Chapter 5: Chapter 5 – OVNIS, dinosaurs and a popular might-be-friend

Judith stood in the foyer of the apartment, one foot inside the house and the other outside, not sure what to do.

There weren't many occasions when she visited Gisela's building, and even fewer were the ones when she gave up waiting for her in the doorway and allowed herself to be convinced to go up to the apartment. But it was raining, and before she could make an excuse to say no, her friend had grabbed her arm and dragged her into the house.

This was going to be a Saturday of leisure, as they had planned to visit an Internet cafe and spend the afternoon playing video games online until it was time to go home. A hobby they practiced once every three hundred years, not because they were both too busy with their studies, but because Judith was an indoors kind of animal and always costed a penny to convince her to go out on her day off.

The fact, then, that she was now so uncomfortable in someone else's home was largely due to this fact. She wasn't used to visiting other humans, much less interacting with people she barely knew.

"Is it true that you study astronomy in high school?" A dwarf with spiked hair and a T-shirt that had an illustration of the protagonist of some trendy generic shounen anime had asked.

The kid couldn't have been more than eight years old and now he was standing in front of her, next to what seemed to be his younger brother, blocking her path.

Gisela had disappeared into one of the rooms with the excuse of looking for an umbrella and a different jacket, which she had previously forgotten because she didn't take the three seconds to look out the window and see that a tremendous storm was falling.

"Among other things…" Judith murmured slowly.

She had no siblings or little relatives, so whenever she met Gisela's cousins it was chaos. She had no fucking idea how to deal with kids, after all.

Was it normal for the random questions or…? Because they had caught her as soon as they saw her in the doorway, not that she would have given them anything beyond a courteous greeting.

“We have been informed and we know that the stars are like giant gacha balls.”

“How so?”

“Gacha balls. Those transparent plastic ones that have prizes inside” the boy proceeded to explain himself completely unnecessarily, while his little brother nodded as if that were a universal truth.

“I know what they are.”

“The stars are like those balls, but of a huge size and they are filled with water.”

“If that is so, why do we see them shine in the sky?”

Judith thought of asking better how it would be possible for a material like plastic to last in space for so many billions of years without decomposing and containing that great mass of liquid that they were talking about, but she preferred to ask the simplest question, fearing that they would not knew how to answer and throw a tantrum similar to the one they did months ago, when they had the misfortune to find there are no penguins in the North Pole.

“Rings, that's what we see.”

“Like the ones of Saturn?”

“No, rings like Chinese ones.” The boy looked exasperated, as if he was about to reprimand Judith for not paying attention in Social Studies class. “Have you ever seen those plastic ones that they sell, that you press a button and various colored lights come on?”

“And you say that it floats inside the stars and is what we see perpetually shining?” Judith inquired this more for herself than for Gisela's cousins, although they answered affirmatively in the same way, very convinced that their point of view was the correct one. “It's not bad thought. I mean, those rings are a compact mass of plastic, there's no way the water will get into them and screw up the light mechanism.”

“Right?”

Forgetting the skepticism of just a few moments before, now the oldest of the boys seemed proud of having brought up the subject of the stars.

"Out of curiosity, where did you learn such a thing?"

“On YouTube, on a channel of… eh… What was it like? Spirit-something and information about science and logic.”

Judith feigned pleasure at this and smiled as if she approved. Perhaps she would like to give a sermon about the fact that these platforms were a lousy place to learn about topics as serious as astronomy and other scientific subjects, but she thought she would look like a hypocrite, considering that she herself consumed a multitude of videos on said platform…, although from channels that were truthful and informative when dealing with these issues.

So she chose not to contradict the children, waiting for Gisela to reappear to ask:

“Have you shown them videos of flat earthers again?”

"It's fun." Noting that she had already taken everything she came for, and without arguing further on this matter, she proceeded. “Shall we go?”

"Just one more thing." Addressing the children one last time, she asked. “What about the sun? Is it also a transparent ball filled with water and toys with LED lights?”

“Of course not! The sun is a giant, flat torch that circles over the earth. Don't you listen to what the teachers tell you?”

Rather, it must be he who wasn't listening; Judith was quite sure that the subject of the stars, the arrangement of the constellations and such was something that had been taught since third or fourth grade, but she wasn't there to give lessons either. So, without further ado, she said goodbye to them and proceeded to follow Gisela to the elevator.

"Won't they be disappointed when teachers pull them out of that cloud and make them see reality?”

“They won't believe them." They think that teachers, politicians and even the butcher on the corner hide the reality of things from us. Because they all belong to an Illuminati sect that rules from the shadows and await their opportunity to conquer the world.”

"Do they even know what the Illuminati are?"

"Obviously, the ones responsible for the pyramid and all-seeing mystic eye on dollar bills! No one unwilling to seize control of the galaxy would design such a thing for a bill.”

Judith didn't want to say anything else for that line, it sounded too murky to her. Although she knew that Gisela didn't really believe anything she was saying: It seems that a year ago her cousins had been pestering her to accompany them to a dinosaur exhibition in another city. And, since she didn't want to go, she invented a paranoia that neither the Big Bang nor the dinosaurs existed.

She began by saying that it was all a marketing strategy orchestrated in the 19th century so that Hollywood would have an excuse to create the Jurassic Park movies and theme parks. And ended by saying that the Earth was a flat surface, a fact that all the governments of the world hid due to a matter of mass brainwashing and indoctrination.

At first, in short, it was all a joke so that they would leave her alone. Then it became a hobby to search for conspiracy material on the internet to support her rampages. Gisela was amused by her young cousins' reaction to her stories, so she saw no reason to stop.

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"It has nothing to do with anything, but I wanted to ask you a question," Gisela began again, once they had already left the building and were on their way to the Internet cafe. “About Leyre… What relationship do you two have?”

“What are you talking about?”

Judith obviously knew what she meant. Gisela may have been keeping quiet for the past few days, but after seeing her asocial friend repeatedly interact with—and even agree to be walked home with—one of the most popular girls in school, it was obvious she wanted to know exactly what was happening.

"You never let me walk you home."

Since everything was a gamble, Leyre had never made it to her neighborhood either. Much less to her apartment. But in the contract they made there was a clause that the entire deal between them should remain secret, so Judith couldn't confess this even if she wanted to.

Instead, she noted:

“We live in opposite directions.”

"And I wanted to see what a mess you have for a room…" she went on, ignoring the implied fact that Judith would have let her walk her out of school a little longer if they lived closer to each other. “Your notes are always a mess, so I don't think your room is spotless.”

“I guess we'll never know.”

“But back to Leyre…”

“We are friends.”

Gisela fell silent upon hearing this statement, as if she didn't believe it and was trying to assimilate it.

“You are always saying that it is difficult for you to gain confidence, that no matter how well you get along with someone, many months may pass before you dare to call someone a friend.”

Judith knew where this was going.

"You wouldn't use the term 'friend' lightly," Gisela finished, still thoughtful.

“I guess you're right, it's not in my character. I said “friend” because I think that is what best illustrates the relationship that we are trying to achieve, it is not that we trust each other so much or anything like that. Although I do have to say that we were in the same class for a year…”

"And did you get along well back then?"

It's true, Gisela still didn't go to that school when Leyre and Judith shared a class. Hence, she was not aware of previous adventures.

“We didn't get along badly.”

Judith tried to remember.

If I spoke to her, she responded. She was not arrogant nor did she participate in episodes of harassing the weakest, but it is not that Leyre took the initiative to approach her and strike up a friendly conversation. In fact, most of the memories Judith had of that course in reference to the bad girl was of the aforementioned girl sleeping it off on a desk at the back of the classroom.

Come on, she was not a person who bothered her, but neither did she ever arouse curiosity to meet her. At that time Leyre already had a group of friends and Judith was comfortable alone. She didn't need to think further.

"And why now all of a sudden...?"

“I think that would be more appropriate for you to ask her, don't you think? I mean, in this aspect I'm just as surprised as you. I have no idea why, out of nowhere, she decided to approach me.”

"I don't mean to be a doomsayer, but the fact that she acts that way is a bit…”

"Suspicious to say the least, I know, which is why I'm employing a strategy of not pushing her away and just seeing where she wants to go. Don't worry too much about the theme; if she doesn't convince me with whatever she proposes, I won't have any qualms about sending her to hell.”

"No, I don't care about that. Come on, you'll have no experience rudely pushing people away! Actually, and if I brought it up in the first place, it was because I wanted to make sure: If it's true that you're trying to be friends, maybe we could invite her to our hangouts.”

Gisela said this in good humor, without the slightest suspicion of a bet involved. Unlike Judith, who was serious about spending as much time alone as possible, she had a few more friends both in other classes and at other schools.

The fact that Judith had managed to attract the attention of another girl could only mean putting into practice the old saying "my friends' friends are also my friends."

"No, please," Judith asked hurriedly, perhaps fearing that if these two got together there would be no way to separate them.

Gisela was someone friendly and, although she had no problem meeting whoever she wanted, the issue here came from the fact that if she started seeing Leyre it was very possible that between the two of them they would manage to harass her to the point that she would begin to consider Seriously enrolling in extracurriculars in order to escape from their desire to go on a spree.

"You'll see how much fun it will be! Do you know if Leyre also watches anime? Maybe we could share opinions.”

“Actually, I have no idea.”

Leyre left the sheets with her questionnaire on Friday, but nobody had filled anything out yet. So they may have shared more minutes together than the entire school year in which they were in the same class, but the information they had about each other was still zero.

“Never mind, we'll find out. We have the whole course… Or until you get sick of her, at least. How's your patience, by the way?”

“For now, better than my wallet.”

Though Judith hoped this would change in a month.

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