Tiger Lily (Dark Blossoms Book 1)

by Abigail Drake

  But before the picnic, I had something else to do. I went to Wan Fine Lady for my scheduled appointment. Mrs. Chang sat there, sipping a cup of hot tea. She gave me a friendly wave as I walked into the shop. Mr. Wan and Miss Lin did not look nearly as perky. They looked positively hung over.

  “Your father gave us too much beer.” Miss Lin held a cold compress on her head. “Why did he do that to us?”

  Mr. Wan answered before I could. “He didn’t do it to you. You did it to yourself.” He winced, rubbing his temples. “Same as me.”

  “A good party, Lily. Everyone was happy. Your handsome Mr. Lucky remembers you now.” Mrs. Chang lifted her teacup to me. “Cheers!”

  Mr. Wan shook his head and looked like he immediately regretted the action. “No more cheers. It’s time to paint Lily’s nails now.”

  I followed him to our usual spot under the tiger painting. Mr. Wan seemed strangely quiet as he removed Café Forgot. I was glad to get rid of that particular color but had no idea what he might choose for this week. When he pulled out the bottle, I gasped in surprise. It looked an awful lot like Pretty and Pink, the worst shade ever. I yanked my hands off the table and folded them on my lap.

  Mr. Wan seemed less than pleased with my reaction. “What is the matter with you?”

  I shook my head. “No way. I know that color.” I wore pink today, which may have put the idea in Mr. Wan’s head. I adjusted the belt on my cotton candy pink mini dress. I had on pink slip-on Keds and a headband with pink flowers. I felt pretty and I didn’t want to ruin it with gaudy car accident-provoking nail polish.

  “This is not Pretty and Pink. I am not stupid. I don’t want you to drive your car into a lake again. I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.” Mr. Wan glared at me, so I uncurled my hands in my lap and put them back on the table.

  He painted my nails in quick, even strokes. The color was beautiful. After he put on a second coat, sealed it, and shoved my fingers into the nail dryer. As soon as they dried, I gazed at my hands admiring his work.

  “Wow. I think this is my new signature nail polish. What do you call it?”

  Mr. Wan smiled at me, his eyes twinkling behind his thick glasses. “It is called Happily Ever After. It suits you, Tiger Lily.”

  It started with a bad manicure and came full circle to a nail polish that fit me perfectly. Happily Ever After. My new color.

  Black Orchid

  A sneak peek at the second book in the Dark Blossoms series.

  “I hate this dress.”

  Adjusting the heavy, bright red satin to make it cover more of my body, I glared at the person who’d caused all this pain and suffering in my life. My new best friend, and now, apparently, my own personal stylist, Lily Madison.

  “Stop fussing, Zoe. You look gorgeous and you know it.”

  I growled at her, not feeling gorgeous at all. “Why did it have to be red? I told I you I wanted to wear black. I should never have let you talk me into this.”

  I took another peek in the mirror. Midnight dark hair pulled into a complicated up-do. Blue eyes staring back at me from a thick curtain of bangs. Bright red lipstick. Pale skin and a curvy figure. Way too curvy. Bursting out of the top of the dress curvy.

  I let out a whimper as Lily forced me to turn around and face her. Small, but mighty, she glowed in pale green chiffon. It shimmered as she moved and brought out the green of her eyes. With her red hair falling in loose curls around her shoulders, she looked like a walking advertisement for the perfect prom queen. She probably even carried around her own tiara. Maybe even two. But she was ruthless.

  “You needed to be knocked out of your comfort zone. I’ve been very accommodating. I even let you keep the black polish on your nails.”

  I held up my hands so that she could see them. “But you insisted I get little red sparkly hearts on them. That kind of ruins the whole effect. I look like a Monster High Doll.”

  She grinned. “But an adorable Monster High Doll. We’d better hurry. Josh is waiting for you downstairs.”

  My heart squeezed in my chest. Life had definitely gotten even stranger than usual. Josh, the golden god, star of the local soccer team, and the most popular guy on the planet, was my prom date.

  Me.

  Zoe Sage Kaplan.

  Goth girl, ghost whisperer, and social outcast.

  Or at least I had been a social outcast until Lily befriended me a few months ago when I helped her with a little ghost problem. I had my own set of friends, the kids who existed on the fringes. Outcasts. Oddballs. Weirdos. Soul mates.

  Sadly, most of them stopped talking to me once I’d begun spending more time with Lily. Even my best friend, Becca James now avoided me. Hanging out with Lily bothered her, but as soon as I decided to attend the junior prom, our relationship moved to even shakier ground.

  She saw me at school yesterday, and glared at me as I pulled books out of my locker. A petite, pale, angry little thing, what she lacked in size she made up for in rage. Becca was mad at someone all the time. Lately it had mostly been me.

  “I can’t believe you’re going through with this.”

  “We’ve been through this before, Becca. I want to go. You should come, too.”

  She pushed her dark hair over her shoulder. “Never. I’m not a traitor.”

  “A traitor? Really?”

  I studied her face, from pierced eyebrow, to the bright tattoo creeping up her neck, to the black lipstick. We were so much alike, and we’d been friends since middle school, but suddenly it felt like we didn’t have that much in common. Becca didn’t know I was medium. She knew Lily had been involved in a couple of freak accidents had no idea what we’d been through. Together. She didn’t like Lily, and Josh made her uncomfortable. I couldn’t blame her. He made me a little uncomfortable, too.

  “What’s next? Will you try out for the cheer squad?”

  I narrowed my eyes are her. “Maybe I will,” I said, even though the whole idea was ludicrous and we both knew it. To my great surprise, her brown eyes filled with tears.

  “Well, have fun with your new friends, Zoe. Remember this, though. You’re like a new toy right now, different and interesting. But pretty soon they’ll realize you aren’t one of them and they’ll toss you aside. I won’t be here to pick up the pieces when they do. I promise you that.”

  She stomped away in her heavy boots, and for just a moment I experienced a twinge of worry. Anger quickly replaced it, however. Becca judging me for hanging out with Lily was just as bad as other people judging me for hanging out with Becca. She just couldn’t see it, and neither could most of my old friends.

  This left me with few options, and I’d gotten stuck hanging out with Lily and her nauseatingly normal friends. I’d grown to love Lily, and Jess and Maura weren’t that bad, but ever since they befriended me, suddenly others seemed to like me, too. It was weird.

  People said, “Hi,” to me in the halls now. The first time it happened I jumped in surprise. Literally. Like a little Goth bunny rabbit. I’d thought I’d learned to manage my startle reflex after years of dealing with ghosts popping out at me. I could handle the ghosts, but random people in the hallway greeting me? Terrifying.

  I eventually got used to it, and usually responded with a dirty look or by muttering something under my breath. Not that it bothered anyone. They thought I was “cool” now.

  Could anything possibly be worse? I doubted it.

  My new friends surprised me by being nice and funny and actually pretty interesting, but I had mixed feelings about the rest of it. Pretending to be normal put a lot of stress on a girl like me.

  Jess and Maura bounced into Lily’s bedroom as we got ready. Jess wore a periwinkle dress that suited her blond hair and blue eyes. Maura had on pale pink, which made her caramel colored skin look radiant and her cheeks rosy. Together they seemed like a small flock of pastel-colored butterflies. They even fluttered. Kind of. Next to them I felt so…different. Wrong. Becca had been right. I shouldn’t be here.

&nb
sp; “I changed my mind. I really don’t want to do this.”

  Lily laughed, thinking I’d made a joke. Then she must have caught a glimpse of the panic building in my eyes. “No way, Zoe. You can’t do that to Josh. He’s waiting downstairs.”

  Jess nodded. “And so are your parents.”

  I winced. That just made things even worse. My parents. Terri and Ted. Dentists. Plaque professionals. Their favorite color was beige. Their favorite flavor? Vanilla. We had absolutely nothing in common. I used to think I was adopted. I’d actually demanded a paternity test at one point. Terri had pulled out my birth certificate instead and shoved it right under my nose. Birth certificates don’t lie, unfortunately. I had somehow managed to grow inside Terri’s uterus. I bet it was beige in there. That explained so much, like why I’d been born a month early. I probably couldn’t wait to come out.

  For once, however, both Terri and Ted were delighted with my choices. They adored Josh, thought Lily was “the bee’s knees” (Lily’s expression – definitely not mine), and bubbled over with excitement that Lily’s parents, George and Iris Madison, and invited them to the Madison mansion for prom photos.

  For me, it was like one of Dante’s circles of hell. A living nightmare. To my parents, however, this meant I finally headed toward what they’d always aspired to, for their only child to be normal. They dreamed of having a daughter who could wear pastel, flutter like a butterfly, and not have conversations with dead people.

  They asked for quite a lot.

  I was allergic to pink, stomped instead of fluttered, and couldn’t stop talking to the deceased. The fact that I wore a prom dress of any kind was more a testament to how I felt about Josh and less about wanting to please my parents.

  Josh.

  Just the thought of him made a warm feeling spread over my whole body. He might seem like the poster child for male perfection on the outside, but on the inside he was just as weird as me. Well, almost. A clairvoyant, he sensed the presence and the emotions of spirits. He couldn’t see them or talk with them like I could, but on the weirdness scale, he still ranked pretty high.

  Lily grabbed my hand, her face alight with excitement. Jess and Maura clasped hands with us, too, like we were about to engage in a spontaneous game of Ring-Around-the-Rosy in the middle of Lily’s bedroom.

  Lily looked at each of us, her eyes glistening with happy tears. “This is going to be the best night ever. Let’s go, girls.”

  Lily pulled me out into the hallway, but Lily (being Lily) had to make things complicated. We were commanded to descend one at a time. In alphabetical order. For dramatic effect. Which meant I had to go last. I gave her a dirty look, but she ignored me and nudged Jess.

  “You first.”

  Jess gathered up the skirt of her gown, exposing her strappy silver heels, and floated down the steps. She didn’t walk or clomp. She freaking floated. Her date Ben, the star quarterback of the football team, stood there waiting for her. In spite of having been in school together for the last ten years, he had never spoken to me. Not once. Not even by accident. I’m not sure he even knew my name. But he seemed nice enough. At least he never made fun of me. Some of his football buddies weren’t nearly so kind.

  Realizing that all those guys would be at prom, and would see me in this dress, caused me to back away from the stairs. There was a good possibility that I would be made fun of tonight. It didn’t bother me much anymore, but the idea of Josh hearing it sent my emotions into a tailspin.

  Josh went to the other school in our town, Baldwin High. He only came to our prom because I’d ask him to be my date. Once he got there, he’d surely understand how most of the school felt about me and realize he’d made a terrible mistake. He could do better. So much better. I needed to back out now and retain whatever dignity I had left.

  Lily took one look at me and sent Maura on her way. “You go next, Maura. I’m going to hang out here with Zoe a minute.”

  I must have looked even paler than usual, because Maura understood right away. “Oh, okay.”

  She turned and went down the steps. Floating, just like Jess. Her date was Rob, the president of the junior class. I was in so much trouble. Next to all of them, I would look completely ridiculous. Not only because of my bright red dress and hair dyed an unnaturally dark shade of black. Everything about me screamed, “Weirdo.” Because I was a weirdo. A big one.

  “This is a huge mistake.” My heart pounded in my chest. “I’m going to embarrass Josh and myself. I’m not ready for this, Lily. I can’t do it.”

  She squeezed my hand. “Look down there for just a moment and then tell me you aren’t ready.”

  I did as she commanded, in spite of my better judgment, and saw Josh. Waiting. He had on a black suit, but instead of a white shirt, he wore all black. For me. I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding.

  “We’ll go together.” Lily linked her arm with mine and together we walked down the steps. Surprisingly strong for such dainty thing, she held me in a vice grip. At least I knew if I fell, we’d go down together.

  I didn’t fall. I didn’t quite float, either, but I somehow managed to make it down the steps without killing myself or Lily. Kind of a miracle.

  Nick, Lily’s boyfriend, stood at the bottom of the steps, gazing up at her. He wore a tux, but somehow he made it look cool. Maybe it had to do with the white custom Converse sneakers he had on, covered in skulls. Those made me feel better, as did seeing Nick. Not part of this crowd either, he handled it perfectly. Maybe I could handle it, too. For Josh.

  I’d kept my eyes away from his as long as I could because I knew I’d trip on the steps if I even glanced at him. When I reached the bottom, Lily finally let go of me, and I turned to him. As expected, I tripped. Over nothing. But he was there to catch me.

  Blue eyes. Golden hair. The most perfect body possible. A smile that made both of my dentist parents swoon. It nearly made me swoon, too. He was glorious, and for some reason he really liked me. His parents, who looked like clones of Barbie and Ken, seemed to like me, too. Their names were actually Brenda and Keith, which seemed so much like Barbie and Ken it kind of scared me. But they were nice. And my friends were nice. And Josh was nice. The only person here who wasn’t nice? Me.

  Thankfully no one else noticed my stumble, and Josh pulled me close. “Zoe, you look amazing. Incredible.”

  I looked down at my dress self-consciously. “It’s a bit much, don’t you think?”

  He shook his head. “You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met. Really.”

  He meant it. I could see the truth in his eyes. Only Josh could make my heart get all wobbly just a few words. I was in so much trouble.

  “Thanks. You look pretty beautiful yourself.”

  He held out his arms to show off the all-black ensemble. “Your favorite color.”

  I laughed. “What’s your favorite color?”

  He stared at me, his eyes going from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet and back up again. “Tonight? It’s definitely red.”

  If a single look could have ignited a flame, my entire body would have been on fire right now. Josh did that to me. All the time.

  He handed me a bouquet of blood red roses and led me to the front of the giant stone fireplace to line up next to the other couples. “Picture time.”

  He immediately faced the horde of parents holding cameras and phones and flashed his megawatt smile. He stood next to me, his arm around my waist, holding me close. When he realized I stared at him and not at the flashing lights of the cameras, he leaned forward and kissed my cheek.

  “Thanks for asking me to prom, Zoe. I know it’s not your thing.” He said the words softly in my ear, his breath tickling the sensitive skin on my neck. I tried to hold back the shiver he’d produced, but I think he felt it anyway.

  “No problem. It isn’t that bad, I guess. Thanks for being my date.”

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “This is actually the worst part. The pictures and th
e parents. Once we get to the school it’ll be fun.”

  Lily, Maura, and Jess had spent months decorating the gym with paper flowers and strings of lights. The theme was supposed to be Arabian Nights. It involved lots of minarets and flying carpets and crescent moons and stars. They’d asked me to join them, but when they found me making pentagons to hang from the ceiling instead of happy, twinkling stars, they kindly suggested I help with lighting instead. That was actually kind of fun. We’d also worked on table arrangements and found some interesting bejeweled lights to hang from the ceiling. I hadn’t seen the final effect yet. Only Lily and a few select members of the prom committee had been allowed into the finished room. They wanted it to be a surprise for as many people as possible.

  “Smile, Zoe. Please.”

  My mom held up her camera hopefully. I gave her a smile that was more like a grimace.

  “Close enough,” she said, snapping a picture.

  It felt like hours had passed by the time we finished. Photos of the entire group. Photos of each couple. Photos of the guys alone. Photos of the girls alone. Photos of the backs of our dresses. The fronts. The sides. When my mom asked for one more group photo, I snarled at her.

  “No, Terri. I’m done. That’s it. We have to go. Now.”

  She nodded and got surprisingly weepy as she gave me a kiss on my cheek. “Have fun, darling. Remember this day. It’s going to be one of the best in your whole entire life.”

  “Oh, God. I hope not,” I said, causing Josh to choke back a laugh.

  He shook my dad’s hand and nodded to my mom. “I’ll take good care of her, Mr. and Mrs. Kaplan. Is there a certain time you’d like for us to be home?”

  Poor Ted blinked in surprise. “What do you mean?”

  Terri caught on. “Oh, Zoe doesn’t have a curfew. Those kinds of rules…well…they don’t really apply to her.”

  If their response shocked Josh, he certainly didn’t show it. “I’ll have her home safe and sound as soon as the prom is over then.”