Thin As Water

8.

AN: This chapter contains spanking, fair warning, etc.

Lilian walked into the Orchestra room, set down her violin case, and waved to Grace who was unpacking her flute across the room. Grace waved back enthusiastically. Lil smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

It was Monday morning, the second week of October, and Lil had barely gotten any sleep the night before. She and Jamie had been called home for the weekend again, and though Lil had her usual optimism pasted on, she was really just sore and irritated. She pulled out her bow and started applying more rosin, trying to take several deep breaths as she did. She tried focusing her mind on her friends. Grace was always a cheerful face...although, Grace hadn't been around quite as much as she used to be. The girl had confided that she was concerned about Christina, who was still spending the bulk of her time around her cousin. When Tina was around, she emulated Katherine and Alissa's attitude, something that Lil wasn't too pleased about. Lia had been her usual self as well, and Daisy...

Lil thought back to the night before.

"You can tell me, you know you can."

"It's nothing."

"Do you trust me?" 

"Of course I do!"

"Then what's wrong."

"Nothing. I'm ok."

The Head Girl felt her shoulders hunch. Maybe thinking of her friends wasn't such a great idea.

"Oh my god, it was such a moment."

"Oh come on, you were asking for it."

"I was SO not asking for a moment. If I wanted a moment, I'd have been a violinist!"

"Ok girl, I see you playing. You can't fool me."

"You wanna go, you frickin flower girl?"

"Come at me!"

Lil looked up with a mild glare on her face as she realized that one of the voices was Daisy. Daisy and her stand partner Tatum were pushing each other around playfully. Lilian was not fond of Tatum Morris. She reminded Lil of Raven, and while she respected Raven because Hazel respected Raven, she couldn't say she appreciated either Tatum or Raven's attitudes sometimes. Not that she'd ever tell that to Hazel, of course, and Raven had earned a spot on Lil's good side as Lil had realized just how much of a support Raven had been.

"Your flower power is weak." Tatum teased.

"At least I'm not an attention whore." Daisy shot back.

"Oh my god, did you just-" Tatum started laughing and pulled Daisy into a hug. "You know you love me, biatch."

"Oh my god, you stupid lesbian." Daisy pretended to push Tatum off her.

"Daisy!" Lil called out.

Daisy was grinning as she walked over to Lil. "What's up?"

"That was rude."

Daisy rolled her eyes. "It was a joke, Lil."

Lil began to respond, but just then Mr. Stetson walked in and both girls hurried to their seats.

The orchestra began playing, but Lillian couldn't quite take her mind off what had happened with Daisy. She was annoyed at her friend, and she was not so ready to let the issue drop. As the class wore on and Lil thought of what had happened, she grew steadily more annoyed.

After orchestra was a break between classes for both Lil and Daisy. Daisy stayed after class a minute to clean up her sheet music and trade a few more friendly jabs with Tatum, but Lil went quickly to the dorm room. There, she quickly took her hairbrush from the bathroom and set it on her bed, before sitting down next to it.

Daisy walked in a few minutes later. "Hey Lil."

"Daisy, we need to talk."

Daisy sat on her bed across from Lil. "What's going on?"

"What you were saying to Tatum earlier was inappropriate. That's not like you, Daisy."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Look, Lil. It was a joke. Tate knew I was joking. It's ok, we say stuff like that to each other all the time."

"You shouldn't say things like that. Tatum is not setting a good example here."

"Tate is my friend too, ok? You know her, you know she's nice."

Lil frowned. "She can act nice, sure. But I've also seen her act pretty nasty as well."

"She's harmless." Daisy frowned. "Are you jealous or something?"

"No, I'm not. I just want you to be careful who you are friends with."

"Who I am friends with is my decision, Lil. And currently, I don't have quite so many friends as you think I do."

"What do you mean?"

"You've seen Grace and Tina. They aren't really our friends anymore. Tina especially. Even Lia is going her own way. Look, I know you want everything to work out and be all perfect, but that's not the way this is going to work. Maybe it's time to accept that we're going to have to make some new friends."

"What, so you're just going to drop them?"

Daisy narrowed her eyes. "And you want me to drop Tatum. That's something we call a double standard Lil."

"I do not want you to drop her, I just want you to be careful of her corrupting you!"

"Tate is not corrupting me! My father makes jokes all the time, anything Tate says is nothing that my family wouldn't joke about. I have my limits."

"Your bar for limits is being moved further and further. When is it going to stop?"

"What is your deal? Is it because I called her a lesbian? She isn't."

"I don't care if she is or not. That is not the problem here. The problem is your attitude."

Daisy got off her bed and walked towards Lil. "My attitude? My attitude? That is so not the problem here. What is up with you? You've been way more snappy and you won't tell me why. Why are you hiding things from me?"

"Maybe I have a good reason for that." Lil raised her voice.

"At least Tatum tells me things." Daisy shot back.

Lil snapped. She grabbed Daisy's wrist and quickly pulled her over her lap. She trapped her friend's legs with one of her own and bared her bottom. Without a pause, she picked up the hairbrush and began bringing it down, hard.

Daisy kicked and squirmed and howled but Lil didn't stop. She gave Daisy two dozen hard smacks, which was enough to have the girl crying, although whether it was from pain or anger Lil couldn't tell. Lil stopped and Daisy pushed herself off her lap and stumbled back over to her own bed. 

"Are you going to change your attitude now?" Lil asked.

"Yes miss." Daisy spoke in a subdued tone through her tears.

"You had better. If you think Tatum is a good example, perhaps I don't trust you."

The look on Daisy's face was something that Lil could never get out of her head, even months later. The mixture of shock, hurt, and betrayal sent a knife through her heart. 

"I'm not as perfect as you want me to be."

Daisy turned and ran out of the room.

And, for the first time as Head Girl, Lil began to cry.

AN: Wowie, sorry for all that angst. That wasn't completely planned, it sort of wrote itself. I think I might've made Daisy be suddenly a bit too "teenager-y", but then again, we've only ever seen her around Lilian. 

Tatum will be a recurring character (probably) and I'll make her a pinterest board.

Please leave a comment!