A/N: This is a revised chapter. Originally it was known as honor defendant. At the bottom is bit about the revises and why I made them. I hope you enjoy. I'll have a new chapter up soon! I'm going to bold the first few words where the changes start so you don't have to re-read what you've already read. Thanks for your patience with me guys! It means the world.
Announcemnts
Friday morning they hauled warm water to the stock, milked, collected eggs, and delivered hay. School was interesting as any school day. The teachers repeated more of the same old thing and the rumors had changed only slightly since last week. So at the end of the day when announcements were made he was shocked.
"As school morale is down we've decided to have some fun. Next week is the last week of school before winter break, after all. So now, girls, if you would." the princepal finished up.
"Hey" giggled the voice of one of the students. "It's me, Chole, and"
"Me, Tina." another voice giggled through the speaker mounted over the door of his home room class. Mr. Lutmer rolled his eyes and went back to grading papers.
"This week we are going to have a few costume days." Lilly moaned behind him. "Monday will be wear your PJ's to school day, then hippie." The first girl said more calmly.
"Wednesday will be western, and Thursday will be dressing as the proffesion you'd like to go into. The last two periods Friday will be a school dance and everyone who in not tardy or absent all week will be invited to come. So for that day we suggest wearing something nice." the second girl finished. The line went dead and the bell rang. The students filed out as quickly as possible discussing this new developement.
"Miss, Halse!" Ryou and Lilly both stopped to look back at Mr. Lutmer
"Yes, sir?" Lilly asked turning around.
"You have only two more years to be a child. I've asked your aunt to tell your mother of next weeks happenings. You will dress up at least a few days or you'll be forced to go to that dance." the teacher stated making it clear that there was no aruging. Lilly however made no show of disappointment, or any emotion. She simply went into default mode.
"So, what do you think the teachers will do with the clothes these fools will be wearing?" Lilly asked sneaking up behind him as he walked out of the class. Ryou shrugged.
"It sounds like fun to me. Aren't you going to do it?"
"The western one I'll do but the others I won't even try." she grabbed onto his shirt tail so she wouldn't lose him as they fought the current of kids trying to get to their buses and cars.
"What about Friday?" he asked.
"What about it?"
"Will you go to the dance?"
"Not if I can help it. I don't do public events."
"My dear Lilly. You've so much to learn." Ted said as he joined them outside the doors and to wait on the rest of his group.
"Like what?"
"Like, dances can be fun." he suggested. Ryou watched Lilly's face pale. "Besides, this isn't a public event, this is just a school thing." he smirked and took off to join a tall blonde who waved.
Lilly grumbled something under her breath as they joined the others. The ride home she said nothing at all. Which wasn't ever a good sign. When they got home, they dumped their bags off on the kitchen table changed into barn clothes and headed out. As soon as the animals were tended that evening and Ryou was watching The Simpsons with Bakura and Serena, Lilly appeared at the door. She tossed them their jackets and nodded to the front door before going out it herself. Being left with little choice the trio pulled on their coats and stepped out into the freezing night air. They reached the end of the porch in time to see the bright orange of Lilly's barn coat slid in to the minivan. They quickened their pace and joined her.
"What are we doing?" Serena asked as her sister turned the key starting the engine. Lilly turned around in the drivers seat to grin, then backed out of the drive.
"To start with I am craving a good leather fix," Ryou saw his counter part's couriosity peaked, "secondly, I need to buy a replacement cord for one of the water heaters we put in the troughs. So, we are going to go to TSC."
"What's TSC?" he asked seeing no one else was going to.
"Tractor Supply Company, they sell farming equitment, and some really good leather products." Lilly answered.
"What's with the leather?" Bakura asked. He'd gotten the front passanger seat, no doubt so he'd be closer to the heat.
"You heard the western theme right?" everyone in the car gave some acknowledgement to this question, "If you want to look western you need leather. Preferably chaps but I've got some that will fit Ry, and Serena if she wants them, even have an old pair that Dad used to show in when he was a boy that will fit you. I on the other hand am leatherless. Such a sad thing."
"Sis, you are a strange one." Serena commented. Laughing Lilly cranked up the radio and no one spoke until they reached the large white and red building. There weren't many cars in the parking lot and the ones that were there were large SUV's and trucks with hauling capacity. A huge chain link fence barred them off from all the fencing materials and thick chains held down the tractor attachments that adorned the sidewalk in front of the building. Lilly just walked straight up and through the automatic doors as if she was about to face her worst fear.
Bakura was amused with the idea of Lilly in leather. He couldn't place the reason but there is something about the smell of leather that awakens something in every person. Every few minutes she would emerge a different pair of buttless chaps on making her Wranglers hugging her body just right. When Serena and Ryou finally joined them after having gotten the cord and wondered through looking at T-shirts with John Deere related sayings on them, Lilly was on her seventh pair of chaps.
"I don't get it."
"Save a cowboy ride a Deere, its a spin off of the song Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy. I'll play if for you later." Serena said slidding down on the cold concrete floor. Bakura took in a deep breath of the thick air. Leather, feed, and sawdust left that perfect scent he had gotten so used to while in the states.
"What about 'Proud Redneck Woman'?"
"Another song. Redneck Woman is a song that pretty much says its not only okay to be a redneck but something to be proud of. Which is another song." Serena sighed. "Lillian, how they fit?"
"I think I like the ones with the red roses imprinted on the black leather. They match my hat better." came the girls voice. Lilly emerged wearing the first pair she had tried on turned around for her sister to servey her.
"Do you kids need any help?" a dark haired sales woman asked from behind a rack of show wear shirts.
"No ma'am." Lilly said answered.
"We'll be closing in half hour you want to hurry up, then dears." the woman said walking away.
After this Lilly changed back into her own clothes and with chaps slung over her arm inspected the cord their young 'siblings' had chosen. Decieding it would do she checked out. The price for the chaps was a lot higher than Bakura thought a piece of leather could cost. But Lilly paid and led them out to the car with out a word. Though he suspected her parents were never told how much they cost.
Early Saturday afternoon when all the stock had been tended and lunch was still in the 'I don't know what to make' stage Lilly sought Bakura out. Since putting Lady El in the barn it wasn't odd to find him in her small stall playing with her. Long before she said anything he knew Lilly was watching him over the stall door.
"It seems your mommy's trying to be sly today." he said to the small goat giving it a light shove when she pushed her head into his palm.
"Don wants to meet you." Lilly said taking sudden interest in the wall when he looked up at her.
"Why?" she shrugged still not looking him full on.
"I don't know. He's got a jealously thing to start with, but he says you sound like a good boy and wants to meet whom ever it is I'm spending so much time with." crawling to his feet and holding the goat back as he exited the stall he found his hand reach on its own accord for her should spinning her around to look at him. More and more often she'd acted strange around him and found himself soften in her presence so much so that this touching wasn't unusual.
"Do you not want me to go?" he asked.
"No. Yes. It would just mean a lot to Don. I'm leaving in ten minutes if your coming." She shrugged him off then and left the barn Bakura tossed the goat one more look before following.
Like his last visit they were greeted shortly after entering by Gracie. Lilly had explained to him since there last visit that she was the director of nursing and as the DoN she was her mother's boss. So they were overly nice to the woman, at least for Bakura and Lilly. On the opposite side of the building that Elaine had once lived Lilly entered the room of an old man. The room looked like a hunting lodge had exploded in it. On the TV a middle aged man talked to the camera about the exact science of sneaking up on a deer. Lilly snuck up, in much the same way, on the man in wheel chair and wrapped her arms around him.
"Hey you." the old man said taking hold of his wheels and turning to look at Lilly. "Oh finally I get to meet your boyfriend." Bakura's jaw dropped.
"He's not my boyfriend Don. I told you that." the old man waved off Lilly's protest.
"All I ever hear out of your mouth is praise for this kid. I say, where's the rest of him? He's awful slim built to do as much as you say he does." Lilly looked at Bakura an amused look on her face.
"I don't know. This is all they sent me."
"Right, then in my top drawer is some money go down to the vending machine and get me a three man bar and I'll talk to this boy of yours." Lilly complied with out hesitation and seconds later he stood alone in the room with elderly man. "Well don't just stand in the door with your mouth working like a fish out of water! Come in sit." Bakura moved deeper into the room and sat in a lazy boy that the man had gestured to. "So, your not her boyfriend then?"
"No, of course not. Lilly's the most stubborn thing I've ever met." Bakura said trying to sound disgusted with the idea.
"Well, I must say I'm disappointed. Having you has done that girl a lot of good. She didn't have a life before you got here. Always hanging around in my room talking on for hours about her animals. Not good for a girl her age." Brow cocked Bakura asked:
"What gave you that idea?"
"Oh a lot of things. The way she talks about you for one. I have six daughters they're all grown and gone now but I know what I'm talking about. So, what are you going to do with your life after school?" he asked
"I don't know. Never really thought much about it." Don snorted.
"Poppy cock! You should know by now! What interest you boy?" Bakura looked at the list in his mind it was short: the millenium items and showing up the pharroh.
"I might be a archyologist like my father." Don nodded and looked around his room.
"When I was your age do you know what I wanted?" Bakura shook his head of course he didn't but he knew he wanted Lilly in the room now! "I wanted to provide for my family. I owned a nice chunk of farm land, or at least would I was the oldest and only son when I married my wife would take care of my parents and our children and I would take care of the land. That's how it goes in family's like Lilly's and mine. So when I was your age I had already found my woman and we were killing time until we were old enough to wed. You find yourself a girl yet?"
"No, sir. I don't plan on it either." Don let out a laugh.
"You kids are all the same. Lilly says she's going to be a shrink and support herself one day. No man needed. HA! She's a strong girl but every woman needs a man to hold her own in this world of ours."
"Now just wait a minute! Lilly takes good care of the farm by herself. Her parents to lift a finger to help. She might have help but she don't really need it! And she's smart enough and damn it Lilly isn't some broad from your era old man!"
"That's big of you to say, boy!" he barked. "But it don't change the world. What are you feeble minded? Can't you see the way this old world works? Women are like… They're like a good huntin' dog. You see their job at home is to be quiet and guard you and your possessions, you let them sleep at the foot of the bed or eat your scrapes but only to make them feel like more than a tool. But that don't change the fact that they're nothing more than a necessity to a man's well being."
"DON!" Lilly said she'd been standing out side the door listening. "That is…" she stopped Bakura saw lightening flash in her eyes she threw the silver wrapped candy bar at the man grabbed Bakura's hand and drug him out of the room. It took them under a minute to navigate the nursing home and get in the truck. She sat in the driver's seat on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry." she finally said when she'd gotten herself under control. She started up the truck and pulled out of the parking lot. "Had I known he'd act like that, I never would have brought you here honey."
A/N: I've debated on taking the last chapter out. But, I'm going to fill you in a piece of Lilly's past. It's been mentioned a few times that Lilly was different before Serena's accident. Which is normal for any person to change after something like that. But there was more to that short period of time before her change than I've mentioned. She used to show horses with a passion unlike any other she's shown thus far. She wasn't just 'good' as Serena put it she was in the top three in her age group. The riders she competed against frequently, became close friends and there parents soon decided to get them the same trainer and sign them on as a team. The trainer was a bit of a nut case despite being the best their dollar could buy. She started giving the kids achalol to calm their nerves before big shows. It didn't take long for one beer between the group to become a six pack then harder liquors, some of the kids even went to drugs. When the parents found out (one of the kids was thrown and due to her intoxication her body reacted in a way that killed her), they destroyed the team. Jason and Lilly hated the idea of parting ways and stayed in touch. Once they stole a car and crashed it into a telephone pole. The Halses refused to let their daughter near Jason again and not long after that her grandfather died then she got Chip and in a rush to prove herself again she misjudged his tameness ending in him freaking when a squirrel ran across his path he threw Serena and she was in a coma for a while, her head having been cracked open. After all of this Lilly became the Lilly we know in this story. SOOOO with that out of the way now I can move on. Jason may or may not make another apperance but in any case it will be just as short and strange. THANKS for your reviews and patience.