We started to talk on our way to class, and seeing what exactly we’re dealing with.

“Why are we making this complicated? Can’t you just tell Steely Armor that she likes him, too?”

“I’ve been his friend for ages, and trust me when I say whenever a girl looked at him, he’d vanish from that area, literally gone, reduced to atoms. And now what do you think he’ll do if he finds out someone actually is interested in him? Someone that he really is into.”

“Fine, I get it. So what’s the plan?”

“Look, I’m not a genius so don’t expect me to have a plan ready for this situation in a corner of my mind. I need some time to think about it.”

“Ok, just don’t forget to wait for me after class.”

We entered our class and, to be honest, I was so busy thinking about how we’re going to pull this off that I didn’t pay attention to the class at all. It wasn’t important stuff, anyway.

After school was over I told Steely to head home and I’d call him in the afternoon. I then meet up with Sunshine right outside the school and from there we both started to walk together.

“So, did you come up with something?” she asked.

“I have something in mind but before we go into that I need to make sure this Wallflower Blush is a good girl and that she won’t play with Steely, he just ain’t experienced enough to see this stuff and that makes me worried. So tell me, what do you know of her?”

“Well, how do I put this ... we had some stuff together.”

“I guess it wasn’t the typical stuff.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think I’ve been here for long enough to know that nothing normal happens around here.”

“OK, fine, just tell me how much did Steely Armor tell you about magic?”

“To be honest he told me a lot, or at least he tried to. But I get that it came from another dimension and all that and he guesses that it must be brought to our world with a person or an artefact of that world. Also he really insisted that these worlds are completely the same, expect that they’re not. And that got me super mega confused.”

“Then, you do know enough. You see, she had a problem engaging others and suffers from a serious lack of confidence, in a way that no one knew she was even studying here! She happened to find one of those artefacts and … it allowed her to erase peoples’ memory.”

Fantastic! First someone who could see your memories and now they have something to erase them.

“And that made the whole situation in her life worse. Anyone she tried to engage with and she couldn’t, she just erased that memory, like it never happened.” She slipped into an afterwards silence.

“And what exactly does that have to do with you?”

“She … erased every good memory that my friends had about me. And not just them, but the whole school.”

“But, why?”

“She … sort of … you know what, that doesn’t matter, because we took care of that and helped her to start getting over her problems. To be honest she is actually a really sweet girl.” There was something fishy about what she said, but I wasn’t sure what.

“Riiiiiight!”

“No, seriously, she is a really nice girl, and now that I think about it, she and Steely Armor are both shy and lack confidence; maybe they can get over it together.”

“I hope so.” I still wasn’t really sure how I was supposed to feel about this. “I also hope she doesn’t get bothered about being watched everywhere.”

“What do you mean?”

“Before I tell you that, you must promise that you won’t tell it to anyone, not your friends or anyone! Alright?”

“OK, I promise!”

“Do you remember what I told you about Steely before? That he has cameras everywhere?”

“Yes, I do, but he doesn’t have them in school, right? Unless … wait, you’re not telling me that he hacked into the school cameras, are you?”

“Technically, no, he didn’t. He did do that at the last school he attended and they found out about it since he was connecting to the system with another device that was definitely not recognized as anybody in the school administration. So he tried a new tactic this time. He hacked into Vice Principal Luna’s computer, and now whenever he checks the cameras, it will be marked as her device.”

She looked pretty impressed. I don’t blame her. Steely always does impressive stuff.

“Wait, if he linked to the Vice Principal’s computer, he basically has access to most of the exam papers, too!”

And that was what I thought she wouldn’t guess. At least not too soon!

“No, No, NO! You’re getting it all wrong! Maybe he accessed the exam papers but he doesn’t need them to get those high marks!”

“I was thinking more about YOU needing access to those.” She smiled. Even without her magic, she can figure stuff out fast.

“Of course not … well, maybe for some special circumstances.”

“Like what?”

“Like geography. I understand nothing of it, and yet I have to pass it.”

“Just for that?” She raised her eyebrow.

“That’s not the point at the moment. Now let’s focus on our task.”

“OK, fine. So what’s your plan?” we started to walk again and passed one building after another.

“Well, I am going to talk to Steely and we are going to stick a note on her locker.”

“What kind of note?”

“Just an invitation to … well, to that café.” I pointed at it because we were passing it. “We should work on them individually and make sure they are ready to meet one another.”

“So I take Wallflower and you take Steely.”

“Exactly!”

I stopped all of a sudden. “Well, OK, then, I’ll meet you tomorrow.”
“You’re sure?” she asked.

“I need to head back home, I’m still a little dizzy.”

“Fine, so goodbye I guess.”

“See you later.”

I ran the rest of the way to home. After changing clothes and practicing a little violin I called Steely and invited him over. It was better for him that way, since I knew his mother would have double flipped if she heard anything of what we were going to talk about. Which she usually does.

When he got here I took him up to my room.

“OK, so listen up close because we are going to take action.”

“NOW?” he shouted, but then he lowered his voice, “Uh … don’t you think it’s a little too soon?”

“No, and don’t worry, I got you covered.”

“I guess it’s fine, then.” His voice was shaky.

“OK, then, let’s start,” I said and Beaky repeated my words. “Ok, then let’s start!” but I didn’t mind.

“We are going to write a note, and stick it on her locker in the morning,” I said.

“And what should we write in that note?”

“We are going to ask her out.”

He freaked out. Typical. “WHAT? NO, NO , NO, we are definitely not doing that!”

“Aw, c’mon, isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Yes, b ... but what if she turns me down? I don’t think I could handle that!” He started pacing around my room. He usually does that when he is anxious.

“OK, sit down. Breathe. First of all, she won’t turn you down.”

“But …”

“… and second, we won’t write your name on it, so if she declines … and I don’t think she will … she won’t find out that we did it until later. OK?”

He sighed like always. “So, what do we do now?” I could see that he was super mega unsure about everything.

“Now we study!”

“We study what?”

“We will study how to behave near a girl. Do you like it?”

Author's Note

Make sure to cheek out other chapters too.

Special thanks to my editor Daniel Drazen.