Chapter 25: Sig & Lagnus: Considering the Call by warelander

One could only guess how often Sig had already tossed his ball against the wall he was facing.

Sitting in his office chair, within the confines of his room, Sig kept up the routine. Toss the ball, catch it on the rebound, and repeat.

He barely moved another muscle and the expression on his face was blanker than usual. Normally, his free-time once he finally got everything school-related over with, was a cause for celebration. A time to take care of his bug collection, chat it up with a friend, or just chill.

Today though his mind was fully occupied with other thoughts. Even when he did try to distract himself, a certain memory came right back to reel him back in.

"Siiiig!" The genie called out.

The boy raised his head. "Hi…, Jaan." He said while looking at the shaking and whimpering Yoko, as did Lagnus, Marvett, and Rabbie.

"I wanted to show you Yoko has really changed."

"I, uh, saw." He awkwardly responded.

(...)

"Sig's cool!" Jaan immediately replied. "Please, Sig?" She asked nicely while holding Yoko's hand up for shaking.

"Name's Sig."

"Y-Yo-Yo-Yoke… Y-You already know… I want to go home…"

Sig finally stopped tossing his ball. Letting it bounce to the other side of the room. He leaned back into his chair, directing his gaze at the ceiling as if hoping it would tell him something he wanted to hear.

As much as he tried, he couldn't stop the same images from flashing in front of him again and again.

He saw Ess, getting wedgied to the flagpole.

He saw Harpy getting booed by everyone while on-stage.

He saw all the destruction that Harpy's outburst caused.

And he saw Yoko, the girl that, despite everything, made an effort to start over again.

Sig sighed. He wasn't getting anywhere like this, just by himself.

''I need to talk to someone...'' He mumbled to himself, reaching for the desk behind him to grab his phone.

The question was, who to talk to?

On top of his contact list was none other than Arle. Without thinking, Sig put his thumb on her name, before just barely stopping himself from swiping.

''I can't.'' He thought to himself- Trying to lean on her for support was hardly productive to what Hilda, Marvett, and Dalida were trying to help him with.

Dalida was next. She and Marvett were out to a family meeting today, so those two were out as well.

Hilda...was also a pass. Sig never called her as much as he would have liked to. Odds are that she was on the hunt for a part-time job again and Sig didn't want to be a nuisance to her.

Next was Jaan. A part of Sig wanted to call her but chose against it after all.

''Don't wanna let her down...'' He thought to himself. The last thing he wanted was to make it seem like he was possibly not going to honor Jaan's request.

The last friend on his contact list was Lagnus. Hey, yeah, that didn't seem like a bad idea. Sig swiped his name on the touchscreen, waiting for his buddy to pick up.

''Hey man, what's up?'' Sig could hear his friend inquire.

''Not much. For you?'

''Just enjoying what freedom I have. Who's idea was hours worth of homework anyways?''

''The teachers, I guess.'' Sig said. shrugging his shoulders.

''I swear, they sure act like they get the plug pulled after school hours!'' Lagnus ranted almost more to himself than to Sig.

''You ever see the teachers outside of school?'' Sig dryly replied, unknowingly making Lagnus shiver.

''Don't remind me of that time me and my mom met Coach Satan at the grocery store. It was weeeeeird.'' The sheer awkwardness of that thought made even Sig cringe a bit.

While Lagnus still shivered to himself, Sig felt a desire to cut the chit-chat and get to the main point. He needed to get this out.

''Lags...what do you think of Yoko?'' The sudden subject change caught Lagnus off-guard.

''Amazed how much she changed, it's gonna be better for her too.''

''You think so?''

''Yeah. I mean, aside from the singing she seems alright.''

Sig couldn't argue that. Jaan wouldn't be sticking up so much for her if she was secretly nasty or something. Even so, that wasn't his big concern.

''I was skeptical too after that outburst, but you saw her.''

''Yeah...'' Was all Sig could say. Those images of how she looked at him returned full force, making him even more uneasy about how uncertain he was.

''Is it because Jaan wants you two to be friends?''

''Sorta- Not that I don't wanna be friends, but...how do you come back from that?''

''The outburst?''

''Everything.''

Lagnus thought to himself for a bit, creating a sudden silence between the two childhood friends. He was wondering about that too and a part of him was still biting his tongue, to try and not bring up the singing again.

''You know, the best thing to do would be to talk to Har-uhm, Yoko herself.''

''Probably. Yeah.'' Sig agreed, it was the obvious answer after all.

''I get it. It's all so sudden and you don't want to let Jaan down either. Just talk it out and go from there.''

''I should. I'm just nervous, is all.'' The bug enthusiast admitted, rubbing one of his arms on impulse.

''It's gonna be fine and you know me, Arle, Marv, and Hilda got your back no matter what.''

Sig couldn't help but smile a little at that declaration, being reminded of his friends was always a good way to snap Sig out of his funk, when he was feeling lost and afraid.

''I do. Thanks Lagnus.'' He thanked his friend, genuinely feeling a bit better about the situation.

''Say, I gotta take care of some stuff real fast, but how about we meet on Discord in half an hour and play some Virtual Brawler? To get your mind off of things?''

''Sounds good. I'll be there on time.''

''Looking forward to winning!'' Lagnus cheekily ended the call with, which Sig chuckled at too. Not that he didn't have the better track record though.

Sig could feel himself ease up a bit. He knew what he had to do, but that didn't make him any less nervous about it.

For now, though, that was another day. All Sig wanted to do now was get ready for some quality online gaming with his pal.

After all, tomorrow was going to come soon enough…

To be continued

Authors' Notes:

WARE: And thus, in a low-key manner, Season 2 of the fic is here. We got plenty of plans and I am very excited for many things that are to come in this season.