I don't wanna be your friend

Chapter 13

It was crazy, that is what it was, and Cedric's mind muddled with steady comprehension settling in him as he observed the masses of people running all around while he sat inside his car— with his palms resting on the wheel and his lips parted slightly ajar.

It was insane; his mind came to the same conclusion again as his eyes continued to keep drinking in all the details around him, and it was insane to watch so many cars and bikes parked in their large school parking lot, which now seemed so congested, and to watch so many people looking like they all belonged to some small cult—every single one of them looking so hyped up.

There were so many faces Cedric couldn't recognise that he had to squint his eyes to a distance to find at least one familiar face and erase any repeated doubts about those hallucinations finally kicking in and leading him to drive into a strange place by mistaking it to be his school.

But when he saw Tamara going around to the people entering in or getting out of their cars— still distributing the posters she gave everyone at lunch just the day before— Cedric left a little relieved to know that he was still not too deep into the effects that had been slowly taking over his sanity.

Still, there were many things that started to make him feel out of place as he looked down at himself; and if Cedric gave much attention to that thought, he'd realise that he doesn't remember the last time he felt like he belonged somewhere— it was a persistently lingering feeling that refused to let go of him these days. But the sight in front of him urged him to put aside all of his petty thoughts for now and observe it.

There was definitely some sort of dress code—or something similar to those terms— that Cedric was not informed about. It was easy to spot the similarities that all people had amongst them— like all of them had an unspoken understanding with each other.
And Cedric was trying to understand why almost 80% of them were sporting a thunder or crack like tattoo on their forehead, right above their right eyebrow— which was clearly drawn with a marker or a pen— like... Harry Potter? That made Cedric frown in confusion.

And there were a few people who were flaunting other painted tattoos as well, and those Cedric didn't have to try hard to comprehend. Few of those people had small Rainbows painted on their cheeks— representing LGBT pride flags; few others had their cheeks painted with a small flag in the colours pink, purple and blue— which Cedric identified as bisexual representation; he observed two or three people whose flags were coloured in light blue, light pink and white— Cedric knew that it was the transgender flag; but he couldn't identify what the black, grey and purple flag represented— that he observed was painted on one of the girl's cheeks, along with a few other flags that people had painted.

It was crazy, insane and wonderful to watch the representation of diversity presented in front of his sight, but he snapped out if his amused thoughts when his phone dinged with a message from Raelynn— saying she and Alfred were waiting for Cedric near the entrance of the auditorium. Sighing and pocketing his phone, Cedric got out of his car and made his way through the crowd of people— who's ages seemed to range from 13 to 24, but Cedric also remembers seeing a man in that crowd who appeared to be in his mid-thirties and sporting the same thunder tattoo on his forehead.

When he met up with Alfred and Raelynn—who were patiently waiting for him— Cedric took a breath in relief when he noted that even they both resembled him— with no tattoo on their forehead, and tried to enquire about it to sate his curiosity.

"So you both didn't know about the dress code as well", Cedric started by saying that, and Raelynn frowned at him, but it was Alfred who replied to him.

"What dress code?" Alfred blinked at Cedric, clueless.

"Hmm", Cedric slightly moved his dark blond hair back and innocently drew an invisible thunder-like symbol on his forehead with his finger, trying to convey his message through his action than using words because he was afraid it would make him seem oblivious to his surroundings.
But somehow, the result was the same as he observed both Alfred and Raelynn looking at each other and sighing in obvious disbelief.