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That was a sunny day on Sicily. Birds sings, the children were playing on the playground, laughing and having fun, the air smelled of freshly baked bread from a nearby bakery. A beautiful day, isn't it? But not for a certain boy. This boy was sick and lay in his bed. The doctor who examined him said he had a serious flu. The child looked at the man as if apologizing that he had to come, especially because he was sick. On the other hand, his mom looked at him and stroked his head.
"Tranquillo tesoro, andrà tutto bene." His mom said.
The boy looked at her, then nodded slowly.
Prospero wasn't in a good mood today. It was safe to say that he was dissatisfied and angry, to say the least. This was intensified by the fact that Montresor had to torment God guilty people who only passed by them. Of course, everyone noticed it, but no one dared ask what happened. When Prospero wasn't in a good mood, no one dared ask him what happened or make fun of him. Why? Because then he can say such horrible things that it could end up someone crying. Really. Even one day, Montresor made fun of him when he wasn't in a good mood. After that, the cowboy cries like a baby.
So, there's one rule. If you see Prospero in a bad mood, don't you date ask him about it or make fun of him.
Therefore, because of his humour, Prospero wanted to stay in his room all day and not talk to anyone. However, it was impossible due to classes. Miss Poppet wanted to explain to them why a given Spectre was of that type. He thought it a bit pointless because all you had to do was go to the library to find the right books. Although, looking at some of the students, especially Montresor, who probably didn't even know the word library, he stopped whining that they had to learn about it. But the thought that perhaps he could learn more about the types so that he could beat them was enough to listen to him. He even answered questions from Miss Poppet sometimes, which got him merits.
So time passed, and they talked about Malevolent and Neutral types, which interested him somewhat. At least the first type, because he wanted to know how he could beat people with this type. Such information was precious to him. However, that changed when Miss Poppet started talking about the Benevolent type. A minimal smile appeared on his lips. He thought of Eulalie and her Chimera. He remembered how he had fought with her against the monsters. Howl the fish and his rats really got along well. Fortunately, it didn't show, but he was listening much more carefully than before. He didn't want to explain why he was suddenly so interested. Although, on the other hand, he was in a bad mood, so no one would dare ask him about such things. Therefore, he returned to the lesson interested.
Three hours passed like that until Miss Poppet announced the end of class. Now it's free time. So he had to be with people. Because of this, his evil spirit returned with redoubled strength. So he reluctantly listened to these idiots, sighing softly. The rest were perfectly aware that the boy did not want to be here, but they tried not to pay attention to it. If they ignored him a little, maybe the boy would feel better? At least, that's what Prospero inferred from their behaviour. I guess that was better than unnecessary conversation, wasn't it...?
However, everything changed when suddenly he heard raindrops falling on the windowsill. He looked towards the window, and seeing that it had indeed begun to rain, he remembered the promise he had made to Eulalie. So he turned his gaze to the room full of people. Lenore's group sat at a table across the room. But he was looking for a specific person. Then his gaze met the girls. They exchanged knowing glances, and he glanced at his table. After a while, he got up.
"Excuse me, but I think I'll go. I want to rest." He said, which made the others nod their heads so that after a while, he could leave.
As soon as he left the room, he immediately directed his steps to the square. He hoped he hadn't made a mistake after all, but he couldn't break his promise. He never broke his promises and kept to that. So he stood under the roof, looking at the square, which was already wet from the rain. He waited for the girl for about five minutes.
"Prospero! Hi!" She said with a huge smile.
"Hi Eulalie." He replied and looked at her.
"Honestly, I don't think you'd actually be here." She admitted a little surprised.
"I never break my promises." He said while shrugging. "So..." He added specifically while looking at the puddles.
"We're going to jump in puddles!" The girl announced, then entered the square.
The rain made her wet very quickly, but she didn't mind. She quickly walked to the first puddle and jumped on it. Water splashed around, making her giggle. Prospero watched it, then swallowed. A promise is a promise, right? So he reluctantly stepped out into the rain, which made him shudder. He looked at the girl who was encouraging him with her hand to jump into the puddle she had just jumped on. He took a deep breath, then let it out and jumped into the puddle. Water splashed around him. It felt weird, to say the least. It wasn't too bad, though, so he looked at the cheerful Eulalie. The girl went to the next puddle and jumped on it. He sighed, then jumped into the next puddle. He didn't like being wet, but he didn't want to break his promise. They jumped like that for a few minutes until the violet-eyed girl approached him with a smile.
"Shall we dance?" Eulalie asked, which made him look at her in surprise, and his vision blurred suddenly.
A little boy was sitting in the kitchen with his mother, who had just finished cooking dinner for them. She was washing her hands when suddenly the boy heard another sound outside. Raindrops falling to the ground. He glanced quickly out the window because it rarely rained in Sicily at this time of year. He watched in fascination until his mother suggested going outside. The child was a little stressed out with the parent. He had been sick a few days before, so he was afraid of getting sick. However, when he felt the drops on his skin, he smiled widely and started jumping in the puddles. His mother looked at him with a smile.
"Vogliamo ballare Prospero?" His mother asked with a smile.
The boy looked at her surprised, then smiled broadly and ran to the woman and began to dance with her.
The memory ended, and he felt a single tear roll down his cheek. Despite the rain, Eulalie noticed this and was about to intervene when the least expected thing happened. Prospero began to smile genuinely. So that after a while, the next even less expected thing would happen. The boy started laughing. The laugh was deep and very happy. The girl didn't quite understand what it meant, but she started to smile. If Prospero was happy, then she should be too, right?
"Eulalie, we can't dance. We MUST dance!" The black-haired boy replied with a smile, then extended his hand to her.
The girl at first hesitantly grabbed his hand, but seeing his confidence, she smiled widely. And they started dancing. It soon turned out that Prospero was a very good dancer. He led the girl as they danced some Sicilian dances, which were mostly fast. But did it bother her? Absolutely not. In fact, she loved it! It was the first time she had seen a boy like this. It was refreshing, to say the least. However, returning to the dance, after a few minutes, they switched, and Eulalie taught Prospero traditional Japanese dances. Did the boy like it? Absolutely yes! He never thought he'd enjoy any dance in the rain so much.
"So what? Are we jumping in puddles again?" The boy asked suddenly, excited by the idea.
"Oh yes!" The girl screamed with a smile on her face.
As they said, they did. They jumped in the puddles again, causing them to splash again. But that didn't bother them. They just laughed and smiled every time. But it was obvious from Prospero that he had thought of something because he suddenly stopped. He started walking by one large puddle, checking it out as he did so. Eulalie didn't understand why he was doing this. However, when he returned to her, he took off his jacket, satisfied.
"Tie my jacket around your hips." He said, which made the girl hesitantly do it. "Now look!" He screamed and ran towards the puddle.
Suddenly, he jumped, and when he was close to the ground, he pushed himself off with his hands, which made him run over the ground on his stomach. The water splashed sideways, and he looked like... a penguin! Eulalie grinned excitedly as Prospero stood up.
"You looked like a penguin!" She screamed as she jumped in a puddle.
"Yes!" He replied, then started laughing. "It's you now!" He said, smiling.
Hearing this, the girl smiled with sparks in her eyes. To run and jump in the same way as the boy. She was also glad she was wearing his jacket. She covered just what was needed, so she was grateful to him.
"And you looked like a penguin too!" The boy interrupted her thoughts, laughing at the same time, which made her laugh.
She got up from the ground, nodding her head quickly. They continued laughing, and Prospero took off his gloves and put them in his pants pocket.
"The two of us now? Please!" The girl asked in a pleading tone, which made the boy nod eagerly.
They quickly ran to their previous place and then looked at each other. After about three seconds, they ran and jumped. How much fun they had pretending to be penguins. They did that three more times, then went back to dancing. The way they laughed out loud and smiled widely was amazing. A lot of people might think they were crazy, but that wasn't the case. Eulalie accidentally did Prospero a great favour. She healed his inner child to some extent. Which was incredibly important to him. What they weren't aware of was that both groups stared at them in shock.
"I don't think I'd ever see a Prospero like this..." Annabel finally admitted, causing the others to nod.
Well, it was quite a surprising sight. Prospero was without his jacket and his gloves, a little dirty from jumping on the cobblestones, not to mention that his hair was dishevelled. And yet they could see that he was happy and content, which was evident in his smile and heard in his laughter. Not to mention Eulalie, who was in the same condition as the boy. So they watched as they played, until they decided to leave them alone.
And so the time passed until suddenly Eulalie sneezed. Which made Prospero automatically stop laughing and jumping in the puddles. He looked at her quickly and walked over to her.
"I have an idea. We'll go back to our rooms and we'll each have a bath, then we'll see each other in the kitchen. We'll make ourselves some hot tea, okay?" He offered, which made her nod.
After an hour, they met in the kitchen, where Prospero began to make tea for them. Eulalie was still shaking a bit, but she looked much better than before. The bath seemed to help her. She was also smiling and brought two nail polishes.
"I brought polishes! Purple is for me and black is for you!" She said smiling which made him smile himself.
"I see, I see, how much do you sweeten? A spoonful or two?" He replied, then carried two mugs of hot tea to the table, then brought a sugar bowl with spoons.
The girl took one of the spoons, then sweetened half the spoon and stirred the drink carefully in the cup. After a while, the boy himself sweetened two teaspoons, then looked at her. There was a few seconds of silence, then they reached for their nail polishes.
"So what? I'll paint your nails, then you paint mine?" The girl asked, making the boy nod eagerly.
They began to smile and calmly began to paint their nails, while drinking tea from time to time.
If Prospero was being honest, it was one of the best days at the academy for him.