*Destiny's POV*
"Destiny, would you please be partners with Lilliana for this project?"
I picked my head up from where I had been intensely concentrated on the task at hand, which just happened to be the drawing I was working on, and met the kind hazel eyes of Ms. Smith.
Then I processed what she had asked of me and I tucked my red hair behind my ear before turning to face the shy girl standing beside her with the black hair and blue eyes.
Smiling at the girl who Ms. Smith had just called Lilliana, I nodded. "Of course," I said, moving my drawing over to make space for the girl as she took a seat on the stool across from mine.
"Thank you. Lilliana is new to this school and is just starting today. The deadline for this project is tomorrow, but I know you can help her with it, right Destiny?" Ms. Smith asked me, plucking the pencil from behind her ear to scribble down our names on her clipboard.
"Yes, I'm almost done anyway," I responded, earning a satisfied smile from the young teacher who moved on to help other students.
Reaching my hand out, I introduced myself to the new girl and said, "I'm Destiny. Welcome to Hall's High. Where are you from?"
Lilliana's eyes darted away from mine before settling back on them again. She hesitantly stretched out her hand and lightly placed it in mine before barely whispering, "Thank you," she said, not answering my question, "I'm Lilliana."
I noticed how frail and boney her hand felt in mine, as if it would break right in my hand. I was careful not to squeeze it too hard just in case.
"Okay, so basically this project is to draw a still life of the city based on your own personal view and then overlay it with your partner's view...but," I said, gesturing a hand at her, "I haven't had a partner until now."
Lilliana gave a slight nod as if she understood. She delicately answered, "I should draw the city then?"
"Yeah," I said, spinning my drawing of the bustling New York City to her, "I drew New York so I guess you should draw it, too, and then we can put them together."
"Okay."
"The only problem is that it's due tomorrow and I don't know how we can both work on the project together." I scratched my head, forgetting that lead was smudged on my hand since I was a lefty. I rubbed my fingers through my hair to get rid of the silver tint.
"You can come over my house after school," Lilliana offered. I thankfully focused on her clear blue eyes and said, "That would be great."
Lilliana gave me her address and I got her started on the project for the remainder of the class.
By the time the end of the day rolled along, I was so pooped that when Grant met me at my locker while I was packing up my backpack, I honesty couldn't be bothered with him.
Ever since he had found me in the closet with Primo, he's been way over protective to the point of annoying the crap out of me. I would've thought that he would be pissed off every time he laid his eyes on me, but it was quite the opposite considering how possessive he was being.
Especially now while he was bugging me about where I was headed when I walked out of the front doors to my car.
"I have to finish a project," I said, slipping inside the green buggy car that I had bought myself.
Grant made a face as his blue eyes turned stormy. "Where?" He wanted to know.
I rolled my eyes. "At some new girl's house," I replied, shutting the door on him. I gave him a quick wave and peeled out of the school parking lot.
No sooner than I had pulled up in the brick driveway of a two-story house, a woman with short blonde hair and blue eyes exited from the front door and met me at my car.
She knocked on the window and I rolled it down.
"You must be Destiny. Lilliana told me that you're a really good artist," she said with a huge grin, opening the door of my own car. I got out and shrugged, reaching in the backseat to grab my drawing.
"I guess so, and you must be Lilliana's mom?" I asked just to make sure. She had the same eyes as Lilliana, but their hair was on completely opposite sides of the color spectrum.
"Yup. You can go right on inside. I have to go pick up my husband so you guys will have the house to yourselves for peace and quiet," Lilliana's mother said, motioning for me to go in the house.
"Thank you so much," I said, going inside.
The house opened up to a hallway lined with photos on each wall that I glanced at while walking through.
The first picture was of the woman I had just met out in the driveway. I guessed it to be on the day of her wedding since she was wearing a white wedding dress. Her husband was beside her with the darkest hair I'd ever seen and green eyes.
That's where Lilliana probably got her hair color from, I thought to myself.
The next picture was of two children, a boy and a girl, with identical obsidian hair. They could have been twins down to their every feature. The only difference was the boy had green eyes and the girl had blue ones.
I thought the boy looked familiar, but I couldn't place my finger on it so I figured it was just a coincidence.
I found Lilliana with her head bent in concentration as she skillfully maneuvered a pencil across the paper. I didn't want to disturb her as she worked at the dining room table, so I took a seat as quietly as I could across from her.
Lilliana picked up her head and gave me a small smile. "Hey," she said, "I'm just about finished with my drawing."
My jaw dropped when she moved her arm away for me to see. I hadn't expected her to have drawn so much or how well she had drawn it.
"Woah," I breathed in disbelief, "That's amazing."
And it really was. Her drawing of the busy city put mine to shame and I was almost embarrassed as I laid my version beside hers.
"Thank you. What do we do now?"
I tapped a pencil to my chin and thought about it for a minute. As I opened my mouth to say something, a voice called from the front of the house, interrupting me.
"Lilly! How was your first day of school?"
I froze. I knew that voice.
"Good," Lilliana tried to yell, but her voice was too raspy to make it loud enough to possibly hear from the front of the house.
Footsteps sounded throughout the house until we had a visitor with us.
My eyes flew to the green eyed gaze of the boy standing at the threshold of the dining room and suddenly everything clicked.
The boy pictured on the wall beside the girl I had known was Lilliana, was the guy currently standing here, but with darker hair.
I should've noticed before how similar Lilliana and Primo looked.
But their personalities were such polar opposites that they couldn't possibly be related, could they?
"What did you say, sis?" Primo asked, entering the room. He still hadn't noticed me yet, so I ducked behind the vase containing flowers as if it would hide me.
She cleared her throat and tried again, saying, "It was good."
"What are you doing?" He wondered, coming closer.
That was around the time he found me hiding behind the vase and his mood instantly soured. He stopped dead in his tracks just feet away from the table and raised his eyebrows.
"A project," his sister responded, looking between the two of us. She almost looked scared, as if she could feel the tension in the air.
"What are you doing here?" Primo demanded, narrowing his eyes on me.
"A project?" I answered in a question, repeating what Lilliana had literally just said.
"Are you having a good time?"
I shot a look at Lilliana and gave a slight nod.
"Not anymore," he refused, shaking his head of white blonde hair. Before I could stop him, Primo plucked my drawing off the table and held it up in front of me.
"Because, I'm about to steal it."
And then he proceeded to tear a rip right through the center of the drawing of New York City that had taken me days to draw.
"Primo!" I yelled, jumping out of my chair. "What the hell is your problem!"
"Next time, think twice before you try anything on me," was his warning as he left the room.
Clenching my hands into fists, I grabbed the fallen halves of my drawing and placed them on the table in front of me.
Lilliana's skinny hands picked up one of the pieces to overlay it with her drawing so half of each of our masterpieces was displayed.
"There," she said.
I looked at what she had done and felt my jaw drop a second time. It looked really cool with both of our ideas combined like that.
Little did Primo know, he had actually just helped us with the project.
"Thanks for the help, jerk," I muttered under my breath, earning a chuckle from Lilliana.
"Primo's a bit..." She trailed, not knowing how she should finish the sentence.
But I knew just how to finish it.
"Rude? Mean? Infuriating? Arrogant?" I supplied.
"You forgot one," a deep voice rumbled in my ear and I blushed furiously when I thought about how I could've sworn Primo had left the room.
I gulped. "No, I'm pretty sure-"
"Sexy as hell," he finished.
And because he was determined on stealing all of my good times, he called out into the house, "She's in here, Grant."