Chapter 6: The Offer

[Lily]

The first thing I notice is that Evie is absent. Which is probably why there is room at their otherwise full table. Atticus sets down the tray and places our food at the two available spots while the rest of the Legacies shuffle to make room on the bench. 

This situation is too perfect. Which means something is not right. 

“Are you sure this is okay?” I ask, looking around to see if Evie is hiding somewhere or peeking around the corner, ready to strike at me for daring to talk to her boyfriend. “What about Evie?”

“She had a very long night,” Atticus assures me, his face deadly serious. “Too much celebrating. She woke up feeling sick so we probably won’t see her today.”

“Oh, what a bummer.” Realizing that sounded a little cold, I add, “Hopefully she’ll feel better soon.”

 Veronica rolls her eyes and snorts. She knows I don’t care about Evie. She’s Evie’s best friend, so I don’t expect her to believe me.

“So Lily,” Atticus smiles. “Welcome to the Legacy table.”

I just sit there, waiting. Seeing no reaction from me, he coughs awkwardly. “Maybe you’ll feel better once you are introduced to everyone,” he nods at his own logic. I give him a half-grin of encouragement. “Let me introduce you around,” he tries again. “Victoria, Simon, Lazarus, Zephyra, and Madison. And of course me,” he stops with himself, placing his hand on his chest solemnly. “Ace.”

“You don’t seriously want me to call you that, do you,” I laugh. “Like the ace of spades or a flying ace?” I snort. “Who do you think you are? Tom Cruise.”  

The other Legacies start laughing, except for Atticus. He is struggling to find a smile through all of his anger. Whatever he’s playing at, it requires him to be nice.

Interesting. 

“I like her spunk!” Simon claps his hands. “You got schooled, Ace. Admit it. I am totally going to call you Tom Cruise for the rest of the year.”

“So you’re probably wondering why we invited you to this table,” Madison, a gorgeous redhead with a perfectly curved body, turns her sultry gaze towards me. “We’ve decided to make you our pet project for this year,” her voice is monotone, almost disinterested as she adds “Surprise!” waving her hands in the air as if it were confetti. 

“PET project?” I question, folding my arms across my chest. “So does that mean you want to put a collar on me and have me walk around the school because if so I refuse. I’d rather smell like skunk again.” 

Laz almost chokes on his toast as he inhales sharply. Raising one arm above his head, he grabs his orange juice with the other and tries to calm his scratched throat. “Sorry about that,” he apologizes as soon as he recovers his composure. “That one was my idea.”

“That was terrible,” I confront him. “I had to throw out all of my clothes. It even made my hair smell.”

“Which one of you came up with the snake idea?” I glare at each of them in turn. 

“Oh that was Evie,” Atticus confesses for his missing girlfriend. “And before you ask, the silence game was my idea. But like I told you in line,” he pauses and looks at everyone around the table, making eye contact with them each one at a time. “We are different now. Reformed. We know we treated you poorly and we want to make it up to you.”

“Yeah,” Veronica confirms. “I mean, I might never really like you, but that doesn’t mean I get to be a jerk about it.” 

Everyone around the table nods in agreement. Some of them even say things like “Yeah, I’ve been a real asshat,” or “I was such a d**k.” Most of them even looked like they meant what they said. 

Madison, who is seated at my right, then goes into detail about their plan to make things better. “We all know that you would have been a shining star if we had just accepted you as one of us from the beginning. Your mother was the best of us. Your grandfather even led the legacies during his time. You were born to this.”

“But why now? Why even bother? Couldn’t you just leave me alone this year and we can pretend none of it happened,” I press my hands together as if I am praying. Actually, that isn’t a bad idea. I can pray that the Legacies let me leave this table without selling my soul or causing me bodily harm. 

“That isn’t good enough,” Atticus insists. “We owe you so much more than we can ever repay. The best we can do is give you your proper place, at our table, as one of us.”

“You want me to become a Legacy?!” I gasp. I couldn’t be more surprised than if they had told me the Easter Bunny is real and his name is Ted. 

“You already are a Legacy,” Zephyra comments lazily. “You can’t be MADE a Legacy, you are BORN one. You are an Adare. There has always been an Adare in the seven.”

“So you are giving me the seat that should be mine?”

Lazarus suddenly sits up very straight and looks over at the rest of them. 

“We can’t do that,” Atticus explains, “That seat is taken. As you can see, there are six of us here, seven if Evie were feeling better.”

“So why am I here,” I lean back, taking a bite of cold eggs from my plate. “This feels like a waste of time.”

“We’re going to give you a makeover!” Madison’s voice, which had until this moment sounded bored, was suddenly bursting with excitement. “A very complete makeover.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I glare.  “There is nothing about me that needs to be made over.” I stand to go find Nyx. She was right. You cannot trust a Legacy

“Here’s the deal,” Veronica’s voice cuts through my anger like a knife.  “I’m not going to bullshit you. You might not get to be one of the seven, but you can still live like one.” She pauses, looking me directly in the eye as she adds. “Haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like to be popular, even for one day? Haven’t you ever wondered what it would feel like to have people move out of your way when you walk or to listen when you speak?”

“What we are offering you here isn’t as simple as a ‘makeover,’” she gives Madison a very pointed look. “What we are offering you is power. Real power. Legacies are always Legacies, even after we leave The Academy. Learn to be a Legacy, a true Legacy, and you will have the power to make your life what you want it to be.”

“Or,” she shrugs. “You can ignore this offer and go back to your table. You can eat breakfast with your best friend and spend the rest of your uneventful life wondering if you could have had a better life if you chose differently at this moment.”

“The choice is up to you,” she places her napkin on her tray. “Continue as you are, or take a chance at doing something big. What’s the worst that can happen? What’s the most you can gain? I think you’ll find the gain is far more than the risk.” 

“I’m going to need some time to think about this,” I look up at Atticus. “I hope you understand.”

“Of course,” he moves to let me pass, reaching for my shoulder to turn me towards him. “Just don’t wait too long,” he begs. “I…We want to start making this right between us as soon as possible.” Bending down low he whispers. “Please don’t make me wait too long, Lily. I really do want to be your friend.”

Blushing from head to toe, I take a step away from the table, my plate clasped firmly in my hands. 

“Before you go, can I give you one last piece of advice,” Veronica offers as she looks up over her glasses. “I’d be very careful what you share with your roommate, Nyx. She isn’t going to think any of this is a good idea. She will see you leaving her, leaving her sphere of influence, and she will not like it.”

“The choice needs to be yours,” she insists. “Don’t let her jealousy make this decision for you.”