The student council president

After the chaos that was this morning, I am almost looking forward to English. Well, almost.

As I walked up to my seat, I noticed that the two girls that sat either side of me were talking, so I slowed down.

"Did you forget where you sat?"

"N-no." I turned my head and saw Lilly standing next to me. I quickly turned away. This was bad. If Lilly saw my face-

"Have you been crying?"

"No, I-" I tried to walk away, but Lilly grabbed my hand and spun me around.

"Mr Wood." She said, addressing the English teacher. "I would like permission for Linda to sit next to me today."

"Yeah, that's fine. We're doing some group work today so you two can work as a pair." Lilly dragged me over to where she sat and, as we got seated, Mr Wood added. "I was just taking a look at the register, and it says that Linda was absent during tutor time. Is everything, alright?"

I felt Lilly's grip on my wrist tighten. "I-I…" I didn't know what I could say. Steph did say that she would take care of it, but, even assuming that she was even telling the truth then, there was no way she would do anything for me now. A bad ending seemed inevitable.

"It must have just been a mistake. She was here this morning, I saw her."

"Lilly…"

"That's alright, you should let your tutor know, so that you don't get into trouble."

As soon as Mr Wood looked away, Lilly and I sighed in relief.

"So, why were you crying?"

"I was late for class and Mrs Eden said she would call home."

Lilly nodded. She is the only person in this school that knew about my situation. "I understand, so you ran out of the class crying."

That isn't the whole story, but Lilly didn't need to know that. "I didn't know what to do."

"You face your problems." Lilly thought for a moment. "I think that this is about time that we told the school-"

"No!" I got up and slammed my hands on the table.

"What happened?" Mr Wood said, running over to us.

"Linda has had an upset stomach since morning, and it looks like she has soiled herself. Do I have permission to take her to the Nurse's Office?" Lilly patted my back with a concerned expression. That really didn't feel like the best explanation for my outburst, but I had to play along.

When the door had closed behind us, and we were out of sight, Lilly began to talk again. "Are you angry with me?"

"No, but, sometimes, you're not very smart."

"Well, I am offended." Lilly patted me on the back. I could barely feel it at all because she was so small and not very strong. At least not physically. But I imagine that it would require a certain amount of mental fortitude to take on a role that makes almost every single member of the student body hate you with a passion.

Suddenly, my tummy rumbled.

"Lilly…"

"Understood." She sighed, turned around and headed back to the classroom to get my bag. As I watched her walk off, a strange thought entered my mind. Are Lilly and I friends? This is probably Steph's influence. It seems like a pointless question to me, but I might as well answer it.

No. The only thing that holds us together is my secret and, if it hadn't been for that one time when I lost my cool in front of her, we could have stayed strangers forever. It isn't like Lilly's gaining anything from our relationship. She hasn't blackmailed me, although she easily could have. This is just a relationship that we were forced into because of my selfishness.