Baby Monster

Making Friends

I looked around the dimly lit cave I walked into. Many of the applicants looked over at me piercing me with their deadly gaze. I didn't care though. I knew most of these losers would fail out before the second phase and had no right to look at me like that anyway. I walked over to a corner and made myself comfortable, when a bright green jelly bean looking man walked up to me and handed me a badge number. I looked down at the number,24. Before shoving it in my bag and dozing off to sleep.

I woke up to constant nudging. As I opened my eyes I saw a man staring at me with a wide smile.

"What?" I questioned, clearly annoyed to be disturbed.
"Hi there. I'm Tonpa. The exam could be starting any minute and I wanted to have the chance to introduce myself to you beforehand, cuz I know first hand how hard it can get. Having a friend or two before you start makes it a lot easier."
" You've taken the exam before?"
"Yea 35 times." he grinned proudly. "But here let's toast to our friendship" he said digging around in his bag and pulling out two sodas.
"Sure" I grabbed the soda willingly and then put it straight into my bag. "I hope you don't mind if I save it for later. I'm not that thirsty now and I could probably use it after a phase or two to help freshen up"
"Uhhh. sure. Uh. yeah that's fine, but don't wait too long or it won't taste as good you know" he awkwardly chuckled walking away.
What a nice man. However, he did have a point if I wanted to make friends I should probably start now.
I looked around at the abundance of people now packed into this little cave. Wow how long was I asleep? That's when I spotted a clown playing cards by himself. Perfect.
"Hi My name is Luna and this is the first time I'm taking the hunter exam," I said with my arm outstretched toward the clown. He looked up seemingly amused
"I'm Hisoka and this is my second time taking the hunter exam," he said, giving me his undivided attention. A weird smile crept at his face.
"I saw you over here playing cards all alone and wanted to see if you wanted a friend to play with" I smiled.
"Of course" he said looking up at me with a closed eye smile as I sat down in front of him.
He started gathering all the cards together and shuffling them.
"What are we gonna play?" i asked
"What do you know how to play"
I scrunched my nose in thought. "Go Fish" I smiled again
He smiled too as he started distributing the cards.. "Then that's what we'll play"
As we played we had light conversation.
"So Luna, how old are you?" the clown questioned
"I'm 8 years old but in 10 months I'll be 9!"
"Hmmm. Interesting. Are you sure someone your age is ready to take the hunter's exam?"
"Of course" I said, getting serious and catching the full attention of the clown. "Age doesn't have anything to do with skill and if anything it's my advantage that people won't see me as a threat"
"Of course" the clown replied
A few hours later Hioka got up after collecting his cards. "It's been a pleasure Luna, but I have to go catch up with an old friend. I'd ask if you wanted to meet him, but he's not a big fan of meeting new people."
"Ok bye bye Hisoka" I called after him.
I walked back over to my corner and rested content that I had made a friend. I was starting to drift off when I heard a blood curdling scream. My eyes shot up to see a man crying out as his arms disappeared and not far from him was Hioksa going on about something about apologizing after bumping someone.
Maybe I need to choose better friends.
Not long after the exam started and we all started running