Back to school

For the next 8 days I enjoyed my vacations in bed after experiencing the tough love of my grandpa.

Obviously I don't blame him, I would have done the same in his place, but these thoughts still didn't help me relieve the pain that I was feeling through my whole body, so it was quite a painful week to me.

While I was held prisoner of my bed, the world didn't stop moving. The portal that was the root of my calamity was closed, the news about the accident were completely erased, the school principal lost his job and disappeared mysteriously and a new one assumed the post as if nothing happened and the repairs on the school ground happened in record speed.

This year's goal had failed miserably, there is no way I can show that pile of scrap metal in the fair as a Titan, so the best course of actions now was to disassemble everything and start over again, but before I do that, I still need to deal with this year's Titan fair that I was supposed to participate. But for now, since I could do nothing but wait in bed, I had plenty of time to deliberate about my next steps, setting up the perfect plan for the time I could walk again.

Not everything was bad news though, the experienced I gained creating my last Titan and controlling it would ensure my next one would be a lot better than the previous one, and my head was already full of ideas on what to improve and how, the only thing I lacked was the funds to make it all possible.

Luckily one of the biggest changes that the Portals had in our life was the advances in medicine field that enabled us to heal even broken bones in a matter of weeks. Of course my grandpa didn't go that far, but it still took me a week to be able to walk around again and by then school had just resumed and all my free time was over.

--//--

Monday - 11/26

Arriving at school I looked around and saw that all damage made by the monsters had been cleaned and repaired. I had already heard it from May but seeing it with my own eyes was quite a different experience. I still remember the destroyed wall, the gym's damage and other things the monsters did, so seeing it now back to normal it was like everything had been a dream. Of course the pain in my body quickly made me remember it was reality but I still have to say I was quite impressed!

"Wow! They work fast!!!"

"Who works fast?"

Hitting my back out of nowhere was my best friend Rafael signature greeting upon arrival, so at the moment I heard his voice I clenched my teeth and awaited the impact.

Bang!

"Ouch! Damn it, Raf! Can't you hold back a little!?"

"Holding back is not on my dictionary! Yo man! How are you doing?"

"Not great, partially thanks to you!"

As Rafael arrived in front of me and saw my sad state, while my uniform was able to hide most of my bruises on my body, it was still unable to hide the bruises on my face. Honestly I looked like an anime's main character, with an eye-patch and an adhesive bandage over my nose.

"Joel! What happened to you!? Did you mistake school for an anime convention again?"

"Hahaha, really funny Raf! You are only the third person to say that!"

(The first was May and the second was my front neighbor, Jack.)

"Well, it can't be helped, it happens naturally when looking at your face...So, what really happened?"

(I can't tell him about the wolves because of the deal with the police so let's just skip that...)

"I stole my grandpa's truck, had an accident, ended up destroying it along with my Titan, then I was later beaten up half step from death by grandpa once he found out."

"Hahahahahaha! Well, that's what you should have expected! But why the hell would you do something as stupid as stealing your grandfather's truck?"

"Ugh. I don't want to talk about it.... And you, how come I didn't hear a single word of you through our whole vacations? Every time I called you your phone was turned off!"

"Sorry about that. I would love to tell you a fascinating story like yours but unfortunately I spend all the time kidnapped..."

"Eh!? Kidnapped!? Oh, wait! You mean..."

"Yeah, my parents again. This time they kidnapped me to help out reviewing the stock of the 5 stores. I spend a whole day on each store checking each damn item's number and shelf life, then comparing to the computer's database and correcting everything that was wrong."

"Ugh... Sounds tough! Well, being the future owner of a fast food restaurant chain must come with it's own down sides, right? It would be too easy if all you had to do was leave the work for others and wait the money fall into your bag."

"I would say nothing if this was just part of the job, but no, this is all the new guy's fault! Can you believe the idiot overwritten the stock data by restoring the wrong backup trying to hide a mistake he made!? I want to kill this guy! I wasted all my free time to clean up his mess! And he's not even a girl!!!"

"Cleaning up after your employees is your job as the Boss, right?"

"Ugh! I can't deny it when you put it this way, but I'm not the Boss yet so it's still not my job!"

"Yes it is, as long as your parents say so..."

"Fuck! I hate you!"

"Hahahahaha! I'm honored!"

By the time our little talk had finished, the teacher Boris arrived in class.

"Good morning everybody!"

No one answered him, but that didn't slow down his enthusiasm as he kept speaking with even more energy than before.

"Next week we will have our finals, they will include everything you studied this year! Because of our unexpected vacations, we will leave the last chapter for self teaching, and have you make an essay explaining your thoughts on the subject, you know the drill, check the webpage for more details. This essay should be delivered to me though the email before next Monday's midnight. Any questions?"

The whole class was too stunned by the surprise bomb to react, and the teacher didn't seem to give a damn as he kept going...

"No? Good! Then let's continue where we stopped last class. If you still remember we were talking about..."

--//--

Exiting school I walked along side Raf as we headed to the bus station.

"Damn! They should have told us this earlier!"

"So, are you coming to T.B. tonight?"

"No, I will go directly home to read the books and finish those essays."

"Ha? Why don't you leave it for the weekend?"

"Did you forget this weekend is the Titan fair?? I will spend the whole Saturday setting up the booth and Sunday I'll attend to it and pack it back at night."

"Oh! That's right! I completely forgot! So, is your Titan ready?"

Hearing his question was like receiving a dagger on my heart.

"What? Did something happened?"

"It was destroyed..."

"WHAT!?"

"Forget it, I can't talk about it, anyway, this year my chance is over, but I already payed for the booth, so I might as well attend."

"But what are you going to put on your booth?"

"Oh, I had a lot of time to think about it, so I have it all prepared in my mind."

"Only in your mind?"

"Blame my gran-no, it's my own fault, I deserved it."

"What??? Man, you are not making any sense. Explain what happened."

"Stop with the what what what! Let it go, okay?"

"...okay, if you don't want to say it, I won't insist. Well, see you in the T.F. then?"

"Sure! I will give you a surprise!"

"Shouldn't you be saying this to a girl instead of me?"

"If I had time for a girl, I would have already made another Titan!"

Just as I answered two new buses arrived together, making it impossible to hear what I was saying, which was good as it would save me from being ridiculed for loving robots more than women, something I was tired of hearing from him, but I knew he didn't have bad intentions in doing so.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, my bus is the next one, see ya!"

"See ya!"