Amazing World!

Knots and laces

The next day wasn't that bad. Well... yeah.

When I went to sleep, I swear I heard Noa's voice, saying something like: "You were always fake". I had never been fake with her...

Never. And her behavior was totally unfair and unacceptable, to say the least. I had got used to it while I was in Technopolis...

"Calm down, Irina, dear, you're okay."

"But... Noa... she entered..."

"She didn't... no one did. Now, try to calm down a little..."

"You don't understand it! You don't-"

"Shhh... sweet dreams..."

"AAAAAAAAAAAGH- Oh... not again..."

Not that one memory. That was traumatic. When I finally cleared my mind I was hugging my pillow, almost breaking it.

I decided to get some fresh air outside, near the sea. I left my shoes at home. Well, Kai's home. The thing is I started thinking about my shoes and got emotional. Those shoes... those shoes had a great story behind. I couldn't lose them...

And... then who knows why, but I had another flashback... about my first year of school...

The teacher was right in front of us. He grabbed a rope (first time I saw that, honestly) and straightened it.

"Class, today we're gonna learn the art of functionality" he said. "First, something you must learn by heart (although it's unrelated): you know that two hands are better than one and that's the importance of being ambidextrous, right? Well, that's just training."

"Are we gonna train today?" Noa asked, serious.

"Not today. I prepared something... different. Let's learn different types of knots!"

"What the-"

"Knots are underrated, class. Let me show you some."

And he basically showed us how to make weird knots in a rope.

That class hadn't been useful at all, but we had fun. Noa... and I...

I decided that maybe a tiny bit of water wouldn't hurt, so I sat and let my feet fall into the water, a little illogical but... it was a distraction after all.

"JODER QUÉ SUSTO, whatcha doing here, Irina?"

"Ana?"

I got caught off guard. Ana... in the middle of the streets at night. I have to admit I expected that Kai would have been most likely to do so, but Ana? I was starting to know better this girl, after this much time. Ana looked at me reassuringly, like... she was showing me another face. Not the classic "I-want-to-blow-up-something".

"When this all flashback thing ends, I'm taking you outside" she said, sitting next to me.

"Outside? What do you mean with "outside"?"

"Outside of this world, not just the islands you know here, llenas de hijos de puta. There's more."

I nodded my head and stared at the water. The reflection of the light coming from behind us was clearly seen through the darkness. The only light left... that reminded me of Twinkle. She would've said something like "This light will guide us through the darkness", Gene would have said "Illogical" and... I missed them. We were having fun and the group was great, but... I guess I was just nostalgic. And that was not everything. I started to remember my experience at the Community. Him... He had been my support, my only friend when everything was wrong...

"Hey, Irina? You've been silent for about ten minutes what's wrong?"

Ana's voice got me out of my thoughts. I looked in her direction but she was gone. I got scared and looked around.

"Ana? Where are- WHAT?!"

A sudden amount of water hit my face and messed up my hair.

"C'mon join the fun!" Ana laughed.

"Oh now you're dead girl" I replied, standing up and getting ready.

We had a water fight. At night. We would probably be sick in the morning. And our clothes wet. Well... it was somehow... funny? How to describe it. The feeling was... good. So good. I reached the conclusion Ana was a great friend. She laughed uncontrollably. And she took that out of me too. My weird "witch" laughter, or whatever. It felt so... natural... so real. As if nothing mattered. No flashbacks. Nothing... just fun.

When the sun was almost rising, we stopped. Ana grabbed my arm and ran towards the house, making me run too.

"We have to enter discreetly" I said.

"DESPERTAD, HIJOS DE PUTA, OPEN THE DOOR!!"

"Discreetly, huh?" I stopped right before the door and pushed. It easily opened, lucky us.

When we entered, we saw Rock Brock standing right in front of us, with his hat on already (why).

"Bros it's too early, even for magnificent adventurers such as myself. Rock Broooock-"

"Shut the fuck up already" Morgi cut him off. Some peace for our ears for once.

I went upstairs, ignoring Kai complaining about waking up so early. "You're lucky I don't have my laser in my hand now" and that kind of stuff. And Jackson walked half asleep (or dead) through the corridors. However, I managed to get to my room without getting killed or something like that. I grabbed my shoes and put them on, when I had an idea: I remembered my shoe issues. What if the laces were not perfectly tied? I decided to try one of the knots I was taught back in Technopolis. In the end they were gonna be useful. I tied one of my laces from one shoe with one of the knots we were taught, but I made a mistake. It was not tight enough. So I tried to untie it, but... it was impossible.

I went downstairs, and told everyone about my little problem.

"Joder" Elien said.

"No, no, no. Me cachis. That's better" Brock corrected.

They all kneeled down and put their hands on my shoe. So 14 hands more on my shoe. I let them all work on my laces while I looked around. Kai soon got overwhelmed by that much people in such a small place, so she stood up and looked at all of them trying to untie my laces.

"Bro how did you tie this?" Brock asked.

"Can I blow it up?" Anastasia asked.

"That's my thing" Ana replied.

"Maybe if I sing something-"

"NO."

No one wanted to hear Jackson's wonderful voice. But somehow I understood him. He missed Ruby for sure, although she wouldn't miss him.

At some point, Morgi got tired of trying to untie my laces.

"Kai, could you please hand me the fucking laser?" She asked. Kai gave her the laser without hesitation. "Out of my way!"

Morgi cut the knot (and basically destroyed my laces).

"My... laces..." I whispered. That probably looked ridiculous, but... that shoes had a lot of story behind... "I'm... shoeless again..."

"I'm sure we can replace the laces with something else."

"Oui oui."

"Elien, French is... how do I put it... UNA PUTA MIERDA."

"I have the solution, bros!" Brock said, pulling something out of one of his pockets. It was a rainbow band? Or something like that.

"Yeahh, that'll fit" Ana declared.

They tied the band to one of my laces and tied my shoe correctly. Ana told me it was a LGBT+ band and Brock had some became he was gay, and he was already in love with someone.

"And... do you know who it is?" I asked her secretly when everyone was packing their things and getting ready to leave.

"You know him."