Rewriters [Completed]

Chapter 7: To the Future You

To call the children a handful would be an understatement. Kaleo's attempts to convince a few isolated ones to read a book were unsurprisingly failures as they snatched the book from him and ran away, laughing.

As time went on, they only grew more restless and rowdy. He had just barely stopped one from throwing a book when Mr Stanford, probably tired of the chaos, marched into the room and slammed a walking cane onto the ground. Everyone was effectively silenced and the situation somewhat calmed down.

Thank goodness, my eardrums were about to explode. Maybe I should take a break...

Kaleo felt a tug at his shirt and he looked down to find Hubert to be the cause. The child was holding a book, his head lowered out of embarrassment from the earlier incident.

"Mister... can you read me this book?" he asked softly.

"Sure," Kaleo said, giving him a friendly smile as he gestured for him to sit on his lap. "My name's Kaleo by the way."

Relieved that he did not seem to be mad at him, Hubert grinned and hopped onto his lap, handing him the book. "This is my favourite book, Mr Kaleo."

"You don't have to say mister," Kaleo mumbled as he looked at its title, reading it out loud. "Mr Bandage's Adventures."

How nostalgic...

It was his favourite when he was a kid too. He would always get someone to read it for him because he wanted to share the story with others. He wondered whether it was the same for Hubert.

As Kaleo started reading, Hubert listened attentively. Slowly, he found that he was beginning to enjoy it a little and was slightly disappointed when the story ended.

"He's so cool, right? The way Mr Bandage's cure-all bandage helped the boy with a bad stomach ache?" Hubert began enthusiastically. "He's a real hero!"

"You want to be like him?"

The child nodded without hesitation.

Kaleo put his hand on Hubert's head. "I wish I could too."

Hubert tilted his head to the side in confusion at his gloomy tone. Before he could ask, Kaleo stood up, effectively cutting him off.

"I'm going to check on a friend. I'll be right back."

He had not seen Lysa since Mr Stanford silenced the rowdy children. He assumed that she was reading books to the two kids who dragged her to one side, but he found that she was sitting behind a table of books where James was supposed to be manning.

A kid approached her, grabbing her right arm. "Miss...?"

Immediately, Lysa ripped her arm out of the kid's grip with a terrifying, panicked look on her face. It looked as if the grip had hurt her more than anyone expected. 

The kid walked closer to her, confused and apologetic. "I'm s-"

"Don't touch my arm," she spoke through clenched teeth. Kaleo froze; he never heard her in that tone before. Suddenly, he remembered who she was and turned pale.

Luckily, James intervened - again. He brought the kid away, whispering to them in a comforting voice. No one else seemed to have witnessed it, much to their luck.

Kaleo rushed to Lysa's side. "Lysa-"

She flinched away from him. "Don't touch me."

He stopped. "I won't," he reassured her over the pounding of his heart. "Do you want me to look at your arm? It looked like you were hurt-"