“You can see him?” I asked in surprise.

  “How can we not see him? He’s fucking huge!” Amelia hissed. “What is he?”

  “One of my imaginary friends… Hairy,” I explained blankly as my brain tried to process this new development. “You can see him?”

  “Yes, Tamera,” Olivia replied quietly. “He looks like someone made a highland cow mascot costume.”

  “Highland bull, thank you very much,” Hairy declared. “I’m Hairy, nice to meet you!”

  The two girls looked at me, bewildered.

  “Don’t look at me, I don’t know what’s going on any more than you do!” I exclaimed before shaking my head and turning to the bull. “How long have you been able to do that?”

  “I dunno, I just knew that I could,” Hairy replied. “You always wanted to keep us a secret before, and now that you’ve met some friends that you trust enough to tell them about us, I wanted to introduce myself.”

  Olivia shook her head for a moment, then turned towards Hairy, smiling. “I’m sorry for being rude. I was just a little shocked by your sudden appearance. I’m Olivia.”

  “Nice to meet you!” Hairy exclaimed, reaching out his cartoonishly large hand. When Olivia reached out to take, she just passed right through him. “Oh, right. Immaterial. Dang it.”

  “What are you?” Amelia asked, making sure she stayed well clear of Hairy’s hand.

  “I just told you, I’m Hairy,” the bull replied before leaning closer to me and stage whispering, “did I not introduce myself right? It was my first time.”

  “I’m sorry, Hairy’s always like that. All my friends are. I’m rarely able to get a straight answer out of them,” I explained.

  “Hey! That’s not true!” Hairy exclaimed.

  “Then why did you stick around the Rupture after it collapsed, and where do you go all the time?” I asked, turning towards the bull.

  “I had work to do…” Hairy replied, pulling back and looking away.

  I looked back towards my friends and waved my hand towards the suspicious bull. “See!”

  “Yeah, he’s quite the character,” Amelia smirked. Even though she seemed cautious around Hairy, she didn’t seem to be afraid of him. “He’s really been following you around since you were a kid?”

  “Hairy showed up around the same time that the other kids stopped interacting with me,” I explained, leaning back in my chair. “Angelica, Tyberius and the others showed up later.”

  “And are Angelica and Tyberius around right now?” Amelia asked.

  “No. Hairy told me he split up from them so that they could find me faster,” I explained. “I have no idea where they are right now.”

  “I do!” Hairy declared, jumping out of the chair and pointing towards the entrance. “They’re right over there!”

  I turned my head, following his finger, only to find my other two friends making their way through the doors.

  “Really, where?” Olivia asked as she squinted at the entrance.

  “You can’t see them?” I asked, surprised. “They’re right there!”

  “All I see is a malfunctioning disability door,” Amilia muttered.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Well… they’re down there,” I replied, slumping back into my chair. “I have no idea why you can see Hairy, but not Angelica or Tyberius.”

  “Probably because they don’t want to be seen! They don’t know you two are Tamara’s friends, and it’s safe to appear before you,” Hairy explained.

  “Wait wait wait…” Olivia exclaimed excitedly, leaning forward to get closer to the bull. “Does that mean you can CHOOSE who to appear to? You’re not visible to everyone right now?”

  “Of course not! Can you imagine what would happen if a giant red bull randomly showed up in the middle of the school? People would panic! I’m not that stupid,” Hairy replied indignantly.

  Olivia nodded in agreement, a small smile on her face.

  “That makes sense!” she exclaimed, before turning towards me. “Your powers… are… amazing!”

  “I’m glad you approve,” I grumbled. “I just wish I knew where my imagination ended and my powers began.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll help you figure it out. It’s the least I can do,” Olivia said, nodding excitedly.

  “Yeah… good luck with that,” Amelia said as she picked up her burger and took another big bite out of it. “I’d recommend not trying to figure everything out right here and now, though. We only get an hour for lunch, and that time is rapidly running out.”

  Olivia pouted slightly, but still picked up and nibbled on her food while I unwrapped my sandwich.

  I managed to get through a couple of bites of my meal before Angelica and Tyberius finally joined us.

  “Here you are,” Angelica cooed as she floated over and wrapped her tentacles around me. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

  “Yeah, I know, Hairy told me,” I replied between bites.

  Tyberius froze, and a shiver went through him, causing his body to rattle systematically. “Are you sure you want to be talking to us in front of other people?”

  “It’s too late for that,” I grumbled. “Hairy, let us in on a secret today. Apparently, you can appear before other people if you choose.”

  Angelica slowly withdrew her tentacles and hesitantly moved around to the side of the table. Although she moved as if she were regretful, I really wished she had a face right now so I would have something to help me judge her expression.

  “We kind of suspected we could, you could say we had a feeling about it, but we never had a chance, or reason to test it,” she explained. “I admit we should have told you earlier, but there wasn’t much reason to do it before.”

  “Look, I’m not mad about it. I just wish you had told me earlier, so I wasn’t so surprised when Hairy just went and did it in front of everyone,” I replied with a sigh. “You’re not hiding anything else from me, are you?”

  Angelica shuddered, her entire body jiggling. “Nothing you need to know right now. There is something… but it’s not the right place or time to discuss it.”

  “At least you admit there’s something else,” I grumbled. “We can discuss it later.”

  “Did… did you want us to reveal ourselves to your friends too?” Angelica asked after a couple of seconds.

  “That’s up to them,” I replied before turning back towards Amelia and Olivia, who were staring at me expectantly. It took me a moment to realize they hadn’t heard the question.

  “Did you two want to be able to see Angelica and Tyberius, too? I’d understand if you wouldn’t, but it might make me a little less insane when I’m talking to them,” I said.

  “Absolutely!” Olivia exclaimed. “I want to meet them all.”

  “I guess… I’ll admit I’m a little interested to see what other mascots you’ve got running around in your head,” Amelia admitted.

  “They’re not exactly mascots…” I began, but by that time it was too late.

  Amelia leapt out of her chair and took a couple of steps back before she stopped herself. Her eyes darted between Angelica and Tyberius a couple of times before finally settling on me. “Your brain is a messed-up place.”

  “I’m aware,” I replied before taking another bite of my sandwich. After I finished chewing, I placed the sandwich down on the cellophane and gestured towards my friends. “These are Angelica and Tyberius.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Olivia chirped.

  “Likewise,” Tyberius replied as he backed away and climbed up the wall behind me. “I apologize, ladies, I’ve only really interacted with Tamera until this point, so that I may be a little awkward at first.”

  “He’s shy,” I explained.

  Amelia slowly returned to her seat at the table, her eyes flicking towards Angelica and Tyberius. After a minute, a sly smile grew across her face. “An-jel-ica, the jellyfish, really?”

  “You have to remember that these guys have been with me for years now, and I named them whenever they first appeared. Hairy showed up first, when I was six, Angelica showed up when I was eight, and Tyberius when I was twelve,” I explained.

  “You said you had other friends,” Olivia said. “What happened to them?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know, they just seemed to wander off, or disappear one day, not all at once, of course, there were just several friends that came and went over the years. I’d like to know what happened to them, but none of them ever came back.”

  “Don’t worry, honey, I’m sure you’ll see some of them again, one day,” Angelicacooedd.

  I reached down to grab the remains of my sandwich when the bell went off. Amelia swiftly gathered all her garbage and shoved it in the nearest garbage can.

  “You'd better hurry, we only have two minutes to get back to class,” she said. She started to jog off, but paused and turned towards Angelica and Tyberius. “It was nice meeting you, I guess.”

  “Likewise!” Angelica called as the girl retreated.

  I shoved the last of my sandwich into my mouth, then met Olivia at the garbage can so we could dispose of our trash. As the two of us jogged to catch up with Amelia, I heard Hairy say, “I like the new girl. She’s nice.”

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