Thin As Water

3.

Lil turned off her alarm as soon as it started ringing, adrenaline coursing though her body. Daisy's alarm also went off, and Lil watched with some amusement as a hand reached out from under the tangle of blankets and searched for the alarm, finally hitting the snooze button before flopping back onto the bed.

Lil got out of bed and pulled the blankets away from Daisy's face, biting back a grin as the blonde blinked at her before closing her eyes again.

"Daisy, time to get up."

"Yeah, yeah, five minutes."

Lil rolled her eyes and pulled all the covers off her best friend.

"Lil!"

"Come on, you need to shower so your hair can dry before breakfast."

Daisy, rather unwillingly, sat up. "You showered last night, why are you up so early?"

"If you ever tried waking up early, you'd see that having some extra time in the morning is really refreshing."

"You know what else is refreshing?"

"I can't even imagine." Lil gave up on holding in her smile and grinned.

"More sleep! Ha, got you smiling!" Daisy cheered and flopped back on her bed.

Lil sat on the bed next to her. "I missed this."

Daisy smiled. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Lil looked at the floor. Emotions were confusing, and definitely not something she was good at.

"Me too." Daisy smiled and sat up again, pulling Lilian into a hug.

Lil allowed it for a few moments before pulling away. "Ok, seriously though, you need to shower."

Daisy grinned. "Yeah yeah, I'm going. Have fun appreciating the morning or whatever." With that, she ran off to the bathroom.

Lil walked over to her dresser, getting into uniform and brushing out her hair. She tied her tie neatly and straightened her blazer, then stepped back, admiring herself for a moment.

"You look great."

Lil smiled as Daisy exited the bathroom, in uniform and with her long blonde hair in a towel.

"Thanks, Dai."

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"And finally, this year's Lower Heads, we are pleased to announce Connor Duke and Lilian VanGrayson."

Lil stood up, along with Connor, a boy with sandy blonde hair, freckles, and glasses. She walked up to the stage and shook hands with the Headmaster, then paused before the Headmistress. The woman gave her a rare smile as she pinned the glittering Head Girl badge to Lil's lapel, and Lil glanced over to see the Headmaster doing the same with Connor. Lil shook the Headmistress' hand before turning to Connor and shaking his hand. The whole school applauded and Lil felt a grin creeping onto her face. 

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"Lil!" 

Lilian stumbled to the side as she was jumped on by a tiny girl. "Geez Lia!"

Lia let go and grinned. "Look at you, Head Girl! You're gonna not get me in trouble, right?"

"Oh come on, you know she will."

Lil turned to see Grace and Christina coming towards her, Tina rolling her eyes while Grace was laughing. 

"That's our Lil, always following the rules." Grace patted her shoulder. "Congrats by the way, though, well, we all saw it coming."

Lil sighed. "I don't always follow the rules."

"Yeah, no, actually you do."

Lil slapped Daisy's arm gently. "Ok, well maybe. But rules are rules for a reason."

"And this is why you were made Head Girl." Lil spun around to see Hazel standing behind her.

"Hazel!"

"I'm so proud of you. Seeing you up there, well, you look so grown up."

"Thanks, Hazel."

Hazel gave a dramatic sigh. "I feel old." 

"You're 15. That's not exactly decrepit."

Hazel shot Daisy a look. "Spoilsport. And 16 in two months."

"Haze, are you coming?" Raven joined the group. "Congrats, by the way."

"You're telling me to get to class on time? You good Rave?" Hazel smirked but allowed herself to be dragged off by Raven.

"We should get to class as well. We only have three minutes." Lil pointed out, and the five girls hurried off.

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"Lunch, finally!" Lia cheered as she sat down with Daisy and Lil.

"Hey girls. How has it been so far?" Grace took her seat and looked at Lilian expectantly.

"Pretty good, considering I've not been paged yet." Lil took a bite of her sandwich and pulled the pager out of its holder on her belt loop. It was really just a phone that had basic texting capabilities, with channels to the Headmistress, the Upper Heads, Connor, and a few other select teachers. Lil could use it to alert the Headmistress if she sent someone to the office without having the time to walk them down herself, or she would be alerted if there was a problem she needed to deal with. The Headmistress and teachers tried to take care of most problems themselves; Lil was capable of handling a lot, but she was only 13.

"Hey everyone." Tina sat next to Grace and was about to start eating when two girls stopped by the table. Lilian inwardly groaned when she realized one was Alissa. 

"Are you coming, Tina? You said you'd join us." Katherine tucked her carefully straightened hair behind her ear, ignoring everyone else at the table.

"Uh, right. See you guys later." Tina quickly grabbed her tray and went off with her cousin to the other side of the cafeteria.

An awkward silence settled over the four remaining girls. After a moment, Grace and Daisy started talking quickly about math class, and Lia joined in. Lil nodded and laughed along with her friends, but kept glancing off to the side.

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"You ok, Lil?"

Lilian looked up from her homework. "Yeah, why?"

"You seem a bit off." Daisy sat on the edge of her bed and looked at Lil seriously. "Is anything wrong?"

"No, I don't think so." Lil looked back down at her book.

"Is this about what happened at lunch?"

"No." Lil responded quickly. Daisy raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know, things are going to be different this year. I expected that." 

Daisy nodded. "That doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt."

Lil straightened her shoulders. "I'm fine, Daisy."

Daisy looked at her a moment longer. "Ok, just tell me if you need anything."

Lil made a noncommittal nod. Daisy narrowed her eyes, but just then, Lil's pager went off.

"Two lower fifths in a fight, Headmistress has to go to a meeting. I gotta run." Lil stood up quickly, straightening her uniform. "Do I look ok?"

"Perfect. Go get 'em, Head Girl." 

Lil smiled and headed to the door.

"We'll talk about what happened earlier when you get back."

Lil huffed and closed the door firmly, leaving Daisy to her laughter.

AN: It is really really difficult to make Lil distinctly different from Hazel, but I'm doing my best! Please leave a comment :3

Next up, we get to see Lil head-girling for the first time!