Lola
I knock on the door of Willow’s room before entering. She is never in the library anymore, so I have to come visit her. She used to have a bedroom by the library until Rainer decided these rooms would be better. Her new rooms are larger and more comfortable so I guess t’s why Willow never goes out anymore.
“Go away, Rainer!” Willow’s muffled voice calls out.
“It’s Lola,” I reply.
Footsteps come closer to the door, and it opens with Willow’s confused face appearing. “Lola.”
I nod, smiling. “Hi.”
“Hi.” She looks around the hallway as if she expected someone to appear.” What are you doing here?”
“I was bored,” I say. “And no one’s in the library, so I didn’t want to pick out books and make a mess.”
Her eyebrows furrow. “There’s no one in the library?”
I shake my head. “It’s always empty. Very quiet.”
“Rainer told me he would find a temporary librarian.” She looks annoyed. “What did I even expect from that man?”
I wait, not saying anything. I don’t know all the details about what’s going on with Willow and Rainer. She really doesn’t like him. I think he likes her. Adults are too confusing to try and figure out.
Willow seems to remember I’m there because she opens the door wider to let me into the room. “Sorry. You can come in.”
I follow her into the room. The space looks sparser than the last time I was there. There’s less furniture and decorations. No vases and statues. There are
dents and scorch marks on the walls and floors.
WZ
175 *****
Homen Wilew has been practicing using her magle again. I don’t think it’s
he moltes me looking around the room and says sheepishly, “Turns out magic isn’t like relearning how to ride a like. There’s a learning curve.”
Maybe you should practice outaide,” I suggest. “I don’t think the servants are going to be happy if you damage the castle.”
the lets out a short and looks amused. “You’re right. They will be very upset if I burn down the castle.”
“I don’t think you should practice near the rose garden either. Queen Agatha won’t be pleased if you damage the roses,” I add. “She’ll purse her lips, and it’ll make you feel really bad.”
I’ve only seen Queen Agatha displeased once. I showed her my list of middle names for the baby, and she didn’t say anything mean, but I could tell she didn’t like any of the names, She pursed her lips like she was sucking on a lemon.
Til keep that in mind.” Willow gestures toward the chair by the window, and I take a seat. She stays standing. “How are you, Lola?”
“I’m okay,” I answer. “Everyone says the baby is coming any day now.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I’m mostly excited because everyone is so excited too. The baby is going to be my nephew which feels kind of weird because I feel like I’m too young to be an aunt.”
Willow smiles. “Do you think so?”
“I always wanted a younger sibling, but instead, I’m getting a nephew,” I explain. “I’m really happy for Emory because she wants this baby so much but
“But?
2
“But I don’t know if I’ll like the baby. I’ve never been around babies much.”
Sure and Steady
Willow takes the oak chair at the desk and pulls it closer to where I’m sitting. She sits and says, “When I was a little younger than you, my sister was born. I didn’t know how I would feel about her either.”
“You had a sister?”
She nods. “Her name was Bryony. She had brown hair and hazel eyes. She was a lot like you. Smart and sweet.”
“Did you get along?”
“I loved her the moment she was born. I was the first to hold her. She was this tiny wrinkled thing. She was kind of ugly but I loved her.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Ugly?”
“When they come out, babies are kind of squished,” she tells me. “Being born is hard work.”
That makes sense to me. I know where babies come from. Emory explained it to me last year when the stork story was becoming less and less believable. I’ve never even seen a stork at Moon Grove, so I know they couldn’t be delivering babies in our area. Or if they did, they had been super sneaky about it.
Emory caved in and told me the details of how babies are really made, but I don’t like to think about it. It’s kind of gross. I don’t know why adults bother. Surely, they should find a better way to create babies.
Pregnancies don’t look that fun either. Emory’s pregnancy had her bedridden most of the time. And before that, she was always throwing up. Pregnancy looks more like a really bad case of the flu.
“I was hoping for a girl,” I continue. “Instead, we’re going to have a boy. And boys are icky.”
Willow laughs. “Boys are icky, yes.”
“Like how you think Rainer is icky.”
The humor on her face melts away. “Why do you think I find him icky?”
