Ah, middle school. The time in an adolescent's life where they can find who they truly are, their calling in life, if you will.
In my case, that calling happened to be watching anime incessantly.
At this point, I had altogether forgotten about the phone call incident, as it was the eighth grade. I didn't have time to think about it too much what with the constant stream of school work, anime, friend issues, drama, high school preparation, anime, and friend issues. Did I mention anime?
I still had the same phone, of course, and I ever only used it to actually call anyone at the prank calling incident.
I also had this group of friends, who were, in short, weird. These people. Were weird. However, they were the people that got me into this show called Hetalia. Now, I know you're probably scratching your head right now, saying "what the hell is Hetalia?" Well, I'd hate to break it to you, but you're going to have to look it up on Google or Bing or whatever you use.
Anyhow.
One cold, December day, on my winter break, I sat in the basement of my house, just simply soaking in the fact that I didn't have school. Also, the fact that I was putting off the heavy workload that I had to do was enough cause for me just to sit there.
I leaned against the back of the tacky red, green, and yellow couch and I sighed, very satisfied with my place in the world(for once).
But then my phone started to go off.
I quickly sat up and I yanked the phone out of my back pocket. A phone buzzing its happy little heart out against your butt is never a very pleasant sensation, in my opinion, and one that I wished to avoid.
I glanced down at the screen, to see who was calling. It was… 438—825.—wait…
I clicked the button on my phone that answered the call and I lifted it up to my ear.
"H—hello…?" I answered cautiously.
"Oh, ciao, ciao!" the same cheerful voice from almost half a year ago spoke.
My eyebrows furrowed. This time, the voice sounded oddly familiar.
"You were the nice person that asked about our refrigerator, yes?"
"Uh… yeah…?" I replied hesitantly.
"Well, I just wanted to thank you! Our refrigerator broke a few days after you called! You're so thoughtful!"
"That… was a joke," I mumbled.
"What did you say…?"
"Uh… I said that you're very welcome," I smiled nervously to myself. Something about this person makes me want to talk gently around them, but I'm not sure why.
"Well, I was just wondering, would you like to be allies?" he(?) sounded very excited.
"Uh… you mean, like, friends?"
"Yes!"
"Well… I don't really see any reason… not to?" I said tentatively.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"My name is Evelyn. You?" I replied.
"My name is Feliciano!" he chirped.
I giggled. "There's someone in this show that I watch with that name…!"
"Oh, really? What show is it?" he sounded genuinely interested.
"Well… it's an anime… kinda like a Japanese cartoon," I said carefully. "And… well, you might not like it. Not many people do."
"Ooh!" Feliciano cried. "Kiku loves television shows like that! I need to go tell him!"
Suddenly, there was a loud thump as Feliciano presumably dropped the phone, and a beep as the line went dead. I waited for a few moments, expecting Feliciano to pick up the phone again, but there was nothing.
A few months later, I sat in math class with three of my friends, the same weirdoes that had gotten me into my anime obsession. One of those friends also happened to be my girlfriend, back then.
They were talking about all of the anime—related things that they had received for the holidays. I, however, remained quiet.
"What'd you get, Evelyn?" Felicity, a girl that I had known since elementary school turned to me. She had a troubled past, to say the least but I still mostly enjoyed spending time with her.
"Ah… well, I got seasons three to five of Hetalia…" I replied.
"Sleepover at Evelyn's house!" Sasha, my girlfriend, hooted. "Binge watching Hetalia and prank calling people, oh yeah!"
I snorted. "I don't know about that…"
My other friend, Wisteria, said nothing, and held a straight-faced expression. She never really talked about what other people did or got, unless it was to complain.
I turned back to the worksheet we were supposed to be working on, and which I had doodled all over. There was a cat, a small England, a bird… Yeah, you get the idea.
"I got the Hetalia manga," Wisteria said suddenly. "You all can read it once I'm done with it."
I simply nodded. I didn't really like to borrow other people's books, unless they were from the library, as a rule. I didn't enjoy lending out my own, either.
"Awesome!" Felicity grinned. "I get it first!"
Sasha huffed and gave Felicity a certain gesture.
As I turned back to my math work, my mind floated back to the phone call from the winter break. I had turned the idea of telling my "squad" about it in my head a couple times. But, I had some suspicions, and for once, I wanted to keep this particular piece of knowledge to myself.
