Lying on the grass
Breathe in. Breathe out. Lilly sprawled out on her back on the soft grass near the back of the music hall. Barely anyone knew this spot, and it was a perfect place for the quietest Bella to come to shift through her confusing thoughts and just be alone, at least for a while. As the faint breeze died down, and the silence became unnerving, even for her, Lilly quietly began to click her tongue on the lid of her mouth, simple beatboxing to break the silence.
"Hey, you've been practicing." Lilly's wide eyes snapped open to see Donald looking over her, his boyish grin upside-down. Lilly tried to shrug, but failed as she was lying down.
"I exercise my mind by plotting the murder of my friends." She whispered softly.
"Sweet. How would you kill me then?" Donald took a seat on the grass next to her.
"I'd poison you; you'd never notice. Aubrey I would stab."
"Hmm, I'd help you there." Donald shrugged off his backpack and lay back, looking up at the clouds but stealing glances whenever he dared at the girl beside him.
"I know you're looking at me." Damn. Busted.
"Hey, you're pretty, so why shouldn't I?" Donald responded, trying to keep up his cool-guy appearance even though Lilly made it so bloody hard to do so. She was just so...out there, he somehow felt like he didn't have to act or perform and could just relax.
Lilly didn't seem to have an answer to his words, in fact she felt a tiny blush creep to her cheeks and focussed on the sky again, resuming her soft beatboxing. Donald listened for a few bars, then joined in, adding in the off-beats with broken hisses and tugging his backpack closer to beat a bit of a rhythm on it as well. This suddenly gave Lilly an idea, and she sat up. "What's up?" Donald sat up as well.
"Watch." Lilly reached to her own bag and pulled out a plastic cup, which she set on a folder. Then she glanced up at Donald and whispered, "Becca showed us this. I thought you might be interested."
She clapped twice, beat the cup three times, clapped once more, then moved the cup to the right. Fascinated by both the pulse pattern being created and by Lilly herself while she was making it, Donald leant closer. Lilly had finished the sequence and was halfway through it again. She clapped, held the side of the cup and hit it against her palm, tapped it on the ground, hit her palm again, somehow swapping the cup from one hand to another, and finished with both palm and cup on the ground. She glanced up at him again, a question clear in her eyes.
"That's pretty cool." Donald's frowned slightly as he thought. "Hey, do it again, just keep at it."
Lilly did so, looking up at the Treblemaker, wondering what he would do. Donald grinned. It was so obvious, wasn't it? The second time she began the sequence, he joined in with the simplest of beats: boom-snap-clap, as it was known. One hit to the chest (boom), both fingers snap (snap), one clap (clap). Two hits to the chest (ba-boom), both fingers snap, clap. Then that was repeated, only followed by snap-boom-snap-clap-ba-boom-snap-clap. Simple once you knew it, and Donald knew it so well he could add some extra beats in. Lilly just gave a small smile, and added in a few extra hits of the cup to match his, and the two were so in sync they could stop at exactly the same time.
"Now that was awesome." Donald grinned.
"I once saw an otter kill someone to protect the hedgehog and hare." Lilly slowly put her cup and folder away, then paused and turned back to Donald, "And can I ask you something?"
"Sure." Donald replied, bemused. Lilly looked at him and the only warning he got was when a tiny smile flashed across her face before she reached over and snatched his glasses away from his face. "Hey! Lilly!" Donald blinked, surprised, and tried to reach out, but he could barely see a thing, let alone where Lilly had darted off to.
"You can't see without them, can you?" he heard Lilly's quiet whispering from in front of him, and he could just about make out her figure standing over him.
"Nope. They're not just fashionable, sweetie, everything's double and blurred right now!"
Lilly knelt in front of him and peered through the glasses. He wasn't lying, his eyesight truly was awful.
"How do you manage like this?" she asked, contemplating whether to hand them back or not. She chose the latter option and wandered in circles around Donald, amused by the way he turned in all directions, trying to find her.
"Lilly...!" he whined, sounding like a five-year-old. "Gimme! I need them!"
"Hmm, really?" Lilly gave a rare barely-audible giggle and sat down again next to him, watching as Donald tried to focus in her direction. He grinned at hearing her chuckle.
"Well no, I can see perfectly fine without them." He responded sarcastically, but he couldn't help chuckling "Lil, can I have them back now? Please?"
"What would you do if I say no?" she teased, enjoying the little game they were playing.
Donald's grin was devious then , and he suddenly pounced forward, knocking Lilly to the ground and pinning her beneath him in an effort to get them back himself. The two struggled for a minute, Lilly attempting to hold the glasses above her head and finding it impossible to suppress her unique laughter, which in turn meant that Donald couldn't help laughing as well.
"Your laugh is like the call of a hungry wildcat." Lilly grinningly mumbled as Donald finally managed to grab her wrist and snatch his glasses back. Donald knew full well he was grinning like an idiot and was so glad of the fact that no-one would see all this as he pushed his glasses back on his face. He suddenly felt the blood rush to his face as he realised the position they were in, and mentally cursed himself for flushing. Lilly was confused by it as well. 'Since when did Donald blush...?' she thought to herself.
"Uh, s-sorry about that.." Donald mumbled with his unusual bashfulness, scrambling to his feet and holding out his hand to help Lilly up.
"It's not the tiniest bit of a problem." Lilly whispered, accepting his hand and getting up. The two began to walk back towards the rest of the world in a silence that wasn't awkward, but seemed to do all the talking for them. They both paused before reaching the music hall, before they had to stop being Lilly and Donald and become the Bella and the Treblemaker, the rivals.
"So..." Donald seemed slightly lost for words, but shot Lilly a sheepish grin. "I know I'm not supposed to say this, but good luck for the finals."
"You too." Lilly replied. She turned to go, when the Treblemaker called her name quietly. She turned back, and Donald quickly darted forward to lift up her fringe and press a hasty kiss to her forehead before he turned and headed towards the Treblemaker's wooden house. He didn't see the smile that lit up Lilly's doll-like face, nor did he see the slight blush that she tried to hide as she headed for rehersals.
A/N: So this is the second in the trilogy...the first being "Upon the Roof" and the third will be up soon!