The Ogre 08 (Patreon)

One look at my baggy eyes could show how tired I was the next morning. I couldn’t fall asleep. The image of Holly dressed up all sexy was burned into my retinas. I may have… ahem… played with myself a little just thinking about her.

I was dragging my feet as I packed my and Holly’s lunches, stuffed my books into my backpack, and lurched toward school like a shuffling zombie. I hoped I could wake up by the time I saw her. I didn’t want her asking questions about-

“Man you look like shit!” I heard as a hand slapped me on the back from behind.

“YAAAAH!” I jumped in fright. It was Matt… again, sneaking up behind me. “Matt, what the hell? You don’t even take this route to school.”

“Not the point,” Matt said with a smirk. “So what, did Holly have you up all night doing chores?”

“No…” I said averting my eyes. “I was just stuck in my head.”

“Stuck in your head?” Matt said with a laugh before knocking the top of my skull with his fist. “There’s nothing in there though. Hollow. You can hear the wind whistling between your ears.”

“Hahah, very funny,” I said with a grumpy harrumph.

“You know what I think?” Matt said in a sing song voice.

I sighed heavily. “What, oh master detective?”

“I think you were up all night thinking about Holly!”

“WHAT!” My cheeks immediately flushed red. “N-no! Why would I ever stay up all night thinking about her!?”

Matt took out a notebook and started thumbing through the pages. “Let’s see here. One, you spend a lot of time with her. Two, I’m fairly certain you’ve developed Stockholm syndrome. Three, Holly’s a sexy mutant and you are a desperate nerd, you know, one of us. Simple math man. You’re gonna fall in love with her eventually.”

“I’m not falling in love with her, Matt!” I snapped back. “I’m just afraid. It’s like when you dream of your biggest fears.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night buddy, or I guess in this case, not sleep.”

I grumbled under my breath. Matt could be annoying when he didn’t know how to shut up.

“Aaaaanyway,” Matt said. “I’ve been looking into who could have it out for Holly, to see who might be running this ‘smear campaign.’”

“And?”

“Aaaaand? I’ve narrowed it down to… basically the whole schoo0l, including several teachers.”

“Lots of help you are,” I said hanging my head in sheer exhaustion.

“Buuuuut, if we narrow it down to just her recent victims, we have Billy, that girl with wings, and, hah, you, but you’re in love with her so…”

I shot Matt an icy cold glare of death which made him recoil in nervous fear.

“Er, I mean why would you be the culprit if you are having me look into it,” he said with a nervous laugh. “And the winged girl already got her revenge. Not to mention, the talk on the schoolyard is that she’s over it. She just wants to stay out of Holly’s way. That leaves us with…”

“Billy? Really?” That was a bit of a surprise. “Seems kind of cowardly, even for him.”

“Not according to my profiles,” Matt said flipping through his notebook again. “He only ever targets people weaker than him, and always in a group. Classic mob tactics. He’d never go up against someone who had a chance of taking him on. Holy must have dealt a blow to his pride.

“Huh…” I said, pondering the facts as we walked. “Well what about-“

He was already gone, taking off ahead of me. “See ya at lunch!” he shouted as he ran off into the distance.

… Why was he walking on my route anyway?

When lunch time rolled around I started looking for Holly to give her her meal, and it wasn’t hard to find her. I turned the hall and saw her standing in front of the winged girl that me and Matt were talking about earlier. She was tall, but not as tall as Holly and her wings were covered in vibrant colored feathers, though they were compacted tight to her back.

“I wonder what’s going on…” I muttered to myself.

“Oh my god! Holly’s gonna wreck her!” Matt said stepping out of the locker that was right next to me!

“Matt!? Jesus Christ what were you doing in there?”

“Not important,” he said pulling out his phone. “I’m gonna record the fight just in case we have to testify in court,” he said pointing it toward Holly.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a fight man,” I said pushing his phone down. “Though I can’t help but feel bad for the girl. She got pushed around and I’m sure Holly doesn’t even know her name.

“Angela,” Matt said.

“Angela?” I replied. “Wait, how do you know?”

“I know everything,” Matt said with a grin.

“But… earlier this morning you just called her ‘the girl with the wings.’ Why didn’t you tell me her name then?”

“You never asked,” Matt said with a shrug.

“Angela huh… feel like that’s a bit on the nose. Oh wait! She’s coming this way!”

Holly and Angela exchanged a small nod to each other before Angela left for a class. Holly, on the other hand, turned my way.

“I don’t like it when worms spy on me,” she said with a small growl, slowly walking over.

I came out from behind the row of lockers. “I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to snoop.” I said profusely apologetic.

“We?”

“Yeah me and-“

… there was no sign of Matt. He was already gone.

“I mean… well… I didn’t mean to snoop.”

“Hmph,” Holly said crossing all four of her arms. “Well, it was nothing so I guess no harm no foul.”

I didn’t expect that. Usually Holly would grate my face on the lockers for even coming close to listening in without her permission.

“So uh… what were you talking about?” I said, poking the sleeping bear.

“Featherhead over there just wanted to apologize for earlier. She made it clear to me that she had nothing to do with the posters.”

“That’s it? You guys were talking for a long time.”

Holly rolled her eyes. “And I guess… I may have… apologized for going a little too far by plucking her feathers.”

I smiled. It was nice seeing this softer side of-

“STOP!” Holly shouted.

“What?” I said defensively waving my hands in front of me.

“I know what you’re thinking. ‘Oh how nice it is that the big Ogre can apologize and be kind.’ Feh, If you think for just a second that this makes me soft, I’ll tear off your legs and shove them up your ass. I’ll make you your own leg popsicle, you hear me, LEG POPSICLE!”

“I… I swear I wasn’t thinking a thing!” I said in abject terror.

“You never are, worm.” Holly said with a knowing smirk. “Look, I’m tough but I’m not an asshole. If people don’t screw with me I won’t screw with them. So if she didn’t deserve what I did to her, she deserved an apology, simple as that.

“Wait, but you threatened me before I did anything to you!”

“Not true. You were gonna play the “My Fair Lady” game with me, get to open me up and be all nicey nicey, and like I said before, that’s not me. I like who I am.” She pushed me up against the locker and grinned. “But I suppose it was a small blessing. After all it’s pretty fun to have you as a pet.”

I gulped down my own fear and… excitement. “W-well I’m glad you made up with the winged girl.”

“Angela.”

I gulped again. “What?”

“Her name is Angela. Geez, you can at least try to remember your classmate’s names.”

“Right… right… angela…” I said with a nod. She let me down off the locker.

“Anyway, enough about that,” Holly said. “What about you? You look like shit today.”

“I… didn’t get much sleep,” I said panicked. “I was… uh… watching anime!” It was the best excuse I could come up with.

“Just anime?” she said leaning in with a scowl on her face.

“Just anime! W-what else could it be!?”

Holly sighed and hung her head in disappointment. “God you really are a nerd. Well I hope your late nights of being a loser hasn’t sapped your strength for today.”

“W-why what are you teaching me today?” I asked.

“How to take kicks,” she said with a far, far too happy grin.