Lily Baby.

Mikey’s POV

When we walked to school on Monday morning, I was excited beyond belief. I told Frank I would walk Lily to class.

“Why would you want to do that? Your next class is in the opposite direction,” he said confused.

“So is yours, I just want to spend some quality time with my sister if you don’t mind,” I say sharply.

“Okay…” he says unsurely, releasing Lily’s hand from his, “Bye Lil.”

She’s ignoring him because he hid her favourite stuffed animal behind the sofa.

I laugh at the look on her face as he walks away. She runs at him and hugs him before skipping back at me.

“Ready?” she nods happily, grabbing my hand.

We wave goodbye to everyone else and make our way to her class, situated really close to the Myspace tree.

I can see Michelle standing in the doorway talking to some kids as we get closer. Lily tugs on my hand to walk faster and we’re nearly sprinting by the time we get there.

“Hey, Michelle,” I say, panting, letting Lily hug Michelle.

“Hey, Mikey,” she does a little wave as Lily’s arms restrict her from any sharp movements.

I nod and look around. I’m supposed to wait until everyone’s arrived; at least that’s what Frank does. I usher Lily into her seat and look around. All the kids are either with their parents or siblings, all staring at their hands or fidgeting. It looks like an oversized infants class.

Lily seems to be the only one who doesn’t look like she belongs.

“Excuse me,” I hear a voice behind me.

I turn to see Alicia, smiling up at me, holding onto a boy who looks around my age.

“Oh hey,” she said, as she realized it was me, “It’s you.”

“It’s you,” I say breathlessly, shifting to get out of her way as they bustle past.

“This is Zacky, my brother,” she smiled, gesturing to the boy, “Of course, I know Lily.”

I grinned, “Nice to meet you,” I held out my hand to Zacky but he stared at it like it was filthy and shivered.

“Sorry…” she apologised for him, “He doesn’t like strangers. He doesn’t talk to them either… well, he doesn’t talk to nearly anyone…”

“Don’t worry, I know what it’s like,” I gesture to Lily, “So… um…”

“Did you have a good weekend?” she asked, stealing the words from my mouth.

“Yeah I did… you?”

“Yeah, had to look after Zack.”

“Ah, I have Frankie to do that, he’s like… in love with Lily.”

Lily looked up, “What about my Frankie?”

“Nothing honey, just talking about how cute you look together,” Alicia said, kindly. Lily seemed satisfied enough and began to colour in her book.

“Um… anyways I was wondering if you- uh… if you would like to… go out some-”

“Oh, Mikey just kiss her already!” Lily cried, looking up expectantly.

“Lily!” I hissed, “Sorry… sometimes she… ugh- ”

“Yes I would like to go out sometime,” she beamed.

“Oh… awesome,” I smiled, “Yeah…”

Just then the bell rang and I had to leave the room pretty fast to escape even more embarrassment. I skipped in bliss all the way to chemistry. God, how I hate chemistry.

Jeph’s POV

Quinn came to speak to me at school today during lunch.

“Quinn?”

“Mommy told me to thank you for looking me after.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” I said after re ordering the sentence.

“Thank yous.”

“S’okay…”

We stared at each other for what seemed like hours before he skipped off in the direction of the little black haired girl. Something Way…

Lily! That’s right. Like the fucking flower… How I hate her and her little boyfriend. I really cannot stand them. She’s easily excitable and giggly. She spends way too much time with my Quinn and I cannot be dealing with her.

I need her to just go away.

“Hey, Jeph.”

Ugh, Alicia.

“Hey.”

She sits down next to me, folding her legs beneath her as she does so.

“Lovely day.”

“Did you really come all the way over here to talk about the weather, Alicia?”

“No. I came over because you looked lonely… and because Finola told me to.”

“Ugh, Finola,” I muttered darkly.

“Don’t be cruel!” she scolded, her hair flicking as she turned her head, “It’s not her fault she believes the sun shines out your behind! In my opinion she is extremely misinformed.”

“Oh, and who would you rather date? Tom Crowther? He may look attractive, Liss but he’s very ugly on the inside,” I said, monotonously, watching Quinn and Lily dancing around that big old tree that the Iero kid and the Way kids sit under everyday, sometimes with that big dude with the hair and that other guy… Bert?

“Ew, Tom Crowther is a douche, and since when was he attractive?”

“I don’t know, Liss, your mind works in a weird way. So who have you got your eye on?”

“No one.”

“A likely story. Go on. Spill.”

“Ugh, stop trying to be a girl, Jeph.”

“Stop trying to be nosey, Liss.”

She got up sighing.

“I just want you to be happier, Jeph, you didn’t have to be mean…” she said, hugging herself as the wind whipped around us, “See you around.”

She’s been my best friend for years but I hate her sometimes…