Candy looked from Jesse to the new arrival, trying to find something more to the story. "She just showed up, and you promised to let her live here while you date her?" she repeated. She did not like this woman on sight, as Candy was sure that this Sirene was one of the many black widow beauties that flocked to surround celebrities. Jesse had never agreed to one before. Why would he start now?

"Yes." Jesse looked fairly annoyed that his friend didn't approve of his decision. He could choose if he wanted to go out for a night without having to worry that Candy would criticize what he did.

"Are you jealous?" Sirene asked, amused by the girl and not bothering to conceal it.

"No. I just find it hard to believe that he would just agree to such a thing. What did you say your name was?" Candy had a reporter's bad feeling about this woman. She had learned to trust the small feeling that her hair was standing on end.

"Sirene Anderson," she said smoothly. Jesse didn't notice that she had given Seple as a name just a minute ago. "I have quite a nice family, in a little hick-town down the coast. I've always been a fan of his."

"I'll just leave you two alone, then," Candy said acidly, sounding disgusted. How could he fall for such a ploy? Just last year one of the few times they shared a joke was when they went over the last desperate attempts for some girl to get a more intimate relation with a star. She thought back, wondering why she had once seen one of those girls leaving in the morning. He wouldn't have done that, would he? She knew the answer, and stormed away, not bothering to look back to see Lily pass by the couple in the hallway. She obviously had not known her 'friend' as well as she thought.

Lily, quiet and mild-mannered Lily, froze at the sight of Sirene. She glared, openly frowning at the new guest as she made a quick series of rude hand gestures. Far from articulate, they were all she could say. She can't do that. It wasn't in the original agreement. With a sudden shock, Lily realized something. There had been nothing prohibiting such a thing. Sirene knew all tricks possible in the deal between them, the only reason Lily had this opportunity.

"Who is this?" Sirene purred, smiling a dangerous smile at Lily. "Timid creature, isn't she? Is she too awestruck to say a word, or just too silly to make a coherent sentence?" She paused, giving her next words greater effect. "My, my- does she always greet new visitors with such hostility?"

"Lily," Jesse warned, not understanding the other meanings that such a glare could take. He saw only bad feelings to his new guest, and assumed there was jealousy over wealth or beauty. He never imagined it could have anything to do with the arm Sirene wrapped around his waist, or some previous meeting. How would a mute girl have met such a debutante? He neglected to remember how confident she had been in meeting him and his more famous father. "This is Sirene."

Lily nodded stiffly. He didn't catch the meaning. She could hardly show what this intruder was through gestures, and he seemed to not notice any cues that fell below direct speech. Even if she could tell him what manner of venom this woman had, she knew that he would not believe her. He saw only what he wanted to see.

"All is forgiven," Sirene said with a false sense of reconciliation. "Yokels always stare so at celebrities. Come on, Jesse. Let's leave the common element to whatever drudgework she has to accomplish. I want to show you the places I know in L.A. before night falls, and we need to get to the club on time to be fashionably late."

Jesse allowed himself to be led away without refuting a single comment from Sirene. Lily watched them go, one fist clenched so tight that her fingernails bit into her hand. Fine. If he felt that way, she could to. She had believed that he was something more than a spoiled brat, for three wasted months. She would find a more rewarding way to spend her time. Storming into the kitchen, she felt no regret as the last of the misshapen cookies were tipped into the garbage bin. They hadn't tasted that good.

That night became the first of many. Lily and Candy were the only people at Maddie's table. Jesse always was at some popular club or another, frequently making news clips with Sirene perpetually wrapped around him, smiling coolly at the cameras. She was photographed for People magazine, and gave falsely sincere advice for the best way to net "a big one." She gained her own following of adoring men, and took delights in publicly humiliating them all.

Candy had started a course at the local college, though she was still working on the last classes in high school. She came over more rarely, but was still present more often at dinner than Jesse. Derek Dalton, when he was home, approved of his son's new lifestyle. That was what Derek had been doing at that age, after all. He always had hoped Jesse would stop thinking of a "serious" career and just join him in acting. His image could use a boost, and he was in the market for a new agent, one to cover them both. Aisling had become more irritating than ever. The signs of yet another Dalton break-up were looming, and she became clingy enough to test the most committed of men. He wasn't one of them, and she soon moved her belongings from the mansion.

Maddie left a single book on Jesse's desk. It was an old book, an anthology of Hans Christian Anderson's works. She left a bookmark to mark one story, one that she felt all should know. If he wanted to ever figure out a few things, books were the only answer. She bet he wouldn't read it, but she had to try. She could have predicted the fate of the book, which was shoved roughly onto an organized shelf.

Lily found it there, and ran a finger along the dusty spine. She paused, reading the story Maddie had marked with a satin ribbon. Maddie had guessed something, then, or had simply enjoyed the tale of The Little Mermaid. Lily, in a last hope, set the book beneath his pillow, where the hard cover would attract attention. She could not have predicted that Sirene would be there in that bed, disdainfully shoving the book to the bottom of his untouched papers from the experiment that Candy felt no further use in sharing. He was far too distracted with parties and Sirene to remember an old friend and the experiment they had worked on together. Lily made no other attempts, instead visiting the room so rarely occupied less and less as time went by.

Lily found a task that took more time from usually empty days. She tended the gardens. A gardener had been hired to water and prune, but he only came once a week. She left alone the self-sufficient ground-cover flowers and perennial shrubs that needed the least of care. The few scraggly palm trees were beyond her help, too high for her to reach. Few things in the sparse garden needed help, or more than a little water now and then. But the roses were hers alone.

Roses were the flowers that signified love, as she heard often. She had no near-magical talent, but did have enough time to coax each bud into blooming. She hummed to them, the closest she could come to singing. Once, she danced around and through them, pirouetting and arabesque-ing like any professional ballerina. She knew each of the plants, with time, and they flowered for her. The first perfect bloom was set in a bowl of water for Maddie, and the smile on the cook's face was more than enough reward for her efforts.

Candy complimented the roses, as well. Derek noticed them after only two weeks. He asked the gardener what had changed, when he saw the old man watering the flowers, and the man had only shrugged. He never had been in awe of any Dalton. The gardener was a veteran of wars, and quite pleased to have a well-paying job that didn't tax all the strength he had left. He liked his employer, for all his times of arrogance.

"Weren't me" was all that the gardener said in his rustic speech. "It was that girl, the one who comes out to the roses. That's how they bloom, you know. They need love, pure stuff, not a grizzled old man like me. I have love for my old girl, and that's enough for me to be done." But Derek had gone after hearing 'that girl,' determined to know who had made these flowers bloom. Josefina, his first wife, had planted them, and they had not bloomed since her death in an airplane accident years ago, two months after she left him for that incident with his secretary. She had loved roses, but would not ignore infidelity.

Eventually, he found from Maddie that the person responsible was the shy maid that he had insisted on keeping. She gave no real response to his praises but a cautious smile, and the lightest of blushes. She hadn't thought that reviving a few old brambles of roses would be such a well-thought-of action. She had only seen dying flowers that needed attention, and a diversion to take time away from her days.

It was April, the month usually given rain showers in an old rhyme. Her roses bloomed fully, and she could only imagine what they would do in May. She had been working there for eight months, she knew one morning, and it felt like just a string of moments. That one time on the beach that Jesse had really looked at her, the rare times that he had carried on a full conversation with her, the day that he taught her how to play some video game where she was a princess named for a piece of fruit that beat his elven archer named Link (a feat which he insisted was unheard of), and the many other small moments that she doubted he would remember. She knew what she was missing, even if he didn't.

Her mornings had taken on the same pattern as before, with one difference. No one joined her on the beach. Instead, she sat on the rock that protruded from the sand like the roughest of sentinels, watching the waves with her feet curled under her. The cool air soothed them, as they easily became sore. She never made any sign of complaint. She never had been one for whining. She missed the odd company that the spoiled son of a celebrity had provided. He wouldn't notice. He and Sirene were always with each other, she knew.

Sirene now had her own permanent room, furnished and decorated to her tastes. She used his credit card to make most purchases. She had a secretary that lived in a room connected to hers, though she usually was in Jesse's. His name was given only as Mako. He had the dark-skinned look of someone from around the Filipino Islands. Odder than even his obvious lack of a computer, stenographer's pad, or any other organizational device were his eyes. They seemed to lack an iris, as his eyes looked like nothing more than blackness surrounding by a startling white.

He ate with Candy and Lily. Maddie tried to have a conversation with the man, but he would politely kill all attempts after a few deliberate remarks. Lily glanced at him when she thought no one was looking, but did not have the angry line she always had when glaring at Sirene. She seemed sad to see the secretary, and wanted to say something to him. Instead, she stared until he would look at her for a moment. This moment was always followed by him looking away, not saying a word.

"I'm writing an article about sharks for the paper," Candy announced one night, not expecting any response but a few congratulations from Maddie and a quick smile from Lily, who always looked to have words ready to say.

"What do you think about them?" he asked, accented voice still clear. Instead of muffling syllables, the lilt gave his words a cadence of their own.

"I think movies such as Jaws have misled people. They attack for hunger, not some insane rage, and sharks that do kill usually mistake the person for a seal. If people would use a new kind of surfboard, a design by a smaller company rather than the big names, then fatalities would be reduced." Her response sounded almost recitative. She had argued the point several times, never accepting that there was nothing else to them.

"Why would you say that?" His eyes were impassive, and as dark as ever.

"Because I feel that sharks have an undeserved reputation, and I feel that I am nearly one of them. Sharks can never stop, not for a minute, or they'll drown. If I so much as pause, the media pounces on my, crowding until I can't breathe. Sharks are almost always alone, which I can sympathize with. Some are in groups, but even those schools are more grouped for food than companionship." Many found her speech too long, but Mako listened intently.

Maddie smiled as the two left the table. She shooed Candy away from her usual self-appointed task of drying as someone else washed the dishes. That young man needed someone to talk to. She had a feeling that something was going on, more than even she had guessed at first. Lily helped, smiling weakly when Maddie happily detailed how perfect the pair was for each other.

Candy was not as frequent of a dinner-guest, after that. She was gone about twice a week, as well as her new-found boyfriend, to go out to a simpler restaurant. Both were back long before midnight, unlike Jesse and Sirene. Those two were gone frequently enough that Candy wondered if she was still friends with Jesse. She hadn't seen him since the day Sirene arrived, except for a few scattered meetings where he was too tired to really do anything but stare blankly.

All seemed to be settling into yet another pattern. Lily watched the sunrise over the beach, letting the wind blow her hair away from her face into waves that never again seemed to have that shimmer. Her eyes were more grey than blue, though that could have been some trick of the light. Whatever it had been, it was no longer there. She had no hidden features revealed by dawn-light on the beach, except a dreamy look in her eyes that could mean any number of things.

She tackled the last room, an elaborate setting for balls with an inlaid parquet floor, a bare alcove for a small orchestra, the highest ceiling Lily had ever seen in her life, and a gigantic set of picture windows that looked over the ocean. It was in complete disarray when she adopted the project of her own, and even the wooden floor looked tired. Lily had a surprisingly unlimited budget, courtesy of Derek after Maddie's unreserved recommendation, and a month before a birthday party.

Jesse had turned seventeen the day he had been put into the hospital by some event that no one in the house spoke of, though some unmentioned taboo. His eighteenth birthday would be a grand event, promoting Derek's new movie while celebrating a birthday. Jesse had told his father that he would consider acting, after Sirene's playful urges that he would look 'adorable' on-screen. Any girlfriend would want that, in her opinion.

The ballroom would be used. Lily agreed to have it ready in time. She could do it, she knew. She had quickly learned the various cleaning solvents and solutions used in the place, and Maddie had already hired a crew to take care of the ceilings. Everything else could be done by her, but the ceilings were too high for anything but scaffolding to reach. While a three-man crew restored the paint to its original sheen, Lily looked over fabric for a curtain. An orchestra had been hired, directed by the esteemed Dr. Howard Sage. Maddie had given her all details he needed. The conductor did not like to be stared at, so a sheer curtain would be made to mark off the alcove.

Countless other preparations were needed. Maddie took care of food and drinks, reluctantly accepting help from Candy and Mako. Lily would take no assistance. Instead, she closed the doors each morning with the loudest sound she could bring herself to make. Inside, she hummed to herself as she cleaned. She usually picked songs without words, complex pieces that she could hear clearly within her own mind. She danced around the ballroom floor after a painstaking cleaning, dancing gracefully as she led an imaginary partner about the dance floor. She curtsied at the conclusion of the dance with skirts she was not wearing, only fitting for an invisible partner who bowed in return.

She had been careful to never let anyone see her while she danced. Such caution never fully lasts. She heard a snatch of a favorite song drifting from the kitchen. Lily danced down the hall, lighter than a feather and quicker than mercury in dizzying turns and twists. She didn't realize she had an audience until she saw Maddie, Candy, and Mako in the door of the kitchen, staring with two of three mouths wide open. Maddie looked thoughtful, considering some thought.

Lily looked ready to retreat, but Maddie stopped her. "Lily," she said, voice holding the gentle tone of a mother. "Dance all you like. I wouldn't mind watching in the least. You shouldn't hide talents like that, if you love it so much." Only one that loved the motion would dance with that intensity.

"Where did you learn that?" Candy breathed. She had wanted to be a ballerina once, but did not have the coordination. If such motion could be learned, she would find a use for her exorbitant allowance that she used for college textbooks.

Lily shrugged, embarrassed by the astonishment of others. Dancing had been as natural to her as walking, only it made her happier. Mako said nothing, but instead watched her. He knew, now. He had made a guess, when Sirene came to this place, but Lily's dance had confirmed his guess. Lily knew that he had put together the last facts, and that he was also bound to keep her secret.

"Will you dance at the party?" Maddie asked, a plan already formulating. "We were going to hire a corps de ballet, but that seems superfluous. You don't have to give an answer now," she added hastily, seeing Lily ready to refuse. "Just think about it, Lily. It has been done before."

Lily nodded, once, before leaving. She would eat at dinner. For the moment, she had a heavier kind of food. Her food was one for thought, and she had much to consider. She didn't dance back down the hallway, caught completely in thought. Instead, she sat in her nearly bare room and then opened the full wallet that contained all money she had earned working her. Impulsively, she gathered a few bills marked with a 100 and decided to make good on Candy's earlier promise. She would go to the ball, some sort of off-beat Cinderella who didn't hope to win the heart of a charming prince. She would just make sure that she was never forgotten, even if she didn't find glass slippers.

Lily had a gown, one that she would never find the equal to. She would need shoes, the perfect pair. Her current pair was comfortable, red tennis shoes with enough design to not be boring, but they would never match the gown, or any formal outfit. Candy had taken Lille shopping a few times, choosing smaller stores that didn't unnerve the shy girl as much. This time, Lily decided to go straight for the top of the line. The gown was perfect, and the shoes must at least be stupendous. She would not go to this ball as a drudge. She would go as someone worthy of attention. She left the room, dancing down the hallways, a small fortune tucked into her back pocket. She was never shy, when there was a mission to complete. This time, Cinderella was going to find some new shoes for the ball.