After all the limping I finally made it back to my dorm and struggled to lift myself into bed without hurting myself more.
"I swear, if I ever get a shot at revenge against that guy, I'm taking it," I groaned to no one.
"Terrance, finally, you're back," I heard Melony's voice come out of nowhere.
"M-Melony?" I called for her.
"I'm right here," She materialized right above me hovering straight over me.
"Ah!" I shield myself incase she fell.
"Don't worry, I got good news, I found most of Endora's classes!" She landed next to the bed and took out a folded piece of paper, "I wrote them all down so I wouldn't forget," she handed it to me, "go on, read it,"
I sat up and unfolded the note. As Melony said it was a list of classes, there were a few time gaps. Probably because Endora was good in losing herself in the crowd and Melony probably lost her one too many times.
"She was a tough one to keep up with, but at least you can meet her at those places," Melony sighed with relief.
"Thanks," I said, returning to the note and skimming over the classes again. None of them were appealing, well except for the fact that she had combat training the same time as me and with the same instructor, Olero.
"Holy crap! Endora had combat training with me and I hadn't noticed her?" I though about the setting back in the combat room again.
"…Well of course I didn't notice her, we were all in that stupid looking armor," I kept my laughter on the inside.
"Yeah, I wanted to say 'hi' to you but I could see you were too busy shooting stuff," Melony grinned at me.
"It's okay," I was still holding my crotch.
"I also saw that you got…" She stifled giggled before she finished her sentence," shot in the balls," Her hilarity broke free.
"Yeah… What teacher does that?" I ignored her laughter.
"Well I gotta admit, that's pretty mean, but… at the same time really funny," she refused to stop her amusement.
"Oh come on, it's not THAT funny, it hurts like a-"
"I'm sorry, anyways, after I saw that, I whipped up an ice bag for ya," She pulled it out from behind her back and handed it over to me.
"Thanks," I instantly placed it over the pain.
"Just no peeing in it if you have to go, I don't want to have to start potty training you again,"
"Hey, That's only because I didn't know where the bathrooms are, cut me some slack!"
"Okay, Okay, I was just messing with you," Melony lightly groaned as her amusement finally came to an end. I fell backwards back in bed, sighing with the relief of the ice numbing the ache. I was pretty much imagining paradise right until I had a visitor knocking a few seconds later.
"Oh who is it this time?" I grumbled, tossing the ice pack onto the bed. Getting out of bed, I tried my hardest not to walk like I really had to pee. Melony vanished as I pasted her and opened the door.
"Hey Terrance, how was your first day of classes?" Nathaniel welcomed himself in.
"Painful… I'd rather not talk about it," I closed the door and sat back down in bed.
"Okay," Nathaniel didn't mind. I placed the ice pack back onto the pain, and of course Nathaniel eyed it up briefly and immediately shied his eyes away when he realized what he was staring at.
"Yeah, don't ask," I felt a little embarrassed.
"I wasn't," Nathaniel shook his head, "Anyways, I got you that data on Endora you wanted, I sent it all in an email."
"Oh, Thanks!" I exclaimed. It was good to hear some positive news for once.
"Don't mention it… To anyone, I had to pull some strings in order to get that information, luckily I wasn't caught," Nathaniel boasted.
"Well I really appreciate it!" I would have gone up to hug Nathaniel, but I couldn't afford to remove the ice pack just to walk again.
"I know, I can tell easily by the look on your face," Nathaniel let out a small chortle. I couldn't help but join in and let out my own laugh.
"Not to change the subject but…" I had to change it, I wouldn't be able to focus at all if Endora was on my mind, "Is it strange that my only class is combat training? Don't you think that I should have more classes?"
"…Well, not if they're selecting you to enter the militia," he shrugged.
"So you're saying they're putting me into the army… To fight more of my own kind?" Nathaniel nodded.
"Uh-huh."
"But… I just can't do that, I'd become what I hate the most. I mean I like being here, but I won't stand for doing what I hate… Nathaniel… Can't you pull strings to get me out of this one?" I begged without dropping to my knees.
"I… I wish I could," Nathaniel hesitated, "but even my power doesn't go that far, I'm sorry Terrance,"
"But Nathaniel, I just can't, I-"
"I never said you were going into the militia anyways. There might be a great chance that you will, but who knows, you might become lucky, either way in fact. I hear that sours in the militia get to see the sky. Knowing you, the sky might have been something you've only got to see once, and craved to see it again. Think about it, the sunlight, moonlight, the clouds, I'd gladly give anything up to see something like that again," Nathaniel rambled with his head in the clouds.
"I was almost blinded by the sun, I don't think I want to see the surface world anytime soon," I admitted.
"It was just a suggestion to keep you on the bright side," his joyous mood died.
"…Thanks, I guess," I fell back down in bed and fidgeted around with the ice pack to get it comfortable.
"I better get going. And you should check your email, it might put you in better spirits," Nathaniel informed me as he let himself out, not forgetting to close the door behind him.
"You never told me they were readying you for the militia," Melony popped back into view.
"That's because I didn't know, and Nathaniel never said I was going into it, he only strongly hinted at it," I cleared up Melony's confusion.
"Well maybe joining the militia will increase your chances of escaping, since you're outside, or what you like to call, the surface world," Melony sat down on the edge of the bed.
"…Maybe it will," I thought about it for a few seconds before I sat myself up.
"Melony, could you grab me my laptop please?" I requested.
"Sure,' she complied willingly and retrieved my laptop from the desk, "you gonna check your email?" Melony asked.
"Yeah, I need to see what Nathaniel dug up about Endora, maybe it'll help me understand her more," I threw aside the ice pack and took the laptop, placing it on my lap.
"Awh, someone's in love," Melony mocked, sticking her tongue out at me.
"So? What's wrong with that?" I raised an eyebrow at her feeble ridiculing.
"Nothing, it's just I never seen you so interested in a girl before… Even if it's a girl I don't approve of,"
"Approve of? What are you? My mother?" I powered up the laptop.
"No, but I AM your guardian angel, I'm just looking out for you Terrance" Melony sat next to me and embraced me with her arms, "I really care about you Terrance, I don't want to see you get your heart broken."
"Don't worry, if anything, I think I broke her heart," I logged in and gone straight to my email as Melony let me go.
"Hmm," she hummed and watched me work the laptop.
"Here it is," I said, gazing at the only unread message there.
"Well read it, I wanna see what this Endora is really like!" Melony rubbed her paws in a sinister fashion.
"I'm getting to it, geez, hold your horstachios," I rolled my eyes.
"Since when was Melony so obsessed with a girl?" I wondered as I clicked on the message link.
The message read: "Hey Terrance, I found a gold mind of information on Endora, just download the files I attached below and all the information on Endora you wanted is yours."
I gulped at the many files that were attached with the email. There had to be around thirty or forty files there.
"Stalker much Nathaniel?" I kept my laughter in my thoughts.
"What are you waiting for Terrance?" Melony pulled me back from my imagination, "download them already!"
"Okay!" I shouted. The files didn't take too long to download. If anything it took around three minutes to download and locate the files. I clicked on the first one and read over basic information about Endora. Where she originally lived, age, hair color, parents, gender, and such. Most of it was about Endora physically.
"Nothing bad so far," Melony spoke, but I ignored what she said as I moved on to the next file. This one explained everything from her grades in this school to her behavior in it. Everything was exceptionally well… Well except for combat training that is.
"She must have been one of the cowering trainees when the targets decided to shoot back," I kept my amusement hidden.
"Still, so far so good," Melony mentioned. However the next few files were her journal entries, starting from the first day here. I checked the last file to see if it was just more journaling, unfortunately I was correct. It seems her latest entry was yesterday, nothing more after that.
"Seems this is all we have on her," I sighed.
"Why are you disappointed? Terrance, this diary probably holds her deepest secrets, stuff that she tells nobody, nobody but her diary!" Melony exclaimed.
"…And?" I wondered what snooping would get me.
"And, that she might have written about you, and the best part is that she can't catch you reading nor do a thing about it. Go on Terrance, read the last note she made!" Melony pressured me and I finally broke.
"I… I guess it won't hurt to peek at it," I scrolled down to the final entry and read it to myself.
"Good boy," Melony patted me on the head, but I felt rotten for putting my nose in something personal.
"Why do I do everything wrong? I had to open my big mouth and talk bad about Nathaniel (I mean, who likes him anyways?), and eventually it led to Terrance getting insulted… By me! I almost had him. He was almost mine, and then I hurt him, I drove him away."
"That's not true…" I murmured to myself.
"I couldn't help but run back to my room crying like a baby, and worst, having no one to come back to. As I've typed so many times before, these years have been cold and making friends here is impossible. I was so close to being Terrance's friend, but if it wasn't my perfect academic scores that made him hate me, it'd be my big mouth that would."
"But I didn't hate her for the comment she made, I've seen Pranvera do much much worse," I mumbled.
"And to add insult to injury… I find out that I'm already too smart for one of my classes, so they taking out Advanced Calculus and putting me into this garbage called Combat Training! I found this crap out when I checked my email messages. It's so dull just receiving email from the damned administrators. I wish someone else would email me for a change… Oh, what I would give just to have one true friend…"
"She sounds so miserable…" I shook my head in disbelief.
"So what are you gonna do about it?" Melony asked me.
"I'm going to fix that, I'm going to search the previous two files, I think one of them held her email address, I might as well send her something," I smiled at the laptop screen as I began searching.
"Well good luck," Melony flopped back into bed and started to hum to herself.
Finding the email address was a snap, it was near the beginning of information in the second file. With the needed information found, I immediately brought the emailing website back up and composed an email for Endora.
"What to type, what to type," I hesitated, not know what to say.
"Just say 'hi' if you can't think of anything," Melony suggested with a chuckle.
"That's too bland, I want to write something she has no choice but to reply too!" I responded.
"You better start thinking up a message then," Melony hushed herself soon after.
"Hmm," I fiddled my thumbs around trying to come up with something.
"Hey Endora, maybe we got off on the wrong foot, I just want to tell you that I'm not mad at all for what you said. … And even if you still don't want to see me again, you'll always have a friend in me. -Terrance,"
I clicked the send button and hoped and prayed she'd answer back. It was then I was struck by curiosity to read more of her journal entries.
"I… I can't. That'd be completely rude," I fought against my lust for knowledge. Unfortunately, I ended up losing the battle and found myself reading her journal from the beginning. It all seemed natural at first; Endora's fear running wild during her first days here after being ripped apart from her home. How she really missed her parents and grieved over their deaths from the merciless sours, I ended up shedding a few tears as well as I read through that one.
"I wonder what my long lost parents were like," I pondered the thought briefly, but I stopped after I realized there was still so much left to read.
The next few parts of the journal explained how she had warmed up to the place. She described how nice the teachers were… or weren't, about how her grades were, and how it was so had to make friends. From here on out most of the entries were either angry, angst-ridden, or sorrowful depending on how her days went.
"But it always could be worse, y'know," I replied to the entry in my head, "you could've been killed by the sours… At least they've given you life here."
Then I happened upon an entry that had dealt with Nathaniel. Apparently Endora tried befriending him once before, however as stated by Endora, "I think Nathaniel sees me more as enemy that's standing in his way to glory than anything. It's hard to believe that someone else who's aspiring and achieving higher than me still refuses to be my friend," I shook my head.
"That doesn't seem like Nathaniel at all, he was all warm welcoming and lighthearted when I met him… Unless, what Endora says is true, and he's only talking to me because I've lived my whole life underground? What if he was trying to use me for something? Something he wouldn't be able to do with another student… It seemed somewhat abnormal for him to be doing something like that. But him… Out of all the piñatas that were here that had the chance to come visit me, him. And with his abilities, he gave me almost everything I've asked for," my head started to ache with a sharp pain. Could Nathaniel really be the enemy? Or is Endora messing with my head? Or is NATHANIEL messing with my head?
"The pain, I need to stop thinking, oh.. Who to trust, who to trust? Pain… why won't it stop?" I began to sob uncontrollably.
"What's wrong?" Melony yawned and looked at me.
"I don't know who to trust anymore Melony," I cried as Melony took the laptop out of my paws and set it back on the desk.
"Terrance, you can trust me," she bushed my hair out of my sight and wiped away my tears, "I could never lie to you," she took both of her paws in mine held them there.
"Melony… I know I can trust you, it's just… Nathaniel… I don't know if I can trust him anymore. He seems like such a nice person, but according to Endora, Nathaniel isn't all what he seems. Melony what should do, who should I trust?"
"Terrance, I think you should get some rest. Sleep on it, then decided what you should do, because I don't know what do to,"
"Well there's maybe one thing you can do," I said, hatching an idea.
"What?" Melony perplexed what I was going to make her do.
"Next time Nathaniel comes over, follow him. See where he goes and who he talks to, make sure to write the piñatas and the places down," my headache started to ease up slightly.
"Sure, I can do that Terrance," Melony grinned and laid me down in bed, "but first you should get some sleep, you've been looking at that laptop for hours," she dimmed the lights and I thought over what Nathaniel really might be made of.