The feeling of being watched didn't go away. It had been a few weeks after the Cullen's dinner at their house, and yet the feeling never went away. It was starting to drive Lily insane. She had devoted herself and her time within the hospital and Jamie, Leah and the pack, and her plants. She tried to keep her distance from the Cullens.
It wasn't that she was afraid of them. She was certainly not afraid. She just didn't enjoy the drama it caused everyone when she brought them up. Leah and the rest of the pack blamed the Cullens for their predicament. Lily couldn't argue that they were wrong. However, she did feel that the Cullens were personally getting more of the blame than they deserved. Lily also didn't like the derogatory terms that both sides seemed to use. Blood suckers and dogs. It was tiring.
Jacob had managed to get Bella grounded even longer. Apparently, Charlie didn't realize Bella had tried and succeeded in restoring motorcycles for her and Jacob to ride. Lily wasn't sure if he had ratted her out to her father because he loved her or if it was because he was upset with her.
She didn't blame the poor kid. He was 16 after all. Lily was only 17, and still couldn't understand how anyone could handle the amount of emotions Jacob seemed to balance within himself. He had the entire pack within his own head, as well as whatever hormones were ranging inside him too. Mix that with a broken heart and the rumor that the girl he loved was going to become a vampire did not make for a happy teenage boy. Or shifter. Or whatever else they decided to be called.
After all, Lily was still functioning under the guise of being a pigeon as an alter ego. She realized that wasn't actually what she turned into. Just like she realized that her practice with her plants was paying off. She still hadn't figured out the key to help heal humans, especially sick children, but she kept trying.
Her crochet attempts at least had begun looking more like the pictures online said they should. Practice makers perfect after all, or so the saying goes. The smiles her crafts brought made it worth while.
Bella had been avoiding Lily at school, as had the two "youngest" Cullens who had reenrolled within Forks High. Lily wasn't to upset about that. As far as she was concerned, Bella was a selfish person with an even more selfish boyfriend. She wasn't worth the energy Lily felt she would have to devote to Bella by worrying about her and her drama. Alice would, on the rare occasion, smile and wave at Lily when her family wasn't watching.
This school year was really dragging on. Who knew Senior year would take so long to finish? It was only April, after all. The Cullen's had been back for around a month. Bella was still grounded, but seemed more alive than Lil could ever remember seeing her. Her bruise eventually healed, but Lily was never brought in to take responsibility for her actions there.
She had also not been invited back to the Cullen's beautiful home sense the dinner. Sarah had been delighted with the leftovers Lily had brought back home from the Cullen's. Esme had a reputation for being an amazing cook. Sarah barely shared the leftovers with John and Lily. They had to bribe Sarah with a family night game of her choice before she would consider sharing.
The two of them lost at "sorry," but they weren't sorry in the slightest. Esme should be given an award for her cooking.
Lily had been thrilled to be able to spend time with Leah again.
Leah had been somewhat hard to track after she had transformed into the beautiful gray wolf lily had met for a brief moment. Seth had been much easier to find and talk to. He seemed thrilled all things considered. It wasn't fair to ask a younger brother to think about what his older sister was going through or thinking.
That's why Leah had Lily. Lily was there for every rant post transformation. For every tear shed. Every anger filled transformation. Lily had been scratched a few times being too close to Leah during a shift, but her abilities seemed to heal her whenever she had an accident or injury. She hadn't even been sick sense she had sprouted wings the one time at Emily's.
Leah was getting angrier and angrier. Apparently, Jacob could not or would not stop thinking about Bella. Bella was this all-consuming passion that he inflicted on each and every pack member whenever he transformed. It was a mix of obsession, love, anger, and betrayal according to Leah. Mix those emotions on top of all the lust from Paul, Seth's contagious happiness, and Sam's own melodrama and Leah had enough going on in her own head.
Lily felt the added drama of the pack helped keep everyone shifting. It felt like a catch 22. They had heightened emotions that helped in triggering the transformation, but while transformed they shared all their thoughts and emotions adding to the stress already in their individual lives. Lily was grateful she only had to share her thoughts with herself.
The girls decided they needed time to themselves, away from everything and everyone. Sarah and John had planned a romantic weekend away, letting the girls have the house to themselves. They had a serious conversation with the girls before they left. They ensured that both young women knew everything they could know about sexual education, drugs, alcohol, and other shenanigans teenagers could get into, including food poisoning for some reason.
The girls agreed that they would behave, no boys other than Leah's brother could visit, and if a party did occur make sure nobody died or were underaged. It was very clever, in Lily's mind. Lily was still a minor, meaning anything that happened would fall under Leah. Clever indeed.
Either way, the girls were happy to just try and be normal again, even if only for a few days. Once Lily finished school for the week, she drove to the grocery store to stock up on snacks. Leah could eat her own weight in junk food. Lily couldn't afford to lose too much more weight. Junk food, Soda, some obligatory veggies, and a few beauty items bought, Lily gladly returned home.
The house was already vacated when she returned, but found a lovely bouquet on the front porch by the door. That was out of the ordinary, but then again John liked to leave little presents and tokens for the women in his life. The flowers were a surprise, but they were her favorites. All freshly picked wild flowers. Everyone assumed that roses or lilies would be her favorite, as they were in her name. She adored both, don't get her wrong. But the assortment of wild flowers mixed together just had another type of magical beauty to them. There was no note, but that wasn't unlike John to make it a surprise.
Lily quickly entered the house, putting the flowers into water. She then went to work getting everything prepared. She saw $40 hanging from a magnet on the fridge with a note from Sarah.
"Hello little love, try to be good while we are gone. I am going to assume no news is good news. But, please don't hesitate to reach out if you need help! Enjoy your pizza! – love Sarah and John" there was a smiley face with fangs drawn underneath with XOXOXO next to it.
They were absolutely ridiculous. Lily loved them. Leah came over a few hours later, just as grouchy as ever. She was wearing her new normal clothes of ripped shorts and a tank top.
"Jesus Christ Leah, its April. Aren't you cold?"
"No, and you know that. I'm starving, do you have any snacks?" was her gruff reply.
"Yes, Leah I have enough food to feed you for at least the weekend. Or maybe the night. But they left pizza money so we may survive another night!" and with that dramatic announcement, lily pretended to feint into Leah's arms.
Leah naturally caught her tiny friend, but dropped her immediately to the ground afterwards without a second though. The loud thump of Lily hitting the floor and her responding grown caused Leah to finally break a smile.
Lily grumbled some rather unkind things about her tall dearest friend before getting the bowls of chips, dip, and candy into the living room. They watched paranormal ghost shows, because it seemed too ridiculous to be true. The girls took turns guessing where the next bump would come from, who would be the "voice" in the night, and how much the psychic the teams brought on would have researched ahead of the episode. It wasn't until Leah went to answer the door for their pizza and subsequently brought it into the kitchen that any real drama started.
"Lily, who gave you these flowers?"
"huh?"
"Lily, get your ass in here and tell me who the fuck gave you these flowers."
Lily scrambled up from her comfy position bundled within blankets on the couch, somewhat upset to have been forced to get up. She walked to the kitchen; at least happy the food had arrived. She could only survive on chips and soda so long before she felt like she was wasting away.
After entering the kitchen, lily saw just how upset Leah was regarding the flowers. She looked scared and upset, a look that never boded well with Leah.
"John left them before he and Sarah went on their date. He is always leaving presents for Sarah and I. Why, are you allergic? I have an EpiPen somewhere that Sarah keeps on hand just in case!"
"Lily, john didn't leave these. A vampire did."
… what?
"Um, last I checked I was persona non grata with the local coven. So, unless you know of any others that I don't could you tell me how you came to that conclusion?"
"Lily, vampires smell sickeningly sweet. Think of cotton candy melted down with straight sugar and flowers. It is such a sweet scent it burns. I'm sure we smell just as awful to them, in all fairness."
"And you're saying my flowers smell too…. Sweet?"
"Lily, for the sake of staying calm yes. They smell too sweet. A vampire left these. Are you involved with any? Don't lie to me!"
"Leah, look at me. Listen to my heart, I know you can hear it. I had no idea that a vampire had left them. I genuinely thought that John had left them." With that, she gently grabbed Leah's hands forcing her to put the flowers down.
"Leah, I have always been honest with you. You know EVERYTHING about me that I can think of. You probably know me better than I do. Hell, you know when my period is coming before I do. If that's not oversharing, I don't know what is. I don't know who gave me those flowers. I thought they were John because he always leaves presents for us and they are my favorites."
Leah looked right into Lily's eyes, studying them. The depths of Lily's green eyes bore into Leah's brown. They didn't break eye contact for several minutes. Lily didn't mind, she knew Leah had moments of doubt. Lily got them too. It happens. Leah seemed content with whatever she saw or didn't see, and looked away.
"I'm sorry Lily, I just got freaked out for a second" Leah said quietly.
"Its fine, how about we…. Forget they exist and focus on the pizza? I'm melting away over here sense you ate all the snacks. Plus, I think the commercials are almost over. Enough dramatics! Grab the boxes and let's go! Tonight, we eat like cave women!"
"what about plates?" Leah whined.
"CAVE WOMEN!"