Hearts Parade of a Lyrical Life

Parking Lot Persuasion

Tuesday, October 10th

When I approached the entrance of College today everyone seemed to be in high spirits, everyone except Ryan who stood moodily to the side with his arms crossed. Kayla was the first to greet me as she once again thanked me for my help back at her appeal, she must've sent me around 20 texts repeating the same thank you, but it meant a lot. Lucy too looked very grateful to have Kayla back, she had been worrying nonstop at the notion of Kayla being away even for a week.

Today in classes we had to present our poems, Grace and I had practiced our reading. Each stanza changed perspective between Grace and how Grace is imagining her Father to respond, so we read it out that way, with Grace reading her parts as herself, and I took on the role of her father.

We sat patiently and waited, listening to the other couple's poems. Kayla and Lucy went, writing a love story from the two lovers perspectives, it was really sweet and provided insight into how they had met, whilst putting it into a different otherworldly setting. I thought it would be nice to get their poem to analyse, except maybe a little on the nose in terms of its storytelling. It was still beautifully crafted and well performed, though Lucy seemed a little shy at her parts.

Grace and I went up and performed our poem. I could see Grace getting slightly emotional as we neared the end of the poem, she was fighting back tears as the reality of her thoughts seemed to have struck her. We walked back to our seats and I placed my arm around her, pulling her in for a secure side hug. Grace held my hands which had wrapped around her and smiled a quiet thank you to me while I felt her breathing deepen as she calmed down.

Ryan and his partner had an unusual poem. It wasn't clear what it was about on first listen, I would have to read it through multiple times before I understood. I felt bad for whoever would have to analyise their poem, surely there was alot to work with but that would also mean alot of work to do in general. From what I gathered just by listening, the story followed a new jester who seemed to have fallen in love with a princess, but it deviated. The ending is not a happy one, and I wondered what the true meaning or intention behind the poem were, maybe Ryans partner just really liked stories about kings and queens, it wasn't clear what parts had been written by Ryan and what hadn't.

When Ryan walked back up to meet us after his poem he looked slightly downtrodden, I considered that maybe he hadn't had much say in the final product which would explain his disappointment with it. He sat down next to me and looked away. I held his hand, "You did great." I reassured him.

Ryan looked back at me and frowned, he looked apologetic which only further confused me. I squeezed his hand and he stroked my hand with his thumb, it seemed to be more for his own reassurance than for mine.

————

Ryan came to Eden for Lunch since he was out of the band until further notice. "You have to promise you'll keep this place secret." Kayla insisted.

Ryan did a mock hand-on-heart and said, "I promise." He was making fun but his promise was genuine at the very least.

We walked him through the secret door and let him take in the surroundings, he gawked as the sun had just peeked overhead and was shining directly on the tree, making the whole place look even more wondrous than it ever did. The others were already sitting around on picnic blankets and all happily welcomed Kayla. Some of the members had brought together a whole picnic in celebration of Kayla's return.

The girl from Eden who spoke on behalf of the professor came over to Kayla holding a tupperware full of handbaked chocolate chip cookies, "I'm so sorry Kayla, he said if I didn't do it he would cut my grade, and I'm on scholarship." She looked genuinely remorseful.