Wickedly Good // Carlos DeVille

3

"What took you so long?" Doug protested as Lilly ran towards him, face red from running. "The school nurse. She insisted on having my bruises examined."

"Bruises?" Doug frowned before his eyes fell on Lilly's face, dotted with bruises of various colors in contrast of her pale skin, and his eyes widened. "What happened? Did Audrey do that to you?!"

"Geez, chill." Lilly replied, rubbing the black bruise on her jaw before flinching. "I've told you that I agreed to be Lionel's sparring partner."

Relief flashed through Doug's face before he opened his mouth again. "Lionel did that?!"

Lilly flashed him an annoyed look. "Don't you believe me?"

Doug scanned her face before nodded, face solemn. "Yep, but I don't believe that Lionel can do that much damage to your face."

Lilly rubbed her face before nodding in agreement. "He never went easy with me. Now tell me, how do I look?"

"The sugar-coated lie or the harsh truth?"

Lilly rolled her eyes. "The harsh truth, Doug."

"The harsh truth?" Doug stopped to scan Lilly's face. "You look like shit, in all honesty. I am absolutely terrified of Lionel's fists now."

"Sweet." Lilly flinched again. "He's lucky he boxed with me. Had he sparred with Lonnie, he wouldn't be able to walk for at least two days."

Doug let out a low hoot. "I wouldn't mess with your family, Lils. You guys are scary."

Lilly rolled her eyes. "Said the one who had seven uncles. How's Thanksgiving again?"

"Don't let me started with Thanksgiving or Christmas," Doug whined as Lilly laughed. "'Oh, you've grown taller'," Doug said in his best dwarf voice.

"Must be merry," Lilly commented playfully, and Doug shot him a dirty look. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Ben's voice caught him off.

"Well, here you are!" he said, before his eyes fell on Lilly's face. "Good heavens, what happened to you?"

"Erm, I'd rather we talk about that in private," Lilly fidgeted uncomfortably as she stared at Audrey, who's smiling a strained smile at her on Ben's hand, and to the other four kids followed him.

"Oh, right. How silly of me." he said, chuckling slightly. With one last concerned look at Lilly, he cleared his throat. "Guys, this is Doug and Lilly, your guides for today. Lils, Doug, this is Carlos, Evie, Mal, and Jay."

Both Lilly and Doug smiled, and Lilly immediately flinched because smiling made her cheeks hurt. Ben cleared his throat again. "Unfortunately I couldn't accompany you guys today, but you are on the good hands."

With one last smile from Ben and a dirty look from Audrey, they both left, clearly arguing. Lilly leaned to whisper on Doug's ears. "I wonder what are they arguing about?"

Doug flashed her irritated look. "Probably talking about their coming break-up? That's not important, Lills," he hissed as he cleared his throat, gaining the attention from the two boys and two girls.

"Hello. I am Doug, son of Dopey as in Dopey, Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful—" Lilly cleared his throat and Doug stopped. "I think we already get it, don't we?" Lilly smiled sweetly at him as she picked the papers Doug had been clutching.

"I am Lilly. Here is your schedule. If you ever found troubles or any difficulties here, don't hesitate to ask me."

The blue-haired girl, Evie, looked at her face in surprise. "You are allowed to fight here?"

Lilly sighed. "Long story short, I got beaten up by my brother in a boxing match. Now let's go on with the tour."

Doug waved at his surroundings. "This is the Hallway. You can find all your classes here."

The rest of the tour went on, until they arrived at the last destination, the Athletics Area. "This is the Tourney Field, and over there is the Training Centre."

"Tourney?" the long-haired male, Jay, asked, sound interested. Lilly nodded. "Yep. It's like a sport—You'll see. Coach Jenkins usually made all boys do the try-outs."

Jay nodded, still look interested, and they proceed with the tour until they arrived at the dorm buildings. "So the girls' dorm is in the right, boys on the left." Doug said, pointing to each building with his slender fingers. He then looked at Lilly expectantly.

"What?" Lilly asked, confused. "I don't have anything else to say."

"How about no funny.." Doug wiggled his eyebrows meaningfully and Lilly opened her mouth, finally getting Doug's hint. "No funny businesses here, guys. Security cameras are everywhere, they are always taping us—"

"Lilly Li!"

Lilly's voice was being cut by an angry shriek, making all of them turned to the voice source, and seconds later, Lonnie, Lilly's older sister stormed at her.

"I received a letter from Anna," she hissed, obviously ignoring Lilly's attempt to make their conversation private. "And she said that her sister absolutely loved the ruby necklace you sent her. She told me to say it to you because you have that bad habit of yours of not opening your letters."

Lilly flinched. "Er, your welcome?"

"However," Lonnie's voice lowered down an octave, "I don't recall you having any ruby necklace except that one Prince Richard gave as a gift to you just two weeks ago."

Lilly's face went red as she glanced at the four kids and Doug. Four looked interested, one looked like he'd be anywhere but here.

"Er, okay, Lonnie, but I'm quite busy now. Let's talk in pri—"

"You send that necklace to Elsa, didn't you! You sent your gift away! And from Prince Richard, too! Papa will be annoyed if he knew that!"

"But he won't." Lilly hissed. "Seriously, Lonnie, I am quite busy no—"

"But it's a gift from Prince Richard! He wanted to marry you and he's sending that as a token of his love!"

Lilly flinched. "Ew. Let's not talk about marriage and love, shouldn't we? It's gross. And besides, it's not from Richard, it's from Hubert. As a birthday gift." She snapped. "Isn't it time for you to stop meddling with my life?"

Doug chose that moment to interrupt. "Excuse me, Lonnie, but—"

"Oh, you shut up, Doug!" Lonnie yelled. "I'm scolding my sister on her poor choice of life and you—" her gaze fell upon the four kids and she clamped her mouth shut. "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." Lilly said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. Lonnie went red in the face. "I'll.. I'll talk to you again, Lilly." She stuttered before turning on her heels and went inside the girl's dormitory.

"Enjoying the drama?" Lilly snapped at the four kids. Evie, Mal, and Jay smirked, but Carlos looked confused.

"The girls' dormitory is there, you already know that. Now excuse me." Lilly said as she stormed away, not even glancing back.