Hello! I've been away for a while but I now intend to publish this story. It's a two-shot and it's inspired by the movie. Remember in Paris when Gavroche has the street children racing after him while he rides the carriage? This is the tale of one of the girls, an unknown "amie" from the barricades. This is really short, but I hope you like it anyway. Please enjoy Lisette!
-Maria / Eponine-Love
June 1832
In ten minutes, the Rue San-Michel would be running red with blood of innocents. The blood would stain boots, hems of dresses. Anyone who was unlucky enough to have their clothes soiled would groan and sigh. The merchants would call the chamber-maids and the chamber-maids would scrub the blood out. And then it would be forgotten about, without a single thought towards the poor soul whose blood it was.
But that wouldn't be for another ten minutes. At present, Gavroche was scrabbling up the rope onto the stone elephant. In one hand he gripped the wooden pole of a makeshift red flag, the fabric cut from a tablecloth in the Cafe Musain. At the feet of the stone elephant, another urchin, a child his age of twelve, stood, nearly bouncing on the balls of her feet in anticipation. "Hurry up, Gavroche!" the child shouted. "The ladder only holds one of us at a time."
"I'm almost there!" huffed Gavroche. "You needn't be so impatient!"
Lisette grumbled and leaned against the legs of the great elephant. At last, she heard her friend's cry, "All right, Miss Impatience, you can climb up now!"
Gripping her small red flag between her teeth, Lisette pulled herself up the rope. She arrived at the top just tree minutes later. Spitting out the farbric of the flag and catching it in one hand, she gloated, "Ha. There, you see? I made it up much faster than you did, and I'm a girl."
"You used both your hands!" Gavroche scoffed. "I only used one."
"Yes, but I'm a girl." Lisette edged towards the elephant's trunk and swung her legs over the edge of its head. "I'm better than you at climbing that rope and you know it."
"Shut up, Lisette," Gavroche teased, flicking a lock of her long brown hair. Lisette gave him a playful shove.
"Oi! Watch it! We're up high."
"Sorry."
Looking out over Paris, Gavroche sighed. "You needn't come to the barricades. You'll only get yourself killed."
"So will you," Lisette countered.
"I know. But you need to take care of the children."
"The children will be fine. Marie-Eve can take care of them if we fall. Now shut up, the parade's about to start. I'm rather excited, aren't you?"
"Of course I am."
"Do you really think we're going to die?" asked Lisette quietly, straightening her skirts.
"Yes."
"So do I."
And when the parade for General Lamarque's funeral began, Lisette and Gavroche waved their red flags and shouted. As Enjolras led the rest of les amis in a protest song, they joined in, climbing down from atop their elephant. As they raced into the crowds and the gunfire, Lisette paused for a moment to plant a kiss on the head of her younger sister, Marie-Eve. It was the only goodbye she could give.