Celeste Academy - Teaching with Lexa (Patreon)

Lexa looks up at the clock tower and wishes the hour hand would move already. She paces around the main street as the city begins to wake up to the noon bustle.

Sure, Lexa thinks to herself, I was here two hours earlier than we originally planned... But there's no way I can just contain my excitement.

She can't believe Carida wanted go on another date with her. It's impossible for her to stop grinning whenever Carida's message pops up in her mind. When the Wondr app notified that Carida wanted to go on a second date with her a week ago, Lexa was looking at her phone on her bed and almost dropped it on her face. This episode always made her want to giggle.

It's something she wants to tell Carida during her date. There's so much to say to her since they last met. She had just finished sketching out the storybook with the puppy that was inspired by Carida, she's gotten a new roommate -- all feels well with the world.

The small hope that Carida would ask her out again she's been welling up has seriously paid out.

Okay, let's go through the plan again. Before I forget. You know you'll forget in the heat of the moment. Take a deep breath.

First, Lexa and Carida are going to visit Sheldon's Bookstore which housed some of the most expensive and rarest first edition texts on Attunements. Then, they'll be searching for some cheap yet wonderfully handmade secondhand copies in Leslie's Bookstore. Lastly, they'll lose themselves in the Alley of Bookstores where Levi's Shop of Books houses the most exquisite --

Bzzt... La La Lindsey, it's time to sing and speedrun! ♫♪♪

Lexa's smartphone is ringing. Is it from Carida? Is she late? Lexa grabs her phone from her purse and the caller ID reads "Rivers Daycare Center".

They don't call me unless it's an emergency…

She immediately picks up the phone and after hearing what they had to say, her heart sinks.

Moments after the call, she sees Carida running toward her.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting!"

Carida's gasping for air, but she's beaming and seems really happy to go on the date.

"I was held up by classes," she says, "the professor really wanted to tell us her life story."

Lexa tries to break into a smile, but she can't hide her frown from Carida. Carida looks so pretty and has clearly taken the time to do her makeup...

No, Lexa thinks to herself as she shakes her head for clarity, this isn't the daycare center's fault. They need me. I just...

She needs to tell Carida the bad news.

"Sorry, I have to..."

Lexa's beginning to find it difficult to say the words aloud because it's tearing her heartstrings apart. She's looking forward to the picturesque second date with Carida. They were going to have a fun time together, but ... she needs to repress that thought.

You're doing this job because of Carida. She'll understand. Take a deep breath. Now, say it.

"We may need to cancel our date."

When Carida hears those words, she's totally taken aback. The idea of meeting her again really excited her, so hearing that felt like an explosion just happened in front of her face.

Her disappointment wells up in her response: "How come?"

"There's an emergency in the daycare center I'm volunteering at. They need volunteers ASAP because some of the staff wound up sick. I can't leave those kids alone without care... I'm sorry. The call just happened the second you came by."

"Ah..."

"They need at least three people to come in," Lexa says while clearly trying to hold back her dismay appearing in her face, "and got one so far. Everyone's busy except me, so I feel bad for turning it down because of a date."

"Yeah, I understand..."

"I'm sorry." Lexa looks like she's gonna burst into tears. "I was looking forward to the date."

"Me too... But that's fine. We can arrange it again and you need to help people."

"Thank you for being so understanding."

I wish I can help her out, Carida thinks to herself. I don't want her to cry because we can't date. It'd be a huge shame.

"I should get going now," Lexa says as she turns her back to Carida. Carida could hear her voice crack. "The kids need me."

Wait, did she say...

"Lexa."

Lexa turns around, her eyes now red from the tears. The sight makes Carida more than determined to help Lexa out. She wants to make her happy.

"The daycare center needs another person, right?"

Located at the port, the Rivers Daycare Center is a popular preschool for any parents who need to travel across the Rococo Islands for work.

They would drop off their kids and ride on the boat without much hassle. There's usually five full-time members doing managerial tasks, but the daycare center's mostly staffed with volunteers from Celeste Academy. The daycare center is unsurprisingly popular with students in the education track.

Of course, such information doesn't matter too much to Carida now. She's being dragged by kids to play games with her.

"Carida, I wanna read a book with you!"

"Play hide and seek with me!"

"Let's build and topple some bricks together. I'm a giant lizard. You're a robot. Let's rumble."

This is Carida's first time being swarmed by children. So many children are playing with her hair and trying to tackle her. They're also flooding her with questions on what recipes she can bake and when Carida answered that she made muffins, everyone demanded her to bake some right now.

This is fun, she thinks to herself as she flattens her apron from being wrinkled too much by the kids, but it's exhausting. I need to buy Mom a good gift on her birthday. I had no idea how much work babysitting kids can be.

"You seem to be pretty popular," Lexa says to Carida when checking up on her. "Most volunteers don't pull that kind of crowd."

Carida wryly laughs to herself as she watches the children she's assigned to gravitate toward Lexa.

"Woah, you all should be playing with Carida. She's my best friend. Also," Lexa says when she glances at Carida, "if you need any help, feel free to ask. Kids can be a lot of work."

Carida smiles in return and appreciates how Lexa's looking out for her. Still, it's incredible how popular Lexa is with the children. Carida feels a jarring dissonance when the notorious Beast of the Library is friendly with children, but there's something super wholesome about it.

The difference between Carida and Lexa is astounding. While Carida hesitates at choosing what activity to do with the kids, Lexa smoothly goes from one activity to another.

"Who wants to sing a song?"

"Me!" "I want to!" "Lexa sings so well!"

A few minutes later,

"That's enough singing for today. Who wants to read a story?"

"Yes, please!" "I want to hear more about the puppy!" "Yeah, she sounds super cool."

Carida also can't help but think how Lexa looks surprisingly great in a daycare center apron. She exudes a different aura that makes you forget she was the notorious gloomy librarian in Celeste Academy.

She'd make a great teacher at the Academy, Carida thinks. She could inspire a whole new generation.

All of a sudden, Carida feels a tug in her apron.

When she looks down, a kid is looking up to her. Their left hand's clutching a paper and, after getting her attention, they unfold it to show a drawing of Carida and Lexa.

"Do you like it?"

Carida crouches down and says, "Of course. Is that a drawing of us? It's very lovely."

"My friends told me my drawing is bad. My parents will be angry at me. They're artists. I was going to throw it away." The kid starts to sniffle. "My friends say I can't draw. I want to stop drawing."

The kid starts crying loudly.

Carida begins to panic and Lexa hurries to help her.

"What's wrong, Alex?" Lexa says as she crouches and gets near to the kid, "Tell me what's wrong."

"My drawings," Alex says while looking away from Lexa possibly in shame. "They're bad. They deserve to be in the garbage bin."

Lexa looks at the crunched up paper and exclaims, "This is really good!"

"Really?"

When Alex's eyes meet with Lexa's, she grins and says, "This drawing is so beautiful that I'm gonna ask the staff to put this in the entrance. Your parents will see this and they'll be so proud of you."

"I don't believe you..."

"When has Lexa lied to any one of you cuties?"

The kid takes a few sniffling breaths and says, "Pinky promise me then."

Lexa sticks out her right pinkie says, "Alright, let's promise on it."

All the kids watching Lexa start singing the pinky promise rhyme:

Pinky, pinky bow-bell,

Whoever tells a lie

Will sink down to the bad place

And never rise up again.

Alex starts to smile again and Carida can't help but to join in the chanting too.

A few minutes later, Lexa carries on with her work and Alex is back to drawing again.

It's astounding how much Lexa understands children. I sorta envy that.

Carida giggles to herself at the thought of the Beast of the Library actually being an Angel of the Daycare Center in disguise.

"I didn't know you were the type to volunteer in a place like this."

Upon hearing that, Lexa chuckles. Both she and Carida are drinking from leftover juice boxes while they watch the kids play in the daycare center's playground.

"I didn't either," she says as she watches two kids ride the seesaw together. "I mean, I didn't do any of that sort until ... you came into my life."

"Huh?!"

Carida's eyes widened, making Lexa blush with embarrassment. Lexa accidentally blurted out the reason she decided to volunteer here, but there's no turning back. It's gonna be so weird to tell her how it all happened.

But I might as well. I want to tell Carida how important she is to me.

"This is silly, but um. After our first date, I started thinking about you and how charismatic you are. I wanted to improve myself and be someone equal to you. I didn't want to be gloomy Lexa again."

Lexa leans on the school's wall and sips from the juice box before continuing.

"I was walking my grandma around the island and thinking how grateful I was since she raised me alone without any help. When we passed by the Rivers Daycare Center, she mentioned that she used to volunteer here and even brought me here once too. I don't remember my childhood well, but I was drawn to this place. The next day, out of the blue, I decided to apply as a volunteer."

Lexa's heart is beating faster than usual. It's embarrassing how personal she's getting, but she really wants to tell Carida everything about her.

"The first days were rough. I was just like you, intimidated by everything kid-related. But I continued doing it and found out that I was pretty good with children. They liked my picture books and always wanted to read what's next. Remember the picture book I showed you? They loved it. The one I'm working on that's um, never mind, they also like that too."

Lexa looks back at Carida, beaming and overjoyed by what she's hearing. This gives Lexa more courage to say more.

"It's weird, I thought I'd be bad with kids since I'm not social. I don't know how to talk to my peers except maybe my roommate, so the idea of interacting with children horrifies me. But I can talk to kids really well and they like me a lot. It's so weird..."

"But that's exactly why it's really cute of you," Carida says. "And... Maybe you found another passion you never realized you had."

Lexa's heart skips a beat.

Carida looks so lovely wearing the apron here...

"Ahem. I want to change myself because I met you, but I also ended up finding out that I just love hanging out with children. In retrospect, I should've figured this out since I've been drawing picture books for them, but --"

Lexa takes a deep breath before expressing her true, sincere feelings for Carida.

"-- you made me realize that. That's why I owe you a second, good date."

Carida look up in shock and her cheeks redden, but she easily relaxes and chuckles.

"I think this satisfies the requirements of a second date," she says with a smirk. "I had so much fun and learned a lot about you."

It's time for Lexa to be shocked. "Really?"

"This is the kind of date I would never have dreamed up in my life, but I now want more of it. You really are wonderful, Lexa."

Lexa's heart is now bursting with all kinds of emotions.

"Ah," Lexa says as she hides her bright red face from Carida, "it's time to bring the kids in."

"Okay," Carida says before giggling heartily.

When the evening rays hit the daycare center, Carida gets ready to leave for the dorm. 

Lexa's volunteering to stay back since the boats carrying the parents will take a while to reach the main island. As Carida looks back at the daycare center, she sees Lexa and the kids waving at her in the distance.

"Thank you for taking me on a date again," Lexa shouts to Carida. "You really changed my life."

All the children are laughing and supporting her.

Carida waves back and thinks about how under this evening light, Lexa looks like the happiest and most wonderful person in the world.

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter