Ah, there it was: the all-too-familiar sense of second-hand vertigo that she experienced every time she was around her step-family. Already, she was starting to feel faint as she looked up, and up, and up, at the pillar-esque legs of her little brother Cody. She had no idea how the 13-year-old boy had even noticed her down here; as he had come down from his roost and placed himself right above her, she could help but think of how she didn't even come up to Cody's ankles. She may as well have been a bug compared to him!
...perhaps she wasn't being fair. Her brother seemed to be brimming with elation as he placed his hand down on the floor, his fingers twitching in anticipation as he waited for Lily to hop on. Gingerly, she placed her things on the outstretched palm, the heavy luggage plopping into place like they were little more than pebbles (they were essentially pebbles compared to Cody, of course, but she was far past the point when that was noteworthy). Then, she climbed on, trying not to think about how Cody's fingers could easily crush a row of houses as she was lifted was up into the air.
As her brother carried Lily all the way back to her old room, excitedly taking about things she couldn't even begin to comprehend due to the former forgetting that his voice registered much deeper to "normal" people than it would to giants like him, the modest young woman took the time to reflect on everything that had led to this point.
She had no idea how things had turned out so awfully for her. It felt like it had only been yesterday that her fiancé-to-be had left this world, leaving an open wound in her heart that would never quite heal. All that time spend in sterile white rooms, waiting fretfully as test as test was done on his emaciated form, all those long, laborious procedures just to give him just a little bit more time, a chance to beat the odds - all of it had been for naught in the end, as she soon found herself staring at a freshly-tombstone dressed in nothing but black.
In his passing, she had been left with an almost insurmountable medical debt, one that their meager insurance could not even begin to cover. Not that it mattered, as not long after, she had become one of many who had been involuntarily "let go", just the latest statistic in a series of desperate downsizing initiatives by a company that had seen far better days. It may have been a part-time job, but it was still one of the few things that she was counting on to make it through the rest of the semester as she figured out how she would pay off her medical debts.
And now, here she was, down a family estate and back at the place she had called home for eight long years. All that time trying to set off and live and independent life, only to end up back where she started. It was hard not to feel a little bitter about the way fate's wheel had turned.
At least she didn't have to worry too much about student debts. Lily had managed to attend her university on a full merit scholarship, with her part-time job mainly going towards food and maintaining the estate. Now that she was here, all she had to do was just get herself settled here so she could find another job, and hopefully she could get started on paying off the medical bills while also continuing her studies.
That was far easier said than done, of course, but it wasn't like she had a choice at this point.
Before she knew it, Lily had been dropped along with her luggage off right in front of an old-fashioned wooden shelf, where a small opening had been crudely cut open in the plywood to serve as the entrance to her room. They had even taken the time to carve up and paint a tiny little wooden green door for her, complete with a sign that had her name prominently displayed. The fact that they could have gotten a sign from a regular-sized person didn't stop the gesture from being sweet, if not a little tacky for her tastes.
As she entered into her old room, the stale waft of dust and debris assaulted her senses in a surprise coordinated attack against her eyes and nose. Right. Her family weren't exactly the right size to be able to do intensive maintenance of this place, so it still had that distinct rusty smell that came being in disuse for a couple of years. No matter: she had long gotten used to looking after herself in this house. She would simply begin with dusting once she had finished unpacking everything.
As she began unzipping her bags, the loud, thundering booms of her brothers' footsteps could be heard outside, jostling her nerves as she was forced to cover her ears. Right: this was another thing that she had to get used to again - how loud it was around here. Being giants, her dad and her brothers had the unfortunate tendency of making a lot of noise wherever they went. No matter where she was in that house, it felt like she could never escape them. She could be on the opposite side of the house, and she'd still be able to hear them. Even when she was looking away from them, she could feel the heat from their suffocating the room, could hear their breath coursing down on her like a malestorm, everything!
Lily tired to focus on unpacking for a while longer, but eventually, she let out a frustrated sigh and just sat herself on a nearby seat, not even caring that there was dust all over it. Sometimes, it felt like that she was less an older sister, and more a curiosity, a little pet that just so happened to know how to walk and talk like people. And as much as they earnestly tried, as much as her brothers and stepfather did everything to assure that she was a part of the family, that she belonged with them...
She could never bring herself to believe it.
She wasn't Stuart Little - she couldn't fly planes or anything like that. She was just her: plain and ordinary, and down another memento of her mother's.
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