The Makers of Destiny: Monarchy

Chapter Nine: The Fair

Pre AN: 

"Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of job: it's always you versus a blank piece of paper (or blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins." Neil Gaiman.

Hence why it took so long for this to be published.

When Lillian woke up, it was already nine, but to her irritation, she still felt tired. She stumbled around the room getting ready before wandering into the dining room. As she headed out the doors, she grabbed her phone off her dresser and turned it on. She had a message from Cheyenne V. She didn't even want to know how Cheyenne got her phone number. Meet us at Ameria's house at 1. Lillian sighed and put her phone on the dining room table. Her mother was already sitting at the table, eyes never leaving her computer screen.

"Glad to see you're finally up," she commented.

Lillian opened the refrigerator, but not seeing anything she felt like eating. "Good for you." She finally poured herself a cup of milk and looked up to see her mom giving her a weird look. "Uh, I mean, ah, screw it." She put the carton of milk back in the fridge.

"You know it's not that hard to say good morning."

Lillian put some toast in the toasters and changed the settings. "Yep, I knew that."

"Didn't sound like it."

Lillian turned around and slammed her plate on the table - luckily, it didn't shatter. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know how to say a measly three syllables. Now, will you please drop it!" Lillian knew she was being overly mean, but she couldn't help it.

Lillian's mom gave her a glare. "Excuse me young lady, but will you care to repeat what you just said?"

"I said I love you."

Her mom eyed her carefully. "You're grumpy today. Any reason why?"

"Uh, I don't know?Because I'm going to talk to a complete stranger for complete strangers while another complete stranger told me to do the exact opposites?" Lillian thought.

"No."

Lillian's mom rolled her eyes. "I don't have time for this. You got something to do today?"

Lillian put her toast on the plate, sat down, and began to eat. "Yeah, I'm going to go to that fair with some friends."

Lillian's mom nodded distractedly. "What fair?"

"I actually don't know. Anymore questions?"

"I have a right to know where you're going and who you're going with."

Lillian shifted through some old magazines on the table. "Well, it's just that girl, Ameria, the one I told you about. She and her... cousins invited me yesterday."

"Is Marci going with you guys?"

Lillian clenched her teeth. "No," she said curtly. "She's got some other stuff to do."

"You guys don't really hang out anymore. It's a pity." Lillian didn't respond, so her mom jumped to another question. "When are you going to be back?"

"Not sure. I'll be back at around three, I guess. I'll call you if it's any later."

Lillian's mom stood up and grabbed some papers off the table. "Well, have fun."

"Thank god that the interrogation is over. I was starting to feel like a criminal."

"Who's to say otherwise?"

Lillian smiled. She quickly finished the rest of her toast, cleaned up her plate, and went to her room to kill some time. Unfortunately, she couldn't find anything to occupy her mind. An afternoon of discussing magic and world destroying stones, she didn't find getting a chicken to cross the road particularly interesting. After opening and closing the last game app, and finding herself staring at her home screen again, she was ready to throw her phone across the room. After suppressing that urge, she turned off her phone, only to turn it right back on. That's when she noticed her lock screen; four hands with brightly painted nails. Lillian remembered the day she took that photo. It was Marci's birthday, and Lillian had bought her a new nail polish set. They'd spent the rest of the afternoon painting each other's nails. Lillian's heart clenched at the memory. She honestly felt bad for neglecting Marci. They've been friends since middle school, it was disorienting to find another friendship in tatters. With a newfound determination, Lillian swiveled around in her chair and opened her laptop. She sent a message to Marci.