Reala Again

Chapter 3

By the time Claris answered Elliot's text about meeting with him, he was in the middle of Psychology class. It wasn't until 12 in which Elliot saw the text and was able to answer it. They decided to meet at five, since it was after Claris' work, and after Elliot's Memoir's class. Elliot has read the chapters to the book for the class. He didn't like it too much since he didn't know too much about Malcolm X, but his professor promised him that the conclusion will have Malcolm X have a great epiphany and will wrap up the book nicely.

Perhaps Elliot should write a memoir about finding himself like Malcolm X did. It's just that Elliot hasn't come up with his epiphany yet. Elliot sat in the hallway waiting for his professor to get to class. He saw Tony.

Tony gave Elliot a wave, "Hey, Elliot, did you get the email from the professor? He was sick."

"Oh," Elliot stood up, "explains why no one was here."

"So, I saw that drawing you drew in a dream last night," Tony mentioned, "only he looked nice and told me that I should tell my parents about my gayness."

"Was ze purple?"

"How did you know?"

"Lucky guess."

Elliot scratched his head; he never knew that NiGHTS visited other people in dreams. Although Reala did talk about NiGHTS helping other kids defeat Wizeman. Elliot guessed that Tony was the next dreamer to be helped by NiGHTS. Elliot sure hoped this would be a positive impact. "So, since class is cancelled, want to study in the library together?"

"Sure, the professor said to read the next five chapters in the email." Tony told Elliot. Spoiler alert, Malcolm goes to jail."

"For drug use?" Elliot asked.

"No, for burglary." Tony explained, "The trial was racist about the whole thing."

Elliot went to Grinders where he saw Claris with an apple. He wondered what the apple was for, perhaps a reference for Claris' art.

"Look Elliot, I drew another tattoo," Claris showed Elliot a butterfly on the apple, "since apples have skin, I can practice with the pen without any permanent damage on a human." Claris was an apprentice for a tattoo artist. A member of Claris' band was a tattoo artist who took Clairs as an apprentice when she saw Claris' work. Claris wasn't a girl for school. She often goofed off until the last minute and got bad grades because of it. She worked at McDonalds for a few months, but didn't really like working there. Claris was laid off because she was still in high school, and they had applicants who were in more dire situations. Claris went to her band, and one of them worked at the coffee shop; Grinders and the other was a tattoo artist. Claris got jobs with both of them. Claris smiled at her apple, "I'm pretty good at it too. I can't wait to try another apple to practice."

"So are you going to have tattoos all over your body?" Elliot asked, "That would make you look cool."

Claris stuck out her tongue, "Since you'd prefer me with a lot of tattoos, I won't!"

"Right," Elliot muttered to himself, "Since you won't dye your hair blonde or get a nose piercing because I suggested it."

"I might," Claris wiggled her tongue around, "I just won't do anything because you told me to."

"Right, since you told me to continue dying my hair, but it's as black as night now," Elliot felt his hair. He used to bleach it and dye it blue. He often had blue hair in his dreams, but he liked his natural color to keep professional for college. Of course Madison's hair is purple, but ze is probably someone who will always have fun colored hair.

"So you better get some of that foamy hazelnut coffee." Claris looked at the counter as the two baristas were talking. "Although I heard this café has toffee now. Maybe you should get a pump of that with your hazelnut."

"Did you order yours like that?" Elliot asked.

Claris shook her cup, "that's what's inside."

Elliot ordered his Cappuccino with hazelnut and toffee and got it quite quickly. Elliot came back to Claris' table and mentioned, "So I'm going to GSA tonight."

"Gay Straight Alliance?" Claris gasped with excitement, "I missed those things in high school; it was the best part of school in general."

"Want to come with? I don't think anyone would mind if an outsider came to a meeting."

Claris squealed, "It will be like old times."

The meeting room had a series of chairs set up in a circle. Madison was there with a short girl making a knot bracelet with purple, pink, and blue strings. There were a group of guys talking to each other about the Gamecube. Elliot liked video games, and the Dreamcast wasn't doing so well so Elliot was thinking of getting another system. Elliot came up to the guys to ask some questions.

Yet Claris came up to someone else, "Madison! I knew you'd be there!" Claris gave Madison a hug.

Madison blushed really hard she faced the girl next to her and said, "This is Claris, she spunky girl in my band."

"Yeah, I'm pansexual like Madison!" Claris explained.

Elliot was hearing Claris as he talked to the guys about these new consoles. Elliot felt kind of silly for not recognizing the leader of the GSA as the bass of the band. The purple hair and the blazer were recognizable.

Tony walked into the room and approached Elliot, "I see you're here already."

Madison then called for the meeting, and everyone sat down on the circle of chairs. "So we have some new members today. We have Tony, Elliot, and Claris."

"Well, I'm just visiting, I don't go here," Claris said.

"I'm helping out my buddy here," Elliot exclaimed, "but I'll stay around since you guys are cool."

Tony looked down, "I just realized that I'm gay. I told my parents earlier and they were totally cool with it. They're just worried about me never getting married."

"Don't be so sure," the girl making the bracelet said as she mentioned the state where they live, "Massachusetts is Gay Central with how Boston is and everything. Massachusetts will probably be the first or second to have gay marriage. It's only a matter of time and energy from our protests."

"I'm so going to Boston once I graduate," said one of the guys, he was skinny with a pair of thick glasses "it also has a better game community."

"You play sports?" Tony asked the boy.

"If you count Unreal Tournament," the boy shrugged, "but I love NBA Jam."

"I love NBA Jam!" Tony smiled, "that's what got me to play basketball."

"You're awfully open minded," the boy laughed, "maybe you should teach me!"

Gosh, it seems like Tony is hitting it off with that guy. It wasn't flirting, but Elliot knew it could turn into something more. Elliot looked at Claris who was eyeing Madison. There seemed like a conflict of interests. It wasn't like Elliot feared loneliness, Elliot just feared uncertainty.

Elliot was in a building with artwork on the walls that are similar to Elliot's drawing style. There was a tap on Elliot's shoulder and Elliot looked back to see the usual red and black jester. "Oh, hi!"

"So I was talking to Jackle in Nightopia," Reala mentioned, "ze has seemed to have interacted with Claris which is why ze quit being a nightmaren."

"You think you're going to rebel if you talk to me too much?" Elliot asked, worried.

Reala shook hir head, "not at all. Jackle got too connected to Dreamers after talking to Claris. I like seeing them in pain. I just know I can get connected to you, because I can't give you the anxiety that I usually do."

"That's settling," Elliot was of course sarcastic. He looked at the walls of the walls. They looked kind of like comic books. Elliot read a lot of Archie comics in his early to late teens. That would include to Sonic the Hedgehog comics. Elliot had felt a connection to comics. They made a lot of story that wasn't there before.

"Do you want to draw comics?" Reala asked.

"Gosh, I don't know what I even want to do, I wish I did know."

"Well, do you have artistic visions of work like Claris does?"

"No."

"Do you want to make a lot of money?"

"Not really."

"Do you want to help people?"

Elliot paused. Maybe he did want to help people. Elliot wanted to help Tony with his sexuality and to get a boyfriend, even if it made him jealous. Elliot wanted to help Claris with his dissatisfaction with her last job, but couldn't. Elliot guessed that he wanted to help people. Just how would that equate to other majors?

"Well, Good Morning."

Elliot woke up. It was Wednesday, and Elliot had German class pretty soon. After German was Drawing. Elliot suddenly thought about his psychology class, and if psychologists can do art in a way. Elliot guessed he can't do art and help people at the same time. This makes choosing a major even harder.