Catch a Glimmer of Your Star

A place from a dream

Luckily for him, they were gone by the time he finished packing all his stuff.

Marie walked together with him on his way to his locker. Basil decided to use this opportunity to ask a question that had been on his mind during the past couple of weeks. "Marie, how come you seem to know everything that's going on between, umm, the people at school who are like, uh, jocks?"

I hope you aren't going to reply with some strangeness involving Alice.

"Well, I used to be friends with all of them," she said.

This was a surprise. "What happened?"

"I mentioned what happened. They kept trying to set me up on a date with this guy I hated, so I just ditched them."

Oh, it's that group...

"But back in middle school," she continued elaborating, "we were all part of this big online chat group. You know that girl, Bethany, right? She actually introduced me to the group. Even though I don't talk to her or any of them anymore, I never actually left the group. When I get bored, I log on and read the messages they send each other. It's lame but it passes the time."

"They're not bothered by that?" Basil asked, feeling like she was kind of a stalker doing that.

Mmmm, maybe stalker was too harsh. Eavesdropper?

Lurker?

"Well, they never bothered to kick me out. Maybe it's 'cause I just don't respond."

Basil wondered if he could get a chat group going between his own friends in Faraway. Maybe he could help them reconcile things with Sunny. "What program do you use for the chat group?"

She told him the application name and he made a note to check it out later. "Thanks."

"Were you wondering whether I'd ever go back to them?" Marie asked. She smiled warmly. "Not that group, never."

"Oh, it's okay," Basil said.

"Bethany and I...are not on good terms," Marie spoke in a tone that felt uncharacteristically serious. Basil had never heard her speak that way. "'Kay, I'm heading over to my locker. Bye."

"Bye." Basil waved as she went down another hall.

At manga club, Basil sat beside Sunny as Mincy and Ms. Kowalski began their art lesson. He didn't really pay much attention to it, though. Sunny's cute hair, one strand sticking out parabolically with exquisite artistic finesse, distracted him.

They got to the self-practice part. For a simple manga face, Basil followed the written instructions step by step but the end result looked like garbage no matter how many times he tried to draw it.

Basil exhaled in frustration. He noticed that Sunny kept glancing towards him as he drew.

Basil didn't want to intrude on the privacy of Sunny's art until he was finished, but recalling the conversation the other day where Mincy called himself a manga boy, he couldn't resist taking a peek.

Those words still brought a flush of red to his cheeks.

Do I really look like a manga boy...?

I've always just dressed how I wanted to, with the flower pin in my hair and the types of clothes that...well...Sunny likes to wear.

He couldn't help but notice from one glimpse of Sunny's art that the face he was drawing had those tufts of hair that poke out at the back.

Basil blushed deeply.

"How does he look?" Sunny asked, holding up the piece of paper.

"Like...myself..." Basil answered plainly.