Lesson 1: Don't be a Doormat
Clarice
"Helen, I don't think we're allowed to be here."
"Nonsense, they never said we couldn't come here. Besides, this is important."
Helen's unconcerned response did nothing to Raki's fears of trouble. He knew he shouldn't have gone with her, but there was no way to stop her once she got started. Helen burst into his room babbling excitedly about his education. She then proceeded to drag him out of his room and down the hallway of the Rabona Cathedral ignoring all his protests. She wouldn't listen to concerns like "Not supposed to be here." Miria angry; "Authorized people only." Furious Clare; "Forbidden area." Galatea's wrath; and "No one past this point." All three livid. Did he mention rage the likes no one has ever seen before? He knew things too. He heard the stories of how much trouble Helen had gotten into in the north. There was no way any idea of Helen's wouldn't get them into serious trouble. Sigh. He was really looking forward to his birthday too.
"Ok, we're here!" An overly excited Helen shouted to a very glum Raki.
"Where exactly is here?"
"Your classroom!" Helen screamed shoving Raki into the room.
"My what?!" Raki yelled dragging himself off the floor.
"Your classroom! Now, starting today I will be giving you lessons on life. These lessons are designed to help you avoid unfortunate consequences that the others have experienced. I will be using real live examples too to help the learning process." Helen finishes her introduction and smiles at Raki.
"What?"
"Now, no need to thank me."
"I wasn't going to. Helen, I'm leaving. You're just going to make people mad at you." Raki says and starts to walk to the door.
"You can't do that! The lesson isn't over yet!" Helen jumps on Raki and ties him up.
"Helen! What are you doing?! Untie me now!" Raki screams struggling against the ropes.
"No, if I do that then you'll run away and I won't be able to do our first lesson." Helen calmly tells Raki.
"But I don't want any lessons from you!"
"Hey! Clarice, come here!" Helen screams out the door completely ignoring Raki.
"Helen, there's no way she'll be able to hear you."
"Did you need something?" Clarice asks as she walks into the room.
"That's impossible! How did she hear you?! We're in the super restricted forbidden section!" Raki's eyes start to slightly bulge at the impossibility of the situation.
"Oh, well Helen told me last night to come down here and wait in a room down the hall. She told me to stay there until she called for me." She explains to Raki.
"Lesson one: Don't be a doormat." Helen proudly gestures towards Clarice.
"D-doormat?" Clarice looks at Helen and Raki.
"Raki, Clarice has failed to learn the art of saying "no" and thus has become a doormat. You must always voice your opinions and wishes. If you don't want to do something say no."
"What do you mean I'm a doormat?! I'm not a doormat! I am perfectly capable of voicing my wishes! " Clarice stomps her foot.
"Clarice, Helen told you to go into a forbidden area, wait in a dark room all by yourself the whole night, and to only leave that room when she called for you. I hate to say it, but Helen's right. You are kind of a doormat." Raki says calmly.
"I-I!!!!" Clarice starts to wail.
"Ah, don't cry! It's ok! All you have to do is to learn how to say no!" Raki starts to panic when he sees tears falling.
"That's right. All you have to do is say no." Helen agrees.
"Just say n-n-n-n-n." Clarice replies.
"Try again. Nu oh. No." Helen says slowly.
"N-n-n-n-n-n…. I can't say it!!!" Clarice wails.
"Again!" Helen yells.
"N-n-n-n-n…" Helen bites her hand as she continues to try. "OWWWWWWWWW!!!!" Clarice yells.
"Hmmmm… Well, it wasn't what I was going for, but it was closer." Helen says disappointed.
"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR!!!!" Clarice screams while clutching her hand.
"I thought it would help you say no." Helen replies.
"WELL IT DIDN'T!!!"
"Oh well, I'll help you later then. I really need to get back to Raki's lesson. Ok, well as you can see there are serious consequences to being a doormat. Not only are you forced into doing things you really don't want to do, you are disrespected all the time. It also seems that Clarice is physically incapable of saying no as well." Helen explains to Raki.
"Hey! I'm still here you know!" Clarice glares at Helen.
"Now Raki, I want you to watch this very carefully. Clarice, here do the laundry. I'm on laundry duty this week, but I'm busy now so you do it." Helen throws five bags of dirty laundry at Clarice.
"B-but." Clarice stumbles around the room under the weight of the bags.
"Now get going. That's supposed to be done today." Helen shoves Clarice out of the room and closes the door in her face.
Raki had to endure fifteen more minutes of listening to Helen explain in detail the woes of being a doormat and how much Clarice's life sucks because she is one. She was about to give a detailed description of Clarice's life, or rather made up life because he knew Helen's attention span wasn't long enough to listen to Clarice's life story, when the door burst open and a very angry Galatea stood in the doorway. Helen and Raki cower away from the black flames of doom that surrounded her.
"Hello, Helen." Galatea's sugary sweet tone had them shaking in terror.
"H-hi." Helen manages to squeak out.
"Guess who I met doing laundry." Galatea continues in her sugary sweet tone.
"Uh…"
"I met Clarice. Now, I was wondering if you're supposed to be on laundry duty this week…Why is Clarice doing the laundry?" Galatea finishes menacingly.
"I'm giving Raki life lessons and today's lesson is Don't be a Doormat. So, I needed a real life example and Clarice was the perfect person for that…." Helen says backing away from Galatea the entire time.
"…"
"Uh… Raki, today's lesson is over! It was nice running into you Galatea! Bye!" Helen yells attempting to run out of the room.
"Oh, no you don't! This area is a super restricted area! Clarice also told me that you made her spend the night here all alone! You are in major trouble!" Galatea yells at Helen.
"B-but I was only trying to help Raki"
"You were using that as an excuse to get out of doing laundry!" Galatea starts hitting Helen on the top of her head.
"OWWWW! STOP THAT IT HURTS!!!"
"DO YOU THINK IT HURTS MORE THAN WHEN YOU BIT CLARICE'S HAND?!!!!"
"Uh oh…"
"UH OH IS RIGHT YOU BETTER RUN!!!"
Helen barely moves when the black flames of doom surrounding Galatea engulf the entire room blasting Helen out of the tenth floor window.
Crash!
"Ouch…" Raki thinks.
"Raki?"
"Uh… Yes?"
"What did you learn today?"
"I-I learned that Helen's ideas are always bad and that I should never listen to anything she says because it will most certainly end badly."
"And?"
"And…. And…." Raki panics.
"…….." Galatea walks towards Raki.
"Please, don't hurt me!"
Raki squeezes his eyes shut preparing for his death. He only opens his eyes when he hears the ropes being cut.
"I'm not going to hurt you. It was Helen's fault. Plus, you learned the appropriate lesson from Helen's class." Galatea says walking out of the room.
Raki runs out of the room and outside trying to get as far away from the restricted section only stopping when he hears a muffled "Ouf". Raki looks down and realizes that he accidently stomped on Helen's back. He was about to help her up when she started mumbling something about lesson two and decided that he needed to get as far away from her as possible.
