Reala Again

Chapter 2

The Magic Pickle Fairy

Elliot dribbled the basketball across the court until he saw his team's net. It seemed like a whole bunch of people were blocking him. Only he saw room an open space for Tony. Looks like Tony will be taking the spotlight again for this game. He passed the ball the Tony and Tony threw the ball into the basket. The timer went to zero and the game was over. It wasn't a close game at all, but the Twin Seeds' team won again. Elliot wished the Division I team of his University won as often as his intramural team. Alas, that would never happen.

Elliot went into the locker room to put on a change of clothes. Elliot was happy that the University didn't require uniforms, he was sick of his blue collared shirt and green shorts. Elliot put on a comfortable t-shirt that says, "You Laugh because I'm Different, I Laugh because you're all the Same," on it and a pair of relaxed jeans. Elliot looked over at Tony who was putting on a Twin Seed Towers jersey and a pair of shorts. Elliot yelled over a comment, "It's getting cold Tony, put on some long pants."

Tony walked over to Elliot. Hopefully Tony wasn't offended by the comment. Tony took Elliot aside and murmured, "Hey Elliot, did you remember anything I said on Tuesday?"

"Is this about the gay thing?" Elliot asked, "Don't worry; I'm not weirded out by it. Just understand that I have a girlfriend."

"Yeah, I sort of wanted to come out to you soon, but not like that," Tony admitted to Elliot, "you're the first person I told, and I don't know much on what to do about it."

"Well, there's always the GSA," Elliot said.

"Oh, Gay Straight Alliance, yeah, I've heard of them. They dress as super heroes and hand out fliers for their events. They told me that the X-men comics could be compared to the gay right movement."

"Yeah, they seem like cool people that can give you support," Elliot smiled, "Of course, I have your back as well. Do you want me to go with you to their next meeting?"

"Well, let's figure out where and when they meet first," Tony said, "then I can tell you and we can meet there."

Elliot found himself in Stick Canyon. He didn't dream there in years since it's a dry deserty place with something being built. Elliot often found it represented the progress of his adulthood. Elliot walked around the place where he found a fully built building. Elliot never thought that this place would ever finish. At least, Elliot didn't feel like an adult yet, so why was this built? Was it built when he turned 18 last year? Elliot just didn't know.

Elliot felt a presence behind him. He looked around to see it was Reala. "I suppose you knew when to meet me again when this was built."

"Stick Canyon the REViVAl," Reala announced, "This takes a lot from your Ideya of Wisdom. It was still forming at the time of defeating Wizeman, since wisdom is not fully received until you get older."

"It seems as though I have the wisdom at this point," Elliot responded, "although I don't even know what I major in. I am far from grown up."

"The first rank nightmaren is the one who assigns the second and third rank nightmaren to the dreamers. The second rank nightmaren are the ones who come up with the nightmares. They often tell me about this, 'major,' thing with these college students. It's what school subjects a dreamer studies for the rest of their college life?"

"It also has to do with what kind of job a person wants," said Elliot, "It has to do a lot with a person's life. I first thought I wanted to get into architecture, but the math professors are jerks. I thought English would be a good one. Only that my classmates get into invalid arguments with the professor and it drives away from the books we read. At this point, I have no idea what to declare. I have a year to declare something or I will need to drop out."

"Why not drop out?" Reala asked.

"And flip burgers for the rest of my life? No way," Elliot exclaimed.

"So you may not know everything about your life, but look," Reala pointed to the building that was standing in the middle of the desert, "you're a grown up now with all the wisdom you need. You just need to use that wisdom to figure out your adult problems."

Elliot smiled. NiGHTS was also a good nightmaren for advice but Reala seemed more mature on Elliot's problems. Just then, Elliot wondered about Reala. Was ze still loyal to Wizeman? Reala has mentioned that that ze commanded second and third rank nightmaren to do things. This made Elliot curious about how the Nightmaren army even worked. Elliot also wondered what Reala was doing with him if ze wasn't doing any work. This was all confusing to Elliot. Claris said that this might be a good thing, but perhaps Reala was tricking Elliot for his Ideya. Perhaps ze's after the green one surrounding Elliot. "You're not after my Ideya, aren't you?"

Reala laughed again. It was rapid and kind of scary. "Oh, you're a sweet boy. No. If a dreamer has defeated Wizeman, they can't get any of their Ideya stolen or have nightmares." Reala tried to grab Elliot's green Ideya but it went right through hir yellow clawed hands, "Granted; only two dreamers alive have that privilege thanks to NiGHTS' current debacle. It's usually only one dreamer every fifity years. We're getting scared about the face the issue of having more dreamers defeat Wizeman because of NiGHTS. I have failed the first time to defend Wizeman, but I've been successful other times. I've learned quickly that I sometimes have to do the job myself. Although another Nightmaren rebelled and have been making things a lot harder."

"So is NiGHTS an annoyance to this Nightmare operation?" Elliot asked Reala. The whole experience with NiGHTS was the best thing to happen in Elliot's life. Elliot was never aware it gave the Nightmaren so much trouble.

"Don't worry about it; you and the girl are the only two that can't have nightmares right now. I doubt another two will slip by. Maybe in ten years or so, we'll mess up again. Or perhaps NiGHTS will give up hope and come back to us."

"I hope that doesn't happen." Elliot began to speak up, "Kids need hope to be able to accomplish their dreams. NiGHTS maybe failing often, but ze'll at least inspire these kids to do their best."

"NiGHTS does have that kind of impact," Reala just made hir comment, "whether it's traumatizing kids or inspiring them." Reala gave Elliot a pat on the head, "Well, good morning."

"What?"

The alarm beeped and Elliot woke up. Crap. Elliot has his Psychology class in an hour, that's something to look forward to for the day. Elliot rubbed his eyes and got out of bed. Elliot needed coffee with lots of cream and sugar. Elliot sure hoped that there was still hazelnut flavored coffee in dining area.

Elliot wanted to see Claris. He didn't want to go out on a date with her, but maybe go to Grinders and talk. Elliot sat at the dining area as he texted Claris with the proposition to get coffee. He drank the free coffee in his hand as he looked at the omelet that the cafeteria worker made for him. Cheese, onion, pepper with egg white. Elliot liked the yolks on eggs, but the cafeteria only had options of only whites or yolks. Cafeterias do disgustingly unhealthy stuff sometimes.

Elliot saw Tony bright and early, which wasn't common for Tony. He was already sitting, but talking to a girl with a blue blazer, grey fedora and purple hair. Elliot put his cell phone in his pocket, grabbed his omelet and coffee to sit with Tony.

"Mind if I sit with you?" Elliot asked Tony.

"Not at all," said that girl, "you must be Elliot, I'm Madison! I think we met before at Grinders."

Tony emphasized on who Madison was, "Madison is the president of the GSA, and the club you suggested I'd go to. I emailed hir and ze suggested that we'd meet for breakfast to talk things out before I got to a meeting."

Elliot took a huge gulp of coffee to make sure he heard Tony right on something, and then he recited the observation, "You used gender neutral pronouns."

"You know what those are? That saves a lot of explaining, only Claris was able to understand the concept when I first met her," Madison laughed.

"Yeah, we have a friend who is both and neither male or female," Elliot explained, he couldn't believe he told someone that wasn't Claris about NiGHTS. People will think he's crazy if they knew he had a friend he only sees in his dreams, "but anyway, when is your next meeting?"

"Tonight," Madison answered, "It's every Tuesday from 8-10."

"Great," Tony exclaimed, "and thanks for meeting with me, I'm feeling much more comfortable about my sexuality. A bit uncomfortable about my Christian parents, but I'm glad I get support here at Twin Seeds University."

Madison winked at Tony, "and if you need a boyfriend, I could set you up with one of the boys at the club. I bet plenty would like a muscular boy who plays basketball."

That made Elliot a tad uncomfortable. Not because Madison was playing matchmaker, but the thought that since Elliot had to reject him, that Tony will go for someone else. Elliot took a deep breath. No way was Elliot jealous. It was Tony that should be jealous of Claris; Elliot was the one with the significant other. "What ifs" went around into Elliot's head as he thought about these concepts.