"No need to act like that!" Ace said. A smile was apparent on his face. "I'll tell you."
He paused for a moment, and both Lyra and Beatrice became impatient.
"Hurry up and tell us!" Beatrice said.
"Okay! Okay..." Ace finally began, "I happened to be walking by the headmaster's office yesterday..."
"What does that have to do with anything! Just tell us already!" Beatrice said. She was annoyed by how slow Ace was explaining.
"I'm getting there! I'm getting there... so, I was walking by the headmaster's office and I just so happened to overhear the last words Len said before he left."
He paused for dramatic effect and looked at Lyra. Lyra signaled for him to keep going.
"He said, 'my name is Len.'"
Now Beatrice was really annoyed. "What does that have to do with anything!"
"That has everything to do with it!" Ace responded. "Len never introduces himself to anyone!"
"You... have a point... but still..." Beatrice calmed down a little, "What does that have to do with Lyra's interview?"
"Right now, I firmly believe... that the person he was introducing himself to... was Lyra!"
Beatrice glanced at Lyra, "Why do you say so?"
"The voice I heard just before Len spoke was young and feminine. Lyra is a new student of the special class, she fits the criteria perfectly."
"But why would he introduce himself?" Beatrice asked.
This time, it was Lyra who responded, "because I asked for his name? Why else would he give it?"
"So I was right!" Ace exclaimed with a smile. "It was you who Len introduced himself to!"
"But that doesn't explain why Lyra's interview was strange." Beatrice said, still puzzled like before.
"But what happened next does!" Ace said excitedly. "The door was already open when Len was introducing himself, and then he walked out."
He paused again for dramatic effect. Beatrice decided to stay quiet this time, even though she was annoyed, because she did not want to interrupt the story.
"When he walked out, I noticed something different about him..." Ace continued and then gave another dramatic pause.
"What was different?" Beatrice asked.
Ace looked back and forth between Beatrice and Lyra, and then finally said, "It was so horrifyingly different. I was afraid to get near him, he seemed so different... Len was..."
Beatrice prompted him, "Len was...?"
"Smiling." Ace finally said. It looked like it took a lot out of him to say that, as if what he just said was completely impossible, as if everything he ever knew was turned upside down by this fact: Len was smiling.
Beatrice stared at Ace in shock, unsure of whether to believe him, while Lyra stared at Ace in confusion because she did not know why this was so shocking.
"How is that possible?!" Beatrice exclaimed loudly. "Is this true?!"
"Completely. I saw it with my own two eyes."
"But I thought Len does not know how to smile. He looks like he never smiled in his life!"
"What's going on?" Lyra asked, "isn't it normal for people to smile?"
"Yes, It is normal... but not for Len!" Beatrice said.
"In all the years I've been here, yesterday was the only time I've ever seen Len smile." Ace said. "I thought for a moment that he wasn't Len, but who else that looks like Len would be in the headmaster's office, other than Len?"
"Doesn't Leo also look like Len?" Lyra asked. She was amused by the strange way Beatrice and Ace were exaggerating the story.
"Not at all!" They both said in unison.
Then Ace clarified, "the two are completely different in the way they dress. I could never imagine seeing Leo dressed the way Len is always dressed, and I could never imagine seeing Len looking anything like Leo."
"But aren't they brothers?" Lyra asked. She knew that they were, but still felt the need to ask.
"Leo and Len, brothers?!" Beatrice said, "now that you mention it... they do seem to have similar appearances..."
"But not to that extent!" Ace finished for her.
Lyra was so lost in this conversation. It seemed as if everything she knew about Leo and Len was completely different in the eyes of both Beatrice and Ace. She concluded that she should try to avoid talking about this subject with them again.
She decided to change the topic. "So... back to the interview. What does Len smiling have to do with the interview?"
"It has everything to do with it!" Ace said. "You were immediately accepted into the special class for one reason, and one reason only..."
"What is that reason?" Lyra asked quietly.
"You made... Len... smile."