Over the following weeks, they kept spending their time together. Amelia even managed to get Lily to the barber for a bit of tidying up, escorted by Miss Sandra. They also worked together to deal with Lily’s studies. Sandra turned out to also be surprised that Lily could read so fluently. Amelia suspected that a good chunk of her time spent away from everyone else had likely been spent with books without anyone noticing.

 With Amelia there, they had some success getting Lily interested in other subjects as well. However, there was also the matter of Amelia’s own schooling. If she were to go to school, she wouldn’t be around to help with Lily. And she could hardly reasonably be expected to first go to school herself, and then spend the evening studying with Lily.

 Amelia wasn’t sure what exactly the concerned adult parties had discussed, but in the end, it was decided that Sandra, who was a former kindergarten teacher, would be acting as a teacher for both Lily and Amelia. And accordingly, they’d both do their schoolwork at the children’s home for now. Results of the exams that their level of education called for were officially double-checked by the nearby school they would’ve normally attended – a school that wasn’t the same one Amelia had previously attended due to her home having been in a different part of Glasgow. Upon being told about it, she’d wondered if she would ever see her old classmates again; she’d not heard anything from any of them since returning to the city despite having been on good terms with them. Did they even know where she was, or why?

 Unsurprisingly, some of the other kids didn’t seem particularly pleased at what they saw as preferential treatment. Dawson and Mary, in particular, caused a few scenes, resulting in Miss Ursula chiding them for setting a poor example to the younger children. Which in turn certainly didn’t serve to improve their mood any further either. Fortunately, mostly it was just grumbling and suchlike, and there weren’t any serious confrontations involving Amelia or Lily.

 A less encouraging development was that Amelia found herself beset with nightmares. Sometimes she’d get woken by a worried Lily, other times she’d wake up on her own. She was always in tears and sweating, though, unlike the first nights, she was now aware of it. And after the first few nights of it, she could remember the dream – it was always more or less the same one, after all. She couldn’t help but feel that without her new friend there, she might not have managed to sleep much at all for fear of the nightmares.

 “Why do you cry?” One night, after they’d woken up, Lily finally asked her again the question she’d first posed on the night she’d ventured into her room to hold her hand. Despite spending their time together since they’d not talked about it.

 It was still a difficult question for Amelia. Not only because it was painful, but also because explaining it to a young child was difficult. Not that she was much older herself, but that only served to make it all the more difficult. However, she decided that Lily deserved at least her best attempt. She rolled over to face her friend.

 “Well... because my parents are gone. We were on a plane. Aeroplane. We did that often. Daddy was a pilot, so he flew us to many places. But then... the plane went down. Crashed.” She could feel her eyes well up again. “That’s what I keep having bad dreams about now.”

 “I do not have parents.” Lily’s voice was barely a whisper. It was the first time she’d said something like that about her past. “Miss Ursula said mom went to heaven after giving bir... birth? She said it is not my fault, but… I do not know.” As the younger girl was talking, Amelia took her hand and squeezed.

 “What about your daddy?” Amelia asked after a moment of silence. She wasn’t sure if she should ask, but... The only reply she got was an uncertain shrug. Amelia could feel a lump of emotion in her throat, but this time it wasn’t for herself. This little girl... at least Amelia herself had known her parents.

 “I was in the plane with my Mommy and Daddy. And Grandpa. But they all... died.” She’d been avoiding thinking about it. Her mother had survived the initial crash with her, but she was badly injured and could barely move at all. They’d been huddled inside the fuselage of the plane. It was up in the mountains, somewhere in France, on the way to a place she couldn’t remember how to pronounce despite her mother teaching it to her on the day of the flight.

 It had been cold despite layers of clothes. Her mother did her best to keep her warm in her embrace, but there was not much they could do but wait. They had been found the next day, after a gruelling night. Her mother was still alive when the rescuers found them. She was still holding Amelia, but she’d fallen asleep. And she never woke up again, instead passing beyond sleep shortly after arriving at the hospital. Somehow, Amelia herself had come out of it with only bruising and minor frostbite.

 But this was more than she could put into words for her companion. As was the fact that she still had a grandma, but... she had last seen Grandma Emily over a year ago, and she had not even remembered who Amelia was. Or Mommy and Daddy. She didn’t understand why – the adults simply said she was sick and didn’t take Amelia to see her again.

 So, now she was left with some family she had never even heard of, somewhere far away, and nightmares filled with cold and dark... and the feeling of her mother’s arms around her. Suddenly, she couldn’t hold it in anymore, and the tears came again, no matter how she tried closing her eyes to prevent them from escaping. She could feel Lily’s skinny arms reaching around her and embracing her wordlessly. Desperately, she returned the gesture. At least she had found this unexpected friend.