A Hero I Look Up To

One Year Reunion

A few weeks have passed and Tobio's cold has been cured! Tobio walked to school as always, because his parents are at work early. Of course, middle school is closer than elementary school, so Tobio was able to get to school early. Loid waited for Tobio near the entrance, looking at his phone. As Tobio walked up to Loid, he wanted to talk to him about something.

"Loid... do you think I could try to track down Chris?" Tobio asked with a stern voice.

"Track him... down!?" Loid was surprised. "Hold up, you mean you want to stalk him!?"

"No, I want to talk to him!" Tobio exclaimed. "My parents made me delete and block his number!"

Loid was concerned, going into complete silence. He felt shocked to hear what Tobio told him about Chris being deleted and blocked from his contacts. After a few seconds of silence, Loid asked Tobio with a serious voice.

"Your parents did what now?" Loid asked. "Why?"

"They told me... to do it..." Tobio looked away from Loid with a dejected look. "They said if I didn't do it, they would do it for me... so..."

"They... forced you to do it!?"

"I was worried that they'll take my phone away from me, I had no choice!"

Loid took a deep breath and sighed. He grabbed Tobio's clothes on the shoulder and pulled him furiously, shaking Tobio with anger.

"You can't just sit there and do nothing, Tobio! Why are going to accept your fate right now!?" Loid yelled. "Do you think you can survive without confronting your parents!?"

"Loid I can't...!" Tobio tried to fight back. "They won't even listen to a word I say!"

"Then you have to convince them! If you can't convince them, run away from them! Get out of the house to find a new home to live in!"

"They're going to track me down no matter what happens! They have my number on and they'll call me! They're going to think I'm not independent, Loid!! Do you think I could do this all on my own!?"

This left the two in complete silence. There's nothing Tobio could do than just live with his parents—well that's what he thought, however, Loid thinks there's more to that than it meets the eye.

"I believe you can." Loid answered Tobio. "But I think it's best to ask Mia, since she's been with you longer than I have been."

Tobio didn't say anything, but he nodded. If there was someone Tobio could talk to, it would be Mia, his first ever friend. Whenever Tobio was in trouble, Mia would help him out and talk about the big things with him as if it's the last thing she'll do in the world. Right now, Mia is at a different school, so Tobio can't just directly go up to her and talk about what he's facing, but the only option was to text her. Tobio remembered back in fifth grade he was able to put Mia and Serena in his contacts, so a contact can be possible.

After Loid and Tobio's argument, they headed to their homeroom class with pained looks on their faces. Their expressions were also concerning to the entire homeroom class, who usually sees Tobio in a more happy state every single day. Now a dejected Tobio has entered the classroom, leaving the class in dead silence, not knowing what to say. This action has also surprised Loid completely, which is new. Tobio noticed the dead silence, but hasn't said anything because he's more focused on what to do than the start of the new school day.

"Good morning class, today we have announcements." Tobio's seventh grade homeroom teacher, Mr. Aoba, announced.

Mr. Jason Aoba is a nice teacher. He can be strict like Chris when he last taught Tobio's preschool, but he knows how to handle students getting into recent fights. Mr. Aoba had short black curly hair with messy bangs. He's dressed in a navy blue dress shirt and a neat set of black jeans and a golden brown belt. His black shiny boots were everyone's favorite piece of clothing he wore throughout his years of teaching.