Ron

Under the morning sun, which stung my usual tranquility, I walked with measured steps, my eyes buried in the pages of my book, trying to summon the logic that the world around me lacked. Beside me was her, the moving "mass of chaos" who had invaded my life since I was nine. I moved to this neighborhood nine years ago, coming from a cold, quarrelsome, and silent mansion, only to find a seven-year-old girl with a vibrant face bursting into my isolation. She and her father represented everything I lacked: warmth, simplicity, and dinners shared with genuine laughter, not rigid rituals. My parents demanded I be a machine, a perfect robot, while she stood up for me in the alleyways, forcing me to play despite my frozen indifference. Now, at eighteen, I'm still the one wearing the ice mask, and she's still that naughty fifteen-year-old who never stops chattering. "Ron! Are you with me or with the ghosts in this book?" She tugged at the hem of my shirt so hard it almost tore. I slowly closed the book and looked at her with my usual silence. She continued in a tone filled with feigned panic: "I'm going to get lost! I completely forgot that we have a math test today. I spent the night watching the stars and trying to convince the neighbor's cat to come into our house, and I forgot that equations are not solved with stars!" I sighed deeply, trying to hide a smile that was trying to creep onto my lips. I said in a calm and composed tone: "Mathematics, you fool, requires an organized mind, and your mind is just like your room... utter chaos." "This is no time for sarcasm!" She frowned, her face a familiar sight, "You're the genius here, do something!" I stopped at the school entrance, turned to her, and saw the worry in her eyes. Despite her annoyance, she was the only person who had seen me when I was invisible, and the only one who had never been afraid of my coldness. I reached out and ruffled her hair casually, a gesture that always calmed her. I said to her in a low voice: "I will explain the golden rules to you in these few minutes. Focus with me, I will not allow my only friend to be defeated by mere numbers." I walked beside her with a hidden sense of gratitude; in my dark and scattered world, she was the beautiful noise that always reminded me that I was still human, and not just a machine as my parents wanted.