Project: Socialize

The day of the School Festival finally arrived, bringing with it a greater degree of enthusiasm and vigor to the youthful Nocsinis Imperial High School campus. The students had gathered at the school early in the morning to make their final preparations for the Saturday, and everyone seemed awfully excited with wide smiles on their faces as they prepared themselves to enjoy the Festival. To them, the preparations and working at the Festival with their friends and classmates were the fun to be had. In addition, once their shift is over, they could then walk around and enjoy the Festival themselves with friends or significant other. Therefore, what's there to complain?

There is nothing to complain about for the ordinary student. For me, there's plenty. Since I was a class representative, I was excused from participating in the preparation process for the class and working at the cafe that my class had decided to do for the Festival. In addition, since Loyd and Zaksus both had to work their shifts and Muria and Irina had to rehearse for the play that will be playing later on in the day, 5 PM to be more exact, I was left to roam the school campus alone.

Starting from the front entrance of the school, the gates were wide open and decorated to be extremely inviting. Numerous balloons were tied to a sign that stood by the opened entrance, drawing attention to the place and then there was the colorful banners and ribbons the students had tied onto the bars of the gate, making it so that the usually plain entrance became one that was particularly eye-catching. The entrance had served its purpose, drawing in numerous guests which included couples, families, and students from other schools.

The large crowd of people streamed onto the campus and I followed them. Immediately, I was greeted with the delicious aroma of food of different varieties. On either side of the main road that led to the lecture building were numerous stalls set up by the various clubs, the majority of which sold food. Walking up and down the road were also students, wearing their school uniforms due to the school rules that required all students to do so, carrying signs and calling out to attract customers to their classrooms.

All around me, people were walking in groups or in pairs at least. I seemed to be the only person walking alone. With a sigh, I continued my walk down the main road that led directly from the school gates to the entrance of the lecture building with both hands in my pockets. In my mind, I cursed the couples that came today, holding hands and feeding each other food. In addition to that, I felt somewhat irritated that everybody had someone accompanying them since it made the loner in me extremely awkward.

The wait was long and agonizing. Every single second, I was taunted by the delicious aroma of the tieg wrap that was being made not too far in front of me. In addition to that, I had to watch as the people in front of me leave the line while holding their tieg wrap and taking a large bite out of it. I always found my eyes being fixed on the tieg wrap that the other customers had bought with my mouth watering, and it took a tremendous amount of will power to force myself to look away.

"Alevian!" Zaksus exclaimed as he saw me when he had approached the front desk to deliver the finished product.

"Hey," I greeted him in an apathetic voice. We weren't particularly close, and in fact, this was the first time I spoke to him when it was only the two of us.

"Looking to buy a tief wrap?" he asked. "I'll make you an extra large one."

"Ah," I was surprised by his offer, but since it benefited me, I see no reason to decline. "Thanks."

"No problem."

He smiled brightly before he turned around and took a few steps to the griddle that wasn't too far from the front desk. He grabbed a bowl and poured in some wheat and flour. Then, he added in some water before he started mixing it. His arm muscles tensed up as he mixed the batter, showcasing to the world how muscular he actually was. On his face was an enjoying smile and he seemed to work with great enthusiasm and vitality. I didn't understand how he could have so much energy after working tirelessly for the entire morning, but I guess his endurance must be a result of his basketball training.

It wasn't long before the extra large tief wrap began taking shape. It was about 1.5 times the size of a regular wrap, and in addition, it also contained more ingredients wrapped within it. To compensate for the larger size and greater amount of ingredients, Zaksus also made sure to spread more sauce onto the wrap's skin in order to guarantee the flavor. After he had finished assembling the tief wrap, he wrapped the bottom portion of the wrap in paper before slipping the whole thing into a small plastic bag along with some napkins. Then, he approached the front of the tent with a large smile on his face as he held out the bag.

"T-thanks," I said, in awe at the size of this wrap, almost like an absolute unit to be honest. I then reached out my hand and accepted the bag, and while doing so, I reached my right hand into my pant pocket to take out my phone. I used the quick pay function on the device and brought it close to the scanner they had laid out on the table they had used as the front counter to pay for the wrap.

"See you later!" Zaksus waved at me as I left their tent and continued with my stroll through the school.

I looked over my shoulder at him, and not too long after I refocused my attention onto what was in front of me. I then glanced at the screen of my phone, taking in the price of the wrap.

50 Vil

50 Vil... that's kinda expensive, I thought as I took a bite out of my large tief wrap. But that's for them commoners though. It's not that expensive for how big mine was.

I took my time as I strolled down the road. My pace was slow due to the large crowd that was present and my interest being attracted to the different stalls present. It would appear that the Festival was quite fun for the guests that came, but that was probably because they were with someone. When an individual is in a group, his or her senses becomes dull and they cease to notice the minute flaws in things. That basically means they're too busy having fun to notice anything bad about the event. Since I'm alone, that meant I had the time and leisure to observe everything and discover any flaws in them. That's why I was reminded of how cheap certain stalls felt because the people manning it were high school students like me.

I stopped by a trash can to finish the tief wrap. I was halfway done with it already, but I felt as if my stomach was almost filled. I had spent fifty Vil on this, so I need to finish it. Therefore, I stood there and slowly chewed away at it.

While remaining stationary, I noticed students from the various clubs speaking to people that appeared to be in their last year of middle school. I believe the students were informing the middle school kids about their club and trying to get them to join. In addition to that, there were also the students carrying signs patrolling the road, trying to get as many people to their classroom as possible. They were loud in their hollers which added to the experience. Their presence, along with the many customers, provided the Festival with a bustling and lively atmosphere.

When I had finished with the wrap, I let out a sigh of relief and tossed the plastic bag and napkins into the trash can. I shook my head in disbelief at how full I was. However, half of it was me marveling at how delicious the wrap was. The sauce had submerged itself into the skin of the wrap, mixing with the eggs that coated the interior of the wrap, and providing it with a slightly sweet and spicy taste. In addition, the fresh lettuce and crunchy chips added within it gave the wrap a good crunch whenever I bite down on it. In all honesty, it was quite good.

"Alevian?"

Just as I had started walking away from where I had stood to finish the wrap and resume my stroll through the school, I was stopped by a familiar voice. It was an authoritative voice, one that I had recently heard plenty of times before. I slowly looked in the direction that the voice had originated from to discover that it had belonged to a beautiful girl with long, silver-white hair. In her ethereal amber eyes, I could sense great power and confidence that seemed to draw me in with its dazzling beauty.

"Alone?" she asked with a smile as she approached me. A gentle breeze of wind blew by, moving her hair. This caused her to reach up a hand to her hair in order to prevent it from getting into her face.

"You're..." I tried my best to recall her name, digging through my memory storage and navigating the different files I had stored in there in search of information about this girl that stood before me. "The student council president..." That was the best I could come up with since in my memories, I lacked any information on who she was beside from that.

"My name's Luna," she chuckled. "Luna Mist Frostblume."

Frostblume, it was a name that fitted her appearance almost too perfectly. That silver-white hair of hers were almost like the colors of snow that complemented the beautiful flora in her. Like a frail winter flower that remained tall and beautiful, she stood before me and exerted her beauty. It was a breath-taking sight to behold her with that pleasant countenance. It was a polar opposite to that heavy smile that she had on display during the meeting.

I realized that I was blushing for my face felt quite warm. In addition to that, I must've been staring since she tilted her head slightly out of confusion. Even then, she was still as pretty and beautiful as ever. Like an ethereal and mystical angel, a simple blink from her was enough to capture the hearts of unsuspecting boys, and maybe even that of some girls.

"Yeah I'm alone," I responded, finally caving in and averted my eyes to avoid eye contact.

Am I... am I flustered right now? I thought to myself. Was she always this pretty? I sneaked a peek at her face and quickly looked away once again in fear of getting caught staring. Oh my god... I'm really getting nervous right now...

"Where's Irina and Muria, your two companions?" she asked, looking behind me in search of the two.

"They're at rehearsals for the play by the theater club," I answered while keeping my eyes away from her in fear that I would lose my heart to her.

"That play." She nodded. "I'm actually quite excited for it as well. The flyers the school had put on beforehand had placed a heavy emphasis on this play, so you can say that it's one of the major selling points for the festival."

"It's that big?"

"You handled the finances so you should know," she said in that heavenly and mature voice of hers. "This play took up a large portion of the budgets."

"R-right." I was reminded the shock I felt when I first saw the budget requested by the theater club.

She chuckled at my odd behavior. It was a smile that I had never believed possible in humanity. It was so pure... that it seemed to cleanse away the darkness within my heart.

"Since we're both alone," she said with a breath-taking smile, "we'll walk around together."

"If that's fine with you," I responded with a slight blush.

For some odd reason, I didn't feel repulsed by her presence or her authoritative tone. I was more than willing to obey her commands. There's a certain type of people in life that you would allow them to violate your rights and make you into their servant or slave. Luna was someone like that for me.