Deals with Daisy // LN4

9 ~ The Saviour

Daisy's POV

I didn't like the UK when my parents moved us over so that my dad could work here. I was never close to him back in Italy and so I couldn't understand why we would bother to move for him when he wasn't around anyway. Then we got to the UK and I saw him even less, I was even angrier about the situation, especially when I was forced to go to school. All the other kids laughed and pointed fingers when I spoke, stumbling over words that were as foreign to me as my Italian was to them. Between that and my hair... the other kids never stopped pointing.

There was only one who didn't. A shy guy who was picked on a little himself because he wasn't always at school. One day he came to the bench I always sat on and I could see from the look in his eyes he was there to be kind... the first person who was nice to me.

When someone came over to pick on me, he just told them to go away. He was standing in front of me as I fiddled with my hair and watched with surprise before the mean kids wandered away, confused themselves.

"I'm Lando," he said, finally introducing himself after twenty minutes of silence and I look back at him a little uncertainly, too worried about saying something wrong that might mean he would walk away from me and the mean kids would come back. "It's okay to make mistakes... I'll help to teach you," he says softly and the look in his eyes compelled me to talk and so I did.

"I'm Astera Caterina Giovanna Valentina Rossi," I tell him, watching as his eyes go wide and he starts jumping up and down, his excitement infectious as he grins at me.

"That's such an amazing name! Do you know who Valentino Rossi is? He does motorbikes and I want to be him when I grow up!" He enthuses, every word running so fast from his mouth I have to work hard to try and figure out what it is that he's saying. Ultimately I decide that I have no idea and just shake my head as his eyes get so wide they look like saucers. "You have such a cool name!"

"I don't like," I tell him sadly and he just frowns at me like that's crazy.

"It's special! Like mine... and it sounds so nice when you say it... can you say it again?" He asks, still standing in front of me as I knock my feet against each other and try to figure out if he's making fun of me too.

"Astera... but people like yours..." I tell him quietly and he just shrugs, eyes sparkling as I said my name.

"I like yours... Astera... it sounds so cool..."

"No one ever say it right..." I confess, my eyes watering as I remember how the teacher had said it wrong when I first entered the classroom and everyone had ever since. "They don't get it..."

"Well... what does it mean?" He asks and I look at the flower currently crushed in the palm of my hand as I lift it up to him... unsure what to call it.

"Magherita?" I say the word I know for the flower, after which my parents named me as he looks between me and the flower confused.

"Daisy?" He asks, pointing at the flower and I run the word around in my mind before shrugging and nodding. "I like it... Daisy... that's what I'm going to call you now and I'm going to get everyone to call you it so no one else gets it wrong!" He declares before running away as I just watch him go, running like a madman from person to person, before eventually making his way back to me. Now bright red in the face and totally out of breath he presents me with a whole bunch of daisies he had picked from the grass around us triumphantly. "Here you go Daisy! Will you be my friend?"

I don't know what it was about the entire crazy interaction... I think some of the words only made sense to me now as an adult but even as a kid I knew he was extending a lifeline towards me. He was offering me a chance so the answer was simple.