Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, I don't own Toby...
Author's Note: Okay, so I'm trying to make it like real-life so it's more of a life-story--but it won't be as long, I promise. Anyway, it'll pick up in the next chapter. Promise.
"So you two are both on the school swimming-team?" Lilah asked, as they passed the little McDonald's into Target.
"Yeah, all of us guys are," Tyler said. "Do you swim?"
"Six times a week, and meets," Lilah smiled. "I didn't know there was a team at Spenser until Sarah told me, so I didn't bother packing my good swimsuit." She spoke slang but she still managed to sound more eloquent than even Caleb's mom, and Reid was completely mesmerised whenever she spoke.
"Well, go and pick a suit out," Sarah nodded over at the racks of women's swimwear.
"Yeah, you can try-out for the team tomorrow," Reid encouraged, glancing worriedly at Tyler. He looked really pale and queasy.
"I'm gonna go get a soda," Tyler mumbled, and shuffled off to McDonald's. Lilah squirmed nervously, glancing at the displays, and finally her love of swimming won over, and she returned a few seconds later with a plain black racer-back Speedo cut high on the hips, tossing it carelessly into the cart Reid pushed.
"Your mother trained you well. I've known you twelve hours and already I've got you pushing my trolley," Lilah smiled tauntingly. Sarah giggled, and he grabbed Lilah's waist and tickled her until the two older women over by the bathrobes gave them disapproving looks. What—it's not like I'm gonna jump her here, Reid thought indignantly, releasing Lilah.
She grabbed a cute little flannel dress and a few long-sleeved tops and a little pair of black ballet-shoes from the women's clothing sections and Sarah looked at lingerie and Tyler dashed off to get new pyjamas and some t-shirts, and Reid found some plain sheets and a set of towels in the bedding section while the girls looked at storage bins and corkboards and lamps and a little mini-refrigerator. Lilah looked at a flat-screen TV and a multi-region DVD player and Reid found a replacement for his TV, Tyler looked at video-games and Sarah looked at school-supplies, and Reid stocked up on aspirin, Pepto-Bismol and snacky foods for his dorm.
"What are these like?" Lilah asked interestedly, picking up a packet of Reese's Peanut Butter cups. "I've seen them at Shakeaway, but I've never tried one."
"You've never had Reese's?" Reid gaped.
"I've never had any of this—except Kit Kat and Snickers and M&Ms," Lilah said thoughtfully. "Sweets in England are different. And the chocolate is much better. Oh, hang on, I need to get batteries. I'll be back in a sec." Tyler lugged a crate of Gatorades and water around the aisle and they had to make room underneath the cart for it next to the sodas.
"How are you ever going to eat this much?" Lilah asked disbelievingly, as Reid grabbed a box of Clif bars and a few boxes of Rice-a-Roni and Kraft Mac-and-cheese.
"You underestimate us," Reid smiled.
"What's all this candy for?" Tyler asked, frowning into their cart. "It's not Halloween yet."
"We're watching movies tonight—popcorn!" Reid gasped, and he heard the two laughing as he whirled around back to the candy aisles. He almost ran into Sarah with her armfuls of lever-arch binders and plastic wallets, and they went to the check-out lanes and separated everything into who was paying for it.
"How are we going to fit all this in your boot?" Lilah asked, and Reid quirked an eyebrow at her. "The back of your car? The trunk?"
"Oh," he laughed. "It's alright, we'll leave Tyler here."
"Hey!" Tyler yelped indignantly behind them.
"Oh, it's absolutely pissing it down out there," Lilah groaned, peering out of the automatic doors. "We'll have to run for the car." Reid shrugged his hoodie off and handed it to Lilah; she grinned and tugged it on without protest, flipping the hood up, and they ran across the parking-lot. He let Tyler in the back seat after they'd managed to get all their stuff into the trunk and the back seat and drove back to Spenser, running all their stuff into the foyer and getting completely soaked.
Waiting for the girls in the foyer, he glanced up the stairs and noticed Lilah walking down them, fingers tracing the banister. She was wearing a pair of really tight dark-wash jeans and a pair of black heels with a tiny strap over her toes, and a low-cut black halter-top with sequins on it that flashed her gorgeous breasts. She'd tied her hair up loosely and a few tendrils still escaped the jewelled comb, and silver hoops flashed whenever she moved her head.
"Hey, you look great," Reid said nervously, taking her in as she strode over to him on her heels, almost as tall as him. The dimples at the corners of her mouth as she smiled were more than enough of a reward for his compliment. She smelled really good too, like berries, something like wine or strong cider mulled in autumn with cinnamon and nutmeg. Sarah emerged a few minutes later with Tyler, both laughing. Sarah was wearing one of her loose dresses and her denim jacket, and Reid realised Lilah didn't have one with her.
"Nice car," Lilah grinned, bending over slightly to look at the interior of his vintage 1969 Stingray. It was his baby, gleaming dark-red, flashing chrome.
"Come sit in the front," he smiled, and Tyler was forced to clamber into the back seat with Sarah. Reid figured if she was sitting up front, he wouldn't spend the whole car-ride looking into the rear-view mirror.
"Do you drive?" Reid asked.
"Yeah. I just got my full license at home," Lilah sighed heavily, letting Tyler clamber into the back seat. "You can only start learning at seventeen. It's taken me since then to get a test booked in and pass it. If I sound bitter, I am." Reid laughed softly.
"Do you have a licence here yet?" Sarah asked interestedly. Lilah shook her head, and gasped, her brilliant eyes widening, as Styx played 'Renegade', singing along loudly, laughing with him as he joined in. He loved 'Renegade'. He drove them across town to T.G.I. Friday's, which was heaving even on Sunday evening, and found Pogue sitting in a booth with Caleb. He knuckle-knocked with them and his stomach flipped jealously as Lilah kissed their cheeks affectionately. Must be a European thing, he thought, choosing not to read too much into it.
"Have you guys ordered drinks yet?" Tyler asked. He looked really peaky; he hadn't eaten much today.
"No, what do you want?" Lilah asked, getting up; she was on the end of the bench beside Reid. "I like the look of the frozen margaritas."
"They'll never serve you!" Sarah said disbelievingly. Lilah's eyes lit up at the challenge; she smirked and adjusted her top, throwing the alabaster shoulders and throat—and the all-important cleavage into sharp relief.
"Twenty dollars says I can get that cute bartender to serve me," she dared, and the boys all threw down cash against her, except Reid.
"This isn't England," Sarah laughed indignantly. "They won't give her anything but soda here."
Reid watched her carefully, mostly focusing on any skin she bared, the curve of her breasts under the top, the fact she wasn't wearing a bra, that she was wearing a lustrous red lipstick and smoky black eye makeup, that her jeans were too tight for her to wear any underwear at all beneath them. He watched her lean over the bar and sweet-talk the bartender. The others didn't notice, but he was certain—could he, though, in this light?—that her eyes had flashed as the bartender started speaking, probably asking for her ID. She came back balancing a tray loaded with two huge frozen margaritas and four Coronas on it, grinning triumphantly. She waved a napkin.
"What's that?" Sarah asked, laughing.
"His phone-number," Lilah giggled, and the boys laughed, until she held out her hand for their money. She folded it and stuck it in her top, where pattern told Reid she always kept her cash, as she had today in Target. They ordered food; the closest thing to authentic Mexican they could get this close to the Canadian border, and sweet-toothed Reid and Lilah shared a dessert. They paid their share of the bill and Reid offered his hoodie as they walked outside into the bitter air and he noticed Lilah shiver and hug her arms.
"Here," he smiled, and Lilah smiled as she accepted the hoodie and shrugged it on, doing the zip up and walking close to him back to the car. Sarah came with them, and the two girls giggled softly in the back seat while Tyler kept changing the CD in the front. Reid parked up and Sarah and Tyler both ran to the doors as the rain started pattering.
"Thank you for today," Lilah said quietly, smiling bashfully, as they walked to the doors with hunched shoulders. She still wore his hoodie, and he didn't ask for it back. "I was afraid I wouldn't meet anyone I liked here. I had fun with you."
"Yeah, it was great," Reid said honestly. Teasing Tyler was always fun when he wasn't the only one doing it, especially when Lilah's taunts prompted Tyler to retaliate. Tyler never retaliated to taunts; he always backed down to the guys—except Aaron's friends, who were all show anyway. He liked that he could talk to Lilah. He'd never been able to talk to girls before, but her constant teasing and flirting made it easy. He walked Lilah to her dorm, remembering she didn't like the dark and the others were inconsiderate in turning all the lights off, and he smiled, feeling hot, as she kissed his cheek in goodnight.
Lilah was nervous. She'd never had to walk into a brand-new set of schoolmates in a brand-new school. She'd boarded at the same tiny private school in London since she was eleven and had a very tight-knit circle of friends. Being 'gifted' as her father called it, she had to work hard to keep those friends. She'd had to have her own room since she was thirteen, since she started unconsciously using her powers at night. Luckily it had started during the summer just before her birthday, and the only person who saw her levitate in her sleep had been her father. But since then she'd stuck to the same circle of friends—or strangers when she partied and wanted to impress people with the things she could do. They thought she was amazing, performing little tricks that amused her as much as they amused them. But she'd grown to control her Power and only used it occasionally, usually to punish people who had insulted her friends or herself.
A few times—like at the party on Saturday night with Aaron's cigarette, and getting drinks for them at T.G.I. Friday's last night—she'd thought Reid had seen her Using, as her father called it. Reid looked at her a lot, and that made her nervous. He was so yummy and actually quite charming when he wasn't being cheeky, and the others were gorgeous too. She just hoped he'd still be her friend if he found out—because people did, and she had to alter their memories when that happened—about her Power. Sarah had a few books on her desk that she'd looked at on Saturday afternoon before the party—the original colonists of what they made Ipswich, use of the Power during the Trials that spread superstition to Salem. It was enough for Lilah to believe this was the only reason her father had sent her to Spenser—because other kids had Power like her. And because one of the Sons was a cousin of sorts of hers. But it was too much to hope that she could come out and say she was a witch without them turning on her. She didn't know anyone well enough yet to know if she'd become the social leper.
Right now she felt like a slice of pie or something else packed with sugar and delicious, because of the way that boy Aaron was shamelessly checking her out and flirting with her outside their history lecture-theatre.
"You know, I could totally show you around Spenser if you want," he smiled, taking her timetable and pretending to look it over. "Have you been into the woods yet? There's a really beautiful brook where swans live. Want me to show you it sometime?" He probably spends more time in front of the mirror than I do, Lilah thought.
"She can't," someone spoke up. The voice was male, pleasant, taunting: Reid. "She's waiting for some self-obsessed prick to ask her to a quiet, secluded romantic spot so he can try and get in her pants." Lilah hid her smirk tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, and shot Reid a smile as he strode up. Dressed in a school uniform, he looked so different; they all did, but he still managed to get away with wearing those fingerless gloves and earring in his left ear.
"Hey Lilah," Reid grinned, touching her waist. Tyler smiled beside him, ever the faithful puppy-dog. Aaron glowered and walked away as soon as his girlfriend—what Lilah assumed was his girlfriend, the frizzy redhead with the fake boobs—appeared.
"Was he bothering you?" Tyler asked, watching Aaron appease the girl as she glared jealously at Lilah.
"Oh, he was just trying to be cute," Lilah laughed softly. She glanced at him again. He looked pretty much as he did at the party—white-collar, spoilt by money, angry, and aggressive. She'd met boys like him before. "He's a bit short for me, though." She glanced unconsciously at Reid, who was several inches taller and cocked his head to one side so they were almost eye-to-eye when they talked. She liked Reid more than the other boys, mostly because of his attitude. He was brooding like Pogue but not dark like Caleb, and liked to have fun. And he had tattoos. She could respect any man who could go through the pain of getting a tattoo—because that was the limit of any pain they would ever feel in the normalcy of their lives, compared to women going through childbirth because of men.
"What's your schedule like?" Tyler asked, taking the piece of paper from her hand. He and Reid looked it over and Reid grinned. "Same as us."
"It's really strange; at my old school, we only had to study four subjects," Lilah sighed. "This year I'd be taking three. And I haven't taken P.E. since I was eleven." Caleb appeared, and asked about the English school system, so Lilah spent a few minutes explaining the differences to the boys, and when the lecture-theatre doors opened, she went and introduced herself to her new teacher, Mr Tillman, while the other students climbed up the steps to the rows of seats. She stood nervously while Mr Tillman tried to get their attention and played with the spine of her new history textbook.
"Class, settle down," Mr Tillman said, raising his voice over their chatter. "I know it's only our first day back and you're all still catching up from the summer, but we have a new student I'd like to introduce to you. Miss Shakespeare joins us all the way from England. Lilah, why don't you take a seat next to Mr Garwin. Perhaps you can encourage him to crack a book open this year." Lilah grinned, mirroring Reid, and quickly stalked over to the closest set of steps up to his row. The frizzy redhead sneered at her as she strode up the stairs past her, commenting snidely:
"Nice stockings."
"Nice botox injections," Lilah retorted. Lilah noted how each and every other girl wore geeky socks up to their knees. Completely unflattering. Lilah knew this girl's type; stuck-up, new-money, with a superiority complex. People from money were always snobs and useless. Except the Sons of Ipswich. Despite the name that suggested some superiority, she found the boys to be normal, and not in the least bit snobbish or arrogant. She liked Sarah: Sarah wasn't from money. She was here on an academic scholarship, and probably earned every penny of help she got.
"Morning," he smirked, watching the sheen of her stockings as she crossed her thighs. She rolled her eyes and smacked him playfully with her notebook.
"Now, this year we will be focusing on the Revolutions—French, American and Russian," Mr Tillman called up the lecture theatre. "We will begin with the American revolution, and the midterm will be on everything you learn over the next few months. So, Mr Garwin, pay attention."
Lilah glanced at Reid; he rolled his eyes and brought out a notebook. They dove right into a lecture—the Mayflower, and the British charters. It was interesting to Lilah, since she had never studied American history before, and her hand flew over the page as she scribbled down detailed notes, highlighting passages of the textbook she'd bought at Borders on Saturday afternoon when Sarah walked with her into town. When Tillman lulled into reading passages, she and Reid scribbled notes on his notebook.
"Mr Garwin, please focus on my lecture, and not on Miss Shakespeare," Mr Tillman sighed exasperatedly, and Lilah glanced up from her notebook, looking quickly at Reid.
"Sorry," Reid apologised, not looking away from Lilah. She smirked as she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and noted something down in her book casually, secretly pleased.
The hall echoed as people dived into the pool and splashed around and called across the room to each other from the locker-rooms. Tyler and Ryan were already racing—Tyler was pulling ahead and the guys cheered him on. P.E. was always the time they could just mess around; swim-practice was serious stuff. Reid sat against the blue tarp they hauled over the pool every night after practice. People were still filing out of the changing-rooms, mostly the girls, and he and Pogue both jumped when someone spanked their asses, whirling around.
"Hiya," Lilah smiled brightly. Reid couldn't help it; his eyes went straight to her body. All day, she'd been wearing her white school shirt, and it was the most annoying thing in the world to see the pattern of her blue-and-white striped bra—with lace and red-ribbon trim—and not be able to touch. Now she was wearing the plain black swimsuit she'd bought yesterday—tight, high-legged—with her hair tied back in a thick, glossy braid that doubled back on itself. She looked so yummy, almost edible, so tall and slender except her breasts.
"So Reid tells me you're looking to try out for the team," Pogue said interestedly.
"Maybe," Lilah shrugged bashfully.
"You'd have to beat me in a race if you wanted a place," Kira appeared, sneering at Lilah. She was short, flat-chested and really frizzy in the humidity of the enclosed pool. But Aaron still hung off her, as if trying to make Lilah feel bad for letting Reid and Tyler interfere earlier. As if Lilah was stupid enough to be interested in him.
"Careful your bathing suit doesn't slip," Aaron commented, eyeing her unabashedly. "Looks like you're already busting out." Reid glowered at him, taking defensive stance behind Lilah.
"Well, at least I can fill more than a training bra," Lilah said lightly, shrugging, and Reid laughed as Kira flushed with a mixture of anger and embarrassment.
"I hear Hooters is hiring if you're looking for a job," Aaron said, and Reid jumped at him. Lilah held him back.
"Don't worry about it, Reid," she said quietly, staring at Aaron challengingly. "He's only jealous because he has nothing to hold onto with that." Coach blew her whistle and called attention; they had to take roll.
"Okay, warm up with ten laps, and we'll do some diving," Coach grinned. "We'll just play around today. Competition for the best dive; winner gets candy." Reid loved diving. Something about plummeting to impending doom made his adrenaline rush. He was the best diver in the school because he was fearless. Most of the girls never got past the starting-blocks.
"I hope you got me Swedish Fish," Reid grinned, and Coach laughed, showing him a little yellow bag of red candy. Lilah lingered near Coach, and Reid grinned over at her. "Coach, this is Lilah Shakespeare. She just transferred from an English school. She's looking to join the swim-team."
"Are you? Well, great. We're looking for new blood on the girl's team," Coach smiled up at Lilah. "Let's see what you've got, and I'll talk to you after class about trying-out." Lilah nodded, smiling bashfully, and followed Reid to the water. He finished his laps quickly, but she was quicker, smiling as she sat on the edge of the pool, dangling her legs in the water, watching the first group do their diving. He booed as Aaron climbed the ladder to the highest diving-board, and noticed how Lilah's eyes were fixed on him too, frowning intensely. He was sure he didn't just imagine her eyes flashing in the reflections of the water, but he watched Aaron pull off a dive and surface.
He burst out laughing with the rest of the class as Aaron exited the pool—without his shorts. They floated to the surface and Aaron stood there like an idiot, covering himself with his swimming-cap. Lilah plucked the shorts out of the water and strutted over to Aaron, gloating as she offered the shorts between two fingers.
"Reid, Lilah, you're up next," Coach called, as Aaron ran to the showers. Reid grinned and followed Lilah as she tugged her swimming-cap on over her hair, covering her pierced ears. She ascended the ladder first, her hips wiggling as she climbed, and she balanced on the end of the diving-board before bouncing slightly, throwing up her arms, and tumbling in two mid-air somersaults before straightening out and plunging under the water with only a tiny disturbance of the water. He applauded along with everyone else as she emerged from the water and accepted the towel Pogue offered.
Reid climbed the stairs, wondering how Aaron's insult of her earlier had triggered the most ironic of events leading to the loss of his swim-shorts. It'd happened before, the intense look, the flash of her eyes, like so many times when he Used.
"Alright, and the prize goes to…" Coach paused for dramatic effect, offering the candy first to Reid and then to Lilah, who blushed and glanced apologetically at him as she took the candy. "Alright everyone, hit the showers. Lilah, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"We'll wait outside for you," Pogue promised, and Reid took one last look at Lilah's ass before he followed the boys to the showers.
A.N.: Kinda boring, I know. Next chappie up soon.