1 an odd power

Lily lay on her bed, her eyes wide open as her alarm had rung five times in the last half an hour, and dreaded the new year of school. She was turning sixteen this year and was not looking forward to the added workload of growing older however she was excited to meet her friends again after a long time away. Her friends and her crush, the boy she had liked since she was six. She pulled her body out of her covers and went into her shower, getting ready was a chore but she had someone she wanted to look fabulous for. After applying a coat of mascara, a layer of gloss to plump her lips and styling her ebony hair for half an hour, she was ready to face the day. She stared at her blue eyes, they made her feel pretty even if she hated every other part of herself, and she practised her grin.

Her eyes seemed to become too small when she smiled too widely but trying to make them larger made her look like a creepy horror movie doll. She groaned and decided she just wouldn't smile unless she had to but she knew she would be all teeth the moment she saw him. She ran downstairs from her attic-like room and greeted her father and stepmother with a kiss on their cheeks before stuffing toast into her mouth and running to school. Her uniform was getting old and was tighter than she remembered so she had donned her vest but she couldn't do anything about her skirt. Did I grow taller, she wondered.

She looked at the time and was relieved to know she wasn't running late however any more setbacks and she would be. She waited to cross the road, a minute away from her school, when she noticed an old woman left behind. She realised that the pedestrian crossing lights were almost over and that no one could see the woman because she had a short stature so she sprinted over to the woman, picked her up like a princess, and sprinted back to the crossing. The woman looked shocked but had a mysterious smirk on her face that Lily missed.

"Ma'am, I am so sorry for picking you up! I was just worried you would be flattened by a vehicle!" Lily told the old lady, flustered, as she placed her onto the pavement carefully.

"It's alright, dear, thank you for saving me." The woman replied as she pet Lily's head. "Girl, what's your name?" The lady asked.

"I'm Lily Atkinson-Wang, what's your name?" She answered.

"Call me Ms Johnson. Do you believe in powers?"

"I believe in kindness and doing things yourself." She replied after a second of thought.

Ms Johnson's grin deepened before she edged up and kissed Lily on the cheek. "May you always be happy and loved." Little did they know, her words would not be true in Lily's life for a long time.

Lily returned the smile and raced to school after saying goodbye to her. School would begin in an hour however, as she always had, she came an hour early so that she could see his practice. She was his girl best friend or whatever it was people called her and had always been his number one cheerleader. She grinned as she saw his blonde hair from a distance, recognising his back immediately. "Adrien!"

He turned around, a grin on his face, however, she seemed to see something different in his eyes than what was reality. It was indifference. The look was underneath his expression and she had to rub her eyes twice before she could see it again. "Lily! How was your break?" His voice was kind but the face his eyes simply weren't.

"Um, it was good. Is everything okay with you?" She felt shaken seeing his face and wondered what was happening.

"Yeah! I'm just so happy to see my cheerleader again." He seemed to joke but she noticed his eyes were mean underneath his smiling ones and wondered if he thought she was pathetic.

"Actually I'm not here for that today." She found herself saying, just to see what would happen. Both his expressions became surprised. "I actually was going to go to the art wing and see my teacher because I wanted to participate in the painting competition. I-I... I don't think I'll be coming to your practices in the mornings anymore." She stared at his face as his surprise turned into sadness on the outside but he seemed to be mocking her underneath his façade. "I guess you're finally free from me." She felt anger boil in her stomach as she saw his eyebrows raised and realised that he thought it was temporary. Pain filled her heart as she began to understand that his opinion of her was incredibly low.

She grinned at him, masking her emotions as she had trained herself to always do, and moved past him and to the art wing. She wished he would chase after her, ask her to stop, do anything at all, but he didn't and she didn't have the courage to turn around to check. Tears welled in her eyes as she stared at the doors of the art wing of her school, she wondered why she could suddenly see something like this. Is this a blessing or a curse? She asked herself.

She walked into the wing after cleaning herself up, grateful for her waterproof mascara and the huge amounts of setting spray she used, and she knocked on her teacher's door. She was greeted by a smile, a genuine one. "Hi Miss Darcie, how was your break?"

"It was absolutely fabulous! I met a man and finally felt inspired to paint something. Why are you here so early? You're not cheerleading as per usual?" Her question hurt Lily a little however she was stronger than words and she grinned.

"Nope! I decided to stop. I was wondering if we could talk about the art competition this year. I want to participate." She stood awkwardly, wondering what her teacher would say. Her art teachers had asked her to join for a long time however her obsession had prevented her from trying but now she wanted to.

"Finally! Oh, Johnny! Peggy! She's joining! Finally, our school will win!" Miss Darcie squealed as the other teachers joyously joined the celebration, making Lily blush. She realised that she had real supporters she didn't know were genuine and now there was no doubt. From now on, as much as it would pain her, she would stop being the pushover cheerleader. She would unleash the hell she had held back for years upon her school and bathe everyone in the flames of her success.