I do not own Unordinary.

If you don't know what that is, it's a comic on an app called Webtoon. It's a lot of fun. Dark at points, with interesting build up to the current events.

And this is about current events.

The Joker

Seraphina, a formerly extremely powerful student at Wellston Academy, stood in front of the young man she had thought was her best friend. He was wearing the green uniform jacket and appeared to be reading a book. He hadn't turned a page since she'd first walked into the room, so she was certain that he wasn't actually reading.

"We need to talk," she said after a couple of minutes.

John snapped the book shut and looked up at her.

"Arlo told me everything," the pink and green haired girl said, looking down at him with judging eyes. Eyes he had seen when they first met. Eyes he had worked his ass off to change. Eyes that had gone right back to their haughty judgemental gaze.

He had briefly blamed himself. He had completely blamed Arlo. Now, he just didn't care. Today would make or break their friendship. And Seraphina would be the judge. Not him, not Arlo, not the fucking principal. Seraphina.

"Did he?" he put the book aside, looking up at her with his half lidded eyes, "Did he tell you everything?"

"Everything," Sera repeated to him, "What he did. What you did."

"Really," he placed his hands behind his head and reclined in his seat, "Regale me, then. Tell me what Arlo told you," there was a smirk on his face that didn't belong there, "Let me hear Arlo's truth."

The pink haired girl almost glared at him for a moment. There was nothing he could say that would make this right. Whatever he thought he had to convince her that he was in the right, she'd have to shoot it down.

"He got me suspended," she started, describing everything that the blonde King of Wellston Academy had done. He'd separated them. Had Isen look into John's past. Provoked him. Then John had smashed him and his to pieces and proceeded to bully the blonde boy, constantly. John had refused to protect Seraphina, preferring to keep his power secret. He'd rather watch her suffer than out himself as a powerful superhuman. How he had hampered their attempts to save Sera from a rather horrific scenario by getting revenge on Isen.

"-And then, when you stopped having a punching bag to take everything out on, you beat up the Royals under the guise of Joker, causing chaos and anarchy in Wellston. All for your revenge."

John looked at her for a few moments, then he started to clap.

"That was pretty good," he said, grinning now, "Paints me as quite the asshole. Good job, Arlo. Good job."

"This isn't funny, John!" she barked at him.

"No, it's fucking hilarious," even as he said it, a dark tone entered his voice, "It's almost everything, and I'll even forgive a few misunderstandings because he couldn't know," he stood up, "Allow me to fill in the gaps."

He leaned forward and tapped one finger on the desk between them.

"Number one," he said with a dark grin, "If I wanted revenge, they'd all be dead. Not beaten and bruised."

"But you'd-"

"I'd what?" he asked her, "Be a criminal? Yeah, I would. And If I wanted revenge, that would be worth it," he shrugged, "I guess that brings us to number two.

"Arlo is right, I bullied the ever loving hell out of him, after our little fight. Every day, every single day, I would find something else to bitch at him about. I'd seek him out at all hours of the day to scream in his face," his monotone was almost as disturbing as the look in his eyes, "When you got hurt by the people trying to take you, I tore him a new asshole for not being there. When you were out cold and they had the bitch with the healing powers over, I skewered him with the fact that he could have done better. When the students found out that you are cripple now, I wanted to cut his fucking tongue out, so I punched him. When he saw how you were being treated, and made a token cry of stop, I commanded him to do better."

"But you-" she tried again and John broke the desk in two by slamming fist into it. She practically leapt back, watching him closely now. After a second he calmed down and sat back in the chair, kicking his feet up on the broken desk.

"Yeah, I didn't help you at all, did I?" he sneered at her, "I didn't teach you martial arts. I didn't try to take those punches. I didn't use almost everything in my arsenal to make it so you'd be okay, even if I wasn't there. But that wasn't good enough, was it?" he actually growled at her, "It would never be enough. That idiot let it out that you were helpless, and then you got kidnapped. I cornered him. I commanded him to find you. I promised retribution if you were hurt. He ignored me. Told me to do it myself," he shrugged, "So, I did. Isen had a useful skill. I took it. By force. If they weren't going to help me, I'd come after you alone. I looked through the school for two days."

"I wasn't here," Sera said.

"Two days!" he growled at her, "I ran everywhere in this god forsaken building, looking high and low for you. Eventually, Cecile- not Arlo, Cecile- came to me with where you were. I must have showed up ten minutes later than the Royals did. They got you out. Good for them. I broke the people that took you. They'll never lay a hand on you again. I was almost glad that you didn't have to see me do it.

"When I got back to the school, I found out you were in the infirmary, and that was the first place I went. There, I saw Arlo and we agreed to meet up later. When we did, he told me how everything was my fault. If I had just used my power, I'd have been able to prevent you from ever being taken in the first place. I was the rightful King, I should be handling the workload. I was the most powerful student here, I should be the one making and enforcing the rules."

"He didn't tell me about that," the girl said honestly, not fully sure she believed John, either.

"I bet he didn't. He didn't want to let you know that he pulled the trigger on all this."

"Bullshit, he didn't force you to do any of this, John! You chose to create chaos! You!"

"You're right," he shrugged again, "You are absolutely right. See, I'm a monster," he sniffed loudly, looking at her from underneath half lidded eyes, "I destroy things. I don't make rules and kingdoms. I break them. I am a dog on a chain. Maybe Arlo didn't know that letting me loose would cause all this, but he still cut that chain."

"But-"

"No, really," he held a hand up to stop her, "I'm not a King. I had that rank once, but I never knew what it meant to be one. I used violence and fear, and that doesn't work. I broke my old school. I went in for re-education. My dad wrote a very iconic book. I tried to live like the character in that book. I did everything in my power to live up to the idea of not needing power to be a good person. Especially since there were so few in charge that actually were good people. For almost a year I ran around as a cripple. Maybe I was more confident because I knew I could break every motherfucker in this school, but I didn't do that. I stayed out of the game. I knew that it wouldn't be good for anybody. Then fucking Arlo wouldn't let it go, that a cripple was hanging out with the school's Ace."

Again Sera regarded him in silence. This. This she could believe. Isen had actually showed her John's old records. The things he had done. She had seen for herself what he had done to all four of the other Royals, all at the same time.

The title of Joker suited him. He wasn't a King, or an Ace, but he changed the whole game, if he was ever tapped. Tapped him, Arlo had.

"What about the other low ranks?" she asked him.

"What about them?"

"They told me that you were threatening to them. Scary even. They tried to befriend you, but you snubbed them. You didn't want to be part of the game, but you ended up hanging out with the Ace, and ignoring the little guys. A little convenient, don't you think?" she crossed her arms, waiting for him to explain this."

"There are eight cripples at this school. Nine if you count you, now," he said, "How many of them have you seen hanging out with your cute little low ranks?"

"What does that have to do with-"

"How many?"

"... none…"

"What? I couldn't hear you. Speak up."

"None! I haven't seen any of them, okay? What's the point?"

"The point is, if they were really offering a hand of friendship to people with little to no power, why didn't you see anyone outside of their little clique when you had your Martial Arts lessons? Shouldn't there be a bunch of other low tier ability users, and even at least one cripple among them? They certainly didn't latch onto the former Ace, hoping her connections to the Royals would afford them a modicum of protection. That would just be silly. They certainly didn't latch onto you, hoping that you'd get your powers back and protect them from the big, mean high tiers. That's just absurd," his smirk was nasty as he looked at her, "And they did make me an offer. They told me that if I was a good boy, they'd let me into their little group. I wouldn't be an official member, of course, but I could at least carry their drinks and books and whatever other menial tasks they needed done. And if I ever got hurt, they'd at least carry me to the nurses office, as long as I repaid them afterwards. Real good bunch, those guys. Completely trustworthy."

"What about you?"

"What about me? I already told you. I'm a rabid motherfucking dog, and my bite is a whole lot worse than my bark."

"You said you wanted out of the game. Then why did you latch onto me. Ever since that little book project you've constantly hung around me. Even when I'd told you to leave me alone to do the work at the start of it, you butted your way into my life. You used me just like those low tiers are."

"Nope."

"What?" Sera blinked at John's nonchalant answer.

"Nope."

"What do you mean by that?"

"That's not what happened."

"How in the hell is that not what happened, John?!"

"Because it's not," he stood up, "This is the final thing I wanted to tell you. After this, you have a decision to make. That book report had us paired up by chance. I wanted to do my fair share. That's all. When you brushed me off, I didn't give a fuck. I knew that if you got really violent I could stop you. But you never did. You, Seraphina, had every chance, and even more than ample reason, to accost me so I'd be out of your way. You talked down to me, sure. You called me an idiot. Treated me like a nuisance-"

"I-"

"And you went to my favorite smoothie shop with me. You listened when I said I wanted to do my fair share of the work. You heard me when I said that, just because you were the Ace, I wasn't going to let your high grade be mine without any effort on my part. You became my first honest to God friend in a long damn time. Befriending you didn't stop anything for me, either. I still got beat up, every damn day. I still had to watch my own back. I didn't say, 'Hey, Sera, buddy mine, that guy there beat me up. Why don't you beat him up for me? 'Cause we're such good friends and all.' No, I didn't do anything like that, because I didn't care what you were. I like who you were.

"With or without you, I had avoided using my power for almost a year."

"Then Arlo…" she trailed off, her eyes getting wide.

"Yeah," John sighed, "Then Arlo." He walked around the desk and stood in front of the petite girl.

They stared at one another for a moment, looking into each other's eyes, searching for something in both of them. John wanted to see if there was even a chance that she could still be his friend after this. Sera wanted to see if anything of the boy she thought she knew was actually in there.

"This is the choice, Sera," the boy finally said, "I'm a rabid dog, and I'm off my chain. I don't care about the hierarchy. I don't give a fuck about the fake Jokers. I don't give two shits about Arlo and his constant whining about the responsibility of power. I care about you. Honestly and truly. Believe me or not, that is the truth. You have to decide if we're still friends. Maybe it will make things better. Maybe it won't. There's a lot of maybes. I'll tell you one thing that won't change at all, no matter what you decide. I'm a rabid dog, I'm not meant to be King." With that, he walked away, leaving the girl to her thoughts.

That night, Sera lay in her bed, letting everything she knew about John, everything she'd been told and everything she saw for herself, wash over her mind. She ignored it when her roommate came back and briefly asked if she was okay. She wouldn't be getting very much sleep that night.

The next morning, John met her at the entrance of her building.

"I'm going to give you a week, Sera. You have seven days to make a choice. Are we friends, or not?" he looked into her eyes again, calm and controlled in a way that reminded her of the old John, "If you don't give me an answer by this time next week, I'll just assume your decision is made." He turned to walk away.

Seraphina hesitated only briefly. She rushed forward until she was walking right beside him.

"Rule number one," she said to him, confident like she was in the days where she had her power, "You never lie to me again. I don't care what it is, if I ask you a question, you tell me the truth, got it?"

John stared down at the girl, confusion on his face for a moment.

"Got it?" she asked again.

"Uh, yeah, sure. Does this mean-?"

"You keep saying you're a rabid dog," she interrupted him, looking back at the path from the dorm to the main school building, "Well, I don't think you're rabid at all, just angry. And dogs?" she looked up at him with a smirk all her own,

"Dogs can be trained."

Someday down the line, Sera and John might become lovers. They might learn to hate one another. They might build each other up, or tear each other down. They might be at one another's wedding. They might spit on each other's grave.

But right that moment? The future didn't matter.

Sera was John's best friend. John was Sera's best friend.

And the world felt all the more hopeful because of it.

"Bark. Bark," John said with a slow, easy, genuine smile. The first one in more than a month.

"Come on, you goof," Sera punched him in the arm lightly, "We have a school to clean up."