I woke Nathan up who was silently sleeping on my shoulder, and was tightly hugging my arm. For the past half hour, I already felt the pain of his firm hug even though he's asleep. We reached the cram school across the other town to avoid other familiar classmates. In this school, Nathan and I enrolled in Advanced Tertiary Course with Language, Advanced and College Mathematics with several of its branches, Science Classes, and World History. We just caught up with what were the subjects offered to us back then, maybe because only a few enrolled to these classes and we preferred fewer classmates. Most of these few students are university students taking special classes for their courses.

Pia was already in the room for the cram school. She also enrolled in the same classes with us. He was invited by Nathan, and he immediately agreed to join us. Pia is also our childhood friend, and she has been our classmate ever since she moved here, that was when we were in our 3rd grade in our junior grades.

"Here. I reserved a good seat for the two of you," she invited us. Nathan greeted her with a big "Hi, Pia!" and sat beside her.

I can still remember how Nathan, Pia and I met.

I just came back to the room after buying some drinks for Nathan during our afternoon break several years ago when I saw him playing a board game with a girl. The game seemed very serious that time that both were very focused on the game, no one was even talking. I continued to observe them until Pia said, "We have been playing for how many rounds already and you always win. Am I playing it, right? Can we start again? Please teach me how to play it properly."

Nathan answered Pia with a blank face, while Pia looked annoyed and said, "I can't win this. Let us play another game!" she said at a high pitch. But Nathan, again, replied with his usual deadpanned face.

He turned his head from left to right, and back. He was looking for something or someone. When he almost hit the spot where I was sitting, I pretended to be reading a Peter Pan book.

Being a chatterbox, Pia never ceased on talking, "Do you want to play outside or let us read books in the library," while grabbing Nathan's hands. "Oh. I know, let us have some snacks!" she giggled.

Nathan ignored Pia and was still looking for something. From where I was sitting while peeping at them, I can see a huge question mark on Nathan's facial expression.

"Ad!" Nathan shouted and ran towards me, almost pulled out Pia who was grabbing him. He threw out the Peter Pan book I was reading and embraced me.

"Hey. Hey." I was surprised. "What are you doing? Are you okay?" I was pushing him away but he was gripping me hard. He was sniffing and blubbering. "You're crying?".

He lifted his head and looked up at me. He's eyes turned into a river where tears never stop falling. He's snot is running through his nose. "Pia is angry at me because she kept losing in our board games," he complained. "She's no sportsman! She keeps yelling at me every time she loses!"

I noticed that Pia is indeed outspoken and a chatterbox. She never ceased to talk, hum songs, say irrelevant words with either a very loud or a high-pitched voice. This attitude of her made Nathan think that she's angry at him. Nathan isn't well in handling conversations where the persons he's talking to is yelling or has a higher tone. He always thinks that person is angry and it frightens him.

"Really?" I just asked tapping his head.

He answered by nodding his head. "She keeps on saying things against me, and in front of me!" Nathan sobbed. "Keep her away from me. I don't want to be with her anymore," he added whimpering.

Pia had a puzzled look on her face staring at us.

"What do you mean? She was just ... "

"What?" he interrupted. "She -- she was yelling at me!" he stuttered.

I held his face with my two hands and squeezed his cheeks. "What a stupid kid," I whispered to myself. I looked him in the eye and said, "She's not angry. She just has a loud and high-pitched voice."

Nathan started wiping his tears. "Really?"

"Yes." I replied. "Remember KoKo Girl? The cartoon character you always watch after class when we were in Kindergarten?" He nodded his head and cleared his face. KoKo Girl was a character in a cartoon series which aired for a year. The plot focused on this girl who always seeks for attention from her family and friends, which led her to naturally develop a loud and high-pitched for her to be always noticed. And for a couple of hours I was observing them, especially Pia, I can compare her to being KoKo Girl. "She might actually be a living KoKo Girl," I thought.

I squeezed his cheeks again, tapped his head again and smiled at him. "Pia is just like KoKo girl who always love to shout because she seeks for attention and always wants to be noticed." I thought that I can just tell him this logic so he can comprehend more easily. Knowing Nathan as very caring, sensitive and sympathetic, he would be able to understand and believe on what I am saying. "So you better treat her well and be a good friend for her. Okay?" I smiled.

"Uh-huh."

"Go wipe your face and be looking good. It's a shame your crush will be seeing you this ugly and a crybaby," I jested.

"What are you saying? She's not my crush," he said while he's clearing tears.

Nathan confidently stood and walked towards Pia. Pia greeted him with a smile. I, sitting on where I originally was, was looking at him. "Pia, we haven't formally introduced yet," Nathan said without blinking an eye, not even looking at Pia. "I am Nathan Michael Zairre. I just turned 7 years old. I love listening to music and reading books, but because I can't understand articles very easily, I need to read them more than once. White is very soothing on my eyes ..."

He almost wanted to tell Pia every single detail about himself when I interrupted, "You're becoming unseemly. Stop it."

He stopped, "Oh. Really?" He laughed. Then Pia burst into laughter also making the room filled with cheerfulness. It was a very genuine and happy memory.

Even though it was a happy memory, it will always be one because as of now, our lecture for today has already ended.

"The class' mock entrance exam is scheduled on the last Saturday of next month. The institute will be posting the timetable for each subject by next week," the lecturer remarked. Our cram school classmates were preparing to leave.

"Hey, Pia. Have you had your dinner?" invited by Marcus, a Chemistry university student. "Cresse and the others will be eating out tonight. You can join us," he invited.

I was just staring at them while I tucked my stuff in my bag.

"Pia, Adrian and I will be eating out, too. Want to eat with us?" I already sensed Nathan's competitive invitation. "Right, Adrian?"

I nodded to mean yes. Nathan's too protective or just being jealous; I don't know. I went back to what I was doing, packing books and pens.

Pia politely smiled at Marcus. "Yeah, I forgot. Nathan and Adrian invited for a dinner tonight. I can't tonight, Marcus." Pia gently declined. "How about next time?"

"Why don't you guys join us? It'll be more fun." Marcus insisted.

"Oh we love to." Pia coyly said. Her kittenish behavior shocked Nathan, while I was expecting that response from Pia, who is a timid, reserved yet very playful kitten. "But we'll really have to say no." Pia went to her usual pageantry-beauty self. "I'll be meeting Nathan's mom tonight."

"Oh. Get-to-meet the parent, eh?" This made Marcus to stress more on his invite. "Okay. We'll just see you guys, then. Adrian, bye," Marcus and some other classmates left for their dinner.

"Get-to-meet the parent?" Pia chuckled. "That wasn't easy." she sighed.

"The three of you," the lecturer called, whom we thought, has already left. We lent ears and attention to the lecturer. "The institute head decided that you, guys, shall take the four classes - Free Course, Intermediate, Tertiary and Advanced Tertiary."

"That's too much," Nathan tittered. "That isn't nice."

"Uh-oh." The lecturer seemed surprise. "I believe that before you signed in for this course, you agreed that scope of your lessons will be for the entire course institute since you all are under pre-requisites. And I was informed you agreed."

"I did." I said. "Yeah, we were told of this arrangement."

"Yeah." Pia agreed. "Only that I haven't reviewed other courses' lessons yet,' she said rubbing her head. "It's a huge problem." She looked at me and snickered. I replied her gesture with a smile.

Nathan, on the other hand, seemed puzzled, "How come I did not know that? I can't even recall this was discussed."

"You told me to handle our application. I might have just forgot to tell you," I remarked.

"Nathan's ignorance aside, you'll all be taking the exams on all the Saturdays of next month," the lecturer broke the schedule into bits which led us no option but to exhaust all the reviews we can have for the cram exams. "See you next week and keep posted on the schedule," he said as he bid goodbye.

"So let's have dinner." Pia invited.

I just want to make up with Nathan tonight, for what I did wrong this morning. But I just can't say no to Pia. She's a very good friend. "Sure," I just said.

"There is this noodle and Chinese house on the Barkhor Street. Let's eat there." He was inviting excitedly since he loves Chinese dishes a lot.

Pia has her car which is driven by Uncle Yohan, their long-time driver also, like Uncle Johnny. We just agreed to meet at an address that Nathan gave. When we arrived at the food place, I saw how surprised Pia was. The place is no high-end restaurant. It is an average Chinese food stall. "We're here. I really want to try it here. I've read a lot of great reviews of this." Nathan seemed very thrilled in inviting us in.

"Oh wow! Let's go!" Pia rushed in enlivened. The tow of them were laughing looking so yearned for food. "Adrian, hurry!"

Nathan loves inviting us to different places where there are great meals. And he, in fact, knows where the great and mouthwatering food are - from fine dine Michelin Star restaurants to street food stalls on the nearby villages. Sometimes, we invite Pia; and sometime, we just go roam around together.

We eat up, and binged into several more plates. I could see how caring Nathan is to Pia. He offers her food, soup, and even sauced up her dim sums. "Do you want anything else?" Nathan asked Pia. "Dessert?"

"I'll have Red Bean Mooncake and Tong Sui."

"That's some big stomach to feed, uh?" Nathan commented.

They ordered the dessert and continued being kind-a sweet together. We had some old-great stories told and jokes punched at each other. Just seeing these familiar faces enjoying a normal meal while recollecting what we'd been through looked different. Bygones can never be bygones for us; be it like a bitter arugula tossed with olive oil or a sweet tong sui, each experience is a memory worth re-telling for a hundred times.

The warm meal is embraced by the warm atmosphere. The delectable meal is tattooed not only in my pallet, but carved in my memory as another experience I shared with these two good old friends. It was a full-packed night, and the night ended so fast we went home after dinner.

I went straight to my room, so as Nathan to his. I prepared myself to sleep - washed myself, brushed my teeth, and rolled over my bed. I dimmed the light and reached the book on my lamp desk. As I might have not told everyone, I love reading fictional books, and for now, I'm quite fascinated with the stories of Warlocks and Witches.

While I was indulged with the story I am reading, Nathan broke into the room with his keys of my lock cuddling his pillows. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"I had a nightmare," he said sluggishly and restlessly asleep. "Let me stay for the night here," he pleaded crawling under my sheet.

"Hey, hey." I was trying to stop him. "You can't. I don't want to."

"Please," he whispered, then fell asleep.

I did not notice that it was almost 3 in the morning since I was too hooked in reading the novel. I rolled up the sheet and laid on my side looking at Nathan, who, was facing me. As I was about to close my eyes as I become more languid, Nathan suddenly become somniloquous and uttered "Isn't it delicious here? Let's go back here again." I was quite surprise to hear it from him. I thought I had to smile because of his unwitting invite. "Just the two of us," he added. What he said cleared away my sleepiness. Then he slightly opened his lips, smiled and has more to say. These two more words completed his thought and it pierced through me.

"Right, Pia?"

***End of Chapter I***

>.<

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~Nathan_Michael 💞