Authors Note:

Thank you so much for everyone who has decided to join me on the journey of Phlox. I will try to have weekly updates, but as life gets crazy, sometimes I can't always promise this. This chapter will mainly be around Lilly's friendship with Leah and their dynamic. Also, this chapter will show some of Charlie's parenting and his relationship with Lilly. This relationship will be further shown as Lilly gets older. Again feel free to leave reviews. I still don't own anything, but Lilly. I would also love to dedicate this chapter to my best friend in the whole world, who is also my beta. Through thick and thin, this woman has supported me.

Chapter Two: Purple Crocus

I woke up the next morning to the sound of rain hitting the window, it was a calming sound as it instantly reminded me that I was home where I belong. I look at the small digital alarm clock that read out at 7:00 AM. I smiled. I was in time to see dad off to work. I looked around the room to the familiar sight of the grey walls hung with pictures of Leah and me through the years. We were born the same year, and Leah's mom was the one who watched over me after Renée left, so it came as no surprise that we became close. I even saw baby Seth as my younger brother. I threw the navy comforter off of my body and stood up off the full-sized bed. It made a slightly squeaky noise from where the springs rubbed against each other. I stretched out, popping several joints as I reached towards the ceiling. Walking across the dark, cold hardwood floors I grab my fluffy black robe off the back of my desk chair where I had left it last and quickly took the new book that I was reading before I left off the desk then headed downstairs to make dad his morning breakfast. It was a routine since I was old enough to be trusted with the stove alone that I made food around the house. Before then, we usually had the only few dishes that dad knew how to cook, but often than not, we relied on Aunt Sue to make more balanced meals and send them home with me.

Walking down the hallway and stairs, I observed the olive green walls that were painted before I was born and noticed that they were slightly chipping at the bottom. I made a mental note to ask dad to take me to the hardware store to pick up new paint so I could repaint the walls. As I was mulling over what new color the walls should be painted, I didn't notice dad standing at the stove until his voice ripped through my thoughts.

"Good morning Lilly."

My breathing hitched, not expecting him to be downstairs yet and not paying attention intensely focused on my thoughts, I was slightly spooked.

"Dad, what are you doing up just yet normally you're not down until at least 7:45," I said in response to his greeting.

Rubbing his neck as he replied, "Oh well, I figured you would sleep in a bit, being so tired from traveling and all, so I decided to make us breakfast."

I smiled at my dad's thoughtfulness. To most he was the gruff police officer, but he had always looked after me and made sure I was happy. "Thank you, Dad, I really appreciate it, but you know I actually enjoy cooking for us."

"What's that supposed to mean, I like cooking too," Dad replied with a mocking look of offense.

"Dad, I remember you once turning the stove off and storming away while announcing we're going to the diner for dinner cause you can't, and I quote, 'Do this shit,'" I replied while slightly chuckling.

"Hey, that recipe was confusing and watch your mouth," Dad said while returning my smile.

As I sat down at the table, noticing the cup of earl grey tea that was set on the table. Smiling again at the fact that dad had even taken the time to make me my preferred morning tea and had it ready for me when I came down. I said, "I'm just quoting you, dad, if you want me to watch my mouth, you should watch yours."

"Alright deal, well here you go eggs and bacon with a side of toast," Dad said as he placed the food on my plate and then repeated the tasks of plating his on food.

After taking a bite of food, I said: "This is perfect, dad." After hearing his grunt of agreement, I decided to ask the question that I had been thinking about the previous night "So dad can we still go down to Uncle Harry's after you get off of work?" Keeping my tone hopeful, to give my question the best chance.

"I already called before you got up and arranged it with Sue. She's going to come by around 10 and pick you up. After my shift and we'll have dinner with the Clearwater's, and I think Billy and Jacob will come too."

I flew out of my chair and gave my dad the biggest hug, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you."

My dad just smiled and returned my hug, saying, "I'm glad you're happy, Lilly Pad. I know you've missed your friend. I also know that going to Arizona was a difficult choice for you"

I quickly returned to my chair to finish my meal. I promptly asked, suddenly taking in the rain and wind that I heard earlier, "Do you think that the weather's too bad to go surfing?"

"It supposed to clear up around one, and there hasn't been any lighting or thunder, so it should be fine," Dad replied while finishing his coffee, and I sat there nursing my cup of tea. I glanced at the clock on the wall and said

"Well, it's time for you to be going to work dad, it's 8," I said knowing he had to be at work at 8:30 even though it will only take about 10 minutes to get there in this tiny town, but dad liked to be there early.

Dad pushed back from the table and stood with a yawn saying, "I guess so."

I walked with him to the front hallway, suddenly remembering what I had been thinking about earlier before he scared me. "Oh, dad, is it okay if we go to the hardware store to pick up some new paint for the hallway. I noticed the paint was chipping when I came down this morning."

"Sounds good, Lilly. What color are you thinking?" I heard him respond while putting on his gun belt, he still kept the bullet separated as a habit since he did it when I was younger.

"I don't know, dad maybe a light blue that would brighten the hallway," I replied

"Okay, then we'll go on early Saturday. Then we can spend the weekend, whenever I get off of work, painting" He replied with a short nod, "Well, I'm off. I'll see you around 7 or so."

"Okay, dad. Love you. I'll see you after work." I replied while giving him a hug. This was our daily routine since I was old enough to walk. I would give him a hug before he left for work and told him I loved him. Even though crime was very low in Forks and I was sure dad did whatever measures it took to be safe; I just wanted to make sure the last thing he heard and knew every day was that I loved him.

I watched as Dad backed up and drove away from the house through the window. I turned to the kitchen and went to clean it. I smiled as I was brought back to the memory of two years ago. Dad and I spent the summer painting the kitchen cabinets, a maroon color, and the rest of the kitchen, a bright white. Dad was skeptical of the color of the cabinets when I broached him about it but ended up loving the shade or at least saying, "it's okay." I loved the way it made a focal point in the kitchen, and since I was the primary one cooking in the kitchen, it made me happy every time I saw it. I quickly got to washing the pans and dishes. I finished in no time left with about two hours before Aunt Sue picked me up. I decided to read my book after I got changed. Heading back upstairs, I quickly put on my black one-piece swimsuit to wear under my wetsuit and got changed into a black t-shirt and cut off shorts.

Time flew by, and I was getting to the end of the fourth chapter when I heard a sudden loud knock on the front door. Quickly dog-earring my place in the book, I flew to the front door and whipped it open. In front of me was a tall russet skin girl with long shiny black hair and shiny onyx eyes. Her face slim with high cheekbones and a strong jaw. It took me a second before I knew who this was, and I shrieked with delight and embraced her in a bone-crushing hug when I came to the realization.

"Oh my god, Leah look at you, you've become so gorgeous and tall, I almost didn't recognize you" I shrieked in delight. That response was honest before I left; she was the same size as me, about five feet tall, and she still had a fair about of baby fat, but that seems to be gone, and she is now towering over me.

"So have you, I mean that figure is stunning. All you need is to grow a couple of inches, and you'll be the talk of the town with the boys," she replied with the broadest grin. "So, are you ready to hit the road and have some fun."

"With you always, just let me grab my stuff," I replied. I grabbed my bag, which held my pool towel, sunscreen, and sunglasses, although I won't need them due to the cloudy skies. Grabbing my book to throw it into my bag, I quickly grabbed my jacket to keep the chill off. "Okay, I'm ready." Taking a second to lock the door, I joined in her mom's 4 door sedan.

"Hi Aunt Sue, how's Uncle Harry? Where's Seth?" I asked as soon as Leah closed the door. Sue was also a very tall woman, so it was no surprise that Leah was taking after her. Leah was almost a carbon copy of her mother, except her mother had a rounder face and softer jawline.

As she put the car in reverse and slowly backed out the driveway, she answered, "He's good hun, the doctor told him to cut back on the fish-fry, but he refuses to listen like typical men do, but I've been making him eat more vegetables, so there's that. Seth's being watched over by Allison Uley right now. So how was your trip with your mother?" Leah gave a hard look at her mother as if telling her to be quiet as she knew that talking about Renée always sent me into a fuming ball of anger.

I had expected this question to come a lot from our family, so I calmly responded, "It was fine, hot but exciting Renée planned a lot of activities around my hobby of drawing. I might even start practicing pottery."

"Well, that's excellent, Lilly, you know the Quil Atera's mother actually does quite a bit of pottery, so I'm sure she wouldn't mind giving you lessons. I'll talk to her next time I see her. " She replied while giving me a smile in the rearview mirror.

"That would be amazing, Thank you, Aunt Sue," I responded with a genuine smile.

She replied, noticing my smile, "It's no problem, hun anything to help, plus it also nice to have more than one hobby."

The rest of the ride was spent with all of us making small talk and them catching me up on all the drama that was going on in our tiny town. We quickly pulled up to the Clearwater's humble home. Leah and I rushed out of the car to head to her bedroom to put on our wetsuits.

As soon as the door was closed, Leah turned to me and said: "I'll wait till we' re alone on the beach, and then you can really talk about what happened at Renée's."

We helped each other zip into the wetsuit and headed to the garage to grab our boards. I kept mine here as it was just easier to than lug it back and forth from my house to Leah's. Plus, the Clearwater's never minded that I left it here. We grabbed our boards and headed towards the beach. When suddenly we heard Sue's voice call out

"Wait, girls here's a cooler full of sandwiches and some waters. I know you girls won't come back for hours, so I figured you would like something to eat while your down at the beach."

"Thanks." We quickly say as we grab the cooler, and we immediately head down the pathway to the beach. It took us down

Gazing out onto the stormy sea while waxing our boards, I turn to Leah and say, "are we sure that this is the best idea the waves are super high."

"Oh come on Lilly, these aren't the highest waves we've ever surfed, and you know it," Leah snarked out.

"True, but I also haven't ridden in a month" I replied

"It's like riding a bike Lilly, you know that during the winter, we go months without, and we're still doing fine during the summer."

I nodded in agreement. "Alright"

We paddled out to the water I took in the shock of the water thanking the wetsuit that I was wearing for keeping me from completely numb. We waited for the right wave, and then we were off. I think it was two hours later when we finally took a break.

"So how was it, being with Renée, honestly?" Leah asked after taking a sip of water.

"I came to a realization while I was there," I replied.

"And that is," she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm tired of being angry and tired of hating her, I doubt that I'll ever get over her abandoning me, but I need to move past that, or I'll never not be angry, and I don't want to be this angry person anymore" I sighed out

"So that's it, then you're just gonna forgive her?" Leah asked with shock in her voice, she out of anyone, but my father knew exactly how bad Renée's leaving affected me.

I sighed and responded, "yes, and no, I'm never going to completely forgive her, and I'm never going to forget, but I need to at least be civil with her if I'm going to spend a month with her each summer."

"You're really going back next summer?" she asked with a heartbroken look on her face "do you know how lonely it is without you?"

"I know it sucks, and I miss you too, but it's necessary for Bella. I really want her to have a relationship with Dad. If it wasn't for her, I doubt I'd be doing this at all," I said, looking out on to the crashing waves.

"Oh, yha, your sister, the little bookworm." Leah said, "I think she spent the whole time she was here with her nose stuck in a book."

With shock in my voice, I replied: "Really, she didn't even try to do anything other than read when you were around her?"

"Nope," Leah said, popping the p "I even offered to try and teach her to surf, and she turned me down straight."

"Well, it kind of makes sense. I learned when I was in Arizona that she has no coordination like none at all and is liable to trip over the air," I said, laughing.

Joining in with my laughter, she responded with, "you're kidding, no one can be that clumsy."

"Dead serious apparently she's had more broken bones than Humpty dumpty," I said as I calmed down from my laughing.

"Well, it's a good thing that no one took her up to the cliffs she might have drowned after falling off the edge," she said after looking me dead in the eye.

In a solemn voice, I responded: "She shouldn't be up there in the first place, Leah, only strong swimmers can survive the jump, and besides, we only got clearance from our dads this year, and that's only for the lowest cliff."

Leah answered with, "I know Lilly, besides she was well supervised the whole time she was here. I mean, she's only what five?"

"She's nine, it's hard to believe she's that old. I wonder if I'm ever going to see her again. It's as if we are always crossing paths but never meeting in the middle," I said in a sad tone. It depressed me to know that she had grown so much, and all I knew about her was the things that other people had told me but never from her.

"I know Lilly, but something tells me that you'll get to see her one day," Leah said while wrapping me in a hug.

I smiled, knowing that I'll always have my other sister to count on and be there for me "come on, it's still a couple hours before we need to be back at your house for dinner."

We surfed for another couple hours taking turns laughing and just having a great time after being away from each other for so long. Sooner than we wished, the sky became darker, and we realized it was time to head back to Leah's house, as soon as we put away our surfboards, we headed inside. The overwhelming scent of food made us realize how hungry we had become since our lunch on the beach. We walked closer to the kitchen to see Aunt Sue cooking fish, which clued me in to the fact we were having a fish fry which made me beam brightly. Hearing our footsteps, Aunt Sue turned around and smiled while saying

"You girls look like you had fun."

Leah replied, "We did, the water was freezing, but we quickly got warm the more we moved. Thanks for the sandwiches, mom."

I responded with a quick thank you as well when I heard some fussing through the baby monitor, which was on the counter.

"That'll be Seth waking up, Leah would you get him after you change out of your wetsuit?" Sue asked while giving Leah a pleading smile.

"I'll get him, Aunt Sue; I've missed the little guy," I answered.

Seeming pleased with the response, Sue responded with a "Thanks, hun."

We headed into Leah's small bedroom that was surrounded by wood paneling and had the same pictures hanging on the wall, but it also held some tribal paintings that her mom had painted. She was a brilliant artist who had taught me a lot of what I knew. Changing into our regular clothes, we welcomed the warmth of dry clothes, and we threw our long hair up into ponytails to keep them from dripping all over the place. When we were done, I headed into the small bedroom across the hall while Leah headed into the kitchen to help her mom finish cooking dinner. I took a step into the room and immediately smiled down at the crib at Seth. I had always had a soft spot for children to the point that it shocked dad that I wanted to become a nurse and not a teacher like he expected me to be. Seth smiled up at me, and I slowly picked him up, bouncing him a bit to make him giggle and smile even more. With him, in my arms, I take him into the kitchen.

"Just put the fish on the table, hun, it's already now we're just waiting for the men to come," I heard Sue say.

"Here's Seth, Aunt Sue," I announce as I walk into the room.

"Oh, thank you, Lilly, you can hand him to me. I just finished cooking, so I'm free to have him," Sue said.

I hand Seth over and go to sit beside Leah when I hear a car door close. I walk to the window of the kitchen to see dad slowly walking towards the house, laughing at something Harry had said. I smiled at their friendship and then sat down beside Leah, and we started chatting about the upcoming school year. Leah was heading into 8th grade like an average child, which I envied her for sometimes. I was heading into my freshman year of high school, which I was nervous about. Although I had friends in my grade, I had a lot of people making fun of me at the same time. I was often called brainy and made fun of for the fact that I hadn't entirely gone through puberty yet. The only one I had told this to was Leah. I knew if I had told dad he would try and do something about it, which would only make it worse. I was pulled out of my thoughts by a hand waving in my face.

"Lilly, honey, you in there," I heard my dad's voice say while poking my side.

Laughing as he hit a particularly ticklish spot, "Stop dad."

"Just making sure that you're still with us" he laughed with his deep voice

Sue's voice cut through the laughing with a tone of mirth, "So where are Billy and Jacob?"

"Sarah said Jacob came down with a cold and needed Billy to stay home with the twins while she watched over Jacob, and she also didn't want to have them around Seth just in case it was contagious," Charlie responded, sitting down across from me.

Harry came over to give Leah a kiss to her forehead, then repeated the action to Seth and stated: "They promised we would all get together after they get over the sickness, Sarah promised to make lasagna."

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that, but it's understandable. I'll call after dinner and see if she needs anything," Sue said with a worried look on her face.

Harry placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, saying, "I'm sure everything will be fine, Sue. Sarah said she's heading to the store tonight to pick up cold medicine. Now on to another worry what's for dinner? Is that fish fry I smell?"

"Always thinking with your stomach, I swear Harry, and you wonder why the doctor is worried about your blood pressure," Sue said while sitting Seth in his high chair. And then setting across from Leah beside the high chair and Harry sitting at the head of the table.

"My blood pressure is just fine, women plus with you pushing those damn vegetables on me; I'm the pinnacle of health," Harry said while barking out a laugh during his response showing that he was only faking his anger. Sue smiled and began to serve out the food. Dad and Harry immediately dug into the food while Sue, Leah, and I took our time to eat mostly chatting about upcoming plans for Leah and me to hang out.

"So Lilly, How did your trip with your mother go? See any boys you like there?" Harry laughed out, knowing it would push my dad's buttons. Ever since I was 10, dad made it perfectly clear I was not allowed to date until I was 23, which of course, was what all dad's said. But seeing as how my dad owned various guns, I somewhat believed if I did ever get a boyfriend, the boy would be shot the moment he admitted he liked me to my dad.

"It went alright, Uncle Harry, and no, I spent most of my time in art classes, so there were no cute boys to talk to. Well, there was this one boy . . ." I trailed off with a grin on my face know it was going to stir my dad up to a tizzy

Dad choked on the bite of food that he was eating and looked me dead in the eye, say "boy, what boy you never said anything about a boy yesterday."

"Because the never was one dad, I'm just messing with you," I said, laughing out.

He gave me an unpleasant look and replied with "fine tease an old man into a heart attack."

With that, the rest of the dinner went well with laughing and joking around, especially dad and Harry. It was honestly hilarious seeing those two grown men reduced themselves into teenage boys when around each other. Seth seemed to fall asleep halfway through the night, and with that, Sue called it a night. Dad and I said our goodbyes, and Leah promised she'll see me tomorrow for us to hang out at my house. On the 20 minute drive home, I fell asleep just from the tiring day that I had and didn't even feel when dad picked me up and carried me into the house. I only woke when I felt my comforter being pulled over me. With bleary and a soft voice, I quickly call out.

"Love you, dad."

"Love you too, Lilly Pad," and with that, he turned off the light, and I fell back into a dreamless sleep.

The next chapter will be a time skip, so be prepared for more adult-like content. Well, thanks for reading to this point and I'll see you next time.