REAWAKENED 2: SHE IS LILA

I have a nasty eye infection

The second day of the week came and as the students arrived at school and began to flood the yard, Blake was already in class seated at her desk. She got there super early so that not that many people would see her looking like a rich housewife; that was the look she went with. It was so not her style but at least it exuded class, so much so that when her classmates entered the classroom and saw her, they did a double take.

She wore dresses once in a while but she was so obviously a tomboy and so seeing her looking like one of The Rich Housewives of Beverly Hills, was something that immediately struck them; Masha too who kept on glancing back at her with slight bitterness in her eyes.

Jackson walked into the classroom and when he saw her, he too was struck by how elegant she looked, so struck he stopped dead in his tracks. And it wasn’t just the fanciness of the headscarf and the sunglasses that instantly grabbed him, it was the fanciness of her whole look. Blake was wearing one of the new dresses she bought, a white lace one with a brown leather sandal and a blue denim jacket, and she looked very posh, like she just got off a yacht.

Quickly walking to his desk, Jackson then hang his bag over his chair and flew to her. He was itching to greet her and compliment her but right before he could even utter a word, Blake raised a finger and stopped him.

“Yeah I’m going to stop you right there,” she said, pausing her game but with her eyes still on the screen of her phone. “Jackson, I got my period this morning and my cramps are killing me. If you say even just one word to me today, one word Jackson . . . I am legit going to punch you in the face.”

Jackson quietly gasped, he knew not to mess with a woman when she was on her period and so without saying anything, he gave her a double thumbs up as he slowly backed away from her and then went and sat down at his desk.

Blake quietly sighed in relief. “O.k. Jackson down, Mr. Martin to go,” she said to herself and then un-paused her game and continued playing.

A few minutes later, the bell rang and when the students that were out in the hallway entered the classroom and took their seats, Mr. Martin walked in and went and put his bag on the teacher’s desk, as with Blake, her heart pounded like it was going to break right through her ribcage. Coming to school looking like she was on a reality TV show, what the heck was she thinking?

“Good morning class?” Mr. Martin greeted and the class greeted him back. “Did we have ourselves a good weekend?” he then asked and they responded in agreement with yeahs and head nods. “Good, are we ready for the test?”

“Absolutely,” Masha quickly answered as the class quietly groaned to themselves and rolled their eyes at her.

“Alright then, let’s get to it.”

Mr. Martin dug his hand into his bag and pulled out the question papers, and then waited for the students to finish clearing their desks. Looking around the class, he finally took notice to Blake and immediately wondered what was going on with her. The headscarf was fine because it was allowed but the sunglasses, those set off his alarm straightaway.

“Uh, Blake?” he calmly called out to her.

“Oh gosh here we go,” she said to herself and then lifted her head. “Yes sir,” she then said to him as the class turned to her. He was obviously going to ask about the shades and they were very curious to hear what she was going to say.

“What’s going on with the shades? You are aware that sunglasses are not allowed right?”

“Yes sir I am.”

“Great, so why is there a pair on your face?” Mr. Martin asked, also curious to hear what she was going to say.

“I promise I have a really good explanation.”

“Sweet, let’s hear it.”

Blake stood up. Her eyes and her hair were still gold but at least they weren’t glowing like they were the day before, and so her eyes sat perfectly hidden behind the darkness of the sunglasses.

“I have a nasty eye infection and I do not want anyone to see it because it’s gross,” she said.

“I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Mr. Martin said.

“It’s pretty bad. There’s a lot of crust and puss and it’s oozing this gunky green goo.” The class queasily murmured. “Yes, you’re right to make those faces and go eww because it’s really disgusting and if I subject you to it, you might never eat again.”

“What happened?” Fern asked.

“I don’t know, I just woke up yesterday and there it was.”

“Any idea where you could have gotten it from?” Mumba asked.

“It’s not an STD if that’s what you’re really asking,” Blake said and the class laughed.

“Alright that’s enough, Blake please take off the sunglasses so that we can begin please.”

“No I can’t.”

“You can’t or you won’t?” Mr. Martin asked.

“I can’t.”

"Do you have a sick note or a slip from the headmistress permitting you to wear those on school premises?"

"No I don't," she answered.

"Oh o.k. so you just woke up this morning and chose to disregard the rules.”

“Ooh,” the class quietly went.

“Oh my gosh no, I would never do that. I’m wearing these because I have to. Because I have an eye infection and it is repulsive. Forget them not ever eating again, I will never be able to face them again if they see what’s under here. I’ll have no other choice but to crawl into a hole and die because my life would be officially over. Mr. Martin please, I wouldn’t have come to school wearing sunglasses if it wasn’t of the utmost importance. And I couldn’t not come because I absolutely had to write the test. I couldn’t miss the test and so I did what I could to be here. I have a doctor’s appointment later, I just came here to write the test. Please just let me write it. He’s going to give me some medicine and I’m going to get better and I promise you’re never going to see me in sunglasses ever again. Please.”

The class turned their heads to Mr. Martin and eagerly waited to hear what his response was going to be.

“Alright fine,” he said and Blake gave out a huge sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” she said.

“But . . . I’m giving you detention.”

“What? Why?”

“Because you can take off the glasses you just don’t want to,” Mr. Martin said.

“For fear of being ridiculed and called names for the rest of the school term, yeah.”

“Great, so I’m sentencing you to three hours of detention. Pick a day and report, and bring me the slip the following day.”

“O.k.,” she agreed. Being sentenced to three hours of detention was far much better than them seeing her golden eyes and calling her a freak and so it was a price she gladly paid.

“Alright, let’s write this test.”

Mr. Martin gave out the question papers and when each student had one, they started writing, as he then returned to the front and sat down behind the desk, looking at Blake and wondering how disgusting of an infection she had to easily choose three hours of detention over just taking the sunglasses off. Girls and their image. Brushing it aside, he then pulled out an animal magazine from the top right drawer and began to peruse through it as the students went on writing.

Two hours later, the break bell rang and as the students made their way down the hallways to the cafeteria to eat, Blake and Arthur were in the library sitting at one of the secluded tables eating also. He had gone to the cafeteria and had brought food for the both of them, and as he chowed down on his tuna sandwich, she enjoyed her slices of chicken and mushroom pizza.

“Ah sweet, I knew he was going to say yes, he’s cool like that Mr. Martin,” Arthur said.

“He really is,” Blake agreed. “He did give me three hours of detention though.”

“Oh wow.”

“Yeah. He said I could go either day of the week so I’m going to go today so that I can get it over and done with.”

“Cool,” Arthur said.

“And I told him that I was going to be going to the hospital later on today to get medicine for my grotesque eye infection so I have to be better by the time he sees me again.”

“And when’s that?”

“Wednesday morning," she answered.

“You think you’ll be back to normal by Wednesday?”

“I hope so but if I’m not, we’ll have to find another way to hide my eyes, otherwise I’m going to have to skip school.”

“Don’t worry, I’m praying for you. Everything’s going to be o.k.,” he said and they shared a warm smile as inside, Blake’s heart melted. What was happening to her was the most bizarre thing either of them had ever seen or heard of and instead of running away like most people would have done, he stayed. And he didn’t just stay, he was helping her and praying for her as well, what a good friend he was. The support he was giving her meant the world to her and it moved her so deeply it brought tears to her eyes, but Arthur couldn’t see it because her glasses were so dark.

“Thank you Arthur.”

“No sweat, what are friends for.”

13:00 hours clocked and it was time for the students to knock off, and as they exited the school building and headed home, Blake remained in class waiting to go for detention. It started at 13:30 and so she had a good thirty minutes to spare; thirty minutes she spent talking to Arthur who not only showed up to keep her company, but brought her lunch as well so that she could eat and be ready to take on her three hour sentence.

“Any chance you came up with something whilst you were in class?” Blake hopelessly asked.

“No, nothing yet,” he answered.

“Ugh gosh, this is so not ideal. I mean I always thought it was cool that Lila looked a little like me but I never wanted to become her. Life gets pretty hectic sometimes but I would never ever wish to be anybody else but me and so the fact that I’m seated here with Lila’s eyes and hair is really freaking me out. Why am I seated here with Lila’s eyes and hair? What’s happening to me? Why is this happening to me? Oh my gosh, have I been possessed by Lila? The demons that you were talking about, are they inside me?”

“No they’re not.”

“How do you know?” Blake asked frantic.

“Because I don’t sense any darkness when I’m around you. The game yes, it was dripping with evil but you . . . No. I don’t sense anything evil from you at all. What I actually sense is . . . Light.”

“So what’s happening to me is not like, an evil thing?”

Arthur paused for a moment as he took in more of the divine light her spirit was exuding. “No, it’s not,” he answered.

“O.k. so what’s happening to me? What does this mean?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is God trying to teach me a lesson because I play video games too much?” she asked.

“I don’t know, only God knows why He does what He does, all we can do as devote followers is respect what He’s doing in our lives because no one knows what is best for us more than He does; because He is God and all wisdom belongs to Him. Jeremiah Chapter 29 Verse 11, ‘He knows the thoughts that He thinks towards us, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give us a future and a hope.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that our lives are orchestrated by God. He has prepared the perfect destiny for each and every single one of us, but only when we surrender to Jesus Christ shall those perfect destinies and the hope He has promised us be ours; for Jesus is the door that leads to the bountiful treasures that God has secured in heavenly places for those that love Him and live their lives in accordance with His Will, and so it is only through accepting Him that we shall access those bountiful treasures and live rich and blessed lives,” Arthur said.

“So what’s happening to me is God’s Will?”

“Yes it is.”

“Wait, so He wanted me to play the game so that this could happen to me?” Blake asked.

“No. What’s happening to you is God’s Will but the manner in which it happened was not. You see, God has already ordered our steps, He knows where we’re going even before we get there because He’s The Alpha and The Omega, The Beginning and The End, The First and The Last, Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 13. He sits in the past, the present and the future at the exact same time and so He’s not only All-Seeing, He’s All-Knowing and All-Wise as well. And because He is, He goes before us and prepares our paths for us, straight paths that we must live righteously to stay on or else we’ll wander off and lose our way. A lot of us have wandered off our paths because we’re humans and humans are defective; they make mistakes and it’s not God’s Will for us to make mistakes because they’re dangerous and costly. Not only do they cost us time, they can cost us our lives as well and so He calls us to walk as perfectly as Jesus did when He walked the earth because He knows that it is through those mistakes that the devil corrupts us and derails us, and keeps us from fulfilling our destinies. Now even though God doesn’t like it when we make mistakes because it puts at stake the specific assignments He sent us here to carry out, He built into us a safeguard to counter the effect of the mistakes we make so that no matter what, we can always get ourselves back on track, and that safeguard is the Holy Spirit, our Guide and our Helper. He’s constantly speaking to us so that He can guide us to the perfect lives God has prepared for us but we don’t listen because we’re always so distracted, and it’s that very distraction that the devil capitalizes on. He finds what we love and he uses it to fight our ordination, and the more we indulge in that thing, to the point where it starts to take over our lives, the more he has us right where he wants us. But God is good; Genesis Chapter 50 Verse 20 ‘But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.’ The things that the devil intends for evil, God uses for good, for nothing we go through is wasted. God uses everything. He uses the good to bless us so that in our shining He is exalted and He uses the bad to teach us and build us up into becoming stronger, tougher and wiser versions of ourselves, Ephesians Chapter 1 Verse 11 says He works all things according to the counsel of His Will. Which is where my point comes in. The devil found out that you love video games and has been using them to distract you from knowing the truth and being set free by it; but even still, God used the very same thing the devil meant for harm to awaken you, so that you can know the truth and find your way back to your path, and still have a chance to fulfill your destiny.”

“So I have to keep playing the game?”

“No, you have surrender your life to Jesus Christ and start living righteously. You have to remove all the evil things from your life and start reading the Bible, going to church and praying so that the Holy Spirit can begin to reveal to you what you need to do to step into the glorious future God has prepared for you,” he said.

“O.k. so what happens now?”

“You have to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Saviour. Only then will the truth of what’s happening to you be revealed.”