"All this started five years ago..." Lucy said as she looked up, as if recalling a distant mory. "I was a little girl of only eleven who went swimming for fun and..."
As Lucas and Lucy sat on that bench in a quieter part of the mall, she began to tell him the origin of her fear.
Ever since Lucy started swimming, she was naturally better than the other children. Therefore, she won many championships as a child and didn't even understand the impact of this because she didn't work hard to get the results. Of course, she put in the effort and trained at least four tis a week, but she didn't see it as effort but as fun.
Over ti, Lucy began to make a na for herself in the Brighton area. She beca known as the female Michael Phelps. Her speed in the water was trendous for her age and her technical finesse made even so professional swimrs admire her. Lucy was synonymous with natural talent.
It didn't take long for Lucy's fa to reach more and more people, and her fa exploded after a story on the UK's biggest television channel.
Lucy was a pretty girl with light brown eyes and long blonde hair. Her television appearance earned her a small legion of passionate fans who would pay for anything with her face on it. So, for a few months, she beca the UK's leading children's face, featuring on products such as shampoo and chips.
According to Lucy's agent, having her face everywhere was the best way to get more and more sponsors.
However, such fa ca at a price. Lucy could no longer go ho from school with her friends, nor could she leave the house to go to the movies or buy clothes at an outlet, because every ti she heard flashes and after the flashes the crowds of people would flock to take pictures with her.
"Before, I was just a girl who liked swimming and that beca my favorite thing soon after I beca famous. After all, in the pool, in my own lane, no one could touch ." Lucy blurted out, still looking up.
"Wow... I hadn't thought about the consequences of fa..." admitted Lucas.
He had always envied young boys who rose through the soccer ranks quickly and changed their lives in the blink of an eye. It was natural for him, who had always wanted to be a footballer, to want that, wasn't it?
"You shouldn't take what I said so seriously. I an, like, you want to be a professional footballer, right? Of course, you also want to be famous, and my problem isn't with fa itself, but with crowds."
"I understand." Lucas laughed at Lucy's attempt to cheer him up. "Fa is intrinsic in soccer these days, and I think that's only going to increase. I'm not afraid of crowds. After all, the sight that gets most excited is seeing a full stadium. However, fa is not sothing to be underestimated."
*Click*
At that mont, while Lucas was talking to Lucy, they heard the sound of a cara followed by a slight flash that ca from the left of where they were sitting.
Lucy's eyes widened with fear. The smile on her face disappeared completely.
Lucas imdiately got up from the bench they were sitting on and looked in the direction the flash had co from. There was an ice cream parlor there, with a few couples sitting there and a couple of boys who were laughing. On their table was a cell phone.
"Stay here, Lucy. I'll sort it out." He said and walked over to the boys' table.
When Lucas stopped in front of their table, the laughter imdiately stopped. They turned their heads slightly to look at Lucas and saw a pure expression of disgust on his face.
Lucas stretched his right hand forward, palm up, and said: "Let see the photo gallery on your cell phones."
"W-what? Why would we do that?"
"Yeah, you're just a stranger. Why do you want our cell phones?"
Lucas took a deep breath to keep his patience. "Look, I think you took a photo of my friend back there without permission. If you don't cooperate, I'll go to the mall managent and do a formal complaint. The mall has no legal authorization to search your cell phones, so the legal procedure will be to call the police and after that your parents will be inford. Of course, you can delete the photo until then, but the police have a way of recovering deleted data and will be able to if the photo is on your phone. This would be a boring process and could end up with both of you being arrested for stalking through no fault of your own."
In truth, Lucas was a little over the top in so parts, but if it made the boys give in, he didn't care.
The boys exchanged glances, and the skinnier one said to the other: "Go on, man, give him your cell phone to delete the photo."
The chubbier one was in a cold sweat and had to accept, since his friend had already reported him. "All right, take it and delete it quickly."
The boy handed Lucas his cell phone with the screen unlocked, and Lucas quickly went into the gallery and deleted the photo that was mainly focused on Lucy's breasts.
"You're disgusting..." Lucas said, putting the boy's cell phone into the glass of soda on their table.
"W-what did you do?" The fat man quickly tried to get the cell phone out of the glass.
"If you try to recover that photo, or it turns up sowhere, know that I have a very good mory for faces." Lucas turned and walked back towards Lucy.
"You... you..." the boy squawked as he stared at Lucas's back.
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Lucas walked over to Lucy. "Don't worry, Lucy. He didn't take a picture of you specifically, but of the direction we were going. As a precaution, I've deleted the photo. So you can continue coming to the mall with your friends."
Her face lit up. "Really?"
Lucas nodded and held out his right hand to her. "Now, shall we go sowhere else? I don't think that boy is going to stop telling the administration that I put his cell phone in his soda."
"You what?" she started laughing.
Lucy and Lucas chatted so more than they walked through the mall until they both received ssages at the sa ti.
The ssage she received was from Samantha, her friend who was accompanying her that day, and the ssage Lucas received was from Raphael. Both ssages told them to et outside the mall because it was getting late and they needed to leave.
When they arrived at the eting point, Raphael and Samantha hadn't arrived yet. Then Lucas took courage and said:
"By the way, Lucy, I heard that we might study at the sa institute if I pass the screening. Give your number. Maybe I could use soone to introduce to the institute's points of interest."
Lucy smiled. "I was beginning to think you'd never ask. Give your cell phone." She reached out to take the phone and even used a thicker voice, as if she were imitating what Lucas had done with the boys.
He thought it was funny and did as she asked. She took the phone with both hands and, hiding it a little, put in her number. When she handed the phone back to him, he looked at the contact na she had put in and saw that it read "L
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