Michelle ma Belle (English)

Chapter 3: Your Name Is...

"Practice, please! Please don't bother me anymore," I replied indifferently. I continued the game while there was a shadow of a boy reflected from the game screen.

Some boys were lining up.

Hehehe ... it's the last level!

Yes, it's over!

I feel satisfied. I glanced at my watch. In ten minutes, the Harry Potter films in theater four began. Yep, it was time to watch.

Once I turned my body, I immediately gawk. The first person I saw was the tall guy in the red shirt who had stepped on my foot until I had muscle aches. Spontaneously my eyes bulged like crazy. Humph! While grunting, I looked away. The boy followed me from behind. What did he want to do with me for the time being? What kind of trouble did he want to make this time?

"Eh, wait! Do you want to watch the cinema? Can we play the game again after the movie finish? I want to play with you again. I’m inquisitive about fighting you on this game." He said while grinning broadly.

"Whatever! Please stop following me! Do you think I care? Just play along with yourself! You moron!" I snapped harshly.

I hurriedly handed over my ticket and entered the cinema, leaving him stunned at the door of theater four.

Finally, I was free and alone. The audience had begun to sit in their seat. I sat in the middle row on the seat at the far side of the row to the left. There were nine empty seats on the right. Several girls whispered while taking places, followed by four guys sitting in the same row.

"Where have you been? We waited for you for ages!" said two-tall guys next to me almost at the same time.

"Sorry, man. I just finished playing the Virtua Fighter three games. I just planned to play 1 game. But it was crazy! I just kept losing to the girls who play. I’m just curious. I played five-round, but I still lost. The girl was excellent. She had wonderful combo techniques. But, unfortunately, she is insulting,” said the guy sitting next to me, explaining in detail.

What the heck was going on?

My eyes were almost out of the eye socket. He made me pissed off! Didn’t he know that I was sitting next to him? How come I'm not surprised?!

The annoying guy who had stepped on my feet without feeling guilty and annoyed me by disturbing my happy moment several times was gossiping me at that moment? I heard all his words! I was sitting beside him! Was I a ghost? How come he didn’t see me? Asshole!

Hello, there! Your topic of the conversation actually sat right next to you!!

"Speaking of the devil, Drew. The girl next to you is watching us all the time. Do you know her?" asked the boy who sat two-seat away from me, looking at me in surprise while pointing.

The guy next to me immediately looked at me, who was still glaring like a goldfish.

"Wow! Why are you sitting here?! It is a coincidence. We meant to see each other," said the tall man in a red shirt, shocked to death. He tried to smile, which, in my opinion, was similar to the smile of a vampire. Well, his face looked pale at that moment since I heard all what he just said.

Still grinning, the guy turned to his friend next to him, "This is the girl I just told you about, Mond. Eh, what a coincidence. Do you watch Harry Potter, too, huh? My name is Andrew, what is your name?" he asked, turning his head back to me, reaching out his hand.

"Uuuuh, Andrew, what a coincidence ..." chirped the girls next to him while giggling.

"Ooooh, I see… he is flirting now with the girl. Ssh, don't bother him," teased the other guy.

"So this is the type of girl that you are looking for. I never know the taste of the girl. Now, I know it, Andrew," said the girl who sat at the very end.

I was upset by myself. What were these people doing?

They were very annoying. Couldn't you let other people sit quietly and just watching the movie?

"This is so stupid," I snorted, annoyed, looking away, ignoring his intention to shake hand with me.

"Hahaha ... what a pity that you are being ignored," said the boys sitting beside Andrew, chuckled.

"Shut up, man," Andrew said irritably.

"Shhh, the film is starting," repeated his other friend.

Then, everyone became quiet.

I enjoyed the Harry Potter films that played. Two hours have passed in a blink. It felt time went very fast. The movie just started a couple of minutes ago, and it ended just like that. Too many important scenes in the book that not appear in the movie. I was not satisfied with the movie. The novel version was still better than the movie version.

I waited until the theater was almost empty. I walked slowly to the exit. In my mind, I hoped the annoying boy already disappeared with his peers. I didn’t want to meet him again.

After watching the cinema, where should I go?

These days there weren't many of my friends in Jakarta. If they didn't go out of town, they went abroad for a vacation. It was the school holiday period of time.

I was not a person that loved to go on vacation. As long as I was given a stack of game CDs, I would feel at home comfortably. But, well, this was the consequence. When I needed to go out for a walk, I had no friends to hang out with. Well, I did not have any close friends at that moment.

I did have some friends, but they had different hobbies. So, if we went together to the mall, our route would be different too. I might die of boredom if they asked me to look at cosmetics or try out clothes on sale.

In a way, my friend was my Mom. But, when we arrived at the mall, we would go in a different direction and promise to meet again at the meeting point after some hours. Mom went to the supermarket, and I would love to visit the CD game store.

In the past, I had a good friend that had the same hobby just like me. I loved to hang out with him. He was my brother, Reuben. I liked it very much. It was so fun to hang around with him. So if we hanged out together, it was really an entertaining moment. But, ever since he went to Canada four years ago, I was a bit lonely.

Moreover, he spoiled me. I liked games and comics, just like him. Anyway, he was my best buddy. We had healthy competition in any field.

In school grades, too, my brother, Reuben, was excellent. I also didn't want to lose in any competition with him. He was a brilliant gamer. He was also very good at drawing comics. He already made his own thirty-second animation. It was awesome! So when there was an animated scholarship to Canada open admission in his school, he immediately applied and was accepted. Well, off he goes...

Reuben promised to come home one day, and I would be invited to participate in his animation team together. That’s why I was also diligent until that moment to practice drawing. More or less, I knew the process of making animations from the books I read. But indeed, it seemed like my hobby was not a popular one, so it was hard to connect when talking to people.

The other girls used to say that I was too childish because I liked animation and comics. Some girls even said I was playing the game too much and not seriously thinking about the future. Who knew that I was so desperately wanted to follow in my brother’s footsteps?

Instead, just because I wanted to have more friends, I had to change my hobbies and pursue topics of conversation that I was not interested in. It's better to be just myself the way I was. Well, that was me at that moment. I knew a lot of people, but I didn't have any close friends.

Why the heck, people couldn't have unique dreams? Why didn’t we have our own dream without any prejudice?

Didn't anyone understand that? Didn't anyone follow me? Other than my brother, Reuben? Didn’t others can understand me, besides my own family?

Sometimes I felt very lonely and sad when I heard people labeled me dreaming too high and not realistic.

Well, I was hurt! They didn’t understand me at all! They did not have any right to judge me! Just because we had different hobbies, it didn’t mean you have a right to mock or bully me. Well, I was not a weirdo! I was just unique! Didn’t you get that? Oh, crap!

Gosh! I was really exhausted. I had to relax my muscles and release my stress. Okay! I needed to go to the game arcade—game lovers paradise. All I had to do was play and play and play! I would play and had some fun until I was satisfied.

***

Hi, Glow Peridote here. Thanks for reading Michelle Ma Belle. It's a funny romantic slice of life teenager with 5 endings. You will love it. Please read my other works, such as action romance My Sexy IT Guy, epic adventure fantasy Light and Night: Across Two Worlds. You were gonna love it. Thanks.