Lily

My Name is Lily

Chapter One
Lily Williams woke up to her alarm clock playing the Beatles song Help. She yawned and stretched as she tried to recall her dream that she had been having. She was sure that there had been something about a church and rain and a bike path… No, she couldn’t remember. Lily climbed out of bed and headed for her shower. She put on a Josh Groban CD and hopped in the shower. She loved to sing along in foreign languages.
After showering, Lily reached for her towel and dried herself off. She picked out her outfit for that day, a brown camisole with a really low neck tan sweater. She put on her favorite white pants and tan boots. Lily brushed out her hair and tied a white ribbon in her hair as a headband. Swishing her bangs, she smiled at herself in the mirror. She loved her new bangs that she had gotten a few days ago. She brushed her perfectly straight teeth while dancing to her music.
Lily pulled out her make-up and applied some eye shadow and blush. She didn’t need concealer, and she felt like foundation was a waste of time. Lily carefully applied her mascara, smiling at her perfect lashes.
Lily walked down the carpeted stairs of her house. Seeing her sister, she smiled. “Good morning!” Lily chirped. Her sister gazed at her, but didn’t reply. Lily didn’t mind. She knew that Taylor was not a morning person and probably barely registered her own existence at that hour.
Lily walked into the dining hall and looked to see what was on the menu. Lily was delighted to see that the chefs had prepared her favorite breakfast, oatmeal and strawberries with chocolate milk. She got in the line where Justin was serving food. She liked talking to Justin, and she had a feeling that Justin liked talking to her. Not many other people said hi to the people whose job it was to prepare food for all the people living in their apartment complex. About a thousand people ate at least two meals a day there, and few ever thanked the chefs. Lily tried to thank them every day. After a quick chat with Justin about a movie he had recently seen, she walked over to the spot where she and her friends always ate. Seeing her friend, Ginny Anderson, Lily waved.
“Hey Ginny. What’s up?” asked Lily.
“I had the weirdest dream last night! So all of us were riding in a car, right? And we stopped in this alley, and a bunch of cowboys started singing to us. Then, the driver took us to school where we had to climb over a wall so that we could save our friends. I was trying to get over the stupid wall, and then I woke up. Weird, huh?” rushed Ginny.
Lily laughed. “That’s pretty intense.” She added. Soon Sally Faust, Maddie Wehrend, Vanessa Stevens and Edanna Lutennant joined them and they all talked about their dreams last night and what they did after they had parted the day before.
“Where’s Miranda?” Sally wondered. As if on cue, Miranda Brown plopped down right between Lily and Vanessa. Flipping her hair, Miranda spoke. “Guess what?”
“Tavon’s wearing pants?”
“Brake likes peach pie?”
“Ken is a poet?”
“Platane’s eating a banana?” came a rally of answers that were typical with a stalker-girl like Miranda, though anyone who did not know Miranda would think that she and her friends were strange and possibly suffering from mental illness.
“No! Well, yes, but that’s not the point!” she corrected nobody in particular. “Last night, Ken asked me to marry him, and I said yes!” squealed Miranda with joy. Her eyes sparkled with love. Everybody was excited and screamed, but nobody was surprised. As the oldest, it was expected that Miranda would get married first. It was a little early, most girls only got married when they were 15, not 14, but it didn’t really matter.
Shivering in the cold January air, Lily and her friends walked to their school, Summit Progressive, they talked endlessly about Miranda’s wedding plans. The couldn’t exhaust the subject, as it was only a fifteen minute walk to school, but the friends agreed to text each other all through classes. They approached their rather large school where they trained for their future professions, ready to perfect their skills as film directors, writers, doctors, historians, editors, lawyers, musicians or all other sorts of careers. Mentally preparing herself for the day’s lessons in filmmaking and directing (she had always aspired to be a director and was now fulfilling that dream), she smiled, and stepped into a world of knowledge.

Chapter Two
In first period Communication, Lily practiced communicating with people. She loved that during first period all she had to do was talk, something that came naturally to her. She made friends easily, and talking was something that she enjoyed. She liked to talk to people, and people liked to talk to her. Her teacher watched her as she talked to Emma Kasgins about a film idea she had. Emma was studying to become an actress in film, so she and Lily often had conversations about movies. The Communications teacher eyed her approvingly. “Lily, see me after class.”
Lily wondered what on earth she had done wrong. After class, she approached Ms. Danblanche’s desk. Ms. Danblanche’s face seemed friendly, and Lily relaxed slightly. “Lily,” she said with pride in her voice, “I have talked to Philadelphia University and they want to give you a scholarship to become a news anchor. If you do not want the scholarship, please recommend a student you think would deserve the scholarship.”
Wow. This was the last thing that Lily had expected. She knew that she wanted to go to Bruce Yaron University; she always had since she was little. Thinking of who would like and deserve the scholarship, she immediately thought of Edanna. She was studying to be a newscaster! Edanna would love it! She had Photogenics next with Edanna, and could not wait to tell her the news. She quickly relayed Edanna’s situation to Ms. Danblanche. Although a bit hesitant at first, Ms. Danblanche quickly agreed that Edanna should receive the scholarship.
Rushing to tell Edanna the good news, Lily ran across the green campus to the room where she and her friends learned how to look good on a camera, whether it was for movies, television, modeling or for fun. When she reached the Film and Photography building, she met Edanna. Squealing, Lily related her entire conversation with Ms. Danblanche to Edanna. Edanna’s eyes grew wide with excitement as Lily progressed through her story. When she was done, the two girls looked at each other, and at the exact same moment, they both screamed with delight. Embracing, they jumped up and down, giving no effort to the control of their emotions or volume. Although the two girls got many stares, their joy and excitement for each other was too great to care about their privacy or volume.

Chapter 3
During Photogenics, Lily was chosen to pose for an engagement picture with Seth Wood, who was considered to be the hottest guy in the entire school. Although Lily found Seth attractive and fun to be around, she had no romantic interest in him. Though many considered her crazy for not liking him, all her friends were used to it. Mr. Gelderant probably chose you because we’re the best-looking, most popular, nicest, happiest, and smartest people. People automatically assume you’re a couple. Edanna whispered to her. Laughing, she said “Thanks for the compliment, I think.”
The pose chosen for them was romantic, and it required all of Lily’s acting ability to not laugh the whole time and look like she was in love with Seth. Seth put his arms around her and put his mouth to her ear, a fairly easy feat as she was supposed to be looking down. There was a flash, and the sound of a camera printing a photograph could be heard. The photograph was passed around, and when Lily saw the photo, she gasped. She had never looked that good in a picture before! Mr. Gelderant insisted that the couple do more photos. With encouragement from their classmates, Seth and Lily agreed to pose for a couple more shots. They did a shot holding hands and spinning around, which Lily especially liked the end result of. The final picture had a profile of them kissing. Lily could almost feel the rays of jealousy from the other girls. After class, Seth cornered her in the hallway. “What’d ya think about today’s class?” he asked her.
“It was fun; I never knew you were so good at posing for photographs! Yeah, it was seriously intense.” Replied Lily animatedly.
“Yeah, I liked it too. You’re a really good kisser. So, you wanna hear a story?”
“Sure.”
“Okay. There’s a bird on this shoulder,” he explained, touching her shoulder closest to him, “and there’s another bird on this shoulder.” He finished, putting his arm around her.
“That’s it?” Lily asked.
“That’s it.” He stated confidently. “So, what are you doing tonight? I was thinking that maybe I could take you out on a date.”
So that’s why he wanted to talk to me. Well, it’s nice of him, but he would be much happier with Emma, who’s liked him since we were both ten. It’s really sweet of him though. Thought Lily, conversing with herself in her head. “That sounds like a lot of fun, but I think you have the wrong person. The person you want to go out with is Emma, not me.”
“Really? Does Emma like me? Because I thought I had no chance with her whatsoever.” rushed Seth.
Lily assured him excitedly. “Emma has liked you since she was ten and you were eleven. Here, I’ll help you ask her out.” She said, leading him by the hand.

Chapter 4
Sighing contentedly, Lily smiled. Seth had just asked out Emma, and she had accepted with great joy. The last Lily had seen of the couple, Seth had his arm around Emma and they were talking while walking to Chipotle for lunch together. Lily loved making people happy, and it was great to see one of two of her friends who had liked each other since practically forever finally get together.
Furring her eyebrow, Lily concentrated on her assignment for Scriptwriting. She had to describe the physical appearance of two real-life people and the personality of another two real-life people. Edanna, average height, has silky, thick, curly, long, light-blond hair that is always worn down and dazzling blue eyes that occasionally turned green according to her mood. Her style is very casual; usually she wears jeans and a cotton tank top or other simple shirt. She always wears skater shoes and hates wearing pink. Lily penned, Emma is taller than most and has light, straight brown hair. Usually worn in a ponytail or down, Emma’s hair is always taken care of. Emma’s style is comfortably casual. Almost never wearing jeans, she wears cotton pants of many interesting shades. She usually wears a t-shirt and a knit, multi-colored scarf. Footwear varies for Emma, but she never wears high-heels. There. Lily was finally done with the physical descriptions. Exhaling, Lily gazed lazily out the window. She heard an odd buzzing sound, and glanced up. Other heads besides her own popped up in surprise. They all glanced around, looking for the source of the sound. Lily realized that the sound was coming from her phone. Someone was texting her! Hastily grabbing her phone, she flipped it open and saw that the message was from Edanna. Come quick, it read, bad sit, v scary, come now, help! Terribly worried, Lily racked her memory for what class Edanna had at that moment. Panic rushed over her as she found that she couldn’t remember. Not caring what happened at all, she yelled.
“What does Edanna have this period?” she roared in anger and fear. She knew the situation was serious, as Edanna was typically one to understate everything, making a molehill out of a mountain. Fearless Edanna was not a practical joker at all, so Lily knew that something horrible was amiss if Edanna was so frightened as to tell anyone so and call for help. It was imperative to get to Edanna as soon as was physically possible.
Sensing the urgency and fear in her voice, her classmates racked their memories. “Driver’s Ed!” came a cry from the opposite side of the room, where Maddie stood. “Did she text you too?” Maddie asked her.
“Yes, come on!” answered Lily. Without waiting for a response, she bolted out the door. Sprinting for the parking lot at the east end of the school, Lily could hear Maddie’s footsteps pounding behind hers. Racing through the cafeteria, they paid no mind to the cafeteria ladies waving their arms at them, shouting at them to stop running and walk.
When they reached the parking lot, Maddie and Lily found a devastating scene, still getting progressively gorier. A large, towering bear was charging into the cars in which students were driving. The bear’s enormous mass shattered many a windshield, leaving glass everywhere. Some students had managed to get out of their cars before the machines were crushed by the weight of the huge grizzly. They had been trampled by the bear and lay on the ground with countless bruises and cuts. Of the class of about 70, only thirteen retained consciousness. Some were coughing up blood. Lily knew that her skill was mainly as a healer and not as a fighter and if she died she could save none. She resolving that trying to take on a massive bear would be a bad idea. After deciding this, she promptly ran at the bear screaming and waving her arms. Instead of the intense fear, even terror that was to be expected, Lily suddenly felt graceful, powerful and calm. Strength rising, she cried “Talien, gu donareia gothramuden! Gu fambre eldilor nutare sil! Talien, ve conestna gwan vir wrimose!” Visibly wilting, the bear turned from the school and ran towards the East Mountains, which none dared enter for fear of the mountain demons and cold that dwelled there perpetually. Men had tried to enter, yet none had returned. It was common knowledge that evil dwelled in the East Mountains.
Breathing heavily, Lily mentally analyzed what had just happened. She had spoken words she knew were not English, yet she understood their meaning perfectly. The bear had seemingly understood her command to leave; it had certainly obeyed it hastily.
Putting her confusion out of her mind, Lily turned to face the carnage that littered the parking lot. As she turned, she noticed something that had failed to register before, amid the mayhem and adrenaline of the bear attack. It was snowing! Not only was it snowing in a climate that saw snow less often than aliens, but the snow was falling at an astonishingly fast rate. Though no snow had been on the ground when Lily arrived at the parking lot, almost two inches already covered the ground. Realizing that the cold would not aid those wounded whatsoever, she sprang into action, carrying her classmates into the weight room, which was the closest building to the parking lot, which had now become the scene of a massacre.

Chapter 5
To Lily’s relief, none of her fellow students had died in the bear attack. Beside her, one of Lily’s patients stirred. A sleepy voice reached Lily’s ears. “Where am I?”
“You’re at school. How are you feeling?” responded Lily.
“Alright… what happened? How did I get here? I’m Chris, by the way, Chris Aldridge.”
“Hi Chris. I’m Lily. Well, it’s a long story, are you sure you want to hear it?”
“Mhmm.”
“Well, you were in Driver’s Ed. I don’t know what happened next, I wasn’t in your class. I got a text message from Edanna, saying to come quick, and that she was in trouble. I, along with Maddie, ran to Driver’s Ed, where we saw a bear. You and everyone else were on the ground; I suppose you were knocked out by the bear. Anyway…”
She trailed off. She did not know why, but she did not want to tell Chris about the language and her yelling at the bear. It seemed very personal, not something to be shared with others.
“Um…” Lily continued “Maddie and I screamed and honked the car horns of the cars we could get to. I guess all the noise scared the bear, because it ran off.”
She went on telling her story, detailing how she brought all wounded students inside the International Relations Building, as it was the closest building, her run to inform all teacher of what happened, the mass efforts of all to use gymnastic mats and theater props to create an infirmary in the school cafeteria and library. She explained that he wasn’t in a proper hospital because transportation to a proper hospital was impossible; the normally tropical city’s snow plowing system was unprepared and ill-equipped for the three feet of snow that currently blanketed the roads, making passage unfeasible.
“I’ve been tending to you and a couple of others for almost two days now. you’re the first one to have awoken long enough to say something coherent; the rest have said nothing or been babbling in their sleep.” Lily said worriedly. “Get some rest. You broke five ribs and also caught pneumonia, you were out in the cold so long. Don’t worry!” she said, seeing his apprehensive face, “You’ll be fine as long as you rest, take your medicine and don’t overexert yourself. I’ll be around if you need me, you can just waver your arm or holler or something. Now don’t get out of bed.” She warned him sternly.
Rising, she went over to Rhia Iwaki, a very old fashioned girl. Rhia preferred to wear only dresses and long, flowing skirts, as opposed to the norm of jeans or khakis that most girl kept to. Rhia’s straight jet black hair was tied up in a simple yet elegant bun; if she had worn her hair down one would be able so see that it reached her waist. Rhia held herself elegantly as she talked on her cell phone. and was “the top of the intellectual pyramid”, as Lily’s mother would say. Rhia was an accomplished flautist and was “the top of the intellectual pyramid”, as Lily’s mother would say. As Rhia hung up, Lily gave her a inquiring look, as if to say well?
“Nothing. All the teachers are stranded at Burger King. They can’t get out because the snow has reached above the top of the door now. It’s snowing harder up north than here.” Answered Rhia, knowing that she was seeking information about their teachers and administrators.
Yesterday, after assessing the situation, the entire staff decided that they needed to get help to come to them, as there was no way that they could transport the entire student body to a place where they could receive help. They had set out on foot, since none of them could find their cars amidst the snow. After two miles, they started loosing each other because they could not see in the howling wind and hoards of snow. They stopped at a Burger King and now were stuck.
This left the students in charge. Student Council had taken over and assigned people certain duties. Ben Lloyd, the president of student council, had asked her to watch over and tend to five or six injured students, a request to which she readily acquiesced, as Edanna was an injured student that she would look after.
It was decided that Maddie Wehrend would be in charge of the students who prepared food for all the others. Working with her were Sally Faust, Tavon Baird, Platane Franklin, Noel Swann and many others. Ginny Anderson and Elwyn Kasgins worked on the healing with Lily.
Lily was horrified to find that Seth Wood was among the injured students. Eventually, he awoke and was up and helping with the shoveling efforts the next day.
Lily’s patients were all in a bad state, but except for Chris, they were definitely not going to die. Chris’s pneumonia worsened over the next few days. While he had seemed to make a recovery, he soon was back to delirium, screaming and thrashing and trying to hit things that weren’t there.
One night, Lily feared so much for Chris’s life that she broke down in tears. I can’t save him! I can’t do this! I’m only a kid, how can I heal him? He’s not getting any better, and all I can do is watch. After all this, he’s going to die! I’ve failed him. I’ve been like a mother to him, nursing him back to health, and now he’s going to die! I can’t do this!
In the empty cafeteria, she bawled openly. She had worked so hard, she was so tired! In the last four days she had only slept for seven hours total! Visibly shaking, she poured out her soul to Chris. All her worries, stresses, cares and fears came out as she talked to him. Chris’s body lay still, unresponsive. Desperate, Lily cried out loud,
“O sutaranye sa redrobim ga, aytin wegronan. Turya lothodurin av ai renyandav, ugwambi sa. Dushadrien sa.
Stirring, Chris raised his head, sat up and looked at her, blinking.