“Holy hand grenade of Antioch!” Janet gasped. “How did we not see that coming?”

I couldn't focus on my classes. The jars I'd stolen sat heavily in my bag, and I was certain that any minute the nurse would come and call me a thief. I wasn't sure what the punishment for stealing from the infirmary was, but it was probably worse than detention.

The road work was moving along nicely. The dead under directions from the living were clearing the streets of debris, slowly but steadily making a path to the granaries, armouries, warehouses, and hospitals. Soldiers in small groups, starting with former inhabitants of the city, were allowed to survey the various neighbourhoods. If they came back with some keepsakes, clothes, blankets or food, it was ignored by their officers, and another group was allowed to head out.

Lyn becomes comfortable in her role as a girl, and experiences new sensations.

Author's note: I am still working on my edits of The Return of Lilith. It has been taking me a lot longer than I planned it too. I hope that these edits will make the story better overall. I decided today that I was going to take a break from editing and knock out the prelude to the next adventure of Lilith and her family. This one will contain some violence against women and some graphic descriptions of rape and abuse. I wanted to warn you up front since this will be a common theme throughout the book. I hope you enjoy the new adventures.

Chapter 35

Despite my misgivings, my time spent at the photography studio that afternoon was enjoyable. In the two hours or so that I spent there before Mum and Aunt Heather returned, I got a really good insight into what goes into creating good photographs.

Diane asked that I assist her in the staging of the photos, especially when she was busy taking shots of Barney. I was nominated to distract him, so he looked in the direction of the lens, which was achieved by me holding up and squeaking a dog toy behind Diane’s shoulder.

Lyn learns a lot about what it means to be a girl and lets out secrets of her past

“Honesty! That’s one hell of a dirty trick, Jessica!”

What was Rachel thinking? She should've just told Jesse she was Randy from the start. Then maybe Jesse wouldn't have agreed to give the speech at Randy's memorial and made it that much more awkward for Rachel to come clean with him. But it was too late now.

The day after the memorial assembly, Jesse seemed pretty down in the dumps when he came into Science. "Hey," said Rachel. "About yesterday, I just..."

"Don't be sorry," Jesse said miserably. "It's not your fault."

So Jesse wasn't mad at her. "Well...okay, I guess," said Rachel.

Master Grieve glared at Rocks For Brains and I, and despite only being able to see his eyes, it looked like his helmet was scowling at us.

For the next couple days, Rachel mostly just hung out at Pretty And Pink with Vanessa. Ruth still had to do some work to register Rachel to go to school, since she'd be going in as a new student. But it turned out Pretty And Pink was a nice place to be. The cafeteria served good food three times a day, and there was a game room where you could play board games or video games with your friends. The only thing Rachel had to keep in mind was to stay out of Maddie and Hattie's way.

Ruth took Rachel down to her foster home building, called Pretty And Pink Foster Care. Rachel had heard of the place before, but she'd never seen it in person. It was a lot bigger than she expected-four stories high. "This is your foster home?" Rachel asked.

"Well, it's not really 'my' foster home," said Ruth. "Pretty And Pink Foster Care has establishments in Virginia and Pennsylvania, too. The company is owned by Angelina Aguilar-our founder. But our Nashville location is the one that I'm in charge of managing."

All eyes were on me when we walked into the cafeteria and took our regular table. Looking down at my tight dress, and overly exposed assets, I wondered how I'd been talked into this. Sitting down, carefully so I didn't show off my underwear by accident, I put my elbows on the table and clasped my hands together under my chin trying to cover my breasts.