A New Me Edited Chapter 4

The following morning, Lampwick and Pinocchio both headed off to the Collodi school house. It was Lampwick`s first time going back to school since he was a donkey , and it felt quiet awarkward to be back learning again. He never truly enjoyed school, and honestly , he still isn't want to go. But he knew  that if being human once again meant going to school and getting an education , he could learn to accept that. Though, this time around  he was determined to do well and prove himself that he could be a "real boy "


When they arrive at the school house , Lampwick got quite a bit of attention , but Pinocchio could only answer for him. Pinocchio explained that Lampwick was a friend of his that needs a place to stay for awhile. After that , nobody asked many questions though. They all went back to their own schooling. Lampwick was a bit behind though , but he soon caught up . Lampwick , though he couldn`t talk to anybody , made friends with the other boys of the class . This time around , he wasn`t going to fall into temptation with false friends . He


After school Lampwick helped Geppetto with his wood-carving . Lampwick found out that wood carving was long and tedious work and each of those clocks took many days to make . He got to appreciate simple rewards and learn that life isn`t going to hand you everything you want on a silver platter . Lampwick wished that he had learn those lessons early on in life ,maybe if he knew that he would of no Pleasure Island was too good to true .


Time passed and the days got shorter and colder. Soon ,the boys wore scarves and wool hats on the walk to school. October`s chilly winds sent leaves tumbling down from their spots on the trees and them swept them away from the streets, far off into the distance as November came around. It stayed cold and cloudy , but it felt comforting to know every night to go home and enjoy supper by a warm fire after walking home in such weather.


Then  a few weeks after the leaves disappeared , snow began to fall and cover the entire village with a white blanket. Christmas  time was  approaching  and Geppetto was busier than ever in the shop , working nearly day and night on the orders he received for toys and woodcarvings. Lampwick and Pinocchio helped the best they could , kindling the fire, cleaning up wood shavings, anything that could make Geppetto`s long hours more bearable.  


Though they both Lampwick and Pinocchio worked hard , they still had time to enjoy being kids. They got into constant snowball fights with the boys on the walk home from school.  They both planed sneak attacks , sometimes on each other, and many a night they would come home with their clothing soaked and fingers a bright frozen red, but still laughing giddily on what had happened that afternoon.


Lampwick enjoy all of this . He was glad that he could be a human ,even if he couldn`t talk.  It was the simple thing of being human Lampwick missed the most when he was a donkey . Walking on two legs , wearing clothes , being able to pick up stuff where all examples of this . Though in some sense ,  being a donkey would of freed him from the down side of being human, but Lampwick learned everything came at a price . If growing up and perhaps doing something though he might not always like it was the price of re-gaining his human form once more , Lampwick was fine with that . Dying as a donkey because of little food and too much work scared him more .


Lampwick`s health was also steadily improving . When he became human again , he was pale, boney and weak from all of those years of being a donkey. Now he had become strong  and healthy. Geppetto`s clothes fit nicely , and they no longer hung of Lampwick so badly.  His whipping scars (the proof that he had been abuse as a donkey) didn`t go away , for they would stay with Lampwick for the rest of his life .But they no longer where a deep red but more of a paler pink, and no longer did they sting as he walked.


Also , Lampwick had grown from an awkward boy into a handsome man.  Girls seemed to notice that more and smiled at him , and when he would smile back , they would blush . Lampwick began to see girls in another light as well. When he was twelve he thought girls where strange and never really liked them . Now that he was 14 his feelings towards them changed and he felt different around them . Girls talked to him more than the other boys of the village , perhaps from his lacking in voice . Maybe they thought of him as a "poor unfortunate soul " and took pity on him . Or was it because he wouldn`t interrupt their conversations and nag him "Girls talk too much ! "


One girl in particular ,though, caught Lampwick's attention the most though. Rosa Carino , the only daughter of the rich trader, Alberto Carino. She was very kind to Lampwick , and like to talk to him often. Her younger brother Tino, was a good friend of Pinocchio`s , although Tino did not always make the right decision all the time.


Winter passed and soon the snow melted away. Flowers arose from the ground and the trees grew leaves once again on the trees.  Lampwick and Pinocchio spent more time outside after school was finished.


Pleasure Island still haunted Lampwick in his nightmare. Not all dreams , though , where nightmares . Some dreams , however,  he wished where real . Those dreams where the kind when he went back to save all of his friends from the unwanted and unexpected transformation .
That was something he wished he could do , help all of the boys who weren`t given a second chance to redeem themselves .


Lampwick`s life was going just swell, until that one day that change everything.