A Lily For Joshua

Chapter 3: The Group

Chapter 3: The Group

After we got our lunches, I led Lily over to my regular table to, unfortunately, introduce her to my friends.

"Now, Lily, don't listen to my friends. They're...well, they like to tease me."

"What would they have to tease you about?" Lily asked cluelessly.

"Nothing," I said, turning away with a slight blush on my cheeks. As we walked up to the table, Eli nodded at Lily and mouthed "Angel in purple?" I nodded succinctly.

"Lily, these are the guys. Guys, this is Lily."

"Hi Lily," they chorused. She waved.

"Hi."

"This is Eli Robertson, my best friend," I said, pointing to Eli. He was blonde and he had hazel eyes. Lily smiled politely and greeted him.

"That's Jacob Johnson," I said, pointing to a tall redhead with freckles and blue eyes.

Lily grinned and said "Hi."

"This is James Duress," I said. He was of medium height, had short reddish-brown hair, and the most interesting eyes. They were a deep blue-green most of the time, except when he wore blue, green, or grey. Then they turned the darkest shade of blue I had ever seen.

"And, last but not least, this is Avienda Moore," I said, pointing to the only girl in our group until Lily. She had light brown hair, hazel eyes, and was short.

"Hey," Lily said.

"Hey, another girl!" Avienda said. "Finally. Call me Avie," she added.

"Okay," Lily said with a grin, sitting between Avie and I.

"So, Lily," James said. "Tell me what Joshua had to pay you to be his friend." I kicked James under the table and he flinched.

"Haha, James," I said. "He's such a kidder," I told Lily. She nodded, hiding a smile.

"So, Avie, what do you like about these boys?" I heard Lily ask with a whisper. I didn't hear Avie's reply, but they started giggling, so it must have been funny.

"So Jacob, you're a redhead?"

"Yup," he answered, sipping his drink.

"I love redheads," Lily said smoothly. I nearly choked. Eli pounded me on the back. Lily looked at me funny and then continued. "They're always so funny and cute and goofy." Oh. I silently breathed a sigh of relief. "Are you funny, Jacob?" He nodded and started telling a joke about a brunette and a redhead mayor. Lily giggled and finished her lunch. I stood up.

"Come on, Lily," I said. "We've got math in five minutes."

"Coming, dear," she said teasingly. Eli winked at me and I smacked his head as I walked by. "Your friends are nice," Lily told me as we headed to math.

"They sure are," I said, trying not to clench my teeth. We had math with Ms. Walden. She was nice, but she had this really annoying habit. When she talked, she posed every other sentence as a question, so you never know what's the question she wants you to answer when she actually asked a question. Lily seemed to like her well enough, and I did, too, except for her annoying habit. After math, we had history with Mr. Andrews. He did not have any idea what he was doing, as far as I was concerned. He knew history well enough, but he had no idea how to teach. James was in our history class, and we had a group project, so Lily, James, and I formed a group to work on our poster and PowerPoint.