Arthur & Friends and Continuing Adventures

#8 - The Dream

Brain and Lucia

Brain and Lucia are working together on a puzzle of the golden gate bridge at Brain's house on the coffee table in his living room. As they worked on the puzzle, there was a question that has been gnawing on Brain's mind.

Brain: What's it like going to the 'Boarding School for Intelligent Children'?

Lucia: It was fine. I made some new friends. But the school wasn't anything like Pigblisters. I thought all boarding were like that. But I got used to it not being so magical. I learned a lot more than I would have if I stayed here.

Brain: Didn't you miss your friends back at home. As in here?

Lucia: Well, I didn't have any friends. Except for my dolls and stuffed animals, but I brought those with me. My only friend I had was George. And I missed him a lot.

Brain: Are you a little young to go to boarding school?

Lucia: Aren't you a little young to work at your parents ice cream shop...alone?

Brain: You do have a point. But you were away from your parents, your brother, and your home.

Lucia: Yeah, it was tough at first. But it was a great opportunity for me, and I had to take it.

Brain: You could have denied it.

Lucia: It wasn't just a great opportunity. I had to take it.

Brain: What did you mean?

Lucia: In school I was suffering. In pre-school everything was too easy for me...not challenging enough. So my parents took me to the 'Pre-school for Gifted Tots,' and I got in. George was upset that we weren't going to the same pre-school anymore. But even that school was too easy. I wanted to skip a few grades, and go to high school possibly. But my mom wouldn't allow it. So she homeschooled me.

     On our birthday, when George and I turned eight, I decided to tell my parents that I wanted to go to the 'Boarding School for Intelligent Children.' George wasn't too happy about it. He was so unhappy that he didn't say goodbye to me.

     The school was great, even though it wasn't like Pigblisters and I wasn't able to learn magic. I got used to that part. But I never got used to not being around my parents, and George. They came to visit from time to time. It wasn't that faraway. The school is only in Crown City. When they first came to visit, George and I patched things up and he said goodbye that time. But he was still upset about me leaving.

     During the school break, around April, I was back home and we went to the Sibling Festival. It was loads of fun. But after it was over George tried to convince me again to come back home. I got angry at him, and told him that he was being selfish. Then he said that I was selfish back at me, and then...I went back.

     My mom drove me, and George and I were still mad at each other. After I was done at my first year at boarding school, I went to the summer camp that the school had. I didn't want to go, but I wanted to do anything to avoid seeing and talking to George again. So after the boarding school summer camp was over, I begged one of my friends and my parents to stay over at her house for the summer. Luckily I gave them enough good reasons to get them to agree to it. 

     Weeks before I came back home I regretted ever leaving George for a boarding school. I have a feeling that George felt like I chose a boarding school over him. I chose my Dream...The Dream over my twin brother. And we still haven't spoken to each other properly in weeks.

Brain: So the right choice was to stay here, with your brother George?

Lucia: There isn't a right choice. There was two choices. Stay homeschooled and never go to a boarding school to make George happy, or go to boarding school and make him lonely in order to make me happy. Me leaving him is the reason why he made that ventriloquist dummy.