บท 63: The Indestructible Wimp is BACK!
Old Rogers smiled but Renir couldn't feel the kindness out of it.
"Since you're a special case, I'll let you in. Just meet up with your adviser after school. I'm sure he has a lot to say to you."
Renir didn't hesitate anymore, 'There's no turning back now...' he stepped into the school and slowly walked. On Old Rogers' post, a clock hanged and it said 8:36 AM.
7:00 AM is the start of the first subject and after one hour, the second subject. After the second subject was recess.
"Recess..." Renir murmured before his stomach roared like a hungry bear after hibernation!
GRRR!*
He didn't expect the sudden attack and held his stomach in pain. He forgot he had yet to eat since yesterday's lunch.
'But this is strange, it was as if I have not eaten for three days!' Renir thought as he held his stomach in pain but then he realized something.
"Wait, three days?" Renir remembered that Imee and he had lunch on Saturday… and school starts on Monday.
"....." he stopped on his steps and couldn't believe it;
'I slept on the road for two nights and a whole day!' like a lightning struck him and leaving him paralyzed, Renir was baffled he slept on the road for that long.
"But when Imee woke me up, I still feel tired so I didn't think that I slept for that long. Is my body accustomed to sleeping? Or... I don't have any more explanation!" Renir was frustrated, he couldn't believe it.
'I slept through a whole day on the road, which means, I also slept through the hot high noon without waking up. Does my body have a problem? But the doctor didn't mention anything about it...'
'I slept through a whole day on the road, which means, nobody even bothered to wake me up...'
'Maybe I looked like a homeless person with my big bag?'
Renir put down his backpack and looked through it but, luckily, nothing seemed to be stolen.
"Hm?" he then saw something that wasn't supposed to be in his bag. He trembled as his eyes shone brightly.
"...Mo...mo..mo-mo...money...!" he spoke with a dry throat from the shock. It was thick cash, probably big enough to make him eat three complete meals for a whole month!
He fell on his knees wanting to worship who gave the money to him;
'I certainly don't remember taking this kind of money from our apartment. Did Imee left it here?' although Renir didn't fully believe this thought, there's still a probability.
"I should ask her first when I see her. Until then, I shouldn't spend this." Renir had an obvious sad expression on his face when he said that.
"But most importantly..." his mind was back to the earlier topic, "If I slept on the road for that long then.." he lowered his head and smelled his uniform.
".....Gross, how did I not notice when I changed?"
.....
On the post of the school gate, Old Rogers sat under the shed behind a table in which his work was placed.
"I failed..." he muttered, "I was so excited to let Renir in that I forgot to ask some questions." Old Rogers patted his beer belly rather than his chin when thinking.
As a gossip-loving maniac, this was a crucial failure. Now, he would be late to hear the rumors.
"What happened to him? And those bandages with sticks, that is surely for a fractured bone." while deducing, two hands were now placed on his beer belly as his concentration heightened, "I knew he was being bullied but did his bullies passed the line? That was a horrible thing to-"
"Old Rogers."
"Oh!" Old Rogers almost jumped out of his seat as he turned around, heart beating fast and sweat gliding through his face. He then saw Renir back to the school gate.
"Oh, Renir, it's just you. You almost scared me to death, young boy." he held his beer belly rather than his chest from shock. It seemed that his beer belly was the core of his body.
"What?" he asked.
"Is there a nearby shower here?" Renir seemed not to be embarrassed asking that.
"A shower?" Old Rogers smiled, "What? What happened to you?"
"Nah, I just sweated a lot before coming here so since I'm already late, I should take a shower first." Renir naturally lied.
'Hm? From what I heard, he's extremely shy and timid...' Old Rogers was confused. Although rumors are only rumors but it came from the teachers themselves so there should be a high probability that it was true, shouldn't it?
"What did you do earlier for you to sweat so much you'd stink?"
When Renir heard that question, he pondered, 'Why is this old man so pushy? This is the first time I got a conversation with our school guard. Do I have to say that I slept on the road for two nights and a day? I doubt he will believe that.' It was just weird to explain that so he just lied;
"I ran earlier."
"Why?"
"...Because I want to."
"Hmph" Old Rogers gave up and said, "There's a shower on the nurse's office. Didn't you know that? Are you not a student here?"
"Oh," Renir's eyes widened in realization, "The nurse's office, I remember now." he whispered.
"Thanks, Old Roger." Renir was about to walk away after turning around, but Old Rogers asked again, "What's with your injury?"
Renir paused, 'Do I have to explain?'
"This is because.,. I tripped." he then walked away.
"....." Old Rogers just stared, wide-eyed, on Renir's back, "What's with that?"
.....
Renir could vividly remember the path to the nurse's office. Pentoran High was large but not large enough to have multiple buildings. It was easy to remember where the room was at. The structure of the whole school was simple with four two-meter tall stone walls on each side.
'I remember back then that I was always at the nurse's office and that nurse is the person I talk and tell my story.', but then his mood become sour, 'Yeah, that eccentric nurse always laughs at me after she asked me what happened.'
Three buildings have three stories each. Two oppositely faced one another while the middle one was facing the school gate.
The school gate was an entrance to the first building, the one on the left side.
Renir walked at a fast pace. He wanted to shower as quickly as possible so that he could have time for recess. He was really hungry.
Also, he couldn't just let himself stink. Just thinking about earlier how Imee could've smelled him but didn't say anything was pushing Renir to fall to deep frustration and embarrassment.
If only he wouldn't meet up with Imee then he couldn't have a problem with his smell.
However, as he passed by, he looked at the classroom on his left. That should be his room, isn't it?
Somehow, he felt happy even though there are no good memories there. It just felt everything was back to normal.
'...my dream is affecting me this much...' Renir sighed. But he couldn't blame himself for it. It was too realistic. The pain, suffering, hunger, and thirst. Every punch he threw and every fruit he put in his mouth. The trials and fear, weakness, and sadness.
But the achievement felt so real either. The strength he gained and the victory he worked hard for. The power he gained for every bite and the punch that killed the enemies. It was too realistic that he took pride in it.
While Renir was reminiscing, he was disturbed as he saw that through the window, everyone in the classroom was looking at him...
Renir looked left and right to search what was the thing they were staring but it was obviously him.
Familiar faces everywhere and Renir could only smile and waved his hand before walking out with fast strides.
"Isn't that Renir?" a balding man in front of the classroom, seemingly the teacher said as he lifted his thick glasses.
"He's back?"
"So the words this morning are true."
"So is 'Leader' having an interest to him true too?"
"I don't know about that but if we're talking about he'll come back or not, of course, he will."
"Yeah, ahahha, it's not surprising anymore. What's surprising was the fact that he disappeared."
"I didn't believe he quit, also. Him, the Indestructible Wimp, quitting? Ahahaha."
"But did you saw both his arm?"
"Both? I only noticed the arm he waved."
"Yes, pfft, that's the first time I saw him wave at anybody to greet, but more importantly, he seemed to have broken bones."
"Maybe his bullies crossed the line two weeks ago that he needed to heal his injuries?"
The room was filled with chatter and mockery. It's obvious that they just find the Indestructible Wimp entertaining and no empathy nor sympathy could be seen.
"Ehem!" the balding teacher cleared his throat as loud as to shut these students up, "We are in the middle of a lesson. Save those when it's break time."
He seemed to be pretty strict to silence the room in an instant.
On the back, three friends found delight on the arrival of the Indestructible Wimp. The three were the reasons that Renir was seen as his ridiculous title.
They were were also a bit confused about what happened to Renir, but they couldn't care less. Ken and Sian glanced at Marvic, it seemed liked they will follow him just like last time
'You sure surprised us for disappearing for two whole weeks, wimp!' Marvic thought.
.....
As Renir ran in the hallway, eyes on him fell through the windows.
The name Indestructible Wimp would be just a nickname if it wasn't acknowledged by the whole school to be a title. Renir was oblivious to it since no friend would tell him about it but he was quite popular, in a bad way.
"Hey, Harvie, seemed like the Indestructible Wimp is back." a man with fine facial features and gelled hair upwards leaned towards Harvie inside their class.
"Indestructible Wimp, who's that?" Harvie smiled but seemed not curious about it.
"You don't know hi,? He's one of the five people who have titles in this school, including you."
"What? A title with a wimp on it? Pfft" Harvie tried to hold his laughter, 'This is the first time I heard about that.'
"So what's so indestructible about him? It's a weird combination for a title." Harvie opened his ears.
"Well, the wimp comes from him being so pathetic. You know, one time he was beaten up to the point his nose bled so the bullies themselves had to stop when that wimp was still not fighting back."
"Hmmm" Harvie seemed not to care about that part since it was obvious for Renir to be that pathetic if he was called a wimp by the whole school. Harvie was rather curious about how the word "indestructible" came from.
"And then he was called indestructible because..." the guy paused to think.
"What?" Harvie asked.
"No, I don't know how to word it. It seemed so redundant to me."
"Just explain it, I'm curious."
"Hm, it's because he doesn't complain and just do things normally.
"What do you mean by normally?"
"You know how the bullied are like always depressed, hiding when it's break time, skipping classes, and inactive in school. But he, on the other hand, wasn't complaining, always volunteering to work alone, and even has high grades. His name is Renir, he was top 2 on the last exam."
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