CHAPTER 10: LIES

'I still can't believe it!' Lily thought to herself as she took books out of her locker and slid them into her bag enthusiastically. Lily had always been much more cheerful than the average person, but she was especially peppy this morning, despite it being a Monday. The reason for the fourteen year-old girl's astonishment was the fact that the night before, her older sister Lynn had finally achieved her dream of winning the Royal Woods Cup. Lily had gone to bed before the end of the race, and was a bit disappointed she didn't get to see Lynn triumphantly cross the finish line and celebrate the victory with her family. But none of that took away from how excited she was about Lynn's win. Besides, her parents had told her they'd tape the rest of the race for her to watch later. Then, as she got out the last of the books she needed for her first few classes, she remembered that Lynn hadn't been the only Loud to compete; Lana had also driven in the race. While waiting for her bus stop earlier with her big brother Lincoln, Lincoln had informed Lily that Lana had been hospitalized due to a wreck she was involved in. Upon first hearing this, Lily had started to panic, but Lincoln assured her Lana was fine, and even promised to take Lily to visit her in the hospital after she picked her up. Though she was obviously still a bit concerned that Lana was hurt, she didn't let that spoil her mood.

Once she had all the books she needed, she zipped up her bag and looked around the busy hallway. Most of the kids were already in there way to their classes, so nobody stopped to talk to her about her sister like she had expected. Lily then pulled out her phone and checked the time; 8:58. 'Already?'

Lily thought as she shoved her phone into her bag, 'I better hurry up.' She threw her bag around one shoulder and started off for her first class, which began in two minutes. Luckily, the energy from her happiness about Lynn fueled her speed, as she power-walked down the hall, adorning a full smile. But as she made her way to class, Lily noticed other students looking at her strangely. Some that were with friends would glance quickly at her as she walked by, then quietly murmur something to the person next to them, all while still nervously looking at her. 'Okay, that's a bit weird.' Lily said to herself. But then she thought. 'They're probably just talking about how MY sister won the Royal Woods Cup!'

When Lily finally got to the threshold of her first class's room, it looked to her as if the class had only just started. So she had been a tad bit late. She saw her math teacher, Mrs. Andrews, scribbling something in the chalkboard in the front of the room, while her classmates looked like they were all copying down whatever she was writing on loose leaf. None of them noticed her at first. Then, Lily cleared her throat and said out loud, "Excuse me, Mrs. Andrews?" Instantly Mrs. Andrews (and the rest of the class) stopped writing. Then, they all turned to stare at her, but in a very similar way to that of the kids in the hallway; their expressions all had almost a bit of… nervousness and confusion in them.

"I'm so sorry I'm late," Lily told her teacher apologetically.

"Oh! Lily!" Mrs. Andrews replied, laughing timidly. "I… didn't expect you to show up today."

Lily wasn't sure what her teacher meant by this. After all, it was a school day.

"It's a Monday morning," Lily said slowly, giving Mrs. Andrews an odd look. "Why wouldn't I be here?"

There was an awkward silence, and Mrs. Andrews looked down at the floor for a moment or two, seeming like she was racking her brain for something to answer Lily with. Finally, she just looked back up and tensely stated, "Um… never mind, Lily. You're excused. Now please take your seat."

Lily nodded happily, unnerved by the uncomfortable ordeal that had just occurred and walked over to her seat, which was located on the far left side of the wide room. But as soon as she sat down, the young artist noticed that all of her classmates' gazes shifted away from her as if she were Medusa.

'Why are they all purposefully avoiding eye contact with me?' Lily thought as she pulled out her math notes.

Lily didn't think much of her classmates' and teachers' odd behavior for the rest of the class, but to her dismay, the same thing continued once her first period ended. Out in the halls, whenever she greeted people she was usually friendly with, they would either ignore her or act like they didn't hear her. Every once in a while someone would just give her a weird look, reply with a timid "Oh… um, hey", and quickly walk off. Her other classes were no different; no one talked to her, and her teachers never called on her, even if she had her hand up. Lily had gone to the bathroom to check herself in the mirror and looked fine, so it wasn't like she had something on her face. So why was everyone acting so weird? Why were they avoiding her like the plague? Lily was usually really sociable, and her big sister had just won the Royal Woods Cup, for Christ's sake! She had expected at least a few people to want to talk to her about that, but instead it seemed like nobody wanted to even look at her. As the day went on, Lily found herself desperately wanting to find out what was going on, because her suspicion was making it hard to focus in class.

At lunch, Lily found herself sitting alone up against a wall in the cafeteria, working on a pencil sketch in her notebook while eating a sandwich she'd brought from home. As she worked on the drawing, she found her confusion about everyone's behavior towards her much more distracting than the noise of everyone else in the noisy room . 'Seriously, did I do something?' she thought as she tried tried to pay attention to her sketch. She was so deep in thought that at first she almost didn't hear a voice above say, "Hey, Lily." Lily looked up and saw a skinny, red-headed girl standing over her, lunchbox in hand; it was her best friend Katie. Lily didn't notice the melancholy tone of Katie's voice at first; she was just excited that someone was finally talking to her. "Hi Katie!" Lily responded cheerfully, her face lighting up.

"Um… can I sit with you?" Katie asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"Of course!" Lily said, setting her notebook and lunch to the side, "you don't even have to ask!"

Why was her best friend asking for permission to sit with her? And why did she seem uneasy too?

When the red-head sat down next to her, Lily prepared to tell her about Lynn, and ask why everyone was being strange whenever she was around, but before she could, Katie sighed and said in a somber voice, "Lily… I just want you to know… I'm really sorry."

This caught Lily's attention. "Huh?" She asked, "Sorry about what?"

Katie was silent for a moment but then answered, "About your sister."

Lily assumed that her friend was talking about Lana, since she was the one that had been hospitalized the previous night. But Lana was okay. Katie probably just didn't know.

"About Lana? There's nothing to be sorry about," Lily told her, smiling, "her injuries weren't all that severe. She's fine."

Katie looked surprised by this, and gave Lily a puzzled look. "Really?" Katie asked. She paused awkwardly before continuing, "I heard on TV that she… you know… died."

Lily felt a chill go down her spine at the word died. Lana? Dead? That was ridiculous.

"Died?" Lily inquired, chuckling nervously, "Where'd you hear that?"

"On the news this morning," Katie replied.

Hearing this hit Lily like a punch in the stomach. The news? Was Lana really… no. If Lana had been killed in the accident, she would have been told. Though she was technically the baby in the family, she was almost in high school; her family wouldn't try to keep something like that a secret from her. They would treat her like the young adult she was and let her know.

"You can't trust the news these days, Katie," Lily explained firmly, "Lana's not dead; if she was I'd know, and I definitely wouldn't be here. In fact, my brothers going to drive me over to the hospital after he picks me up today so I can visit her."

At first Katie was speechless, but then opened her lunchbox and smiled uneasily. "Uh, okay… I guess that's good news," she said to Lily, starting to eat. Lily also picked her lunch back up and continued to eat. But as she did, the thought of what Katie had said still lingered in her mind. Lincoln had promised her that Lana was okay. He had always been an amazing big brother and was always truthful. He wouldn't lie to her about something like this… would he?

"Hello?" Lincoln said tiredly as he held his phone up to his ear. He was sitting in his car in the parking lot of Royal Woods Elementary, waiting to pick up his fourteen year-old sister Lily when she was let out of school. "Hi Linc," Lincoln heard the voice of his sister Lucy say.

"Hey Lucy," Lincoln replied, "Have you guys finished up at the apartment?"

"Yeah, we're driving back to the house right now."

Lincoln waited a few seconds before asking, "So… did you guys find a will?"

"Yeah, actually," Lucy responded sadly.

"Really? What's it say?"

Lucy then began to read the will to him. Though Lincoln obviously couldn't see the paper, he could tell that Lana had written it. She would be the one to use profanity in a serious document, and to disregard her belongings, caring more about her pets. That'sthe kind of person Lana was; and the kind Lincoln would never see again. By the time Lucy had finished, Lincoln felt a lump in his throat as he tried to swallow. 'Don't start crying again,' he told himself, 'not now.'

Managing to suppress his pain, he said, "I'm not surprised. That's sounds like what she would've wanted."

"It does," Lucy said. Then, changing the subject, she asked him, "So where are you?"

"Picking up Lily," he answered, looking out the car window. The sky was still overcast and gloomy looking (matching with his mood), and he could see that students were starting to pour out of the front doors of the school. Lily would be here any minute.

"You didn't tell her, did you?" Lucy asked.

"No," he replied shortly, "But I did have to lie to her and say that Lana was only in the hospital."

Lincoln then turned to look out the window once again. He saw a blonde girl in a white shirt and a blue skirt walking towards his car: Lily. "I gotta go, Lucy. Lily's coming," he told Lucy quickly.

"Okay," she said, "See you back at the house."

She hung up, and Lincoln slid his phone back into his pocket while simultaneously rolling the window down and waving at Lily. A few moments later, his little sister opened the door and climbed into the backseat, setting her bag next to her. "Hey Lily," Lincoln said, briefly looking back at her before starting up the car. "How was school?"

"It was… great," Lily answered, noticeably less enthusiastically than usual.

"That's good to hear," he remarked as he pulled out of the busy parking lot and out onto the main road.

After a few minutes of silent driving, Lincoln asked Lily what she did at school.

"Oh… you know, the usual," Lily replied. There was another minute or two of silence before Lincoln heard her ask, "Lincoln… Lana's fine, right?"

Lincoln had really hoped Lana wouldn't come up on the ride home, but he kept a straight face and said, "Of course of she is."

"Ok, good," Lily said in return, "because at lunch today one of my friends said she heard from the news that Lana was dead! How crazy is that?"

Lincoln had to focus really hard to keep himself from swerving off the road after he heard this.

He had been so busy wallowing in his own misery that he'd forgotten that the Royal Woods Cup was a big deal for the town. Almost everyone watched it. So naturally somebody at Lily's school would have said something about it. 'You fucking idiot!' Lincoln yelled at himself subconsciously.

"Well, it was a chaotic night," he told the fourteen year-old, "I'm not surprised it was misreported."

"Huh," Lily uttered, falling quiet again.

But then after a minute or two, she suddenly said, "Hey, wait. This isn't the way to the hospital."

"What do you mean?" Lincoln asked in a perplexed tone.

"You promised that you would take me to see Lana in the hospital after school," she explained.

Lincoln was caught off-guard by this. He had completely forgotten what he had said earlier. He managed to reply, "Um… you see Lily… Lana's crash last night was pretty bad. She might not be in a good enough condition to see anyone yet."

"Wait," Lily said a bit louder, "you said this morning that she only suffered minor injuries."

Lincoln was starting to panic. He was speechless. "Um…" he muttered, trying to think of something to say.

"Lincoln, is she… dead?" he heard her say, her voice trailing off a bit at the end.

"No, Lily!" he responded quickly.

"Then let me go see her like you promised I could," Lily demanded, her voice growing louder.

"Lily, listen to me, I-"

"BULLSHIT!" Lily suddenly yelled angrily, "I'm not a little fucking girl anymore, Lincoln! Stop lying to me!"

Lincoln was at a loss for words. He looked up into the rearview mirror and his eyes met Lily's. She was growing red, and looked like she was struggling not to cry.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me Lana's okay," Lily told him, her voice wobbling.

Lincoln looked down. He was cornered, caught in a lie. There was no use in hiding the truth from his little sister anymore; he had to come clean.

He pulled off the main road and into a vacant lot behind an old abandoned store. "Get out of the car," he told Lily flatly when the car came to a stop. He slowly stepped out of the vehicle. Lily followed, getting out and staring up at Lincoln. It was almost like one of those old western movies, where two gunslingers met in the middle of town and stared each other down. But Lincoln did feel like he was about to shoot his little sister; the news he was about to give her would be like a bullet to her heart.

"Lincoln?" Lily whimpered, continuing to stare up at him. Her lip was quivering and tears were starting to well up in her eyes. Lincoln recognized the look on her face: it was the exact same face that Lily had when she was a baby and was about to throw a tantrum. Lincoln just gazed into her eyes desolately.

"I'm so sorry, Lily."

There in the lot, Lily completely broke down. She fell to her knees screaming in despair, tears flowing down her cheeks like a raging river (similar to how Lincoln had first reacted to Lana's death). Lincoln immediately crouched down beside her and pulled her into an embrace. "Shhhhhh… it's alright," he told her as gently as he could, "it's okay. Everything's gonna be fine." Lincoln felt tears start departing from his own eyes. Now he was lying to himself.

Nothing was fine.

After a few minutes, Lincoln picked his wailing little sister up and put her back into the car, and continued to drive home. For the majority of the way back, Lily was crying loudly, but as they got closer to the house, her cries started to fade. When he finally pulled into the driveway of his parents' house, he looked back and realized that Lily had cried herself to sleep. He sighed, got out, and opened her door. He then picked up and started carrying her to the house like he used to do when she was a baby, her legs on either side of his waist and her face buried in his right shoulder. When he walked through the front door, he saw that Lucy was standing there waiting for him, while his parents and a couple of his other siblings were in the kitchen, examining what appeared to be Lana's will. They all stared at him for a moment, but the look on his face told them all what had happened. Lincoln then took Lily upstairs to her room. He undressed her and quietly laid her in her bed, tucking her in. He brushed a golden lock of hair out of her face and gently kissed her on the forehead. "Sweet dreams, Lily," she told the sleeping girl sadly before heading towards the door. He looked back at Lily one more time before walking out and closing the door behind him, leaving the young weeping angel alone in the dark room.