Chapter Fifteen

It wasn’t until Friday morning that Lila heard anything of note from Cecelia or Lucas regarding Piper and Mia. They did have Bio in between, but with their assignment due on Thursday afternoon, they hadn’t interacted much. Now that it was over, Mr Johnson was content with showing YouTube videos regarding the concepts they needed for their exam next month, which meant that half the allocated class time was spent trying to repair speakers and skip ads. It also meant that the class was considerably rowdier, creating the perfect cover for Cecelia, Lucas, and Lila to discuss what they had found.

“Good job dodging being called for more dance practices yesterday by the way,” Cecelia started off, giving Lila a meaningful look.

“What can I say? I hid behind a group of Asians, and apparently blended in quite well.”

“I’m guessing you didn’t dance with Connor or Asher again?” Lucas asked.

“’Course not,” Lila replied, rolling her eyes. “I was stuck with Wesley instead.”

“Was he still weeping about his ex?” Cecelia smirked.

“Big time,” Lila nodded, stretching. “It was kind of touching, really.”

“Sad times for Wesley,” Lucas said sagely. “He’s always unlucky in love.”

“Anyway,” Cecelia interjected. “We’re not here to talk about Wesley. I found something out.”

Cecelia’s eyes glinted in excitement as she leaned forward, as though she was fit to burst from the news she was holding onto. Lila glanced around the room to check no one was listening before encouraging Cecelia to go on.

“Mia did gossip about your dance with Connor and Asher,” Cecelia said, her tone rising with excitement at each word. “But she swears on her Mum’s life that she’s never called you a slut.”

“That’s hardly definitive,” replied Lucas, raising an eyebrow.

“I know,” Cecelia said impatiently. “But get this – she’s noticed Piper has been real odd lately.”

“How so?” Lila asked, straightening out of her slouched position.

“Piper has been a solid C+ student for years, according to Mia. She knows ’cause they’ve been in the same PC class for the past few years, even though she doesn’t really consider Piper to be a close friend. Apparently, in PC, Piper prefers to hang out with the guys. Says they’re less drama, even though at lunch she runs to Ayla’s side to throw shade.”

“So?” Lila asked, folding her arms.

“So… this year it took Mia by surprise when Piper started working really hard on schoolwork. She’s even gotten a private tutor and just studies during PC now, even if the guys try to get her to talk to them.”

“I mean, it is Year Eleven,” Lucas said defensively, throwing his hands up in a shrugging gesture. “I’ve literally told you to take Year Eleven far more seriously, like, all term. Good to hear someone else is knuckling down.”

“But it’s weird,” Cecelia insisted, glancing at Lila, clearly ignoring Lucas’ comments. “’Cause even though she studies all the time now, Mia reckons Piper might be saying things.”

“Could Mia just be redirecting you?” Lila asked quietly.

“Well,” Cecelia puffed out her chest, looking proud of herself. “That’s what I thought until I talked to Piper.”

“What’d she say?” Lucas asked keenly.

“She said she’s never even heard of any such rumours, or anything about Lila and Asher at all. Isn’t that weird? Surely if you’re not hiding something, you’d say that you’d heard of the rumours but didn’t spread them around or weren’t involved in the conversation. I mean, Ayla and Brittany apparently talked to her about Lila separately. Plus, with the fact that Isaac and Asher have been wandering around between classes and in the lockers saying there’s nothing between you and Asher and he’s happily with Holly, I doubt there’s anyone left in senior school who hasn’t heard about the drama.”

“That is weird,” conceded Lila, tapping her fingers on the lab table. “How believable were they?”

“Honestly, they’re both super shady,” Cecelia said, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t think Mia has called you a slut, she was super adamant about that. But then again, you don’t need to call someone a slut if you’re telling everyone that they’re sleeping with so many guys at once or trying to get into a taken guy’s pants. And when I asked Mia what she thought was true about you and Asher, she tried to backtrack and said that Ayla had cleared things up, so none of it anymore. She even said I shouldn’t talk about it with other people since it wasn’t true.”

Cecelia paused for dramatic effect, her eyes sparkling, before she began to speak again. “However, Piper seemed super uncomfortable from the get-go when I asked about you. She kinda looked like she wanted to escape and kept fiddling with the lock on her locker. Maybe she said she hadn’t heard anything to get me to leave her alone. But why?”

The trio paused for a moment, with Lila tapping her foot on the floor in contemplation.

“I’ve also found something out,” Lucas nodded, rapping his knuckles on the table as though he’d just remembered. “I heard from Marcus that Piper is, like, one of your closest friends.”

“I don’t think I’ve said a word to her in my life,” Lila replied, taken aback. Lucas looked at Lila in apparent surprise.

“That’s odd – apparently Piper knows a lot about you. Such as your favourite ice cream, your hockey position, what books you’ve got borrowed out at the library, your bus route… all sorts of stuff.”

It felt like a bucket of ice water was dumped over Lila’s head at these words. “W-What?” she asked, her mouth flapping open.

“Not that I know whether any of those things she ‘knows’ is true, of course. But Marcus said that Piper hasn’t been able to shut up about you recently. He’s paired with her for English, apparently, and she just kept going on and on about the fact that you were trying it on with Asher. He also mentioned that she’s been avoiding him and the guys in PC, which tracks with what Mia said. But she’s definitely lied to Cecelia about not knowing anything about the rumours.”

Lila whipped her phone out of her pocket, diving into her various social media apps to see if she was friends with Piper on any of them. Piper evidently followed her on Instagram, but nothing else. Could she have figured out those things from her Stories?

“That’s actually so effing creepy,” Cecelia whispered through her fingers, which were clamped over her mouth. “Like, beyond creepy.”

A shiver ran across Lila’s entire body as she processed what Lucas had said. Whether or not Piper knew from her Stories, the fact that she retained that knowledge and was telling people they were close friends was still unsettling. Lucas shot a quick look at Cecelia and Lila, his brow furrowed in obvious confusion.

“How is that creepy? Weird, sure, but I dunno about creepy,” Lucas said, shrugging.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“I mean, Lila’s said that she’s barely spoken to Piper. How else is Piper supposed to know all that stuff without talking to Lila? By stalking,” Cecelia said pointedly, drawing out the last word. Lucas gave an incredulous laugh.

“Yeah nah, dude, that’s ridiculous,” he chuckled, taking off his glasses and wiping them with his shirt. “I think stalking would be too strong a word. She’s probably just curious or wants to be friends with Lila but doesn’t know how. Have you seen her hanging around all the time, Lila?”

Lila tried to recall whether she had seen Piper around. Piper, being as short as she was, could be missed in a crowd. It slowly dawned on Lila that Piper had, in fact, been around Lila fairly often.

“She was in PE with me,” Lila said, folding her arms across her chest and looking down at scratched-in initials on the surface of the table. “I saw her when I was getting changed before the demonstration – she came in with Ayla.”

“So she could’ve seen you, Asher, and Connor and maybe said some things…” Cecelia trailed off thoughtfully.

“I’ve bumped into her in the tuckshop,” Lila murmured, remembering back to the Monday before Valentine’s Day. “Or, rather, she bumped into me. She basically ran away from me then.”

“Must be a coincidence,” Lucas replied with a shrug. “I mean, we all have the same lunchtime.”

“I think… she also takes the bus with me, but I can’t be sure. If it is the same girl, she always sits in the back. I prefer the front… makes me feel less queasy,” Lila said quietly, thinking hard now. If Piper did take the same bus route, then she’d seen Lila get off near Asher’s house… Not that she was going to share that nugget of information with Cecelia and Lucas. Despite their apologies and help after their accusations and bets, Lila was still hesitant to reveal that she’d actually been over to Asher’s place a few times, virtually alone.

‘And that I’m planning to go tomorrow too…’ Lila thought, biting her lip to prevent herself from spilling those details. Telling either Cecelia or Lucas would be a one-way ticket to Suspicion Station and they’d start thinking the rumours were true again.

“… do now?” Cecelia’s voice pulled Lila out of her thoughts.

“Sorry?” Lila asked, blinking rapidly at Cecelia.

“I asked what you’re going to do now about Mia and Piper,” replied Cecelia, blinking slowly back at Lila, obviously perplexed.

“O-Oh,” Lila replied, tracing imaginary circles along the table. “Well, I think I’ll need to collect my thoughts together. Then… I guess I’ll have to try and convince them to stop…”

“I think it’s pretty clear that it’s Piper,” Cecelia said confidently.

“It’s either Piper or she’s trying to hide her involvement,” Lucas agreed.

“Yeah, I think so too,” Lila confirmed, nodding. “And if it’s not Piper but she’s hiding her involvement, I need to know why. Plus, I want to get to the bottom of why she’s been telling people that we’re friends.”

“I hope you’re taking notes,” a stern voice behind Lila suddenly cut their conversation short.

“Yes, sir. Very many, sir,” Lila said quickly, flipping through her notebook in a panic.

“Good, good,” Mr Johnson trailed off. Lila glanced behind her to see Mr Johnson wandering around the Biology lab, interrupting the conversations of all their classmates equally.

“At least he’s not just targeting us,” murmured Lila as she creased a blank page open and began to write notes based on the YouTube video currently playing.

“No kidding,” Cecelia muttered, following suit. “Can’t believe we have to do work now.”

Lucas gave a heavy sigh and dramatic eye-roll at Cecelia’s words as he flipped his own notebook open. Both Cecelia and Lila exchanged a cheeky grin before continuing to take down some notes.

After another lesson spent ignoring Asher in English, Lila impatiently waited for Grace and Elise to meet with her whilst she stood in line at the tuckshop. That lesson in particular felt like torture – for some reason, Lila had spent much of the lesson sneaking peeks at her phone to see if Asher would text her to cancel their plan for tomorrow, but he hadn’t. He also didn’t acknowledge her existence yet again, but Lila tried to firmly remind herself that he hadn’t suddenly taken a disliking to her – that it was just part of their plan to combat the rumours.

“Hey, hey,” Elise said playfully, bumping Lila with her hip. “What’s got you all spacey?”

“Nothing,” Lila replied with a smile. “Where’s Grace?”

“Next to you,” Grace’s voice said on Lila’s right side. Upon whirling around to face Grace, Lila shuffled aside to make room for Grace and Elise in line. The students directly behind Lila tutted loudly but didn’t otherwise say anything to dissuade them from cutting in.

“Assembly sucked ass, as usual,” Elise lamented, pulling a mandarin from her lunchbox and peeling it with a bit more aggression than necessary.

“Yup,” Grace nodded, stretching her arms in front of her. “Almost fell asleep.”

“The thing I hate the most about assembly is having to wear the dress,” Lila sighed, pulling at her shapeless emerald-green dress and folding down her white collar so it was tucked under her dark navy blazer. Faint dark green, lime and grey lines imitating a plaid design did nothing to make the ‘formal dress’ uniform any more attractive, and Assembly days additionally required skin-coloured stockings, blazers in this sweltering heat, and pristine ribbons tying up their hair.

“Tell me about it,” sighed Grace, also tugging at her uniform, ensuring her navy clip-on tie sat neatly underneath where her collars met. “I much prefer the blouse and skirt combo. So much breezier in the summer, plus it looks better.”

“Not that we have much to choose from,” smirked Elise. “But, I suppose, as far as school uniforms go, it’s not the worst. We could have bright red or Cadbury purple.”

“I like purple uniforms,” pouted Lila. “But I guess I’d get sick of that after a while, too.”

“At least they went all in with the green,” nodded Grace. “Being this is Forestglade College and all.”

The line moved forward, and the girls began to envision loudly what alternatives could be made to the school uniform to make it less of an eyesore. Eventually, their imaginations took them down an avenue where instead of uniforms, they were given plastic trash bags to wear. Somehow this option was unanimously agreed upon as being much better than their current uniform.

Giggling, Grace and Lila waved goodbye to Elise as they both entered the tuckshop. Once their lunches were secured, they collected Elise at the exit and wandered off to their usual spot in the shade, their cream-coloured straw hats neatly covering them from the overbearing sun. Today’s Assembly carried strong reminders of detentions to be issued if students walked around campus hatless, and none of them were keen to take up the tempting offer.

Once seated, Lila launched into a retelling of the information she’d gathered from Cecelia and Lucas in Bio that day. Elise and Grace were both suitably horrified at the fact that Piper seemed to be keeping close tabs on Lila for unknown reasons, and asked Lila about her plan of action.

“Well,” Lila said, taking a bite of a chicken strip garnished with a strand of her hair, “I’ve thought about it during Assembly and English.”

“Go on…” Elise said, gesturing with her yoghurt-covered spoon.

“I think I’ll need to stalk the stalker.”

“Ooh,” Grace cooed. “That sounds like a fun idea.”

“I’m not hoping to have a ball doing it,” Lila frowned at Grace. “But, I’m hoping that I might be able to figure out where she goes during the week so I can talk to her, girl to girl.”

“I think you guys will just be going ’round in circles,” Elise snickered. Lila rolled her eyes but gave Elise a small grin all the same.

“I don’t see her around me all the time,” Lila replied, taking a drink from her juice box. “So, I think I’ll get some valuable insight into where she frequents.”

“To be honest, before all this, I hadn’t taken any notice of Piper,” Elise said, tipping her yoghurt cup into her mouth.

“Neither, but I realised she’s in my Art class the other day,” Grace shrugged.

“I think she’s in my German class,” Elise added, pulling out a bag of snack pretzels from her lunchbox.

“And she has PE and Study with me,” Lila noted. “I looked around to see if she was in my English class and it doesn’t look like it, nor is she in my Maths class.”

“She also doesn’t do Modern History,” Grace said thoughtfully. “I think she does Dance? She seems like a girl who would do Dance as a subject.”

“Ooh, I can ask Lauren. She’s in German with me and does Dance as well,” Elise replied excitedly, whipping out her phone and quickly swiping on it. Within seconds, her phone buzzed in her hand, and she looked up at Grace and Lila with a thumbs up.

“Looks like we’re narrowing down her schedule,” Lila sighed, leaning back on her elbows, and looking up toward the bright blue sky. It was dotted with swishes of wispy clouds that appeared to be moving across quickly. Well, as quickly as clouds could go.

“What do you reckon her last subject is?” Elise asked, also leaning back on her elbows.

“Probably a science. Seems like most people take a science,” Grace reasoned with a shrug.

“She’s definitely not in my Bio class,” Lila shrugged. “If she is doing a science, it would have to be Physics or Chemistry.”

“I don’t know if she’s smart enough to do either of those,” Elise said absently, staring at the sky. “No offense,” she quickly added, glancing at Grace and Lila.

“Am I supposed to be offended?” Lila snorted. “Either way, though, we don’t know for sure.”

“Hey Lila,” Grace said slowly, “when will you get the time to follow Piper around all day?”

“Good question,” Lila replied with a small sigh, “I’ll give it a go, but I should really focus on my schoolwork right this minute. It seems like everything’s coming to a head in the next couple of weeks.”

“Did you want us to help?” Elise asked.

“Should be right,” Lila shook her head. “You guys have got a lot on, too. Plus, I’m taking some solace in the fact that the rumours have slowed down some.”

“If you do need help, we’re not far,” Grace said, glancing at Elise, who nodded fervently.

“We’ll come running,” Elise said confidently. “In my case, it’ll be a bit slow, but I’ll run all the same.”