The Tiger Lily

Scene Two

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The Song of Hope Series:
"The Tiger Lily"

Scene Two:
"Morning"

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Brittany awoke late the next morning, just as the sun had breached the big window of the girls' bedroom. A bird warbled somewhere from above, muffled by the roof. The chipette groggily rolled out of bed, landing on her knees on the covers she had fitfully kicked away during the night. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she saw that her sisters were already gone.

"Not even inviting me to breakfast, really?" she muttered to herself, standing up and rubbing her face tiredly, "I'll tie your tails together, Jean and Ellie..."

Tossing off her old nightshirt, Brittany donned her favorite robe and trudged downstairs to make herself some morning tea. Jeanette and Eleanor were nowhere to be found. As she reached the bottom of the pretty spiral staircase, however, Brittany saw something that made her pause.

A bright orange flower petal lay on the floor of the little kitchen. It was a good sized thing, as long as her tail and pointed at the tip. Brittany picked it up and turned it over, noticing the stripes of bright yellow and mottled brown, mixed with scatters of dark spots and lines. The whole thing glowed like an ember in the sunlight.

"A...tiger lily?" Brittany whispered. She glanced up, and found that the whole floor of her little home was littered with the big, bright petals, filling the air with a rich woody aroma. "What is this?"

Then she saw it, a little paper note taped to her front door. Approaching it, she saw it was nothing but a smiley face. A small cursive 'A' was signed beneath it. Brittany's face scrunched in annoyance.

"Alvin I swear, I am not in the mood to be pranked right now."

"Well good, I wasn't in the pranking mood."

Brittany squealed and whirled around, shoving her back against the door. Alvin was standing at the top of the staircase, peering down at her with a familiar amused look on his face.

"Alvin!" Brittany snapped, clutching her chest, "What are you doing in here, trying to give me a heart attack?"

"Oh yuck, do I have to try mouth to mouth?" Alvin replied with a laugh.

"In your dreams, Seville! Where were you, anyways?"

"Oh, uh, totally not under your bed or anything."

"...You were what?"

"It's the only time I get to see you quiet."

"Oh you'll get a lot of noise if you don't get outta here so I can shower!" Brittany replied, "We have a very important performance coming up, if you remember."

"Oh a shower sounds good to me, Brit." Alvin chuckled.

"Alvinnn..." Brittany peered up at him with one eyebrow raised.

"Relax, I'm kidding. And yeah, I remember the performance." Alvin padded down the staircase with deliberate slowness, aware of Brittany's gaze on him with every step. She looked amusingly delicate in her lounging robe, her arms crossed over the glittering pink 'B' on her chest.

"Tonight's the night," Alvin continued. He sat down on the bottom steps and draped his arms over his knees, staring at the pretty tiled floor. "Our last one."

Brittany's bemused glare softened into one of sadness. "Yeah, it is," she said, sitting down against the wall by Alvin's side. She stared at the stained glass of the front double-doors. Brittany had filed each piece of glass down to size by hand before gluing them into place in the wire frame.