The next day, Gwen being desk artist, she had got into trouble for drawing the teachers face. It took a lot of control for Lilly to not laugh as she bit her cheek. As punishment Gwen was to stay back and help the librarian stack the books on the shelf. After telling a bye to a grumbling and unhappy Gwen, Lilly headed home. Plugging her earphones in her ear she began to walk, looking up at the dark clouded sky.
"Good you’re home, sweetie," Ellen, Lilly’s mother said when she saw her enter the kitchen, "Five minutes more, I was going to send Nick to get you because of the rain."
"I took an umbrella mom," But she shook her head with disagreement, "Where’s dad?" Taking an apple from the table, she brought to her lips to only be stopped by Rose, her mother’s helper in the house.
"It’s poisoned!" Lilly exclaimed jokingly.
"Wash. Then eat it. Do you know how many germs your hands and the fruits cover have right now?" Rose tutted her.
"She’s right Lilly. It is no wonder you fall sick so often now. Your dad is in the study with the demon king talking about the improvement of the demon society," she said as though it was a common thing.
"He’s here?" she asked shocked.
"Yes, here. I want you to take these to the study," she said handing her a tray with glasses filled with mint tea, "Ah-and tell your dad that we received a mail from Johnathan’s family."
Reaching the study room, Lilly gave a small knock on the door before entering inside with the tray of glasses her mother had sent her with. Both her father and the man, who was supposed to be the demon king were sitting on the couch, playing chess with each other. Walking towards them, she caught sight of the crystal blue eyes of the man. His lean face was covered with a little amount of trimmed beard and he looked to be in his late thirties. The deception thought Lilly to herself. Rose had once told her of how her parents were worried when the king had found out about them adopting a human child. Luckily after few discussion with the others, everyone had let it slide.
"You must be Lilly," the demon king looked away from the chess board to place his eyes on her, "The last I met you, you were a little girl but I don’t think you remember that."
"I don’t," the words passed through her lips before she could stop and his smile grew.
"Has anyone told you how pretty you are?" he asked her, his blue eyes sparkling.
"Reg!" her dad exclaimed.
"Maybe," she replied, shifting uncomfortably from where she stood.
"Oh cool down, Julius. If it was possible I would have got one of my sons married to you," he said nodding his head to himself, "But both of them are overseas. The younger one wanted to live on his own and hasn’t come home for over a year. Boys," he huffed, "This is why I keep telling Pearl that we need to make a baby daughter," he said. He was giving too much of information. Was he really the demon king? Lilly looked at him in wonder.
Her father cleared his throat and spoke to her, "Honey, why don’t you ask mom to get the dinner ready," remembering what her mother had asked her to deliver, she said,
"Mom told she got a mail from Johnathan’s family."
"That’s good," he responded. Excusing herself she left the awkward atmosphere.
Rest of the day, she spent on finishing her homework while sitting in front of the television. Being a huge fan of Japanese animations, she was on her fourth episode of Nana. It was the episode where Ren and Nana finally spoke to each other. She felt her heartbeat increase as she watched the hero pull the girl in his arms, refusing to let her go. Only if real life was like this, she wished.
When Friday arrived, Lilly and Gwen looked at the boys play against Bastion’s soccer team. The practice match was held in the latter’s school and due to it being summer not many had come to see it. They said it was a practice match but it didn’t look like one. Twenty minutes had passed and none of them had made a single score yet.
"I feel like the sun is sucking water out of me," Gwen fanned her hand in front of her face, "Why is it so hot? Didn’t it rain yesterday?"
"It did," she agreed, who had her hand covering her forehead.
As the game continued, Lilly noticed a man with a black coat looking at her from the other side of the field. At first, she thought it was by mistake but when he continued to look their way, she found herself to be more conscious. Before she could say anything to her friend, she heard Gwen gasp suddenly making her head snap at the field.
Two players were down on the ground, the referee whistling as the other players ran to them. One of the players was Sam and the other belong to the Bastion’s Soccer team. Sam had injured his hand and the other player had injured his ankle. There was a lot of argument and disagreement on the field as the girls made way to the bench.
"Can you stand up Samuel?" their school coach asked and Sam nodded his head, "Alright boys, that’s all for today. Let’s get the boys to the infirmary."
Seeing that it would take time to go back to their school, Sam was taken to Bastion school’s infirmary. It was later told that there wasn’t anything to worry about as it was a minor sprain in his hand.
"Are you alright?" Lilly asked him concerned.
"Yeah, just glad I didn’t break anything," he grinned.
"You better not," Rick said angrily. Even though Sam was the quieter one when compared to the other boys, he played dirty when it came to soccer. And Rick knew about it. When everyone gave him a pointed look, he scratched his neck with a sheepish look.
Lilly stepped out of the infirmary, searching for the school’s canteen so that she could buy a drink for everyone. After buying five cans of coke, she juggled with it. This school was big! She was lost in the deserted building with no one to ask for direction. As she took a sharp turn at one corner of the corridor, she crashed straight into someone. Before she could fall down, she felt a pair of arms surround her waist. By the woodsy scent, she could tell it was a boy; her nose pressed against his chest. Apologizing and pulling back quickly, she saw a familiar face and her eyes went wide. It was the person she had met at the bakery, on her father’s birthday.
"You okay? What are you doing here?" he asked coolly, his hands still on her waist.
"Getting coke?" she replied as she bent down to pick the cans that had slipped through her hands. Before he could walk away, Lilly took the chance to speak to him, "My name is Lilly," he did nothing but nod his head. Wasn’t it customary to tell your name? Because he hadn’t, she thought.
"Judging by the medicinal smell you have on you, you must be on your way to the infirmary. You’ll find it if you take the first two rights, go straight and then left where you get the circle dais."
"Yeah, thanks. Wait! You didn’t tell me your name. I can’t keep referring you as bakery boy," she added to see his lips curl slightly.
"Its Ace," he replied before walking away.