burning red

- 5 -

Lilly never thought that she'd come to hate her childhood home.

Whenever she passed by it, happy memories with her parents and early childhood friends flooded her memory, dancing in the back of her mind, making it hard for her not to smile. She saw images of her mother and herself, preparing for dinner before her father came home with the warmest of smiles no matter how his day at work went. She had a childhood friend who regularly went over there for tea and play dates. She moved away to London for school, shortly before she became a newsie; how she missed her so.

She remembered her bedroom as a sanctuary. A place to go when the world became too difficult; when she just wanted to be alone and escape. Now, it felt like a prison. The light pink wallpaper, clean, white furniture and the washed floral bedset suffocated her now.

Ultimately, she loved back then what she hated today.

It has been decided, by those who were higher up in the New York food chain, that the news of Lilly's return to the Dubois Mansion with her uncle and aunt would not be announced; especially in the newspapers. Louis Dubois knew of Lilly's connections with the newsies and he didn't want them pushing past him to her... again.

So while he hid her from the rest of the city, she had been going to school simply because he couldn't tolerate her. During Lilly's stay, she had been doing anything she could to terrorize him. Which got her many interactions with the Delancey brothers, followed by an overwhelming amount of bruises on her body. But still, she walked into school with her head held up high as if her life had been nothing but peaches and sunshine the whole time.

Justine navigated Lilly through her first day of school the day prior. Though she insisted that she was fine on her own, Justine still stuck by her side not as a guide, but as a friend. Lilly would be lying if she said that she wasn't looking forward to being picked up by Justine so that the two could walk to school together. She quickly took a liking to the girl; she was quite interesting.

"I went to see Racetrack." Justine whispered as the two sat in the desk that they both shared. The classroom was little and there were two sides, one for the boys and one for the girls. Lilly had always been used to being with all boys, seeing her male classmates so close, yet so far made her miss her newsies.

"yeah? Thanks, I means it. Thanks a lot." Lilly sweetly smiled at the blonde. "I knew I could count on ya."

But somehow, Lilly's uncle had found out about the Higgins brothers' latest visit to the heiress earlier that morning. Which was why the Delanceys now stood before her, Oscar slipping on his brass knuckles as Morris cracked his neck, both with dark scowls on their faces.

"well if it ain't tweedle-dumb and tweedle-ugly." She sang, a wry smile crossed her face.

"heard ya had some visitors." Oscar's eyebrow twitched up as he slowly approached her. There was no way that Race had talked about it at the circulation gate, she guessed. Not with the Delancey brothers under their noses, even Race was too smart for that. But she still couldn't put together how they had found out on the same day that Race and Felix came to see her.

Now she knew to never gossip around them.

If she were to ever leave.

"what'r ya goin'a do 'bout it?" Lilly sarcastically questioned.

Morris simply shrugged. "depends."