The Promised School

Clear Coast

Emma collapsed on her bed and lay still. 

"Oh god I'm so tired! İts been such a long day!"

Norman staggered over to the closest bed and threw himself down.

"I'm mildly starving. Hey, Emma, you do know this isn't over yet right? The day, I mean. We have a lot to get through."

"OH great I forgot! We can't go to sleep yet"

mumbled Emma into her pillow. Her hair was messy and needed a wash; it stuck out in clumps and her skin looked pale against the dark sheets of her bed. Oh wait.

Emma didn't have black sheets. Emma had green sheets. Whaaa...

"Oh dammit, Ray's going to kill me!"

"huh?"

Norman turned on his side, and Emma was surprised of how much his blue eyes seemed to have got larger and brighter when his skin got paler. She sniffed.

"I said Ray's going to kill me. And I'm going to kill you !"

Norman sighed. "Don't be childish. I'm tired and I'm not moving."

"BUT THAT'S NOT FAİR!"

"Life... İsn't..."

"Yeah yeah, we all know."

Emma turned on her back and smiled. There on the ceiling was the scene of stars Norman and Emma had tried to paint for Ray on his 5th birthday, about around the time when they had moved from the orphanage. Back then, Ray had been depressed for some reason and Emma thought if he could see the stars he could make a wish to get rid of any thing making him unhappy.

Norman saw Emma blushing at the memory of her childish stupidity, even though she still beleived it, and started silently laughing.

Emma didn't notice.

At the time, Norman had been very sick, and it was hard for him to even climb on the bed. But one day when Ray was out reading under a tree, both of them climbed up on the bed.

"Come on Norman! We have to do this for Ray! He'll be so happeeeee, just think!"

"But... I can't get up on the chair! I can't hold you to get up on my shoulders! I can't..."

Emma dragged a chair up there too, then, reached for her sibling and best friend's hand.

"Don't be a dummy! You're going to paint the stars!"

Later, when Miss İsabella walked in she found two small children, one with white hair and pale skin and big, blue eyes holding a paintbrush and standing on the shoulders of a child with a messy mane of wild, bright orange hair, a confident look and a large, guilty smile, and she was standing on a chair which stood on a bed which belonged to the legendary moody Ray.

She screamed so loudly both the children jumped, wobbled, and toppled over onto the floor, Norman's paint brush first sweeping across the ceiling and creating a giant 'shooting star' as Emma called it, and then spraying paint over Miss İsabella as he fell.

And that was how Ray found them, and that was how he found his ruined ceiling. The only thing that he seemed to find amusing was Emma, Norman and Miss İsabella covered in white glow in the dark paint, and he turned the lights of and burst out laughing. 

Norman interrupted Emma's thoughts with a snort of laughter.

"WHAT!" hissed Emma. 

"Nothing. Anyway,I wonder when Ray's coming."

She ignored him.

"Hey do you remember that day? Ray wasn't the least bit grateful"

"What day?"

"You know what I'm talking about. You know, his birthday. 5th."

Norman smiled. "Mmm. Hasn't changed, has he?"

"No." Said Emma thoughtfully. "But then again, none of us have. You're still as weak as you were back then... Dummy!"

"AND YOU'RE STİLL AS RUDE!"

They broke out into a 'War of words', and Emma carried on talking about the past until Norman reminded her he couldn't take much.

"I'm weak, remember? I can't listen to this..."

"HA! LİAR! Oh well, what do YOU want to talk about?"

"Well... I'm worried about Ray. You know, he's acting wierd..."

Emma was about to reply, when Ray stormed in.

"Okay, the coast is clear. AND WHATS THİS ABOUT ME?"

He stared at them. 

Time stood still, and Emma braced herself.

Ray took a long, deep breath.

"EMMMAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOİNG!!!!!"