lone star ✧

Chapter 3

Dreamspace

0:03 ──⊙──────── 5:24

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They start their lessons the week after. The warmer spring weather allows them to sit outside their school canteen during lunch, and instead of doing art, Raymond teaches Lucinda about English.

"Can I see the writing you did in class?" Raymond flips through her papers, searching for the right one.

"Yeah, it's in here." Lucinda takes the sheet out of the pile, handing it to him.

As Raymond checks up on her grammar, he hears a familiar voice.

"Hey, if it's not our one and only Raymond. Wow, what's he doing with a girl? He thinks he's better than all of us because he's not with us anymore?" Ben joked to his two friends.

"Thought you were an artist now, Raymond. You've turned to—" Simon grabs the paper from Raymond's grip, "English so fast?"

"Hey, give that back to me. Don't ruin it. And I don't do art," Raymond says in fury, standing up.

"We all know you do, you don't have to lie. And careful, girl," Ben addresses Lucinda, "You don't want to be with this piece of garbage right here," he says, pointing at Raymond. The three guys rip up the paper and leave, the pieces falling behind them.

Raymond picks them up quickly and sits down with a sigh. "I'm so sorry about this, Luce. I didn't think my friends would become bullies. They were alright before."

Lucinda takes his hand. "Hey, it's not your fault at all. And don't call them friends. They were definitely not alright and they treated you badly. You really deserve better. Don't worry about the paper. I can rewrite it for you." She leans forward and presses a kiss to Raymond's cheek.

Raymond spends the next ten seconds processing the kiss and another five seconds to learn how to speak again. Thankfully, Lucinda doesn't notice as she rewrites her paper. Raymond secretly prays that his flushed cheeks go away before they speak to each other again.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Another month passes. I am forced to hold back on the dreams for now, to give the students a chance to focus on their studies in preparation for their exams. But seeing how little Lucinda minds about school and how big of a heart she has, I follow her out of school one day, her ponytail and skirt flying.

She grabs Raymonds hand and walks as quickly as she can. "Come on, Raymond! You're helping me today. I have more jobs than usual, so please? Pretty please?"

Raymond already knows that she's giving him big eyes. Resisting the temptation to look, he says, "Alright, alright. Just don't go so fast, I have a stomachache."

They make their way around the neighborhood, arriving eventually on an antique-looking street.

"Here's where I live," Lucinda says, pointing to a small house with red bricks. "So, what we're doing today is helping the grandpas and grandmas! All of them live separately from their family, so my job is to clean their homes and help them feel comfortable and happy."

They walk up to one of the doors and Lucinda takes out one of her big stack of spare keys. "They can't get up to open the door," she explains. They step in, and the musty smell fills their lungs.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Lee! I brought my friend Raymond today!" She runs up and hugs the old woman, fixing her floral blankets to cover her entire body. The woman nods at Raymond and continues to watch television.