CH 18

It was dark. I was alone and I searched everywhere around me. I saw the suite that we lived in. I opened the door and walked in. It was the same. The TV was in the same place surrounded by the same couches. I looked around and no one was there. I went to the hall with out rooms and went down the hall. I stopped at my door and peeked in. It was the same as always. Then I looked down to Sarah's room. I hesitated at the knob, but opened it anyways.

"Hey there cutie." She smiled at me. Sarah was in white pants with a loose white shirt. I ran over to embrace her.

"I'm so sorry." I began to cry. Tears streamed down my face. She began to stroke my hair and I cried harder.

"Oh, Lily it isn't you fault, but I guess I won't be laughing in your face on m 100th birthday." I felt her softly laugh but it caused me to cry harder.

"Please don't cry." She tilted my chin up. I looked at her flushed face and dirty blonde hair. "I hope you all are still into music."

"We haven't talked about music lately." I sniffed. "We're afraid." She wiped my tears off my cheeks.

"Of what?" I let her caress my cheek with her thumb.

"Remembering what happened to you. You left us and it was all my fault." I started cry again and she held me tight. She swayed me back and forth to calm me down. Once I caught my breath she pulled away.

"I always thought of you as a daughter Lily, but you have you mom now and I can tell she was hurting for a long time while you were gone." I looked up into her bright eyes and saw a tear roll down. "I know you felt that I was a mother to you, but you have to let that go now."

"I don't want to forget you." I pleaded.

"Then sing. Get everyone together and play. I will always be with all of you; I loved and will always love each and every one of my children." I hugged her tightly. "Tells the others I am always looking out for them and that I love them." Her cheeks and my cheeks were wet. She kissed my forehead and it was like a slide show.

All the moments we had together from the day Sarah found us to the day she left. Us meeting her and bonding, moving in together as a family, her becoming our legal guarding and her sharing our birthdays with us. I opened my eyes to see her fading away.

"Wait Sarah! Please come back! Sarah!" She was gone.

"There there, drink this." I opened my eyes to my mom's loving smile. I looked around the room and saw my friends watching me with concern. Tiffany was wiping away tears. "There are those beautiful eyes." She handed me the cup. I didn't bother looking in it and just decided to drink. I stuck my tongue out. She softly laughed.

"I don't like it."

"Well then how are you supposed to get better if you don't drink your medicine?" I looked up at her, but I was still dizzy.

"I don't feel good." I closed my eyes again to try and stop the dizzy spell.

"I know dear." I felt her hand on mine. "You have been asleep for three days."

"Three days?" I opened my eyes again and she gracefully nodded her head. I sighed.

"Well I will leave you to you friends." I watched my mom glide over to the door.

"Mom?"

"I think you really need some alone time with your friends dear. I will be waiting in the dinning hall. It will be dinner soon." With that she kindly smiled and was gone.

"How much was I talking?" I stared at my hands. James came and sat down next to me.

"You saw Sarah?" I looked up into his red eyes and watched him wipe them. Everyone was quiet.

"She said she loves all of us like we where her own children. She is sorry that happened to us and she thinks about us all the time." I looked at my friends all with wet cheeks and wiping away their tears with sniffles. "She also said we needed to get back into music."

"Not without her we're not." Sam shot up. "The music was for her." Crystal locked hands with Sam and gave him a weak smile.

"If she wants us to perform then we should honor her wishes." Tiffany sniffed. We were quiet for a while.

"Well then, looks like we are putting on a show." James pated my hand and smiled. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

"Well looks like we better get to dinner." Brandon got up and led Tiffany, Sam and Crystal out the door. James stayed with me.

"Want to try and walk?" He reached out his hand and I took it.

"I miss her James." I continued to try and crawl out of bed.

"Me too."

"She told me I had to let her go and be my mother's daughter. I have to let my mom back in." I quickly wiped a stray tear.

"Hey, you can do this and I will be there every step of the way." He lovingly smiled at me. My leg gave out and I fell into his arms. Without any thought, we kissed. For the first time, we kissed.

"Awww, so cute." We heard Crystal and Tiffany. They were peeking their heads through the door.

"Get out of here." James waved them off and I watched them laugh as they left. I couldn't help but giggle. "Now let's get you to dinner. I'm sure your starving."

James picked me up and carried me to the dinning room. Tiffany and Crystal were already discussing a ball of some sort for us to perform. James sat me down next to him and pushed in my seat for me. My mom saw us and came over. She kissed me softly on the head and I hugged her tightly.

"Well then now that every one is here" She spoke softly and clapped her hands together "let's eat."

We all dug in and I was already coming up with a song in my head for the show. I was a little surprised the Red Queen hadn't done anything to us lately, but who was I to question such a nice day? I enjoyed every bit of it. When I was done I snuck into the kitchen to help Thackery with a little surprise. It had now been a month of us being in Underland though it didn't seem very long. Probably because each attack was spaced out from the time I was her to now, but it was now Sam's birthday, His 16th birthday.

My mom elegantly rose up her glass and taped it. We all became silent. "It came to my attention that it was some ones 16th birthday." She smiled at Sam "So we made you a cake." I came in with the cake and set in front of Sam as we sang happy birthday. He glared at me.

"What?" I innocently smiled.

"What did you do to it?" He continued to glare at me. I shrugged.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I saw my mom quietly giggle. Tiffany and Crystal were covering their mouths snickering. "Are you going to blow out the candles or not? I want cake." My smile was getting wider and wider. He leaned to blow out the candles. The anticipation was killing me and just when I thought it couldn't get any better, Thackery jumped out of the cake and through a slice at Sam's face.

"LILY!" Everyone bust out laughing. I laughed so hard that my side was hurting.

"Hahaha! How's the cake?" I could barley speak.

I picked up a slice of cake and mischievously grinned at me "Why don't you try some?" I stopped laughing.

"Um- I'm sure its fine. My leg really hurts you know." I tried to plead.

"Guess you should have thought about that before you played the prank." He threw the slice.

"HAHAHA! You missed!" I laughed once more at the cake on James's face. James eyed me and grinned.

"Want some cake?" Before I could react he gave me a cake kiss. He let go and I had cake all over my face. I thought everyone was going to pass out from the lack of oxygen they were getting out of their laughs. The maids we laughing, the servants, my friends including Hatty and Mally, then even my mom. The rest of the night was a giant cake fight.

We went to be and I stayed with my mom. She gave me a very long speech about food fights, but it was al worth it. That was the first time in a month that we actually got to act like we use to with Sarah. It was nice. My friends all went to bed, and I went with my mom.

"I'm sorry for the way I had been acting when we first arrived." I lay in her bed while she got her night gown on.

"Oh honey, it's alright." She finished getting dressed and laid on the bed next to me.

"No, I didn't really think about how you had felt why I was gone. I was selfish and I'm sorry. I love you mom." I scooted closer to her. She kissed me on the temple.

"I love you too." We fell asleep.