Zelda's Writing

I believe this is my area of expertise ^^

Chapter one

I awoke early; even before the sun had risen and the streets were empty and cold. A few morning workers were fixing the electric wires, but otherwise, I was alone, just as I had always been. I sat, waiting in the alley for the outdoor market to open.
As I sat there, I pulled out a sheath from inside the makeshift belt I wore around my waist. I looked at it carefully, inspecting it from all angles. From the sheath, I pulled out a small dagger, decorated with painted lilies on the side. It was from this dagger that I had fashioned myself a name. Lily. This was my only possession. I owned nothing more than the ragged robe I wore for clothing. It was the only thing that linked me to my past.
The streets were coming alive now. It was bright, but the cold morning air still lingered. I barely felt it; I’d been much colder before. The market place was becoming crowded, but I dared not try yet, it was too early.
I slumped back against the wall and sighed. Today was my 14th birthday. I don’t know how I knew that, but I did. I knew that it would be the same as any other day, but I couldn’t help hoping that something special would happen. I had never received a gift from anyone, but then again, no one knew I existed. No one has time for a young girl with short brown hair, hazel eyes, a dirty face, and no family.
When I was about three years old, my entire world was shattered. One moment, I was with my parents, and the next, I was in an orphanage, my only possession the dagger. They took me in for a few years, but my time there was horrible. The director and all the caretakers seemed to think I was a worthless thing, and used me as their servant. All the other children treated me just as badly, and many times I was beaten and starved. I was still given an education, and I learned to read and write a little. Then, at the age of six, the orphanage decided they’d had enough of me and turned me out into the streets. Struggling to survive, I taught myself to steal and cheat. At the age of eleven, I was a well known but uncaught thief.
Finally, I stood up. I put the dagger back in its sheath and walked out from the alley. I made my way through the throng of people. I spotted a man with a bulging pocket just ahead; a perfect target. I crept up behind him and deliberately bumped into him.
“I’m so sorry!” I said, smiling as he looked at me suspiciously. He walked off, and I pocketed his wallet.
I made quite a few rounds that morning, and when I was done, I had a grand total of thirty-four dollars. I was making my way to a small restaurant for breakfast when I saw the policeman. He was a man who was constantly after me, so he knew who I was. But he had never actually managed to catch me, so I felt confident that today should be no different. I sidled into the restaurant anyway and ordered something to eat.
I’d almost finished when I saw him come in. He scanned the restaurant and I covered my face with my hand, desperately hoping he couldn’t see me. When I looked up he was talking to the man at the counter, so I saw my chance of escape. Quickly, I got up and walked briskly to the exit. I was almost there when-
“Hey you, stop thief!”
I bolted out of the door and willed myself to run as fast as I could. I hit several people, but I didn’t say excuse me. I kept running. Suddenly, I tripped on an uneven part of the pavement. I got up as fast as I could, but I only ran a few steps before a strong hand grabbed the back of my hair and pulled me back.
“Caught you now,” the policeman snarled. “It’s to jail with you.”
Ah, there you go. Happy 14th birthday, Lily.

The jail was filthy and very drab. It smelled unpleasant and everything was dirty, but the worst part was the groaning and murmuring of the prisoners who seemed to be going mad. For two days, I sat in the corner of my cell, thinking and wondering, trying to block out the occasional scream of despair. By the third day, I had become nearly oblivious to my surroundings and the time.
It was after lunch on the fourth day that the man came. I did not notice anything different at first. He was just some captain doing his rounds of checking on the prisoners. But when he came to my cell, he stopped. He looked me over and then turned to the guard outside the door.
“How old is this girl?” he asked in a concerned voice.
“I think she is about fourteen, sir,” the guard answered.
“And how is it that a fourteen-year-old girl came to be locked away in my jail?”
“She is a thief, sir. She’s been pick-pocketing the people at the outdoor market for years. We found her four days ago. The only thing she had with her was a small knife, sir.”
“Ah, such a waste, such youth,” the captain said shaking his head sadly. “Has she any family?”
“No, sir. She is an orphan; she doesn’t even have a proper name.”
“An orphan you say?” the captain said raising his eyebrow.
“Yes, sir.”
“Interesting…,” he said as he looked at me. I met his eyes and he gave me a small smile. “Well, I have wasted your time long enough, and I have to make a call. Good day.”
“Good day to you, sir.” The guard said as the captain left and I was once again left with nothing to do.

Two days later, the captain returned. This time, a young woman of about twenty-one came with him. They ignored all the other cells and came to where I was sitting on my bed. The guard opened the door and they came into my cell.
“So what do you think, Sarah?” the captain said as the young woman took me in.
She was very pretty, with light brown hair and gorgeous green eyes. She was thin, and her face was kind. She walked closer until she was right in front of me. Then she crouched down to look into my eyes.
“Hello,” she said to me. I said nothing. “Do you have a name, sweetheart?” she asked kindly.
I was quiet for a moment, but then I answered in a hoarse whisper, “Lily.”
“What a beautiful name,” she murmured. She stood up and looked back to the captain. “Did you bring the papers, Daniel?”
“Yes, they’re right here,” he said, holding out his hand. In it he held a yellow folder full of white sheets.
“Very well then, yes.”
“The woman smiled and the captain told me to stand. They led me out of the cell and into the captain’s office. They made me sit down in front of the desk while he and the woman sat on the other side.
“Lily,” the captain said as he looked into my eyes, “my wife and I don’t have any children of our own, and we were wondering if you would like to come and live with us.”
“You would be happier with a home and an education, Lily. Daniel and I could be your parents, and you would have someone to care for you,” The woman said delicately as she reached across to hold my hand.
For a long time, I looked down thinking. If I went with them, I would finally have a family, but if I didn’t, I’d be forced to stay in jail. Finally, I gave a slight nod. They handed me one of the adoption papers, for that’s what it was, and showed me where to sign my name. At first, I had trouble, because I didn’t know how to write very well, but I managed a scrawl at the bottom of the page, and Sarah smiled as she stroked my face.
“Welcome to the family, Lily.”

Chapter Two

On that very same day, my new family signed the papers to get me out of jail and they drove me to their house.
My new home was in the residential area of the city where I had never dared venture before. It was a beautiful house, painted a lovely olive green on the outside and with a large fenced yard where many gorgeous flowers grew in quantity. A large maple tree blocked my view of the left side of the house. All in all, I was amazed as I got out of the black car that stopped outside. Daniel got out of the driver’s seat and strode up to the door. Sarah stood behind me.
“This is your home now, Lily,” she said softly. “Come, let me show you inside.”
She led me up the path and through the door. As soon as I stepped in, I suddenly felt conscious of my ragged appearance and dirty face. The living room was lavishly decorated right up to the crystal chandelier. The walls were beige, and the couches were black leather. Numerous paintings hung from the walls, including some photographs of who I assumed to be Sarah and Daniel’s relatives. The carpet was a lush blue, and I could feel the softness of it through the soles of my worn shoes. Everything was spotless and in its place.
The rest of the house was decorated in much the same way, and after seeing all of the first floor, Sarah led me up the stairs in the hall. She showed me where their bedroom and the bathroom were located and finally, she led me to the room that was to be mine.
“It isn’t very much,” Sarah said as she put her hand on the handle. “I had no idea what you liked, so I just left it plain. We can change it to your liking later on.” Then she turned the knob and opened the door.
It was as if I’d stepped into a white blizzard. Everything was a shining white, the curtains, the bed sheets, the walls, even the carpet. It seemed quite nice to me.
“Thank you,” I murmured as I unbelievingly felt the sheets, sure that as soon as I turned around, they would be gone.
“You’re very welcome,” Sarah said with a wide smile. “Feel free to do what you like here. This is your room.” She closed the door and I could hear her going downstairs.
The first thing I did was close my eyes and pinch myself, just in case I was dreaming. After feeling the pain and assuring myself that I was indeed awake, I sank into the bed and lay staring at the ceiling. I hadn’t had a roof over my head since the orphanage, but this was different. This was my home, my room, my family; this was all new to me.
After a while, I pulled the sheath from my belt and sat up. My dirty fingers traced the intricate design on the blade, and finally, I stood and placed the dagger and sheath on the bedside table. After looking over the room more carefully, I decided to go downstairs.
When I went downstairs I found Sarah waiting for me, car keys in hand.
“Are we going somewhere?” I asked quietly.
Sarah smiled mischievously. “We’re going to the market place. I daresay you’re familiar with it?”
I smiled briefly but immediately wiped it from my face. Instead I followed Sarah outside to the car and sat in the passenger’s seat next to her.
“Why are we going to the market place?” I asked as she started the car.
“Oh, we need to buy you some clothes and things like that,” I stared. “Well you can’t expect to wear the same thing forever!” she said, shocked.
I quickly looked down at my hands, which were scarred and slightly calloused. Underneath the dirt, I could just make out a small mark on my palm that looked like a cut, which it was. Shortly before the orphanage turned me out, I had accidentally slashed at a girl with my dagger and the director cut my palm as punishment. The cut had been filled with dirt and closed, leaving a brown mark. The director had said this was my mark, the mark of the unwanted, and that very day he turned me out into the streets with only my dagger and the large uniform of the orphanage, which I had never removed except to try to clean and patch up a little.
“Shoes too?” I asked. I had always wanted shoes that actually protected my feet. Mine were four sizes too small and pinched my feet to the point of bleeding, not to mention the holes on the soles that allowed sharp objects to puncture them.
“Of course we’re going to get you some shoes!” she cried out, nearly crashing the car. “My, I wonder what the poor child has been through,” she muttered under her breath.
Three hours later, we were driving home; I was now dressed in a light yellow summer dress with wonderfully comfortable brown sandals. The rest of my clothing was in the trunk, a wide assortment of dresses, jeans, shirts, skirts, and of course shoes. My hair had been combed out (after much pain on my part) so that it was straight, and Sarah had placed a small yellow flower in it. My hands and face had been washed until they were rubbed pink and when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t recognize the pretty, thin figure staring back at me. It was as if I had been replaced by one of those girls I had always envied, with their parents and fine clothing. I couldn’t stop saying thank you for nearly an hour, until Sarah said that if I said thank you one more time, she’d take it all back. I knew she didn’t really mean it, but I quieted down all the same.
It was about two in the afternoon when we arrived back at the house. Daniel had returned to work in his own car and so Sarah and I spent the rest of the day finding places in my closet for my clothes. Afterwards, I took a nice long shower, grateful for the warm water running down my body, and I later changed back into my dress and returned downstairs for dinner. Daniel seemed at a loss for words when I entered the dining room and took my place at the table.
“Stop staring, Daniel,” Sarah chided. “Yes, it’s Lily, but don’t reduce her to tears with that face of yours!”
We all laughed, but although Sarah and Daniel continued to speak throughout the meal, I was relatively quiet, eating slowly, enjoying every bite. Suddenly their conversation turned to me.
“-which school should she attend?” Sarah had asked.
“School?” I asked, half afraid, and half excited.
“Yes, I think White Dawn is a good school, my sister Margaret went there,” she said more to Daniel than to me.
“No, White Dawn is too formal,” Daniel said. “What about Celeste?”
“I’ve never heard of it,” Sarah said. To be sincere, I had never heard of any of these.
“It’s a large boarding school, boys and girls, large grounds, it’s quite nice,” Daniel said with a small smile. “My school went there once for our tennis championships. We were ground to dirt, sadly. Our worst defeat in years, really.”
“So what do you think, Lily?” Sarah asked me.
“I really don’t know,” I murmured.
“The school year starts in two months, why don’t you go see the school tomorrow, Sarah?” Daniel said. “Lily can come to work with me.”
“Alright then, but she’ll have to come with me later to buy her uniforms.”
“Uniforms?” I asked, remembering the orphanage.
“Boarding schools require uniforms to make sure their students don’t run away or students from other schools get in,” she said dismissively.
“Boarding school?” I asked confused, I’d never heard of such a thing.
“A school where students live during the year,” Daniel explained kindly. “They come home for Christmas and the summer holidays.”
“So I’ll be away from home for most of the year?”
“Yes, but we’ll write to you of course,” Sarah said quickly.
“We wouldn’t be sending you away, except that boarding schools turn out some of the best students. You’ll have great opportunities there,” Daniel said.
“It’s alright,” I said. I really didn’t mind that I was being sent away, I was grateful enough to Sarah and Daniel for their kindness towards me.
“Well, I think you’d better be going of to bed, Lily. We’ll be waking up early tomorrow,” Daniel said getting up and gathering his dishes.
In answer, I got up and climbed the stairs, aware that Sarah and Daniel were looking at me.

Chapter Three

The two months passed in a busy manner. Since I had never been to school before, Sarah and Daniel fussed over me, making sure everything was fine; from the size of my uniforms to how strong my pencil lead was. Sarah tutored me a little when we stayed home alone. She helped me with my history and sciences, and taught me how to better my handwriting. In mathematics she said I didn’t need help, because living in the streets stealing for a living requires an awful lot of math. On the weekends, Daniel would take me to the backyard to teach me how to play tennis. After a while, he would sit down and make Sarah play me. They were both really good, and I could never beat either of them, although I think they sometimes went easy on me.
By the end of August, I had been so immersed in my new family that I almost forgot who I really was. I sometimes felt as if I had always been Lily Edwards, and not just plain old Lily. But then I would remember what the dagger symbolized, and I had to pull myself from those fantasies.
In September, the weather became breezy and cool, and beautifully colored leaves fell from the tree outside like rain. But aside from this beauty finally came the concept of school. On the night before the 2nd, Sarah and Daniel threw a small going away party for the three of us. There was much crying and hugging on Sarah’s and my part, but Daniel, I think to spare himself the shame of crying, instead cooked dinner.
The next day, at five in the morning, I was already dressed and showered, with my trunk packed and going downstairs for a quick breakfast. I was carefully dressed in my crisp new uniform. The blue plaid skirt was neatly pressed and the white blouse was free of any creases, the school emblem clean. My now long hair was loose and straight, a blue hair band around my head. Sarah said I looked beautiful, I thought I looked obsessive.
Sarah and Daniel were rushing. She was looking tearfully for her car keys while he ate as fast as he could. I sat down at my plate and ate as fast as I dared, still careful to keep my uniform clean.
Ten minutes later, my trunk had been lifted into the car, and we left. Celeste Academy was a fair distance away, at least a two hour drive, and every moment, my excitement mounted higher. After a long uneventful time, Daniel pointed it out.
The entrance was an old building, large and castle-like. On the sides were long stretches of buildings, and I supposed those were the dormitories. I couldn’t see anything beyond, but I could see that the grounds were well taken care of; with it’s neatly kept laws and trimmed flowerbeds. There was a courtyard where several cars were parked. Many families were clustered around their children, who were making their way up the steps toward the entrance. Daniel parked the car and quickly got out. Sarah followed suit, and I was last, deliberately slowing them down.
“Get the trunk, Daniel. She’ll be late!” Sarah said wringing her hands in worry.
“Don’t worry, Sarah, we’re on time.”
Daniel pulled out my trunk and proceeded to carry it toward the doors, Sarah and I following behind. I couldn’t help but be excited as the looming doors got closer. All around me were people in the same uniform I was wearing, most of them hurrying to find their friends, others hanging back uncertain.
Finally, Daniel reached the entrance and put my trunk down next to the others; they would be taken up to our dormitories later. Then he turned to face us, smiling sadly.
“Well Lily, I guess we’ll see you at Christmas. We’ll write to you every week okay?” he said. I gave him a quick hug and turned to say goodbye to Sarah. She had tears in her eyes, but she kept her voice steady when she spoke.
“I want to give you something,” she whispered. She pulled something out of her pocket and placed it in my hand. It was a silver necklace, with a shining white flower as the charm. Sarah took it from my hand, undid the clasp, and put it around my neck. I couldn’t say anything; I was too surprised.
“It’s so you remember us, okay?”
I nodded, and then unable to take it, I threw myself upon her into a strong hug. She hugged back even tighter, as if unwilling to let go, until Daniel placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Come now, time to go,” he said.
“Well then, goodbye,” she said smiling.
“Goodbye,” I whispered back, and turned to join the throng of students making their way inside.

The school was quite beautiful, I noticed as all the freshmen lined up for the first day tour. It was a middle and high school, but the middle school’s classes were taken separately from ours. I was quite alone; nobody seemed to notice me as I lined up behind a pretty girl talking with her friends. I didn’t really mind, so I kept myself busy by looking at the architecture of the school. I was looking interestedly at a nice vase to my right when my last name jumped out at me.
“-Edwards adopted some urchin off the street. I used to have respect for Captain Edwards, but not since then,” the girl in front of me was saying in dislike.
“I heard she was a thief, my mother said she was in jail when he found her,” another girl said.
“And Sarah Edwards, agreeing to it! It’s an outrage; I had always believed she was a woman of class,” another girl added. I suddenly felt sick. What would they do if they found out I was the girl they were talking about?
Luckily, a middle school girl passed them just then, and the three girls turned to her.
“Hey Ayden!” the one who spoke first jeered. “I heard that Damian cut nearly all his hair off. Do you still like him now?” they laughed.
The girl turned slightly pink but jeered back.
“Well, you talk Marella; I heard that Travis is flirting with Jessica. How does it feel to be dumped so easily?” she laughed at Marella’s look of horror and walked on to join her friends.
The girl called Marella quickly set off down the line, probably looking for the boy called Travis. Her friends trailed behind her, looking like little children following their mother.
Soon after that, the guide arrived and we began the tour. The tour was really only for the newest students, like me, but all freshmen were required to take it. We were shown where the boys’ and girls’ dormitories were, where the dining hall was, and where the freshmen classes took place. It took nearly all day to navigate the palace like school, and most of the afternoon to show us the grounds. By the time we returned to the dining hall, we were starving, only having eaten breakfast.
The dining hall was very large. Students sat by year, so there were seven very long tables facing a large glass stained window depicting the school crest, the crescent moon at dawn. Three large chandeliers flooded the hall with light, and it would’ve been quite nice had I not been forced to eat alone.
At the end of the meal, the Headmistress, Ms. Paranell, came up to each of the tables to take attendance and assign dormitories. It took her nearly an hour to sort out each of the middle school years, but finally she reached the freshman table. She began in alphabetical order, so my name would take a little bit.
She began with Janice Aaron, all the way down to Kevin Asern in twenty minutes. The rest took a while, but I did jump when I heard Marella Damena’s name, followed by-
“Travis Deasena, room 85, boys’ corridor.”
The boy that was addressed stood up and my heart started thumping. He was tall, with a shock of white hair which I had a feeling had been dyed. His eyes were very light brown, almost hazel, and his uniform complimented him. I saw Marella giggle as he joined her going upstairs and my heart seemed to momentarily stop. I forced myself to look back at the headmistress.
She was now calling for a Samantha Durnet, and as soon as the girl stood up, she began on the E’s. Sadly, I was the first E.
“Lily Edwards, room 89, girls’ corridor.”
Most of the students stared at me, and I could feel my face becoming hot. Whispers began to spread throughout the table, and I could see Marella’s two friends snickering at me. I walked as fast as I dared toward the staircase, but I could still hear those cruel whispers from the dining hall following me.

Chapter Four

My dormitory was shared with a girl whose last name was Emelark, a mostly silent girl with shockingly red hair, and a girl named Hannah Etena that never stopped talking. They both treated me with indifference, ignoring me at every turn.
My first week at Celeste was not pleasant. Marella seemed to have made it her mission to humiliate and destroy me. And I daresay she almost succeeded, especially when the Deasena boy joined her. Her two friends, Kaitlyn and Janet, were just as bad. They tripped me, hid my books, ‘accidentally’ dropped tomato sauce on my uniform at dinner, and once they ransacked my trunk. Nobody seemed to want to stand up to them, especially since Marella was an angel in the teacher’s eyes.
My schoolwork was steadily dropping in quality. In history, I reduced the teacher to tears by saying that King George of England was the king of China. In English, I misspelled every word in my test and forgot all my grammar rules. In science, I was given detention for adding the wrong chemicals and setting the classroom on fire. My only escape was mathematics. My math teacher quickly advanced me to her honor student, and I did much more complicated work while my classmates worked on their Algebra.
Letters from home did little for my misery. Sarah and Daniel wrote nearly every day, but every time I saw Sarah’s neat script or Daniel’s fancy scrawl, I only wished I were back home with them. Once I couldn’t take it and started to cry, but luckily no one saw me.
I noticed in a few days that I had fallen for Travis Deasena. Whenever I saw him, my stomach felt like it had butterflies, and my heart rammed in my chest. I knew he would never talk to me, after all he was Marella’s boyfriend. In class, he would hang out with Adrian Versel, a good looking boy who was always flirting with some girl or another. I sometimes tried to catch Travis’s eye, but he never noticed, nor, (I thought sadly) cared.
Only two girls in my year didn’t torture me. One was named Cleyra Seruna, the other Aquamarine Menai. Cleyra was also treated badly by Marella for beating her in an English test the year before. She had spread a rumor that Cleyra was a cheater and since the teacher’s answer key had disappeared, everybody believed it. Then she was later called a cross dresser, for always wearing the boys’ uniform slacks instead of skirts. Aquamarine was branded for being her best friend, and so called accomplice, but neither of the girls were bothered by these accusations.
Cleyra was tall for her age, had amazingly dark black short hair and piercing green eyes. She was top of nearly every class, but she didn’t like to admit it, especially since she and Aquamarine were constantly getting into detention together. Aquamarine was also tall, with black hair and blue highlights. Her eyes were also blue, and very clear. She was loud and a little annoying in class. They both wandered around school with their small group of friends which ranged from seventh to tenth graders. The youngest of these was Ayden Renals, the brown-haired girl who had jeered at Marella on the first day. She and her friend Elizabeth Lasset were always pulling pranks, most of which were harmless and a good laugh on a boring day. The eldest were Sapphire Mason, Damian Fonreir, and Brendan Caboret, all sophomores and fifteen years old. It was rumored that Sapphire was extremely wealthy, but nobody had any proof. It was true, however, that on their birthdays, her friends always received something very expensive. Besides this, she was modest and kind, never making fun of anyone. This group of friends somewhat interested me, especially since every single one of them was despised by Marella and her friends.
After two weeks of solid torture, I was being called a thief to my face. Every time something went missing, the blame was always pointed to me. It seemed I would never escape my past.

Halfway through September, my English teacher, Mr. Winters, announced to the class something of importance.
“Class, next week we will be taking a very important test, if you do not pass, you will be taking English at middle school level for the rest of the year,” he said, and I noticed that he looked in my direction as he said this. I slid lower into my chair.
“Make sure to study hard and ask for help if you need it!” he said looking at me again. I had always refused to ask for help in my work.
“Class dismissed,” he said, and I was one of the first to leave the room.
For two days I struggled with my English work, going to the library during my free time, sometime skipping meals for a little extra time. I asked my math teacher if I could study during her class, I even got up at night with a book and flashlight and went out into the grounds for quiet. But by the weekend, I felt I still hadn’t learned enough for the test, and I refused to ask for help I would not get.
By Sunday, I was panicking. The test was on Tuesday, and I barely remembered anything. On Monday morning, I was shaking with nerves at breakfast. I literally dropped most of my milk down my blouse and had to run up to my room and change. I was determined not to cry; I had had enough of crying.
Tuesday came, and Mr. Winters’ class was silent as he passed out the test. As soon as I saw the first question, I knew I had failed. What the hell is a hyperbole? I thought.
For the next hour, I tried my best to answer the tedious questions, but as I packed up to leave, I felt a mixture of relief and regret. Instead of heading to the dining hall for lunch, I walked to the grounds for some time alone.
The school grounds were large, and there were many trees dispersed here and there among the grass. I randomly picked one before slumping against it and dropping my book bag carelessly on the ground. For what seemed like hours, I sat there alone and undisturbed, until I saw that the sun was gone and I’d be in trouble if I weren’t in bed.
The English classroom was on my way up to the dormitories, and as I passed it I felt a pang of shame. I was about to keep walking when I saw a figure move inside. I could tell that it wasn’t a girl, because I couldn’t see the ruffle of a skirt as they moved, but it didn’t seem to move like a boy either. I was trying to take a closer look when the curfew bell rang and I rushed upstairs to bed.

Chapter Five

Friday came and the results for the test were passed out. I closed my eyes, not prepared to see the Fail mark on my paper, but when I finally mustered the courage to open them, I dropped it in surprise. Every question on the test was right. I checked to see that this was really my paper, and only until saw my name printed at the top did I look at the teacher. He was smiling at me, but I noticed that when he gave Cleyra her test back, he frowned. Suddenly, I knew who had been in the English classroom on Tuesday.

Cleyra, being top of English, didn’t have to go back down to middle school level. As an honors student, she was given a harder test, which she passed with flying colors. She seemed undisturbed by this whole concept, and now gave me a small smile when I passed her in corridors.
On Monday, I found a small note in my Math book that I knew I hadn’t put in there. It only read you’re welcome in neat handwriting. That day at lunch, as I walked by Cleyra’s place, I whispered “thanks”, and when she gave a slight nod, I knew she had heard.
After the English disaster, I resolved to study harder, and after a while I began to see results. By November, my status as the worst of nearly every class was removed altogether. I no longer heard snide remarks saying that I was stupid because I’d lived on the streets. But the occasional whisper of thief was still pointed at me.
Once when I was studying in the library, Cleyra came and sat next to me, but instead of talking, she pointed out the mistakes in my essay and showed me the correct way to write it. I was grateful for her help and company, and it suddenly made me long for some friends.
I still roamed the corridors alone, however, and whenever I saw Marella and Travis walking by, it made me feel lonelier still. With Cleyra’s help however, I was now much more improved in class, and it did raise my spirits somewhat.
In the last week of November, our science teacher announced the annual Talent Show was being hosted on the 12th of December. Most of us, me included, groaned at this news, but Marella and Cleyra perked up at it. I saw them exchange looks of loathing during lunch, and I suspected that they always competed fiercely in this event.
I wondered what Cleyra would do at the talent show. She never struck me as the singing type, nor the dancing type, and I couldn’t think of anything else she might do. I knew what Marella was going to do. According to what I heard around school, she always sang a complicated love song, and she was actually good at it.
The tension between Cleyra and Marella continued as we entered into December. One day I found them surrounded by a crowd, both of them looking as though they were about to kill each other.
“You’re not fit to attend a boarding school like this,” Marella was snarling. “You should be going to a public school like all the other poor kids.”
Cleyra gave a wicked smile.
“At least I’m here because my mother cares about my education. Yours only wanted to get rid of you, and I can see why,” she retorted coldly.
Marella glared at her.
“You’re only here because of a scholarship!”
“But since I didn’t buy my way in, that proves I’m smarter than you.”
Cleyra gave another smirk and walked of with her friends. Marella was furious for the rest of the day.

The next day, Marella decided to take her anger out on me. I had been standing at the edge of the fountain on the grounds thinking when she came up to me and roughly pushed me in. There was a large splash, and Marella pretended to help me out.
“Let go of me!” I shouted angrily.
“But I was only helping you,” she said with a false frown.
“Like hell you were!” I snarled. I’d had enough of Marella. I pulled myself out, and I trudged up to the school, soaking wet, my temper at a newfound high.
After I had changed, I headed down to the dining hall for lunch, but I found my way blocked by Cleyra and Aquamarine.
“Hi,” they said brightly.
“Hi,” I answered angrily.
“We saw what Marella did to you,” Aquamarine said.
All my built up fury suddenly poured out.
“Well, go ahead! Laugh! Let’s all have a good laugh at Lily’s expense!” I roared. They said nothing. My breathing was heavy with anger, I was aware that I had crossed the line, but I made no attempt to calm myself down.
“We’re not here to laugh at you,” Cleyra said.
“Oh, like I haven’t heard that one before!”
“We aren’t. We want you to sit with us,” said Aquamarine, a little disturbed at my anger.
“Oh,” I could feel my temper dropping, and suddenly I felt embarrassed at having shouted so loudly. “Ok.”
“Great,” Cleyra said brightly. They led me down the stairs and into the dining hall, where they sat down together. I uneasily followed and took my place next to Cleyra.
Throughout the meal, Cleyra and Aquamarine bombarded me with questions, and answered mine. I learned that Cleyra was indeed a scholarship student, and she was proud of it, and that she wore slacks because she couldn’t bear to wear what every other girl did (“They’re damn uncomfortable those skirts,” she said). Aquamarine told me that she had a huge crush on Adrian Versel, but she couldn’t stand talking to him (“I’m afraid he’ll ignore me,” she blushed). They also told me about their friends from their other grades, like how Ayden was madly in love with Damian, but he never noticed, or how Brendan was eldest but hated it, and how all of them wished Marella would fall down an elevator shaft (“But you can’t have everything in life,” Cleyra said wistfully).
I winced when they began making fun of Travis, saying that he was “the most arrogant, most obnoxious idiot in the bloody school,” as Cleyra put it. By the time lunch was over, Aqua and Cleyra were treating me like an old friend. I counted myself lucky to be on speaking terms with either of them, and even more so when they introduced me to their friends during free period.
The rest of the group usually hung around an empty classroom on the second floor corridor. During free periods and weekends, they would come here to talk and spend time ridiculing Marella and her group. I had occasionally passed the room on my way to the library, always hearing roars of laughter erupting from inside.
Only three people were there when we arrived. They had been talking amongst each other when they looked up to say hi.
“Hey, Clair, hey Aqua,” Ayden said. She was pretty, with long, shining, brown hair and large brown eyes. “Saph and I were just wondering where you’d gone.”
Sapphire spotted me and smiled kindly. She had dark brown hair and warm, black eyes.
“Who’s the new girl, Clair?”
“This is Lily Edwards; she’s the one I switched my test with,” Cleyra said impassively.
“We saw Marella push her in the fountain, so we thought she’d like to come here,” Aquamarine added.
“Hey Lily,” the handsome boy in the back said. He had short, light brown hair, and green eyes, though not as stunning as Cleyra’s. I had only seen him a few times, and I supposed this was Brendan.
“Careful, Lily,” Ayden giggled. “Bren can be a real flirt sometimes.”
Brendan grinned and winked in Cleyra’s direction.
“Only with cute girls.”
“Oh, give it up Brendan,” she said as she pushed him playfully.
I caught her face going faint pink, but at that moment two other people walked in. One was a seventh grader, with blond hair till her waist, and crystal blue eyes. The other was a tall boy, good looking, with very short black hair.
“Hi!” Elizabeth said cheerily and sat down next to Ayden. The boy leaned by the doorway, grinning.
“Aren’t you that Edwards girl?” he asked me.
“My name is Lily,” I said a little forcefully.
“Lily, huh. My name’s Damian,” he held out his hand. I grudgingly shook it.
“Did anyone see Adrian today?” Elizabeth asked.
“What happened?” Aquamarine asked quickly.
“Let’s just say that he won’t be coming to class for a while.”
“It worked?” Ayden said, her eyes shining.
“Yeah, his face is green!”
Everyone laughed.
“What’d you do, Ayde?” Cleyra asked, interestedly.
“We put dye in his shaving cream!” Ayden giggled. “He’ll be trying to get it off for a week!”
“He looks like a goblin!” Elizabeth said. “And that’s not even the best part! Guess who he blamed!”
“Who?” said about four different voices.
“Travis Deasena!”
“What?” I asked, incredulous.
“Yeah, he said that it was Travis’s revenge for getting Marella mad at him!”
“Marella’s mad at Travis?” I asked in what I hoped was an impassive voice. I didn’t want anyone to know how I felt.
“Yeah, I heard about that,” Brendan shrugged. “Something about paying more attention to other girls than to his own girlfriend.”
“Who cares about that though,” Aqua said waving her hand impatiently. “What happened to Adrian?”
“Well, he was running down to the nurse, covering his face, but I tripped him,” Elizabeth said smiling. “Everyone saw his face and he turned all red. I guess he went to get some rubbing alcohol to get the color off, but I made sure it doesn’t work. It only comes off on its own.”
“Brilliant, Lizzie!” Sapphire beamed.
“Can’t wait to see him in class on Monday,” Cleyra said. “Bet you two bucks that he’ll be wearing a scarf, Aqua.”

Adrian did indeed cover the bottom half of his face with a scarf on Monday. At first, everyone thought he was just sick, but then it spread, the story of how someone put semi-permanent dye in his shaving cream, leaving half of his handsome face tinged bright green. I caught him glaring at Travis in Math, and I couldn’t help noticing that Travis was no longer spending every waking moment with Marella. It got my hopes up, but I knew that they were still together. What had happened was that Travis had been looking at another girl while Marella was talking, and she had noticed, which made her very angry. No one knew who he was looking at, but we guessed it was probably Cleyra because she was so angry about it.
Cleyra was furious whenever someone said this.

“I don’t care if he was checking me out!” she bellowed once. “I don’t care if he was the last guy on earth, I would never get with him,” and for good measure she walked over to Travis during free period and kicked him hard in the shins.

Now that I had real friends, I was finally enjoying myself at Celeste. Every weekend and free period, I joined my group in the unused classroom. They welcomed me as if I had always been one of their own.

Chapter Six

The talent show was looming closer, and finally, three days before the show, Cleyra broke down and told the group that she was going to perform-
“Ballet.”
Everyone stared at her.
“You’re kidding, right?” Ayden said with a nervous chuckle.
“No, I’m dead serious.”
We stared some more.
“What’s so weird about that?”
Everyone raised their eyebrows. We looked her over, in her slacks and rocker style shoes.
“Stop staring at me! It’s just ballet, its not like I’m going to start wearing flowers in my hair and jumping around in a skirt!”
“Well,” said Damian. “You doing ballet? You might as well be.”
“Oh, shut up! My mom made me learn it years ago, ok!” she said sullenly, her face red.
“Don’t worry, that’s ok,” Damian said. Then under his breath he added, “Little Ballerina.”
“WHAT?”
“Oh nothing…”

On the night of the talent show, Cleyra didn’t seem at all worried. Marella did, but she calmed down a little when Travis brought her roses. There were other acts, but everyone showed up to see Marella and Cleyra’s showdown.
Cleyra didn’t go all out and wear a tutu, but she did wear a black leotard and tied her hair back in a long ponytail with a green ribbon that matched her eyes. All in all, she looked quite pretty; strange to us, but pretty anyway.
Everyone assembled in the auditorium, waiting for the show to begin. Finally the lights dimmed and the curtains opened.
A few people performed first, and then Marella appeared on stage. She wore a pretty blue dress that matched well with the brown shade of her hair. She held a microphone, and as soon as the music began, she started to sing. Her voice was clear and sweet, most unlike her personality. It was very nice, but it was obvious that she wasn’t practiced. Once she was finished, there was a round of applause, loudest from the area where her friends sat. She bowed and walked off-stage. Then Cleyra’s name was announced, and she appeared on-stage.
Everyone in the auditorium fell silent.
The music started, soft and painfully sad, and she began to twirl and dance around the stage gracefully. After holding the audience spellbound for ten minutes, she bowed and walked off, with tumultuous applause from us.
A couple more people performed, and finally, the Headmistress walked on-stage to announce the winners.
“In our third place, in an excellent show of comedy, Darryl Amertus of eighth grade!” A short boy walked on to loud applause, and Ms. Paranell handed him a bouquet of roses.
“In our second place, in an amazing performance,” we held our breath, “Marella Damena of our freshman class!” We all looked at each other and beamed.
“And finally in first place, Cleyra Seruna, also of our freshman class!”
Cleyra came on-stage to loud cheers.
“You did it, Little Ballerina!” Damian shouted.
“I told you to stop calling me that!” she shouted from the stage, but she was smiling. She was handed a large bouquet and a trophy, and she bowed again before leaving the stage.

Marella was at a new low. For the next couple of weeks, the members of our group continually found themselves embarrassed or tricked, but we managed to keep our holiday spirits high. Even Travis seemed to be trying to edge away from Marella, but it looked as if she would rather die than let her boyfriend go.
One week left before Christmas, and students were showing their spirit by wearing colorful scarves and hats. Cleyra and Sapphire completely decorated our hang out with ornaments and mistletoe. It was pleasant to sit underneath the sweet smelling plant, and all of the girls in the group blushed when Brendan kissed every single one of us on the cheek. We were hanging out in the empty room longer now that more and more of our classes were finished for the semester. On the last day of school before we left for Christmas vacation, I was the only one in the room. Cleyra and Sapphire had been picked up early by their parents, and Aquamarine was in class. Ayden and Elizabeth were pulling last minute pranks, and the guys all had gone to play some soccer on the grounds. I had barely sat down in my chair when I saw a bouquet of poinsettias in the middle of the table. Thinking that they were decoration left behind by Cleyra, I got up to smell them.
It was only until I got closer that I noticed the label. It was written in curvy handwriting.
To the most fragrant flower I know. Lily.

I stared at it and read it over and over again. This could not be for me. This wasn’t just a friendly note. This was an admirer’s letter!
To the most fragrant flower I know…
If only I knew who had sent them!

The next morning, Sarah and Daniel came to pick me up. They were waiting for me in the entrance hall, wearing coats to protect themselves from the cold. As soon as I walked up to them, Sarah embraced me tightly, nearly suffocating me. Then she stroked my hair.
“How have you been?” Daniel asked cheerily.
“Great. I got an A in math!”
“That’s wonderful!” Sarah beamed. “Shall we go now?”
“Yes, please.”
We reached the house later than we would’ve, but rain had made the roads slippery, and we had to drive slowly.
The house looked almost exactly as it had when I left it, except that there was now a photograph of the three of us on the wall. My room was still white, but I wasted no time in putting up the school emblem and my Christmas cards on the wall above my bed.
Being back home was a welcome change from the constant schedule of Celeste Academy. Sarah took me Christmas shopping the next day. We bought several gifts, most of them for my friends, but some for Sarah’s (or my) relatives. Sarah bought me something as well, but she wouldn’t tell me what. When we returned to the house, we were very cold and tired, but happy nonetheless.
On Christmas Eve, the house was bustling and full of warmth. A large Christmas tree was placed in the living room, decorated lavishly with a pretty angel at the top. Underneath the fresh branches was a mound of wrapped boxes, each differently wrapped than the others. We went out caroling for a while, but were forced to stop when a hard snow began to fall. Daniel and Sarah cooked for hours, and the result was the most delicious meal I’d ever had.
That night we stayed up until 2 in the morning, until I fell asleep curled upon the couch. In the morning, I awoke to the sounds of sizzling bacon and eggs. Downstairs, Sarah and Daniel, still in their pajamas, were eating their breakfast.
“Merry Christmas,” Daniel said.
“Merry Christmas,” I answered.
“You got a gift in the mail, Lily,” Sarah added. “It’s under the tree.”
I nodded, and walked to the living room. The gifts were still there, but one of them was a little farther from the rest. I guessed this was it. I picked it up; it felt light in my hands. Curious, I unwrapped it. A beautiful ornamental hair clip gleamed at me from under the paper; it was in the shape of a rose. Quickly, I looked through the paper, looking for a note or card of some kind, but there was none.
I examined the clip more closely. It was elegant, the rose was made of solid gold, and it was very well made. The detail was exquisite, and it looked so real that I could almost feel the softness of the petals…
“What was it, honey?” Sarah called from the dining room.
“A hair clip,” I called back. I put it delicately in my hair.
“That’s nice. Daniel, time to open presents!” she called as she walked into the living room.
The rest of the morning was spent ripping the paper off the rest of the gifts. I received several items of clothing, a watch, a fashionable hat, and from Sarah, a milky white laptop.
“Thank you!” I said, eyes shining.
“You’re very welcome,” Sarah said beaming. Daniel was laughing over the scarf I bought him. It was very colorful, like an explosion of several rainbows. Sarah was wearing her new earrings, admiring the effect in the mirror. That Christmas was very enjoyable, but the now second gift was rousing my curiosity. Who was sending me these things? Why were they even sending them to me?

On the 5th of January, Daniel drove me back to Celeste. Sarah stayed home with a bad cold. He hurriedly carried my trunk into the hall and said a quick goodbye.
“We’ll see you in June,” he said giving me a quick hug. “I have to hurry to get back to work on time…”
“Bye!” I said as he hurried back to the car. I turned around and walked into the entrance hall. As it was Saturday, the corridors were mostly empty; everyone was outside or in their dormitories. I headed straight for classroom 5D, where I was sure the others were.
“Hey, Lily!” Elizabeth and Ayden said together as I came in.
“Hey,” Brendan said from his seat. He was talking with Damian who nodded to show he said hi.
“Where are Cleyra and Sapphire?” I asked Aquamarine who was reading a magazine in a corner.
“Clair went down to breakfast. I don’t know about Saph,” She answered curtly, burying her nose in her magazine again.
“She’s going to be late,” Ayden said. “She called to tell me; something about a snowstorm.”
“Hope they’re okay…” Elizabeth said.
“I’m going to look for Clair,” I said putting my coat on my chair.
“Ok, but hurry, Saph shouldn’t take too long.”
I hurried down to the dining hall. I had nearly got there when I was stopped by Adrian.

“Hi,” he said pleasantly.
“Hi,” I answered carefully. Adrian had never ever talked to me before.
“So, did you get my flowers?”
“Your flowers?”
“Yeah, and the clip too.”
“You sent me those?”
“Yeah,” he took a step closer and I took an instinctive step back towards the wall. “I’ve had my eye on you for a while.”
“Really?” I seriously doubted that. Adrian wasn’t the type to set his eyes on one girl only. But here he was, slowly backing me into the wall and telling me he had been my secret admirer.
“Yeah, I thought you’d like something for Christmas-“
But he was cut off by a loud bang as a door nearby slammed open. Somebody stood in the doorway, frozen, staring at the scene in front of them; Adrian’s face very near mine…
Travis stared for what seemed like hours, and I felt my cheeks burning red. His expression was unreadable, but after a while, he glared at Adrian and walked away quickly.

“WHAT!” Aquamarine yelled.
“Yeah,” I said, shaking.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Cleyra said loudly.
“Does it look like I’m playing around?”
We were eating lunch at the freshman table, and I had just recounted what had happened between me and Adrian.
“How could he like you! I’m the one who’s got a crush on him!” Aquamarine said. She looked close to tears.
“So?” Cleyra asked, ignoring Aqua.
“So what?”
“Are you going to get with him?”
“I don’t know!” I said desperately. “He just sort of jumped out at me! How am I supposed to be ready for something like that?”
“Well, you’re going to have to say something, cause he’s coming!”
She pushed her plate farther down the table and pulled Aquamarine with her. A few moments later, Adrian sat down where Cleyra had been sitting a minute earlier.
“So what do you say?” he asked without even saying hello.
I was silent and avoided his eyes. I took a bite of my sandwich, purposely avoiding conversation.
“Well, I’ll go for now then,” he said as he got up.
“Ok,” my voice sounded grave and tired.
“Ok?”
“I’ll be your girlfriend.”
He smiled.
“So is this seat mine?”
I shrugged and he sat down again.

Chapter Seven

The news that Adrian Versel had picked out Lily Edwards as his girlfriend spread through the school like wildfire. By the next day, I could see the disapproving glances everywhere as I walked down the corridors. But for me the worst part was that I didn’t even like Adrian, and that Aqua was ignoring me, even refusing to speak to me.
“It’s not my fault!” I said, trying, for the eightieth time, to make her understand.
“Don’t even talk to me!”
“I didn’t want to…”
“But you did!”
“Aqua…”
“Go AWAY!”
Cleyra was helpful, and Sapphire too, but Ayden and Liz just wanted to know what it was like.
“Does he carry your books?” Ayden asked.
“Sometimes…”
“Wow, is he a good kisser?” Elizabeth said.
“I don’t know…”
“Does he sit with you at lunch?”
“Yeah…”
“How about pass you notes in class?”
“Umm, I think Cleyra’s calling me.”
Brendan and Damian were of no help either. They spent most of their time calling Adrian, ‘The Boyfriend’, and laughing every time they saw me with him.
All in all, I was thoroughly depressed. I was so immersed in my own self pity that I didn’t even really care when Travis and Marella finally broke up.
“She’s devastated, I heard she cried for hours!” said Damian happily.
“So Travis dumped her, just like that?” Sapphire asked.
“Yeah, during break yesterday. They were hanging out by the fountain and next thing you know, she’s screaming and crying, and he just walks away all relieved.”
“That’s cold. Where’s Travis? I want to send him flowers,” Cleyra said.
“Probably celebrating,” Ayden said. Everyone except Aqua was there.
“I want to see the look on her face,” Brendan said as he got up. “No, I want to take a picture and put it on the internet.”
“Here, use my camera phone,” Elizabeth said delighted.
“Lily!” Cleyra said as she looked at me, huddled in a corner. “Why aren’t you celebrating with the rest of us?”
“I don’t care.”
Cleyra raised her eyebrows.
“I was under the impression that you hated Marella as much as we did. And, I also thought you had a soft spot for Travis.”
I didn’t even look up.
“I don’t care,” I repeated.
“What’s wrong?” she asked sitting next to me. “Did someone hurt you? Because I will kick their *** if they did.”
I shook my head.
“Then what is it?”
I sighed.
“It’s Adrian, isn’t it?”
I looked at her.
“How did you…”
“It’s kind of obvious, Lily.”
I grunted in reply.
“Well if you don’t like him, why don’t you break up with him?”
“It’s not that simple,” I mumbled.
“Sure it is. Just go ‘Adrian, I hate your ugly, gay face. Leave me alone you man-whore,’ I’m pretty sure he’d leave you alone.”
I didn’t laugh.
“Fine, I’ll beat him up for you.”
I looked up.
“I was just kidding!”
I looked down again.
“Fine, stay with him. But you listen to me; unless you end it, it could get pretty bad.”
She got up and left me with my thoughts.

The following week was anything but fun. The gossip was actually more comforting than the time I spent with Adrian, which to me was a nightmare. All he did was sit next to me and talk endlessly about things I didn’t care about. He was a little annoying, and I caught him sometimes staring longingly at other girls. I really didn’t care; I actually hoped he would go after one of them, but he never did.
On the 17th, Adrian decided that we should do something, so he planned out dinner in one of the unused classrooms. Reluctantly, I walked up to the classroom at
7 o’clock, deliberately dragging my feet as slowly as I could.
The classroom was simple, except for the table in the middle, which had a red tablecloth and a candle in the center. Two dishes of spaghetti sat across from each other, and Adrian sat on one of the chairs.
“Well, sit down,” he gestured to the seat across from him. I sat down.
The meal passed quite silently, and when it was finally over, my thoughts strayed to my bed, where I could get away from this nightmare. Adrian scooted his chair closer to mine.
“What do you think?” he asked. I felt his arm reaching around my shoulder… His face was inches from mine…
I couldn’t take it. I pushed him away hard.
“What’s wrong with you!” he said angrily, having fallen from his chair. He pulled himself up, and I instinctively jumped up. He roughly grabbed me by the shoulders and pressed his lips to mine. I wrenched him away from me and tried to get away.
“Get back here!” he snarled. He pinned me to the wall, and I screamed. He put his hand over my mouth, but I continued to struggle.
Suddenly the door flew open, and we froze.
“What the hell are you doing, Adrian!”
Adrian stepped away from me and I slumped on the floor, sobbing.
“None of your business, Travis!”
“Leave her alone! You idiot, you’re going to hurt her!”
I heard Adrian’s footsteps stomp away and the door slam.
I continued to cry loudly on the floor.
Someone sat next to me.
“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
I shook my head slightly and continued to cry loudly.
Soft fingers stroked my hair soothingly. I continued to sob, but slowly I began to calm down.
“Here, let me take you to your dormitory.” He firmly took my hand and lifted me up. I wiped the tears from my face and let him guide me.
“This is all my fault,” he said as he led me down the corridor.
“No it isn’t. You didn’t make Adrian get with me…”
“Yes it is. He wouldn’t have if I hadn’t told him I liked you…” his voice trailed off. “Maybe if I didn’t send you those flowers and that clip, he would’ve left you alone…”
“You sent me those?”
He nodded.
“I thought you might like them.”
“I did. But why did Adrian say he sent them?”
“He wanted to annoy me. He knew that if he got with you, I’d get angry. He never got over that shaving cream incident, even though it wasn’t me…”
I suddenly felt bad for him.
“Anyway, he went overboard,” Travis scowled.
I nodded. I didn’t trust myself to speak.
“Which is your dormitory again?” he asked. “Oh, never mind.”
He stopped in front of my door and looked me straight in the eyes.
“You stay away from Adrian, and if he ever gets near you, tell your friends,” he said.
I nodded. He opened the door for me and stalked off.
The next day, rumors of our breakup spread through the school. I didn’t mind in the least that people blamed it on me. I had already told my friends what had happened and each and every one of them, even Aqua, were taking turns escorting me around the school.
“I can’t believe he did that to you!” she whispered in Math. “I really can’t believe it!”
I sighed again.
“Aqua, he did it, okay. And I’m not exaggerating; he did it.”
“That bastard,” Cleyra added under her breath as the teacher passed. “Just wait until I’m through with him. I’ll make sure he’ll never look at another girl again,” she cracked her knuckles menacingly.
“There’s an easier way,” Aqua said. “You just have to kick him in the-”
“Girls!” my teacher snapped. “No more chit chat, you have work to do.”
“Yes, Ms. Heather,” we said together and once again buried our noses in our textbooks.
“What I don’t understand,” Aqua began again as Ms. Heather turned away, “is why Adrian even bothered to start the relationship if he didn’t really like you.”
I pretended to turn a deaf ear to her question. I still hadn’t told them what Travis had said about me. I wanted to keep that bit of information to myself.
“I don’t care what his reasons were,” Cleyra snarled. “All I know is that tomorrow he’s going to wake up missing one of his-”
“GIRLS! Get to work!”
“Yes, teacher!”

I felt so wonderfully free to finally roam the school without having to see Adrian following me. I was so relieved that I hardly noticed the renewed whispers of thief every time I passed someone in the corridors. To me, they were quite welcome to call me whatever they liked, as long as it had nothing to do with my now ex-boyfriend.

Chapter Eight

I wasn’t seeing anymore of Travis than I usually did; in fact I was starting to get the feeling that he was avoiding me, especially as February drew nearer and nearer.
“Ugh,” Elizabeth said on the 6th. “Valentine’s Day is going to be such a pain in the ***. I never get any cards, and all day it’s like, ‘Lizzie, how many did u get? I got thirteen. Boys like me better than you,’ it’s freaking annoying!”
“Well, not to burst your bubble Liz,” Cleyra said, laughing. “But if you don’t send any cards, you’re probably not going to get any cards.”
“I’ll thank you not to insult my intelligence,” Elizabeth snarled. “Of course I send cards! I buy hundreds and send them to everyone at school!”
“I think you just have bad luck, Lizzie,” Ayden said from her chair.
“Or maybe it’s because you play too many pranks,” Brendan added. “I think I would hate you if you didn’t happen to be one of my best friends.”
Everyone laughed as Liz scowled.
“Don’t feel bad Lizzie,” Sapphire said. “You’ll see; we’ll make sure you get some cards this year.”
Aqua groaned.
“I don’t want to buy any cards this year. It takes way too long to pick them out and even longer to sort them by friend!”
“Don’t be a bitch, Aqua,” Cleyra warned. “You’re going to send cards this year, whether you like it or not.”
“Don’t tell me what to do, Clair,” Aqua said angrily. “I hate it when you act like you’re my mother.”
“Then don’t act like a spoiled brat!”
“Clair, Aqua, calm down!” Damian said loudly.
“No!” Aqua shouted first. “I’m tired of listening to everything you say, Clair!”
“I’m tired of listening to you whine like a child and putting up with you copying everything I do!”
“I am not a child! You are such a bitch you know that?”
“The only one acting bitchy here is you.”
Aqua and Cleyra both stomped out of the room angrily, going in different directions once they reached the hall.
“That didn’t sound good…” I said, breaking the silence.
“Nah, don’t worry about it,” Brendan answered. “They always fight those two. But they always make up in the end.”
“Trust me, this is nothing,” Ayden added. “Last time they fought they broke every chair in the history classroom.”
“I bet you ten bucks they’ll be friends again by dinner, Brendan,” Damian said.
Brendan snorted.
“They’ll never make up by then. I’ll add another ten that they’ll make up by lunch tomorrow.”
“This still doesn’t fix my Valentine card problem,” muttered Liz under her breath.
“I bet thirty that Clair will push Aqua into the fountain!” Ayden said loudly.
“No way,” Brendan said. “I’ll take on that bet.”
I shook my head. I had the strangest friends in the whole school.
The rest of the day passed quite normally. By dinner, Aqua and Clair refused to sit together and so sat on opposite sides. I sat alone. If I sat with Clair, Aqua would hate me, and if I sat with Aqua, Claire would hurt me pretty badly. Halfway through my dinner I looked around and caught Travis’s eye, who was farther along the table. He looked down again pointedly and I wondered if he had been staring at me as his face turned pink. I looked away and saw Marella and her friends glaring at me from Cleyra’s side of the table. I was suddenly glad Clair and Aqua were fighting.
I had to finish a report before going to bed, so I headed down to the library, which was for the most part empty. I set my laptop up and began to type. Halfway through, the librarian said the library was closed and shooed me out. I made my way to our hangout, where I was pretty sure I would get some quiet.
The classroom was indeed empty, and even though I turned the lights on, I still felt cold, as if all the warmth in the place had gone after everyone went to bed. I gave an involuntary shudder and continued on my work. I hardly realized the time until I looked up and saw the clock read half past midnight. It was against the rules to stay up longer than ten o’clock, and if a teacher caught me, I’d surely be given detention. I quickly slipped my laptop and books into my bag and began to walk briskly down the corridor towards the stairs.
I was nearly to my dormitory when I looked out a window and saw someone on the grounds. I stopped dead, and leaned forward to see more clearly out the window. A tall figure was walking across the lawn toward one of the trees. I watched them carefully, but then they went into the shadows and I couldn’t see anything anymore. After a few moments, I shrugged and opened the door to my dormitory.

The next day, it seemed that Brendan would win the bet as Aqua and Clair were being slightly politer to each other. Everyone seemed to be waiting to see if he really did win, because apparently he and Damian had struck a new bet; if Clair and Aqua made up by lunch, Damian would have to wear a girl’s bathing suit and walk around all weekend in it, and if Brendan lost, he would have to do the same.
“Looks like you’ll be stuck wearing a bikini, Damian,” Brendan gloated as we all took our seats in the unused classroom during morning break. Cleyra was late, and Aqua was at the library.
“At least if I do, I’ll actually look good in it,” Damian said, striking a pose. All the girls laughed.
“So now you’re a cross dresser?”
Damian scowled and sat down.
“Yeah, I’m going to win this bet,” Brendan said, yawning.
“There’s still three hours left before lunch,” Damian growled. “There is a chance they won’t make up before then.”
“Yeah, but it’s most likely they will,” Elizabeth said.
“Since when do you take Brendan’s side?”
“Since he gave me twenty dollars to be on his side.”
“BRENDAN!!!!!!”
“Oh like you wouldn’t,” Brendan said as he rolled his eyes.

“Aqua, I want to tell you something.”
Everyone was standing outside on the grounds watching Clair and Aqua near the fountain.
“I’m sorry,” Cleyra said
Everyone gasped, although not altogether surprised.
“Sorry I’m about to do this!” She roughly grabbed Aqua from the shoulders and pushed her into the fountain with a loud splash.
“Ha! That’s thirty dollars, Brendan!” I heard Ayden shout.
“Aquamarine!” someone yelled.
“You little-,” Aqua said as she grabbed onto Cleyra’s pants and they tumbled into the water, clawing and pulling at each other’s hair with such ferocity that we could barely tell them apart.
“WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?”
Cleyra and Aqua immediately stopped moving, and were pulled apart by none other than the headmistress herself.
“How dare you fight on school grounds?” She said loudly and angrily. “You will both be given detention, and if I hear so much as a sound from either of you, I will suspend you both!”
Cleyra waited until the headmistress was far enough away before glaring at Aqua.
“I hate you,” she hissed.
“You be quiet, it’s your fault we’re in this stupid mess.”
“This is what I think of you,” Cleyra said as she did a rude hand gesture at Aquamarine.
“Oh, whatever,” she said as she rolled her eyes.
Behind me I could hear Damian laughing.
“You lose Brendan.”

The weekend was not very pleasant for several reasons. The first was that the disturbing image of Brendan in a bikini left a very disturbing image in our minds. The second was that Cleyra and Aqua seemed unlikely to ever speak to each other again. The third was that Marella was now taunting me worse than ever, and finally that Travis seemed to be avoiding me at all costs. All in all, I had had better days.
Monday came with the prospect of Valentines Day. All morning, girls gathered in groups in the halls whenever boys passed, and it was impossible to walk along a single corridor without finding couples embracing each other fiercely. Candy was given out by the teachers, and just as predicted, Elizabeth barely got any valentines.
“I knew this would happen,” she said sulkily.
“Don’t be so depressed!” Sapphire said.
“You know it’s true that nobody loves me,” she sighed.
“Don’t be ridiculous. There’s bound to be someone other than us who sent you a valentine card,” Ayden said soothingly.
“Yeah, the day’s not over yet!” I said. “Cheer up Liz!”
“Ugh, Valentine’s Day is the most boring holiday…”
“It’s not that bad, it’s kind of contagious,” Brendan said, counting the many cards and lollipops in his bag.
“HA, whatever.”
“You always get depressed this time of year, Lizzie,” Ayden said. “How about we pull a prank on someone?”
“No thank you.”
Everyone gasped.
“No pranks?” Damian said amazed.
“You are Elizabeth, right?” Cleyra asked cautiously. “You aren’t one of Marella’s spies infiltrating our hangout?”
“No, don’t ask stupid questions like that,” Liz answered sourly.
“Man, don’t take your bad mood out on us,” Aqua said. She was sitting in a corner as far away from Cleyra as possible.
“Oh shut up, like you don’t do that all the time,” Clair answered hotly.
Aqua ignored her.
“C’mon,” I said encouragingly. “Don’t you want some lunch, at least?”
“No, can’t you guys leave me alone?”
“Ok, fine. But don’t come whining to us later, Liz,” Ayden said as she stomped from the room angrily.
Everyone except me followed suit, and after a quick glance at Elizabeth, I went after them.

Lunch was quite delicious; the cooks had made more of an effort and had ended up cooking way better than before. Cleyra and I sat together while Aqua sat farther along the table with a girl named Lucia and her friends.
“It’s my birthday today,” Cleyra said casually.
I dropped my fork in surprise.
“What? Why didn’t you tell us?”
She shrugged.
“It’s Valentine’s Day; don’t you think that’s ironic?”
I looked her up and down, in her slacks and rocker shoes and short hair. Oh yeah. It was definitely ironic.
“But why didn’t you say something?”
“You think I like being born on the most loving day of the year? I hate it.”
I laughed.
“It’s not funny,” she said in such a menacing voice that I immediately stopped laughing.
“Oh, well, then, um, happy birthday…”
She scowled.

Classes were more annoying than usual with all the candy and poetry and stuff, and by the time we were walking down to dinner, my head was pounding.
“Hey, Lily!” I turned around, looking for the speaker. It was Ayden.
“Hi Ayden,” I said passively.
“Travis has been looking for you!”
I dropped my book bag in surprise.
“Who’s looking for me?”
“Travis, you know, Deasena? He said he wanted to tell you something, so he told me to go get you.”
I quickly gathered all my things and began to follow Ayden.
“What does Travis want?”
“I don’t know. He just told me to go and get you, so I did.”
“Hmmm…” Images began to form in my mind of roses and Travis’ face looming way too close to my own… I shook my head. Now wasn’t the time to set the expectations too high.
“So where is he?”
“Over by the library, he stopped me as I was leaving.”
I was silent.
She led me to the library, even though I knew where it was, but before we arrived, she stopped, and turned to face me.
“Ok, I’m going to be late for class, so I’ll leave you here, but don’t leave any details out, Lily!” she winked.
“Ok…” I answered uncertain.
I watched her walk away, and then I turned and walked into the library.
At first all I could see were the regular desks and bookshelves, but then I spotted his white hair near the check out desk and I walked out to meet him.
“Oh, hey,” he looked surprised to see me.
“Were you looking for me?”
“No. Who told you that?” he asked frowning as he slipped his books into his bag.
“Ayden Renals.”
“I haven’t talked to her.”
I was confused; why would Ayden lie?
“Well, now that you’re here,” he paused for a moment, “do you want to go for a walk before curfew or something?”
I blushed slightly, amazed at his daring.
“Sure.”

Chapter Nine

The grounds were nearly deserted as everyone was about to go to bed. We passed a few people walking in the opposite direction, but no one I knew.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“I want to show you something,” he said curtly.
I followed his lead, and soon we came to one of the trees.
“You can climb, can’t you?” he asked me.
I stared. During my street days, I used to climb trees to get away from the police and people who wanted their money back. I definitely knew how to climb trees.
“Yeah.”
“Ok, then, follow me.”
He quickly began to climb, swinging his leg over the shortest branch and making his way up. I started behind him.
He stopped about halfway up, waiting for me to catch up, and when I did, he sat on a thick branch facing away from the setting sun. I took his lead and sat beside him.
After a few moments of silence, I spoke.
“What are we supposed to be looking at?”
“Watch,” was all he said.
I sat and stared at the horizon for a few minutes.
“I don’t see anything.”
“You don’t see the stars?”
“Stars?” I looked back to the darkening sky. At first I couldn’t see anything, but as I strained my eyes, I began to see a shining pinprick of light, and then another and another.
“Oh, yeah, I see them.”
He smiled. My heart beat faster.
“Keep watching.”
For several minutes, I watched as the sky got gradually darker and the stars began to show themselves. I had to admit, it was breathtaking, but I still didn’t understand why Travis had brought me here.
“Isn’t it just amazing?” he asked quietly.
I had a feeling it wasn’t a question he expected an answer for, and I wasn’t entirely sure I trusted myself to speak.
The minutes passed in silence. I was vaguely aware that curfew had already passed, but I didn’t really care if I got in trouble.
“Ah, there it is,” he said softly.
The moon slowly slid into view as we watched; it was full, and the light it gave off was very bright.
“Wow,” I said, unable to think of a better word.
“Gorgeous, isn’t it?” Travis said. “I sometimes come out here when I need to think. I know it’s past curfew, but it’s just so beautiful…”
An image of a shadow crossing the grounds at night came to me. Now I understood why it had seemed so familiar to me.
“Lately, when I’ve been coming here…”
I heard the tone in his voice, and it intrigued me. It was longing, and yet, still unbearably soft.
“I don’t know. Just looking at the moon… It makes my heart ache…”
I looked up into his face. He was staring at me with a strange look in his hazel eyes. My heart was thundering in my chest, and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath.
“Lily,” I closed my eyes, trying to steady myself. “You probably hate me for all the horrible things I said when I was with Marella, but…”
I was sure I was about to faint and fall off as I gripped the branch under me for support.
“I love you.”
I opened my eyes to find him looking at me with tenderness and anxiety. I was too shocked to speak. My heart seemed to momentarily stop and it was as if time had stopped turning.
His eyes were bright and yet sad; that was the last thing I remembered before he leaned toward me and our lips met.
Somehow, the moon had never seemed brighter.

“So it was your idea!”
Ayden, Cleyra, and Brendan were laughing as I stormed into the unused classroom the next morning, looking disheveled and flushed.
“Ayden! You lied to me! Travis didn’t want to talk to me!”
They continued to laugh uncontrollably.
“What happened?” asked Sapphire as she walked in.
“These idiots made a plan to get Travis to talk to me!”
Sapphire stared at me.
“And how is that bad?”
I stuttered looking for an answer.
“Um, cause, yeah, he, oh NEVER MIND!” I said as I stomped from the room, Brendan, Ayden, and Cleyra still laughing their guts out.
Travis and I weren’t exactly dating. In class, we acted as if we didn’t know each other, but every night, we’d go out to look at the stars together. On particularly hard days, the only thing that kept me going was the thought of spending that time with him. But we made sure no one would find out, not even my friends.
“What is up with you lately?” Damian said as once again I was caught staring at nothing with a glossy look. It was two weeks later, and the only people in the room were Sapphire, Liz, Damian, and me. Everyone else was in class.
“Hmm?” I said looking up. I had been thinking about the night before, reliving the time I had spent with Travis in my head.
“See, that’s EXACTLY what I mean,” he said.
“I’m sorry. Were you talking to me?”
“DAMN IT LILY!”
“Really, what’s gotten into you lately?” Elizabeth asked curiously.
I averted my eyes from everyone and pretended to be interested in a pretty butterfly outside the window.
“Lily, come on, tell us!”
“Nothing,” I shrugged calmly.
“Liar, you know something.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked in what I hoped was an impassive voice.
“You keep spacing out on us!”
“What do you mean?”
“I swear you look high,” Sapphire said.
“HIGH??”
“Yeah, like you’re always staring at nothing.”
“How does that make me look high!?”
“Well, you just do!”
“Yeah, you do look high when you stare off like that. Your eyes get unfocused,” Damian said.
“Stop calling me high!”
“Lily’s high! Lily is high!” Elizabeth chimed playfully.
“STOP IT!”
All three of them laughed.
“You are so easy to get fired up, Lily,” Sapphire said as I walked out, fuming, toward my next class.
I was relieved that they hadn’t guessed exactly what it was that was making me look high, as they so aptly put it. The truth was that I was having trouble concentrating on anything other than Travis these days. My grades were slipping again, and I was losing contact with my friends. It seemed all I could think about was him, and it also looked like I wouldn’t be able to keep this a secret for much longer.
I showed up ten minutes early to my math class, and so I sat down at my desk and began to do the work on the board.
I was barely working on the second problem when someone sat next to me and I looked up.
It was a boy about my age, with long dark hair and honey colored eyes. He was wearing the uniform, but it was mostly slashed through. He didn’t seem to notice me very much as he stared straight ahead. I was curious; I’d never seen him before.
“Um, hi,” I said politely.
“Hey.”
“Um, are you new?”
“Yeah.”
“My name is Lily. Can you tell me who you are?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Cuz I don’t feel like it.”
“Ok…”
I turned away from him, surprised by his rudeness. Note to self, I thought. Stay away from guys who have hair longer than their shoulders.
Class began in a few moments, and the new boy didn’t show any emotion while the rest of the students took their seats. When Cleyra sat down on the other side of me, though, I noticed he shifted in his seat a little, but when I turned to look at him, he sat perfectly still and undisturbed by anyone.
The teacher came in and took roll. When she reached the boys seat, she smiled.
“Students, this is Jacob Marquez. He just transferred here from a private school in North Carolina. Would you like to say something to the class, Jacob?”
The boy crossed his arms and looked up at the teacher like she was crazy.
“Come on now, don’t be shy.”
He stood up.
“Sup. Yeah, I’m from North Carolina, and oh yeah, you bitches stay away from me.”
He sat back down. Everyone in the class stared at him open-mouthed.
“Mr. Marquez, DETENTION!”
He shrugged and grinned.
I turned to look to Cleyra, but she was eying Jacob’s hair and probably thinking about how she already had detention for the rest of the week.

Jacob Marquez was… different. No one dared get nearer than a foot to him. The only person he seemed to get along with was none other than our very own Cleyra. They were rarely found without the other anymore, especially since they spent every day in detention together. The only one who seemed to have a problem with this was Brendan.
“That idiot is going to get her expelled,” he said angrily one Saturday as we hung around the fountain.
“Oh shut up, Bren,” Ayden said, skimming the water with her fingers. “She already gets herself in detention every moment she’s in this school.”
“He’s going to get her addicted to cocaine or something!”
“No he isn’t, and besides, she’d probably do that on her own.”
I laughed, momentarily distracted from my thoughts. I’d forgotten how stupid my friends could be sometimes.
“You’re just jealous, Bren,” Damian said smirking. Brendan’s best friend he might be, but those two never quit making the other look like a total idiot.
Brendan’s face went red.
“Jealous? Jealous of what?”
“Oh come on,” Sapphire rolled her eyes. “Everyone knows you have a soft spot for Cleyra.”
His face went redder.
“I do not!”
Elizabeth splashed water at him. “Yes you do. Don’t think we’re retarded. We noticed ever since you laid eyes on her like two years ago.”
Brendan seemed unable to speak; his face had gone so red he looked like he’d been sitting in the sun too long.
I decided to spare him a few moments of humiliation, hilarious as it was.
“Has anyone seen Aqua?”
“No, she’s probably sulking in her dormitory. She’s been like that ever since Cleyra found her soul mate.”
“Soul mate??”
She rolled her eyes at Brendan’s pained look.
“Fine, ‘best friend’.”
Brendan continued to look sour. He turned away, trying to ignore us.
“Anyway, I think she’s mad that Cleyra’s enjoying herself and not missing her in any way.”
“Stupid Aqua,” Damian murmured. “She’ll never learn…”
Elizabeth skipped a stone across the fountain. Everyone watched it until it eventually sank into the water.

The following day, we were stuck indoors due to heavy rain. During break, all the freshmen were sent to the History classroom, the sophomores to the math classroom, and the middle school kids were all put in the Gym.
Cleyra was sitting on Jacob’s desk talking nonstop. Aqua was in the corner moodily working on her math homework, and I was sitting near the window staring out into the rain. I was thinking so I didn’t notice Travis right behind me.
“Hey Lily.”
I looked up startled. As soon as I saw it was him I grinned.
“Hi.”
“What are you doing?”
I turned back to the window as he sat down beside me on the desk.
“Nothing, I just like the rain.”
He lowered his voice.
“Are you still up for tonight then?”
I felt myself blush slightly. Tonight we were planning to go out again, but the rain had temporarily canceled our plans.
“I don’t know. I guess if you want to get freezing wet.”
He smiled. “I’m up for it.”
“Ok, I’ll meet you there at seven.”
He caught a loose end of my hair. It had grown a bit in the past few months and was now longer than my shoulders. He absentmindedly twirled it with his fingers and than suddenly let it drop.
“Oh damn it, speak of the devil,” he muttered as he got up quickly and stalked away. I looked up and saw none other that Marella coming towards me with a look that made me think, ‘If looks could kill’…
She was there before I had time to move.
“Oh hello Marella,” I said acting politely surprised.
“Don’t even try, you bitch.”
Cleyra heard the last part and turned around.
“What do you want?” I asked angrily.
“Why the hell was my boyfriend sitting with you?”
“He’s not your boyfriend, Marella, and it’s none of your business.”
She glared at me with hatred. Luckily at that moment, Cleyra decided to act and slid off the desk.
“What do you want, you goddamned bitch?” she came to stand beside me, crossing her arms.
“I didn’t know this was a school for cross dressers,” Marella spat at her.
Cleyra remained calm. “I wasn’t aware you were in this class. Maybe I should change to a school that’s more advanced.”
For a moment no one moved, but then Marella slapped her across the face.
Immediately, Jacob jumped up and punched her in the stomach with such force that she fell to the floor coughing up blood.
The room was suddenly a rush of movement as everyone moved in to get a better look. Marella’s friends were crowded around her, yelling for the nurse; I just stood there next to Cleyra, shocked. Jacob came toward us and sat down idly, resuming the conversation he and Cleyra were having.

Jacob’s parents were called to the school, but nothing of worse consequence seemed to have happened. Cleyra was unmoved by the whole thing and everything was almost back to normal by curfew, except for Marella who seemed ready to kill anyone who got near her.
After the girls in my dorm were asleep, I snuck out of the dormitory and ran down the corridor. My footsteps were muffled by the sound of the rain, but I was careful as I found my way down to the grounds.
Travis was waiting for me at the foot of the stairs. Saying nothing, he grasped my hand and pulled me quickly past the doors and into the rain.
I was soaked, still wearing my uniform skirt and blouse, and almost immediately I felt myself begin to shiver. Instead of stopping at our usual spot, he led me farther out into the grounds, to a willow tree that sheltered us from the rain. It was dry, but as I sat down, I had to hug myself to keep warm. He sat next to me, his hair wet and wild over his face. He let go of my hand and put his head back on the trunk, closing his eyes.
For a while, we were still, unmoving, and silent. The rain seemed to become heavy and it covered the grounds in mist. It was comforting, despite the cold, and I felt myself relaxing. I was almost asleep when Travis lightly lifted my hand again. His skin was cold, and I shivered again. He pulled me closer to him and embraced me.
“The rain is soothing isn’t it?” he whispered in my ear.
“Hmm, very,” I murmured, breathing in his scent.
He kissed me gently, and my mouth moved against his. My heart raced and I found I could hardly breathe, but I couldn’t make myself stop. I lost my sense of everything, I only knew Travis was there, and I was there, and everything else was lost to me…
“Hey!”
We broke apart startled. Instinctively we stepped away from each other.
Aquamarine was staring at us, open-mouthed and blushing.
“What are you doing here, Aqua??”
She didn’t answer, but instead turned and ran away.
“****,” muttered Travis. “Do you think she’ll rat us out?”
“I don’t know…”
“Well, we’d better be getting back anyway.”

At first it seemed like Aqua hadn’t said anything, but as I made my way to gym class the next day, Cleyra caught up to me.
“Is it true what they’re saying Lily?”
“What do you mean?” I had a bad feeling about this…
“Were you really out making out with Travis last night???”
My heart sank.
“Who told you this?”
“Aqua.”
So she had told everyone… I suddenly felt my temper flaring.

“Well you can tell Aqua to jump off a cliff for all I care,” I said angrily.
“Sheesh Lily it was just an innocent question.”
“I don’t care, she’s a stupid bitch, and she’s not worth anyone’s time!”
“Hey that’s my line,” she said a little surprised at my choice of words.
“Well, whatever. Who cares anyway!”
I stomped off angrily, pushing people out of my way, most of which stared at me with dislike.
All day I endured similar rumors and accusations, and my temper stayed at murder point. Marella looked dangerous every time she happened to pass me in the hallways, and I was beginning to think it was only a matter of time before something happened. And by curfew, I found out what that something was.
I’d been walking to the boy’s dormitories to return a text book to Damian when she and her two friends appeared. Without so much as a word, they ran at me, held me down, and punched every bit of me they could reach. I couldn’t do anything to stop them, and Marella took advantage to attack my face as much as she could. But as fast as it had started it was over and I lay on the floor, blood dripping from my mouth and nose, and someone was yelling. The last thing I heard was someone saying my name before I slipped into unconsciousness.

Chapter Ten

When I finally came to, the first thing I noticed was the strong smell of antiseptic, and that my eyes didn’t seem to want to open. I tried moving and immediately regretted it as pain shot through my body and I gave an involuntary moan.
“Oh good, she’s awake.”
“Hey Lily, can you hear us?”
“Don’t talk so loud, she probably has a headache, Liz.”
“Sorry,” I heard Liz whisper.
“Who did it?” I heard a boy’s voice ask.
“Isn’t it obvious Brendan?” Cleyra’s voice answered. “It was Marella. Just watch, I’m going to kick that sorry bitch’s @ss.”
“Calm down a little, Clair. Besides, you’re not Lily’s only friend, we’ll pay Marella back for this,” Brendan said, sounding amused.
I felt someone lightly touch my hand.
“Lily, how do you feel?”
Finally, I opened my eyes to find that I was in the infirmary. As far as I could tell it was already dark, and grouped around the bed were Cleyra, Brendan, Elizabeth, and Travis, although I noticed that Travis kept a little farther away from the others. I hadn’t heard him say anything but as soon as I met his gaze his face broke into a relieved smile.
“Like I was run over by a truck,” I grimaced as Cleyra helped me sit up on the pillows.
“The nurse says you’ll be okay, but you’ve got a few bruises and some scratches,” Brendan explained.
“You can leave by tomorrow morning for class, but you have to stay overnight,” Liz added.
“Did Marella get caught?”
Everyone exchanged significant looks.
“Well… Travis was the one who found you, but when he told the head it was Marella, his history with her and their breakup came up, and the head decided to believe Marella. Sorry Lily,” Brendan said frowning.
I groaned.
“Son of a bitch,” Cleyra muttered.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked.
“Aqua is spreading gossip to get on Marella’s good side. It’s her revenge on Clair. Ayden is in detention, and Sapphire and Damian are working on their project. They wanted to let you know they hope you feel better, except for Aqua who was laughing her @ss off like the traitor she is,” Liz said angrily.
“Forget Aqua,” Brandon said.
I felt someone stroke the side of my face and turned to see Travis had moved closer to the head of my bed. Cleyra gave him a somewhat dirty look, but Liz and Brendan seemed to be quite happy with his show of affection for me. Finally he broke the silence.
“You need your rest, Lily.”
“That’s true,” Brendan added. Everyone started to move chairs and gather their schoolbags.
“Feel better soon Lily,” Liz said as she, Cleyra, and Brendan hugged me goodbye.
“Thanks guys,” I said in a tired voice as they left out the infirmary door.
“See you in first period,” Cleyra said as she was walking out. “Oh, and if he isn’t out of here in five minutes he’ll be the one in the hospital bed,” she added pointing to Travis.
He chuckled lightly, kissed my head, got up and followed her out.
“Night Lily,” he said as he turned the lights off and closed the door behind him.

As promised, I was released from the infirmary first thing in the morning, and I had to rush down to my morning class. It was only after I saw people snickering behind their hands that I found out that I had a black eye to add to the gossip going around.
Aqua had turned full traitor and completely joined in Marella’s group. She was no longer talking to any of us, and told all of our secrets to increase the gossip. All of my friends were the laughingstock of the school, and no one was angrier than Cleyra and Jacob.
Every time someone made a joke about anyone in the group, Cleyra and Jacob would somehow get them back, whether it was through blackmail or straight-out violence. It was only when they were threatened with expulsion that they stopped attacking people walking to their classes.
It was a wonder we survived the constant humiliation, but survival was the one thing we understood best.
We seemed to band together closer, and were rarely seen alone anymore. All nine of us, Sapphire, Ayden, Brendan, Damian, Cleyra, Jacob, Travis, Elizabeth, and I, now spent every spare moment in the unused classroom, planning out ways to make it through the week. It was no more than a battle for survival now. A battle we planned to fight through to the end.
Time went by and still it seemed they would never let down. It came to be the end of April, and nothing had changed.
“Don’t these people ever get tired of spreading rumors?” Ayden asked sourly as she fought with her broken calculator.
We were, for once, in the library, for a change. We’d chosen a particularly large table and everyone in the group was seated around it, supposedly working on their homework. We’d become increasingly more sullen in the past month and a half, and there were obvious differences in our behavior and appearances. Cleyra had cut her hair short and spiked it up like a boy’s and had a permanently angry expression on her face. She’d gotten into the habit of wearing dark eyeliner most of the time, and was rarely in a good or joking mood anymore. Ayden and Elizabeth were often sullen and now wore black often, and their hair was grown out longer. Their pranks were a lot crueler now, and they’d been in serious trouble for them. Damian had become so defiant in class that he’d been suspended twice and was on the verge of being expelled. His hair had grown back in, but his personality was mostly silent and cynical now. Sapphire took being a social outcast the hardest. She was so used to being friendly that now she was always sad. She tried to hide the fact that she cried often, but we could always tell. She took to wearing a hooded sweater to cover her eyes most of the time. Jacob had more or less kept his attitude but had taken to wearing eyeliner like Cleyra, and spent most of his time planning out fights with her. Travis had not minded becoming an outcast; it was more the attitude of the group he had joined that changed him. He talked to no one but me, and he refused to go out on those late night dates anymore. He’d re-dyed his hair black, and let it grow so it covered part of his face. Brendan was more or less the same. He had refused to lose hope so easily and the only thing that seemed to really piss him off was Jacob and Cleyra’s friendship. As for me, I’d grown my hair out so long that now it was down past my waist. I was the one who coped with the “banishment” the most. Having been an outcast for most of my life, I knew how to deal with it, but depression still found a way into my life, and it was almost impossible for me to be happy. It was me who answered Ayden’s question.
“No, they never do. They’re just a bunch of idiots, ignore them.”
She looked at me with a strange look in her eyes. We all knew perfectly well we couldn’t ignore them.