Side Story – Yulan’s Script
“MMNNH… Oh crap, I overslept again.”
Gia had only intended to lay in the shade, but he must have dozed off. Ruffling his hair, he scanned the shadows for signs of life. Nothing had changed while he was out, so the five-minute bell most likely hadn’t rung. Class didn’t appear to be in session yet. A staff member would have come looking for him if it had, and in a place like this, he would have been discovered in seconds.
“Blegh…I’m thirsty.”
He stretched his arms wide, quickly discovering that his back and shoulders ached a little. No amount of freshly landscaped grass would make the ground any more comfortable, he supposed. A bit of light stretching solved the issue, so it wasn’t serious.
More pressing was his dry, itchy throat. Come to think of it, he hadn’t grabbed a drink with his lunch today. All that food in his belly must have absorbed the water from his body.
“Guess I’ll go get something…”
Sluggishly, Gia rose to his feet and retraced his steps back to the dining hall where he’d recently purchased a mountain of food.
“Yo, can I get a drink?”
At the entrance stood a butler, to whom he directed his lazy request. He didn’t care what kind of drink it was—tap water would have been fine—but at this school, even the water was served in pointlessly ornate goblets. In the past he used to drink right from the faucet, and only stopped doing so at Yulan’s, er…violent insistence. This was an improvement. Probably.
A short while later, he received a glass full of sunny liquid. Orange juice, the butler explained. Ignoring the rest of the man’s explanation about organic this and 100 percent that, Gia took a sip. Very sweet, but light and crisp. Yeah, that’ll do. “Thanks, pal.”
Glass in hand, he turned away and felt a sharp glare pointed after him. Drinking on the go was considered poor etiquette, so nobody was supposed to do it on campus. Given that students from Sina never got the memo, it was little wonder that they were treated with disdain.
What else was he supposed to do? He needed to get back to class; he didn’t have time to stand there and listen to stupid juice trivia. Did anyone at this school care to hear it?
He tried to recall what his next class was. If it involved traveling to a different classroom, he was fairly sure Yulan would have mentioned it. Since he hadn’t, it probably meant there was another boring lecture in store for them.
I bet it’ll happen any day now…
Lately Yulan had seemed sleep-deprived and about 30 percent angrier than usual. Gia was aware he was executing some plot or another. It was all rather amusing. The boy would soon get exactly what he wanted.
“Two more years…”
Gia conceded that he’d enjoyed himself longer than he’d expected to, but the entertainment would only last a fraction of his remaining time here. He had never outright asked Yulan to detail his carefully penned script, but he could tell they were approaching the climax of the story…and once it was over, he would grow bored.
This escapade had afforded him a full year of entertainment thus far, but he was still obligated to attend school in this country for two more years. If he didn’t find something else to amuse him, he would rather risk his life jumping the border to get out of here. If he was going to die of something, he’d take a bullet to the back over boredom.
“Gah!”
He was so distracted envisioning this prison break that he missed a stair as he was climbing the staircase. Fortunately, he only staggered forward a bit before his superior athletic reflexes kicked in to restore balance. With a sigh of relief, he looked up to resume climbing—
“Excuse you.”
A low, demonic growl came from directly behind Gia, and at precisely the same moment, he realized the thing he was carrying was now conspicuously missing.
“Oops. Nice catch, Yulan.”
Liquid dripped from the other boy’s hair, soaking his jacket with a citrus fragrance. In one hand Yulan held the now-empty glass, upside down, having taken the full brunt of its contents. His pristine persona destroyed, he glared up at Gia, brimming with bona fide homicidal rage.
“I am gonna kill you.”
“Ha ha ha! My bad!”
This glib apology intensified the glare by 50 percent. Gia was genuinely sorry for it and did feel responsible, but at the same time, a guy like Gia Forte couldn’t help but see the humor in it. You’re just too funny, man.
To someone with no concept of worldly attachment, this walking personification of obsession—the boy who’d kept him amused over the past year—was fascinating. Gia didn’t care if the ending to this drama was happy or tragic, but he was dying to know how Yulan’s life would play out from here.
Nothing was fun about this country. Too much peace and harmony for his liking. But rather than while away the time lamenting his boredom, Gia had somehow found something here at school worth looking forward to every day. He could only wonder how long it would last.