Dance Your Troubles Away

Chapter Six - Lily

Author's Note:

GCSEs are public exams we take in the UK when we're 14-16. We do about ten subjects and then after that we do A levels, when we're older. Just to clear that up.

Also, please vote. It's unlikely I'll get anywhere close to winning the Wattys, because I just looked at the categories and there are stories in there with an insane number of reads and votes. But I can try :P

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Chapter Six

Lily

"Learn to dance in the storm, so when life hands you a stormy weather, you just glide through it." - Ikechukwu Izuakor

I follow Casper's instructions and arrive at Scrabble only slightly late. Storme hates being late to anything, so normally she chivies me along to make sure we get to places on time, but she's not here now. The sign on the front of the café is a few scrabble pieces, and underneath the name it says 'England's first board game café'. For a moment I'm confused, then I look through the window and see that there are lots of round tables, with people crowding round boards or dominos or teetering Jenga stacks. The walls are lined with shelves and shelves of game boxes. I've never really been big on board games, but I have to admit it does look fun, compared to skulking in a dark room in Starbucks with Leah and Kara, all three of us on our phones and not speaking. I see Casper and the other two boys in the back, with the girl with glasses. I realise that I don't know their names and suddenly I'm anxious. I'm almost relying on them to accept me into their circle, and that's kind of unfair on them. What if they think I'm boring and childish? What if I am boring and childish? I'm standing in the cold outside, debating whether I should just turn around and go home, when someone comes up behind me.

"Hey, are you Lily?" It's the girl with the long hair, the one who speaks in a slight accent. I smile shakily, a little nervous of her. She's only a year older than me, a year and a half at most, but there's something about her that makes her seem like an adult.

"Yeah."

She laughs, and it sounds like bells tinkling. "I'm Christabel. Casper said you were coming. Why are you waiting out here?"

I blush, unsure of what to say.

"We're not that scary," she reassures me, her lips forming a crooked smile, reading my mind. "I promise. Come on!" She holds the door to the café open for me and I awkwardly step under her arm and go inside. It smells like cinnamon and coffee and warmth. She weaves her way through the tables to her friends and I follow her.

"Christabel, Lily!" Casper says, and jumps up to give me a surprising hug. Not sure what to do, I wrap my arms around his right arm. "Okay, we'll work on hugging," he laughs. "Come and join our game. It's really fun. You have to choose pieces at random and use them to form a castle, but people can steal your castle from you and..."

"Wow, Casper, give her a chance to sit down at least, and find out our names," Christabel tells him, as she elegantly unwinds her scarf and sits down beside him, crossing her willowy legs.

"Sorry," he grins sheepishly and holds out a chair for me, which I take gratefully, pushing my hair behind my ears and busying myself with taking off my coat to fill the silence that follows.

"Well, I'm Casper," he babbles. "That's Christabel, you've met her, and - "

"I'm Euan," says the tallest guy, with the chestnut hair, in a welcoming voice that is much lower than I expected. "And this is Urban." He gestures to the guy with the blue streak, who stares at the table. "He's not talking today." I'm too nervous to ask why, and anyway I'm worried it would be rude.