The War of Elevens| Book 1 of the Space Thief Chronicles

Chapter 2| Headmistress Vatakai vs. Kettle Fire

The people of Belle Village hissed Kettle Fire at Lilly as she walked by for two reasons: The first was because her older cousin was known for the teas she brewed; kettles were always whistling in their home, teas were always steaming from paper-thin cups or hearty thermoses, and many locals stopped by for a mug early in the morning before work. 

The second reason was because everyone tended to think Lilly was a troublemaker. Wherever that one goes, they said, flames follow.

Lilly thought it was a stupid nickname, as she adamantly claimed to anyone who would listen that if the stuffy people of Belle Village kept their noses out of her business, they'd find a lot more interesting things to do with their lives. If people opened their minds to their own imagination, Lilly wouldn't even have to make trouble in the first place, so technically the troublemaking part of her town-wide nickname was everyone else's fault. This morning proved to be a perfect example: If her journal hadn't been confiscated, she would not have had to create a butterfly-infested distraction to get it back before Eldnac closed for the summer. 

And Eldnac was asking for butterflies. Seriously, the beige walls really need a splash of color. 

Now Lilly sat across from Headmistress Vatakai in her office, the awkward silence that followed getting stepped on by the headmistress while hiding under the secretary's desk thick between them. There were many long things about Vatakai that Lilly thought were excellent for staring children down...long eyelashes fluttering over long eyes glowing with anger, long eyebrows pinched in disdain, long mouth pressed into a rigid line, long fingers drumming impatiently on the desk.

Beneath those long fingers was a leather-bound journal. Lilly tried to keep her gaze on Vatakai rather than the journal. 

Show no weakness.

"While we're waiting for your cousin to get here," Vatakai said, "can I just ask...all this? For some journal you bought at the ninety-nine cent bookstore across the street?"

Lilly lifted a shoulder and an eyebrow simultaneously, a skill she'd perfected when she was four. "You can't prove anything." 

Vatakai scoffed. "Please. You can't even begin to imagine the horrors I can inflict on you simply because I found you beneath my desk." 

"Are the horrors going to look like that rat's nest you have on top of your head? That's something to be feared." 

Vatakai's expression didn't even flicker from its stiff vexed countenance. She and Lilly had been in this position enough before for Vatakai to completely disregard Lilly's insults. "You have the respect of a nest of cockroaches, Miss Ci."

"I'm shattered you think so low of me," Lilly said sarcastically, leaning back in the uncomfortably wide chair. "I could have put cockroaches in the toilets instead of flowers last year, but Eldnac could've used the color. The butterflies are a nice touch. The butterflies are a nice touch to these beige monstrosities you call walls." 

The words had just barely left Lilly's mouth when the office door behind her creaked open. Lilly turned, and just like that, every ounce of vanity, pride, and stubbornness dissipated from her with the appearance of her cousin.

When she turned back around to face Vatakai, the headmistress was smirking. 

Melissa Stowe had the energy of a grenade poised forever in the moment right before it exploded. Intense, quiet, formidable...she could make politicians faint with one hard stare. She made people forget to breathe. Flowers and mountains wilted in her presence. Lilly often suspected Melissa had knives wedged down her knee-high boots.

It was not just the fact that Melissa was intense, quiet, and formidable that made people forget how to breathe or caused mountains wilted in her presence. She was also beautiful. People looked at her and did a double and then a triple take, and Melissa walked like she knew it, too, though she would never admit it. Tall, dark-haired, olive-skinned, and blessed with sharp features that should have belonged to a suite of daggers, she was unforgettable.