Lily
“Lilianna, breakfast,” her mother called up the stairs.
She stood in front of the mirror in the corner of her room. She studied her face. Her blond hair was in high pigtail braids. She ran her hands over her hair, smoothing the loose pieces. Her blue shirt and blue jeans were simple, making her look plain. She nervously rubbed her hands down her pants. She didn’t want to go to school. She had been home for a week and she had no idea why, but Lukas had ordered it. Her father had listened. No matter how much begging she had done, she had been locked in her tiny room everyday, while her parents handled pack business. She didn’t understand why they had put a lock on the outside of her door. She wondered if it had anything to do with the king. Everything had changed after he came to their clan.
She touched her face in the reflection. Goddess, how she hated it. She could see out of her blind eye more now, but it was super cloudy and blurry. She hated the whiteness in it and the way blood filled it sometimes. She loathed the way her nose was too big for her face and her lips were too thin. Her cheeks were chubby and her skin was covered in acne. She could hear the kids at school now. Pizza face. One eye. Cyclops. Ugly. That one hurt her the most. She knew without a doubt in her mind that she was hideous to look at. She had been told countless times. Everyday at school, she was tormented. At home it was worse. It seemed like no matter how ugly she was, she was the favorite toy that was used by her parents, their men, and everyone else in the castle.
There was no way she could fight back. With the way her leg dragged, it was impossible to run away. Even the teachers didn’t try to help her. They joined in instead, throwing things at her and berating her in front of the class. Her parents always treated her better when people were around and made her gush about them to everyone. She wanted to tell Lukas, and his sisters, everything, but something held her back.
It wasn’t until Lukas had shown up that she thought she was worth anything. He had been so kind to her, and hadn’t shunned her. He had walked beside her and defended her. She touched her cheek and closed her eyes. She missed the sparks his touch sent through her. They relaxed her and made her feel safe and confident. She missed him and being stuck in her room for a week had made it more obvious. Now, she had to go back to school… oh, Goddess. Everyone probably knew by now that the king had taken her away. She leaned her face against the mirror as a fat tear rolled down her face. What was wrong with her? She needed to focus on getting through the day. She already didn’t want to go to school. This was not helping her feel better at all.
“LILIANNA!l I SAID BREAKFAST! GET A MOVE ON!”
“I’M COMING!,” she yelled back, before flinching.
She sighed, knowing there was a beating coming for being disrespectful, but she didn’t care. She grabbed her backpack off of her table and headed down the stairs. She entered the kitchen and her eyes widened when she saw Jo. She glanced around, her heart pounding hard.
“Beta Jo? Is Lukas with you?”
She shook her head. “No. He sent me to bring a message to your father.”
Her mother smiled at her. “Your father asked her to escort you to school today. Is that okay?”
“Mom, do I have to go? I don’t feel good.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong?”
“I was… my stomach hurts?”
Her mother set a bowl of cereal in front of her chair and sat down at the table. “Lilianna, what’s going on?”
She glanced at Jo. “Nothing.”
Her mother pointed to her chair. “Sit.”
Lily dropped her bag on the floor and sank into her chair, defeated.
“Why don’t you want to go to school, Lily? Surely, you miss your friends,” Jo inquired.
“I don’t have any friends. Besides, everyone is mean to me.”
“Sweetie, kids are cruel. You have to ignore them,” her mother said.
“It’s not just them, Mom. It’s the teachers, too. Even the lunch ladies pick on me. They give me the burned pieces and one time she spit on it, before she gave it to me. The teachers give me detention for every little thing I do, and don’t do. It doesn’t matter. They laugh when the other kids hit me and yell at me in front of the class.”
“I’m sure you are misunderstanding what is going on. Your father-”
Lily gave a bark of harsh laughter. “Yeah, I don’t know what else Mrs. Jones holding my head in a toilet in the gym locker rooms could mean.”
She got up, snatched her bag up and tried to storm out of the room, which of course was ruined by her stupid leg. As soon as the door shut behind her, she punched the offending appendage. She wanted to scream. She wanted to run away and never come back. She wanted away from this place. It was never going to end and her parents had never protected her. She slammed the door behind her and began to walk the mile to the bus stop.
If her parents weren’t going to care, then why should she? She heard yelling from inside the house and she paused to glance over her shoulder. She couldn’t make out what was being said by Jo, so she shrugged and continued on her way. What was one more reason for a beating? She was almost to the gate when Lukas’s charger pulled in front of her and Jo hopped out. She rushed around to the passenger side of the car and opened the backseat door.
“Please, Princess, allow me to give you a ride to school.”
She glared at Jo. “If I don't, are you going to tell the king?”
She shook her head. “Nope, but it seems like you need a friend right now.”
Lily hesitated, before climbing into the passenger seat. Jo shut the back door and got comfortable in the driver’s seat.
“So, Lily, you have a lot of mean people at school?”
“Yes,” she answered, staring out of the window. “There are mean people everywhere.”
“Did you tell King Lukas?”
“No. It’s not his problem. You heard my mom. Kids are mean.”
“He would want to know.”
“So, you tell him.”
Jo laughed. “Are you always so feisty?”
“When I don’t care anymore, yes.”
“I see why the king likes you.”
She looked into the mirror outside her door, looking at Jo secretly. “He said he likes me?”
“Well, you’re the only little girl he has ever kidnapped from school, so he didn’t have to say it. I know it.”
“It’s only because he feels bad for me.”
“Sure, keep thinking that.”
After a few more failed attempts to initiate conversation, Jo gave up. In no time they were pulling up in front of the school. The kids milling around the courtyard stopped to watch them curiously.
“They’re all staring at me.”
Jo squeezed her shoulder. “Do you want me to go in with you?”
“No. I will be fine.” Her grip tightened on her backpack. “I hope,” she muttered, before getting out of the car.
She walked past the other kids, keeping her eyes trained on the door. If she didn’t look at them, she could pretend that they weren’t talking about her.
“I bet she offered herself to the king to get him to give her family more power,” a teacher she didn’t know said, not bothering to even lower her voice.
Her shoulders slumped and her head dropped. She crept through the hall and tried her best to be invisible. Maybe if she kept her head down, the day would fly by and she could go home to hide in her room. She would never complain about being stuck in her room again. It was better than being here. At least in her room, the only one who hurt her was her, until her father showed up anyways. She didn’t need anybody else to do it. She was shoved into the lockers on her left and her hair was pulled. She screamed out in pain. Her body heated rapidly and a growl came from her lips. The boy in front of her let her hair go, backing away with a look of fear on his face.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “I thought you were someone else.”
Lily watched Aaron dash away in shock. What just happened? He had never let her make it through the day without harassing her. She looked around the hallway, and gulped when she saw everyone staring at her.
“Lily, come on, dear. Class is about to start,” Mrs. Romanas said.
Her eyes widened. Okay, this was even weirder. Mrs. Romanas was one of the meanest people to her. She cautiously made her way toward the teacher standing in the doorway of her first period class. Mrs. Romanas smiled at her.
“Welcome back, Lilianna.”
“Th- thank you, Mrs. Romanas.”
“Please, take your seat at the front of the class.”
“But my seat is at the back.”
“Not anymore. It is better for you to sit closer to me.”
“Umm, okay.”
Lily moved past her and her eyes immediately found a desk that had her name carved into it. She walked around it, running her fingers carefully over it. She didn’t want any nasty surprises. Finding none, she sat down. A few minutes later, the bell rang and the teacher closed the door. She passed out an assignment to all of the students, before sitting at her desk to do the roll call. Lily bent over the paper and frowned at the intricate math problems in front of her. She got a pencil out of her backpack and began to slowly work through the equations like Lukas had shown her. A ball of paper hit her in the back of her head. She blinked back the tears that formed, trying her best to ignore the four spitballs that followed. Mrs. Romanas came over and her heart started beating rapidly. The teacher simply picked out the little wet pieces of wadded up paper from her hair.
“Macey and Joshua, detention for a week.” She patted Lily’s shoulder, before walking back to her desk. “Lily, you may be excused to go to the bathroom to wash your face, if you would like to.”
Lily stared at her. “No, ma’am, thank you though. I am fine.”
What was going on? What had changed in the week she was gone? Why now? Was this the calm before the storm?