Chapter 5- Making amends
I woke up in the place I always do, the infirmary. “Portia! You're awake!” I’m instantly greeted by a familiar voice and his familiar hug. All of this is so familiar because I'm a mess and end up in the infirmary near every day. “Why am I here? I wasn’t even all that hurt this time,” I rub my head in frustration and taste my own dry mouth. Ramos shrugs, “You hurt yourself a lot with all your fits. Be lucky you didn’t get any bad scars. They could’ve disqualified you,” I lay back down; I’m totally exhausted. If only angry me thought about how much the fury and turning purple thing takes out of tired infirmary me. Maybe she’d think about poor Ramos, who is sent by the watch supergiants to drag me here every time. Who willingly sits by my side and reads a book or some normal star shit like that. “Ramos, stop sitting here until I wake up like you do. Just take me here and go. Seeing you do all this because of me makes me upset, you know that.” “It shouldn’t, I’m your friend.” He always has been, since 10 years old. *10,000,000 in human years. He had always helped me when I threw some fit over some little thing, and put myself in danger. I started shivering. Solar flare 1, 2, and oh no! Storm.
*To stars, solar flares and storms are like fits of anxiety or crying. The energy that comes from them can be used in battle though. “Portia, Portia don’t cry! Oh I'm sorry I didn’t mean to make you cry. . .i’ll leave if you want me to!” I instantly shake my head so hard it makes me a bit dizzy. “No, no that’s not what I meant at all. I just. . .wanted you to be happy. And i’m always causing so much bullshit and. . .you’re too good for this Ramos; Is what I mean,” My hair starts to feel hot and my hands turn to purple lava. “Portia, don't stress out! I’m fine! You know I made the choice to- ""But why?” I hold my face in my hands. “Because. . .I swore to you I'd stay by your side. All those years ago. No matter what happens I'm not letting go of that promise, no matter what happens to either of us,""Even if they choose me to be supergiant?” Ramos pauses for a bit and looks into my eyes. There was nothing there but white anyway. I don’t know why he would. “Absolutely.” I start laughing, and he joins me.
. . .
I decided to avoid the communal part of the arena for a while. There are too many people there who seem to hate red and brown dwarfs too much. Braun decided to come out with me this time. I told him it would be good to meet with the other workers; Most of them were like us anyway. We stumble into a hallway with a lot of brown dwarf girls. Their heads all turn to us unanimously as we walk in. I felt out of place. “Oh wow. . .people.” A girl in the crowd says. Suddenly they all came running toward us, and by the end of it there were so many people around me I thought I might drown. “Where are you guys from? Can you stop for an interview? Are you here to watch, or work?” So many questions flooded my ears. After a while it just faded to ringing that made them hurt. I covered Vee’s, his face had just started forming and he was obviously expressing pain. “Don’t . . .swarm themm,” a girl said slowly and tiredly. It wasn’t loud enough though, and she was obviously paying more attention to her mobile projector. “Can you idiots stop harassing them!” A thundering voice rolled through the crowd and low and behold. . .it parted like the red sea. A girl just around my size walked through the clearing in the crowd and looked from side to side, inspecting the girls. Me and Braun stood at the end of the clearing. I hoped he too was wondering what the hell he got into. The girl finally stood before us and for some reason a gust of wind came and blew through the crowd. Her dress and curly pigtails were swept to the side, but she stood firm in her lace- up riding boots, and glanced to the left. “Lena,” “Yes, captain,” “Why didn’t you help these two?” “I was- I tried,” She said and bowed her head. “You have one of the loudest voices I've heard on the phone. Use it. Girls!” They all looked up instantly, and the general’s words were met with a unified “Yes captain.” “Can you interview someone without acting like complete barbarians?”
“Certainly captain.”
“So why not here? Why not now?”
The crowd erupted into a huge clutter of many words and sentences starting, but finished with a
“SILENCE!” From the captain. “Michia Luna. Speak to me. What happened here?” A small girl on the end of the right group bites her lip before choking out “Well, ma’am; We hadn’t seen anyone in so long. . .we just couldn’t help but get a bit excited-” “Excited isn’t swarming poor- what are your names exactly?” “Braun.” “Rayes,” My head naturally tilts down. I looked back up at the general and saw her death staring me with wide, round eyes. I quickly move my head back to where it was before. “Excited isn’t swarming poor Braun and Rayes. Apologize.” Another unison erupts; “Sorry Braun and Rayes”. “Sorry about that, and sorry my indolent sister couldn’t help you two as a vice- captain should when the main one is away,” Lena looks down. “My given name is Ricky, but this one here can refer to me as captain,” She points at Braun. “Is he working as an interviewer or announcer too? When will he start?” “Actually, no, I'm an announcer. Braun is a journalist. He was hoping to meet with some of the others, but offered to show me this place since I'll be announcing.” Ricky looks surprised by that. “Why would anyone like you want to announce? Why not be a journalist or something?” “Well, Sahl said-” “Sahl?The prophecy supergiant? How might you know her?” “She actually just so happened to be Braun’s mother star, but I met her almost right after I was born,” Ricky takes Braun by the hand and falls to her knees. “I formally apologize for telling you to refer to me as captain. As long as your mom hears nothing of it you can call me Ricky as well! Or maybe Rick for a nickname? Anything you’d like.” “Oh, that’s okay. You probably won’t see me around much anyway,” Braun laughs it off. “Oh, but I hope to! You must be quite excellent to be chosen as one of Sahl’s children!” “Oh. . .maybe. It was to prove a point though; But she did teach me a lot!” Ricky stands up, still holding Braun’s hand. “Then you may have a word for my incolent workers. Come, teach me some of these things Sahl told you! Both of you!” She drags Braun away and I follow close behind.
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On the way toward what seemed to be Ricky’s office, Braun tripped over Lena’s shoe.
“Oh, excuse me. Lena right?”
“That’s Vice Captain Lena to you,”
“Lena! You do know his mother star is Sahl right? What if he gets her to burn us to a crisp! Don’t you wanna live Lena? Don’t you wanna live!” Ricky takes Lena by the shoulders and shakes her violently.
“I don’t give a damn, he should show some respect. New recruits always do,”
“If you want me to call you Vice Captain I will, and my name is Braun. For the record of course,”
“Hmmm , this one talks too much. Think you’re better than all of us ‘cause Sahl’s your mommy?”
“Of course not Captain,”
. . . .
“Lena.”
Lena smiles and walks away. Ricky’s head turns violently from side to side in complete stress and anxiety. She looks at Braun, and cries. “I’m sorry for my sister's behavior! She’s just so rude and horrible! Please don’t tell your mother to fire us! Our planets will die without-” I give Braun a look and we both start laughing. My ribs start to tense up and hurt. “It’s okay, it’s okay. . . I like her,"he says.
Me and Braun have to pass through the communal area to get back to the suite. The mere thought scares both of us. I don’t need a Portia repeat, and neither does Braun. We walk without sitting down, looking at, or talking to anyone. Unfortunately, we ran into the yellow star from the hectic day before.
“Oh lord, not another conflict. Rayes, prepare yourself,”
“To do what? Curse somebody out, because i’m sick of thi-,”
“Hey, uh. . do you guys have a minute?”
The star from the day before stands before us, biting his lip. Was he nervous? I couldn’t tell, but I wasn’t sure what he was here for. Was he gonna try and scold us for arguing with Portia? Or try and attempt some sort of get back? I honestly didn’t wanna find out.
“Um. . . I just wanted to say sorry. For what Portia did. I know I can’t apologize for her or anything but, I wanted to say sorry for even seeing what happened and not breaking it up sooner.”
An apology?
“That’s new.”
“Oh, wow. Thank you so much for that! Not many people feel any remorse when people like us are mistreated, you know.”
“Yeah, thanks. . .Ramos, was it?”
“Yeah, Yeah. It’s no problem. I mean I always thought secretly it was wrong to act the way some people do toward the dwarf stars. I was just too pussy to speak up I guess,”
“Cool, cool, so what are you doing being friends with someone like Portia?”
“Oh, we've been friends for a real long time. She’s always gotten so worked up over everything. It’s a condition. Intermittent Overheating Disorder. Happens to a lot of blue stars actually. I just wanted to be there for her; All this time. But things have gotten out of control. Too much. I still wanna support her, but I have to make sure i’m not paying for her actions, or making others pay,”
“Good. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Stars just need to be nicer nowadays,”
“Agreed.”
“Agreed.”
Ramos tells us about a group of stars he knows that would be open to interviews. Braun has appointed me to do so and get him some material for his journalism work. I am stoked, to say the least. It makes me feel quite honored actually. Ramos is leading us over to the group of stars, but in the start of what will turn out to be a series of unfortunate events, we are stopped by-
“It is I, the great and loveable Alor. I wish to be interviewed,”
“By who exactly?”
“The little brown dwarf who is loved by Miss Sahl. You see, i’m not exactly on her good side right now-”
“His name is Braun. And he isn’t doing interviews, I am. It’s for his journalism work, do you still want to be interviewed?”
“Ehh, sure why not. As long as I've got something to do with one of her sons, I should be able to win Miss Sahl’s approval. We can start right-”
“Hey. . .I know this dude. He’s the guy who got caught switching up between Sahl and Mekomia. Now they both don’t like him,”Ramos squints to get a better look. “Yup, that’s him.”
“I won’t interview anyone who is or has tried to be on good terms with Mekomia, me and Braun came to this agreement already. Right Braun?” Braun nods his head in agreement.
Alor bites his nail and chews on it for a bit before speaking. “Blasphemy! You have no clue how hard it is to get the appeal of those supergiants! I haven’t the slightest clue how to behave in their favor! They naturally disliked me. Is that fair to an innocent contestant?”
“If Miss Sahl doesn't like you, I'm sorry but you’re the problem. And I’m saying that as her son,”
“Curse you! All of you. I will win the competition and prove to you all that I too can be a supergiant! I don’t need those two to help me anyway!” Alor storms off, so furious his pale yellow skin turned a shade of rose around his nose and cheeks.
“What a weirdo.”