I finished my double portion just as the girls wrapped up their simpler meals. A scrawny young boy approached me as we stood in line to deposit our trays with the used dishes.

"Hello?" he said, looking at me with a hopeful expression.

I glanced at him, raising a brow as if to ask, "Who the hell are you?" But I responded more politely, "Hi?"

While I was blocked by the young boy, the girls moved beside me, deposited their trays, and bid me farewell.

“Bye, Dolores!”

“Bye!”

“See you tomorrow!”

“Bye!”

The girls and I didn't have any further plans for the day, but I would have preferred to return to pick up my things with them in the class. Now, I'm left alone. I hope he has a good reason to stop me. Well, I could have ignored him, but I stayed.

He seemed to have to gather all his courage to continue.

"May I talk to you for a moment?" - he finally said.

I stood there with the tray in my hands, looking at him. I almost snorted, wondering what this youngster wanted from me. His face was vaguely familiar. Yeah, OK, I was in the school's canteen, where I saw everyone each day, it would be weird if it wouldn't be so; however, there was an additional note to it.

"I'm Michael Steward... we... ahm... we are cousins."

Uh, oh... Unexpected. I watched him for a moment and sighed. My brain brought up some dusty memories of a family reunion. Two or three years ago, one of my cousins had gotten married. One of the few family reunions I participated in, the other one being when grandma died. He had been there with his parents, and my mom had asked me to talk to him. Family!

"Oh. The little cousin who asked me to dance..." - and had no clue how to, but I kept that to myself - "Now I remember!"

His face changed suddenly to red as if somebody had flipped a switch. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. A girl snickered behind him. I tried to excuse myself.

"Sorry, I did not mean..."

I put my tray away and gave him my hand.

"Nice to meet you, Michael. Are you studying here too? In what year?"

Wow! Ma would be proud of me for how I turned it around! My friendlier tone brought him at ease, and we started chatting. Once he lost his initial blockage, he became much more voluble and even showed some wit.

I learned that he was four years younger than me. I should have realized it, but it did not dawn on me until he said it:

"You know, I am Spartacius!"

"Oh, oops... sorry... ahm."

I did not know exactly what to say. He continued:

"I'm sorry; I should have told you before. I thought you did not want to talk to me."

I raised a brow, surprised.

"Why would I not want to talk to you?"

"Well, you ignored me. I greeted you once, and you just went away..."

"Did I not greet back?"

"Oh yes, you did, but..."

I sighed. Well, at least I greeted back.

"Sorry, shame on me, but I did not recognize you." - I shrugged - "It's been three years since we met, and you're at least ten centimeters taller now. You've changed."

He looked around at the continuous flow of people. We were in the area where students discarded their trays, and they were involuntarily listening to our chat.

"Can we go somewhere else to chat a little?" he asked.

We moved towards a corner of the canteen. I watched him.

"Is there something?"

He sighed.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you, you know, after I made that blunder with Noviel, and I landed in that jail, I logged out, and..."

He watched me with a guilty look.

"I could not log into the game after that. I tried to contact you in Dreamland but could not."

I laughed.

"Pity. Spartacius did really well after that. He is no longer in jail; Alice did free him."

"Really? She did that even if I caused... ah... Noviel's death?"

"Well, she is my merc, and I asked her to do it, but besides that, Noviel survived. You owe me a high-level anti-poison potion."

"Ugh, I’m glad to hear that even if I can’t pay now. Those potions are expensive; you must give me some time..."

I shrugged. I did it for Alice, but I did not mention that. So this is Michael: my forgotten little cousin.

“Hey, how did you come to me in Dreamland? How did you know Cala was me?”

“Oh” – he had that guilty look again – “I did not know. I searched images with your photo. It matched one of the photos in your Dreamland's user profile. When we talked in Dreamland about Mephisto, you told me you have a high-level character there.”

“Zetta? Did I put some photos with me there?”

He nodded, then added:

“Yes, you had some photos uploaded with that profile; that was enough. Well” – he looked at his watch - “I'm late. I have to run now for the next hour; thank you, see you!”

He ran away. I had a couple of questions for him, but I’ll have to postpone them for next time. I sighed.

Well, my school day would be finished now, but I hesitated about what to do. Cala was not satisfied with the sports I had done. It was fun, but she said it was not enough. She needed more. I wonder if her body is similarly built to a human body? Do muscles shrink when you do not use them, even for Cala? Is her body a similar build to ours? Does she need to exercise her muscles? I tried to inquire about this through Flo:

“Why would she need more sport?”

“I don’t know. It is what she says. What you did until now did not really address her muscles. She feels her muscles unused, and she says that that is bad.”

“How can we do real exercises for her? If she does those at her speed and power, I’ll be instantly identified as a freak.”

“Yes, I know… we know, but still, she needs to do more.”

I would have shrugged it off, but Cala is stubborn and would not let it pass. Luckily Flo came up with a solution: she could put a curse on me that would negate Cala's muscle magic for some time. The course lasts one minute, then after four minutes pause, she can repeat it. Cala should exercise intensively when the curse is on.

So instead of going home, I should go back to our sports hall. On the way, I talked with my alter-ego.

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“How comes that Cala is so well trained?”

“She trains regularly. Since she is here, you haven’t done anything.”

That was true.

“But this will not help? The environment here is low on magic; she will not make any progress.”

“That is true, but she needs to maintain her muscles, and besides that, I talked with Cala about an idea. I can block my aura at skin level. That would mean that I make a high-level magic saturated environment for Cala to exercise in it. About the same as what aura users do. I mean the basic.”

I was surprised, and a bit shocked that the two collaborated together. After the first moment, I realized that, in the end, it was normal. It is my alter ego collaborating with my avatar. So why am I surprised? The only shock was that I was not aware of it.

I went back to the locker room and took my sports clothes on again. As my blouse was damaged, I took Theresa's that I kept with me to wash. I'll give it clean back.

The sports hall was almost empty now; just a couple of boys were working in the weight area. We were allowed to use it after hours with some limitations. Probably one of the boys had the key. They were both from the terminal year, so they were one year older or the same age as me.

“Hey, do you have a problem with me doing some sport?”

“Suit yourself, Dolores!”

Fuck. Good that they know me, but I do not know their names.

“Thanks!”

After a little warm-up, Flo placed her curse, and I came to push-ups. I did fast some twenty with both arms, then I switched to one-arm push-ups.

I was surprised to see Cala trying to make this. Is this a thing? She was making them slow, but she did them.

The boy that had answered before was now watching me. I hope Cala does not do some superhero thing. He smiled, seeing my one-arm push-ups.

“Nice workout Dolores!”

Cala grinned, and I was happy. This does not sound like a superhero thing. Are there really people who can do one-arm push-ups? I wonder if Joe can do some. Cala, as Cala is, upped the ante:

“Hey! Could I borrow some weight?”

“What do you want to do?”

“I'd like to make some pull-ups, and I'd try with some added weight.”

“Wow, wow. You could make some tendi... tendo...tore your elbow tendons if you try too hard.”

“Oh, come on, Daniel, she's good; she can do better one arm push-ups than you!”

The name Daniel shrugged:

“She has less weight!”

“Yeah. You can do only eight. She did ten!”

Daniel shook his head and turned to me:

“Look, there is no weight here that you could tie to you. I use Helen for the push-ups but not for pull-ups.”

“Helen?”

Do they have a weight called Helen?

“I'm here! Do you want my help with the push-ups?”

Helen, the thin Helen from my class, was here, reading a book on a mattress tower. Only now did I see her as she waved to me.

I laughed:

“Yes, please! I already ate your lunch; part of the work is done!”

She giggled and came, putting herself on her belly over my back.

“Do you think you can push me up?”

“Let's see.”

As I was just making my push-ups with Helen lying over me, I heard a known voice behind me.

“What are you doing to my girl?”

I did not have to turn my head to recognize him.

“Joe? You fucking idiot, you left me alone with that bastard at Tim's party!”

Oh, mama! Joe came to meet me exactly when Cala was in the lead, and my memories are Cala's memories. She knows what he has done. I was desperate but could not silence her. His face contorted when he heard that.

“Uh, oh, that hurt Doll, but I guess I deserved it...”

I heard Helen from my back commenting:

“Huh, it's getting hot up here; I feel more energy in her push-ups since you came, Joe. What have you done this time?”

He stood there watching how I was scrambling to do another push-up. He finally spoke:

“It was another situation like the one Simon had a couple of weeks ago.”

I wondered who Simon was?

“Simon?”

“Yeah, here!”

Oh, I got an instant answer; the second guy waved his hand. So, Daniel and Simon. At least now I know their names. I suppose I should have known them, as they know my name. They both must be in the same class with Joe. Why do I wonder? Dolores lives with her head in the clouds.

As Helen had only said 'oh' and did not comment further, I had to ask:

“What was that situation, Simon?”

He sighed:

“A crazed guy had thrown red paint over Kate's new leather jacket. I punched him in the nose, he flew backwards and broke something, and now I'm banned from all sports events. They want to push me out of the football team” - he shrugged and turned to Joe - “What was it in your case?”

I suppose Kate was his girlfriend or sister, but I did not ask listening to Joe:

“A crazed from the Heatvy school. Probably because we won the last game and I scored. I suppose that he wanted to provoke me; that's why he attacked Dolores.”

That was totally wrong, but what conclusions can he reach when his world revolves only around his ego?

“Attacked Dolores?” - he looked at me - “is the guy still alive?”

Joe also had to ask:

“Right, what did you do? You were suddenly nowhere to be found?”

I shrugged and answered, ashamed. Yeah, Cala is ashamed:

“I ran away.”

Simon laughed:

“I guess he was lucky.”

Joe looked at me:

“Did you know him?”

“No”

“Somebody said that you recognized him and called his name, but I see I was right; you did not know him. That's what I also told the cop who came asking questions.”

There was a mess in my head at this moment, Cala was speaking to him, and I was talking to Flo:

“I did not say his name. You screamed a warlock!”

She protested:

“I did not scream; I was surprised but merely observed.”

“Observed? Observed with a loudspeaker? The whole shit would not have happened if you had kept silent!”

Cala only shrugged, and that made Helen giggle in my back:

“Another one? Come on, you can do it!”

She had obviously exercised with Daniel. To please her, Cala pushed another push-up. Meanwhile, Joe turned toward the boys:

“I am with some guys outside; we want to play handball. Could I convince one of you to come? We are missing one to play five against five.”

Daniel shrugged.

“If we go, we go both.”

Then Simon had the idea:

“You know something? We could take Dolores too, then we play six against six?”

A surprised Joe turned to me.

“Do you play handball?”

I did not have to answer as Simon did:

“I saw the girls playing; she is good. Maybe better than you!”

“Oh, come on, don't exaggerate!”

“Helen, you do not play?”

Helen answered from my back:

“No, I'm with the book, but I'll acclaim when you score!”

And that's how I ended up playing handball with the boys. Helen was happy to move outside and read her book there, so Simon closed the sports hall.

We played for some two hours, and I was in the ninth heaven! I was reconciled with Joe and felt OK. Cala was happy that she did her sports, only Flo was angry that we let Joe escape too easily from the blunder with the warlock.

It was evening when I walked back home, but I made a small detour to a construction shop not far away. I had seen some advertising for tools, and one of those caught my eye: a battery-powered circular saw to cut stones. It had a ten-centimetre wide disk and should cut any stone. My horns should not be a problem.

Plus, it was now in sale, the price reduced by half, it would cost me only fifteen and I had the money in my pocket.

OK, there was another ten to pay for the battery loader, which reduced a bit my enthusiasm, but I bought it. No horns, no problems, isn't it? After that, I could even come closer to somebody. Maybe even kiss someone, Joe, for instance? Who knows, did he not say: my girl?