Long before Forgive My Fins takes place, Quince was just an ordinary boy and he thought Lily was just an ordinary girl who was moving in next door. Find out what happened when Quince met Lily.
This story originally appeared in the paperback edition of Forgive My Fins.
When Quince Met Lily
Quince pushed the lawnmower into the tiny, one-car garage and closed the door. As he walked back past his mom’s beat-up car, he pictured the motorcycle he planned to buy just as soon as he turned sixteen. If he saved all his cash from the neighborhood lawn service business for the next two years, he might have enough.
He left the driveway, was heading across the grass toward his front door, when he saw—or rather heard—the neighbor’s car approaching. Ms. Hale’s station wagon wasn’t much better than his mom’s piece of junk, and it sounded much worse.
He was just going to wave at her on his way inside when he realized she wasn’t alone. Sitting in her passenger seat, looking a little bit terrified by Ms. Hale’s driving, was a girl his age.
Her skin was pale, a rare thing in South Florida, and her light blonde hair frizzed out like a crown of yellow around her face. She looked like a princess.
Instead of going inside, he waited for Ms. Hale to pull into their shared driveway and then followed the car back between their houses. He went to the driver’s side, not wanting to look too eager to meet the passenger, but he had his eyes trained across the roof. Waiting for that blond crown to emerge.
“Good afternoon, Quince,” Ms. Hale said as she pushed open the door and struggled to pull her giant purse into the front seat. “Could you?”
“Sure thing,” he said, leaning down to take the bag and sneak a glance at the passenger, who was already climbing out of the car. “Let me.”
“Thank you,” Ms. Hale said, reaching back for even more bags from behind the passenger seat.
Quince pulled the bag out and stood.
Staring across the dull and slightly-rusty blue roof, he felt hypnotized by the fluffy ball of yellow hair. It looked so soft and bright and he wanted to—
She turned, and his heart froze. He couldn’t breathe.
She was a princess.
A sprinkling of freckles dusted over her cheeks and across her nose. Her bright green eyes reminded him of the key lime pie his mom made when he was a kid. Beneath the giant frizz of hair, she looked small and delicate and his protective instincts shot to life.
Then … she smiled. A bright, blinding smile that felt like the sun was shining directly on him.
“Hi,” she said quietly.
He smiled back. “Hey.”
“Ooof,” Ms. Hale grunted as she pushed out of the car.
Quince stepped back to let her out, his gaze never leaving the princess’s eyes.
“There we go,” Ms. Hale said once she’d gotten to her feet and arranged her bags on her shoulders. She turned to look at the angel. “Lily, this is my neighbor’s son, Quince.”
Lily. Like a pretty, delicate flower.
“Quince,” Lily said, as if trying out the name.
“Quince,” Ms. Hale said, “this is my niece, Lily. She’s from …”
“Fort Lauderdale,” Lily offered.
“Oh yes.” Ms. Hale smiled. “Fort Lauderdale. She’s going to be living with me for a while.”
Quince wanted to drop the giant purse and do a very unmanly dance right there in the driveway. Instead, he grinned and said, “Hi Lily. Welcome to Seaview.”
“You’re being an idiot,” Quince told himself as he sat on the floor in his bathroom, back to the wall beneath the small, curtained window.
When he’d walked into the room five minutes ago, he just planned to brush his teeth and go to bed. Then, on a whim, he’d glanced out the window. A few feet away, across the driveway and through a matching window in the house next door, was another bathroom. Lily’s bathroom. And, although her curtains were drawn, he could just make out her outline through the thin fabric.
He hadn’t really seen anything, but he still felt like a letch. So he’d yanked his own curtain shut, dropped to the floor, and hadn’t moved since. She probably wasn’t even there anymore. And if she was, she wouldn’t be looking out the window at him.
“Stupid.”
But instead of standing up, he moved to his hands and knees and crawled to the door. He had just made it to the hall and back to his feet when his mom shouted up, “Did you take out the trash?”
“No,” he called down. “I’ll do it now.”
He’d had to take on a lot of responsibilities since his parents split and his dad took off last year, but Quince wasn’t afraid of responsibility. He liked helping his mom.
Trash duty, though, was not his favorite.
He slipped out the side door of the house, grabbed the rolling garbage can, and started dragging it down the driveway. As he passed the front porch he caught a glimpse of brightness from the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw Lily sitting on her front porch, staring up at the night sky.
“Hey,” he said quietly so he didn’t startle her.
Her pale brows frowned as she looked for him in the dark. When she saw him, her whole face smiled. “Oh, hi Quince.”
Leaving the garbage can in the driveway, he crossed the yard and sat down next to her. “Stargazing?”
“Yeah,” she said, looking back up at the sky. “And thinking. Worrying.”
“About tomorrow?” he guessed. Monday morning would be her first day at Seaview High. He could imagine she was pretty nervous.
“My first day of hu—of school at Seaview.” She blinked up at the stars. “I don’t know what to expect.”
“Pretty much the same as any school,” he said, trying to reassure her. “Unless you’re hiding a third limb or something, you’ll be fine.”
“I’m not,” she snapped, her eyes flashing with anger. She thrust her legs out in front of her. “See. Two legs, just like every other human.”
“Whoa,” he said, raising his hands in surrender. He didn’t know what had set her off—it was a joke, right?—and he didn’t want her mad at him but… he kind of liked seeing that spark in her eyes. He liked the fact that she wasn’t just some passive pushover who didn’t stand up for herself. Even if it was for a completely ridiculous reason. “I can see you’re just an ordinary biped like the rest of us, princess. ”
Clearly, the wrong thing to say. Again.
Her eyes widened. “I am not a princess.”
Quince couldn’t stop the smile. He was confused, sure—didn’t most girls want to be a princess?—but there was something about her goofy anger that made him want to see more. That made him want to draw more of it out of her. “Are you sure?” he asked. “Because I’ve heard you princesses can be cagey.”
She jumped to her feet. Jaw clenched, mouth pursed, eyes wide but flaming, she looked ready to kill. Or at least rail into him with a few choice words. She even opened her mouth a couple of times, like she wanted to tell him off. In the end, she kicked him. Just lifted up on flip-flopped foot and kicked him in the calf.
He burst out laughing.
With an audible huff, she turned and walked away, around the side of the house. he was still laughing when he heard the screen door on Ms. Hale’s house slam shut.
“See you tomorrow,” he called out into the empty night. “Princess.”
By lunch the next day, Quince had made a decision. He needed to ask Lily out before some other guy beat him to it. He didn’t want to miss out on his dream girl because he waited too long. He probably needed to apologize, too, for whatever made her so mad last night. Even if he had no clue what that whatever was.
He walked into the cafeteria, bypassing the lunch line and scanning the crowd for a pale blond crown. It didn’t take long to spot her, halfway across the room, carrying a full tray and looking for somewhere to sit.
But just as he started toward her, she lost her balance, tumbled forward, and sent her tray flying. Enchilada sauce and pudding and juice everywhere. Hurrying through the maze of tables, he had almost reached her when he saw Brody Bennet down on his hands and knees, helping her clean up.
Brody wasn’t a bad guy—they’d played football together in junior high and he’d been a descent quarterback—but seeing him there with Lily made Quince’s anger boil. He wanted to be the one helping Lily clean up the mess.
Then, as Quince watched from a distance, Lily and Brody stood. Brody handed her the tray and she took it, dropping her gaze as her cheeks turned bright pink. Head lowered, she looked back up at him like he was her knight in shining armor.
Quince felt his hands ball into fists.
Brody gave Lily a sickeningly charming smile. The slickster Romeo winked. And Lily beamed.
Quince wanted to pummel something—himself, mostly, for letting the opportunity pass him by last night. Just like that, in the space of a moment, he’d lost his chance. He could see it in Lily’s eyes. He could see the awe and the emotion. Lily wanted Brody.
And Quince would have to wait.
He just hoped he wouldn’t have to wait for long.
Find out just how long Quince had to wait in Forgive My Fins, the first book in the series. Discover more stories like this on the Forgive My Fins series page.
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