Space and Pink Cheeks

Previously...

...

Lisa was knocked out completely.

She lay in Theo's arms, totally white, totally defeated. Her soul had left her body.

Theo looked at Lisa's colorless form...

"Are you dead?", he asked.

No response.

"Hmm... maybe CPR would revive-"

Life immediately returned to Lisa.

"What CPR!? Let me go you brute!", she yelled, tearing herself away from his grasp.

"How dare you!"

She suddenly attacked him with a superkick!

Theo easily caught her leg.

"My innocence! It's gone forever! I can't do this anymore, I swear!" she cried dramatically.

"Calm down. It was just a kiss that didn't happen.", Theo corrected factually.

"These lessons are over! I'm done tutoring you, you brute!", Lisa cried from embarrassment as she packed up her bags.

...

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...

That night...

Mr Vince arrived at Leonard's house only to witness absolute terror. All the staff of Leonard's enormous mansion were shaking with fright.

"Gerrard, I came as fast as I could. What's the emergency?", Vince asked, walking swiftly toward Gerrard. He obviously got there in a hurry.

Gerrard turned a weepy face to Vince.

"Please, help us Mr Vince. The young master is upset. He's turned into a monster! No one can go anywhere near him. He just K.O.ed Steel for coming back one minute late! He's refused to eat or talk to anyone. You know you're the only one who can reason with him when he's like this. Please, please save us!", he begged, taking Mr Vince's long overcoat.

"Alright. I'll talk to him.", Vince sounded like superman; a hero in times of crisis.

Vince entered the living room. The place was dimly lit, dark and gloomy. The only real lighting in the room came from a lamp in a corner where Leonard liked to sit.

Leonard was in the corner in his rich grey robes, sitting with his legs crossed, emitting a dark, powerful and monstrous aura.

He was now out of the 'Theo' disguise and in his original persona; his hair was black, his nose free of prosthetics and his fake glasses carefully placed on the bedside table in his bedroom.

Leonard sat in the dark, in all his original intimidating glory. His clear, deep green eyes bore a dangerous glint like a great dragon about to pounce!

Vince gasped at the scary sight.

All the hair on his body stood on end.

'Ah! The darkness is coming from him!...', he realised in horror.

Leonard directed his dangerous glint at Mr Vince at the door!

Vince gulped.

'How scary... Why did I agree to this again?...', he asked himself.

He attempted conversation.

"Jeez Leonard, I haven't seen you this bad ever. What happened? Did you lose the company?", he asked bravely.

Leonard growled.

Vince broke a sweat.

"Ah... I come in peace... What's this about? All your staff are weeping non-stop. I left my favourite spaghetti dinner halfway to come see you. Wanna talk about it?", he urged Leonard to discuss his problem.

Leo sighed, dropping his head in gloom.

"She hates me.", he said.

"Who?", Vince tilted his head, puzzled.

"Lisa. She called me a brute. She wants to cancel the tutelage."

"Ah, Lisa..." Vince repeated, surprised.

'Wow! I can't believe the problem is Lisa.', he murmured to himself.

"What happened?...", he asked.

Leo stayed silent.

Vince got the message.

"What did you do?", he asked with understanding.

Leo narrated the story of his failed attempt at love.

...

Vince facepalmed.

"Are you serious? Leo, your grandpa was right. You really have terrible social skills! Ha-ha!", he chuckled carelessly.

Leo pointed his scary gaze at him again. Lightning suddenly flashed through the turbulent storm in the room.

"Ah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!", Vince quickly apologised, fearing for his life.

The raging storm calmed for a moment.

...

"Look, you're moving too fast. You can't come at her like that all at once, she just went through a bad breakup. She probably hates every guy in the world right now. You have to give her space. She needs time to heal.", Vince adviced.

Leonard thought carefully about it.

"Hmm... Well, I don't have time. I have just 6 months to do this and she obviously is somewhat attracted to me..."

"Yeah, but your pressure has backfired. At least make her think you're giving her space. If she does like you, she'll come looking for you.", Vince reasoned with Leo.

"Huff...", the monstrous Leo sighed heavily.

"Leo... If even you could sense that she likes you, then there's definitely something there. Just be a little patient...", Vince encouraged.

Leo responded with silent understanding.

"Now cheer up, and stop taking out your gloom on your Chief of Security. I'm going back home. My spaghetti is cold.", Vince turned to leave.

"Thank you.", Leo's deep voice followed him.

"Ha! That's a first! Yeah, I know I'm the best friend in the world.", Vince said, waving goodbye without turning around.

...

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The Next day, 12 pm at First Class University.

...

Lisa headed to the University's restaurant area for lunch. As she walked she thought about Theo. She hadn't seen him all day. She wondered where he was.

'Hmm... He isn't in school today. Hope I didn't spook him too much...', she thought, walking past the empty faculty parking lot.

She noticed no other car was parked there except hers.

She stood for a moment, glimmering under the sunlight in her deep green, deep V, short dress with cut-outs sleeves.

"Hmm... that's strange. I got to school really early so it wasn't weird to see the parking lot empty, but now... Am I missing something?", she asked herself, tilting her head with a cute pout.

Ruby spotted Lisa at the parking lot trying to decipher the rubrics cube grade puzzle.

"Hey Lisa!", she greeted.

"Oh, hey Ru!", Lisa met up with her friend.

"You headed for lunch?", Ruby asked.

"Yeah.", Lisa replied with a smile. It was always refreshing to chat with her best friend.

"Me too.", Ruby informed. The girls headed for the restaurant area together.

"How's your day been?", Lisa started small talk.

Ruby drew in a long breath. Her day would need some explaining.

"Crazy actually. Lisa, I think the bigger you get, the bigger I get too. Somehow I'm a celebrity now. I've suddenly transformed from Ruby the social media influencer to Ruby the celebrity social media influencer who posted Curseword! Everyone wants some kind of promotion from me! I had to hide out in a store at the cafeteria for 2 hours until Ralph came along.

"Ralph? Haha.", Lisa laughed.

"Yeah. He saved me.", Ruby sounded extremely relieved and grateful.

Lisa could relate.

"Haha... Poor girl. Thank goodness. Maybe Ralph should be your bodyguard.", she remarked.

She thought about a similar debacle she had faced only yesterday where she was saved by her bodyguard.

She was about to tell Ruby, but then images of her and Theo stuck in the broom closet flooded her mind...

She decided against it.

'Wow, telling about that would be a major slip up.', she thought with pink cheeks.

"Yeah, maybe.", Ruby answered, not looking at Lisa's face. She looked down instead, blinking a dozen times in a minute and hiding away her own pink cheeks...

They each didn't notice each others' the pink cheeks...

...

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********** TKE Q&A **********

Surrealish: Hahaha! These pink cheeks are making my own cheeks pink, am I right? (wink)

Crowd: Yeahhhhh!!! Woooo!!! (Applause!!)

Surrealish: Thank you. Now tonight on the show, we have big news!

A new character is coming and ge would be live, right here on our next show!!!

Crowd: Woooo!!! (Applause!!)

Surrealish: Find out who he is when we come back! (wink)!