The next school day, which was after the weekend that followed these events, that student director is inside a castle. This castle, which is in fact the school building, was at the time filled with fellow film students. Funny to note is that neither even knew each other prior to entering this campus, and yet they had developed a good friendship with each other from day one. All except for one. That one felt that he can stand right next to them, bare naked, and they still wouldn't even look at him once. That incident last week, in which the other students thought he wasn't there when they needed him, had only fed to his rage against his fellow students.
"Hey Olivier!" a girl suddenly called at him.
He turned to look at the girl. When he did, he reminded himself just how pretty she is. From the very beginning of the term, he had developed a crush on her, but since she started to ignore him just like anyone else, that crush started to fade away. Still he couldn't help shaking a little as she called him. He walked to her, and answered her call.
"Yes?" he said, trying to sound casual.
"You know anything about computers?" she asked him.
He should've known. She was working on her laptop when she called him, so obviously she wouldn't want to just have a little chat with him.
"Depends." he answered.
"Do you know what this is?" she asked him, showing him the screen of her laptop.
He looked at it. There were white, black, and many different shades of gray dots on her screen, which was indeed weird given the colorful desktop, which had the girl's name written on it: Aline.
"No." he answered, "What did you do that caused this?"
"I don't know!" the girl, or Aline, replied, "I was just looking at some pictures, then suddenly this happened!"
Then I have no idea either, he thought to himself. It was then that he spotted a sticker underneath the laptop's keyboard. It read: 'Trouble? Dial this free number!' followed with a number that was clearly not local.
"Try calling that number!" he advised her, pointing to the sticker, "Maybe they know what's wrong!"
Aline looked at the number, then looked back at him and said: "I don't think I have enough credit on my cellular."
Olivier looked up surprised, and said: "What do you mean? It's a free number!"
She looked back at the sticker, then sounded more happy: "Oh! That's what it says! Sorry, English is just a rockdifficult language."
Olivier twitched at the sound of that word: 'rockdifficult'. It's like that with everybody in this campus. They find something really cool, it's 'rockcool'. They find something very disgusting, it's 'rockdisgusting'. It's all rock to everybody here. Even 'The Flintstones' don't talk like that.
Aline, meanwhile, has been looking for her cellular in her purse, but couldn't find it: "Oh no! I forgot my phone! Oh, 'stupid ass fuck'!"
Even though the two were conversing in Dutch, she said those last three words in English. What was that she just said, Olivier thought to himself, does she even know what she just said? Since she claims to not know any English he figured she didn't.
"Want me to call them for you?" he suggested to her.
"I'll be eternally grateful if you did!" she replied.
Olivier took his own phone out of his pocket, clicked it open, and dialed the number on the sticker. It took a while before the phone would go through. During that time he wondered what the hell he's doing. He never really did like to call somebody when there are other people around, afraid that he would say something stupid and make a complete fool out of himself. Then again, isn't he already doing so just by doing this for her, knowing that she will continue ignoring him afterwards?
The call went through at last. All he needed to do then was wait for someone to pick up. He looked at Aline. She didn't look back at him, so he concluded she wasn't paying attention to him. What the hell is the matter with these people, he thought to himself.
"Wushiwushi!" he heard someone say over his phone, along with some other words.
Somebody had finally picked up, but 'wushiwushi' was the only word Olivier actually understood. Last thing he expected was that he'd be calling Japan for free. With the few words in Japanese he knows, he replied: "Er... Eigo... er...?"
"Oh! You speak Engrish!" the voice said, with a heavy Japanese accent Olivier only barely understood, "Hi, Nakamura Hiro speaking!"
Olivier couldn't quite make out the name. Not that it mattered since he'd have probably forgotten it by the time this conversation ended anyway. In any event, he spoke: "Hello. There's someone here who has a problem with a computer from your company."
"Probrem?" it was hard to say whether this guy was surprised or enthusiastic about it, "What probrem!"
"Well..." Olivier was about to answer, until he noticed Aline talking to some other girl, but he wasn't sure whether he understood what they were talking about.
"I'm sorry!" Olivier apologized to the Japanese guy, "Can you wait for one minute!"
"Of course I can!" the guy sounded like he wouldn't want it any other way.
This made Olivier a little suspicious: "This is a free line, right!"
"Of course!" the guy replied, "You can say eberything you want!"
Olivier wasn't sure what to make out of this. He didn't care either. He listened to the two girls.
"Some friend he is! Walking off like that!"
"Why did he even say he will call them, but not stay here as he's doing so!"
This, Olivier didn't understand at all. They seemed to be talking as if he wasn't here anymore. He waved his hand before the girls' very eyes, but they didn't respond to it. Unless you count what one other one said as a response: "Do you feel a drought too?"
This is getting ridiculous, he thought to himself. Did these people make a bet at some point in their lives to see how far they can drive him nuts by pretending he isn't there? Angry as this made him, he turned away from the girls. Then he spotted something weird, right in front of him. Something that didn't make any sense, couldn't make any sense. Then he remembered he was still on the phone with Japan, so he brought his phone back to his ear.
"Never mind! Problem resolved!" he said.
"Are you sure?" the guy asked.
"Hai!" Olivier replied, with the Japanese word for 'yes' just to be sure this guy understood him. He closed his phone, then started to look around.
He saw a whole lot of people in this hall, everyone either playing cards, using their laptops, discussing assignments, some of them sitting at a table, or on the floor. Then he looked back in front of him. There was a mirror, which reflected everything and everyone he had spotted in the hall. It reflects everything it should be reflecting from the angle that Olivier was looking at. The only thing that wasn't reflected was he, himself. He waved at the mirror, but he didn't see himself wave back. He stepped closer to it, but he still wasn't there. He pressed his hand against the mirror, but it still wouldn't show the hand that makes the print on it. Olivier could see his own hand, but for some reason the mirror didn't, and neither did anyone else in the hall. Did he just turn invisible? If so, then why could he still see his own hand? Is he a ghost then? Only one way to find that out! He slammed his fist against the wall next to the mirror. He expected that if he were a ghost, his fist would go through the wall. After conducting this little experiment, he wished he were a ghost so that his hand did go through the wall and he wouldn't feel any pain afterwards. He rubbed his hand in order to try and ease the pain.
"There you are!" Aline called to him.
He turned to look at her. She can see him? He looked back in the mirror, and this time it did reflect him. He turned back to her to reply: "Yeah, er... I got a bad reception in here, so I went outside. It only got worse, so I just hung up."
"Oh!" she didn't sound disappointed anymore, "Oh well, thank you for trying anyway."
"That's all right." he replied, "You wanted me to help, so I did!"
Suddenly, she noticed him rubbing his hand: "What happened to you?"
Olivier didn't have an excuse ready for that one, so he improvised: "Er... I was a little careless when I got back in, that's all! Nothing serious."
"Oh, ok!" she said, after which she turned around and walked away.
For once he had a conversation with her, but that wasn't what caught his mind's attention. What just happened to him? How and why did he just turn invisible?