The Defenders

four.

The school day was slow. It was hot and humid and nobody wanted to do anything. It didn't help that the school's air conditioning had broken the day before. The only good thing about the severe heat was that Derek was too tired and hot to do anything to bother anyone. It was a Friday, which meant no homework for the weekend, which meant more time to do stuff.

"I'm melting." Daisy groaned as she sat down at the lunch table. Lily grabbed an ice cube out of her cup of water and tossed it at her. "Chill out." Lily said, attempting to make a joke, but they were all too exhausted to laugh. "After school we can all go swimming at my house." Daisy offered, hoping to cheer up her gloomy friends. "Thank god, I thought you would never ask." Lily huffed. "Today would be a perfect day to go swimming." Daisy said, taking a large sip of her water.

Ethan looked over at the girls and nodded. It was hot. He couldn't deny it. "Okay, so swimming? After school? My house?" Daisy questioned, taking a sip of water between each question. "I suppose." Lily responded. They both looked at Ethan. He nodded and continued to eat some of his food. He hadn't been hungry recently, and he didn't know why. He usually just shrugged it off but he realized he haven't eaten in a few days and he probably needed it, even if it didn't feel like he did.

They continued to chat for the rest of the lunch period until the bell rang. Then, they all got up and headed to study hall. They walked in and sat down next to each other, waiting for Mr. Smith to take attendance.

"Christine,"
"Here."

"Ivan,"
"Here."

"Leah,"
"Here,"

"Daisy,"
"Here."

"Brian,"
"Here."

"Ethan,"
"h-here."

"And Lily."

"Here. Oh, and I was wondering if we could go show Ethan around a little more." Lily asked. "I don't see why not." Mr. Smith smiled. "Just don't get yourselves in trouble." He chuckled. "We won't." Daisy replied. They got up and left the classroom.

They walked down the empty hallways. The school seemed so abandoned when everyone was in class. It was really quiet too. They made their way downstairs to the detention room. The hallway downstairs was dusty and was even warmer than upstairs due to poor ventilation. Lily led the way to the room and opened the door.

"Ah. Home sweet home." Lily sighed as she plopped herself down on one of the bean bag chairs as Daisy turned on the X-Box. "Hey Dais, can you turn on the fan? It's still hot down here. It's kinda humid too." Lily asked. "Sure." Daisy responded. She walked over to the fan and turned it on. It started up with a whir, filling the room with a rush of cool air. "That's more like it." Lily sighed. Daisy walked back over and dropped a controller onto Lily's lap before sitting down.

The title screen popped up and a familiar theme song started to play. "Mario Kart. Good pick." Lily adjusted herself as she pressed play. They picked their characters, Lily chose Mario and Daisy chose Daisy. "Hey. Hey Lily." Daisy poked Lily. "Guess what." Daisy smiled. "Daisy I swea-" Lily was cut off by Daisy. "I'm in a game and you aren't." Daisy stuck her tongue out. "You do that every time." Lily groaned.

Lily began the game and immediately got into it. She had always been extremely competitive in sports, and playing video games was no different. She had a strange habit of biting her lip when concentrating. Daisy always joked that she was trying to eat her own lip. Daisy on the other hand, was not competitive at all. She could care less if she won or if she lost, she just had fun playing the game, and sometimes watching Lily lose. She was such a sore loser.

"Huh." Ethan murmured. "What?" Daisy asked. "Oh it's- it's nothing. I just realized that both of your names are flowers." He stated, feeling a little stupid for not realizing it sooner. "I'm surprised it took you that long to figure it out, but yeah. That's one of the reasons we even became friends." Daisy giggled. "The other reason is that Daisy was an annoying child and forced me to be." Lily huffed.