Hi! Next chapter! not the best one ever but the good news is I have almost the whole story typed on Word and it REALLY starts to heat up! So Read And Review! REVIEW PLEASE! MY GOAL IS 15 BY THE TIME IT'S ALL POSTED SO HELP AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! seriously, even if you think it sucks let me know, it'll help me know what not to write about next time! anyhoo, Thankyouthankyouthankyou to all you wonderfull readers who have reviewed! Love ya!
Coming closer to Kadic high the Man from the docks was now just outside of the city. His hair hung lank and greasy. He was thin from living off of what vermin he could catch or food he could steal.
As Odd falls asleep dreaming of the girl he thinks he loves the man lays down and dreams of the girl he hates. The symbol of the Eye burned on his forehead.
"I couldn't make contact with Aileta this morning." said Jeremy at breakfast. "I hope she's ok." He looked very worried and the rest of the gang felt his expression pulling at their heartstrings.
"I'm sure she's fine." said Yumi. "Ya, she's been out of contact before. I'm sure it's nothing." said Ulrich. Odd said nothing.
"Hey!" said Ulrich and elbowed him in the ribs making him half choke on his mouthful of food. "What's up with you? Aren't you even worried about Aileta?" Ulrich glared at his friend reproachfully.
"What! What's wrong with Aileta?" Ulrich rolled his eyes.
"You were off in your Odds-world again huh?" said Yumi.
Odd smiled at her over his plateful of food. "Hey, it just so happens that my world is a very nice place to be! But don't worry Lover-boy; I'm sure she's fine. Maybe you could try again at lunch." Jeremy nodded.
Odd got up from his now empty plate and stretched. Ulrich shook his head, "I don't know how you put it all away!"
Odd grinned and rubbed his belly. "My mom says I must have a bottom-less pit for a stomack." he said he grinned "Either that or a very large, happy tapeworm! I'll see you guys in class!" he called. As he left he passed Lilly and waved. She smiled faintly and waved back. Odd tromped off to Art (the only class he really liked).
Lilly sat on a bench in the park. She was reading one of her favorite books, The Lord of the Rings. It was the edition with all three books bound together so it was a HUGE book. She was about halfway through for the fifth time.
Her father had used to call her a "Tolkien Nerd." She didn't mind, in fact she liked being a Tolkien Nerd. She was absorbed in the story and her guard was down. She couldn't help it! It was Lord of the Rings for crying out loud!
So when a shadow fell over the pages she jumped. "Why so jumpy? Scared of us already?" asked a cold snooty voice. Lilly rolled her eyes and looked up at Sissy.
Sissy wasn't alone today; her two friends Herb and Nicholas were with her.
"Ya that's it," said Lilly sarcastically "I'm terrified of you." She stood and gazed at Sissy with a mixture of boredom, contempt and humor.
"Don't bother yourself Ok." Lilly said "There is nothing, absolutely NOTHING that you can do to me to hurt me, and you really don't have anything to fear from me socially anyway. Why don't you just drop it and ignore me before you do something to make me mad."
She tried to go around Sissy carrying her book under her arm. Sissy flushed red and grabbed her arm as she passed. Lilly turned, eyes blazing and the next thing Sissy knew, she was backed against a tree, Lilly's face a bare inch from her own. "Let. Me. Go." She said dangerously. Sissy quickly let go of her and Lilly stepped back.
"I am going to tell you the same thing I told everyone else." she said "Leave me alone." She turned and walked up the trail leaving a stunned Sissy behind. Sissy stood shocked against the tree as Herb came and tried to help her.
"That's it!" said Sissy "She is finished at this school! I am personally going to take care of this one!"
"What are you gonna do?" asked Herb. Sissy sniffed with contempt. "I'm going to make sure that she is shunned by everyone at this school. Pretty soon, she'll be so miserable she'll have to transfer." She laughed a little.
"You know," said a disgusted voice, "You really are impossible." She turned and saw Odd, Ulrich, Yumi and Jeremy. Ulrich had his arms folded across his chest and it was he who had spoken.
"Leave her alone." said Odd, he was glairing at her and his fists were clenched. She flinched a little, Odd never got this mad. "Because we're going to make sure that she does have friends. She has her own reasons for being who she is and she doesn't need to discuss them with you."
The rest of the gang was glairing at her with equal intensity. "Fine!" she said and stomped off.
"What a snob!" said Yumi after she was gone. "But I do wonder," Said Jeremy "WhyLilly doesn't want friends." Odd had kept his promise to Lilly and hadn't told his friends about her past.
"I'm sure she has a good reason." Was all he said as they walked back toward the main building.
He felt a faint tug at his pants leg as he walked past a side path and glanced down to see to a pair of dark green eyes staring at him and part of Lilly's face. Then she was gone retreating down a side trail.
"You guys go ahead." Said Odd "I'm going to take a walk." He waved to the others and followed Lilly down the trail.
She stepped out of a bush as he neared and he beamed at her. She smiled back and fell into step next to him. "Why did you and your friends stick up for me?" she asked.
"You heard that?" said Odd surprised. She smiled faintly "I didn't make it all the way down the trail before Sissy started shrieking. So I snuck back and listened to what she was saying. You kept your promise."
For the first time she really smiled at him. "I told you I would didn't I?" he replied. She smiled and they sat down on a bench. They were very deep into the woodlands now and even the bustle from the school didn't reach them.
"You never answered my question." said Lilly "Why did you stick up for me?" Odd looked her in the face and again found himself lost in her eyes. Lilly again felt the tremor in her midsection as he looked at her.
His eyes were blue and she found it was hard to look away from them.
"Because," said Odd when he was able to unstuck his tongue from the roof of his mouth. "I really, really want to be your friend. I want… you to trust me. I… really like you Lilly. I want to be your friend."
Her eyes softened and she smiled. "Really?" she asked "Ya Lilly, really." He replied and smiled back. For the first time she beamed and laughed aloud. Still laughing she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight.
Odd blushed deeply and shyly hugged her back. "You are the first person to say they wanted to be my friend since the news got out about my family." She breathed against his neck making him shiver pleasantly.
"And the way you ask, you put no pressure on me. You stick up for me? Even when you hardly know me? I can't understand why, but I can sense that… or I want to believe that, you mean nothing false by it. At least not yet."
She pulled away from him and looked at him. He was still blushing but she ignored it.
Why is it that every time she's nice to me I blush? Can't I be halfway normal?
They sat on the bench for a while not really talking about anything. Odd told Lilly a little about himself. He noticed that she wasn't sitting her usual four feet away; she was slightly closer and was listening intently.
"Ok, so now I know about you. What about your friends? What are they like?" Odd thought about it for a moment.
"Well, Ulrich, he's my best friend. He's quiet and serious most of the time. But when you get to know him he has a pretty good sense of humor. He's strong too, good soccer player. Yumi, she and Ulrich are a couple.
She's smart and cunning, but friendly. She can have a temper though."
Lilly laughed "Cant we all?" she replied "What about the blond one? Jeremy."
"He's a genius! If it has anything to do with computers he'll figure it out. Good guy too." They were silent and then Odd worked up the courage to ask her another question about her past.
"Did you have any other friends? Before you came here I mean?" he braced himself for what she might do but she only studied him quietly. He felt the familiar flutter as she looked at him. She felt a bit of her coldness melt at his gaze.
"No." she answered "Just Ben. And I don't even know if he was ever truly my friend in the first place." She didn't cry, didn't shed a tear this time. But for a moment her eyes dimmed and her fair face crumpled.
He resisted an urge to embrace her again and put his hand on her shoulder instead. She smiled at him and then stood up and stretched. "We should go back. Do you have homework?" she asked.
Odd threw a hand to his forehead like he was in distress. "Oh, why homework!" he cried. Lilly laughed and together they walked back towards the buildings of Kadic.
Lilly awoke in the dark of the night her mouth cottony and her throat dry. She threw off her covers and swung her legs over the edge of the bunk.
She unlocked her door and padded barefoot to the drinking fountain down the hall. She quenched her thirst and returned to her room. Just before she opened the door, the hairs stood up on the back of her neck and arms.
Gooseflesh bloomed on her legs. For some reason her senses told her to be alert. She cautiously opened the door and was met with a stench.
It smelled like rank sweat and body soil and faintly underneath she smelled something like hot metal.
She threw open her door and, standing by her opened window was a stooped man, his hair hung lank around his face and his eyes burned. He grinned and her scream caught in her throat.
A red symbol, (the same one that had been in the robots eyes though she didn't remember that) shone from his forehead. "Remember me?" he asked and chuckled. He held something up to the faint moonlight and threw it on the floor near her feet. She glanced at it, and the scream that caught in her throat burst forth. She closed her eyes and backed up until she was against the wall near her door and when it burst open she felt the breeze as it almost hit her.
She sunk till she was kneeling on the floor and covered her head with her arms. Her door closed again and she heard footsteps cross her room to close her window.
At the same time someone grabbed her shoulders and then her hands and gently tried to bring them away from her face. She tensed even more and curled into a tighter ball. She was on the edge of hysteria.
Then whoever it was just held her gently. She felt a warm breath on her ear and recognized Odd's voice. "Lilly, its ok. Its ok, we're here Lilly it'll be alright."
He kept saying things like that until she finally lifted her head away from his chest and showed her face. Her face was calmer now and she looked at him with eyes that showed a mixture of fear, confusion and gratefulness.
She looked around and saw Ulrich standing by her window which was thankfully closed. "Lilly what happened?" asked Ulrich and Odd together.
Lilly didn't answer she stooped and searched the floor for the object that the man had thrown. It wasn't in the open and it wasn't under the bed. Was it just a dream? She wondered am I going insane? Or was it real?
She stood up and shook her head troubled "Lilly?" said Odd as he came up and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"M-maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was just a dream." Odd and Ulrich hung their heads in thought.
"Do you want to sleep in our room tonight?" asked Odd "Just in case it was… something? You'd have to be up a little earlier so Jim doesn't know you slept in there." She thought about it and nodded her head.
Ulrich's eyes widened with surprise. Was she really that scared? So scared that she would actually sleep in their room when she would hardly talk to them during the day?
She followed them out the door locking it firmly behind her. She followed them to their room which was right next door. Their room was different than hers. Both beds were occupied and tousled from their hasty leave.
Gameboys were on the floor by both beds. School books were scattered on the desk and by the beds. "You can have my bed." said Odd, pulling extra blankets out of the closet. "I'll take the floor."
She frowned "I don't want to kick you out of your own bed." She said "I'll take the floor." Odd opened his mouth to argue when Ulrich said "Why don't you both sleep in the bed?"
Lilly looked at Odd and then at the bed she shrugged and looked at him. "Why not? The beds big enough, we're both thin." Odd shrugged but also noticed the slightly merry spark in Lilly's eye.
How can that be when she was just scared out of her wits? He wondered maybe I imagined it.
Lilly was still scared but he hadn't imagined the spark of happiness. It had struck her as funny that she should be in Odd's room at 2:00 in the morning and not only that, but going to share a bed with him!
He let her climb in first and she curled up against the wall. He climbed in and Ulrich, smiling to himself, turned off the light.
(there it is! and if you havent goten the message already...REVIEW!)