet his eyes though they stayed glued to his desk, something was off. There was something behind his eyes, some emotion. He look somewhat sad, remorseful even. 

I'm sure he's just kinda sad, so he isn't really paying attention to what I'm asking. I pulled Ben into a halfway hug  and then got out a book of my own. His shoulder suddenly became less tense and the atmosphere around us thinned. My hand found it's way to my pocket, and the cold paper. I briefly glanced at Ben who was actually reading, not playing on his phone, I removed my hand from my pocket quickly. It's fine, I'll give it to Gray and leave. Ben is just having an off day. 

Everything will be just fine.

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Hey guys!! Sorry for taking so long. Remember when I said I had a story idea... I lied. I couldn't come up with anything, then today BAM, MAGIC, STORY IDEA. So I decided to write today. Thank you for reading, and have a lovely Day or Night or Evening, ♥♥♥

Extra: Weak Hero updated at 8:00 and it was so exciting.