"You're doing... WHAT?"

     Lillian nodded a barely perceptible nod, her motivation from before already wearing off enough for her to feel like sinking down in her seat.

     "Well, this changes EVERYTHING," Lizzy announced with a dramatic gesture, eyes wide with excitement and enthusiasm. "This means I can help! I can help make him pay for being such a doofus!"

     Lilly felt herself flinch. "Too soon still."

     Lizzy ignored her. "But this is awesome!" she practically squealed, bouncing in her seat like someone half her age. "So, what's the plan? What are we gonna do to him? Ooh ooh ooh, I know what we gotta do to him! So we're gonna push him off a cliff with a parachute, and then we're gonna shoot an arrow into the parachute, and he's gonna fall into a rampaging river, and float downstream to a waterfall, where I am going to get into the water and push him off the waterfall, and we'll never see him again. Oh, and I'll need proton torpedoes."

     Lillian blinked slowly. "Why would you need..."

     "NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS," she said indignantly, whipping her pointer away from the chalkboard she'd pulled out of nowhere, which had a few drawings demonstrating her special ideas, a big pile of proton torpedoes in the center. "NOW, back to my plan."

     "Yeah, um, about that?" I already had an idea. It's CRAZY, and I probably won't go through with it, but—"

     "TELL ME," Lizzy ordered (who was officially speaking in all caps now), eyes wide with exaggerated curiosity.

     "Uh, before I tell you, I think I'm gonna... run it by a couple of my friends first," Lillian i formed her sister carefully, hoping her younger sibling wouldn't make a big, dramatic deal out of it.

     Lizzy made a big, dramatic deal out of it.

     "But LILLY," she whined, making big puppy dog eyes more suited to a seven-year-old than a girl of almost thirteen. Or wait, hm, maybe it worked for both. "I'm your SISTER! I should know first!"

     Utterly ignoring her, Lilly smiled a smile with fake cheer and brightness (as she was unable to make it real anymore), hopped from her seat, and left the room to send a few texts and make a few calls.

     Each reply had one thing in common: they all hinted that it was a bad idea, while also suggesting all were extremely curious to see what would happen, at varying levels. But Jessica's and Raelynn's replies made her mind up: they both heartily agreed the plan should be put into action, and they offered their services for when extra help was needed.

     And what was this idea, you may be wondering? This terrible, wonderful, awful plan?

     It was so cliché that it was embarrassing, that's what it was. But when Lillian really set her mind to something, no matter how stupid or terrifying, she went through with it. And, the great majority of the time, it wither had no affect whatsoever, or went terribly wrong, close to un-mendable.

     Still, her friends knew now. There was no way she could turn back, and frankly, she didn't really want to. She was dying of curiosity. On one hand, what if it worked? What if she made Timothy feel something close to the pain she'd gone through? In her heart of hearts, she secretly thought it would serve him right; another part of her was ashamed of that, still holding sympathy for him. On the other hand, she wondered if what happened in all the books and movies she'd stolen this plan from would would work in a different direction. And that different direction terrified her to the point of making her shiver.

     "Lillyyy," a voice came from outside her locked door in a childish whine (used in the Gresham house daily, of course), the doorknob making that rattly metallic noise that comes when someone jiggles said object in impatience, "I still need my proton torpedoes!"

     Quickly muffling a snort, Lilly lazily got off her bed and opened the door for her little sister. "What do you want now?"

     "I want my proton torpedoes," Lizzy repeated, smiling like she was trying to suppress her own laugh. "Duuuh."

     "Well, the place to go for those would be Raelynn, obviously. I'll text you her number. Now SHOO," she said with a grin, playfully swatting her sister until she was out the door.

     After she sent Lizzy the number (sending out a silent prayer for poor Raelynn as she did), she spent two hours alternately binging Miraculous edits, and Wattpad stories.

     That is, until a knock came at her door. A very much adult knock.

     "Come in," Lillian said hesitantly, placing her phone on her nightstand as her dad entered the room with a look she recognized well: it was a mix of "it's time to have a serious conversation," "you'll thank me later," and "this is actually a good thing!"

     Absolutely none of that was comforting in any way, but she pasted on yet another fake smile as he plopped down on the edge of her bed where she lay reclined on all her pillows.

     "Honey, your mom and I have something we want to talk to you about, but she sent me up first to explain the gist of it. You know how nervous she gets about this stuff sometimes. But I'll call her up in a minute if you have any questions."

     On the inside, Lillian felt like she had gone ghostly pale. "Okay."

     He proceeded to gently, carefully, firmly inform her that when the summer was over, she would have to choose one of two options: either she could go back to public school, or she could get a part-time job. Why? Lillian's father auietly informed her that him and her mother were beginning to worry about her again. They'd noticed how she was keeping her friends at a distance, for one, and unfortunately that was true: she hadn't seen one of them in person in over a month now, and before that point it had been growing more and more sporadic due completely to herself.

     "And," Lilly's father continued, a mildly comforting compassion and empathy in his eyes and tone, "we've noticed that you've been isolating yourself in general for months now. It's not good for you, Lill." The nickname Timothy had used stung a little coming from her father's mouth. "It's draining you more then you realize. I... I just don't want you to miss out because a boy was too stupid to see how amazing you are."

     Lillian wasn't sure if she should feel flattered, offended, or wary, so she went with wary, since it was the safest option. "Thanks, Daddy."

     "Hey, I know you think I must just feel obligated to tell you that because I'm your dad, but I'm telling you the truth, sweetie. You're beautiful, and amazing, and talented, and such a good listener." As he said this, he gave her a genuine smile and a half-hug. Lillian half-hugged him back, and thanked him more honestly than the time before.

     For a moment, they sat on her bed side-by-side in a mostly comfortable silence. Then he broke it. "So, school or job? It's your choice; we won't push you. But next year when you're sixteen, we're sending you off to work whether you like it or not." He winked mischievously. "This year, though, it's your choice, because you need social interaction," he said, a teasing glint in his eye that usually only Lilly caught without help.

     "What about Lizzy? She hasn't seen Alex in a whole five minutes," she said sardonically, rolling her eyes. Her smile betrayed her, though. It was no secret that she thought her sister and her little "boyfriend" were ridiculously, awkwardly, totally adorable.

     "Oh, I think she'll be fine," Lilly's father responded, chuckling; she couldn't help joining him.

     "Well," he said at last, "any questions? Need time to make up your mind? Because you can absolutely take some extra time to make up your mind if you need it."

     "No, and... no?" she said uncertainly, absent-mindedly using her fingers to comb through her light blonde hair. This shouldn't be such a hard decision. A sudden inspiration hit her, though, after a rapidly thickening silence, and before she could change her mind, she blurted, "I'll go back to public school in the fall."

     After the brief "but you could make money for a car and college!" protest, Lillian's dad agreed and excused himself to go fill in her mother, who was probably piling herself with house chores again.

     She flopped back on her bed with a heavy sigh. This could go so many types of wrong. But she would be able to see her friends nearly every day again without having to try, and she could—

     "Everyone get your bathing suits on!" Mr. Gresham's voice ordered excitedly from the first floor, carrying the enthusiasm of a kid like it always did. "We're going swimming!"

     "Phew," Lillian mumbled to herself as she rummaged through her dresser for a bathing suit she was in the mood for. "Now I don't have to think about who to convince to pretend to be my boyfriend. Because dang it, it's way too late to back out now."

     Lucky her, there were only a few weeks of summer vacation left. Then she'd be putting her disastrous plan into action.

     And, hopefully, it would get Lillian what she wanted, even if a little pride had to get ruined along the way... or a little more than that.

- - -

Just you wait. I only plan for it to get crazy from here... and very fictional XD