Typhoon & Tempest

Chapter Nine

Lily was sitting at her kitchen bench staring at her bowl of porridge. Her night's sleep was spent replaying her outburst with Croft yesterday, his widened eyes when she slammed her fist into his face and he flew across the room.

Her dreams were recalling everyone's expressions of fear and shock, how Karen flinched, Jack was worried, as she was dragged into the Principal's office.

Lily huffed a sigh but made no move to eat the warm porridge in front of her. She stared at the sliced banana on top, the cool glass of water next to her, and sighed again while fiddling with a strand of hair.

She was still in her pyjamas, her fuzzy locks springing out of the bun she threw it in last night.  

Her aunt frowned at her from across the bench, halting her eating of fruit and honey. "Do you have plans for today?"

Lily picked up her spoon, pushing the porridge around lazily. "Just...Just visiting Mum and Dad later, nothing else."

Aunt Ollie sipped on her second tea of the morning. "Would you like to go to the movies later?"

Lily shrugged, pushing the porridge around. "Yeah."

Her aunt smiled quietly. "Are you still thinking about yesterday?"

Lily groaned, slumping back in the chair. "I'm thinking about what everyone's gonna say on Monday." 

"Why do you care?"

Lily looked at her aunt, at her fluffy dressing gown and combed hair, there was nothing negative on her face. She was just quietly listening, a soft welcoming smile and a light to her eyes Lily never saw in her own.

"I hate their whispers. Their stares..." Lily dropped her spoon in the bowl. "It makes it a lot harder than you think."

Her aunt cupped her mug of tea and had a far away look on her face. She paused for a moment, before turning back to Lily. "You know your mother had an outburst like yours when we were at school."

Lily straightened in her chair. Her mother. "Did she?" Lily cleared her throat to move the lump that sat there. 

"Yeah," her aunt smiled. "Cordelia and I were in the same PE class, and someone had stolen her bracelet from the changing rooms while we were on the courts with everyone."

Lily tried to ignore the empty weight on her wrist, where she'd left Delta's bracelet on her bedside table. It felt like a ghost had wrapped itself around her wrist in its place.

"We came back and were getting changed when she noticed it was missing, and the moment she realised," her aunt chuckled, "it was like someone flipped a switch!"

Lily cracked a grin. She had faint memories of her mother's temper, a tidal wave of fury, but it was balanced out with her father's cool temperament.

"Cordie was furious! She brought the whole class back into the hall and demanded whoever stole her bracelet return it."

"Did she get it back?" Lily smiled as her aunt laughed while reminiscing on her old school days.

Her aunt grinned. "No, not then, no one came forward. But a few days later, Cordie spotted one of our classmates wearing it on her wrist - she only spotted it because her jumper sleeve fell down, but your mother was locked onto her like a bloodhound.

"She stormed over and demanded she give it back, but the girl was taunting her and lying to her face and wasn't giving it over. Before Cordie or I could blink, she'd thrown it in her locker and locked the thing."