The Monroe Legacy - G.4. Chapter 1 - Holding Court

Lillia Monroe stood completely still, all ten of her toes curled tightly against the concrete edge of the pool. It was completely silent except for the water's movement and even at 5am she could feel the heavy, chlorine scented air warm against her skin. Her best friend Daisy found the poolside too oppressive, often wondering aloud how Lillia bore the constant humidity. On bad days Lillia often wanted to comment that it was less oppressive than Daisy's company, but such an outburst would ruin the carefully constructed life-plan which was seeing her safely through high-school.

The fact was that swimming was the time when Lillia felt free. Her suit was far from glamorous, her carefully highlighted hair was stuffed inside a rubber cap and the water kept her apart from everyone and everything else. She didn't have to be anything other than herself when she swam, not a popular girl, not the heir to her family legacy, not a sister or a friend. Just her.

Glancing at the digital clock face on the wall she realised she'd been stood still daydreaming for the best part of two minutes. Or two laps as her coach would see it. Pressing her goggles into place she took a breath and dived in. An hour of this and then she'd go get ready to make nice for the rest of the school. It was time to face junior year.

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A month later

'Get a load of that senior girl in the awful dress' Rose giggled, pointing non too subtly at a freckled girl in what was clearly a cheap dress. As Daisy giggled, Lillia cringed inwardly, sometimes her friends were so shallow. Of course they saw the dress and the bad eyeshadow and not the way that the girl's date was gazing at her. Tugging absently at her hem Lillia thought that she'd trade her boutique dress and the meathead jock who was her date for a geeky sophomore to adore her in that way.

Increasingly she found Rose and Daisy's company less satisfying than those long ago days where they'd put on shows in the yard and make snow angels. They were judgemental, valued lipgloss above most things and seemed to be left completely unimpressed by life. Lillia envied the hysterical laughter that blew across from the drama table in the lunch hall, the team banter that passed her by in the swim team locker room. She'd paid more for her place in the Flowers than anyone would guess, but what was the alternative?

Lillia had always been quiet, always been a bit of an eccentric with her sports obsession and Eva's rebel influence. Without the Flowers she'd be the uninteresting athletic girl, made an easy target by the disappearance and pregnancy scandal of her big sister and her autistic brother. 

Perhaps if she was more like Casper and Eva then she'd be able to cope with that, fall back on her intelligence and fight the cruel remarks with cutting sarcasm or complete disinterest. But she'd never been like that, Lillia was the easy child, the one who quietly moulded herself to survive in a situation and true to form she'd melted down her personality and created a high school prima donna. 

Lillia had it all, if only it was all what she wanted....

The screech of the microphone disrupted the homecoming dance and her friends rose excitedly, dragging her with them to a spot conveniently close to the stairs up to the stage. Lillia plastered on a grin, Daisy was a great actress, she looked nervous and excited, even though all three of them knew how the vote would go. They'd decided at the beginning of the year, well Daisy had anyway. Rose would take the homecoming crown, Lillia Spring Fling Queen and Daisy would get Prom queen. They'd all solemnly sworn not to campaign against each other and as the most popular girls in school they had no reason to believe their plan wasn't going perfectly.

'And your Homecoming King iiiiisssssss.......... Jeremy Gilbert'

Silence greeted the announcement, everyone had expected Jace Conners, Rose's date to win it. Eventually a confused Jeremy made it up on stage, the kids outside the popular crowd finally realised that one of them had won and cheered and hollered as Jeremy smiled sheepishly. Lillia could sense Daisy standing stiffly beside her, and Rose's grip on her arm went from excited to slightly painful, for the first time something school related was not going as they'd planned it.

As the cheering died down to await the prom queen announcement Daisy turned to Rose and Lillia.

'You both did what I said right? No more nasty surprises?' Lillia replied in the affirmative and Rose nodded, her lips thin and her expression unreadable. It seemed that winning was really important to her and she paled as the announcer returned to the microphone.

'Your homecoming queen iiiiiiissssss........   LILLIA MONROE!

Lillia's heart stopped. This was bad. Turning to Rose she saw the hurt of perceived betrayal whilst Daisy looked..... furious.

'I didn't do this,' she tried to stay calm, but she could see her friends didn't believe her. 'Daisy I swear I didn't! But the crowd was pushing her up the stairs, cheering for her and all Lillia could do was go. As the crown was placed on her head she searched the crowd for Rose and found her nowhere, just the blank stare of Daisy burning into her.

As the dance floor cleared and the band started a slow song for the homecoming court to have their dance Lillia couldn't even look at Jeremy, couldn't enjoy the long imagined sensation of his hands on her waist. The second the song was over she rushed away, searching for her friends and finding them nowhere. Eventually she tracked down someone who had seen them leaving with their dates in the limo they'd shared. Not knowing what to do, Lillia called her mom for a lift, holding back the tears until she got to her room, realising after she'd cried her makeup off that she still had her crown on.      

She'd cried because there was no way Daisy was going to believe that she hadn't planned it, the Jeremy thing was one coincidence too many, and she'd seen how her friend treated people who messed up her plans. Rose would get over it, her cousin was always quick to throw a fit and equally quick to forgive, as long as Daisy let her.

But now Lillia was the one with the crown, the one the school had voted queen. People followed Daisy because they were scared but they had voted for Lillia because they liked her. And Lillia wasn't scared of Daisy anymore. She didn't have to follow Daisy, to accept her judgement, she could be the leader and there would be nothing her friend could do about it, there were plenty of girls who'd love to take her place at Lillia's side. A new era was coming for the Flowers and Daisy could like it or leave.

Lillia touched up her makeup and dragged her brother out  of his room to take a picture.

She touched it up until she looked perfect and posted it to her profile and the Brittlebush homepage.

"There's a new queen in town! See ya in the cafeteria biatches".

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Will Lillia succeed in taking control of the Flowers?

Read Chapter Two - Sink or Swim