Between Heaven and Hell

14.

Niam and Mistral had arranged to meet on Saturday morning and wanted to spend the day together. Among other things, Niam wanted to find out how Mistral was doing at school and Mistral wanted to enjoy the time with his brother.

11 a.m., Mellow Restaurant
Niam is waiting in front of the restaurant when Mistral runs up to him and hugs him. "Hey little brother," smirking Niam Mistral's hair. He grins mischievously at his brother. "I'm inviting you," adds Niam. Both enter the restaurant and are shown by the waitress to a free seat by one of the windows. When the two have sat down, she turns away to bring them a menu. "No suggestive look?", Mistral looks at his brother, something looks different about him. Niam looks so much more thoughtful than he usually is. Usually he's Mr. Charming in real life, not too bad for anything when it comes to the girls not after that ", Niam evades his brother's question. The clerk comes back and brings both of them a menu. "What do you want to drink?", She asks. "A Sprite please" orders Mistral "and a Coke" adds Niam. The clerk rushes off to follow up on her order, while Mistral and Niam study the menu.

After they have had their drinks, they give up their meal request. Niam: "Pizza with chili peppers" and Mistral: "Tortilla" (these are the two absolute favorite dishes). As they wait for their food, they start talking. "And how do you feel in high school?" "Oh, it's very nice there. The school itself is beautiful and really big. The hallways look bright, although they have been painted with blue paint. In general, there is a lot of work with paint, it is as if you were entering a second world, a world in which you can learn but it is really fun. Well, a lot of complaining all the time: I don't feel like it anymore. When is the next vacation? I can't quite understand that . And there is constant talk of the latest gossip. "

Mistral interrupts himself to take a sip of Sprite before he continues: "Some of the teachers are very special, but my classmates are by and large relatively nice." "What do you mean by special?", Niam asks him, already sounding very worried and upset too. "My class teacher seems to be a galactically big idiot." This sentence elicits a smile from Niam. "On the first day of school he gave us a presentation that made up half of our final grade. Simply crazy!" "And? Do you have to work in teams and do you already have a topic? "

Mistral doesn't know Niam that curious. "Since when have you been so interested in school?" "Well, I just care how you get along." "Oooookay", still slightly irritated by his brother's sudden change in interests, continues Mistral: "Well, we have to prepare the project in groups of two. I'm doing it together with a classmate and our topic is: Does heaven and hell exist with the sub-question: do angels exist." and demons? "Mistral looks nervously at Niam. Stunned, he returned his gaze "You are not serious? How can you ... "" While we're at it ... um, Mistral presses around. "Spit it out." Niam urges him to continue. "My classmate, the one who does the project with me, something is different about her. Among other things, she knows that I am different." He holds his breath and waits for Niam to explode, but surprisingly Niam has his feelings under control relatively well.

Niam would like to jump up to smash something, but at the same moment the servant comes and brings the two of them their order. She smiles shyly at the two of them and asks: "Is everything okay?" Mistral nods. With that she turns away and goes to another table. Mistral knows exactly that nothing is good. He looks down at Niam. He had his hands clenched into fists, where you can now see his veins protruding. Angrily he presses his lips together: "What do you mean by that? She knows that you are different?" Mistral looks scared at Niam. "I don't know," he whispers. Niam throws some money on the table, gets up and leaves the restaurant without saying a word. Mistral stays behind, sad.