Before the Burn

It’s a really lovely morning and Ariki, one of the most popular seniors at his high school in the Unknown Zone, was already pretty optimistic about asking a girl he liked out later at lunchtime. He was even getting used to socializing with more and more new people as he passed by a lot of other people and most of them waved at him while some of others just threw a few light, playful shades at him and the rest just either kinda ghosted him or even got shy due to them being kinda terrified of even approaching him thanks to his social status. The young vampire bat humanoid was having yet another great day at school… So far.

He pushed up his round, thick glasses and exhaled a bit anxiously, trying to look brave and confident as he approached a human girl in the hall just as the bell rang. Being around one of the only very few humans and in love with one of them… Oh boy. It took him a few months to even confess to the girl that he liked her. Was he anxious already? He coughed, straightening himself up as he tapped on the girl’s shoulders, “Ahem, hello Alyssa,” He then grinned widely and waved at her and the girl even waved back at him,  blushing a little as she started playing with her hair anxiously. So, she’s anxious, too… Hmm, this shouldn’t be hard, I guess. Ariki thought to himself as he nodded and finally worked up the nerves to break the awkward silence by saying, “Alyssa… Will you go out on a date with me?”

“So what did she say, man?” A tomboyish spider humanoid asked Ariki excitedly, making the bat blush some. Ariki just smiled and nodded and a lot of his friends around him cheered him on. He chuckled lightly, still blushing as hell, as he was about to take a bite out of his oversized peach when the loudspeaker was sound.

“May I have your attention, please.” A strange, deep voice said, “Oh great, another announcement from Mr. Fatass himself.” A skinny Neon-Gothic moth humanoid whined and rolled her eyes. She was sitting at a different table along with the majority of other bug-based people. It seemed like they’re in some sort of cult... Ariki thought to himself and snickered a bit, feeling kinda annoyed by how hard those people were even trying to beat him on being popular but he ignored it anyway and paid attention to the announcement as the principal continued, “We have a new student coming here from Iceland but it seems that he would probably need some support from one of you to feel at ease. So… Be nice to him or else.” He made the last part sound very serious and he liked to stress it enough that people should be nicer to new students and such. “We will be celebrating with him and welcoming him at the gym tonight at 18:00 - Sharp.”

Ariki was already getting kinda excited about meeting the said new student but a small part of him was kinda hoping that he wouldn’t be just another buggy douchebag. He was sitting in the gym, surrounded by thousands of various types of students that came from all over the world and even other worlds. He watched as the celebration began and soon enough, a thin yet somewhat handsome butterfly humanoid walked in all dress up kinda as if he stole some clothes from a fancy gay human. “Is he…?” Monka, the spider humanoid from before, asked Ariki curiously, sitting next to him and her girlfriend, who was a purple flower-like alien. Ariki shrugged it off, not even bothering to really care that much anymore since it was just yet another butterfly and he had a slight dislike towards butterflies and moths thanks to his awful experiences with certain bullies at school.

The next morning, Ariki was walking to the school like usual but with his friend, Monka, being there to offer some support and encouragement in case he needed it for talking to Alyssa more. “Any idea of when should the date be, Ari?” Monka asked the bat and Ariki then tiredly replied, “Tonight. Since we don’t wanna make it too fancy or even go too fast, we already made a plan to go to the park near the school since she wanted to study for a bit more as well.” Monka just grinned deviously and started teasing him, “Study date, ha!” Ariki rolled his eyes and chuckled softly before taking notice of the new student arriving at the main entrance and just groaned, kinda forgetting that the new butterfly still existed. Though he still refused to socialize with the butterfly, he decided to keep it civil for the sake of not getting punished by the principal.

Later at lunchtime, Ariki walked into the café seeming to be even more tired than he was earlier and just sat down at his usual table with many others just talking all over him, even trying to talk to him but knowing that he was pretty tired they just sort of kept talking over him. The bat tried to eat but damn, he just didn’t want to for some reasons. “Alrighty, what got you all so tired, dude?” A shadow-based man asked him, seemingly concerned. “Fucking nightmare, man…” Ariki muttered as he desperately tried to keep awake but when he was offered a cup of blood from another friend of his, he nodded and thanked him before chugging it greedily.

He then noticed that the butterfly from before was sitting at a table… All alone. He was soon debating on whether to even bother approaching the kid and maybe giving him a chance. Eh, fuck it. He got up and went to the butterfly before hesitantly sitting down and clearing his throat awkwardly. “What’s your name, I’m sorry I must’ve missed a lot of things from the welcome party.” Ariki told him almost sarcastically. “It’s Ceras Wood… Nice to meet you, I guess.” The butterfly finally spoke up. “Hmm, that’s a nice name for a butterfly.” Ariki replied, trying to not sound like he was actually just throwing shades at Ceras. “Thanks, man. Look, I just need someone to give me a tour or something… It’s so overwhelming just trying to fit in and even know where to go and such… I knew very little about this world till my family just decided to up and put me here just because they thought I deserved ‘better’ than getting involved with normal society… Will you be my tour guide? I’m sorry if it’s a burden on you already, sir.” Ariki looked at him, feeling pretty bad for even judging him too quickly and slowly nodding a bit, “Deal, Ceras. Name’s Ariki and welcome to the Unknown Zone.”