Notnecessarilybasedonfact

Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity.**
 * Insanity is like sanity but more eccentric. Normality is just psychotic.


 * //Lily Halifax: The End of the Beginning//**

Lily wasn't what you would call a //normal// fifteen year old girl//--// she had long black hair that reached far past her navel and bright aquamarine eyes that glistened as if she was always a moment away from breaking into tears. She wore a short sleeved raven black T- shirt with the words "Nevermore" written in white printed on the front and regular slightly faded blue jeans that had a simple hole at the knee that was masked by the black and white socks she had underneath.

On this particular day she was slumped over at her lunch table with head phones placed over her ears. A melody of rthymn guitars and piano blared out her tiny headphone speakers. Her forehead was pressed against the hard surface of the lunch table likely leaving a big gigantic red mark in the middle of her forehead. Every once in awhile her CD would skip and she would lift her hand and flick the CD player with her finger but besides the occasional shifting of feet it was the only movement she had made in a twenty minute time period.

Her lunch was pushed off to the side untouched and barely acknowledged.

Then as if it to spite her once again the CD skipped again and began, repeating one line over and over. Lily sat up straight and cradled it advertently in her hands to exam.

"Are you feeling okay?"

The words pierced through and in an almost zombie-like manner she lifted her head up curiously and arched her eyebrow at a brown haired boy who was standing across from her secluded table. He was a rather plan looking boy judging by anyone else’s eyes but Lily has artists eyes, the kind that could look at something completely plain and orthodox and find beauty, things that you could imagine. He had short brown hair that fell a little past his ears, parted in the middle, and his clothing style was plain and conventional. That day he wore a simple button up white shirt with denim jeans. Lily scanned over the boy but stopped short of his eyes. Brilliant orbs of dark almond with specs of green peered back into Lily's own emerald blue and with that Lily smiled faintly.

Well this was highly unexpected.

Lily wasn't exactly at the top the social ladder. To be truthful Lily was convinced that the Social Ladder wasn't actually a Ladder at all but more like a Triangular monarchy and she wanted no part.

It was best to stay around from scene politics.

Lily quickly snapped back into reality and locked eyes once more with the boy.

"I’m fine…peachy…never been better….So are you here to mock me? Taunt me? Because you should know if you are…I’m going to…” With that she grabbed a spork that was laying on her tray near the untouched mashed potatoes and waved it around in front of his face ”…Poke you extremely hard with this.”

The teenage boy gave a look of puzzlement. “No…no…I’m not here to make…make fun of you in anyway. I was just trying to…to inform you of something.

Lily raised her eyebrows with curiosity.

" Ah ha! Don't tell me that they've finally proven that teachers are really fiendish mutated aliens that crashed into earth during the 80's and are now using their advanced technology to drain poor innocent kids out of their life force to inevitably fuel their diabolical spaceships of doom!? “, Lily demanded shooting out of her seat to lean forward so that her face was a mere few inches from the boy’s face and smirked devilishly. A few other students close by gave the couple odd glances.

"Um...I don't…think so...” The boy said awkwardly at the girl so close to his personal comfort bubble.

Lily let her eyes fall to the table in a fake show of sadness.

A pout adorned her porcelain face and she slowly raised her eyes.

"Okay if it's not brain sucking aliens what is it?"

"There is a rumor going around..."

Lily sighed and rolled her eyes notoriously. She casually went back to sitting down. She promptly ignored the boy for a few seconds by etching her plate of uneaten food closer and poking it with the tips of her newly found poke weapon before shoving it away.

"So?’ She asked suspiciously.

"It's about you..."

Lily rolled her eyes dramatically and propped her chin up with her hand.

“You see...well...Samantha is spreading some really nasty things about you..."

"Hmm...Interesting...would you tell her something for me Jonathan?"

"My name is Chris..." The boy added flustered.

Lily smirked at the boy "Of course it is..., Chris would you do something for me? Would you tell Samantha that she can… “

The bell rang drowning Lily's last few words in its whiny drone and before Chris could even blink she was gone.

{Monica D. What an immense amount of nonsensical trash! I love it! Heh heh. This is hard because the next post is going to sway from the entire plot that I have twirling and doing somersaults in my head. Please 'oh' merciful poster be ever so kind to my little plot bunny.}

//Great work, Monica!!!! Someone care to add? user:aimeesmithAn "evil mutant alien that crashed into earth awhile back and am now using her advanced technology like some type of mind sucking device that is draining poor innocent kids out of their life force to fuel my evil spaceships of dooma.k.a. Mrs. Smith :)//

Chris sat in English, not exactly listening to the teacher drone on about nouns, thinking about what Samantha had said. How could someone be so mean to a person they didn't even know?

"Nouns, //Chris//, are used in every sentence..." Ms. Ramsey said, interrupting Chris's thoughts.

Meanwhile, in art, Lily painted her feelings onto a blank canvas. She painted a portrait of Chris, the one person who had talked to her that day. She had nearly no friends- at least none that would talk to her in front of their other, more popular friends. People like Chris weren't many at Northeast Middle. And it wasn't like she had much to look forward to at home.

Lily lived in a run-down orphanage on the edge of town. Nobody admitted to know anything about what happened to her parents. At times, it bothered her that she didn't know what happened to them. Mostly, however, she didn't pay much mind to it. She couldn't even remember having parents. The majority of her time was spent drawing in her room that she used to share with a girl named Julia. Julia and Lily were inseparable until Julia moved. The moment she graduated, Julia moved away, promising to keep in touch with Lily. That was three years ago. Lily hasn't received a single message from Julia since she left.

Mrs. Day walked by Lily and said, "Great painting as usual, Miss Halifax!" Lily just smiled. She was so lost in thought that she hadn't even realized that she had nearly finished the painting. Mrs. Day was the one teacher that Lily actually liked. Ever since the first day in art, Mrs. Day was nothing but welcoming to Lily.

"Just a few minutes 'til the bell rings," Mrs. Day informed the class. "Go ahead and be cleaning up and get ready for your next class!" Lily cleaned what she could of her already neat table and set her wet canvas on the window sill to dry.

"Somebody has a crush!" said Halley, the most popular girl in the grade. She had just seen Lily's painting.

"Oops!" Halley said sarcastically as she pushed the wet canvas face down onto the floor.

"Not much of a loss, really. Quite an ugly painting!" Lily burned with embarrassment as the rest of the class laughed at Halley's antics. Luckily for Lily, the bell rang before Halley could continue. As if things couldn't get any worse, as soon as Lily ran out of the art room, she ran straight into Samantha, knocking them both to the floor and scattering their books everywhere.

{Jake L.}

(Tyler J || I had a lot of fun making this image. This is how I saw Lily in my mind so I pulled this image together. Cheers and happy editing! - ^__^)}__

//{ AWESOME image, Tyler, but please just use first names. I am so humbled by your talents. Can you teach me? }//

"Excuse you!" Samantha exclaimed as she fell to the floor. "You think you could watch //who// you run into?!" As Samantha screamed, Lily noticed Chris to join the crowd dressed in his usual button-down plain shirt neatly tucked into blue jeans. "Why don't you run into //him// next time? Chris and Lily, Chris and Lily..." she continued while the crowd of students started in on the taunting. Lily grabbed her books and ran not paying and mind to Chris who, coming in on the middle of the scene, was confused as to what was happening. "Lily, wait!" Lily was half way across campus, dodging through the crowd when she heard Chris. She wasn't going to stop for him, though. Even for someone who didn't care what people thought of her, the crowd was too much. Lily continued to cry into her old, black handkerchief as she ran from the school towards home- there was no way she could manage a bus ride today. Finally, Chris stopped running and gave up. The next day, nobody saw Lily at school. Not that anyone noticed- except Chris.

{Jake L.-- If somebody could write the next part about why Lily wasn't at school. I was thinking something like home school, moved, or maybe she just needed a break.}

The school was oddly quiet that day, the only thing to be heard was the giggling from Samantha and her friends, as her friends congratulated her from yesterday’s incident. Chris was silent all day not paying any attention to the people around him. He was confused and disappointed. He didn’t know what happened the other day. He was so confused and no one could tell him why Lily ran off.

“Hey, Chris what’s up?” Someone said behind Chris startling him. Chris turned around to see the familiar eyes of one of his off and on friends.

“Hey Eric, nothing to unusual, what about you?” Chris said sitting down on the table outside of the school, since after all it was lunch time.

“Nothing, besides the fact that I heard what happened yesterday. So you and that freak?” Eric said nudging Chris slightly with his elbow. Chris looked up confused and shocked.

“What are you talking about?” Chris asked, sitting up completely straight now and alert.

“I heard that she had a ‘thing’ for you” Eric said, surprised that Chris didn’t know what he was talking about. Chris rolled his eyes and stood up, looking back down at Eric with a serious expression and even more serious tone.

“You shouldn’t believe every rumor you hear” Chris says walking with a sullen face, now knowing what happened.

Chris was pleased when the final bell rung to let school out, as he walked down the crowded hallways, making his way to the outside doors. But as he went to open the door, Samantha got in his way.

“Hey Chris, You going to go call Lily?” Samantha said giggling to her friends behind her.

“Leave me alone Samantha” Chris said moving around her and her friends and opening the door.

“She might have the guts to move out of town, but you wouldn’t dare,” Samantha called after him. His eyes grew wide. Moved? Lily moved? How? When? This was not supposed to happen. He couldn’t handle the rumors any more; he needed to find out for himself. He ran out of the school grounds and to Lily’s neighborhood. He knew where she lived- he knew where everyone lived, but not because he was a stalker or anything. The town was small enough that everyone new where everyone lived. He ran to Lily’s house. An old antique, white but faded, with dark maroon shutters and dark curtains covering the windows where you couldn’t see inside. Chris walked up to the maroon colored door and grabbed the silver door knocker, knocking loud enough where they could hear from inside. As he stood there feeling really awkward and unfamiliar, the door opened slowly and standing in the door way was Lily, dressed in blue jeans and a baggy t-shirt. Lily looked puzzled. “Chris? What are you doing here?” Lily asked holding the door and the door frame.

(Taylor K. I didn’t know if it would be good or not but there you go hehe)

"You're not stalking me are you? Because I know Kung Fu..."

"No, no I just...I...I saw that you weren't in school today," Chris struggled for the right words, "...and I was worried because I heard a couple of girls talking about you moving and I....."

Lily blinked in shock before composing herself “You shouldn't listen to people so much Chris."

Chris gave a short hesitant laugh before looking around nervously. "So you were... worried about me?"

"Yeah, I guess I was..."

"There wasn't much need though...I didn't feel like going to school today..that's all..." Lily responded as she shifted her body around awkwardly "Do you want to come in?"

Chris nodded before passing Lily in the doorway and entering the rather spacious and what seemed like an empty house.

Lily brushed pass Chris and began walking down the narrow hallway that sided with a long staircase that went up the next floor.

Lily motioned for Chris to follow as she entered what could have been considered a living room. Chris looked around in wonder. Lining each wall was at least six beds topped with satin sheets and a blue comforter.

On the nearest left closest to the door was a small girl with tight golden curls and doll like skin sitting on the edge of a bed. She held a ragged doll in her nimble little fingers with a fixation only possible for someone so young. The little girl looked up from the doll in her hands and caste her eyes across the room until she finally stopped on Lily.

"Lily! You'll never believe what Joey just did!" The little girl with golden hair exclaimed before rising off of the bed and running towards the rattled teenager.

"What could have possibly happened in the barely two minutes that I was at the door Aila?"

She clung tightly to Lily's leg and tugged at the teenager's jeans.

Lily squatted down to Aila's height and gazed into her overly curious bright blue eyes.

Aila eyes bulged franticly and a mix of emotions crossed her face.

With out another moment’s hesitation she hurried into a barely coherent explanation as to why she was so 'furious' at the boy and how he had tried to steal Amy [the doll] and crush her in the garbage disposal. Aila's eye's began to water at the very thought of it.

Lily nodded her head and squinted her eyes trying to process everything.

'Garbage...doll....toothpaste?'

She nervously closed her eyes and scratched the back of her head.

"Well...that’s...real unfortunate...well I...I have to go...into the kitchen…to get...milk! Lots and lots of milk...for a school project...involving...MILK!!" Lily replied in a quickened tone before she grabbed Chris's arm [who had been standing in the door way the whole time watching the insanity and hurried him into the kitchen.

With a melodramatic sigh she sat down at the counter and placed her forehead onto the counter.

Chris didn't really want to interrupt the girl's head placed on counter time but his curiosity was stronger than his empathy. "What? What was that about?"

"Ha...that was Aila and for such a little girl she can go on for hours talking about the most trivial things. It wouldn't be so bad if I knew what she was saying half the time..."

The mood had lightened as Lily lifted her head off the counter and give off a childish giggle before scratching the back of her head.

{Monica D.}

Lily looked at Chris and grinned. He looked around and said, "I have go... I've got so much homework!" He ran out of the front door in which he came in. It wasn't until he was halfway down the sidewalk did he realize what a complete fool he must have seemed. There he was standing in the middle of a [dare he say it] extremely beautiful and intelligent female's kitchen and he decides to just randomly blurt out he has to do homework and runs out of the kitchen like a lunatic. He brought his hands to his face in disbelief at how much of a moron he was. 'I am...an idiot..'

"Okay then," Lily said, although Chris was already outside. She strolled into the living room where Aila ran up to Lily right then, sobbing. "Lily! Lily! Lily!"

Lily kneeled down and asked, "What? What's wrong?" "It's Amy! {You remember the doll...} She... she... she..."

"What is it?" Lily exclaimed. "Joey... He... He... He..." "Darn it, Aila, what is it?" "He... He stuffed poor Amy into the garbage disposal!"

'How in the earth did he manage that? I was just in the kitchen after all...and that is where the garbage disposal just so happens to be...Am I blind or something?' Lily thought to herself.

Just then, Joey came in. His eyes were wide and he ran out as soon as he saw Aila. Lily sighed. "Not this again..." "There! There! There! Go get my dolly back, please, Lily!"

"I've got it, I've got it..."

Lily ran and stopped the black-haired kid who took Aila's doll. "Joey, why do you keep picking on other little girls? It's not nice." Joey turned around and looked down at his worn out sneakers. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again, promise." Lily felt like she couldn't ever talk to this kid without losing it. "That's what you said last time, Joey. And the time before that, and the time before that, and the time before that, and the..." Joey interrupted Lily, with an angry, almost sad tone of voice, "I know! I know! I'm sorry!"

Lily sighed. "It's okay. Get Amy out of the garbage disposal and apologize to Aila. She'll understand." Joey nodded and ran to Aila, who was listening in on their conversation in the doorway. He shoved through and took the dirty rag doll out of the garbage disposal, sulking. {He always sulks after he gets in trouble.} Joey handed the doll to Aila and said, "Here's your stupid doll... sorry." Aila snatched Amy out of his hands and lied down on her bed, her face being smudged on her pillow.

{Monica B. -There, I changed it up a bit...}

//The next day...// --

Lily snaked her way through the rather dense hallways with her arm looped lazily around her textbooks. She was so unaware of the things around her that she didn't notice when she passed Samantha and her cronies standing near the lockers. So she didn't understand why at first she had been lethargically walking the hallways minding her own business and the next she was face-planted on the ground.

'Oww...did I trip myself again?"

She groaned painfully as she felt that one of her textbooks had most defiantly jabbed into her ribs.

Lifting her head off of the ground she blinked a few times before turning her head off to the side. She slightly pulled her body up into a push up position [witch was painful] and with her knees still touching the floor In her line of vision she saw a pair of anorexic looking legs. She raised her eyes upwards to come face to face with pure evil itself Samantha Baxter. She was like every super villain and teen drama preppie girl rolled into a single package. A villain among villains.

Giving a half hearted glare Lily groaned under her breath.

She groaned even more as she lifted her self off of the ground and onto her haunches. She began to gather the textbooks that were scattered across the ground.

'This sucks...all I want is to get through one day of school without Miss. I have to treat everyone like a subordinate messing with me...' Lily thought to herself.

"Freak, you really should watch where you are going.. or better yet you shouldn't have come back."

Anger erupted from inside Lily and gritted her teeth, a fire seemed to build inside her.

"What? Does the freak not have anything to say?"

Lily looked up at Samantha lazily from her crouched position and gave her a weak smirk.

//"They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head: they that are mine enemies, and would destroy me guiltless, are mighty."//

Samantha scoffed snobbishly "Where did you get that? Loser. A fortune cookie?"

Lily’s fox grin seemed to widen even more across her delicate features as she stared up into the eyes of her peer; her own eyes glistening with excitement before responding.

"...from the bible. Psalms 69:4 I thought that someone of such..." Lily eyed the crucifix dangling from her neck"...high values would appreciate it."

"Unless, of course, the cross around your neck is nothing more than a ruse to distract people away from the wretched little creature you really are?"

"Who do you think you are?" Samantha barked coming closer to Lily's huddled form; her eyes shooting daggers into the smaller girl's body. "My NAME is Lily and despite the fact that the majority of the time I am doing nothing but minding my own business I keep getting hassled by an egotistical //crux// headed narcissist who wears to much make up and suffers from a superiority complex."

"But in the end Samantha, you can't even come close to breaking me. You can't break someone who thinks nothing of you."

Lily, with a glimmer of malice in her eyes, smirked before standing up with her textbooks clutched to her chest.

Without another word she turned on her heels and left one of the most //"popular"// girls in school standing with her mouth agape in the middle of the hallway.

'Score one for the out-casts!' Lily yelled happily inside her mind.

{Monica D.}

After Lily's "triumph over popularity," as it was known among the schools "popularly challenged" community, which was a landmark moment for Lily, most people dared not to speak to Lily. They merely turned and went the opposite direction at the first glimpse of her. Lily, who was still ferociously angry at Samantha and the others who'd caused her pain, barely noticed at all. She carried on as if nothing at all was happening.

After a while Samantha came stomping up to her, with what looked like a forced expression of anger. "What's your problem, thinking..." Lily had cut her off. "I don't have to listen to your whining. I have nothing to say to you." she said in the calmest voice she could muster. "Wha--!? Hey, you! Uggh!" she whined in a most annoying voice. Lily kept walking, although a devious smile was forming across her face. She had won this time.

[Tyler J. I know it's kind of short, but I just thought this might add to Monica's excellent passage.]

Before she knew it, Lily was sitting at the usual table where she sat at lunch. She ignored the people at the table in front of her, pointing to her and whispering in each others' ears. She was staring at what was supposed to be food when the thought of Chris coming to her house popped up in her head. "I saw that you weren't in school today, and I was worried that you might've moved or something like that..." With the short scene playing in her head like a movie, Lily heard a familiar voice coming toward her. "Lily! Hey!" She jumped, almost out of her seat. "Don't scare me like that... You'll give me a heart attack!" "S...Sorry..." "It's okay. So... Did you get your homework done?" "Yeah, but I have a feeling Mrs. Ramsey is gonna jump on me today." "How come?" Lily asked with an uninvolved tone. "I guessed on most of those literature questions. I didn't get them at all." "Really? Those were quite easy, I thought. But what do I know? I'm just a freak..." "Huh? Why do you think so?" "Oh, Nothing... No reason, I mean..." Chris interrupted, "Is it //Samantha?//" Lily glared at him as if he had spoken of a ghost. "Why do you always think it's her?" "I dunno... I just thought that because of what happened in the halls lately..." "You make too many assumptions, Chris." The bell rang right then, and there Lily was, sitting alone. She slowly got up and threw her tray into the garbage as Samantha walked by, noticing she hadn't eaten. She hesitated, but she had to say something, as if a war had not ended. "What, are you //anorexic// or something?" Lily just ignored her, like an annoying fly buzzing around her head that keeps coming back, no matter how many times you shoo it away. "What? You run out of catchy things to say?" Lily ignored her again, only this time; it was noticeable that she was being pestered by her. She walked out of the lunchroom door, almost running. She went onto her next, and favorite, class: Art. This class usually calmed her down.

She walked in, and Mrs. Day wasn't in the room. Instead, there was an elderly woman with, obviously dyed, brunette hair, dressed in a plain blue dress, and brown, worn out low-cut boots, as she had pushed up her glasses with one finger and erased the dry-erase board with her other hand. Lily sat her books down on the table closest to the teacher's desk, where she normally sat. On the board, Lily noticed a name that she could hardly make out. "Mrs. Falcons"

Although Lily usually talked to substitutes, especially in art, Lily just slumped down in her chair and did what the substitutes for art usually tell the class to do: "Get out a blank, white sheet of paper, get out some colored-pencils and draw something that covers the entire page. This will be taken up at the end of class. It will be worth 100 points. 25 points for creativity, 25 points for it to be school-appropriate, and 50 points for the whole page to be colored in."

Lily memorized this, sadly, because Mrs. Day had already been out seven times, and every time, the substitute said those exact words. Lily got her sheet of paper out and drew a detailed picture of Amy, Aila's dolly. The doll was sitting on a pillow and the background was plain black. The bell for the period to end rang, and Lily turned her paper in.

She walked out into the hallway, noticing the same group of girls coming from the same direction they always have. Lily turned away and started walking to her next class: History. Samantha, holding an ice-cream cone, walked faster to catch up to her. Lily wondered where she got the ice-cream from as she thought, 'This girl doesn't know when to quit...' She poked Lily on the shoulder and said, "Hey, sorry about how I've been treating you lately. I've been a complete jerk! I just thought maybe we should stop fighting and become friends..." Lily knew she was up to something... It's not like Samantha to just give up and apologize. "...Okay..." Lily said, unsure of what to say. "...You forgive me?" Samantha asked. Lily sighed of relief of actually hearing Samantha's voice say something nice for once. "Sure," she said. Samantha spread her arms out, smiling, as if they were best friends reuniting. Lily didn't seem to care, so she just hugged her back. Next thing she knew, Samantha had crammed the ice-cream straight into the middle of her back. She knew she was going to do something like that, so Lily smirked at Samantha and made a slight, "Humph," sound. Samantha glared at her. "You actually thought I'd want to become friends with a //freak// like you? Ha! Yeah //right//!" She turned her back to Lily, with her clan of despiteful 'demons' and walked back to class.

{Monica B.}

Lily groaned inwardly as she took the folds of her long black hair into her hands and swiped it over her shoulder. Smeared into the middle of her hair was vanilla ice cream and it was dripping down onto her shoulder blade.

Giving a slight contortion of the face she raced to the bathroom and didn't acknowledge the curious glances she was getting from other students --

Chris trudged to his next class with his mind plagued with thoughts of this peculiar girl who kept popping up everywhere.

Chris slumped down into his seat and closed his eyes.

"Hey Chris, are you alright? You look like you've been hit with a forklift, thrown over a cliff, eaten by flesh eating worms, digested, kidnapped by lawn gnomes, and forced to suffer twenty-four hours in seventh period math."

Chris opened his eyes and stared as a quirky looking blonde girl with dark brown eyes stood by his desk.

"Hey Alex... I'm...okay"

Alex shrugged carelessly and sat down in the desk in front of Chris and turned around to face him.

"You sure? You look like someone just ate your cat."

"...I don't have a cat."

"Well of course not! For the sake of all the pogo sticks in the world...it was eaten!"

Alex smiled warmly and patted Chris on the shoulder. Chris and Alex had been friends since the fourth grade.

They had meet at recess when Alex 'accidentally' shoved sand down Chris's pants and Chris 'accidentally on purpose' hit Alex on the head with a plastic shovel.

Chris didn't respond but instead seemed to sink lower in his seat.

"Aww...Chris no need to sink away from me. I'm not that creepy" Alex's grin grew wider than the Cheshire cat off of Alice in Wonderland.

"No… no it's not that...though you are rather creepy...I just.."

"Is this about that freaky girl...umm… Lily… the goth chick that completely slandered Samantha Baxter in the hallway this morning?", Alex said interrupting Chris's explanation, "Are you crushing on her or something? I didn't think you went for dark and brooding but you di-"

"I do not have a crush on her!" Chris yelped out as a blush threatened to take over his face ", She is just a friend!"

"Well then what’s with the frowny face?" Alex twisted her face into a frown.

"..."

" Rooster got your tongue?"

" Okay class please get in your seats..."

&&

Lily hung over the sink in the bathroom wiping the ice cream out of her hair with a paper towel. She scowled at her pale reflection in the mirror as she clenched her hair in her hand and wiped the ice cream away rapidly from her hair. It didn't help much for the ice cream was leaving a sticky residue.

Lily groaned loudly as she felt the stickiness between her fingers.

"She better hope she didn't get any of her low carb ice cream crap on my perfectly good jacket," Lily ranted to her self as she slung her jacket off her shoulders and inspected the back of it. She sent daggers to Samantha's head inside her own mind when she noticed that there was a miniscule drip of vanilla on her jacket. She wiped it off easily with the tip of her finger.

'Even if she did get ice cream on my jacket it isn't that much...MUHAHAH THAT EGOTISTICAL SON OF A MONKEY SPANK WILL NEVER DEFEAT ME!! Muahahahahahha...' Lily grinned maliciously and clutched the jacket in triumph.

'I need help...'

She shook her head slowly as she threw the paper towels away, draped the jacket over her shoulder and left the bathroom.

{ Monica D. Son of a Monkey Spank… enough said. =]]

---

On her way to Social Studies, like she was supposed to be, instead of in the bathroom, Mr. Leroy, her Social Studies teacher, spotted her in the hallway. "Miss Halifax -- Just //where// have you been?" Lily stopped and looked up at him. "In the bathroom, //sir,//" she replied with an attitude.

"You couldn't have possibly had to go that much for you to be gone for that long!" "I had ice-cream in my hair," she said, as if it were obvious, even though her hair was behind her back, so he couldn't really see the sticky part.

"Is //that// your excuse? Ha! I've heard better by that Joseph Berman!" Lily was no Joseph Berman. He was always late for class and never did his homework. His excuses were always something like, "A ghost cornered me in the bathroom!" or "I was being stalked by the janitor!"

"Whatever," Lily said, passing by the teacher as if he wasn't there. "Get to class!" he said. Lily paused and turned around. "Where else would I be going?" she asked. That //was// pretty obvious.

"Well, just in case you didn't try to have more beauty-time in the bathroom." ' //Beauty time?!// How lost //is// this insane teacher?!'

The next day at lunch, Samantha walked straight up to Lily as she was eating her spaghetti and sat down. "What is it this time?" Lily asked. She didn't even look up at her. She just kept staring at her fork stabbing into the food on her tray. "Are you here to make fun of me, to try to embarrass me, or just to bug me?" "Oh, no, you pick," she said, with a slight smirk appearing on her face. "I choose... Go away." "Oh, but that wasn't one of your choices!" "It is now."

Samantha just gave her a look of confusion and stupidity. "Whatever. So, how did you like that ice-cream? Good for your //hair//?" "Yeah! Sure, now leave." "Why would I leave? I just got here!"

As Samantha was bugging, more like stalling, Lily, Chris walked by, ignoring Samantha. "Oh, look! There's your boyfriend!" Samantha said, trying to start something. "For the //last// time -- He's //not// my //boyfriend//!" she yelled back, standing up. Everyone looked at her, even Chris, who didn't hear what Samantha had said before. Lily had an angry look on her face, and Samantha was smirking at her anger, and Chris had a surprised look on his face. Lily wiped the look of hate off of her face and paused for a few seconds, looking around. She snatched her tray off of the table and ran to throw it away. Chris followed, leaving his tray.

"Lily, wait!" The next thing Chris knew, he was chasing her down the hallway, passing teachers and staff, papers flying everywhere. "Lily Halifax!" Mr. Leroy yelled, with an angry expression upon him. Chris stopped when Lily had gone into the girls' bathroom.

Lily, out of breath, washed her face off with cold water. Chris was knocking on the bathroom door, screaming, "Lily! Lily, come out!"

Just then, Mr. Leroy was stomping towards him, slinging his arms around, screaming, "Chris! You stop banging on that bathroom door and let that girl finish her business! Back to lunch!" he said, and then the bell rang. Lily wiped her face off with a paper towel and started walking to class. When she opened the door, Mr. Leroy and Chris were standing in front of her, about to go to class. She turned away with a look of confusion. "Lily!" Chris yelled. Mr. Leroy just went on. "Lily! Stop!" He didn't notice, or care, all the students passing by to get to their next classes. Lily turned around. "//What//?" "Lily! I'm sorry about what happened with you and Samantha at lunch." "It's not //your// fault!" "Yeah, I know. But I'm still sorry." "It's alright," she said, with a calmed voice. "I didn't mean to snap at you." "It's okay." "Well, I gotta get to class!" "Yeah, me too."

In seventh period, the bell to go home finally rang. Lily raced home and tossed her books in a corner and threw herself on her bed. 'What a day,' she thought. 'Thank God it's the weekend.' Right then, she heard someone knocking on her door. "Ugh!" she griped, having to get up and answer the door. She opened it to see, who else, Chris. "Um... Hey," Lily said. "Hi. Can I come in, or are you busy?" "Me? Busy? Ha! Good one, Chris. Come on in." "Thanks." He stepped in and everything was dark. "Sorry!" Lily said, turning on the lights. "I just sort of... came in and lied down." "Oh, sorry I disturbed you." "It's okay. I've got to stop being so lazy anyway. So... What do you need?" "Oh, just stopping by..." "Well, there's gotta be some other reason... It doesn't sound like you to just stop by for nothing." "I just wanted to see if you were still okay about lunch." "I told you... I'm fine." "Oh, sorry." "Sorry, sorry, sorry... Is that all you ever are is sorry?" "Sorry! Oof, I did it again!" Lily giggled. "So why are you here... Really?" "I told you -- Just seeing if you were alright!" "Come on, Chris. I know there's //some// other reason why you came." "Uuhhh..." Chris stepped toward the door. "I..." 'Oh no you don't!' Lily stepped in front of him, blocking the door. "Tell me!" "Okay! Take this!" He handed her a folded up piece of paper. "Now -- I have to go. My mom wants me to baby-sit."

He pushed her aside and walked out the door. Lily opened the note. The note read:

//Dear Lily, This may sound lame, but I don't care. I care about you. I always have and I always will. I really wish things didn't go like they do in school, with Samantha and all of her friends picking on you all the time. I want you to know that if you need me, for anything at all, I'm here. The reason why I'm telling you this... I love you. -Chris//

Lily's face froze.

{Monica B. ;) }

Lily blinked her eyes and sat down on her bed in disbelief. She scanned over the note once more and re-read the words in her mind. Her own feelings seemed foreign to her.

She didn't really know Chris and Chris didn't really know her. So why would some guy she didn't really know tell her that he loved her when everyone else seemed to either hate her guts or ignore her? But that was the problem. Was Chris just some guy? or something more? Or maybe he was just tampering with Lily's feelings only to break her in the end.

She clenched her hand into a fist, crunching up the note in the process. Maybe there wasn't a reason why she feared having someone tell her that they loved her. But than it was all clear to Lily. People say they love a lot of things. People say they love flowers but they pick them and people say they love trees but they cut them down. Being told your loved didn't mean squat. Just like Julia, Chris would leave and never come back.

But on a whim Lily unfolded the crumbled note and stared at the words.

Slowly her heart fluttered in her chest.

Maybe being loved and loving some one back wasn't such a bad thing. Maybe she shouldn't worry about such trivial things.

With that Lily bit her lip as a smile began to cross upon her face.

It was at that moment that Lily realized that her life had become more of a soap opera drama than she would have liked it to.

{Monica D.}

The weekend flew by, and on Monday it seemed like everything was backwards. Samantha didn't seem to bother her, no teachers nagged on her, nobody stared at her... It was like she was in a completely different school. At lunch, Lily sat alone. It had just then dawned on her that Chris didn't even come to school that day. The day went on like a normal day at school //should// be. '...Maybe they're all hypnotized...?' she thought to herself. She went home and went to sleep. She slept until the next morning, and that was when things got //really// confusing. She walked into the kitchen to get a bagel, like she did every morning, and Sarah, the care-keeper, was making pancakes and sausage. 'This isn't like her...' Lily thought. She reached for a bagel and Sarah grabbed her wrist. "Uh uh uh... You should eat a healthy and balanced breakfast!" She grabbed the orange juice and a few cups and laid them on the table. "Bagels are healthy!" "Here. Drink some orange juice, dear." '//Dear//?' Lily was shocked. Sarah was usually cool, and if she ever usually wanted orange juice she'd say, "Pass the OJ!" "Alright, who are you and what have you done with my Sarah?" "I beg your pardon?" "What? You never say that! What's wrong with you?" "I don't know what you mean, I'm perfectly fine!" "Here... Let me take your temperature. Something has to be wrong!" Sarah looked at her watch, which she never normally wears, and said, "Oh! You're going to be late!" Lily thought this couldn't get weirder...

{Monica B.}

Utter confusion was the most pre-dominant feeling she was having at the moment. These sudden changes were messing with her mental stability.

No one was being seemingly cruel to her. Samantha practically ignored her and Sarah was acting overly good to her.

It wasn't that Sarah had ever not been good to her. It was just that Sarah had always been a rather busy person. There were fifteen kids living in the quaint orphanage and no way to give every child the same amount of time and endurance but in another world Lily could always see Sarah as being a mother-like-figure simply because she was the closest thing she had to a mother.

"I...I have to get to school" Lily said her voice docile and dazed.

"Alright honey," Sarah responded with a warm smile” Here I made you a lunch seeing as I know you hate the lunch food so much..."

Lily arched her eyebrows to the point where it almost disappeared into her hairline.

'Wait...what?' Lily thought.

"You do?"

"Yes, dear. You've been telling me for ages that you can't stand the drool they serve there. Don't you remember?"

"I...I guess not..."

'I've never in my life told her anything of the sort'

And with that Lily grasped the brown paper bag her caretaker was handing out to her and left out the front door. She was even more confused than when she began.

'I guess I'm not in Virginia anymore but instead down the rabbit hole. Now I'm going to get maimed by space aliens. I just know it.'

{ Monica D. This part is completely random and it came out of nowhere. And yes...my plot bunny has just been thrown out the window...I'm on auto pilot now. }

She ran through the front door and all the way to school. The day passed on by as if Lily's life had always been this oddly normal, until at lunch. Lily was sitting where she had always sat at lunch when Chris slowly walked toward Lily, with a weird look on his face. "What's wrong with //you//?" Lily asked. "Nothing. I just don't feel so good. I've been sick all weekend and yesterday with some stomach virus." "Oh. Sorry about that," Lily said with her head down. She couldn't look at him. 'So he's acting like nothing happened... Like nothing's changed; like he never wrote that...' Lily looked up at Chris. "Why don't you go home? You don't look so hot." "Thanks," Chris said, almost laughing. "You know what I mean. You look sick." Lily wondered why she cared so much about a guy she knows so little about. "I guess you're right. I should probably go home." He got up and threw his food away and headed to the nurse's office. Lily finished eating her turkey sandwich. '...Turkey... This isn't so bad...' Not knowing why, she reached into the bag she always carried around. She felt a scrunched up piece of paper. 'What the... Oh yeah.' She pulled it out and opened it up. She re-read what Chris had wrote for her. 'Why did he...?' She folded it up, put it back in her bag, and finished eating. The bell rang, and when Lily got up to throw the paper bag with the remains of turkey and Pringles inside, she fell over and hit the floor. "Ow..." she said. 'What was that all about?' She got up and went on to class.

{Monica B. I know, I know... ... ... ...}

Lily sat in her desk during Social Studies doodling on a piece of paper with a ballpoint pen. It was a little **chibi** character with big eyes and bunny ears hold a carrot in it's tiny little hands. She bit her lip as she drew in the last part of the chibi's legs and sat up to admire her work. Satisfied she leaned down to color in the chibi with the tip of her pen.

'There I've succeed! Muahahah...one step closer to becoming the greatest Manga artist there ever was!"

"Miss Halifax!"

Lily yelped and jumped up in her seat. Her teacher stood in front of her desk with her arms crossed and a stern look on her face. "Please Miss Halifax," Mrs. Hodges said in her voice that reminded Lily of a deflating tire ”How does this have anything to do with are discussion of Rome?" With that she took the piece of paper in between her fingers and picked it up to wave it around in front of Lily's face.

"Umm...well...clearly the little guy is a Goth. I mean look at his black clothing and the way he's narrowing his eyes in a very gothic way. And we all know that the Goths were an East Germanic tribe who had a hand in the disturbance of Rome in the...3rd and 4th century." Lily stated as the words formed in her mind "I was simply inferring that all German tribes where child like character with big eyes."

'Great...I am an idiot and I'm babbling.'

{Monica D. Sorry this part came out of nowhere. I was going to have Lily start rambling about Picasso and Rembrandt van Rijn to Chris but them my mind went blank and this little scene popped into my head. It isn't that great but I have to let it out before my head imploded. -.- So yeah...Also so no one gets lost: **__Chibi__** (pronounced with long E sounds). It has its origins in the Japanese language. In the context of anime or manga, Chibi is used to describe a style of drawing a character in a highly stylized way, with stubby bodies {usually also lacking in detailed anatomy such as fingers} that are about the same size as the head. Chibi are typically super-cute, speak in childlike voices, have large puppy-dog eyes, and often a mischievous or indignant personality. It also refers to { ex. of a chibi like character }[|http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9iby4dkJb5FAc0AxgujzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NDgyNWN0BHNlYwNwcm9m/SIG=124nlhie2/EXP=1170175716/**http%3A//www.northarc.com/images/x/kamui-chibi.JPG]} **__Manga__** is the Japanese word for comics and print cartoons. Outside of Japan, it usually refers specifically to Japanese comics.}

The teacher just looked at Lily as if she didn't know what she was talking about. "Just get back to work, Miss Halifax. I don't want to see any more artwork in my class unless I assign it. Understood?" Lily fixed her eyes back to the teacher, acting like she was actually paying attention. "Yes, sir," she said, sitting up nice and tall, her hand on her forehead like they do in the Army. "I am not a //sir//, Miss Halifax. Now, as I was saying..."

Lily slouched back down into her seat, listening to a few giggles. When she got home she had noticed a slight difference than when she had woke up that morning. She looked around to see what was so different, and then, for a very short period of time, she experience deja-vu. She kept looking until she had noticed the kitchen was clean. Usually, it was all dusty and had dishes lying around here and there. {Monica B. Ugh... I must leave now...}

The next morning was brighter then usual Tuesday mornings. She slipped out from under her cotton blanket and went to her closet picking out a simple outfit that she thought was actually an excellent pick for this bright beautiful day. A knee length fluffed out black skirt with white satin outlining the bottom with white velvet strings attached to her side, a black tank top with flower etchings at the bottom and a see through satin, flowing long sleeved white shirt over top. Her shoes were simple black ballet shoes with black and slight white strings criss crossing around her legs until they reached her knees. She pulled her ebony hair back in a high pony tail with a white satin bow tied to the top and two single strands of hair outlining the side of her face.

She walked down the steps of the house she has lived in for so long. Something wasn’t right. Lily didn’t know what but something wasn’t right. She walked in the kitchen expecting to see someone anyone, but saw only shadows of cabinets and faucets. She grabbed her messenger bag and book bag from the couch in the living room and walked out the door into outside world.

As Lily waited for the bell to ring to go to lunch so she could finally get out of this miserable class, she felt people glancing at her from all directions. She could hear there continuous whispers into each others ears. Finally to her advantage the bell rang. She got up and hurried out of class wanting to just get the day, the hour, the second over with. As she walked she started to think about the weird things that were happening to her. No one was bothering her; Samantha hadn’t talked to her since last week. Her week seemed to be going perfectly. But sadly nothing is perfect forever.

“Oh look who it is girls, Ms. Lovie Dovie” Samantha says stepping in front of Lily blocking her way as where Samantha’s friends surrounding her. Lily looked at them confused but then that quickly disappeared.

“What do you want Samantha?” Lily asked harshly. Samantha smirked.

“Oh nothing to unusual” Samantha grins widely, holding up a folded piece of paper. And what was that written on it? Lily looked closer. //‘To: Lily From: Chris’//. No it couldn’t be! Lily opened her messenger bag and shuffled around in it.

//‘Where is it!?’// Lily yelled in her head. But just as she thought it a memory, flashback, played in her mind.

//‘The bell rang, and when Lily got up to throw the paper bag with the remains of turkey and Pringles inside, she fell over and hit the floor.// //"Ow..." she said. 'What was that all about?' She got up and went on to class.’//

She looked back up at Samantha who’s grin got wider by the second. “Looks like little miss perfect has a crush,” Samantha laughed as did her ‘friends’, “I wonder how the whole school would like to hear about this?”

“Samantha don’t… please” Lily begs slightly. Samantha frowned and a sad face over took her normal angry expression.

“Aww how cute! She’s begging!” Samantha says with the fake sad look on her face. She smiled widely and stuck her nose in the air turning around and walking away. Lily didn’t know what to do, if that got out she… she… she wouldn’t know what to do.

//‘So much for a ‘perfect’ week’// Lily thought putting her back to the wall and slowly sliding down to the floor, as the faint sound of the bell went off in the back of her head.

( Taylor K. - Not much but I liked it I was actually thinking exactly what Monica B. was thinking in the falling and dropping the note… if she was thinking that lol )

Lily gritted her teeth in frustration as she sat on her butt with her back pressed up against a wall. She took the end of the white ribbon in her hair that was straying towards the side of her pale face between her teeth and fiddled it playfully with the tip of her tongue. Suddenly she was struck with a realization.

She couldn't let Samantha get the best of her. She was Lily freakin Halifax not some piece of garbage people could just kick around to make themselves feel better.

Suddenly the thought of moping around sounded too distasteful. She was stronger than Samantha...and as proven countless times before a lot more cunning than Samantha could ever be.

With that Lily stood up, straightened herself out, and walked to class with a new boost of self confidence pulsating through her veins.

'So what if Samantha has that note? I'm sure I can find more on that idiotic bigot self worshipping pain than she could ever find on me.'

{Monica D. Bring it on Samantha! If it wasn't for physics, teachers, and law enforcement Lily would be unstoppable!}

&&{ This is a dream sequence }&&

A little girl with ebony black hair and sparkling emerald eyes sat on a bed swinging her legs back and forth.

Her arm was held tightly around a ragged little doll that she was clutching to her chest as if she feared to let it go. The walls of the room were an off color blue with lace curtains and a white bedspread that covered the bed that the child was sitting on. A mini dresser and a vanity were placed on the far right of the room.

The little girl was attired in a silky red doll like dress with ruffles at the bottom and a collar of black lace. The girls liquid paper skin and her dress made the little girl have the pale white intensity of a porcelain doll.

Even the tranquility of the small girl’s room couldn’t block out the loud screaming that could be heard from downstairs.

//A yell, a crash, more yelling, banging, and suddenly…silence.

The little girl clutched the doll closer to her chest and swiftly stopped the swinging of her legs. In silence the little girl could here the faint sound of footsteps coming up the wooden stairs. The doorknob to her room began to turn and the door banged open angrily. A man stood in the doorway with faded black hair and onyx eyes that glared with rage. The little girl trembled with fear as the angry man stalked towards the little girl.

“D-daddy! Please daddy! Don’t…I’m sorry if I did something…please!”//

“Shut up you monster!” The angry man roared and yanked at the little girls arm causing her to drop the doll on the bed. The angry man pulled the girl off the bed and onto the floor. The little girl yelped and screamed as the angry man pulled her through the doorway and towards the stairs. The little girl struggled as the man pulled her near the stairwell.

“No…no wait…Marcy!!” The little girl screamed with her arm reaching out towards her room as she struggled to be released from her father's strong grip.

“Come on! Shut up about that stupid doll! I’m taking you where your kind belongs demon!” The angry man roared yanking hard at the little girl's arm forcing the girl to follow and almost yanking the girls arm out of it's socket. Struggling harder as they went down the little girl could feel a fire build up in the pit of her stomach and her throat ached. It was as if liquid fire was shooting through her veins and it caused the little girl to scream in anguish. The man felt the burning of his own hand clutched around the girl's arm and left go swiftly as his skin began to seethe.

"What are you doing you stupid child!?"

The girl could feel the fire even more in her veins and her screams grew louder and soon enough a stream tears began to fall from her eyes. An aura of flames seemed to build up around the young girl as if shielding her from harm. The angry man stumbled as the little girl’s screams of anguish grew louder and tripped over his own feet. Before falling the angry man reached for the small girls arm...pulling the young girl with him.

//&&

Lily awoke with a start and sweat plastered on her face and neck. Her breath was ragged and forced as she pushed her self in to sit up position. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and looked around the room frantically.

{Monica D. Finally I am bringing in my original plot! My plot bunny shall be revived. }

She looked over at her clock and noticed that it was 2 A.M. She rolled over, replaying the scene when the little girl was reaching for her dolly.//

"No... no wait! Marcy!"

//She couldn't stop thinking about that doll. 'Why am I so worried about some doll? It's just thread and cloth and cotton, with buttons for eyes...'

The thought of all of it kept passing through her head. She wouldn't usually worry about it until she would dream of it. She eventually fell asleep, although she rolled over all night. She always rolls over all night whenever she wakes up in the middle of the night like that -- especially from a dream.

The next morning wasn't all too better. Neither was that day, or week, or month... It never seemed to get any better. Just... different. Different, not in a good way or a bad way, but in a ... normal way. 'Yeck... normal?' Lily hated the term. She had always been different, herself, anyways. "Not that I'm not used to changes..." she said, talking to no one in particular.

That morning at school, Lily was walking to her locker, which is right across the hall from Samantha's. They had never seemed to be there at the same time, though. Just in the mornings before school and in the afternoon after school. She seemed to have noticed something different {again}. This time, it wasn't noticeable. It wasn't something anyone at all usually paid any attention to. Samantha usually has four of her apprentices around. Today she had only three. The other one, Kelsey, had been at school in the past couple of weeks, but Lily had just then noticed that she wasn't hanging out with Samantha.

Chris had came over to sit with Lily that day in lunch, like usual. Lily was glad that something remotely normal {for her} was happening. "So, Chris, how's life?" "That's not the average, every-day Lily kind of question." "Yeah, but this hasn't been the average, every-day kind of week, either." "Yeah... But, that note I gave you..." Chris paused for a second, as Lily looked up at him. "Did you... read it?" "Of course I read it, duh. I don't just toss things like notes away, especially if they're for me." "Well, I hear Samantha is passing around a note to people that was to you. No one said who it was from, though." 'What? Why wouldn't Samantha tell people it was from Chris? She usually shouts to everyone that we are 'going out'...' "Well, it's nothing to worry about. If you let her get to you, then her hatred will turn into something even more evil..." "But this isn't just Samantha telling everyone rumors... This is an actual note... Signed... By me... To you..." "Well, just ignore it. People can believe it, or they can leave it alone and think that Samantha's full of it." "But how can I ignore it? How can I just leave something alone that can cause Samantha to actually be right about something?" 'Right? He means he wasn't just caught up in a moment?' Lily sighed and tilted her head back down and finished eating her classic PB&J sandwich. "People usually talk about you, Lily, and Samantha usually makes fun of you and makes jokes about us. But this isn't like that. What if that note gets to the teachers, or the principal?" "So? We're teenagers. That's what teenagers do: We give each other notes. Big deal? It's not like we are the only ones who ever passed notes. And we haven't even passed notes in class!" Lily had thought for a moment about something, but she didn't exactly know what. It was words, from someone she didn't know, words that have never been said to Lily. "Be strong, Lily. I love you. No matter what happens, I'll always be with you." 'What the...? Where did that come from? Just out-of-nowhere, random words?' "Lily... What's wrong?" Chris had asked after he noticed she was getting pale. "What? I'm fine." "No... You're pale. Are you sick? I know I'm over that stomach thing." 'Why does he even// care//? This whole thing about the note and Samantha... About what Chris is doing. He... cares about me?' "Lily... Lily?" Chris had wondered why she wouldn't respond to him. Her head just hung low, in her hands, as if she were crying. But she wasn't. "Lily? Answer me..." She raised her head up. Her face was even paler, and her eyes were tired. "Did you get any sleep last night, Lily?" "Yeah. I had a nightmare, but I went back to sleep... I'm fine." 'She looks like she's on drugs... That's not something she'd do. That's not something to ask her...' Chris thought. Chris kept staring at Lily, who looked tired and worn out. Her eyeliner was smeared from where her face was on her hands. "Lily, you don't look okay. You look sick, or something." "I told you... I'm// fine//!" "Okay, but you look like you're on drugs or something." Lily looked back up at him, followed by a glare. "I am// fine//!"

She took her paper bag and ran out of the cafeteria, tossing the bag on the way out. She had run to a corner in the girls' bathroom, not something Lily would do, especially over a note.

But it wasn't just the whole note thing that had been bothering her. It was everything else that stressed her. Samantha, her dream, and the note. School work seemed to get harder, even the basic stuff. 'What's wrong with me?' She had never felt this closed up in such an open room. This sort of stuff had never bothered her before. Why is it bothering her now?

The bell rang, and Lily went on to art class. This usually calmed her down, but not today, for some reason.

"Good day, class." Every day, Mrs. Day seemed to use the word "day" sometimes in class. Good day. Have a good day. How was your day? It's a beautiful day today. It's a fine day for art!

Lily couldn't seem to get away from all the stress that was going on as she painted a dying rose on her paper. Samantha had came up and sat down by her.

"Lily, that is really good."

Lily looked over at her, wondering what she wanted this time. "...Thanks," Lily responded. "No problem. I... just wanted you to know you're a good artist."

This time was different to Lily. Samantha seemed more serious and content. Kelsey, ignoring Samantha as she moved away from Lily, sat down on the other side of Lily and watched her paint the wilting rose. She seemed very shy, and smiled.

"That's so pretty."

Lily looked over wondering why people were giving her compliments all of a sudden.

"...Thanks," she said, the exact same way as before: Confused.

"This is mine. It's not much. I'm not an artist like you, though." Lily wondered why Kelsey had ever fallen under Samantha's evil spell. Kelsey was never seemingly mean to Lily. Kelsey placed the paper on Lily's table. There was a mansion, with a beautiful garden and a fountain.

"That's really nice," Lily said, amazed by how good the shy girl was.

"I like the scenery." Lily got into the painting even more, not finding any mistakes.

"Thank you," she said, almost too shyly.

" 'Not an artist' my llama! That's really cool."

Kelsey giggled, and found herself liking Lily better than Samantha. All Samantha ever talked about were boys, shopping, and making fun of other people, spreading rumors. Lily seemed to talk about things Kelsey was into. They found themselves in a conversation about anime by the end of the period. Samantha had been glaring at them both as they got more into conversation. As soon as the bell rang, Samantha quickly turned in her painting and purposely shoved between Lily and Kelsey.

After school, Lily was at her locker, minding her own business. She hadn't expected anyone to show up. Kelsey walked up to her and leaned against the locker next to Lily's.

"Hey. You don't really seem as freaky as I thought. I'm sorry about all those mean things we've said to hurt you."

"It's cool." Lily's mind had escaped the other few thoughts that had made her uncomfortable. Chris walked up on the other side of Lily.

"Hey," Chris said.

"Oh. I'm sorry, do you two want to be alone?"

Chris and Lily looked at each other in confusion.

"No!" they both said at the same time.

"I mean... we're not..." Chris couldn't finish.

"Oh, I'm so sorry I was mistaken. Samantha's little note must've been wrong... the one to Lily from you..."

"Oh, well, we're not... We're just friends," Chris said.

{Monica B. Wow... I wrote a lot! My plot bunny has seemed to be getting along fine! Actually, I'd call it my plot llama! :) }

Lily was taken back. She raised her eyes to the ceiling as thoughts rushed through her mind.

'ARGHHHHHH!!! I hate men! Why is it so hard to make up your freaking mind?! You either love me or you don't! What if I want to be more than a friend you stupid pathetic marsupial!?'

"Umm...are you okay?" Chris asked as Lily's arms began to shake with her fists clenched.

Lily yelped as she felt something strange rush through her veins. Her eyes widened as she began to feel overly warm. Her breaths became ragged as she felt her heart pounding harder in her chest.

'What...what is happening to me?'

"Lily! Lily what's wrong?" Chris exclaimed loudly as Lily leaned against the lockers with her breathing becoming eccentric.

A flash of crimson shone brightly in her eyes and she dropped down to the floor on to her knees. Her black dress cascading down to the floor.

"Kelsey! Go get some help" Chris yelled to Kelsey who was standing there with shock written on her face.

Chris dropped down to Lily's level and placed a hand on her shoulder but then retreated his hand back with a hissing sound.

"Oh my...she's burning hot!" Chris yelped clutching his hand to his chest " Lily what's wrong with you!?"

Chris turned swiftly to Kelsey.

"GO!" He roared.

Kelsey shook herself "Oh! Oh my...I'm sorry..."

With that she raced down the hallway for help.//

"You are a hybrid fire yokai and it seems you are destined to be a very powerful demon...but none-the-less your kind is forbidden. I wanted to wait and tell you this when you were older but there are people out there who feel that your kind is a disgrace to the yokai kind. You have a half sister who is much older than you are and she is demon as well...but I fear that she is not someone you can trust."

//Lily's eyes rolled back in to her head.

{Monica D.}

Lily’s aquamarine eyes fluttered softly open, adjusting to the radiant light gleaming from the opened window. She glanced around at the room she was in; it was oddly shaped with antique furniture here and there but mostly a plain old type room, except for the odd paintings of Japanese warriors and many battles that where portrayed on the peach colored walls. Lily sat up from the laying position she was in only to find that an immense pain shot throughout her body; making her fall back down to the same position again. She looked down at her body seeing the same black dress she put on this morning… or at least she thought it was this morning. As she was about to again try and get up from the very uncomfortable position she was in she heard footsteps coming towards the, oddly, blood red wooden door. She watched as the door slowly opened exposing no person other than…..

“Chris?!” Lily gasped in surprise. Where was she? Why was he here? What was going on?

“Lily! You’re up! Oh thank heavens!” Chris yells running to the chair that was sitting right next to the bed she was lying on.

“What is going on? Where am I? What happened? Why aren’t you answering me?!” Lily asks with unexplainable quickness and sharpness. Chris raised both hands saying with his body he was innocent.

“Whoa, hold on… calm down for a sec,” Chris says trying not to seem sarcastic. Lily took a deep long breath in and slowly let it out as she, very painfully, pushed herself up into a sitting position.

“You are at my house, this is my guest room. I was going to take you to your house,” Chris says afraid to say ‘orphanage’, “but there was no one there so I put you on my guest room bed. Now on to what happened… I was actually going to ask you that. One second you were perfectly fine the next you where passed out and extremely hot.”

Lily had a puzzled expression on her face as she heard this. What does he mean ‘hot’? What in the world is going on? Questions flooded her brain as she sat on the bed looking down at her hands that were folded across her lap. She finally shook her head and pulled the blanket off of her.

“Lily! You can’t move! Lay back down!” Chris protested.

“Shut up, I will do what I wish,” Lily spat back then regretted it the next second, “Sorry,” Lily mumbled under her breath. Chris sighed but smiled.

“Fine, at least let me help you,” Chris says holding on to her arm, keeping her balanced. Lily reluctantly gave in as she was lead to his front door. He opened it for her and was about to walk out with her, but she stopped him.

“Let me do it… please,” She whispered as she stepped into the cool winds. This time Chris wouldn’t let go. “No, I am walking you home. I don’t care what you say, I want to make sure you get there safely. Now keep walking, it's not far away,” Chris spat back to her, which shocked Lily. But she agreed as they walked to her house.

Lily stepped on her door step turning around to Chris as he stood there waiting for her to walk in her house.

“Thank you, Chris” Lily mumbled, hating the fact that she had to deal with leaning on someone for help.

“Any time,” Chris says starting to have a slight blush cascade down his cheek. As Lily went to open her door Chris stopped her.

“Lily?” Chris asked looking down at the ground shyly.

“Yes?” she asked wondering what more could he want. But just as she thought this, Chris leaned towards her and gave a quick kiss to her cheek before turning around and walking off quickly.

“Take care of yourself,” he says, waving good-bye. Lily’s face blushed like mad, her shocked expression stuck to her face making her blush even more. Did he just...? She asked herself before smiling opening her door and walking inside. All of a sudden she was bombarded by Sarah.

“Oh Lily! Thank heavens!” Sarah yells, tears dripping down her cheeks as she hugged Lily.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Lily asked confused as she tried to comfort the crying woman.

“It’s Aila! She’s gone!” (Taylor K. MUHAHAHHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAAHA Monica's plot bunny has finally popped out of it's hole into my head!!!)

Lily’s eyebrows arched in confusion as she tried to process the words being said to her ” What…what are you talking about, Sarah?”

Sarah wiped her eyes with the back her hand and sniffled. Her usual vibrant eyes were red and puffy from her crying and frustration.

“I…you see...I didn’t want to tell you so soon but… since your fifteenth birthday is coming up...I was planning to throw a surprise birthday party for you so I sent the kids away so we could spend more time together...because you see…when you turn fifteen your being adopted.”

Lily widened her eyes “W-what?!”

“Yes…I should have told you sooner…but I wanted you to have the best birthday you’ve ever had so you will remember us and I sent the kids away for now because I did not trust them with keeping a secret.” {Lily is the oldest person in the orphanage}

Lily’s breath caught up in her throat and she began to shake her head in defiance.

“What about Aila? Why is she missing?!”

Sarah sniffed again and sat down in the nearest chair. “Aila stayed at my mother’s house with Jimmy and Tyler. Yesterday my mother went to the grocery store and Jimmy went with her. Aila wanted to stay home because she didn’t feel well, so my mother left Aila with Tyler because he is thirteen and able to watch over her. Well, Tyler left Aila in the living room lying on the couch to go into the kitchen to find something to snack on.”

Sarah breathed in for a minute as she was trying to process everything she was saying herself. Lily leaned against the wall with her mouth agape.

“I-in that five minute time period Aila went missing. When Tyler went back into the living room Aila was not lying on the couch but her doll was laying on the ground near the door.”

Tears began to fill her eyes once more and she could barely hold in the sobs that were threatening to rack her body.

“And we all know that Aila… never goes anywhere with out her doll.”

“Have… Have you called the police?”

“My mother has…”

With that Lily closed her eyes, turned around, and left the house… with Sarah protesting after her.

“Lily! Wait it’s getting dark…” Sarah yelled from the doorway.

Lily wrapped her arms around her body, pulling her jacket closer to her, and turned around.

Lily looked into Sarah’s eyes pleadingly “I have to go think somewhere. I’ll be at the park.”

Sarah noticed the longing in the young girl’s eyes and nodded softly.

“Please be back soon.”

Lily turned around and walked down the stairs of the orphanage.

She walked the lonely sidewalks with a bitter wind rushing past her pale face. Her long hair flew wildly in the harsh weather and she could feel the long strands wrap around her face. The weird thing was that despite how cold it was she still felt warm. Her whole body, even her knees that where scarcely covered by her dress meeting her knee length white boots, was radiating heat.

And now that she thought about it she had never really been cold.//

It was as if liquid fire was pulsating through her veins...

//‘What am I?’

When Lily reached the park it was completely deserted. The park was old and no one came there anymore because the city had built a newer park on the other side of the city. The park only consisted of a couple of swings and a sandbox…but it was isolated and completely peaceful. It was the perfect place for Lily to clear her mind. She trudged over to a swing and sat down.

---

Chris leaned his head back against his pillow. He was lying on his bed in his room, his hand placed over his forehead, and his mind swarming with incoherent thoughts.

‘That day…that I walked up to Lily…why had I done it? Was it because I was sick of hearing so many people talk about this girl who no one really knew and make fun of her all because she was slightly different than them? Or was it because I was drawn to her somehow?’

Chris closed his eyes and gave a defeated sigh.

‘Why do I feel like I need to protect her? Like I’m supposed to.’

A loud knock came from Chris’s doorway and he opened his eyes.

Chris’s room didn’t seem to fit the seemingly plain boy. The walls were black with a white boarder and a long dresser placed against on the wall farthest from the door. His bed was a four poster bed with a black canopy and stitched into the cover of his bed was a pattern that resembled the Japanese symbol for fantasy. Two statues stood on opposite sides of the door like guardians. The one of the left was a dragon with its wings wrapped around its body and the one on the right was a young, long-haired female holding a large cross in her arms. One of her hands was wrapped the stem of the cross and the other held up the tip of the cross. That statue had always reminded Chris of someone and when he stared into the statue's dull and lifeless eyes, flashes of memories he couldn’t remember having would appear before his eyes.

Chris opened the door to a man with brown hair that reached to his shoulders, dull brown eyes, and a stub around his chin. The man’s eyes lit up when he saw the young boy.

“Hey buddy…you have a girl downstairs looking for you,” the man stated looking giddy ”She’s pretty, too.” He nudged Chris slightly with his elbow. “Looks kind of gothic, though…oh well…whatever floats your boat.”

Chris looked confused “A girl?”

‘Lily?’

Chris nodded to his uncle and nudged his way past him to go downstairs, forgetting the fact that he was wearing nothing but his boxers and an undershirt.

Chris’s uncle noticed this “Hey Chris!” he yelled after him but Chris was already halfway down the stairs ”…poor kid.”

{Monica D.}

Lily gazed around the long corridors and breath-taking pictures of mythical creatures, kings and queens, and miscellaneous elves. As she looked around the gigantic room that had a long stair case in the middle, she sees a portrait of a woman. Lily walked up to it with solemn footsteps.

‘Who is that? She looks so familiar,’ Lily thought as she got closer and closer to the woman. She had long red hair with flawless skin and the most exquisite aquamarine eyes that Lily has ever seen. As Lily studied the picture, a thumping sound was heard as someone seemed to run down the stairs. Lily turned around to be greeted by the one and only….

“Hey Lily! What are you doing here?” Chris says quickly trying to hide his frantic breathing. Lily smiled as she snickered at the boy slightly blushing and turning away. Chris was confused.

“What’s wrong, Lily?” Chris asked, getting more confused as the seconds past. Lily turned to him and seemed like she was just about to bust out laughing.

‘I guess that answers the question, boxers or briefs’ Lily thinks snickering under her breath as she looked down at Chris’s dark blue boxers with yellow rubber ducks covering them but before Chris could look down as well he felt a hand on his shoulder. Chris turned around to his uncle smiling widely while shaking his head. Chris looked back and forth between them.

“What’s so funny?” Chris asked them both starting to get slightly angry.

“You might need these,” Chris’s uncle said holding a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt out to Chris. Chris looked more confused then he had ever been as he looked down to his body. An unrealistic blush spread so quickly over his cheeks as he saw what he was wearing. He turned to Lily as she smiled masking the fact that she wanted to laugh so hard.

“Uh, well… be right back,” Chris said shakily grabbing the clothes from his uncle and running to the first room he saw slamming the door behind him, and as he did so, Lily and Chris’s uncle busted out laughing.

“So why did you come over?” Chris asked as Lily and he sat on his living room couch, completely clothed, watching as the T.V. channels flipped continuously as Chris’s uncle gave his thumb exercise not paying any attention to Lily and Chris.

“I… I needed to talk to someone…” Lily says looking down, playing with her fingers. Chris felt another blush enveloping his cheeks. ( Taylor K. I know it's not much but It helps a little... poor Chris lol )

Lily than cast her eyes downwards. “Aila went missing yesterday.”

Chris’s eyes widened “What? What happened?!”

Lily, if it was possible, looked even farther down and her long black hair casted shadows on her face, shielding her eyes from view.

“I…I don’t know exactly. Our caretaker said that she had sent the children away for the week besides me and had sent some of them to her mother’s house. Aila was with them and Sarah’s mother had left to go grocery shopping. She left Aila with Tyler, who is a boy close to my age. Tyler left the room for five minutes and when he came back Aila was not there anymore. Her doll was on the floor near the doorway…and I suppose that they couldn’t find her anywhere in the house.”

Chris looked bewildered.

“I’m guessing that the police are going to conclude that Aila must have left the house…but I know that, that is not true. Something in my gut tells me that this wasn’t a case of Aila running away…I think that Aila was kidnapped…”

“But…but who would kidnap Aila?” Chris asked in disbelief.

“I don’t know…but who ever they are, they are going to pay dearly if they even dare touch a hair on her forehead.” Lily said through gritted teeth.

“Those are strong words for such a young lady,” Chris's uncle stated interrupting their conversation. Lily snapped her head towards Chris's uncle and glared fiercely.

“I may be young but that has nothing to do with how strong my words can be…” Lily stated bluntly as she turned her face away from the man.

{Monica D.}

Chris looked over at his uncle. "Don't, Hayden," Chris said, being the most serious Lily had ever heard him be. Lily looked outside and then looked at Chris.

"I really should be going. I promised Sarah I wouldn't be late coming back."

Chris and his uncle stood up.

"Alright. It was nice to finally meet Chris's girlfriend!"

Chris glared at his uncle.

"Hayden!"

He looked back at Lily, calm again. "Sorry about that. See you at school tomorrow."

Lily nodded her head and ran home.

The next morning, Lily woke up feeling even more hot than the day before. She walked into the kitchen, seeing Sarah slowly putting out the smaller kids' lunches. "The kids are back. All of them except..." She looked up to see Lily walking towards her. Lily's face was pink.

"Lily! You look sick! Let me take your temperature." Lilysat down on a chair sitting next to the island that was surrounded by the rest of the kitchen. Lily felt something being put into her mouth. She looked up and Sarah was looking at her with wide eyes. Lily heard a beep coming from her mouth soon after that.

"Oh my! A hundred and thirty-two?!"

Lily shot up, not in shock.

"What? Is it possible for a human body to reach that temperature?!" Sarah exclaimed.

"I don't know," Lily replied, not showing any care. She didn't really feel sick - just hot.

"Me, either. I'm calling the doctor! There's no way you're going to school today," Sarah mumbled as she dialed the numbers on the phone.

Lily sighed, remembering, "See you at school tomorrow."

She wondered, 'Why does he keep popping up in my head? How come every time someone mentions the word boyfriend or girlfriend, he freaks out? Maybe it's not so bad to think we might have something...'

Lily looked up to see Sarah hanging up the phone. "You have an appointment for 11:30. You go lie down until then, got it?"

"Sure," Lily said, getting up and walking to the room full of beds. She walked in, it seemed empty because the smaller children have gone to school, and lied down.

{Monica B. Hehehe... My plot llama is resting for a while! -My plot llama 'spits' things into my head, like the plot bunny 'hops'...}

Lily looked up at the corner of the ceiling as she lay on her silk comforter. She let her mind wonder through her life story and her ‘memories’ of untold tales. She started to drift to the thought of Chris. His eyes, they reminded her of someone; but who? As she thought of this her eyelids seemed to be like steel, slowly getting heavier and heavier until at last her dream world became reality.//

~Dream sequence~

A man was running, well at least that is what it seemed. His long black hair swayed with the wind cascading down his solid and fierce yet seemed to be gentle stare. Trees buzzed beside him appearing them disappearing as soon as they came. Shadows followed the man, at first they seemed like his shadows, then slowly they changed into different forms; some had long pointed ears, others had wings! Yes, there where wings! They chased after the man like they wanted something he had. But the man had nothing on him… What where they looking for?

As they got to a large field, the man stopped turning to the other ‘things’ that followed him. He seemed to say something but no sound came from his mouth, as the other things did as well. What where they saying? All of a sudden the man lifted his arms out stretched beside him, making his trench coat fall behind him. As soon as he did words burst from his mouth.

“Always remember!” He yells as a great light flashed, blinding the things and covering the man. As soon as the light came it vanished showing nothing but a pitch black void of nothingness. Slowly though something started to appear in the void. Just as the picture became clear…

~End dream sequence~

//Lily shot up from the bed, sweat pouring down from every pore she had. Why? What did that dream mean? What is happening to me? Lily’s mind was filled with unanswered questions. She lied back down not able to go to sleep but still trying. Lily kept thinking of that picture at the end of her dream. Why did she see that?

Why was the picture of…

Chris.

(Taylor K.)

A few miles away from the small town, Everville, a women seemingly in her early twenties was walking down the street leading into the town. A green messenger bag was slung over the women's shoulder and neon pink hair cascaded down the full length of her back. Her eyes were a deep amber and they shone with a a wisdom beyond her years, yet a gentleness held within them. Her face was as white as liquid paper and as smooth as a doll's. Two cats trudged along behind her, a black cat and a white cat and they were both identical besides the color of their fur. Even their steps were in sync with each other.

"Come on, Marcy and Mercy, we need to make it into town before night," The women said as she proceeded down the road at an intermediate pace.

{Monica D. Yes, it is short...I don't have much time. So...can you guess who the women is?}

{Heehee, you already told me :) ;) }

Sarah had come in after Lily had wiped the sweat on her face and lied her torso back down on her bed. She looked at the clock that hung on the wall. 2:15. Thankfully, Lily had wiped the sweat away before Sarah could notice anything.

"Come on, dear. It's time to go to the doctor's office...you missed your appointment so we might have to wait"

Lily slowly got up, tired and confused. She didn't understand any of her dreams; and even worse, she could never remember them.

'I remember trees, and then light, but what happened next?'

"Hurry up, Lily. You'll be late," Sarah yelled from the kitchen, gathering her purse and keys. "When you're done there, the younger children will be ready to leave school." Lily didn't rush, but she got ready to leave in no time at all. They got in the car, and Lily almost fell asleep in the car. She seemed to want more sleep after dreams; Maybe she wanted to know more about them... Soon after she had fallen asleep, she heard Sarah's voice awakening her. "Lily, we're here." Lily got out of the car and went into the clinic. She sat down in the waiting room, as Sarah checked her in. Lily noticed five sick-looking kids, not too much younger than she was. Not long after she had sat down, she realized that the five kids that were seated in the room were gone, replaced by a few more, smaller, children.

"Lily Halifax? Lily?"

She had heard the nurse calling her name, and jumped up. She was ready to get out of there, where she was surrounded by sick children; She didn't want to actually get sick.

She walked into the hall with doorways with numbers above them. "103" "Here we are, Miss Halifax. Just have a seat and we will get started. Lily did so, and felt more hot by the minute. A different nurse had come back in the room with a thermometer.

"Are you feeling okay today, Lily?"

Lily used to wonder how they did that; A new nurse would come in and automatically know Lily's name.

'There isn't a mystery anymore' Lily thought 'They just looked at the paper the other nurse had.

'Gee, what a question to ask a sick looking girl like me coming into a doctor's office.'

"Not too bad," Lily said. "Good," the nurse said. "Open your mouth." With that, the nurse had stuck the thermometer into Lily's mouth. "Keep it under your tongue, and..." Lily didn't pay any attention. She knows what to do when checking her temperature; she's done it a thousand times, it seemed. She soon heard a loud beeping. The nurse took the thermometer out of Lily's mouth and gasped. "It can't be... 134?" Lily didn't care. She was hot, but she wasn't sick.

{Monica B.}

"Umm...maybe your thermometer is broken.." Lily asked even though she new that it wasn't true.

'There is something wrong with me but it's not because I am ill. This warmth that I feel doesn't feel bad...it actually feels....right...'//

'Your only a hybrid so your body heat shouldn't exceed as much as if you were complete but your body heat will start to increase more and more towards the beginning of your fifteenth birthday'

//Lily crossed her eyes suspiciously as the words formed in her thoughts. 'That was not a memory. That was as if someone was communicating with me through thoughts...wait...hybrid? What is going on...what is wrong with me? I feel so ignorant...why do I not know what is wrong with me?'

(Monica D}

The girl with the long pink hair wiped the sweat from her brow and gave off a yawn that shook her entire body. She stopped and began to reach her arms into the air attempting to fix the tired joints in her body.

"Man I am soooooo bored...." She stated monotone to no one in particular with the two cats behind her remaining passive.

It was true; the backpack on her back was beginning to get heavier and she was beginning to lag behind herself. She had started at a reasonable pace, but now that her body was losing energy she was losing that pace. With a defeated sigh she finally nodded her head.

“Fine, I give up…I’ll change,” she stated once again to what seemed like no one. Oddly enough she forsaken her path and ran to the bushes on the side of the road.

The synchronized cats stopped as the girl had stopped, but instead of following her they slightly turned their heads and stared at the bushes the peculiar began to hide behind.

A few seconds later, the leaves on the bushes began to shake and rattle, and a loud and ear-piercing mewl escaped from the confounds of the bush. Silence followed the commotion and nothing happened for a couple seconds. Then after much hesitation a tabby orange cat jumped out from the bushes and onto the road in front of Marcy and Mercy. The orange cat nodded to the two other cats.

{Monica D}

"I hate mornings when I have to get up," Lily mumbled to herself as she awakened. "Lily, what are you mumbling about? Get yourself up and get ready; You can't miss another day of school. Your doctor told me you are fine, you are just a little hot." 'I don't wanna get up... I wish I// was //sick.'

"C'mon! We don't have all morning, Lily!" 'Wait... Sarah's actually acting... normal? She isn't calling me 'dear' or 'sweetie' anymore?' Lily kind of liked it when Sarah called her those names; it almost made her feel loved. Later on, at lunch, Chris ran up to Lily and immediately started twitching. "What's wrong with you?" Lily asked. "Can't... stop... need... food..."

"Well, go get something to eat," Lily said.

"No money... Can't buy food..."

"Here!" Lily handed him three ones.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

He ran up and bought food.

"I'll love you forever, Lily Halifax! Thank you!"

'He doesn't realize what he is saying, the dobe!'

{Monica B. -Wish I could finish but I gotta go!}

{Monica D. Hey you stole my word! -points- Okay so technically It's not 'my' word...since dobe is the Japanese equivalent of 'dead-last'...but still...it's only reserved for Okie!!....and Naruto!!!...baka. -.-}

Lily sighed and sat down at the same table she sat at almost every day and put her head down. The words about being a hybrid replayed in her head, 'Just when I thought life was going well enough for a middle school girl, it turns upside down and I am left confused,' she thought.

Chris sat down in front of her with his newly bought food, "I'll pay you back, I swear!" he said as he started eating.

Lily looked up and waved the subject off lazily with her hand, "No you won't..." she said, her voice holding a tint of boredom.

Chris sighed, "Yes I will," he argued.

Lily rolled her eyes, she didn't feel like arguing with anyone right now. She put her head back down and looked at the table, she noticed the table felt cold, or was it hot? She couldn't quite tell. She thought maybe temperature was not as good as Sarah had said. Wait, she didn't think, she KNEW her temperature wasn't 'just a little hot', it was a 134 freakin' degrees for crying out loud!

Chris tapped her shoulder, "Lily? Are you okay? You look a little flushed..." he said, looking at her pale face as she looked up.

Lily nodded, "I'm fine..."

Chris quirked and eyebrow, "Okay then..." he said, going back to his lunch. He knew that Lily normally looked pale, but she looked a little different.

((Amber H. -This was pointless.... but now Monica can leave me alone about adding!))

"Look at me," Lily said to Chris. He looked at her colorless face. "I am fine, don't you believe me?"

"If you say you're okay, then I believe you."

"No. Don't believe me just because I say it's so. I want you to believe me because you trust me. Do you trust me?"

"Yes, I trust you. Why would you think I don't trust you?"

"Because... Every time I say I'm alright, you keep asking me every day."

"Well, you look worse every day. Is it so wrong to care?"

"Yes! It is wrong for you to care about me! You just met me a few weeks ago, and you think you love me. But you don't!"

"How can you say that I don't? You obviously don't get it, Lily Halifax."

"You're darn right, I don't understand. Why, Chris? Why do you say you care about me? Why do you tell me you love me, kiss my cheek, and blush every time someone is convinced we have something? Make up your mind!" Lily immediately shot up and slammed her food in the trash can. Chris looked confused, and then the bell rang.

{Monica B.}

&&// Aila //&&

Aila clutched her knees to her chest as she leaned against the damp wall in her secluded prison. Her whole body trembled with fear and she had no idea what was going on. The room was dark and the walls and floors were damp from the leaky pipes above the dungeon. The only light was coming through a small window on the metal door in front of her and that in itself was meager. Aila stared helplessly at the small light and to her trembling hands.

A dark shadow cast across the small light from the wall covering it completely. Aila squeaked in fright as she heard metal clashing against metal on the outside of the door. Slowly the door began to open letting more light into the dark cell. The room was more pathetic than it was before. The only thing letting it not just appear as nothing more than a stone cave was a small cot on the left side of the wall. Aila stared with wide eyes as the figure standing in the doorway came closer to her. As it came closer, Aila got a clearer depiction of the man's face. She trembled even more as she saw what she couldn't depict as any human she had ever seen. The man {which she had guessed was its gender} was heavily scarred across his face with an almost blue skin tone, completely bald with sharp and pointed ears, a noise that pointed out oddly, and narrow beady eyes. He was wearing raggedy clothes that Aila had never seen anyone wear in her lifetime wear before and a sword of some sort hung from his belt.

"Plea...please don't hu...hurt me....mi...mister..." Aila managed to stammer out in terror. The man snickered maliciously and grabbed the young girl by the arm to pull her off from the floor.

"Queen Mary, **ruler of demon world,** wishes to see you."

Aila's eyes widened as she was tugged out the door, tightly by the arm, into the hallway.

{Monica D...dum dum dum. }

Lily glided down the hallway, unnoticed by the teachers or the students as usual. She stepped slowly down the concrete steps hearing the echoing bell sounding in the back of her head. Her foot steps seemed solemn as they hit the hard ground one after the other. As she gets to the fence that surrounded her school, her thoughts were interrupted.

“Lily! Lily! Wait!” someone calls behind her. She turns around just as the wind brushed against her face.

“What do you want Chris?” Lily asks standing in front of the boy that ‘loved’ her.

“Look, I am sorry about what happened at lunch today,” Chris says looking down at his fidgeting hands. Lily sighed, smiling slightly.

“It’s okay, it was mostly my fault,” Lily said smiling, turning back around, but right as she took a step she fell to her knees. Her scream ran threw out the school yard echoing off the walls and fences.

“Lily! Lily, what’s wrong!?” Chris screams, running over to her but not knowing what to do. As his mind spun, an orange cat jumped on to his shoulder.

“Don’t just stand there get her out of here!” The cat yelled into his ear. Chris’s eyes widened.

“Did a cat just t-talk to me?” Chris asks himself, “Great, and now I am talking to myself.” All of a sudden the screaming stopped.

“Now, you dimwit!” the cat yelled again. Without thinking, Chris ran up to Lily, picking her up and running, not knowing where he was running to, but just running. Rain started to pour down over his shoulders as he was groaning slightly as the cat's nails dug into his shoulder. He ran into an alley setting Lily down into a corner, taking off his jacket and covering her shoulders.

“What’s going on?” Chris asked the orange cat.

(Taylor K. Haven’t posted in a while thought I would put something that you know… Wasn’t a filler lol)

&& Lily &&

She was running down a hallway, shouting at the pain throughout her entire body. She was falling continuously, breaking skin. Fire was bleeding from places where her skin was breaking on her body, instead of blood. "Where am I?" she asked.

She was in an odd place, very large. She heard someone from a distance, and could barely understand what they were saying.

"I'm taking you... Queen... Deal with it!"

"Stop it! Let go! I want... home!"

She stopped for a second, taking a few seconds to recognize the voice of the child calling for freedom. 'Aila!?'

"Stop being so... little girl! I will... if you don't..."

Lily stared silently at one spot, listening to the distant arguement. A door, big and red, opened at the very spot she wouldn't seem to keep her eyes off of. A man, bold and narrow-eyed with pointy features, came through the door, holding Aila by her wrists. "Lily! Lily, help me! I need you! Help!"

"What's going on?" Lily asked.

"Out of my way! I have to get this little rat to the Queen of the Underworld. Move!"

Lily couldn't move. She could only sit there and watch the man and Aila move on.

&& End &&

"Lily!? Lily, are you okay?"

{Monica B. I know it's not much, but I decided I'd post something...}

Lily’s eyes fluttered opened but were quickly shut as rain droplets fell into her aquamarine eyes.

“Lily! Lily are you okay?” She heard faintly. She looked at the owner of the voice and was surprised to see Chris.

“Chris?” Lily says shocked. “Where’s Aila?” Lily yells, sitting up quickly then regreting it the next second.

“Stay down, Lily.” Another voice broke threw into Lily’s mind. She looked around from where it was coming from.//

That voice… It’s so familiar//.

Lily thought. As she looked to Chris for answers, a cat jumped up on his shoulder.

“I hope it is familiar. How are you feeling, Lil?” The cat says, seeming to smile.

“You read my thoughts? And how do you know that name?” Lily asks just as surprised to see a cat talking than Chris was.

“I am someone you know very well and trust, but I am also your guide,” the cat says again. Lily thought for a minute, confused and trying to process what was going on.

“Wait… Julia?!” Lily asks shocked.

“The one and only my Lil” Julia says giving that seeming to smile look again.

“Okay now… Tell me. What is going on?” Chris asks once again. Julia sighed.

“I am sorry to say this Lily but you are the underworlds only hope for survival”

(Taylor K. again thought this might make everyone unconfused including Lily)

"W-what!?" Lily said in disbelief.

Julia nodded "There is a lot to tell you...but I think that before I tell you that I should change back into myself. So if you do not mind may we go back to the orphanage? I do not want to frighten any teachers with my transformation."

Lily nodded as if this was an every day kind of thing.

'Why am I taking this so well?' she thought to her self as she stood up. Though feeling quite feverish she was about to stumble over when she felt a arm push her back up. She turned her head at Chris who lifted her arm and wrapped it around his shoulder. Lily smiled and nodded.

Julia who was watching the whole thing smiled as best as a cat could smile and turned around and raced down the path. Lily followed along with her arm wrapped around Chris's shoulder.

"Chris? Why are you taking this so well? I figured a talking cat who turns out to be a close friend of mine would send you off the deep end..." Chris shook his head "Honestly? I have no idea...but I figure that a lot weirder things could happen. What about you? Why is this not freaking you out..."

" I guess I'm just weird...either that or insane....or maybe this just doesn't feel all that strange to me. Yes my best friend turning up as a cat seems like it would be kind of freaky but I am kind of at ease towards it all. Like I've expected something like this to happen all my life."

"Come on slow peoples...we have no time to be racing slugs...we have a entire world to rescue from utter chaos!" Julia blared out from several feet ahead.

&& Fast-forward &&

Julia raced through the front door like a rocket when Chris {who was still holding onto Lily} opened the door for her.

She raced down the hallway happily and slipped into the kitchen hitting the lower cabinets with an obnoxious bang.

Chris helped Lily into the kitchen and sat them both down at the kitchen bar.

Julia shook herself off, looked at Lily, and nodded.

{Monica D.}

Lily walked up her staircase, careful not to make any noise so someone would come. Chris and Julia walked behind her doing the same thing she was. As Lily walked to her room (well as close as a room she would get) the thing she didn’t want happening, happened.

“Oh Lily! Your home! How was school?” Someone says coming from around the corner.

“It was ok Sarah” Lily answered pretending to be sulking. As Sarah turned from the corner her eyes got wide.

“Oh well who is this handsome man?” Sarah says smiling. Lily slapped her forehead and shook her head. Chris looked at Lily for what to do.

“My name is Chris,” Chris says trying his best to smile. Julia meowed as she jumped on Chris’s shoulder.

“Aw what a cute little thing, but you know not in any rooms… But I guess since you have a boy over I will make this one exception” Sarah says walking past them going down the stairs.

“You two be good now” Sarah says winking up at Lily. Lily rolled her eyes and went into the only empty room that she usually shared with Aila. The memory of Aila drifted to her head, as tears began to swell up in her eyes. Before any could fall though she shook them away trying to forget everything but, of course, could not.

“Now, tell us what is going on” Chris sighs sitting down on one of the mattresses. Julia jumped down from Chris’s shoulder and hit the ground. She turned to Chris glaring.

“Turn around and don’t you dare look got it? Lily can I borrow some clothes?” Julia snaps as Chris slowly turns to the wall. Lily went to her closet and got the first clothes she saw. Julia began to transform, her orange cat hair slowly fell from her body, long pink hair cascaded down her back. Lily handed Julia some clothes to her dear old friend.

“Ok you can turn around now Chris” Julia says after she was finished putting the clothes on. The person Chris saw wasn’t the annoying cat her saw before. She had on a black mini skirt with a black fishnet shirt with a hot pink tank top underneath. Chris couldn’t stop staring, not because he liked her, but because of the dramatic change it was amazing.

“Stop staring we need to get down to business” Julia says sitting down next to Lily on the mattress opposite from Chris.

(Taylor K. I know it’s not much but it’s like really early in the morning and I can’t think that well… no comment Monday)

“Lily, this may not make sense to you but it is something I have to tell you,” Julia began with her eyes drifting to the floor and her hands together in her lap. Julia looked up and locked eyes with Lily

“You see…there are other worlds beside this one….and no I’m not talking about another planet. One of these worlds is demon world. Usually the living world, which is the world we are in now, barely has any contact with other dimensions…besides spirit world witch is where human souls go to be judged."

“Wait? So is demon world kind of like Hell?” Lily asked intrigued.

“Yes…and no…demon world does have similar qualities to what people believe Hell to be like but it is far from being. It does not harbor the spirits of the evil souls that sinned on earth…only demons...and plus demon world has so many levels that it would be impossible to control any human souls. Higher demons could obliterate their essence within seconds. Any judging of human souls happens in Spirit world.”

“Well then…what happens to the souls of the unredeemed...the evil...corrupted?”

“I do not know. You would have to ask a grim reaper that question.”

“Yeah…because we all know I have one on speed dial” Lily said sarcastically.

Julia rolled her eyes “Don’t be sarcastic Lil.”

“The fact is…is that demon world is in trouble…”

“How? Why?” Lily asked frustrated that she was becoming so confused.

“You see demon world is blocked off by a barrier…and only lesser demons can make it through…if there is a blotch in the pseudo space they may enter the living world but humans are usually protected by..."

“Oh, so if demons are trying to attack us…why help them then?” Chris interrupted raising his eyebrow.

Julia gave a hurt look towards Chris “Because not all demons are bad idiot!”

“Oh…but I always thought that demons were….you know…evil…”

Julia rolled her eyes “That is a common misconception…no… not all demons…are bad....some are rather malevolent but that doesn’t reflect all demons ”

“…Julia…Are you a demon?” Lily asked hesitantly.

“Yes…I am”

“What…kind of demon?”

“I’m a shape shifter…”Julia stated in a tone that screamed that is should have been the most obvious thing in the world. "Witch means that I can morph into anything that I want to. Though I prefer living things...like animals..."

"So that explains the whole being a cat thing.." Chris stated densely. {Monica D. =] Wouldn't dream on it Elmo}

“What cat thing?” Julia asked sarcastically rolling her eyes at his insolence. Lily shook her head finally processing what was going on.

“But I’m not a demon. I have no ‘powers’. Why would you want me?” Lily asked trying to reason the assumptions that where blazing past her head. Julia looked at her and smiled.

“Not that// you know of” Julia asked with a small grin spreading upon her lips. Lily looked up with wide exclamatory eyes.

“What?”

“I didn’t want to tell you this yet but… You are the princess of demon world. Your father was the greatest king that ever lived!” Julia exclaims sitting up taller at the thought of the king.

“P-princess?” Lily repeated. Chris looked down at the ground also soaking in all of this information.

“Why did you find me first though?” Chris asked looking up at Julia. Julia smiled.

“Because you Chris. You are Lily’s guardian. You are her shield” Julia says looking between the two youngsters. Chris blushed slightly looking at Lily then back down at his feet.

(Taylor K. –Not much but its better then nothing… after all we want to reach the deadline)

Lily's eyes remained widened in shock. But then again...didn't this make sense? Everything seemed to piece itself together. Her visions, dreams, voices speaking to her, and her temperature fluctuating so rapidly.

'A demon huh? Well I guess that explains the sudden hot flashes.' Lily thought to herself.

"Tell me Julia...what..." Lily took a gulp of air before continuing " What kind of demon am I exactly?"

Julia's eyes lit up in excitement "Oh!! I am so excited that you’re taking this so well!!" She embraced Lily in a huge hug before responding. Lily was nearly gasping for air before she let go.

"Well Lil darling" Julia stated changing her voice to sound more professional "You are a hybrid...fire and human..." Julia closed her eyes happily and widened her smile "And I know for a fact your going to be a kick butt queen..."

"Umm...Julia? Can you please continue with your story..." Lily stated blatantly.

{Monica D.}

Julia smirked embarrassed, scratching the back of her head but then her mood shifted, as if she was bi-polar. Witch Chris and Lily both assumed she was.

“This might take some time to say,” Julia said getting up and opening the door a crack. She looked down both hallways and turned once more to acknowledge the two “They're is no easy way to say this...”

She sat back down on the bed with her legs crossed and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. Her eyes shot up and she stared hard at the wall memories flashing through her mind.

“It began 5,000 years ago as the demons in the demon world where beginning to tire of the same landscape and population. One demon ventured off the land into a black abyss. He came back with more incite and stories then anyone in the land. The other demons where jealous of course of this demon that went into a land where beings had two eyes, one nose, two ears, and things that are always pressed up against the ear called ‘celluled fone’ or something on those lines. Soon the other demons began to journey to this new found place. But some demons, evil demons, wanted to go for something far worse than intellect. They wanted food, wanted the taste of meat again. As the evil demons and good demons began to spread there became two groups. The Incidial and the Saphont groups, which are named after the ruler of the group. The Incidial are the, I guess you could say, ‘good’ group out of the two; this group wants the all the demons to stay in the demon world and not wonder off into unknown territory. While the Saphont are the ‘evil’ group; they are the demons that want to take over all lands and want to have there ruler announced supreme over all.

“Well about 2,000 years later, 3,000 years ago, a war broke out between the two groups. Many, many brave and not so brave warrior’s died. This war lasted many, many thousands of years; until the worst thing that could possibly happen for our group, the Incidial, happened. Our ruler, Hyshundi (Hi-shoon-die) Incidial, died in battle. His son then took over the throne as king of the Incidial. His son made many victories in battle and triumphed over all. His name was Ysuaden (Sue-aden) Incidial, other wise known to you as, ‘father’.” Julia finished looked at Lily and Chris who had puzzled expressions.

“…I… don’t know what to say” Lily says putting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands.

“Wow” Chris says amazed that he could actually believe this stuff.

(Taylor K. –Okay Monday your turn to make everyone you know… unconfused)

"You see Lil, your father was one of the greatest leaders that the Incidial’s ever had. Not only was he a brilliant warrior we he was kind and justice." Julia stated casting her eyes down to the ground " One day a long time ago a mortal wandered into the demon world. This happens sometimes due to a breech. By law all mortals who are found in the jurisdiction of demon world are to be brought forth to the king to be mind wiped and sent home immediately. Inegend the women was a gem of beauty. She had long black hair an sparkling diamond eyes with porcelain skin as white as the first snows of Alaska. I'm not quite sure what happened but indefinitely your father fell in love with this mortal and broke all laws between humans and demons to have you."

{Monica D. Okay...yeah I have to go. But I will be back to continue the unconfusement. =]}

&& Aila &&

Aila struggled more against the man's strong hold onto her arm. The man growled maliciously as Aila began to drag her heels against the floor, trying to extract herself from the disfigured man. Her heart- beat quickened as an ominous feeling sent shivers down her spine.

The man dragged Aila to a grand door at the end of the hallway. "Listen child" The man sneered" When you enter the Queen's chamber do not open that repulsive and obnoxious moth of yours."

Aila's face became pallid and stricken with fear. Her entire body became inert as if her feet were plastered to the floor.

"GET IN THERE YOU WORTHLESS CHILD!" The man roared slinging open the door and jostling the small girl inside. She stumbled awkwardly in and fell down hard onto the carpet, sending shockwaves of pain up her arms and legs.

"Well...well look what we have here?" said a voice as sharp as nails and yet smooth as satin.

Tears poured down from the girls vivid eyes. She stayed hunched over the floor with her head towards the ground.

A hand touched the girl's chin and lifted her head up to face the cold voice.

Aila peered into a pair of forest green eyes with impending fear. It was a women, a rather elegant lady with long red hair that swiped to the carpet and snow white skin.

"Always look at me when I speak to you child..." she said never once raising her voice or showing emotion on her face but she remained kneeled down in front of Aila with her hand to Aila's chin.

"I am ruler here and you will always show respect when you are in my chambers. I've brought you here for a specific reason and you will fulfill it even if you do not want to. And trust me you do not want to disobey me because I have many ways of making you pay. So you best listen here..." The lady said sharply letting go of Aila's chin and standing up**.**

Aila trembled with fear.

"You see my dear you have a special spirit power that I need. It's quite simple really...I manipulate you....and you help me destroy your precious Lily Halifax."

{Monica D.}

That night after Chris and Julia had left the orphanage Lily laid her head against her pillow and sighed deeply. Everything that had happened in the last couple of days swarmed in her head. Lily sat up, aggravated that she wasn’t getting anywhere in her sleeping, and walked her way to her CD case witch was sitting on her desk. She clasped it firmly and dragged it, along with her walkman, to her bed and began to flip through the CDs carelessly. She flipped through various CDs varying in every genre you could have thought of. Lily argued internally with herself trying to decide what she wanted to hear.

‘Why the heck do I have Justin Timberlake in my CD case?’ Lily thought suddenly perplexed by the fact she had the pop singer in her CD case but then a sudden flashback of her thirteenth birthday appeared in her mind. ‘Yeah…now I remember Sarah gave it to me because she thought I might like it…right before Aila freaked out because she thought the cake was on fire and tried to put it out with her soda…’

Lily laughed out loud with a smile gracing her face but then the smile slowly faded when she realized who she was reminiscing about. A little bit sadder she grabbed Harvey Danger out of the side pocket and slammed it into her CD player.

After she pushed her CD case to the side she lay back on her pillow and thought about everything that had gone on that day and everything that Julia had told her.

Slowly but surely Lily’s eyes began to drift slowly closed.

&&School the Next Day&&

Lily sat in her seat in Science and tapped her pencil annoyingly against her desk. She had just gotten through with an assignment and had turned it in at the front desk along with the other student’s papers.

“Miss Halifax” Lily heard a voice blare out interrupting her thoughts “How is it that you are the only person in this class to have turned her paper upside down…Didn’t you see that all the other students papers were turned upright?”

Lily looked up slowly to see her science teacher, Mr. Herb, who was standing at the front holding up, what Lily guessed was her paper. She slowly raised her eyebrow in confusion.

“Sorry?” She muttered attempting to sink lower in her desk as she felt the stares from the other students around the room. Some even made a few remark but Lily didn’t catch them for she was now concentrating ever so hard on her textbook cover.

‘Just pretend you have no idea what anyone is talking about, just pretend like you have no idea what anyone is talking about, just pretend like you have no idea what anyone is talking about,’ Lily repeated simultaneously inside her mind.

“That is just pure laziness. Lazy with a capital L…” The teacher continued.

‘Wait…lazy?! I am not lazy!’

‘Okay…maybe a little…but…I don’t even remember even putting my paper upside down!!! Ughhh, I’ve got to stop having these little argument with myself…’

She closed her eyes and tried to re-create the scene inside her head.

‘Okay I got up after finishing the assignment…I walked over to the desk…lifted up a couple of papers and placed it into the stack…witch way was my paper turned? Witch way was my paper turned!?...well obviously it was turned face down stupid. If it wasn’t turned down he wouldn’t have pointed it out…’

Lily looked down at her textbook and back up at her teacher.

With that the bell rang leaving Lily’s ears ringing.

Lily shook herself alive. She grabbed her books, shoved it into her book bag, and raced out the door faster than she thought was possible.

&&Lunch&&

‘Ahh lunch. The highlight of my existence.’ Lily mused as she sat her messenger bag on the floor and sat herself down at the table she had reserved for herself since the beginning of the year. Bending down she pulled out the lunch that Sarah had prepared for her and sat it on the surface of the table.

“Hey Lily” Chris greeted from the other side of the table and sat down.

“Hello Mister! How was your day today?” Lily asked with a babyish tone,” Are you ready to fight the big bad demons?”

“Lily, has anyone ever told you how very peculiar you really are,” Chris asked arching his eyebrow.

“Oh, many, many, many times,” Lily replied, her tone changing once again but this time adding more theatrics to her pitch,” I tell myself that every single day.” She waved her hand in the air to add an effect.

“I blame it on my messed up demon hormones…or maybe I was just dropped on my head at birth…I don’t know.” Lily added giving Chris a small smile.

“You seem to be taking this whole demon thing pretty well,” Chris stated lowing his gaze to the table, his hands cupped together on the cold surface.

“Yeah, well…I just figure there is no reason to get all freaked out about it because this could all turn out to just be some elaborate dream I am having.” She declared crossing her arms behind her head and leaning back in her seat,” And plus I’ve always wanted to go on some kind of exciting escapade. I always figured I would end up moving to Japan to become a Ninja but journeying into a different world will do.”

{Guess =]} (

Chris looked at Lily threw confused eyes, “When are you leaving?” Chris asked looking down at the table again. Lily smiled. “You mean when are ‘we’ leaving?” Chris looked up at her with shocked eyes. “What? I am going too?” Chris says in amazement at what she was saying. “Well yeah, did you think I was going to leave you here to defend yourself? No of course not, where I am going you are coming with” Lily said doing a hero stance with one leg on the ground and the other on the bench. “You are one in a million” Chris says laughing. “You know it! I am like… like… uhh… Stargirl! That’s right; you know the book by Jerry Spinelli! Oh! Oh! And you’re Cinnamon!” Lily yells pinching Chris’ cheeks. “Cinnamon? Why can’t I be Leo?” Chris asked smiling, kinda. Lily smirked sitting closer to Chris. “Oh so you want to be Leo?” Lily says winking and smiling when all of a sudden the bell rang. Lily giggled getting up and grabbing her messenger bag skipping inside the school leaving Chris shocked. Lily turned the corner and as soon as she knew she was out of sight, her smile faded.

(Taylor K. thought I would add something… finally lol)

Lily clutched her messenger bag tightly as she wandered carelessly down the hallway to her next class. For the first time in a long time she didn’t really feel like going to Art class. She closed her eyes and glided her fingers down the side of the lockers as she passed going into the third floor.

Students paid no mind to her as she passed. It was if she didn’t exist. Not even a glance in her general direction was rewarded to her.

“Maybe I am more like Stargirl then I imagined. Hmph. I’m getting shunned alright, by the whole freakin school. Samantha’s my Hillari, Chris is my Leo, and Mrs. Day is my…Archie….” She chuckled light fully to herself as she approached the doorway into the art room. Of course, she was the first person in the classroom. Even if she wasn’t in such a hurry to get to class ever other student ended up rushing into the class room right as the tardy bell rang. It was always a wonder how all of them fitting through the doorway didn’t cause some kind of blockade.

Mrs. Day was at the front of the room writing something Lily couldn't quite make out on the board. Lily sashayed to her desk and sat down. After a few seconds Mrs. Day turned around and smiled at Lily's presence

“Hello Mrs. Halifax. I hope that today has been treating you well.” She said with her voice rather pert and cheerful.

Lily smiled at her teachers kind words “It could have gone better,” She responded.

“Oh, that’s a shame. Hopefully it’ll be better tomorrow, eh?”

Lily smiled and nodded in response as the tardy bell rang and as if on queue a hoard of students paraded into the classroom. Some barely made it pass as they brushed their shoulders against the doorframe.

“Good morning class,” Mrs. Day said in greeting.

The class mumbled out a weak ‘Good morning’. Mrs. Day smiled the lack of life from her class gone unnoticed.

As Mrs. Day went on Lily zoomed in and out, her mind wandered else-where into her own self..

“Okay class, get started. I want your very soul in each brush-stroke.”

Lily shook her self awake and looked around quickly for what she was supposed to do. Everyone else in the class room was reluctantly taking out paint-brushes, so Lily did as well.

++

“Lily, are you feeling okay?” Mrs. Day asked interrupting Lily’s thoughts as she glided her paintbrush apathetically against her canvas. Lily jumped slightly causing her to push her paintbrush up, putting a long red streak across what she was doing.

She nodded quickly attempting to compose herself. Mrs. Day shook her head knowingly and returned to her place at the front.

Lily blinked and returned her gaze to the painting only to be flooded with shock. Painted in elegant cursive was writing slightly smudged by a sudden upstroke of crimson.

{Monica D.}

Lily looked at her painting like it was from another dimension. She watched as the elegant, horrid words seemed to mingle and turn, going in slow circles then beginning to turn faster and faster. Lily watched in confusion at what she was seeing. She looked down at her hands and saw that, they too, where moving in the freakish movement. She looked up to hear a weird voice, seeming like a long, slow motion, type voice that called out English, Lily knew that, but if sounded more like an African language. As she looked around at all that was surrounding her, she finally decided to look back at her portrait. And what she saw amazed even her, Lily freaking Halifax.

(Taylor K. Courtesy of Monica D.)

Lily became dizzy as she felt a wave of nausea took over. Her mind was wipped clean of all thoughts and negative feelings but the pain inside her stomache became unbearable. She fell to her knees not even noticing the feel of soft grass on her knees. Slowly her eyes dripped down and the world around her grew darker and more hazed

Two sets of eyes peered curiously into hers and with one final gesture of confusion Lily fell upon grass and dirt.

It was at that moment that Damonia, a cat apparition, and Nyx, a gentle fox child, met there first somewhat mortal.

{Monica D. =]}

&& Aila &&

Aila had a sudden spark of courage, or perhaps just child's foolishness, "No!" she snapped. "I will not help you! You can't make me!"

Mary smirked and shook her head, "You should not defy me child, it would not be the wisest thing to do," she said, her voice sending slight chills down Aila's spine.

Aila gulped slightly and looked down. "I won't hurt Lily..." she said.

"Quit mumbling and look up when speaking to me little girl!" Mary barked at the Aila.

Aila looked up, a slight glare in her eyes, "I won't hurt Lily," she said firmly.

"Who said you had a choice?" Mary smirked, a slight chuckle at the end of her sentence.

((Amber H. -Sorry it's not much...))

Julia strolled down the hall with the tips of her fingers gracing the edge of the lockers like Lily had done. Students passed her casting glances in wonder of seeing a pink haired girl roaming their halls. She passed the boy's bathroom but stopped moments later only to turn back around to enter the lavatory. It was your everyday nothing out of the ordinary bathroom. The air was coated with the smell of lysol and some type of perfume smell, she wrinkled her nose in disgust [cats have such delicate noises]. She grinned smugly at the site before her Chris was hunched over the faucet cupping his hands and drenching his face in icy cold water. The boy brought his head to his hands and dipped his face into the water. He reached out for a paper towel from the dispenser but was soon greeted with it in his hands before he could reach. The boy clasped it in his hands and wiped the water away quickly from his face.

After blinking away the water from his eyes the brown headed boy looked up with a befuddled look on his face. Standing in the middle of the boys bathroom with her hands on her hips and a devilish smirk on her face stood Julia.

"What!? Julia you can't be in here...it’s… it’s the boys bathroom!"

Julia rolled her eyes.

"We don't have time to argue about human segregation...we need to get to the demon world..."

Julia grabbed his arm with a small smile and began to drag him out of the bathroom.

"It's not segregation it's simply that....wait....demon world? I thought you said we had three days?" Chris protested as Julia opened the door and peeked her head out to see if anyone was around.

"Ehhh....yeah well I lied okay" Julia said in a rushed tone," Truthfully I hadn't the slightest of when we were actually going to need to enter the demon world and apparently the demon council decided that now was the perfect time open a portal and drag Lily to the demon world. That council and there impatient nature I outta-"

"What! Lily is in the demon world!?"

Julia nodded

"Yeah while in art too. Apparently the council doesn't think that making someone disappear out of thin air is un-common."

She lead Chris out of the bathroom and looked around once more.

"Marcy! Mercy!" She hissed "Where are you?"

"Meow"

"Meow"

{Monica D.}

--

Alex Turner [Chris's friend] strolled down the hallway to her locker whistling softly. She lifted her backpack off her jacket cladded shoulder and placed it on the ground near her locker. Slowly she opened her locker and began to convey books form her locker to her backpack.

"Hey Alex!"

Alex turned her head curiously. Walking towards her was Eric Jones. Though Eric and Chris were friends Alex didn't really know Eric that well but they were more or less friendly towards each other.

"Yeh?" Alex replied in response when he stepped in beside her.

"Have you seen Chris?" Eric asked leaning against the locker beside her.

"Nah, I haven't seen much of him lately...he's been busy hanging out with that Lily girl" Alex responded swiftly as she closed her locker.

"We need to leave as soon as possible" Both Alex and Eric turned quickly to see Chris being lead down the hallway by a pink haired lady claded in odd looking clothes being followed by two cats. Alex raised her eyebrow. "What the heck?" Eric stated curiously.

"Lets follow them" Alex said tugging on Eric’s arm to follow.

[Monica D. =]]

Lily opened her eyes slowly. Her whole body ached terribly. Every muscle in her body burned fiercely with every small movement that she made. Reluctantly she positioned her arms to her side and attempted to pull herself up.

Bad mistake. As soon as she moved a fierce pain shot through her body and caused her to just fall back down.

'So much for that' Lily thought bitterly.

Wincing in pain she stared up at the ceiling. With wonder she blinked with amazement. The ceiling above was made out of wood. Now Lily sometimes wasn't the most observant person in the world but she knew what the top of her ceiling looked like and it was most definitely not made out of oak.

"So you're awake?" A gruff and mysterious voice questioned across the room. Lily quickly moved her head to see who it was but was stopped by even more pain shooting up her back.

"Not a smart mood dim wit. Moving is just going to put strain on your body. I advise that you don't do it." The voice said coming closer. Lily squinted her eyes as a figure appeared before her. When she fully got a glimpse of the figure she yelped loudly and shot up quickly ignoring the pain.

"W-who are you!?"

Standing before her was a man with bright red hair that reached his shoulder, a beard that twisted down in different angles mid chest, and two rather large horns coming out the side of his head. His deep lavender eyes shone with amusement as he stood there with his arms crossed. He had to have been around six foot tall and he wore a red and black robe type garment.

"Is that any way to treat the person who saved your life?" He asked lifting his eyebrow.

Lily's mouth hung open and she shifted her eyes around the room. She spotted the door and planned various ways of escape but all of them ended up in at one point actually having to pass the really tall and odd looking man in front of her. Witch was something that she didn’t really want to resort in doing.

"My name is Leno and yours might be?" He said in a deep yet somehow gentle voice.

"Lily...now where the heck am I?" Lily asked hesitantly.

"You are currently in the village of Dama."

Lily shook her head.

"No...that is not what I meant. Where is Dama located?"

"Near the Forest of Laliama"

Lily sighed impatiently trying to clear her head.

"Am… am I in demon world?"

The man, Lenodia nodded his head and stroked his chin "You're in the Makai, yes."

'Makai...where have I heard that from?' Lily shifted her eyes around 'I really am going insane'.

"Makai?"

"Yes, the Makai, otherwise know as the Demon World..." The man with the odd clothing shifted his feet around but still stayed in the same spot with his arms cross.

"Your body is currently under a metamorphous. Most likely getting use to the fire that is seeping through your veins..."

"Metamorphous?"

"Yes. Nyx and Demonia found your two miles away from here. They said your appeared out of thin air and then collapsed. I am the villages main healer so they brought you to me. I am guessing from your reactions that you are not from around her?"

"You could say that.." Lily replied indifferently.

"Your temperature is currently 189 degrees 20 degrees past that of a normal Halfling..." Leno stated coming closer Lily and out stretching his hands. "Take these"

He opened his hand and sitting in the middle of his palm was what Lily guessed where two onyx small pebbles.

"Stones... you want me to swallow stones?" Lily questioned leaning in to look at them closer.

"No, seeds from a Zaza plant. They should bring down you're fever and cause the pain you must be having to subside." Lily blinked and clasped the seeds into her right hand.

She slowly plopped them in her mouth

'Who thought seeds could taste so awful?'

"Eghhhh... Why is it so sour?"

Leno smiled annoyingly and without a response reached over to a bed side table that Lily hadn't noticed before. He picked up a pail that sat on the wooden desk and poured a crimson liquid into a metal cup witch had sat beside the pail

Lily took the cup with greedy hands and gulped half the liquid down hoping to rid her mouth of the abysmal taste. To her displeasure the liquid only enhanced the horrible taste in her mouth with it's own horrible taste. It was as if vile, mixed in with cough syrup, had been poured onto her tongue. Even though had already gulped down the liquid the aftertaste was left lingering.

"What.. the heck... was that?"

He laughed quietly to himself and began to leave the room.

"Hey! Wait a second I wish to know rather or not I've been poisoned!" While she was complaining the man had already left the room and Lily rushed out of her bed to follow. Not realizing that the pain had subsided she shot across the room to the door, threw it open and halted as she entered into a long hallway.

"H-hi... y-you s-should b-be r-resting" a meek and stuttering voice said from beside her. Lily snapped her head in the voice's direction where a small boy with fox like ears upon his head and whiskers upon his childlike cheeks stood mid knee to Lily. He stood there balancing himself from foot to foot with his gray eyes locked onto the floor.

"Umm... I feel find really.." Lily said before thinking of what she just said 'Hey... I feel fantastic!! That stuff really does work.'

The little boy or demon I should say demon nodded his head with his eyes still locked onto the floor. Lily saw this and hunched down to the little boy's height.

"My name is Lily, what is yours."

"Nyx" The little boy said gently.

"Nyx? That is a nice name. It's a pleasure to meet you." Lily said putting her hand out for the little demon to shake. The boy simply looked up and stared in confusion at the gesture.

[Monica D.]

Lily smiled softly, which was slightly unusal for her, "It's a hand, you shake it," she said softly to him like an older sibling.

Nyx cocked his head to the side and looked at her hand and then lifted his own small hand and placed it on Lily's.

"See? It's not that bad," Lily said, shaking his hand gently.

Nyx smiled slightly, though it was hardly noticable.

((Amber H. -Eh... Sorry if this stinks))

Eric was taken off guard by the sudden pull on his arm and his face almost became part of the schools lovely tiled floor. He balanced himself before skin met tile and followed right after Alex, keeping up with every off-shaped step she took.

They finally came to a corner and Eric turned it quickly only to be pulled straight back around the corner, falling hard onto his butt.

“Ow what was-“, Eric protested but was quickly shushed by a finger to his mouth and a silent ‘Shhh’ followed after. He looked as Alex poked her head slightly out from the corner staring at something.

Eric silently sneaked by Alex’s legs and also looked around the corner and let out a sigh of relief as he now realized that Alex pulled him back because standing in the middle of the hallway was Chris.

Alex and Eric pressed their bodies closer to the wall, if at all possible, to listen to the conversation that was taking hold of their friend and his ‘new found’ friend.

“Why is Lily in demon world now?!” Chris’s voice was an odd note singing in the watchers voice.

“Demon world” Alex whispers beside Eric, questioning the new words that played through their heads.

“How am I supposed to know? She is meant to go to demon world” The pink haired girl that was beside Chris says shooting a glare at Chris as she mixed something in her hands.

“Why?”

The girl sighed standing up and looking at Chris directly in the eye.

“Her throne is trying to be taken over. She needs to take her rightful place as Queen”

At this, the eyes of Eric and Alex shot wide open. This was no joke this was serious.

But how?

Chris stayed silent for a while and then sighed.

“Take me to demon world” The other girl smiled.

“I hoped you would say that” The girl says, then chanted something as a small gray light started to appear right in front of them.

“What is that?” Chris exclaimed back away slightly.

“This, my dear friend, is the portal to demon world… Care to join?” The girl says stepping through. Chris sighed and walking slowly toward the portal but before he stepped through, her turned around and seemed to look in the direction of where Alex and Eric where hiding.

“Please don’t tell anyone about this, guys. Keep it our little secret. I will try and come back soon…. Bye Alex…. See ya Eric” Chris says as both of the onlooker’s eyes went even wider (if possible) as he stepped through then all went silent.

“I think… my heart stopped” Alex says, as he eyes rolled back in her head and she hit the floor, unconscious. Eric just looked on at where his friend’s figure once was.

(Taylor K. I thought I should contribute to the best story in the world! Woot woot!! ^_^)

Lily smiled down at Nyx when the two where interrupted by a frantic black haired boy running down the hallway.

"The village is being attacked!!!" The boy yelled in an almost humourious manner. He stopped short of about six feet away from the two and turned around. "Come on Nyx" He said running up and grabbing Nyx by the hand and tugging him forward "The village is vulnerable without us. I must come to the rescue"

"You think to highly of yourself Demonia" Nyx quipped as he was tugged then turned his head around to Lily "Aren't you coming?"

Lily, though still fazed by all of the sudden occurences, nodded and followed after them.

++ Lily’s shook with fear when she left the confines of the medicine house with Demonia and Nyx pulling her along. This was the first time to see the small village and she hoped it wouldn’t it be her last. She took in the fact that she was now running down the middle street of a marketplace. The villagers ran ever witch way in fright, stalls where goods were once sold were left astray, and the sounds of screams echoed against Lily’s pounding heart.

As Lily expected the majority of the villagers where rather odd looking. Most had horns protruding from their skulls, their skins a light blue, while others had scales or some interesting characteristic, much like a tall man who passed her who had a nose like a elephant’s tusk, but much smaller.

Despite the dominant traits of demonic horns and scales, there were several people who looked no different than from herself.

Nyx and Demonia led her down the marketplace, shoving themselves past frantic villagers to reach the center square. Suddenly, as if timed for the moment Lily reached their destination, a gigantic formation of rock dropped down from the sky and landed atop a once beautiful fountain, for witch Lily only caught a glimpse of before it was obliterated.

Villagers scattered away from the destroyed fountain and retreated in another direction away from the village.

Lily jumped as a mighty squeech rang out; she widened her eyes as another object, larger than the last, fell from the sky. She was in a state of confusion as the giant object began to move. It was then that Lily realized that the object was not like the boulder that had fallen moments before. Standing a top the boulder, its talons clutching the edges of the rock, was a falcon masked by its folded wings.

“It’s the Demax!”

“Demax? What the heck is a demax?” Lily asked, turning to Demonia who stood near her with bewildered eyes and his mouth agape.

“Demax is the Queen Mary’s pet,” Nyx’s small voice said from the other side of her as he clung to her arm tightly.

“It’s vicious and only follows her orders… orders that usually end up in the death of thousands. Though usually, unless ordered to, it goes for small children” Demonia added.

“Oh no,” Lily whispered to herself, clutching the seam of her shirt nervously.

The bird squawked loudly and opened its humongous wings one after the other. Then Lily saw what she feared the most. Several feet away from the fountain a small child sat, as if he had fallen. Tears fell from his eyes and the boy whipped them away with his sleeve. Lily knew that the bird noticed for it began to move forward and she did the first thing that she could think of.

“Hey bird brain!” She yelled out, stepping forward bravely. The bird’s neck snapped around in Lily’s direction.

“Come and pick on someone of your own caliber!!”

‘This has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever done,’ she thought as she stepped even closer to the bird.

At that point the square had been completely deserted, besides herself, Nyx and Demonia, the bird, and the small boy who had now proceeded to crawl backwards away from the gigantic bird. The falcon’s amber eyes locked onto Lily’s eyes, with malicious intent. It had found its prey. Then as if in slow motion is opened its protruding wings and launched forward with a horrific squawk.

“Son of a..” Lily’s remaining words where blocked out by the horrifying squawk of the bird. Lily turned around and rushed past Demonia and Nyx and into the marketplace. She ran faster than she could ever remember herself running. Her legs picked up speed as the falcon flew above her and she prayed to whatever God there was that her legs kept going.

She managed to constrict a couple yards from the falcon. Pure adrenaline pumped through her veins as she eyed an alleyway up head. Closing her eyes in prayer she swiftly turned her heal and rushed into the empty ally way.

Her bare feet pumped hard against the dirt as she continued into the dark abyss. When she finally exited the ally her heart was pounding in her chest. She looked up into the sky. Nothing.

+++

“You called for me mother.” A blonde haired girl asked indifferently, as she entered the Queen’s throne room. She was beautiful, with deep brown eyes, and soft skin. Queen Mary sat atop her throne impatiently tapping her fingers against the gold exterior.

“Faye, you are to leave at once and go after Lily’s love interest and that insolent brat Julia…”

“No.” The girl, Faye, barked bitterly through gritted teeth. She fisted the sides of her pants irritably.

“Excuse me?” The Queen snapped sitting up in her seat and eyeing her daughter.

“I said no, mother” Faye replied once more through gritted teeth and malice.

“You brat!! How dare you defy me!?”

“I wish to not be your tool anymore. I’ve wasted years gathering information for you. I refuse to fuel your obsession any longer!!”

“You insolent brat, you will do as I say!!” Queen Mary roared, shooting from her seat and proceeding towards Faye, who kept her composure. Not a flicker of emotion crossed her delicate features as she slowly turned and began to leave once more. Mary yelled in furry “Samantha!”

Faye whipped around angrily “My name is not Samantha mother!! My name is Faye” She growled “And you will address me as so. Now if you don’t mind I have somewhere more important to be.”

Faye smirked delightfully as she lifted her left arm up above her head and snapped her fingers, she disappeared into thin air.

++

[Monica D. Ending Coming Soon. I hope you like this, it took me a bit to write. It's kind of sketchy but I think that I did and okay job on it, thoug hit needs a lot of work. And ALOT of things deserve to be cleared up. Next post will most likely be up before Friday.]