Silver Rose

Chapter VII - Spread Your Wings

Lilly softly bit her finger as she waited for the page to load. Grades for this semester were in and all of Team APEX had passed with flying colors, just as everyone had expected. Lilly's results were the last and the stupid page would not load. Finally, it cleared up. Her heart sank all the way down into the dark pits of the deepest abyss as she looked at the report on her student account.

No pass.

She screamed. Fell to her knees. Weeping. She had failed. She said she would make her mother proud. Instead, she was a disgrace. She didn't give a damn what the rest of her family thought. She was already an outsider to begin with. But now even her own mother would not look at her.

All I wanted was for you to do your best. You didn't do your best, did you?

Lilly began gasping for air. This couldn't be real. This couldn't. It had to be a nightmare. A nightmare.

Nightmare.

"Lilly! Wake up! You're having a nightmare!"

Lilly's eyes opened wide as she sat up quickly enough to make her almost pass out from the blood rushing out of her head.

"Hey!" Ingrid's voice sounded from beside her.

Lilly made eye contact with her teammate before she began crying again, covering her face with both hands.

"It's okay, you're in the real world now," Ingrid said, reaching over and cradling her friend.

"What time is it?" Lilly groaned.

"A quarter 'til six in the morning."

She let out a heavy sigh. "Did I wake anybody else up?"

Ingrid gestured toward the two boys, who were clearly knocked out from the way they were sprawled on their beds.

"Jeez," Lilly managed a chuckle.

"Hey, since we've got the dorm to ourselves right now, why don't we go get showered and dressed and head to the student life center?"

"Sure. I guess."

"C'mon. You can tell me all about the best blends of coffee and other shit I won't understand."

Lilly managed another quiet laugh, but it was impossible to get that awful scenario out of her mind. She spent longer in the shower than she should have, sitting against the tile wall as the warm droplets beat down on her soft skin. She let her snow white hair mat itself down on her shoulders and neck, taking a lock of it in her hand.

That's right, she thought. I got it cut last week.

She stood up, closing her eyes as the water fell on her face. It had only been a week, but already she felt farther from her mother than she had ever been. Even her departure from the Atlas port didn't match the revelations that came upon her throughout the past days.

I'm nothing compared to her.

The water started to get cold and she shut it off, sighing as she realized she hadn't even used any shampoo or soap.

Whatever, she thought as she wrapped her towel around her body, letting her hair do what it wanted. She stood in front of the big mirror, where Ingrid was already finishing up.

"Here," Ingrid said, picking up a brush from the counter. "Can't let your pretty hair get all tangled up."

Lilly stared at herself blankly as Ingrid ran the brush through her hair to straighten it out. Her locks used to fall all the way down to her knees, the same length as her mother's. Now, it fell to her upper back.