Venus in Real Life

5 Out in the real world

"Good morning, everyone!" Ms. Marie greeted the group. 

Knowing that she was not going to get an answer, she continued reading from the small print she had in her hands with the notes for that day's itinerary. 

"We have various activities planned for today," she cleared her throat. 

"Our starting point is L'Orangerie Museum, then we're going to the Orsay Museum. We're having a picnic lunch near the Eiffel Tower, and we'll finish our visit with the Petit Palais." 

She finished reading and removed her glasses, smiling widely. 

"I hope you're wearing walking shoes, today we'll mostly walk. Now, if you're all ready, let's go!" She finished happily. 

The bus was waiting near the hotel entrance to take them to the first stop of their Saturday tour. Ciel's belly was grumpy, and therefore she was too. It didn't sound like her prayers for breakfast with fresh croissants and pastries were going to be heard. 

Frowning, she went first inside the bus and let her body drop on her seat. Mei sat by her side, not enthusiastic about going with her in that morning mood, but she thought it was better her and not one of the others. 

Hugh wouldn't dare sit with Ciel in that mood, not even if his life depended on it. He chose the seat right in front of them and left the window sear for Venus, so she had the chance to see everything they drove nearby, and then sat on his aisle seat. 

He tried not to pay much attention but still looked at Venus, her whole face shining with joy as they went through the Parisian roads. 

They were dropped in record time at Place de la Concorde.

"Ok people, luckily we arrived early, so if you want, you can stroll around or go for breakfast," Ms. Marie said as they came down the bus. 

"You have forty minutes, and I'll see you in the fountain right over there," she pointed behind her and all of her students, and then she started walking away. 

Ciel couldn't have been happier. She took Venus' hand and pulled her, running to her right and quickly finding the place she was so eager to arrive at. The place was almost at the corner of the square. It was a bakery, and its name was Mado a Paris. 

As soon as they entered, Venus understood the rush. It smelled amazing. They could see a lady in the back coming to the front store with a tray full of freshly made madeleines, the smell invading every corner of the tea room, making Venus, and Ciel's mouths, water. Hugh and Mei came walking like regular people a minute later.

"Remember, we take to go, it will be too expensive to eat here." Hugh and Mei nodded, while Venus just tilted her head. 

She was paying close attention, seeing how Ciel ordered for everybody, and then picking some pieces of something from Mei and Hugh, which apparently she exchanged for food. Delicious food.

"What is that?" she asked Mei.

"The food?" 

"No, the pieces Ciel gave to the lady as an exchange."

"Ah. That's called money. You can buy things with that. Anything, it can be clothing, cellphones, food... or pay for things like tickets for the museums, transportation, a place to live, or a place to spend a few days, like the hotel we're staying." 

She thought for a second.

"Where do you get money from?" 

"Usually working, but Ciel and I have a scholarship, so they give us money for having good grades at school. Also, our parents insist on sending us some extra cash every month, so we focus on studying. To tell the truth, we're very lucky." 

It was not completely clear to Venus, but it sounded like it was not easy to get that money Mei was talking about. 

Once they got about half of the items available arranged in four different bags, hot coffee and tea, they walked back to the fountain. They still had fifteen minutes for the rest of the group to arrive at that same place.

Each of them had a bag with sweet, fresh, and delicious madeleines, their small, personal piece of heaven. They sat and opened the bags. The smell was still amazing as they started to dig in. 

Venus was funnily moaning and happy dancing while she ate as the others giggled, catching some of her happiness. 

"What did you get her to drink?" Mei asked Ciel.

"Tea, of course. She has never had coffee, so it wouldn't be any good to try it her first day out," she explained her logic. 

Venus was loving her tea, as it combined and softly enhanced the flavor of her small sponge cakes.

"What flavor is this?" Venus asked after gulping down the little piece she had in her mouth with a sip of tea.

Mei saw the color of the cream, a glassy white with little pieces of green, "Lemon," Mei answered, "It's my favorite. Do you like it?" 

"Yes, I like it very much," Venus said with a big, childish smile. 

The few minutes they had left passed by quickly. Their classmates started to arrive, and Ms. Marie came last, with a hint of chocolate in the corner of her mouth and a satisfied grin. Breakfast was a big success, and now they were ready to start the tour, but before...

"Selfie!" Mei stepped in front of the other three with her phone in hand and took a surprise picture with the fountain as background. Ciel made a heart with her thumb and index fingers and slightly smirked, while Hugh smiled widely and pointed Venus to look at Mei's phone. Her surprised face was priceless in that picture. 

"What just happened?" 

"Mei took a selfie," Hugh explained.

"What's a selfie?" 

"It's when you take pictures of yourself. It can be of you alone, or with your friends like we're doing now." Mei, the selfie expert of the group, explained. She got closer to Venus, turned the phone to them, and pointed.

"Is that a mirror?" She ventured.

"No, it's a camera. Well, technically it's a phone, but it takes pictures. I'll touch here, and your image will freeze on the screen, look." 

Mei opened the camera app and Venus saw her face again, then shot the picture, and Venus' image froze. The girl's eyes shone as she saw herself no longer moving in the weird artifact that Mei was holding in her hand.

"How did you do that?" Mei expertly started explaining the magic behind selfies to a very confused Venus that smiled and frowned as she was getting the explanation or not. It wasn't long before she got used to Mei's selfies, and understood the basic concept behind it.

"They're called pictures. I keep them to remember things that make me happy," she finished showing Venus some other pictures from her gallery. 

Ms. Marie came forward and addressed them all again.

"Come on everybody, we can go to the line now. Let's delve into this beautiful historical place!" She said with her signature smile.

"Napoleon III had the Orangerie built in 1852, as a winter shelter for the orange trees destined for the Tuileries Gardens." 

The group followed inside, walking between tall, white walls covered by large paintings. 

"Over time, the building was used for soldiers, sporting and musical events, industrial exhibitions, and now, rare painting exhibitions." 

Ms. Marie kept telling them the history of the place, as Venus' mind drifted away. Her focus was on the paintings and different art pieces they were passing by. 

While Ciel had a notebook, and Mei had her phone out, Hugh was just listening to their teacher, and, now and then, keeping an eye on her. 

She noticed and took the opportunity to ask him some questions regarding art and the paintings they were looking at. They stopped in front of Monet's Water Lillies. 

The white of the wall framed and highlighted the deep blue shades on the painting that almost covered from floor to ceiling. 

Venus was overwhelmed, so much that, almost in a trance, she rose her hand and was close to touching it when Hugh softly took her hand. 

Sparks shook Venus out of her trance, as Hugh jumped and quickly let go of her.

"We can't touch them," he said with a little blush in his face, trying to explain why he took her hand. "Our skin has a certain oil that damages the paintings." 

She blushed both for wanting to touch it and for the lasting feeling he left in her hand.

"Sorry," she managed to say.

"It's ok, you're just learning. Don't worry about it," he answered avoiding the girl's eyes. 

"The painting's name is Water Lillies," he said turning his body on the wall's direction. 

"It was painted by a guy named Claude Monet. It's part of a series. This one painting, along with other paintings, tell a story together. Critics say the series represents his finest work." 

"How do you know so much about it?" 

"Well, it's part of the class, and it's also one of my mother's favorite paintings." He smiled shyly, still avoiding her eyes as she smiled at him.

He felt like this was far too close for his comfort, but it was coming so naturally, so dangerously natural that he had to get away before it was bad for both of them. 

In just a little more than an hour, they were back out in the middle of Paris and strolling through a walkway to cross the Seine river. 

Venus was fascinated to walk over the waters and stopped to look down. The new light the world had in Venus' eyes was shining bright. 

Everything was amazing. 

The girls stopped with her and took many more pictures while Hugh kept walking with the rest of their classmates. After a couple of minutes, they joined him where he was waiting on the other side of the river. They were wondering what he was looking at.

"Look, Venus. That building over there is your old house." 

The girl looked at where he was pointing. One of the entrances of the Louvre, the Lions' Gate, was almost in front of them. She stood over there wondering for a few seconds.

"It is a pretty place, but is not a place for living beings," she said with a bittersweet expression that they clearly understood. 

She was starting to think about how far they have gone to keep her safe when they could have just left her at the museum, and Venus was very thankful that they didn't. 

It had been barely twenty-four hours since she woke up. Twenty-four hours since Hugh approached her and started talking, telling her things that still gave her a sweet chill when she remembered his words, his voice, his face as he spoke. 

In the previous years, she couldn't tell how many, she'd heard people talking about her, even touching her when nobody was watching. 

She knew of spiders. Only once she felt one, it lurked underneath her when the lights dimmed at night and walked over her body and her face.

She hated it. 

She hated darkness, but more than that, she hated the spiders that lurked on it. She hated loneliness. She felt like she was floating on emptiness with slashes of consciousness, but then he was there, and for the first time in all that time, she felt like she had a reason to open her eyes, as she finally did.

Ciel was anxiously waiting to arrive at the Orsay museum, and her excitement was easily compared to what Venus felt. 

She also small jumped all the way through the walkway, and it seemed like the eight minutes it took from L'Orangerie to the main entrance of their next stop was endless and really hard to wait on. 

It was weird seeing her so happy, it looked like she was going to a concert of her favorite band, and actually, that was not so far from the truth. 

Most of her experience in the city they were visiting came from when they were kids, and the memories were very much alive now that she moved around with new companions and made new, happy, and crazy memories with them. 

There was something that she kept deep in her heart though, and was her first experience with art, there was a painting that was exhibited in the place they were walking to, one that made her heart jump with joy. 

"What's happened to her?" Hugh whispered to Mei.

"We're going to see her favorite painting, and she can barely hold it." 

She understood her sister and enjoyed her energy. She was composed, most of the time, driven and serious, usually sarcastic, but this happy, there was, so far, only one thing that could put her in so great of a mood, the Starry Night Over the Rhone, by Vincent Van Gogh. 

They finally arrived. 

There was a statue of a baby elephant in front of the classical French building, and Venus got closer. Her hand raised again, but then remembered what Hugh had told her and she drew it back again. She shyly looked his way to discover his stare, as he smirked and looked away. 

Ciel got close and talked to her.

"Do you know elephants? This is a baby elephant. You like it?" Venus was fascinated by how happy the stone sculpture looked and nodded with a grin at Ciel's question. She loved the big animal Ciel referred to as a baby, even though it was huge.

"Can he wake up too?" she wondered.

"I don't think so. I think you are a very special case, but in the circumstances, I guess anything is possible." Ciel answered rising her shoulders and smiling, to what Venus' smile grew wider.

"Come on, let's get together!" Mei said, phone in hand once again. "Hugh, come on!" He reluctantly moved towards them and fakely smiled at the camera.

"Are you ok?" Mei asked staring at his picture. She knew him too well to know better, and for him, that meant that he was not hiding it well enough. 

"Yeah, why?" he gave a dry response.

"I don't know, it's been a while since I saw you make that face in a picture." 

"No, everything's fine."

Judging by the way he said "Fine", Mei knew the topic was over. 

More statues were on the way to the entrance. Ciel followed a very excited Venus around, telling her about the statues and the animals, also taking pictures for her.

"Can I please have a memory with this one?" Venus stood beside a rhino statue, shyly asking for a picture as Ciel smiled and took the picture. 

She liked to call them memories, and it was a pretty accurate idea of what pictures were. The whole picture idea was fascinating to Venus. 

At some point, they'd need to help her get a phone. Ciel made a mental note on that. 

As they entered the space, it was more colorful and warm, Venus thought. The ceiling was tall and arched, and there were plenty of statues in the middle of the wide halls. 

Ms. Marie walked again in front of the group, started leading them through and telling them about the Orsay. 

"The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914. Their collection holds paintings, sculptures, photography, and furniture. It houses the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Renoir, Gauguin, Monet, and Van Gogh." 

"Monet," Venus whispered, and this time the one she was near was Ciel.

"You know about him?" 

"Yes," she nodded. "The previous museum had paintings of him... Water Lilies," she said looking at her hand, where Hugh had softly grabbed her.

"True," Ciel smiled. "If you liked those, I think you might enjoy one of my favorite works of art of all time. When we pass by it, you'll probably notice. You'll see." 

The older twin was grinning widely, and her smile passed on to Venus too. After a while, they stopped at Ciel's favorite painting. 

Venus had a good guess when she saw the shine in the girl's eyes and stepped beside her to look.

"You're right, it is very beautiful," Venus said, as lost on the painting as Ciel was.

The colors were intense, and Venus loved the contrast, but more than that, how alive that painting looked. The small strokes it was painted with guided her sight and took her inside the landscape, where she could see herself seating on the hill looking up. 

"Do stars really look like that?" Venus said, her eyes shining, as Ciel realized the girl hadn't seen stars in her life. That had to be the day's mission, Ciel thought convinced.

"No, they don't look exactly like that, but this painting allows us to see them the way Van Gogh saw them. I think every person looks at the stars differently. Some people sing songs to them, write poetry, or makes wishes to them."

"They must be something amazing to see." 

'Well, you can tell me yourself, when you see them tonight. I hope it is a full moon too." 

"Full moon," Venus whispered, as Ciel smiled, both for her new friend's amusement, and for how much more she's heard her talking while they toured Paris. It was a good idea that they took her with them.

"Do you think people looked at me... You know, before... The way they look at this kind of art? Do you think they felt moved by me as I feel by this one?" 

"I do. You're incredibly famous. People came and stopped in front of you all the time because, in your other form, you were very captivating too. Very life-like," Ciel held a small laugh in the last words at how ironic they were. 

"Why do you think the police is crazy looking for you?" 

"They want to take me back?" 

"They want to take the art piece back. They would never believe you are a person now. Not in a million years, so I don't think they could get any close to finding you. Don't worry about it, you're safe with us." 

Venus felt so warm. Being surrounded by people that were constantly watching over her and making sure she was okay felt great, that's why she felt the need not to be much trouble to them. 

She needed to learn to handle her new life on her own soon, so she didn't become a burden for the ones she was feeling so close to.