Guardian of the Dream

«Really? I have a better idea. Masha throws a party tonight and I think Denis is coming.»

Lisa wanted to say something, but was met with Sasha’s pitying look, so she turned to other girls.

«Oh, stop embarrassing yourself!» whispered Sasha at Lisa.

«What’s going on?» sounded the teacher’s voice.

Lisa kept silent, looking at her desk.

«I asked what’s going on here?»

Students turned their heads to Lisa and the teacher.

«It’s about the celebration of…» Lisa could barely think.

«What’s wrong with you?» the teacher stared at Lisa. «Will your celebrations help you getting into college? Make a good career?»

One girl burst out in laughter. Others echoed her. Lisa stiffened; she just wanted to disappear. She opened her textbook on some page and stared at it.

Long after the lesson was over, Lisa still kept sitting, staring at her textbook. Students were packing their things and exiting the room.

Masha, the girl who first started laughing, gave Lisa a look, while passing by her desk. Lisa felt this gaze, slowly coming out of trance. Masha didn’t say anything. She just looked at Lisa and passed by. Lisa started to collect her stuff, slowly she put her books in the bag. Without looking at anyone, she went towards the door when she heard the teacher,

«Grades are your guarantee for success! Not some silly celebrations!»

Lisa got distracted and bumped into Denis, who just entered the classroom. He looked at her, then at the teacher,

«I came for my test.»

The teacher gave him a paper with the mark A on it. Denis grabbed it and hurried after Lisa.

The teacher sat at his desk, looking at the closed door after Denis.

«He thinks he can get away with anything, if his father…»

He looked out the window, then folded his arms, while leaning back on his chair.

Coming out of class, Denis saw Lisa walking the corridor towards Peter. He heard an SMS sound and looked at his phone – unknown number. He read the text,

«You disappeared so quickly yesterday… Coming today?»

Denis started to type «No», but erased it, without sending. He saw that Lisa and Peter started walking together. Denis threw the phone in his bag and quickened the pace.

What’s wrong with me?

«You heard? About Masleniza…»

«Would you stop with your celebration!» Peter held his phone in his hand. He was still red in the face after the conversation with his father regarding the B in math. «This interview is the most important thing!»

Peter almost cried,

«Honestly! We are talking about our future now! Celebrations?! Get serious!»

Lisa looked at him and sighed.

«Lisa!» Sveta ran towards them.

When she heard about Masleniza, she tried to cheer Lisa up,

«No worries! We’ll figure it out!»

But Lisa was sad. «Why do I always fail? Really! What’s wrong with me?», she ruminated. Her best friend Sasha started to hang out with a group of cool girls. They were always engrossed with their phones; often Lisa couldn’t even understand what they were discussing. When she told this to Sasha, her friend responded that it was Lisa who was weird. That nobody got Lisa’s ideas and that she was just embarrassing herself.

Sasha was not the only person telling her that. Lisa’s mom found her ideas weird as well. She also called it a fantasy, when Grandma said that Lisa had «a gift.»

Grandma! The only person who got her was Grandma. Lisa wanted badly to believe her. She told Lisa so many interesting things. How they celebrated Spring, Midsummer, the traditions of Harvesting times. Lisa’s face lit up when she thought of it. She wanted so much to make a big celebration as they did in earlier times. A huge happening, and to have someone to share this joy with…

«Hey! Let’s go to Roma’s Cafe!» suddenly Sveta said.

Lisa turned to her and smiled,

«Yeah! Let’s go visit him!»

«I’ve got no time!» Peter sounded irritated.

«Please!» Sveta jumped around.

«Ok – five minutes!» Peter already regretted that he gave in.

Roma’s Café

Roma, a sixteen year old kid, was making pancakes. He wore caps, a grey striped long-sleeved shirt, jeans and black apron. Roma put a pancake on a plate. He smiled, while painting on it with sauce. Then he grabbed the plate,

«On the house!» he put it in front of Sveta.

Sveta ate it at once.

«Mmm… delicious sauce!»

Roma smiled.

«Take it easy, man!» Roma leaned towards Peter. «You think she’d fancy you with this… face?!»

Peter jumped up,

«What? Look at you, dropped out of school! What would you know…?»

Roma looked at him in a thoughtful way,