Chapitre 68: "Little Lia's Mutant Friend-2" (SPECIAL CHAPTER)
"I'm okay…" The boy with the face mask said. He was frequently fixing his mask.
"What's your name?" she asked. She was very curious what his sickness was, and why he had a face mask at home.
"I'm Leo…" the six-year-old Leo Vayneseed said. He was shy, because it was his first time talking to someone of his age in a close distance.
"My name is Lia!" Lia said enthusiastically. She wanted to have a new friend, "Wanna play some game?"
"What game?"
"Anything you like!"
"Hmm…" Leo looked around the living room. He then peeked through the shelf, "How about chess?"
"Chess?" Lia didn't know how to play chess. She was not really into board games, and she liked outside activities more, because it was what her parents taught her - to go out and play with other kids. Still, the boy in front of her looked sickly, and she pitied him. It must be boring to be cooped up at home. She told him, "Teach me how to play!"
Leo nodded, and a smile formed underneath his mask. He reached out to his mother's old chessboard and placed it on the floor. He and Lia sat in front of each other, and he started teaching him the basics.
Everything that Leo had been saying was fresh to Lia's mind. She had been waiting for something to ignite her bored brain, and chess was a good way to pass time.
While the two kids played with each other, Lissandra and Allen talked to each other while standing near the door.
"How's Laura?" Lissandra asked. She and the Brentvale couple had been friends ever since that fateful day at the hospital where Leo and Lia were born.
"She's fine, just at home with our one-year-old," Allen replied. "We won't take long. Lia and I need to go back soon."
"I see, then please bring this to Laura," Lissandra handed over a paper bag with chocolate cookies. "I baked them a while ago. You know how she loves those."
Allen chuckled. She's right, Laura likes her chocolate cookies, "Thank you, Liss," he told her.
"You can bring her here anytime, especially if you're busy."
"Yeah, I might bring her here often. Look, they're already close."
Leo is easy to talk to, and he gets along well with Lia. After some weeks, they're already super close, and he taught her other board games like dama, and snakes and ladders. Allen always drops her at the Vayneseed residence after fetching her from school, and after three hours, he takes her home.
Then one day, Lia heard that Leo was sick, so she asked her father to drop her off.
"Leo's upstairs; he'll be delighted to see you," Lissandra said while sweeping the living room floor. "Just go upstairs 'cause I'll be cleaning down here."
"Okay!" Lia started walking towards the stairs.
She tiptoed and tried to not make a noise, because Leo might be asleep.
Leo's room was open, and she carefully went inside. She saw Leo asleep with a damp towel on his forehead.
And he's not wearing his facemask.
To Lia's surprise, she saw how different Leo's nose was - it was like a cat's! She widened her eyes in surprise as she stared at him while he slept.
It wasn't her first time meeting a mutant child.
She remembered the time when she was playing alone in the park one weekend. She was using the swing, while raising her head up in the skies.
She liked to see the shapes of the clouds, and sometimes she daydreamed that she was soaring up in the sky. She sometimes wondered how it was like to fly.
While lost in thoughts, she didn't realize that her back was sliding backwards. She fell on the swing!
Then, she heard a kid laughing.
She looked back and saw a kid in a gray hoodie jacket. He's the same age as her.
"You're a meanie," Lia said, as she tried to stand up.
"Sorry, I can't help it," the boy said, trying to stop his laughter. He saw Lia pout, so he decided to help, "Let me help you there." He then walked towards Lia and offered his hands.
"Thank you," she said. As soon as she took the kid's hand, she was startled with the different texture she felt. "What's-"
"Sssshh," the kid said. "I know, I'm a mutant. Don't be afraid… please." And he waited for Lia to take his hand.
Lia stared at the boy's hand. His hand's skin was like a snake's, and perhaps his whole body too, if he wore the jacket to hide it. His grayish brown scales were cold. She stared at his face, and noticed that not all his face was covered in scales. There were only some scaled spots on his cheeks.
"Come on, stand up," the boy insisted. He smiled at the little Lia.
Lia became less afraid of the boy because of his kind smile. She took his hand and stood up. The kid even patted Lia's back to help her remove the dirt.
"Thank you!" Lia exclaimed, giving him a smile. Seeing that the mutant boy was harmless, she wanted him to be her friend. "Are you new here?"
"Nope," the kid was delighted that she was opening up a conversation. "I live in the subdivision… It's only now that I went here."
"Oh? Where do you play, then?"
"Just at home… I can't play outside. My father's very strict."
"It must be so boring," Lia said. She couldn't imagine how the boy could continue living in a prison-like home. It must be hard, being a mutant. Lia felt lucky not to be born one. "What's your name?"
"My name is Sa-"
"So! You're here! I've been looking all over for you!" a young woman called. "Let's go back before your father finds out!"
"Oh shoot, it's my nanny," the boy said. "I have to go, see ya when I see ya," and they waved at each other. He ran off towards his panicking nanny and they walked away from the park.
Lia chuckled, and she was happy to meet a new kid in the neighborhood. Her back still hurts, though, so she decided to go home.
Looking back, Lia realized that her new friend Leo was just like the mutant kid she met a few weeks ago. They're humans too; they're just born different.
Because Leo's asleep, Lia had decided to go home for the day. Being the independent kid that she was, she bid goodbye to Leo's mother and went home.
The next day, Leo was panicking when he heard that Lia had visited him. He was afraid that she might stop being his friend after she saw his nose and whiskers.
To his surprise, Lia visited him.
"Lia!" Leo called, "You're here…" he was relieved that she didn't avoid him.
"How are you?" Lia asked. She went to him and touched his forehead. "You're okay now…" and she smiled sweetly at him.
"Lia, did you see?" Leo asked, fixing his face mask to hide what's underneath.
"See what?"
"This," he pointed at the face mask.
"Is that a new face mask?" Lia asked him.
"Uhm… Did you see something weird on my face yesterday?"
"Nope," Lia lied, and shook her head. That time, Leo still didn't know her gestures whenever she lies.
She knew that Leo was hiding his mutant characteristic, and she understood as a child, that one must respect a person's privacy. It was her father Allen who thought her that, because she was too much of a curious girl. He didn't want his daughter to grow up as a nosy person.
"I see…" the whiskered boy uttered. He took a deep breath, and he was relieved that his friend didn't find out about it.
Lia saw his relaxed expression. She was glad she didn't tell him that she already knew he's a mutant.
Even as years passed, Lia didn't force Leo to tell her about him being a mutant. She was hoping that one day, her best friend would willingly tell her about it.
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Hope you'll be with Lia and her colleagues as they uncover all of D.M. Cadre's secrets~
Happy reading~ <3
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AinaWang
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