CHAELISA One-shots

Stars

**

Lisa scratches her head as she leans over the small wooden table to look for the piece connecting to the puzzle lying before her, trying to find the one that resembles to the other half of the cat ear.

Finding a piece that looked like the one she’s looking for, she smiles and picks it up, only to frown when it stubbornly wouldn’t fit into its slot. She huffs and tosses it aside, about to continue on her search when a grey shadow appears over the top of the scattered pile of puzzle pieces.

“Ooh, are you doing a puzzle?”

Seven year old Lisa looks up to find a girl smiling down at her. She has black hair tucked away from her face with a pretty pink bow and tantalizing brown eyes that matched her shirt, her smile as wide as the cartoon one glittering across the fabric, the cartoon smile under the words that read “Happy Star.”

Lisa blinks, and glances down at the obvious answer laid between them, too shy to say “yes” and too determined to be polite to say “no.” Her mama had told her that it is rude to be mean to someone who is trying to be nice. This new girl seems like she is trying to be nice.

She nods.

The girl lets out a squeal and skips around the circular table, her hair bouncing on her shoulders as she excitedly pulls out the chair next to Lisa and sits. Her eyes take in the finished work that Lisa has done, skitter over the work that she has not, before landing on her face. Lisa finds it hard to look away. “Can I help?”

She considers, standing up straight to glance around the library for her mom. Locating her over by a computer talking to an adult, she returns to her seat and nods again, shrugging shyly when the girl gives her another wide smile. 

Lisa thinks her smile is really pretty. 

“Thank you,” she says, scooting her chair closer so she can run her fingers over the puzzle pieces that Lisa had carefully put together. 

Lisa usually doesn’t like it when other people touch her things, but for some reason this time she doesn’t seem to mind as she watches the girl’s index finger trace the outline of the ear of the space cat that she had been trying to find the missing half for. “You’re welcome.”

She giggles, her pink bow sparkling in the light as her hand stretches, picking up a puzzle piece that is flat on one side, “I like to find all the outside ones first.”

Lisa doesn’t say anything, just watches as the girl places the piece in her hand down onto the table next to Lisa’s work before picking up another, with a flat end this time on the other side. 

The box in which Lisa had turned upside down to get to the space cat puzzle says that the whole thing only has fifty pieces, so it doesn’t take long for the girl to have all the outside edges collected and lined up. 

Lisa’s eyes follow the way she easily puts them all together—thinking that this girl must be very smart—but they quickly snap back up at the recognition of the song humming from her lips. “You know Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?”

The girl’s face lights up at the question, looking happy that Lisa had finally said something besides the polite response to her thank you. She smiles again, her lips stretching from ear to ear. Lisa scratches at her cheek, suddenly feeling like her chest is feather light. “Yes! It’s my favorite song! I know every single word.”