Chapter 3: Meeting a College Friend/Failed Attempts
After leaving the house, Ian and Alana stopped to get breakfast at Burger Shire. After making their order and getting their receipt, they went to sit down and wait. As they sat down, another elf named Gaxton was looking at their sweatshirts.
"Hey, go griffons.!" Gaxton said to Ian and Alana.
"What?" Ian asked him in confusion.
"You two go to Willowdale College?" Gaxton asked, referring to the sweatshirts that Ian and Alana were wearing.
"Oh, no. These were our dad's." Alana explained.
Then, he saw the last name written on both of the sweatshirts.
"Lightfoot? ... Wilden Lightfoot?!" he asked.
"Yeah." Ian answered.
"You're kidding. I went to college with him.!" Gaxton said.
"Really?" Alana asked.
"Yeah.!" Gaxton answered before his expression turned to feeling sorry. "Boy, I was so sorry to hear that he passed away."
"Yeah, thanks." Ian and Alana said in unison.
"You know, your dad was a great guy.! So confident. When he came into a room, people noticed.! The man wore the ugliest purple socks every single day.!" Gaxton said as he laughed at the memory.
"What, why?" Ian and Alana asked in unison as they smiled.
"Hey, that's exactly what we asked. But he was just bold. I always wished I had a little bit of that in me." Gaxton told them.
"Yeah." Ian and Alana said in unison.
"Wow, we never heard any of this about him before.!" Ian said.
"What else do you remember-" Alana started but was interrupted when a preteen elf said 'Dad' from behind them with a food bag in his hand.
"Oh, sorry, gotta get this guy off to school. Hey, it was nice meeting the two of you." Gaxton said.
Ian and Alana shook his hand.
"Yeah, you, too." Ian and Alana said in unison.
As the twins watched Gaxton leave, they remembered what he said.
"Bold." Ian and Alana said in unison.
After Ian and Alana got their breakfast, they started on their way to school. They sat down on a bench in front of the school to eat their breakfast. As they finished up, Ian and Alana started working on a list labelled 'New Us'. Then, they put the things to do on the list. After they were done making the list, they started walking towards the entrance of the school, ready to do the things they had on their list. (BTW, Ian and Alana have the same classes together, so they're never separated)
As Ian and Alana got to their first class, they noticed that a troll had his feet on their desks.
"Hey, uh, Gorgamon. Um… Would you mind not putting your feet on our chairs today?" Ian asked.
"Sorry, guys. Gotta keep them elevated. It gets the blood flowing to my brain." Gorgamon said.
"It just makes it a little harder for us to fit in there." Alana said.
"Well, if I don't have good blood flow, I can't concentrate on my schoolwork. You guys don't want me to do bad in school, do you?" Gorgamon asked.
"Uhh... No." Ian and Alana chuckled.
Then, they sat down at their desks, feeling a bit uncomfortable. Ian looked at his sister with a cringed look, and Alana looked at her brother with the same expression.
Then, it was time for driving lessons.
Ian volunteered first. When Ian was on the freeway, he had to merge into traffic, but he got nervous and didn't merge. Then, he was asked to pull over. When it came to Alana to try, it ended up the same way Ian did.
Then, Ian and Alana saw the kids from their science class and decided to invite them over to their house for their birthday.
Ian and Alana were practicing on what to say. Then, they both took a deep breath, and walked over to the group.
"Hey. What's up, gang?" Ian and Alana said in unison to the group.
"Oh, hey. Ian and Alana, right?" an elf girl asked.
"Oh! We didn't know you knew our… Anyway…" Ian started.
"If you like parties, then we're, we were gonna do a party…" Alana stumbled with her words a bit.
"What we're trying to say is if you're not doing anything tonight, but we're sure you probably are doing something tonight, and you like cake like we like cake, we've got a cake at our house." Ian said.
"Are you inviting us to a party?" the elf girl said.
"That's the one.!" Ian and Alana said in unison.
"Oh. Yeah, we don't have any plans." the elf girl said and the others in the group agreed.
"Really? We guess we can just take the bus over to our house." Ian said.
Then, Ian and Alana heard tires screeching as well as rock music. They looked out at the street and saw Barley's van approaching.
"Oh, no, no, no." Ian and Alana said in unison.
"Ha-ha! Are those the birthday twins I see?" Barley asked as he stuck his head out the window of the van.
He parked in front of the school and got out.
"Behold! Your chariot awaits!" Barley said to the twins.
"Do you two know that guy?" a cyclops girl asked the twins.
"Uh…" Ian and Alana hesitated to answer.
"Sir Iandore and Lady Alana of Lightfoot." Barley shouted to them.
"Seems like he's talking to both of you." the cyclops girl said.
"Hey, Ian, Alana!" Barley called. Then, he honked the van horn.
"Hey, Barley." Ian answered.
"Yeah, we were actually gonna take the bus." Alana said.
"The bus? Nay! I will give the two of you and your companions transport upon Guinevere." Barley insisted.
"Um, who's Guinevere?" a troll boy asked.
"My mighty steed." Barley said, referring to his van. Then, the fender of the van fell loose.
"Oh. That's embarrassing." Barley said as he bent down to fix it.
Ian and Alana sighed. Then, after realizing they both smeared pen ink on their faces, they told the group that the party wasn't happening. Then, they went to the van, feeling embarrassed.
They sat down in their seats as Barley got back in the driver's seat. Then, he noticed the ink smeared on his younger siblings' faces.
"Did they write on both your faces? Here. I'll get it." Barley said as he licked his thumb and reached for his brother and sister's faces.
Both the twins stopped their older brother.
"Can we please just go home?" Ian and Alana asked in unison.
"Okay, well, we'll perform your birthday ceremony later." Barley said.
Then, Barley drove them back home as Ian and Alana felt sad about their failed attempts to try new things to be new people.