Chapter 2:
*Lapis's POV*
Larry and I meet up at the museum for our interviews with Mr. Cecil Fredericks. For the interview, I'm wearing a three quarter sleeves, knee length black velvet dress with a sweetheart neckline, soft ruffles into a V on the front and does the same on the front of the skirt, showing a black skirt underneath that is knee length as well. Black tights cover my legs as black flats are on my feet. Everything I believe I need are in my crossbody bag. Also my hair is in it's usual braided bun.
He looks at the signs of the museum with emotions of her doesn't want to do this and despite of getting a job.
I place my pale hand on his shoulder, having him to look at me.
"Remember, it's for Nicky and temporary," I smiled to him softly.
Larry smiles back and nods his head.
We walk up the stairs to the entrance. He opens the door for me and the moment I enter in, I feel something. A feeling of magic. A huge smile appears on my face as we walk towards the front desk. A skeleton of a tyrannosaurus rex greets us in a mighty pose. I want to pet him as if he's a real pet, but obviously I couldn't.
My guardian grabs my hand when he sees me almost touching the skull. He gives me a stern look before taking me away.
"Excuse me," I speak softly to the woman at the desk. "We're Lapis and Larry Daley. We got job interviews with Cecil Fredericks."
"Right. Uh, he should still be in his office," she tells me with a smile.
"Great," Larry says.
"I'm Rebecca Hutman. I'm a docent here," she introduces herself, offering her hand.
"Hi," I smiled back, accepting it.
"Well, let me point you two in the right direction," she stood off her chair and leads us.
"Please," Larry speaks. "Ah, Teddy Roosevelt, right?" he comments on the statue of our former president.
"Yes, a visionary," Rebecca adds in, stopping for a bit.
"Yes, definitely," he agrees with her. "He was our fourth president, right?"
My eyes widened at this. "He's our twenty sixth president," I say to him, turning to our president.
"Twenty sixth," he corrects himself.
"Please don't touch the exhibits!" we hear someone call out from behind us.
The three of us turn to someone coming over to where some kids were climbing up where the skeleton is.
"Miss Hutman," he walks over. "I cannot tolerate this type of chaos." Larry moves me behind him for protection. "I mean, this is a museum, not a…..Do you know what 'museum' means?" he asked her. "It-It doesn't mean, 'Oh, Daddy, it's a big tyrannosaurus thing! Can I touch its leg?' No! It….Work it out, please."
"Will do, sir," she nods her head.
"Thank you," he says, walking away.
"Dr. McPhee, the museum director," Miss Hutman tells us.
"Hmm. Seems like a fun guy," Larry comments.
Miss Hutman only managed to take us to another location of the museum before heading back to whatever she was doing. So I thanked her and look through a map she has given us.
I enter into one room to see a door on the other side with the word "SECURITY" across on it.
"Larry," I called out for him. "I've found it."
Larry looks over to the security door. He goes over to it with me behind him. He rings the bell and the door opens.
"Hello," an elderly man greets us before joking a bit. "I'm just kidding," he tells us smiling.
"Hi. I'm, uh, I'm Larry Daley," my guardian introduced himself.
"My name is Lapis, sir," I introduced myself. "Are you Mr. Fredericks?" I asked him.
"Mr. Fredericks was my father, little girl," he says to me, offering his hand to us. "I am Cecil." We shake hands with him. "Good to meet you both," he kisses my hand like a gentleman.
I smiled in response.
"Come on in," he smiles to both of us, opening the door more.
"Thank you sir," I tell him as we enter in.
"Let's talk turkey here," Cecil gets down to business, leading us to his desk. "The museum is losing money, hand over fist," he begins as Larry and i stand across from him. "I guess kids today don't care about wax figures or stuffed animals. So you're downsizing, which is code for 'firing' myself and the other two night guards. They want to replace us with two new guards."
"Oh, sorry," Larry apologizes.
"Well, what are you gonna do? I'd like you to meet my, uh, two colleagues here, Reginald?" he calls for one as he leads us to them. "Gus?"
Reginald was sitting down on a chair and Gus was sleeping on the couch.
"Where is he?" Gus is startled awake. "I'll beat him with my fist!"
"Gus, this Lapis and Larry Daley," Cecil introduces us, "the kids who wants to be the new night guards."
"Nice-Nice to meet you both," I tell them shyly.
"Lapis?" Gus asked confused, looking at me weird.
"Yea, after the Egyptian precious gemstone," I chuckled a little nervously.
"Gentlemen, we have job candidates here," Cecil tells them, noticing my uncomfortableness. "They got excellent resumes, winning attitudes, and i say let's give them both a shot."
"Oh thank you sir," I smiled to him.
Larry didn't seem to be thrilled at first, but unexpectedly got hired by his own words.
"Welcome to the night guards, Larry and Lapis," Reginald smiles, offering his hand to Larry first.
He and I accept his handshakes.
"Why don't you meet me at the second level," Cecil tells us. "I'll slip into my orthopaedics and give you two a little tour. Arthritic knees," he explains. "Not fun gettin' old, my friends. Go on."
"Thanks again sir," I tell him before taking a very surprised Larry.
"You have gotta be kidding me," Larry finally speaks when we head towards the second level.
"Come on Larry," I smiled to him, pulling on his arm. "You got a job that is stable for you to see Nicky. Besides, I am her as a night guard as well."
"When I receive guardianship from your parents when you were born, I didn't except for us to be like this," he tells me.
"Larry," I get in front of him. "My parents choice you for a reason to be my guardian."
"I know, but-"
"I'm doing this for you while you are doing this for your son," I explain to him with my hands holding his hands, "and I never expect anything in return," I smiled softly.
Larry smiles back softly as well.
"Gotta keep it moving, Larry and Lapis," Cecil tells us while giving us the tour. "I'm pretty spry for an old man. This is the Diorama Room."
"They're so cute," I giggled a little at the small figures.
At some point of the tour, Larry and I have lost him.
"Cecil!" I called out as we enter into a hallway.
The lights go off.
"Hey, Cecil!" Larry calls out.
We walk past a few tribol figures where we got scared by him dressed as one.
He laughs at our screams and scares.
"Did I get you good?" he asked, laughing, holding his mask.
"Yea, you got us," Larry comments, not liking that.
Larry and i look at each other confused as he puts everything away.
"Seriously, though, no foolin' around in here," he tells us seriously. "This stuff is really old. All right than." He continues the tour. "As you can see, it's pretty quiet in here these days." We walk up a flight of stairs with me behind them. "On your left here is your Attila the Hun."
Very warrior like to me.
"And here we have our Easter Island head."
I always knew that I'm shorter than average like around 4'11" or 5'0", but standing next to the head makes me feel shorter.
"And this, of course, is the Hall of African Mammals."
"I do love felines," I commented.
"Oh, monkeys," Larry notices one. "I love monkeys."
"The little guy's cute," I smiled to the monkey.
"Yea, we-we call him Dexter," Cecil says. "He's quite a little ball of fun, aren't you, Dexter?" he asked Dexter, making Larry to turn to him.
"Moving on," our guide smiles. "And, finally, this is the temple of the pharaoh, Ahkmenrah."
I am awestruck of everything the moment I step into the temple.
"Wow," I speak softly with a huge smile on my face.
"And in that tomb right down there, the pharaoh himself."
I look over to see the golden scarphous which i feel like….I don't know how to describe it. Maybe when a girl sees a boy and immediately develop a crush or when she felt….love.
"And hanging on the wall behind him was his most prized possession." We walk closer to him. "The Tablet of Ahkmenrah."
My eyes look up at the tablet for a second before suddenly being pulled to his golden face.
"Twenty-four-karat gold. It's worth a fortune."
Darkness surrounds me and the pharaoh as if we are the only ones in the temple. My hand moves over to the barrier between us.
"I am here my pharaoh," I speak softly to him.
"Lapis?" Larry calls for me, pulling me out of the trance. "We need to go."
"I will return I promise, my pharaoh," I tell him softly.
Before I leave the tomb completely, I blow a kiss to him and keep the promise close to my heart.
"Report here at 5:00 tomorrow," Cecil says while taking us out. "We'll walk through your duties."
"Okay, 5:00, we'll be here," Larry says for both of us.
"Yes, sir," I add in.