Chapter Twenty: ML Academy

Third Person's POV

Lesley felt someone sat at the other side of her bed but she didn't move a bit. "Les.." It was Haidee Vance' voice. She held Lesley's arm. "I may not carry you in my womb, but I am your mother nonetheless." Just that simple lines, Lesley wanted to weep. She was crying for two days and three nights actually, but her tears seems endless. "I know there's something you aren't telling me."

"I'm.. okay, mother." Lesley said in a hoarse voice with a little sob.

"I don't think so." The old woman took a deep breath. "I hate to see you like this. You often skip meals. Since Granger brought you here, you've never been the same. Was it him?"

"No, mother."

Haidee sighed in resignation and stood up. She was about to leave when she noticed something. "What happened to your eye? Why you're covering it with handkerchief? Does it hurt?" She worriedly remove the cloth but Lesley yank it back.

"Nothing happened to my eye, mother. I just.." Her eyes blinded with tears again. "Simply hate to see them."

"Why would you hate your eyes? Yours were the most beautiful pair everyone could ever see."

"That's exactly the reason, mother. That's exactly what he told me." Reluctant at first, she told her mother what she's going through. From the day Gusion and her met until they parted ways.. painfully. "Everytime I see my eyes in the mirror, they always remind me of him. I don't want to remember him anymore."

"Don't do this to yourself, love. Please, don't act as if he's the last man on earth. Don't hide your beauty. Don't cover your eye just because of him, Les. You're still young. There's a lot out there waiting for you to meet them"

"I don't want to love again."

Sadness enveloped on a mother's heart. Lesley doesn't deserve that kind of pain. If only she can do something to lessen her pain.

After few minutes of silence, an idea hit her. "Les, Harley went to a huge and grand academy. I want you to follow him there. Not to look after him nor protect him in anything but for yourself this time. I don't want you to stay here in this four corners of your room when you can roam, meet, and mingle with other people. Please go there, my daughter. For me?"

When the old woman using that kind tone, Lesley knows she's out of choice. "I can't refuse, can I?"

Haidee smiled, making her ten years younger.

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Lesley's POV

My mother help me packing my things then in fixing myself. She braided my hair and tied with back ribbon (Like what she used to do when I was young). She made me wore a tailored-made blue coat. Underneath was a white feminine polo, and black tie. Matched with a dark shade tight jeans, and brown slender boots. I glanced myself in the mirror. I liked my mother's sense of fashion.

"You looked perfect, love." She uttered, clasping her hands in her chest. She's standing behind me and looking at my reflection, too. "Well, almost." She grimaced as she pointed the thing in my left eye. "Love, if I can't persuade you to remove that.. that thing. At least let me buy you something that couldn't be out of fashion."

"Like?"

"I don't know. Eyepatch perhaps. Or half veil that will complem---"

"Eyepatch?" Along with a certain memory, a Nymph's words echoed in my head. 'Keep that eyepatch. Someday you will need that.' 'Not all who wore masks are ugly. Not all who wore hats and caps are bald.'

I looked at myself again. "Not all who wore eyepatch are blind." That's it.

"What did you say?" Mother asked.

I shook my head. And brought out from my pocket a gift that I kept for a long time. No one knows my skill comes from it. I make them believe that mine was innate camouflage capability. No one doubted. "I almost forgot, mother. All this time I have an eyepatch here."

"What for?"

"Souvenir." I gradually wore the black eyepatch.

Mother adjusted it. "I'm not satisfied. Wait here." She went out of my room. She's smiling when she came back.

Ow.. kay? On the eyepatch's strap, she pinned a metal badge with blue feather in the right side of my hair.

"There. Never remove that, okay?"

I wanted to roll my eyes but decided not. "Okay, mother. Uhm, I forgot to ask. Where is Harley? Where am I going exactly?"

"ML Academy."

O_________O

Where the hell is that?

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