Ghosts {L.P.}

0:10

Ｐｒｏｌｏｇｕｅ

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||||။၊|• 0:10

"Mr Williams, you don't understand..."

"I understand perfectly, you think my daughter's crazy."

"No, that's not what I've been trying to say. However—" Riya stopped listening.

It had been a back and forth of arguing between the principal and her father for long enough for Riya to lose track of the conversation.

After all, how it started was significantly more interesting than the conversation happening in front of her, and it had something to do with the little girl in pigtails standing next to her.

Riya's father had told her to try to make new friends in school—which, for the record, was the sixth school in her life, all of which ended up kicking her out for the exact same reason her father and current principal were arguing about.

At first, making friends had been hard on Riya. Those she talked to in class already had their friend groups outside of class, and the ones alone in the halls were just waiting for someone else to show up. No matter how many groups Riya stuck herself to, she never truly found a way to feel included in them.

Until she met Lucy.

Riya had never seen Lucy in any of her classes, in the halls, and no one had ever even heard of her. Yet somehow Riya still found her on the playground during recess, staring aimlessly into space while sitting on the swings.

At first, Riya had found it odd how her baby blue dress and white shirt with puffed sleeves seemed impeccable even with the puddle of mud hovering under her polished black shoes.  But all she had to do was approach her, and Lucy turned out to be the nicest person Riya had ever met—even with her odd clothes.

The pair spent weeks playing together, from running around playing tag to swinging on the swings of the playground. Riya received slightly odd looks from her playing around, but she credited that to the fact of Lucy's odd choice of clothing instead of the fact that they had become such great friends.

But then Riya's bubble of happiness came crashing down on her as another classmate of hers asked where Lucy was. Riya told her Lucy was sitting on the swing right next to her, but her classmate kept refuting there was no one on said swing.

What was once an innocent question soon turned into a screaming match between both classmates as she kept calling Riya a lunatic. Likewise Riya would call her rude for trying to pretend like Lucy wasn't right beside them listening to every word that came out of their mouths.

That's how Riya ended up in front of the principal, her father fuming by her side as he kept arguing that Riya wasn't as crazy as she was painted to be.

"Mr Williams, I am just concerned for Riya's well-being, as are all the teachers and students. And at her age, talking to imaginary friends isn't exactly normal..."

"I didn't imagine Lucy! She's right here." Just to further prove her point, Riya pointed directly at where Lucy was standing by her chair, with the same scrunched up look of pure annoyance on her behalf.

"Riya, It's alright. I'm sorry I got you in trouble." Lucy—ever the kind heart—tried reassuring Riya, a sad smile on her hung head filled with shame, her hand hovering above Riya's shoulder.