Trickster of the Butterfly

Chapter 16- Zealousy

It was the season to be jolly indeed. Well, for Michael anyway. Christmas was a couple of weeks away but they got one advanced gift.

The block president sent a message to the whole block that all their professors called off their classes for tomorrow. So, it was practically an extra free day. Yessss! It wasn't unusual for their professors to do this. They always seemed to have other agenda so Michael's block always had lots of vacant time.

Sarah messaged her friends right after the block president texted. She invited them to go watch a movie at SM Manila for the day.

The next day...

Michael got down from the jeep in front of the City Hall then walked to the mall.

He was especially giddy today since he was able to sleep a full 8 hours, even after his incredible procrastination powers forced him to finish his assignments at 1 am.

The tough part was falling asleep, what with the ancient Roman dagger popping out of nowhere onto his bed.

Michael paced around the room for an entire hour last night trying to figure out how he may have summoned the dagger. A new power maybe? Did the Butterfly give him the ability of pulling ancient artifacts from the past and being able to use them in mint condition? The possibilities made Michael super ecstatic. He tried concentrating to get another item from the past and voila, a metal baton popped into his left hand, like the ones used by old British police.

Sure enough Michael was drained from doing that, so he got the push he needed to finally fall asleep. The hard part was explaining to his parents why he got to bed with two deadly weapons in both hands. He tried to rat himself out by saying they were gifts from old friends. He didn't want to lie but in a sense they were from old friends, very old ones that is.

Walking to the entrance of SM to let the security guard check his bag, he realized he brought the ancient dagger with him. It was a deadly weapon if you ever did see one, but good thing the guard either didn't notice or didn't care about it when he checked his bag. Phew!

There weren't many people in the mall that Saturday afternoon. Michael went up the escalators to the theatre area, where his friends would be waiting for him.

In the distance he immediately saw his friends but he was disappoonted to see only Sarah and Alora there. Hera and Joy may still be on their way or weren't allowed to come. He noticed another dude chatting with his friends, probably another PLMayer.

Once he got a little closer to them, he felt unnerved by the look of the dude. The guy's face made Michael want to punch him for no apparent reason, he really didn't know why he felt really mad at the guy he hasn't even talked to yet. The guy looked strikingly like his brother Shane, with the light complexion and Arabian look, the difference was his greater height.

Then Michael thought wait, why was the dude looking so intently at Alora?

...

"Hey guys. Ready na kayo manlibre?" Michael cut into the three's conversation.

"Hi Mike!" Alora said cheerfully.

"19 minutes late! Wala na. Wala na kong gana manuod ng movie, tara kain na lang tayo sa Tokyo Tokyo," Sarah said ever so cutely.

"Hahaha," Michael looked at the dude. "I don't think we've met. PLMayer ka po? Michael Randelo nga pala," he held out his hand to the guy.

"Ah, Norman Linan," he shook hands with Michael. "BS Psychology 3rd year. Kuya mo ko brad. Napansin ko na taga-PLM pala yung mga 'to kaya kinausap ko lang yung mga kaklase mo, ang tagal mo kasi, Mr. Disaster," he said in a cocky tone that made Michael's skin crawl.

"Mr. Disaster? Hindi tayo close buddy boy," Michael said rudely... in his thoughts.

"Ah okay, 'kuya Norman', nice to meet you! Kamusta naman yung third year Psych?" is what he really said.

"Hmm, masaya naman, lalo kapag may mga kaibigan kang maasahan, pero hindi ako nangongopya ha, ayaw ni Lord yun!" Norman laughed, which also seemed to anger Michael.

"Dean's lister yan si kuya Norman!" Alora commended.

"Siyempre, nakakatulong din ang may inspirasyon," Norman said smugly. Michael could've sworn the guy took a quick glance at Alora when he said inspirasyon.

"Anyway, since nandito na si Mr. Disaster, ladies, aalis na po ako," he flashed a warm smile to the two, then another more annoying smile to Michael.

"Buh-bye kuya Norman!" Alora said.

"Kita tayo sa school ha," Sarah said.

He walked over to Michael's side, placed his hand on his shoulder and whispered, "Careful not to hurt her."
Norman's hand strangely felt like a hot iron on his shoulder. He suddenly felt horribly naseous and his eyesight dimmed. It subsided immediately after Norman went away.

"See you guys sa school! Kung saan man," he said as he walked away.

"Tara na Mike! Bibili ka pa ng popcorn para samin!" Sarah joked, hopefully.

"Ang gwapo ni kuya Norman no? Diba Mike? Hahaha!" Alora said.

The three of them went to the concession stand to buy popcorn and drinks then bought their tickets to watch The Penguins of Madagascar.

Alora went to the restroom as Sarah and Michael sat and saved a seat for her. Michael went into deep thought as he ate popcorn.

He softly muttered a prayer. "Lord, I'm sorry I got so mad at that new guy. I don't know why. That dude...was something else..." he noticed his right hand was starting to glow, immediately he shook his hand before Sarah noticed.

"Mike okay ka lang? Di pa nagsisimula ang movie mukang excited ka na," Sarah said with, was that concern? From Sarah?

"Ah okay lang, medyo malamig lang kasi," he replied.

Alora came back and sat down just as the movie was going to start.

"It wasn't jealousy, no, I just know it couldn't have been," he whispered to himself.

_____________________________________________

Note: I know "zealousy" isn't a real word, "zealous" is a real word. But you get the point.
Hey guys! I uploaded this chapter shortly after the previous one so I could make up for lost time, since I wasn't able to upload for some past days. I intend to finish the story by or before the end of summer. Thanks for sticking around and voting!

Also, the crossover is really happening now! Keep your eyes peeled guys, Christ-centered Relationship by katkat0321 is going to have a tie-in soon enough. Excited? Well BE excited :-)