Page 39 of Not Like The Other Girls
A whole flaming clusterfuck, burning with fury.
Literally.
“We’re supporting Every in his firefighter mode,” Lily says, bubbly with happiness. She does three little hops where she is standing and starts clapping her little hands.
Said man’s sister pinches her cheek under two long, manicured fingernails. “You’re cute, pet.”
Just then, the stereotypically jealous and overprotective and possessive hero, Every the Dark and Deep, turns back from the blazing barn. “What did you say?” He shouts back at the two girls, standing idly in a safer zone, away from the furnace.
“I said your pet of a girlfriend is cute, Every.” Evera speaks even as something glinting from afar catches her eye. “Backup’s here, by the way.”
Lily stares with her jaw smack on the icy ground, eyes wide as snowballs, shocked in the classic main character way as a tall, broad man walks up with his alien buddies.
Shocked at the guy?
Nope, that’s the Lily of the past. Lily of the present now has a strong, loving boyfriend, and she sure doesn’t have eyes for others. No more.
She’s as dependent on him for emotional support as a leech is on a hiker.
She gazes past the man, peering at the trail of more aliens behind him, if you could call them that. A whole horde of beings each carrying blue buckets of water—why? Never mind—trot silently behind their human leader, pale aquamarine scales coating their broad frames from head to toe. Claws, very much like the ones protruding from Every’s hands at the moment, spike long and thin from their fingers. Fangs peak out from beneath their blue lips, and Lily wonders whether they might be sick and freezing from the cold.
And hypothermia, except that she has no knowledge of its concept, having fallen asleep when her biology 101 teacher was going through the topic. Too bad Jing-Jing and Yang-Yang bailed that time, and left her with no notes.
Anyway, back to the present.
The ice planet aliens do, in fact, have blue lips, though they are mainly from their genetic makeup rather than hypothermia. Okay, that subject’s cleared. Not really. Although it might be partially because of the cold breeze too, ’cause those buff aliens are wearing nothing more than fur loincloths and boots.
Kinda like how human strippers dress, but not.
Bummer.
Or maybe these firefighter are just broke, not funded enough by their government.
Lily blinks. “Are those fucking aliens?”
Evera makes a disapproving face, identical to her brother’s, pouting her already-full lips to an even fuller extent. “They’re also living, breathing things with individual cognitive thoughts like you and me, Lily. Don’t be racist.” Her words are sharp, but her tone is soft.
Wow, future main character material right there.
“But are they?”
“Of course they are, idiot. Just look at them, the ice planet natives. Do they resemble your momma? No.”
“And why are those buff aliens willing to let you be their overlord? Surely, they could easily overpower your government in a fight if they feel like it.”
“They like me,” Evera the ice queen answers confidently, pure pride radiating from her eyes like the bright stars of the sky.
“That’s it?”
“Yep, what else would be their reason?” she answers Lily-girl once again, showing you readers that the stupidity of the Darkindeep Ebonyngrey Wolfmane family is, in fact, hereditary. And that Every isn’t the only person with it.
Actually, the only reason the non-human ‘barbaric’ birdies swear fealty to their pretty ice queen is that they are simply brainwashed that way. Generation after generation of bowing to the queens completely altered their brain chemistry from being tough, big weirdos to being quiet, obedient little mice.
And damn, speaking of mice.
A tiny, grey-furred mammal, existing since the time of dinosaurs, scurries over to Lily’s feet. Its two flesh-colored little feet propel faster as it nears her, a matchstick clutched tight in its little paws. The mouse’s paws this time, not Lily’s paws.
And too bad Lily didn’t suspect anything about it, or they could have caught the culprit.
