Helena Pevensie (Caspian Love Story)

2. Holidays

It was strange for Eustace now to see Helena as opposed to how he had always seen her in pictures growing up. His aunt, who held an appreciation for ballet, had always had pictures of her famous niece around the house so that if anyone had the misfortune of asking about it, they would be subjected to a long speech about Helena's accomplishments and talents. In those pictures, Helena had always had bright red lipstick and was wearing some kind of ballet costume with her body bent in strange ways, usually with pointe shoes on.

Now, however, she rarely wore the lipstick unless she was going out and her hair was always down where it hung in long waves to her waist. He knew already what the students at Experiment House would say about her.

He thought it quite right to tell her but as he saw her begin conversing with Peter, he thought better of it. After all, what if he was wrong? Some would admire her, surely, but others would see her only as someone who could not be strict. Some of the boys would look down on her for being a woman. Some would have negative ideas of dancers in general. Some...no, he'd better not think about that. He was not entirely sure, however, what they would do.

Turning back to him, Helena asked, "Any more warnings, Eustace?"

"Not that I can think of," he said after a moment. "Only that...well." He broke off. Drawing in a deep breath, he said finally, "Don't expect or try to demand obedience. Unfortunately, you won't get it."

"What exactly is the purpose of teachers at your school?" Helena asked.

"Honestly?" Eustace replied. "To be proof that it isn't just a place for students to turn rampant."

"Sounds like a mad social experiment," Peter remarked. "I do not envy you, Sister."

"At least I'm not off to university," Helena countered.

"No, worse," Peter said with a laugh. "You're going back to secondary school."

"Technically I never went so I'm not 'going back' to anything," Helena replied sassily. Eustace smiled as he listened to them tease each other. He had never seen the twins interact before Peter's visit and he finally understood why he had so often heard Peter speak mournfully of Helena's absence. The two got on perfectly and seemed unable to resist teasing and joking with each other.

Something of Eustace's thoughts seemed almost to have gotten into Peter's head because he said quickly, "Oh, how I missed you, Helena."

She smiled, wrapping her arms around him as she said, "I missed you too, Peter." Peter wrapped his other arm around her and the two sat in silence for a time before Helena got excitedly to her feet with an impassioned exclamation. The two boys watched with curiosity as she opened her suitcase. "I completely forgot," she said. She was speaking very quickly. Peter was not surprised to see her pull out several pairs of pointe shoes as she dug her way through the bag. Finally, she found was she was looking for.

Looking up, she took from the suitcase another pair of pointe shoes but these Peter could tell were dead. The ribbons were wrapped tightly around them and as she sat back down next to Peter, he saw that she had painted them. Unwrapping them, she handed him one of the shoes. Peter stared at it in confusion for a moment before understanding crossed his face and he began to smile. The shoe she had handed him was painted with a gleaming lamp post in the dead of winter with snow falling all around. Peter turned the shoe and saw first a young girl and a fawn, then a young girl and a boy, and then two boys and two girls around the different posts she had painted.

"You did this?" he said in wonder.

"And this one," Helena said, handing him the other. This was painted with a large, blue sea with a sea serpent in the far distance, a dragon with a small mouse on his snout, and a large ship, remarkably like that in the picture on the wall. This she handed to Eustace once Peter was done looking at it. Catching sight of himself, Eustace smiled.

"And you even got Reep," he said excitedly. Looking again at the ship, there was a figure Eustace would swear was Caspian. Peter had gone back to looking at the other pointe shoe. Curiously, Eustace tapped the shoe against the floor and seemed surprised to hear the loud thump it made. "Huh," he mused to himself.

"You guys can keep those if you'd like," Helena said kindly. "I can always paint more. And anyway, you can tie the ribbons and just hang them as decorations or something."

"I think I will," Peter said. "Thanks, Lena."

"No problem, Peter," Helena replied.

"Thanks," Eustace said with a shy smile, running his thumb over the painting of Reep and the ship.