Red Water Lily

Chapter 8

Weeks went by and Lily spent her time helping around the house and getting to know everyone, which was a lot easier now that she actually talked to them. And she enjoyed it, she enjoyed hearing about how Ryan and Chad had been friends since childhood and how much Dale and Freddie looked up to them. And of course, how brave and funny Taylor were.

Chad and Ryan were away and had left Lily in charge of everything for the first time. It had been a while since they did something fun, so she took Dale, Freddie and Taylor outside and decided that they were going to play games. She grabbed one of Ryan's socks that were hanging on the clothesline, filled it with dirt and shaped it into a ball.

"Alright, were going to play in teams, Taylor and I against the two of you." She said and pointed at Dale and Freddie before she continued. "This...Uh...Ball. We're going to throw it as far as we can, and you will do your best to catch it. After we've done our throw, we have to run to the shed and back, when you've caught the ball you yell 'burned' and if we haven't made it back here before that we're out of the game. When both Taylor and I are burned we switch. Okay?"

The boys nodded and Taylor was so excited he jumped up and down. Lily took a stick to point out where they were standing and gave the ball to Taylor.

"I bet you throw better than me, so I'll let you start."

"Thank you! Watch me, I'm an expert." He said as he walked up to the stick. At first he stretched a bit while Dale and Freddie prepared themselves. Then Taylor wiggled his whole body before he raised his hand and used all his force to throw. He started to run towards the shed as soon as the ball left his hand, Dale was closest to where it landed and ran to get it, he thought he'd be kind to Taylor since it was his first throw and slowed down a bit so Taylor would be able to make it back.

Then it was Lilys turn, she accidentally threw the ball into a bush, so she had plenty of time to run to the shed and back while Dale and Freddie looked for the ball.

"Sorry guys, I'll aim better next time!" she shouted to them and laughed.

They did three turns each before they were both burned and switched places. On Freddies third throw he threw so hard the ball ended up in the woods.

"I'll get it, you stay here and make sure he doesn't cheat!" Taylor yelled as he took off into the woods. After a while he came running back holding the ball in the air.

"I got it, I got it! And I saw Ryan and Chad, they brought company!"

"Quick everyone! Pretend like you're doing chores!" Lily ordered and took the ball from Taylor. But it was too late, Ryan and Chad were already out of the woods, followed by two women.

"What's going on here?" Ryan asked curiously as he walked up to them.

"N-nothing, we just needed some fresh air." Lily stuttered and hid the dirt-filled sock behind her back.

"I see. Well, why don't we all go inside. It's almost time for dinner and as you can see we're having dinner guests." He said and held out his arm, letting everyone pass him. Lily was the last one and as she was about to walk past him he gently grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"We'll talk about my dirty sock that you're holding later." He said in a low, warning tone and smirked.

Lily blushed and quietly walked back into the house.

"Come on, let's go to the dining room!" Taylor said and grabbed Lily's arm as soon as she put a foot into the house. Lily had no choice but to follow him. The others were already in the dining room except for Ryan who entered after Lily. The two women standing in the middle of the room seemed to be around Lily's age, maybe a bit younger. They looked exactly like each other except one of them had black hair while the other woman had light brown hair. Ryan stood beside Lily and leaned closer towards her and whispered: