Colorless world (V)

The park we reached was extremely large; it even had a massive pond full of fish and turtles.

It was relatively close to Elena's house, being at most a twenty-minute walk away from there. Located right in front of a school, the large park was surrounded by tall, metal fences and even had a small area near the entrance with dedicated gear to train.

On that sunny day there were plenty of people in the park; there were some old men running around trying to remain fit, and some people were selling food in the park; those usually were black or had darker skin than most and were surrounded by similar kinds of people.

As for the kids running around, there weren't many that were truly on their own; most were accompanied by an adult or two in groups no bigger than six.

"Hey, later can you give me colors as well?" Elena asked while tugging me closer to her.

The others had immediately begun to run in search of an empty spot to play around. The tomboyish girl with dark short hair had taken a plastic ball out of her backpack, and they had already ditched the sponge ball.

"Colors? Are you sure? We could all get in trouble if someone sees the gun. Plus, you'll be sticking out; are you sure you want to be the only colored thing in this large gray park?" I whispered back to her.

She nodded affirmatively with the biggest smile on her face.

"What are you talking about?" Lucia suddenly interrupted us, startling both of us.

She was accompanied by a man, probably around the same age as her, her arms crossed around his. He was wearing dark clothes, a small hat to cover his hair, and a dark face mask. I also noticed a faint blue tint on the tip of that guy's hair.

"Who is he?" I asked while pointing at the guy using my right index finger.

"You shouldn't point at people with your finger; haven't your parents taught you it's disrespectful?" Lucie said while folding my fingers in her hand and lowering my hand.

"Not at all, my mom said. Those who find this disrespectful can shove it in—" I was interrupted by the girl, who quickly put her hands over my mouth to stop me.

"Oookay! We've got the message; why don't you join the others for now? They're probably waiting for you." She said, pointing in the direction where the others were headed.

Her boyfriend giggled at her flustered reaction; he had a much deeper voice than my father. It was surprising; I thought only people on television could possess that kind of voice.

"Let's go!" Helena enthusiastically dragged me towards her friends, who were waiting for her on the other side of the pond.

How annoying. Do we really have to stay out here, in the open? Under this heat? I'm dying out here.

"Finally, where did you go? Why didn't you arrive sooner?" The effeminate boy shouted at us while waving his hands to make himself more visible in the distance. His presence alone was making me feel more uncomfortable with each second that passed.

"Sorry!" she happily apologized as she kept dragging me by my right arm, much to my embarrassment.

The surrounding people were looking at us, sometimes making comments such as "How cute they look together." or "She's got the new kid all wrapped around her finger."

I really shouldn't have shot myself there; now I'm at the center of the attention.

"Wow, today all eyes are on us," the girl with strange eyes commented.

"Hey, hey, can you give me colors as well?" Asked the other guy.

"Hey! I said it first! Why are you suddenly trying to cut the line?" The girl with weird-shaped pupils protested while getting closer to me.

"Guys! Can we just—"

"If you don't mind, I would also like to know what it feels like to have color, even if it's just for once." The shy girl chimed in on the discussion, interrupting Helena.

"I don't know if I should; after all, I was scolded earlier, and I even got in trouble with those scary-looking cops." I replied, trying to sound as troubled by their request.

Inside I was smiling from one ear to another; seeing them beg me for something that, to me, was so normal felt pretty satisfying; superiority felt pretty sweet. It completely washed away the awful moment I had with those enforcers earlier.

"Mhh, what to do…" I pondered out loud to encourage them to beg me even more.

"Pretty please!" They all begged even more, so I caved in.

"Fine, fine, but I don't want to get in trouble because of you, plus this thing can cause mild headaches; you've been warned," I said as I summoned the blue revolver in my right hand, then aimed it at my chest to not worry the ones looking at us in the distance.

Everyone was cheering happily.

"Weird eyes, you're the first to go; now take my hands and close your eyes." I said, pointing the finger at the girl I was speaking to.

"What's your name again?" I asked her as I grabbed her hand. "Whatever, it doesn't matter right now." I added it before shooting at myself with the gun.

When she gained her colors, it was revealed that she had light blue eyes and pink hair; she was wearing a pink shirt, and her jean skirt was blue.

Her flustered face quickly became red as she was staring at her hands, marveling to see her skin so brightly colored.

Everyone began pushing to be the next one to experience colors next, some more desperately than others, but everyone looked forward to me making my next decision.

Well, the pretty first and ugly last, so the first one is… Elena.

I pointed the gun at her and shot at her next; after that, I shot the shy girl with long hair, then her tomboyish twin, and lastly the strange kid accompanying them.

"Wow! Don't I look fabulous with all these vibrant colors?" The male kid asked me while striking a strange pose, bending his body forward and making a V sign with his right hand.

"Is that how you think we people on the surface dress up?" I asked him outright, not even trying to hide my disgust.

"Luke, Luke, come on, be gentle with him; he's always the one being bullied the most at school; can't you at least try to be nice to him? It's your first time meeting him; you can't just—"Elena immediately began scolding me.

"No, thank you."

After I interrupted her, she began pinching my arms in retaliation.

"Ouch, what was that for?" I complained.

"For being a bully." She responded, pouting back.

He's the weird one! He should be… fine!

The guy was surprisingly resilient to my treatment of him; he ignored my harsh treatment and kept acting in his usual way, so after some back and forth with Helena, I decided to stop insulting him to his face.

Can't believe I'm getting bossed around like this… especially right now that I was starting to enjoy myself a bit. Annoying; everything is annoying me today.

"Ah, right, I forgot to introduce them to you, sorry, I'm sure you've been puzzled the whole time." After we reached an agreement, I could see something light up in that head of hers as she began to speak again.

"You still don't know the names of my friends, apart from Lucia, so I wanted you to at least know their names."

Not that I will remember them tomorrow anyway, but it's cute that you're still trying.

The girl with weird eyes was Vera, the tomboy was called Chiara, her shy twin was Laura, and the kid was called Lorenzo.

Then, after the extremely brief presentation, Chiara took out of her backpack yet another ball; this one, instead of being made out of sponge, was made of plastic.

Wait, if we throw this ball at each other, won't we hurt ourselves? Is this safe? What if you, by mistake, hit me in the face? Can you even pay for the damage cost?

She then passed the ball to me, and instead of catching it, passing it to someone else, or sending it back with greater force, I flinched. I instinctively raised my arms to defend myself, afraid of the ball.