Lily's POV
As I walked down the streets of New York, I felt as if something had changed. I shook my head and ignored the strange feeling and continued heading towards Juilliard for my music audition.
I took a deep breath as I entered the school. I didn't even get time to look around the school that I may be going to next year. Fingers crossed.
I waited backstage for my name to be called out.
"Lilianna Fray!"
"Deep breath Lily. Calm down. You can do this." I murmured to myself softly.
I walked on stage and sat on the piano bench.
"Ready when you are miss..."
I took a deep breath and began to play a piece I remembered off by heart. All my training came down to this moment. Let's hope that it will pay off.
As soon as the piece was finished, I took a deep breath. I tentatively looked up at the judges with a minuscule smile. Did I mess up? Two, three seconds later, they finally started moving.
They began to slowly clap as they got up on their feets.
One of the judges, a woman, commented, "That was a very good piece, well done. You have exceeded our expectations but is the piano the only instrument you can play?"
I paused, a bit perplexed, "No, mam, I can play several other instruments such as the violin and cello. Why do you ask?"
An old man chuckled, "Ooooo, a cello, play us a piece dear. Rick. Bring out the cello."
Another man, who I'm assuming is Rick, came out from behind the curtain and handed me a cello. I sat on a chair that they set out for me and I placed it between my legs.
The last judge, a young woman who actually looked the strictest out of all three, commanded, "If you want to get into our school, you must be prepared at all times. So play us the best piece you have and then we'll decide right now on whether you have received a place at our school..."
I paused, trying to think of the most impressive piece that I could play.
Nothing.
I hate being under pressure.
I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. You can do anything you want if you just have faith. Have a little faith sweetheart..." A voice whispered to me.
That always happened.
Whenever I was stressed or something that voice of a small boy would encourage me. I knew that voice but I didn't know who it was!
I looked above and I thought of the perfect piece...
I looked up, stunned. So were the judges. One by one, the they stood up, the strict lady standing up last. They stared at me with an unknown emotion and then...
They clapped.
Rick, came back over and took the cello from whilst murmuring a quick Well Done!
I bowed and smiled in relief. I did it. I actually did it!
They talked together for a while before the strict lady came forward.
"Well done," she paused. Tension built up again. "...and congratulations." She smiled as she passed me a letter with a Congratulations stamped onto the back.
I didn't know what to do. I was shocked. The only thing I could of doing was hugging the lady whilst chanting, Thank You. Thank You. Thank You over and over again. The ran down the stage and hugged the there two judges before fleeing the room. I turned around before I exited the door and said thank you one last time before leaving the school and heading towards Java Jones.
*
"Hey Clary." I shouted as we met up in front of the café.
"Hey Lils!" My sister shouted back and hugged me lightly.
"So..." We both started. We stopped and stared at each other.
"Did you get in?" We both quickly asked at the same time.
"YES!" We both spoke at once. We paused again and smiled at each other. We squealed and hugged each other. "Congratulations" "Well Done" We exchanged.
We headed towards the café door before we paused and looked at each other.
"Sad face?" We questioned each other. We both nodded as a smirk rose onto my face.
As soon as I entered Java Jones, I wiped the smirk off my face and put on my I-feel-like-I'm-gonna-cry face.
We headed towards Simon and once he took one glance at us he fired off saying, "Give me the professors names and I will end them!" He directed at Clary before he turned to me saying "Who watched over your audition? Give me their names and I'll end their careers..."
He trailed off as I looked at him in confusion whilst Clary looked at him in astonishment.
He carried on by saying, "...You know. With a scathing email to the Dean!"
Clary cut him off, saying "Don't bother" as we both sat down and adjusted our positions so we were comfortable. Once that happened, we threw down our letters to the table in front of us.
It wasn't long before he saw the giant CONGRATULATIONS! At the top of each letter.
"What?!" He said incredulously. He put the letters down and looked at us, suppressing a smile. My smirk returned to my face as Clary smiled.
"Sad face?" He questioned us. "Really?"
Clary and I couldn't help it so we started giggling to each other.
"Well played. Well played" he congratulated us before giving each of us a fist bump.
I turned towards my sister before giving her a hug again and congratulating her once more.
"Thank you." Clary started off, "You know it's weird. They kinda liked my assigned work but they flipped out over the drawings for our graphic novel."
This time it was Simon and I who spoke in unison, "Your welcome". We then turned towards each other asking at the same time, "I helped her more."
I argued, "No, I did, without my plot, there wouldn't be a graphic novel."
He countered that, "Well, without me snooping through your stuff and realising how much of a talented writer you are and suggesting the idea of making the novel, it would have never come true!" He finished off proudly.
Clary and I looked at him incredulously. Me, with my eyebrow raised whilst Clary shook her head at Simon idiotic tendencies. He realised what we were trying to convey and moved on.
"This day will go down in history as the greatest eighteenth birthday I - I mean we have ever had!" Clary cheered. She stopped half way though her sentence as she remembered me.
Simon continued where she left off saying, "Which is why we are celebrating tonight." I looked at him with my head tilted to the side in a questioning manner. He saw my look and answered my silent question as one of the waitresses gave us our order, "Yes. With Maureen after our show."
"Absolutely" I said as I grinned as the plan for tonight began to form. I took my coffee with a thank you to the waitress and started sipping it contently.
"So..." Clary trailed off as Simon looked up from his own coffee, "What's the deal with you and Maureen?" she questioned with a smirk.
I looked up at Simon, waiting for his response.
"What deal? No Deal!" Simon replied.
Uh oh! Simon better tell her how he feels about her or he's gonna lose her soon...
"We sing together" Simon concluded.
"You seriously don't know she's been crushing on you this whole time?" Clary quickly countered.
"What? No. Wha- No!" He finished off.
I sat there silently, watching their conversation quietly. I shook my head at their stupidity...
"Simon. How can someone as smart and perceptive as you, not realise that the person sitting right in front of you is in love you?" She questioned wisely.
I snorted into my coffee which cause it spill on my hand, leaving a slight burn. They both turned towards me in concern but I waved them off.
Clary. You are so oblivious... I thought to myself as I tuned them out to try and rectify my situation. I grabbed some tissues and tried to wipe up the spilled coffee.
I tuned back into the conversation as we cheered mine and Clary's achievements again.
We soon left, hurrying home to get back to mom.
*
Clary and I quickly arrived back at home. We entered the store and saw Dot, mom's shop assistant. I don't know what it was but Dot always felt weird. Strange. Unnatural. Like she could do something. I liked her and everything it just that there was always this slight feeling that was trying to warn me about her...
"Hey Dot" Clary and I said as we walked in to see her doing another tarot card reading.
"Hey" she smiled as she replied to us.
I turned to her and gave her my signature eyebrow raise and smirk, "How's the future looking?"
She smiled at us before replying, "Not as good as either of yours..." she trailed off as we came to the conclusion.
"...And by the tarot cards you mean Simon's Twitter account" Clary replied coyly.
She broke down in embarrassment, "Okay. I follow him." she admitted as she told us how difficult it was to tell the future with the cards. She then paused and smiled at us.
"But... I do see birthday presents in your future" she said as she bent down to retrieve to different bags.
We opened them. Clary retrieved a lacy black top whilst I got a lacy white dress with a matching leather jacket. It was beautiful...
"Okay. You may want to keep that on the DL cos your mom's my boss and I don't want her to flip out. Especially over you little Lily. You're the baby in the family. If she sees you in that dress, she never gonna let you leave."
I nodded my head in agreement as I continued staring at the dress. Clary and Dot carried on their conversation until I interrupted by thanking Dot just like I did the judges at my audition. Clary soon joined in as well.
Dot sighed which caught our attention. "You okay?" Clary questioned. She hesitated before replying, "Yeah. Yeah. Happy Birthday" before she hugged us again.
We took our gifts and went upstairs to see mom.
*
I rushed ahead of Clary and yelled, "MOM!" as soon as I saw her.
"You did it! Yay!" she squealed as I jumped on her like a child.
We stayed like that, me wrapped around her like a child, for a while until Clary came in.
She laughed at the sight we made and said, "You know you are eighteen now Lil. You aren't a kid anymore..." She trailed off before smirking, "If I didn't know how much you loved me mom, I would think you favoured Lily over me..."
I blushed at getting caught acting like a child before smiling as mom congratulated Clary.
"Happy Birthday" she cooed softly as she gave us a rectangular box each.
We all sat on the couch as we opened our gifts. Inside was a "stele" as mom called it. It was gold with a red gem at the bottom and red markings on the body. Clary's was all pure silver with a white gem. I had seen this before. I know it. But where?
I gazed at it in confusion as Clary questioned mom on what is was.
"...it's a family heirloom" this made me look up is surprise as I questioned, "we Frays have heirlooms?"
Mom looked between before settling on me with a conflicted gaze, "a few..."
Mom went to talk to us about something before Simon interrupted our talk. Clary told me to get ready so I quickly hugged mom and went to get changed. If you're wondering why I followed her orders and not argued with her against mom, it's because she's the elder sister. However, even if she was the elder sister, I'm the protector between the two of us, even though she is the most over-protective...
I got changed into the dress and leather jacket that Dot gave me. I zipped the jacket up to hide the dress a bit. I matched the ensemble with a pair of ankle boots which had a small heel. I then grabbed the stele that mom gave me and put it in my jacket pocket. I completed the look with a ruby red necklace that I always wore. Mom gave it to me when I was nine years old. She said that I needed it due to what happened recently. I don't exactly remember what happened to scare her into giving me this necklace but it's pretty so I took it anyway. It is also a family heirloom.
It looks like I'm getting lots of them...
I stared in the mirror in confusion. The black get up reminded me of something. But what was it? I was interrupted from my thoughts as Clary barged into my room. She gazed at my choice of outfit in approval before dragging me out of my room and towards the front door.
I caught a glimpse of Luke before Simon threw me over his shoulder to run out of the door.
I shouted before I left, "Bye Luke, bye mom. See you later. Love you!"
*
As Maureen, Simon and Clary talked about mom's suspicious behaviour, I was sat beside them writing in my journal. I was continuing the graphic novel that we started. The beat of the club beside us helped me focus and gave me inspiration.
We soon left the comfort of the van roof and went to Maureen and Simon's gig.
"Do you wanna live forever young..." They trailed off as Clary looked at the stage in awe, Simon stared at Clary in awe whilst Maureen stared at Simon in awe.
I just looked at them all and grumbled out, "Idjits" and let out a smirk before continuing writing in my journal.
We cheered as they finished.
We soon left the joint and went outside. I ignored them once again as they talked about something. I was writing another bit of the novel in my head whilst Clary painted the new name of the band.
I jolted out of my reverie as a woman in a pink dress and black hair walked into me.
I turned around and glared at her, she glared back, "Excuse me. But you could have apologised!" I said to her. She continued glaring before she sighed and seemed to soften.
"I'm sorry. Would you like a drink?" I didn't know how to respond. I didn't even know her and she's inviting me for a drink? Why not I guess... It's not like she's evil.
"Sure..." I agreed.
As I went to go with her, she stopped me. "You're gonna have to unzip that jacket sweetheart or they aren't gonna let you in."
I did as she said and unzipped my jacket as I grabbed my fake ID. "Let's go" she impatiently said before taking my arm and dragging me into the club.