Chapter Six:

Whatever It Takes

Someone waved a hand in front of Lili's face.

"Hey, Lili…wake up." As she came out of her daze she shifted her gaze back and forth between Tessa and Angus. In front of her, on a wooden table was beaker with some unknown liquid inside. It was bubbling.

"Huh?" She said.

"I asked you, 'what does the book say to add in next?'" Tessa repeated patiently.

"Oh." Lili said. She looked down at the book in her hands. It was turned to a page, which appeared to give directions on how to perform open-heart surgery. She wondered briefly why a student in the sixth grade would need to know this before raising her eyes.

"What page are we on?" She asked without too much embarrassment. Tessa sighed and took the book from her.

"You know Lili, you could at least pretend to help." Tessa turned towards Angus.

"Alright, it says to add the food coloring to the oil and see what happens. Angus…add the food coloring." He nodded. Tessa turned to Lili.

"So, what's up with you? Usually you do well in class…or…at least…you know…pay SOME attention."

"Huh?" Lili said. She had been playing with something around her wrist. Tessa sighed.

"What's wrong with you lately? You've had your head in the clouds since we arrived." Lili shrugged.

"I was just thinking." She stared at the result of the experiment with little interest. It was the sort of silly trial that would have made Sasha cringe. "That's very boring." She said as she copied the answer for question 7. Angus watched it for a moment before looking up at her and shrugging.

"What were you thinking about?" Tessa asked as she copied the answer down as well.

"Stuff. Old friends, I guess." She said simply before standing and walking up to the front of the class to hand in her lab. Tessa watched her for a moment before turning to Angus who was cleaning up the equipment.

"Is she always this depressed around her birthday?" Angus looked up from the colorful water that was currently swirling down the drain of the sink.

"No…usually she's just extra cynical." He said fondly. Tessa nodded.

"Her dad is picking her up this year…isn't he?" Angus turned and looked at Lili from across the room.

"He says he will every year…doesn't he?" He stated. His voice held a tone that made Tessa look down. She knew how it was…having parents that barely knew you existed.

"Oh." She said.

The bell rang.

The rest of the day went by with little event. Lili would go into a daydream every once in a while. For the most part Tessa let it pass, except for in one instance when they were in PE and Lili nearly got hit in the face with a ball. Either way she would have come out of her daydream, but Tessa decided that Lili would prefer to NOT be hit in the face with a four square ball.

The whole time, Tessa had been going over something in her mind. By lunchtime, she felt that she had the whole thing sorted out. All she needed to do at this point was to wait for the perfect opportunity to present itself, thereby giving her the opportunity to relay it to her other friends.

She was not disappointed. About fifteen minutes after lunch began, a sound like someone screaming drifted over the busy hall. At their small table of outcasts, Lester was the first to raise his head and identify the source of ruckus.

" It's Jamie." He said simply. The others shared a look.

Jamie Baton was your typical muscle headed jock, and more so. He had a build that was a cross between a football player and a sumo wrestler. Out of the two pastime's, he chose the first…and Demur's team, which was otherwise made mostly of rich sissy's who would treat a broken nail in about the same way as a girl would, was glad to have him. He was slow as hell…but no one EVER knocked him down. Ever.

Right now he was tormenting a very small boy whose eyes were two wide circles on his pale, sun-deprived face.

"It's Manny." Angus breathed. "I thought his parents took him out of this school last year after someone broke his leg."

At the end of the table Lili had come out of her daydream and was watching Manny and Jamie along with everyone else. Her eyes narrowed, and, without a word she stood with her tray and began walking in their direction.

"Lili!" Angus called to her in a loud whisper. She either didn't hear, or chose to ignore him.

"Haha." Jamie's chuckle sounded something like a horn, which had inexplicably learned to gag. His shadow fell over Manny, who was staring up at him in horror. There were tears falling from his eyes. People all over the lunchroom had turned from their conversations to watch, an exception being the teachers…who were pretending not to notice. This is what really made her angry…they never did anything. When it was someone like Jamie Baton, whose parents donated 50 percent of the sports funds and owned half the town…when it was their quarterback…they never did anything! This was especially the case when his poor victim turned out to be a small whimpering little boy who fit quite nicely into the outcast division of their quaint little society.

Jamie, who had grabbed the tiny boy by his shirt and was currently threatening to hang him up off the top of the football stands, looked up as the claret haired girl walked unabashedly towards the trashcan and emptied the contents of her tray into it. With that task done, she turned her emerald eyes on him and gave him a blank and almost bored look. She stepped in front of him.

"I would leave that kid alone if I were you." She said. Jamie grinned stupidly at her.

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do if I don't? Run off and tell a teacher?"

"No." She said. Her stare didn't waver.

"Oh…hehe, you going to fight me, little girl?" Her eyelashes flickered downward at this.

"No. But I will punch you until you cry…and I might set you on fire…and then, when you ask me to let you go…I might not listen." The threatening thing about the way she said it was that she stated it in the tone of someone suggesting that she had done it before, and doing so on him would be MUCH easier then it had been before. And it was clear she wasn't scared. There was a flicker of uncertainty in Jamie's eyes.

"Yeah. Well come on then." He said, with less humor and more anger. "Beat me up."

It would be several weeks before Jamie played football again. Later, when he was asked how he could possible be beaten up by a girl half his size and a fifth of his weight by his mortified father…he would explain that he had thought he had had everything under control…right up until the point that she had kicked him in the crotch, punched him the stomach, busted his nose, and dislocated his arm. After that he was sure that things had gone wrong. He didn't know what happened, he said, he just sort of froze…like invisible hands had been holding him in place.

When the teachers realized that things had taken an unexpected turn, they pretended to come out of their blissful cloud and hurried towards the struggle, taking place on the other side of the room. No force was involved to break it up. Lili simply stood back from the collapsed form of Jamie when they arrived and was directed towards the principal's office. Before she went Manny thanked her quietly. The teachers ignored him as he walked towards the restroom to clean the blood off of his face. (At this point it could not be determined whether Jamie had hit him, or if he had simply had a nosebleed induced by fear.)

Back at the lunch table, Tessa exchanged a look with Angus. Lester was still watching the area where the fight had taken place a moment before. His eyes were wide.

Zoe didn't seem to care about what was happening around her. She was busy with something that she seemed to feel was more important. (Having to do with stickers and glitter and other sorts of stupid stuff like that.)

Angus sighed.

"Now she really won't be happy." He said morosely.

"Why?" said the astonished voice of Lester. "She freakin won!"

"So what?" Tessa said bitterly. "That idiot Jamie should be in the office, not her." She was gathering up her food to dispose of it, when she remembered her thoughts from earlier in the day. She sat back down, a look of determination on her face. Lester looked at her and raised his brow.

"Guys, listen…I was just thinking about Lili earlier and her birthday. Her dad never comes to get her like he says he will." Their faces were blank.

"Yes?" Said Lester, with little interest.

"Yeah…and she's been really, well…mopey this year, right?" She said, switching her gaze from person to person.

"So, what if…this year…we had sort of…a backup birthday for her here…in case, you know, her dad doesn't come through for her again." She waited.

Lester gave her a doubtful look.

"I dunno…Lili's kind of…you know…hard to please…and scary. Do we even know what she likes?"

"We'll find out!" Tessa replied quickly. "We'll do research and figure out all of that stuff. Come on! She deserves a good birthday this year."

In front of her, Angus broke into a smile.

"I agree with Tessa. We SHOULD give Lili a good birthday. Maybe it'll cheer her up."

Lester shrugged.

"Or maybe it won't make any difference at all. Oh…and if you think I'll be the one to search through her junk and find out what she likes…then your sadly mistaken." He said as he stood to throw his stuff away.

"No problem, I'll do that." Tessa said. "I share a room with her."

Angus nodded brightly.

"Yeah. We'll find out what she wants no matters what it takes!"

With this, the bell rang.

Hehe. Sorry for the delay my lovely's…I've been working on other stuff. Still, here it is, sorry it's short…but it shouldn't take me too long to update.

Haha…whatever it takes. Too bad what she wants is another boy.