Chapter III

With a smile on her face, Elizabeth Tao watched the crowds of students rushing down the hallway, the excitement of the end of their first day of school clear in the smiles on their faces and the boisterous conversation taking place among the various groups. Some would be heading straight home but most would be heading to after-school activities—clubs and sports. Liz didn’t know why she got such entertainment watching them. Ever since she was young, she enjoyed observing people, her thoughts filled with ideas about what they could be thinking.

She leaned up against the hallway wall and glanced out the window behind her, staring down into the courtyard below where there were groups of students heading for the front gates. She noticed a group of shorter girls—freshman, she guessed—talking excitedly amongst themselves, already dressed in the uniforms of the volleyball team. She wondered briefly what it would be like to be on a sports team before immediately abandoning the thought. Sports would never be her thing and she was perfectly aware of that.

Liz smirked, reaching up to adjust her headphones around her ears before turning back to those in the hall. The girl closed her eyes, listening to the soft orchestral music she always played whenever she had the chance. She knew closing her eyes in the middle of a crowded hall wasn’t the smartest idea, but she nevertheless found it calming to disassociate from reality for a brief moment.

It was just as she was considering opening her eyes again when she felt a presence to her right. She smiled, knowing exactly who it was without having to open her eyes.

“Took you a while,” she teased, pulling her headphones down around her neck and pressing a button on the side to turn the music off.

Damien chuckled. “Yeah, well, it was a pain trying to fight my way all the way to my locker. This year’s freshmen seem rowdier than last years.”

The girl readjusted her blue-framed glasses and looked up at her boyfriend with a sly grin.

“Oh, that’s no excuse,” she replied. “We’re juniors now, Damien. If there’s some annoying little bastards in our way then we just bowl over them. That’s what the upperclassmen did to us back in the day, right?”

“Ha!” Damien shook his head. “Maybe it’s because of them that I’d rather not. I’ll never forget the day Eric almost got flattened by...uh, what was his name?”

“Andrew Credence,” Liz replied.

The boy snapped his fingers. “Yeah, that’s the guy. I swear that dude was part troll with how big he was.”

“Oh, he definitely was,” she agreed. “I saw his Mom one time at the spring festival and she looked like a mountain troll. She had the same chunky nose and wiry hair he did...not to mention her arms looked more muscular than his.”

Damien laughed, nodding. “Well, at least he’s gone now. Not sure how, but he managed to graduate so he’s someone else’s problem now.”

“That he is,” Liz replied wryly.

The two laughed as Damien reached out and took her hand. She moved closer to him before glancing around the hall to find the crowd much thinner.

“Well,” she began. “Why don’t we head to club? Don't want to keep Eric and Vinny waiting.”

“Agreed,” he muttered. “Plus, I’d rather not leave them there alone. Who knows what trouble they’d get into.”

Exchanging looks of amusement, the two turned left and headed down the hall. The stairs to the third floor were right around the corner and when they arrived, they took them two at a time, keeping their fingers intertwined as they did so.

The club room of the Magic Club was on the third floor in room 3-5, which was a literature class during the day. Ever since Eric had formed the club in their freshmen year, the four of them had been meeting up in that same room after school. Getting to take the route for the first time since the end of their sophomore year put Liz in a significantly good mood.

“Home sweet home,” Damien muttered as they arrived at the blue door of room 3-5.

There was a small, square-shaped window in the middle, like all the other classroom doors in the school, but they couldn’t see inside due to paper the literature teacher had put over it from the inside. Liz smiled, excited to go inside, and reached for the door handle.

And when she pulled it open, she was greeted by the shouting voices she loved so much.

“You should surrender, Reiner! You can’t beat me!”

“Surrender? Ha! Don’t make me laugh! I would never concede to the likes of you, peasant!”

“Peasant! How dare you! If anything, I am a king and you should be bowing to me!”

“No one in their right mind would ever call you a king!”

Liz and Damien stared at their two friends in mild surprise. Eric and Vinny were kneeling beside one of the desks, furiously arm wrestling each other on its surface. Both were evenly matched and neither had managed to gain any ground on their opponent.

“Yeah, I expected as much,” Liz said with a laugh. “Hey dumbasses! What caused it this time?”

Vinny glanced over at them and smirked, his voice clearly strained as he attempted to defeat Eric.

“Well, you see,” he replied. “Eric here claimed he was the strongest member of the club and naturally, as we all know, the strongest is actually me! So I couldn’t let his indolence stand and I challenged him to a duel!”

Eric laughed. “And it’s clear you’re not as strong as you claimed, Mickelson!”

“Please! I’m going easy on you, Reiner!”

Liz glanced back to see Damien walking past the rows of individual desks and towards a table in the back of the room. Knowing him, he would be pulling his laptop from his backpack and setting up to do his homework like he always did during their “club activities”.

Liz sighed, turning back to the arm wrestlers.

“You two are so stupid,” she snapped. “We all know I’m the strongest club member!”

Both immediately started laughing, not even bothering to look at her. She narrowed her eyes before walking past the desks and towards the two. She then grinned as she leaned forward so that her face was only inches away from the side of Vinny’s.

“What’s so funny, friendo?” she asked softly.

He chuckled awkwardly, but before he could respond, Eric spoke.

“You know what? I concede,” he said. “Liz is the strongest member.”

Liz nodded. “Correct, Eric.” Then, she turned and sent a light kick into Vinny’s thigh. It wasn’t enough to hurt him, but it did knock him off his balance enough for Eric to get the upper hand.

“Hey! Cheating! I call cheating! Ref!” he protested, but it was no use.

With the leverage, Eric was able to press his hand into the desk, thus winning the game.

“Victory!” he cheered, jumping to his feet. “Liz may be stronger, however, due to the conditions of the duel, I have proven that I am superior to you.”

“You haven’t proven anything!” Vinny snapped, jumping to his own feet. “I call outside interference! Damien! Back me up here!”

The other boy, who, as Liz predicted, was already typing away on his laptop, didn’t even bother to turn around before replying dryly, “I want nothing to do with this.”

“Oh?” Liz grinned. “Then I guess that means I’m the only other person to be the ref and, you know what Vinny? I declare Eric’s victory fair.”

“Bias! We have a biased ref!” the blonde boy shouted. “Justice for Vinny! Justice!”

“Eh, you’re just bitter you lost!” Eric declared.

Liz laughed, watching the interactions between the two with a warm feeling in her chest. She was well aware of how the rest of the school saw them—that they were a bunch of occultist weirdos who were better avoided. Yet, she had always been okay with that. She loved hanging around them and watching dumb interactions. To her, it was the best part of school and the thing she looked forward to every day. The Magic Club was weird and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Well, whatever!” Eric said loudly, cutting off Vinny’s protests. “We can discuss the matter another time! For now, it’s time to begin the first meeting of the Magical and Other Anomalies Investigation Team for Junior Year!”

The Magical and Other Anomalies Investigation Team—or MOAIT as Vinny kept trying to call them—was Eric’s name for the club. The only reason they were officially called the Magic Club was because their supervisor immediately shot down Eric’s idea. Therefore, the boy decided that “Magic Club” would be their cover name to keep anybody from learning about what they were “really up to”.

Not like he doesn’t take every chance to tell people though, Liz thought with amusement.

“Damien!” Eric called out. “Get over here! You can’t skip our first meeting!”

“Why not?” he replied. “I mean, I really don’t feel like listening to another proposal from Vinny...like every other meeting.”

“Nope,” the blonde boy immediately chimed in. “Not this time, actually. Eric’s the one who has something for us.”

Liz frowned in surprise and even noticed her boyfriend’s typing stop for a moment.

That’s surprising, she thought. Eric never starts one of these. He’s always said he wouldn’t unless he found something he genuinely believed was magic.

“And what have you got for us?” Damien asked after a moment, turning around in his chair so he could see them.

Eric grinned, reaching into the pocket of his pants.

“This,” he replied dramatically before pulling his hand out and revealing a familiar orange gemstone clutched in his hand.

Damien instantly narrowed his eyes while Vinny simply grinned as if having already known what Eric wanted to talk about.

“Hey, that’s the thing from the beach,” Liz said. “You think that’s magical, Eric?”

He nodded sternly. “I do. In fact, I’m sure of it.”

Damien sighed, pushing his chair back and reluctantly getting to his feet. “Fine. I’ll humor this one,” he said, making his way over to stand beside Liz. “What’s so special about that gem, Eric?”

The other boy smirked before turning and beginning to pace around the room, no doubt for dramatic effect. “Well, you see, ever since we found this little talisman at the beach, I’ve felt something off about it. There’s energy flowing through it that I’m certain is not of this world.”

“Energy?” Liz inquired. “What do you mean? Like...did it accidentally recharge your phone or...?”

“Here. Feel for yourself,” he replied, turning and tossing the stone over the desks and toward her.

His throw was significantly inaccurate and she only barely caught it by stumbling past a few desks and clutching it against her chest. She glared at him before looking down at her hand. Right as she was about to reply with snarky retort, she furrowed her brow. It was faint, but she couldn’t deny that she felt a warmth emanating from the stone.

“You feel it, don’t you?” Vinny pressed, his eyes wide with excitement. “I held it earlier and I could totally feel something off about it.”

She hesitated, unsure of how to respond.

Ever since the formation of the club, Liz had known Vinny and Eric both genuinely believed in magic. Their search for the supernatural wasn’t a joke to them. She also knew that Damien never once humored the idea. He was in the club simply because of his close relationship with the two boys. As for her, she’d never been sure. She didn’t want to completely write off the idea, but also knew the unlikeliness that they were right.

So what is this? There is something weird about this gem...but I don’t think I can just call it magic.

She finally shrugged, turning and tossing the gem back over to Eric, who caught it easily.

“I mean, I guess I can feel something,” she replied. “But it’s been in your pocket all day so that’s probably why it’s so warm.”

Eric scowled. “Ah, come on, Liz! There’s clearly a difference here!”

“Eric, let me see it,” Damien prompted, holding his hand out. “And don’t throw—”

Before the boy had finished talking, Eric had already tossed the stone Damien’s way. He reacted with surprising reflexes, begrudgingly catching the stone with his right hand before staring down at it. The room was silent for a moment with even Liz curious to know what his reaction would be.

“She’s right,” he finally said, placing the stone down on the desk in front of him. “There’s no other reason it would be warm aside from body heat.”

Eric sighed, walking forward and picking the stone up. “You two have no imagination,” he said with clear disappointment in his tone. “But you’ll see. Vinny and I will investigate it’s properties and we’ll show you that there’s power within this thing.”

Vinny nodded his agreement. “Damn right we will!”

“Sure,” Damien muttered. “You go right ahead and do that.”

Knock! Knock! Knock!

All four of them turned to stare at the door to the club room in surprise, though Liz didn’t miss Eric hurriedly shoving the stone back into his pocket.

“Come on in,” Damian called out.

Moments later, the door was pushed open and in walked the familiar features of their club advisor, one of the school’s literature teachers, Mr. Lowe. He was fairly short for a man, being the shortest person in the room, with a balding head and circular glasses. In addition, he wore his typical black suit and gray slacks with his obnoxiously bright blue tie.

“Ah, Mr. Lowe!” Vinny exclaimed cheerfully. “It’s good to see you again!”

Lowe looked around the room, eyeing each one of them with unconcealed irritation, as if he’d hoped they would have disbanded the club over the summer.

“Yes, yes,” he grumbled. “It’s good to see you, too, Mr. Mickelson. Now...” Lowe didn’t move from his spot at the door, clearly not wanting to remain in the room for very long. “...I was just stopping by to remind you all about club rush.”

Liz frowned. “Already? I mean, I guess it’s important, but club rush isn’t for, like, two weeks, right?”

“That’s correct,” Lowe growled. “However, I don’t need a repeat of last year so I thought I’d just remind you all right away that, since you’re technically a club, you have to attend club rush.”

Liz and Damien exchanged guilty glances, recalling the previous year when the four of them had opted not to bother setting up a booth since they were all fully aware that nobody else would ever want to join their club. Lowe had been furious at them so they knew skipping out wasn’t an option for the next rush.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Eric replied casually. “We won’t be making that mistake again. After all, we’re juniors this year! Soon enough, we’ll be graduated and then there won’t be anybody else to continue the club after we’re gone.”

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“Exactly!” Vinny agreed. “We gotta start snagging freshmen if we want the MOAIT to live on!”

Lowe grimaced. “Oh yes. Wouldn’t want this club to die, now would we?”

The sarcasm in his voice was painfully obvious but, if Vinny and Eric noticed, they chose to ignore it.

“Well, regardless,” the teacher continued, turning to address Damien specifically. “Please don’t forget. Just make a poster or something. As long as you’re there, nobody gets in trouble.”

Damien nodded with a smile. “Don’t worry about it, Mr. Lowe. I’ll make sure everything gets done.”

“Thank you, Mr. Clark,” he replied dryly. “Anyway, that’s all. Continue on with...whatever you’re doing.”

The four of them watched the older man leave, watching as the door closed behind him.

“Pleasant, as always,” Vinny quipped. “Truly, you’ll never find a man who loves his job as much as him.”

Damien snorted in amusement. “Well, I guess we have to figure out club rush, too. Don’t suppose you guys have an idea for that?”

Eric immediately grinned mischievously, leading Liz to assume whatever he was going to suggest would be a bad idea. But before he could say anything, Damien quickly cut him off.

“On second thought, we’ll just do what Lowe suggested and make a poster.”

The look of disappointment on Eric’s and Vinny’s faces were almost pitiful.

***

Lillian Harper sprinted around a corner and found herself on the road that led towards the school’s front gates. She grinned, glancing over her shoulder to see a few of her teammates not too far behind. She was still in the lead and she intended to keep it that way. Speeding up for one last sprint, Lilly rushed through the gates and then slowed her pace until she came to a stop right in front of her coach, breathing hard from the run.

“Eighteen minutes, forty seconds,” the tall woman said as she looked down at her yellow stopwatch. “Great job, Harper!”

Lilly nodded her thanks as she turned and walked over to one of the tables situated around the courtyard’s lawn. She listened as Coach Francis shouted out the times for those behind her, the girl finding herself thrilled to have been able to outrun the others on her first day.

I got barely over a six minute mile, she thought with satisfaction. Not a bad way to start the season.

When she arrived at cross country after school was over, she’d been surprised to find that the team wasn’t very big, consisting of only fifteen of them—nine guys and six girls. However, that was something she was grateful for as it only meant she didn’t have as many people to try and interact with. Coach Francis was a nice enough woman and was friendly when Lilly was forced to introduce herself.

For the first day of practice, they had been told to run around the neighborhood outside of the school ten times since that distance added up to about a 5K. The coach wanted them to run it like it was an actual race so she could see where they all stood at the beginning of the season. Since they were setting their base times, Lilly wanted to make as good of a first impression as she could so she went all out.

And I’d say I did a pretty good job, she thought to herself.

She immediately got to doing her cooldown stretches around the table, wanting to be able and ready to go home once the coach gave the go-ahead. She could feel the stares of some of the other team members which she had expected given that she was a new student who beat all their times. Her logical side had told her not to go all out since she knew it would draw attention to herself, but her competitive side had really wanted to kick all their asses.

Just don’t talk to me, she prayed. Please just leave me alone.

“Well, that was certainly something.”

Damn it!

At the sound of the obnoxiously nasally voice, Lilly glanced up to see a boy walking towards her, a grin on his face that looked more like a mischievous fifth grader’s than a high schooler’s. His short curly brown hair combined with his slightly too tight black running shorts and shirt only made him look like more of a doofus.

“I’ve never seen Matt get beaten like that,” the boy continued. “I really gotta thank you. He needed his ego beaten down a bit.”

“Hey, that’s rich coming from you, Jay!” came the irritated shout of a blonde teammate, a boy Lilly remembered thinking was the popular one of the team given how much he had been talking with everybody before practice started. He’d also been the one giving Lilly the hardest chase during the run.

The boy talking to her, evidently named Jay, scoffed before turning his attention back to Lilly. “So, I’ve never seen you before. You’re either new to the school or you’re just new to cross country and seeing your time, I’m gonna guess it’s the first one.”

Lilly nodded softly. “Yeah. I’m new.”

“Well then,” he replied, sticking his sweaty hand out to her. “It’s nice to meet you, Speedy. I’m Jay.”

Once again irritated at being forced to shake somebody’s hand and cringing at the stupid nickname, Lilly reluctantly reached out and shook it.

“Lilly,” she muttered. “Nice to meet you, too.”

“Oi, Jay. Leave the poor girl alone.”

Sighing inwardly, Lilly glanced over Jay’s shoulder to see Matt heading towards them. Unlike the rather creepy looking Jay, Lilly found Matt to be quite handsome and charming in the few conversations she overheard. She could tell why he was as popular as he was.

“That was really awesome,” the boy said, turning to her. “Honestly, I’m impressed. With someone as fast as you on the team, we’ll be set to get at least you into Sections.”

“Uh...thanks,” she replied softly, irritated at all the attention despite knowing she brought it on herself.

“So I imagine you ran at your old school?” Matt went on. “Or did you just join on a whim?”

Lilly nodded. “Uh...yeah. I ran at my old school. I’ve been running since middle school, actually.”

“Clearly,” Jay said wryly.

“Alright everybody! If you’ve done your stretches then you can go home!” Coach Francis called out. “We’ll meet again after school tomorrow. Have a nice rest of your night!”

Thank god!

“Well, I guess I’ve gotta get going,” Matt said. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow. It was nice meeting you, Lilly.” With a wave, the blonde boy turned and hurried back to join up with a group of kids heading back into the school.

Lilly watched him go, thankful that she was given an out, before turning back to look at Jay. The boy hadn’t moved and didn’t seem like he had any plans to.

“W-well,” she began. “I guess I’m gonna get going too. It was nice meeting you.”

The boy glanced back at her and smirked. “You’re just gonna leave? You know poor ol’ Alice is gonna be sad if you don’t stay to say bye.”

Lilly raised her eyebrows in surprise. “W-what makes you say that?”

“Oh, playing dumb, are we?” Jay shrugged. “That’s not very nice. I was under the impression you two were getting along. But maybe I misjudged.”

The girl sighed. She had been unfortunate enough to share five out of her six classes with Alice Mendez, the girl she had met in first period. She was nice enough but was overall too peppy for Lilly and, for some reason, the girl had taken an interest in her. Even though Lilly suspected Alice was just trying to help her feel comfortable in a new school and she appreciated the gesture, just being in her presence was exhausting. Finding out she was also on the cross country team was just salt in the wound.

However, because she knew she at least owed the girl a thanks for trying to help, Lilly begrudgingly decided to wait for Alice to finish the run. Unfortunately, Jay seemed perfectly content hanging out with her and so, she was condemned to more socializing on top of an already too full day.

“So, Harper,” the boy began. “Why’d you move out here? Aside from the beach, this town doesn’t have much going for it.”

Lilly grimaced, her emotions conflicted between not wanting to talk and not wanting to be rude.

“My dad got a job out here,” she replied. “So we moved.”

“Ah, I guess that makes sense,” Jay said with a chuckle. “Emoria Co. I’m guessing?”

Lilly nodded.

“Figures,” he continued. “There’s not any other jobs worth moving for other than those bastards. My mom works for them, too. She hates it though. I wish your dad luck.”

“Well...thanks, I guess,” she muttered.

He glanced over at her with a cocked eyebrow. “You know, you could stand to talk a little louder. I can hardly hear you with how soft you talk. It makes me feel like you don’t want to talk to me.”

Well, at least he’s not totally oblivious, she thought.

Lilly was about to open her mouth to reply when Jay suddenly spoke again.

“Ah, there she is!”

The girl turned her attention to the school gates to see Alice and another girl with glasses and her hair tied up in a ponytail run through, heading straight for the coach. Lilly and Jay watched the two girls silently as they got their times. Alice then looked around the courtyard, spotted the two of them, then beckoned for her friend to follow her.

Oh great...another person.

“You guys waited!” Alice cheered happily as the two girls approached. “And I guess you’ve met Jay, Lilly.”

The statement was directed at her but the boy responded before she could even think up a reply.

“Yeah, she’s a nice girl,” he said. “I think we’ll get along great.”

Lilly almost rolled her eyes at both Jay’s unlikely prediction and the fact that he was talking like she wasn’t there. Alice either didn’t notice or didn’t care so it was the girl Lilly hadn’t met yet that spoke next.

“So what were your guys’ times?” she asked. “I know you’re always fast, Jay, but Lilly, you took off so quickly I hardly ever saw you.”

So she already knows my name, she thought with mild confusion. I guess Alice told her about me, too?

“Oh, she was crazy fast,” Jay said. “She even beat Matt by a good few seconds, if you can believe it.”

“Wait really?” Alice exclaimed, turning to look at Lilly with awe. “Now that’s impressive. He’s been the king of the team since Freshman Year.”

“I guess we’ve got a challenger for him then,” the other girl said excitedly. Then, as if realizing something, she hurriedly stuck out her hand. “I’m Ellie, by the way. It just occurred to me that I didn’t introduce myself.”

Great...another hand.

Nevertheless, like every other reluctant introduction of the day, Lilly shook her hand.

“I’m Lilly...but I guess you already knew that.”

“Yup! Alice was telling me about you at lunch,” she replied, confirming Lilly’s earlier suspicions. “She said you’re from out of town. Where are you from?”

“Uh...Aster,” she stuttered. “It’s a smallish town up in Norbury.”

“Oh, so she’s a northern girl,” Jay said wryly. “Well, I’m sure you’ve been enjoying summer here then.”

“Uh, yeah. It’s been hot,” Lilly whispered.

The group went silent for a moment and she prayed that the conversation was finally over. However, possibly noticing Lilly’s discomfort, Alice came to her rescue.

“Well, Coach said we can go home so why don’t we start heading out,” she suggested.

Jay shrugged. “Sure. No point in hanging around here anymore, right?”

The other three turned and began making their way back toward the school. Lilly lagged behind for a moment, tempted to just go straight home and get changed there. After all, she saw no point in putting her uniform back on if she was just going to put on her usual clothes when she got home and if she did just leave, she would be free of the others.

“Actually, I’m just gonna head out,” she called over to them.

Alice looked back over her shoulder and frowned with a look that almost seemed disappointed. “Oh, okay. I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.”

“Sure. You, too,” Lilly replied.

Both Jay and Ellie waved bye too before the three turned and went into the school. Lilly sighed, thankful to be free of the constant interacting, before turning to grab her backpack off of one of the nearby tables and begin her walk home.

***

The elevator taking her up to her apartment building’s third floor felt like it was taking forever as Lilly wanted the day to finally be over. When it finally stopped and the doors opened with a ding, she hurried down the hall and pulled her keys out of her backpack. Once she had the door unlocked, she went inside and found herself instantly surprised. She knew her mom would be home but had expected Alexa to still be at dance practice and her father to be at work. And while there was no sign of her sister, she was taken off guard by the sight of David Harper, her dad, casually sitting at the kitchen table with his usual laid-back smile.

“Welcome home, kiddo,” he greeted cheerfully. “How was your first day at school?”

Her father wasn’t old by any means but his hair was starting to show signs of graying. Paired with his glasses and his fairly round belly, the man had the look of a jolly old guy that always made even the generally apathetic Lilly smile.

“It was fine,” she replied, walking over to dump her backpack into one of the chairs. She noticed her mother in the kitchen working on what she realized was a lasagna for dinner. “Nothing to report really,” she added.

“Nothing?” her father shook his head. “What about how you liked your teachers? Or how about cross country? Was that fun? Did you make any friends?”

She briefly considered her interactions with Alice before deciding that their relationship couldn’t be counted as friendship.

“Nope. No friends, really. My teachers were fine and I liked cross country,” she said.

“Did you kick all the other kids’ asses?” he asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“David,” her mother admonished but both father and daughter ignored her.

“Yup,” Lilly said with a smug grin. “I even beat the team’s supposed ‘king’ by fiveish seconds.”

“That’s my girl! Already showing those other chumps who the real queen is.”

The two of them laughed and Lilly felt her mood increase just a little bit more as she joked around with her dad.

“By the way, Dad,” she began as her laughter gradually subsided. “What’re you doing home already? I didn’t think you’d be back til six.”

The man shrugged. “Well, it was my daughters’ first day of school. I figured I’d beg my boss to let me off an hour early so I could be here when you get back.” He then laughed guiltily. “Not to mention I wanted to be back for your mom’s famous lasagna.”

Lilly eyed him skeptically. “Something tells me that last part was the real reason.”

“Well, can you blame me, Lil’?” he asked. “Last time, you and Alexa devoured the whole thing before I could get home.”

“Ha! Stop exaggerating,” she replied. “We left you at least a quarter of it. It just somehow wasn’t enough for you.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Lilly laughed before glancing up at her mom on the other side of the island. The woman looked like she had something to say but didn’t want to interrupt them so the girl made eye contact with her and tilted her head in curiosity.

“Something up, Mom?” she inquired.

Nora Harper sighed. “No, not particularly. I just wanted to ask you something real quick.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Well, I know it’s your first day of school and all but Renee called earlier and said that her usual babysitter canceled last minute tonight...”

Lilly grimaced. She knew exactly where her mother was going. As much as the girl desperately wanted to decline and spend the rest of the day lazing about, she also knew she’d feel guilty for the next week if she left Renee and Natalie hanging.

“Yeah, fine,” she replied begrudgingly. “I’ll watch Natalie.”

Her mother smiled with clear relief. “Thank you, sweetheart. And don’t worry, we’ll save some dinner for you.”

Lilly snorted, eyeing her Dad teasingly. “Not with him around, you won’t. I’ll have one piece left, max.”

“Hey!” Her dad protested. “What kinda glutton do you take me for?”

The girl shrugged, grabbing her backpack off the chair and turning to head toward the hall.

“I don’t think I need to answer that, Dad.”

***

After changing out of her cross country clothes and into a loose gray t-shirt and brown shorts, Lilly bid her parents goodbye and made her way down to the second floor of the apartment building where the Hill family lived. She had made the trip a few times since moving to Wilham as she had been a babysitter for the family multiple times over summer. Of course, that wasn’t to say she did it willingly. Her mother had essentially guilted her into going the first time but, much to her surprise, she found Natalie to be fun to hang out with and so she was quicker to babysit the next few times they asked her.

Though, the money definitely makes it worthwhile, too, she added as an afterthought.

She grinned as she walked down the hall and stopped in front of apartment 2-G. Lilly reached forward and knocked on the door a few times before stepping back and waiting. However, Renee must’ve been nearby as the door opened almost immediately to reveal the short, brown-haired woman standing before her.

“Ah, Lilly,” she said with clear relief in her tone. “Thank you for coming. I know today was your first day of school and all so I was really hoping I could get that other babysitter.”

“Mrs. Hill, it’s all good!” she hurriedly said. “You don’t have to explain or anything. I like babysitting Natalie anyway.”

Renee smiled. “You’re such a sweet girl. Thank you. Now, come on in.”

The woman beckoned for Lilly to come inside and the girl obliged, stepping into the rather narrow entryway. She slipped her shoes off by the door and followed Renee further inside to where the living room was. The room was fairly small, consisting of a ragged old green couch, a small TV mounted on the wall, and a coffee table beside the couch where Lilly immediately spotted a little girl brushing the hair of a doll.

“Heyo, Natalie,” Lilly greeted cheerfully.

The little girl’s head jolted up and she turned her head in Lilly’s direction, a wide smile spreading across her face.

“Lilly!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t know you were coming today.”

“The other sitter had to cancel,” Renee explained to her daughter. “So Lilly was kind enough to come by and watch you. I want you to behave for her while I’m out, okay?”

“Okay!” Natalie said.

The little girl then reached her small hands out into the air, grasping at nothing and Lilly immediately knew to step forward and grasp them with her own hands. Natalie smiled then, making it clear how excited she was.

“We’re gonna have a fun afternoon, yeah, Nat’?” Lilly asked.

Natalie immediately nodded. “Yup! Can you brush my hair like you usually do?”

Lilly nodded. “Of course I can.”

Renee watched the two with a smile though Lilly could tell it was somewhat strained. The girl knew that it wasn’t due to any lack of trust. In fact, Renee had expressed how comfortable she was leaving her daughter with Lilly multiple times. Instead, the nervousness to leave her daughter was simply due to Renee being the single mother of a blind girl. Lilly could only imagine how much Renee worried about her daughter and it was one of the reasons the girl was always so willing to help.

“Alright, I guess I’ll get going,” Renee said after a moment. “Don’t forget to do your homework, Natalie.”

“I won’t,” the little girl replied.

Lilly smiled up at the woman, wanting to comfort her as best she could. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Hill. I’ll make sure she gets it done.”

She saw a small bit of the worry in the woman’s eyes ease up. “Thank you, Lilly. I’ll be back around seven. I just have a few errands to run. There’s leftover casserole in the fridge if either of you get hungry.”

“Okay, thanks,” Lilly replied.

Renee quickly bid them both goodbye, giving her daughter a kiss on the forehead before grabbing her purse from off the couch and heading back to the front door. Once her mother was gone, Natalie carefully got to her feet and headed down the hall in the back of the room. Lilly smirked, knowing what the girl was up to and finding her suspicions confirmed when the girl returned carrying a bright pink hairbrush.

“So, what homework did your mom assign for today?” Lilly asked as she took the brush. She then sat down between the coffee table and the couch, helping Natalie to sit down in her lap.

“We’re doing math,” the ten-year-old replied.

“Oh? What kind of math?” she inquired, taking the girl’s long, silky brown hair and beginning to run the brush through it.

“Multiplying and dividing fractions,” Natalie said. “I’m still not very good at it so Mom wants me to practice even more.”

Lilly nodded. “Ah. In that case, I’ll see what I can do to help. I may not be too much of a math whiz but I think I can handle a few fractions.”

“I’d hope so,” the little girl teased. “I’d be worried about you if you were in high school and couldn’t multiply fractions.”

Lilly narrowed her eyes, always finding the girl’s teasing to be a mix of amusing and adorable.

“Yes, I can multiply,” she said. “Division, on the other hand...”

Natalie began to laugh, causing Lilly to join in. Despite being exhausted from a long first day of school, she still found herself enjoying hanging out with the little girl. She was intelligent and clever despite her disability and Lilly found herself in awe of her, despite being six years older. Babysitting her was one of the only good parts about their move and she was grateful her mother and Renee had become such good friends as quick as they had.

Lilly smiled. “Alright then. Why don’t we get started?”