The cafeteria doors slammed open. "WALLID!" Jirard's voice boomed. The busy room fell silent, all eyes on the bearded Normal Boots gamer.
Wallid jumped. He turned in his chair and faced a fiery-eyed Jirard standing in the doorway. "Y-yes?" the Hidden Block founder stammered.
Then he noticed Hana holding Jirard's hand and following him. The petite pink-haired girl clutched the IBK box to her chest tightly. Jirard grit his teeth, nearly drilling holes into Wallid's face with his angry glare. "O-oh…" Wallid whimpered, shrinking back.
"Come with us," Jirard ordered. The normally teddy-like boy now held the fury of a thousand bonfires in his expression.
Wallid bobbed his head as he scooted his chair out from the Hidden Block table. He grabbed the books he'd been looking through and crossed the room to where the couple stood. Jirard held the door open; Wallid stepped through it onto the campus grass, his hands trembling.
Hana shut the door behind them. Jirard turned on Wallid. "I think you know why we're here," Jirard growled.
"Yes…" Wallid scratched his fingernails on the back of his neck. "I think I do."
"I just wanted you to know that since your Pumpernickel figure was a fake, Hana is not obligated to follow her side of the deal." Jirard crossed his arms.
Wallid raised an eyebrow.
Jirard sighed, rubbing his temples. "I can't believe you would do something like this."
"Fake? It's not a fake," Wallid replied. Hana watched Wallid from behind Jirard's arm, her eyes narrowed at Wallid.
"Of course it was a fake!" Jirard roared. "Princess Pumpernickel's figure is supposed to be purple!"
Wallid's eyebrows lifted. "What? B-but…" His eyes slid between the box Hana held and Jirard's red-tinted face.
Jirard rolled his eyes. "You should just come clean. I already know, so what's the point of pretending you didn't do it now?"
"B-but… I really thought…" Wallid dusted the ground with his shoe. Surely the fan that'd given it to him wouldn't have lied… right?
Jirard sighed. "Hana, I'm going to leave this one up to you. You were the one he victimized, so it's up to you how you want to deal with it. We can ask Wallid to leave the tournament, or…"
Wallid ran a hand through his hair, watching Hana. He knew Jirard would've called the others already to tear him a new one, but he had no idea if Hana would do any worse.
"Wallid… you seriously didn't know?" a doe-eyed Hana asked Wallid. Jirard raised a skeptical eyebrow as he shifted his gaze between Hana and Wallid.
"I was sent it by a fan." Wallid gestured to the Itty Bitty Kitty toy in Hana's hand. "They said it was the real deal, so..." He dropped his arm. "I just assumed it was. And I know you and Jirard were looking for it for so long."
Jirard nodded, placing an arm around Hana's shoulders. "I believe you. But trying to get Hana to drop out of the tournament was still a low blow."
"I know… and you're right." Wallid scratched his neck, avoiding Hana's and Jirard's gazes. "I… shouldn't have tried to get her to quit… Our deal is off since the cat is fake."
Hana grunted. "Wallid… You're really stupid."
Wallid sighed. "I know."
"WALLID."
Wallid spun around. Ian stomped towards them, his posture stiff and face scrunched with anger. Jimmy flanked Ian, and Jon and Shane from Normal Boots raced to catch up to the Hidden Block club members. Wallid's eyes widened. "Ian, I was…"
A hand smacked Wallid. Wallid stumbled sideways. "What the hell, Wallid?!" Ian shouted.
"Whoa, Ian, let's not start anything out here," Jirard interrupted, but Ian held up an open palm towards him.
Wallid straightened, holding the spot on his head where Ian slapped him. "I was helping make sure…" Wallid faltered as Ian's eyebrows furrowed. "…we would win." The words weighed on his tongue; the sheer stupidity of that sentence stung worse than his head.
"By getting rid of the competition I asked for?" Ian seethed, his voice low.
"W-what?!"
"Yes, that's right." Ian pointed to himself. "I told Normal Boots to let Hana join their team so I could actually have some challenge instead of just being a shoo-in win."
"You didn't tell them before?" Shane asked, raising an eyebrow at Ian.
"I didn't think anyone would try to kick her out," Ian shot back, arms crossed. "We've never done that to you guys before."
"He's got a point," Jon added. "Very uncharacteristic." The robot bird Jacques bobbed its head.
"And unsportsmanlike," Ian added, boring his gaze at the cowering Wallid.
"Ian, I'm sorry…" Wallid whimpered.
"I doubt you are." Ian turned, staring Jimmy down. "And you're just as guilty." He stabbed Jimmy's forehead with a sharp fingernail. Ian trudged back to the cafeteria. He barged through the rest of the Normal Boots club members as they rushed to Hana and Jirard.
Jimmy scrunched his scrawny shoulders. He rubbed his forehead as he gave Wallid a worried look. Wallid looked away.
"So that's why Hana was gonna drop out?" Jon asked. "To get an IBK for Jirard?"
"It's fake, anyways," Jirard commented, squeezing Hana's shoulders protectively.
"It broke really easily." Hana held up the box with the decapitated toy cat. "And it's the wrong color."
"You're really despicable, you know that?" Shane seethed at Wallid.
Wallid flinched. Shane's stare was just as icy as Ian's had been. "I didn't know it wasn't Princess Pimpernel or whatever it's supposed to be," Wallid stumbled.
"That doesn't excuse you blackmailing Hana," Jirard shot at him. Jon glared, and Jacques' eyes glowed red.
"Look, I'm sorry, just…" Wallid shook his head. "Just leave me alone…"
Wallid ran away from the Normal Boots club, leaving Jimmy to be grilled by their combined fury. Books clutched to his side, Wallid ran until he stood in an empty field. A single tree towered over the carpet of grass. With a sigh, Wallid strode to the tree and slumped under it. His books cluttered to the ground as he stared off into space.
He had seriously messed up.
Even though the princess cat toy had been fake, Wallid knew he shouldn't have blackmailed Hana like that. Even if it had been real, he should have realized Ian wanted someone to face off against—someone with actual skill. Ian had complained an awful lot in the past about being put up against such nooblings…
Wallid facepalmed, covering his eyes as he crouched over his knees. Tears escaped from his eyes.
"WALLID!" Jirard glared at him, the normally teddy-like boy now with eyes of fire.
"WALLID." Ian smacked Wallid on the back of his head.
"You're despicable, you know that?" Shane's ice-cold stare pierced him to the core.
Wallid sobbed. He had only been trying to help his friend, help his team win the tournament…yet he hurt them all. Normal Boots and Hidden Block alike—they were all hurt by his foolish actions and hated him now. He'd probably get kicked out of his own club, isolated, shamed forever.
Wallid's stomach grumbled. He sighed, resting his forehead against his knees. His sandwich and cookies were sitting back in the cafeteria at the Hidden Block table. No way could he go back and face them now. Maybe he could sneak back to his dorm and hide in his closet until the tournament. Or maybe…
"Wallid?"
Lifting his head, Wallid found Jimmy standing in front of him. Something wrapped in plastic reflected sunlight in Jimmy's hand. "I brought your sandwich for you," Jimmy said, holding out the plastic-wrapped item to Wallid. "Luke ate your cookies, though."
"Thanks," Wallid mumbled, retrieving the sandwich. Jimmy sat by Wallid; Wallid waved the sandwich up and down like a palm leaf fan, stuck in his own thoughts. "We really screwed up, didn't we?" Wallid asked.
"Yup." Jimmy stretched out one leg and started picking at the grass.
"How much did they chew you out?"
"Well, no one smacked me upside the head." Jimmy snorted. "Other than that… quite a bit."
"Of course." Wallid hid his face in his kneecaps. "I deserved it, though."
"For not being a mindreader?"
"No… for being so stupid." Wallid lifted his head, cheeks streaked with tears. "Ian didn't need to tell us about his deal with Normal Boots. I should have been a better person and just… I don't know, tried to sell the cat doll to Jirard or something." Wallid rubbed the wetness off his cheeks. "Anything but blackmail."
Jimmy sighed. "Yeah… true… We were awful friends."
A bell rang faintly in the distance—the warning bell to end lunch. "Well, we better get to class." Jimmy stood up and brushed his pants off. "You coming?"
Wallid picked up his books—a Stupendous Stomping Sisters guide and a math textbook, both with dirt dusting the covers. "Not yet. I think I left something in the lunchroom."
"I'll come with you," Jimmy volunteered as the two teenage boys started walking.
"No, it's okay… I think I'd rather be left alone for a while."
Giving Wallid a worried frown, Jimmy began jogging towards Poppy Hall. Wallid dragged his feet as he walked to the cafeteria, hoping the place would be devoid of any varsity-jacket-wearing gamers when he arrived.
Opening the door a crack, Wallid poked his head inside the cafeteria. Only the lunch ladies cleaning behind the buffet counter remained. Exhaling in relief, Wallid snuck inside and slinked over to Hidden Block's self-designated table. He froze.
His backpack. It wasn't there. He peered under the table. Where could it have gone?
"Wallid?" a soft voice asked behind him.
Wallid found Hana standing with his open backpack. The IBK box stuck out of the open zipper. "Here's your backpack. I thought I'd make sure no one took it."
Wallid stared at the backpack, then glanced at the frowning Hana. "Thanks…" Wallid snatched the bag from Hana's tiny hand and tossed the IBK box at her. "Here, keep it, throw it away—I don't care."
Hana caught the box in both arms. Wallid stuffed his books in the backpack and stormed away from her.
"I-I don't hate you, Wallid!" Hana yelled after him. "You're not a bad person…"
Wallid paused, adjusting his backpack on his shoulders. "Well, you should," he replied with a glance over his shoulder at her.
He pushed the door open and stepped into the hallway.
Everyone else hated him anyways. Whether Hana did or not made no difference.
Especially now that he hated himself.
{Author's Note: If you're a follower of my writing and haven't played Asagao Academy, seriously go download it and play it right now! It's a free visual novel on Illus Seed's website, and it features both the Normal Boots guys and the Hidden Block members (but only the Normal Boots members are dateable). Personally my favorite route is Jirard's, hence why I wrote this scene that I seriously felt was missing.}