Chapter Thirteen: Simon's Day

They went as a group down to a paintball and airsoft grounds where they paid to come in and split up in teams of two in the forest, getting ready to do battle. Simon made sure that he had enough spare pellets as he went off into the woods. They had all set their stopwatches to go off at the same time so that they could all begin at the same time. Simon had chosen Alric. None of them had been surprised. It was a bit of a joke among the group that Simon and Alric would get one day announce that they were getting married. Alric and Simon laughed along with the joke, sure that would never happen.

"You ready, Si?" Alric asked, happy to be working with Simon again. It had felt like a long time and he missed his best friend. Simon nodded as the watch bipped at them, alerting them that it was time to fight. Simon and Alric turned around and began walking through the woods together. They high fived as Alric heard a sound and Simon fired a bullet into a bush, forcing Eddie to shoot out of the bush. He shot his shotgun at them. Simon smirked and dodged the first shot as Eddie pumped the shotgun and fired another pellet, saying that they were going to get it.

Jimmy was behind a tree though. He came out and shot Alric in the back. Alric smirked and turned around, ticking off a permanent marker on his hand. Everyone was allowed to take five hits before they were dead. While they were ticking, they were considered invulnerable. Alric then lifted his handgun and shot at Jimmy, who went back behind the tree. Alric ducked just before Jimmy pulled the trigger again and attacked the brown haired boy. Alric smirked and ducked behind a rock, waiting for Jimmy to come out and look around for him. He then shot at Jimmy.

It was established that you couldn't get more than one hit in by shooting more than once. You could get one shot at a time. That evened things out for those of them who might have been a little less experienced but still wanted to participate like Adelheid. Adelheid was with Adalwin for that exact reason. Noriko had gone with Amelia. Amelia was hardly an athlete like Noriko was. But she could keep up at least if Noriko didn't run. Alric fired at Jimmy and then dodged back behind the rock while Jimmy ticked his hand off. Simon was exchanging shots with Eddie, who was not the most athletic.

Simon was wearing Eddie down a little bit at a time and finally hit him right in the chest. Eddie ticked himself off and then whistled. They both threw flour bombs down on the ground and seemed to disappear. Alric laughed as the cloud of dust rose up around them and their friends disappeared. That was so like Jimmy to use special effects. He was still such an actor. Simon had no doubt in his mind that Jimmy and Eddie, their shared passion for acting and movies causing them to work together and make those flour bombs. The two blonde haired boys cleared out of the flour and continued walking.

-0-

"Addy?" Adelheid asked, looking around. Adalwin smiled at her.

"What's up, Ada?" He asked.
"Do I really have to shoot people?" She asked sweetly. She'd wanted to be included in this. But she didn't want to hurt anyone. Adalwin hugged her and said that she didn't have to shoot if she didn't want to. But he said that the pellets didn't really hurt. There was a light sting when they hit, but that they weren't dangerous. She nodded. Adalwin looked up and saw a shadow move past them. They were being targeted.

He held Ada close to him, firing just ahead of the shadow, hearing a hiss. Noriko came out and ticked off her hand while Amelia snuck up behind him. He turned around when she stepped on a twig though and shot her in the chest. She snapped her fingers in disappointment and ticked off her own hand.
"You're pretty good." Amelia said. Adalwin nodded and told Adelheid to keep an eye on Noriko while he did on Amelia. Noriko and Amelia fled though for the time. Noriko, who knew that Amelia was less athletic than her felt that using hit and run tactics was better.

Adalwin might be able to protect Adelheid and fight at the same time. But Noriko could spearhead guerilla tactics. Hit opponents for one tick at a time. The two melded back into the woods and came across Simon and Alric next. Amelia sighed. She didn't really want to shoot Simon. She still liked him, even if they were far apart. But this was just a game. She aimed with her rifle and shot him in the back. He smiled and ticked off his hand, winking at her and shooting back at her, hitting her in the arm. He had really good aim. She was impressed. He got Alric's attention and the blonde looked around.

Although he only had one good eye, he had really good vision with that one eye. Simon said that someone in the group had hit him. He didn't know exactly who it was, but he knew the direction the bullet came from. Noriko had advised Amelia to move as soon as she fired. But she just wanted to have fun. She wasn't as competitive as Noriko was. She wanted to see just how good a shot Simon was. He was really good. Part of it was probably luck. He knew her general direction and his bullet had really more grazed her, hitting her in the shoulder. But that was still a shot that could easily have missed.

Noriko patted Amelia on the shoulder and moved on with her. Over time, all of them took shots. Adelheid got hit a few times, but nobody was keen to focus their fire on the five-year-old who just wanted to hang out with her friends. So she ultimately didn't take that many hits. Their attacks were mostly focused on Adalwin, who because he was focusing on protecting Adelheid, was shot out first. He took out Eddie and Jimmy first though. Adalwin and Eddie were taken out nearly simultaneously. They fired within the blink of an eye of each other and both got shot, putting them both out.

Adelheid asked if she could keep playing. Adalwin nodded and continued walking with her, eventually coming across Alric and Simon. Adalwin sighed. He knew how competitive they both were. He noticed that Alric had four ticks on him already though. Adalwin got Adelheid's attention and told her that she only needed to hit Alric once to tick him out. She nodded and challenged him to a duel. Alric smiled and nodded, putting one of his handguns away and said that they would just go one on one. She nodded happily and took out her gun. She wasn't a great shot. But Alric was going to let her get a shot in.

They held their guns up in the air, shook hands and then turned around and took three paces and turned around. Adelheid had seen movies where characters dueled and had always wanted to have a real duel of her own. She fancied herself a modern Calamity Jane. She wasn't nearly as good a shot. But recently, she had taken to running around in cowboy clothes and shooting people with a spring loaded airsoft gun. They'd allowed her to have a small airsoft gun that wouldn't hurt anyone or damage anything if you got hit by it. She was actually getting to be a pretty decent shot. She hit people around three out of five times.

Alric smirked, narrowing his eyes.

"Put em up, lass!" He growled playfully. Adelheid giggled.

"That's pirates!" She laughed. Alric chuckled, shrugging. They took a deep breath. Adalwin had taught Adelheid how to shoot. That she breathed in to aim and breathed out to shoot. She breathed in and then fired. Alric dodged, laughing as he fired back, deliberately missing her. She laughed as well. This was fun. She was really enjoying herself. She fired again. She was running low on bullets.

She didn't know how many she still had, but she could only have five at most. She fired again, hitting Alric in the face by accident. She shrieked as she saw him wince.

"Al! Are you okay!" She protested. Alric chuckled.
"I'm fine. I guess you win this one." He said, ticking off the final hit on his hand and going to shake her hand. She'd had fun and she'd won. She did a good job.

"Good job, Ada." He said, hugging her tightly. She hugged him back.

They went back to the main building and signed out, paying for the time they'd spent there, thanking them and heading out to lunch together. They went to a diner, ironically the same one that Sam had gone to when she had run away from home. They were seated by Dana herself.
"Hi! My name's Dana, I'll be your waitress. Can I start you off with something to drink?" The brown haired girl asked. The guys looked at their menus.
"Do you have Sprite?" Adalwin asked. Dana nodded and wrote it down. Simon ordered lemonade.

It was a pretty warm day out and it would be nice to have something sweet and refreshing. Alric ordered milk. The rest placed their orders and Dana headed back to the kitchen to put the orders in.

"She's cute." Adalwin said. Alric grinned excitedly. Adalwin had been teaching him how to count cards. He was actually pretty naturally gifted at it. Alric wanted to teach Simon how to count cards as well. Math wasn't Simon's strongest subject. But he was smart and he was good at keeping calm in potentially stressful situations. Alric knew that he wouldn't be able to though.

Unless he could see Simon every weekend. He would talk to Adalwin and his family to see if they could accommodate that. He was sure that Simon would appreciate having him over on weekends.

"So, Al… What's been going on back in Columbus?" Simon asked. Alric talked about Adalwin teaching him how to count cards.

"School's going okay. It's not the same without you though." Alric said.

"Our group isn't the same without you either. Alric and Nori have kind of become the leaders." Amelia said. Alric sighed. He was hardly the leader that Simon had been.

"But even between us, we're not you." Noriko said.

"We miss you." Jimmy said. Simon blushed wistfully. He missed them too. He wished he could just go back to Columbus. He knew that Sam needed to be here. Or rather, she couldn't go back to the city. Despite the fact that most people no doubt were accepting of gay people, Saoirse wasn't.

And Saoirse had been the one who had caused Sam's problems.

"I miss you guys too. I wish I could come back. But I can't. I'm sorry." Simon said. Adelheid seemed confused. She could tell how lonely Alric was without him. He had other friends. But Simon was the one who had helped him be happy again. Why couldn't Simon be with him again?
"Why not! You're Alric's best friend! He needs you!" Adelheid protested. Simon smiled gently.

"I know. And Alric is my best friend. But Sammy needed to leave Columbus. She couldn't stay. I don't exactly understand why Saoirse did those bad things to Sammy… But she did, and Sammy isn't safe at her school." Simon said. Adalwin had learned a bit about what had happened, and he did understand a bit. He at least understood a bit about homophobia and people hating others for their sexuality. But he had a bit of trouble understanding what would cause someone to be so violently cruel about it.

"Ada… I'll explain to you a bit about it later. I promise." Adalwin said gently. Ada nodded.

Dana came out with their drinks, passing them out and asking if they knew what they wanted to eat. Adalwin looked around. They nodded and placed their orders. Dana nodded and headed back to put the orders in. The group went back to chatting. Simon turned to Noriko. He knew that she had been working on new martial arts. She knew Taekwondo and Hapkido, both Korean forms of martial arts. But she wanted to branch out. Frankly, her parents hoped that she would attain some mastery of her two current forms before she learned a new one. But her dream was to create her own martial art style.

"Have you started on a new martial art form yet?" Simon asked. She shook her head.

"My Master gave me a quote by Bruce Lee. I told him I wanted to learn more styles of martial arts. He sat down with me and said that a lot of people liked knowing a lot of martial arts. But he said a quote by Bruce Lee. He said 'I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.' He said it was the same with martial art styles. I could branch out into Jujitsu and Karate and Ninjutsu or whatever. Or I could continue training in Taekwondo and Hapkido.

"He said neither was better or worse. It just depended on what I wanted out of my martial arts. If I wanted to be a master, then the more I focused on one or two styles, the more mastery I would get in them. Plus, I really want to combine aspects of Taekwondo and Hapkido and make my own style of martial art." Noriko said excitedly. Simon smiled. Noriko really had big dreams. He had always admired that in him.

"What about the rest of you guys? Jimmy? Anything interesting happening?"

"My sister dumped the jerk she was dating before. She found out he was a jerk to me and she dumped him." Jimmy said, sounding like he felt vindicated by that. Simon smiled. He knew that Lanie was dating a guy who was kind of mean to Jimmy and made disparaging comments to him about his appearance. Simon was happy that she'd finally seen the man for who and what he was.

"Any new opera music you're working on?" Simon asked. Jimmy shook his head. He said he was still working on music from Der Freischutz. He was enjoying working on O, Diese Sonne.

It was an incredible song and it deserved his full attention to do it full justice. Eddie smiled when Simon asked about his projects.

"I'm working on writing my own Gothic Horror play. The talent show is at the end of the year and I'm making really good progress on it. I had hoped to have you in it. But I'm gonna start doing tryouts soon. I'm not sure that I'll do well in the show. But I am hopeful." Eddie said. He explained how he had some friends who were helping him get the play written properly.

"That's great!" Simon said. He couldn't wait to see the play. Even if he only got to see a recording.

"How is your card counting going, Adalwin?" Simon asked as their food came to the table. They thanked Dana and she nodded.

"Can I get you anything else to drink?" She asked.
"Oh, just water please." Simon said. The rest of them nodded. They didn't have the money to keep buying more drinks. Dana nodded and went to get more water.

"So, how is your card counting going?" Simon asked. Adalwin smiled.

"Going well. I made about 600 dollars at various places last week. I never take any one place for too much. That would put me on the radar." He said. Simon nodded. He really wanted to learn how to count cards as well.

"Maybe you and Alric could teach me sometime to count." Simon said. Adalwin chuckled.

"Isn't that something they teach you in kindergarten? But okay… 1… 2… 3… 4…" Adalwin teased. Simon laughed.
"Alright, funny guy. I guess I have to be more specific." Simon said.
"Can you teach me how to count cards?" Simon asked. Adalwin nodded.

"I'll write down some basic lessons. Do you have a deck of cards? It doesn't have to be fancy. Just a deck that you can use to practice with." Adalwin said. Simon nodded. Erik had some decks of cards.

They finished their meals and paid for them, heading out.

"Hey, you want me to show you around town? It's a pretty nice place. There's a great arcade uptown. And this really nice park that we could go to." Simon said. Amelia smiled. Simon was incredibly sweet. She held his hand as they walked, smiling at him. It was nice to be here with him, even if it was only for a day or two.

"So, Simon… Have you made any friends here?" Alric asked. He couldn't believe that Simon hadn't made any friends. He was a little shy sometimes, but incredibly charismatic. He was one of those guys that never went anywhere without making at least one friend.

"Yeah… I've made a few casual acquaintances. And one friend. A guy named Gil. He's really nice and apparently, he's amazing at playing piano." Simon said. He hadn't heard Gil play, but he was sure that Gil was telling the truth. And he was also sure that he would hear Gil play that evening when he went over.

He was looking forward to dinner with Gil and his family. But in another way, he didn't want his day with his old friends to end. He looked over at Amelia, Alric, Jimmy, Eddie, Adalwin and Adelheid.

"I really miss you guys. I wish you could have come with me." Simon said. Alric chuckled. He was trying to convince his parents to move up to Royal Woods as well. He wasn't sure it would work. And he would miss his friends down in Columbus. But he wanted to be with Simon too. He didn't want to say anything though and get Simon's hopes up unnecessarily.

Simon took them to the arcade, where he saw the familiar head of white hair.
"Hey, Lincoln!" Simon said cheerfully. Lincoln looked over from the video game.
"Hey, Simon. I see you brought some friends. Why don't you guys join us?" Lincoln offered. They headed over and watched Lincoln and Clyde do Dance Dance Revolution. Simon was enthralled. Lincoln was really good. When Lincoln won, Clyde stepped down and Simon went up and danced against him. Simon was definitely better at Dance Dance Revolution than he was at dancing for real so to speak.

Lincoln was impressed that Simon was so good. They danced off and Simon won. Lincoln stepped down and Alric went up against Simon. Alric chose You're Gonna Go Far Kid by The Offspring and they chose Hard. They were both pretty good. Simon ultimately won. Noriko went up next. The afternoon went like that until about 4 pm when Adalwin regretfully said that they had to get going back to Columbus. They went back to Simon's house and they said their goodbyes. Simon sighed. He knew he would have a good time at Gil's house that evening. But he still didn't want to see his friends go.

He hugged his friends and especially Amelia, thanking them for coming to visit them. Alric took Simon's hand, saying that he would come again with Adalwin as soon as he could. Simon nodded and saw them out to the car. He hugged each of them one last time and then watched as they drove away.