The Golden Lily

"Can someone tell me what this is about?" I asked. I had Eddie and Micah on one side of me, Trey on the other.

"It's this group that comes to school and gives presentations about things like drugs and safe sex," explained Micah. He was pretty active in student government, so I wasn't surprised he knew about today's agenda.

"Those are kind of big topics," I said. "Isn't this just supposed to be an hour? Doesn't seem like they can really provide thorough coverage of these issues."

"I think it's just supposed to be a quick overview," said Trey. "Not like they're trying to do a seminar or anything."

"Well," I declared. "They should."

"Did we miss anything?" Julia and Kristin pushed their way through others and squeezed themselves in between Trey and me. Trey didn't seem to mind.

"We're trying to explain the point of this to Sydney," Trey told them.

"I thought the point was to get out of class," said Julia.

Kristin rolled her eyes. "This'll show you what you were missing by being homeschooled, Sydney."

Nothing could have prepared me for the spectacle that followed - mostly because never in my craziest dreams had I imagined weighty social issues would be addressed in musical numbers. The group performing for us called themselves Koolin' Around, and the inappropriate use of that K was nearly enough to make me walk out then and there. Before each song, they'd give a quick and totally vague info-blurb about the topic or - even worse - a skit. These little lectures always began with, "Hey, kids!"

The first song was called "STDs Are Not for Me." That was when I took out my math homework.

"Come on," Eddie told me, laughing. "It's not that bad. And people should know about this stuff."

"Exactly," I said, not looking up from my homework. "In trying to be 'hip' and 'relatable,'

they're trivializing issues that need to be taken more seriously." The only time I tuned in again was when Koolin' Around had moved on to the evils of alcohol.

One of the lyrics in their particularly atrocious song was, "Don't listen to what your friends say / Bourbon will totally ruin your day."

"Ugh. That's it," I muttered. I sought out Jill again. She was watching with kind of a stunned disbelief, but just like earlier, there was none of that despair or melancholy. Some gut instinct told me why she'd had the mood change. Adrian hadn't snapped out of his gloom.

Most likely he was drinking his way through it. Sometimes Jill would pick up some of the sillier side effects of intoxication - like the giggling I'd observed earlier - but eventually, alcohol actually numbed the spirit bond. The bright side of his indulgence was that it spared her some of his depression. The down side was that she could actually suffer the physical effects of a hangover later.

Koolin' Around mercifully reached their last song, a big production number celebrating the joys of feeling good and living a healthy, happy lifestyle. They pulled up members of the student body to dance with them, earning a variety of reactions. Some students just stood there frozen and embarrassed, wearing expressions that said they were counting the seconds until this ended. Other students - particularly those who normally sought attention in class - made the biggest, most outlandish spectacle they could of themselves.

"Sydney."

The warning note in Eddie's voice stopped me as I was about to return to my homework.

That kind of concern could only be reserved for Jill, and I immediately looked at her again.

Only, she wasn't the issue. Angeline was. One of the Koolin' Around members was trying to coax her out and even grabbed her hand. Angeline shook her head emphatically, but the guy seemed oblivious. Angeline might be okay around wild dances in the backwoods of West Virginia, but this was not a situation she was comfortable with.

To be fair, what happened next wasn't entirely her fault. He really should have left her alone when she said no, but I guess he was too caught up in his feel-good mood. He actually managed to drag her to her feet, and that's when Angeline made her disapproval perfectly clear.

She punched him.

It was pretty impressive since the guy had almost a foot on her in height. I supposed that came from Eddie's training in how to take out taller Moroi. The guy staggered backward and fell, hitting the floor hard. There was a gasp from most of the students sitting nearby, though only one of the band members - a guitarist - noticed. The rest kept on singing and dancing.

The guitarist hurried forward to her fallen colleague and must have threatened Angeline's personal space because Angeline punched her too.

"Eddie, do something!" I said.

He turned to me in astonishment. "Like what? I'd never make it there in time." It was true. We were two thirds of the way up in the bleachers, surrounded by others. I could only watch helplessly as the rest of the spectacle unfolded. The band soon caught on that something was terribly wrong, and their music faltered, finally coming to silence. Meanwhile, a group of teachers had rushed the floor, trying to pry Angeline away from Koolin'

Around's bass player. There was a frantic look in her eyes, like a trapped animal that had gone beyond reason and only wanted escape. The teachers finally managed to restrain her, but not before she'd thrown a speaker at the lead singer (she missed) and punched the school's shop teacher.

Trey leaned forward, mouth gaping. "That's your cousin? Wow." I didn't even bother responding. All I could think about was how in the world I was going to do damage control this time. Fighting was a serious offense in and of itself. I couldn't even imagine what attacking a motivational musical group would elicit.

"She took out, like, three people twice her size!" Kristin exclaimed. "And I mean took out.

Knocked them to the floor."

"Yeah, I know," I said dismally. "I'm right here. I saw it all."

"How was she even able to do that?" asked Julia.

"I taught her some moves," remarked Eddie in disbelief.

Unsurprisingly, no one even bothered sending this to Mrs. Weathers. Angeline was referred directly to the principal and vice principal. After her display, maybe they felt there was safety in numbers. It may have been Mrs. Weathers's recommendation or simply the fact that our fictitious parents (and "cousin" Angeline's) were notoriously hard to get a hold of, but I was asked to accompany her when she met with the administration.

My pre-briefing with Angeline was short and to the point. "You will act apologetic and contrite," I told her as we sat outside the principal's office.