Chapter Fifty-Three

Lila decided that her best bet was to talk to her Dad privately. Whilst her Mum’s English was fine, Lila wasn’t quite confident that she could get all her points across without her Mum running away with a misunderstanding.

After dinner, she asked whether she could talk to her Dad in the home office. Lila’s Mum glanced at them, but seemed generally uninterested, given the kissing scene playing out before her eyes on the TV in the latest Filipino drama.

“Sounds excellent,” her Dad replied, heaving himself to his feet immediately as Lila’s Mum squealed and pointed at the screen. Clare joined in the squealing, and it seemed like her Dad couldn’t escape fast enough.

Lila’s Dad led her to the office, which was far more modest than Asher’s parents’ study. It was the first room near the front door, overlooking the copious amounts of banana trees Lila’s Mum was currently cultivating in the front yard. In this office, there were two desks, like Asher’s parents’, but Lila’s Dad’s desk was buried under an avalanche of obscure paperwork. The side that belonged to Lila’s Mum was much tidier, with several accounting books and an abacus sitting before a desktop computer from roughly a decade ago.

Lila’s Dad closed the door behind them and gestured for her to sit at her Mum’s desk.

“What’s going on?” he asked gently as he took his own seat.

“I… um… it’s hard to explain,” Lila said quietly. Every time she tried to think of how to explain it to her Dad since receiving the letter from Mr Morrison, no words came to her. She was truly flying by the seat of her pants with this one.

“Okay,” Lila’s Dad replied before waiting patiently for Lila to continue. She took a deep breath and pulled the letter out of her school blazer.

“I’d been wondering why you were still wearing that thing,” her Dad laughed as he took the envelope. His eyebrow twitched as he saw the school insignia on the front, but opened it without comment. He was silent as he read the contents, though his face seemed to grow angrier with each passing line. He looked up once he finished, before pulling out his phone.

“Monday, 4pm. I can do that,” he muttered to himself as he tapped on his phone a couple times.

“W-What did the letter say?” Lila asked, nervously twiddling her thumbs. She couldn’t look at her Dad properly.

“That a student had been bullying you severely,” he replied simply, folding the letter back up and handing it to Lila. “You can read it if you want.”

“M-Maybe later,” Lila stammered, gingerly putting it back in her blazer as though it were an explosive.

“I won’t tell your mother,” he said with a heavy sigh. “But I’d like to know from your perspective before I meet with your Headmaster. Otherwise, I might do something unsavoury.”

“Okay,” Lila replied, taking a long, deep breath before continuing. “There was a girl at school who had a crush on Asher-”

“Asher’s the boy you’ve been seeing, correct?”

“I-I’m not seeing him in, like, a dating way,” Lila explained quickly, looking up at her Dad. He didn’t seem to be taking the piss, so she clarified. “But, yeah, he’s the guy I’ve been hanging out with recently. He… had a girlfriend.”

“I remember that part,” Lila’s Dad nodded.

“But, well, it turned out that the girl who liked Asher, um, her name’s Piper… she’d been stalking him. Like, proper stalking him. Like, hanging outside his house and taking photos and taking things of his. So when I started hanging out with him more, I guess I got targeted. Piper tried to get Asher’s girlfriend to break up with him because of rumours Piper was spreading about me. Things like I was trying to get with Asher. Which I wasn’t. Anyway, um, she’s expelled now. But the Headmaster said he needs to talk to our parents about it all.”

Lila’s Dad nodded again, pressing the tips of his fingers together before his lips.

“The letter mentioned a photo,” he said.

Lila’s stomach dropped. She’d hoped they’d be able to skip that part. Sighing, she pulled out her phone and opened the picture she’d taken of the photo that Piper had put inside her locker.

“Piper had put this inside my locker as a kind of warning, I guess, before printing hundreds and putting them all over the boys’ bathrooms to bully me,” Lila whispered as she handed the phone to her Dad. He scrambled around his desk for some reading glasses before putting them on and peering at her phone. He glanced up at Lila and turned off her phone’s screen.

“That’s not bullying, Lila,” he said, his voice wavering with anger. In fact, he seemed to be expanding with anger like a balloon, his face turning redder by the second. “That’s dangerous.”

“D-Daniel helped take down the photos,” Lila added swiftly. “He… helped a lot, actually.”

“Daniel saw this?” Lila’s Dad questioned, his face turning white now. He began trembling with apparent rage. “With your phone number, calling you that?”

Lila could only nod and she looked down at her lap.

“A-At least Piper’s been expelled,” Lila said faintly. “So it can’t happen again.”

Her Dad suddenly stood up, his whole body turned away from Lila.

“Did anything happen to you?” he asked quietly.

“Not really-”

“Either something did or didn’t happen. ‘Not really’ isn’t an answer, Lila.”

“… A lot of boys texted and called me basically non-stop. Then Asher yelled at Piper in front of our grade and she got suspended. And Daniel took down all the copies of the photos that were up in the bathrooms still, and the calls and texts eventually stopped.”

“No one physically did anything to you?”

“Well… someone tried, but I kneed him. And then he… got dealt with by the soccer boys. Um, Asher’s the goalie for soccer.”

“It sounds like Asher’s done a lot, despite the fact he was the target,” Lila’s Dad said slowly. He turned around and Lila felt as though he’d aged ten years. His eyes still flashed with anger, but it seemed much more measured now.

“Has the stalking stopped?” he queried, looking at Lila intently. Lila didn’t know what to say.

“I… don’t actually know,” she said, staring down at her shoes. “I… the reason she got expelled was ‘cause they did a second check of her locker and she’d been stalking Asher still, collecting trinkets and taking photos. I was in one of them, at least, and I hadn’t noticed at the time it was taken.”

Her Dad rubbed his face and sighed deeply. She wasn’t sure what kind of reaction that was.

“You’re not in trouble,” he eventually said calmly. “And I respect Asher for trying to help you. He seems like a good kid. I’m more interested to hear what excuses your school has to offer. I’m of half a mind to pull you out.”

“Please don’t,” Lila said defensively, standing up. “She’s been expelled, and I’ve got all my friends there, and I’ve been there basically all my life.”

Lila’s Dad looked at her for a few moments before nodding.

“I’ll hear what the school has to say first. They want you in attendance, too.”

“Okay.”

Lila’s Dad stepped forward and pulled her into a bear hug.

“It sounds like it’s been rough,” he said into her ear before letting her go. “You should’ve told me or your Mum. We would’ve gone straight to the Headmaster when it first started happening.”

“I needed to find out who it was first. Then, when I did, everything just happened so fast.”

He pursed his lips before caressing the top of her head, like he did whenever she cried as a little kid. The comfort she felt passing through his fingertips almost made her cry now, but she held it together.

“Alright. Like I said, I won’t tell your mother. At least, not until I speak to your Headmaster about this.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Lila said, relieved. “Love you.”

“Love you too, Lila.”

----------------------------------------

Asher was leaning against Lila’s locker at the start of lunch the next day, sporting two lunchboxes and a grin.

“Hello,” he said, handing her one. She returned his smile as she put her things away into her locker.

“Hello,” she replied.

“How’d your talk with your parents go?”

“I just told my Dad,” Lila said, wrapping a scarf around her neck. “He… was pretty angry. But he wants to hear the Headmaster out, at least.” Now that winter was settling in and here to stay, she needed the extra layer of the scarf to avoid freezing solid.

“Sounds like my Dad’s reaction,” Asher replied with a sigh. They began to walk towards the library as usual, though Asher seemed just fine with a jumper underneath his blazer in comparison to Lila’s half-crouch to stop the wind whistling through her uniform.

“You don’t seem too cold,” Lila commented. Asher shrugged.

“I don’t get too bothered by the cold. I run a little hot,” he replied casually.

“I guess it helps when you’ve got the option of long pants,” Lila said, pointing at his school-issued slacks.

“What, your stockings aren’t enough?” Asher replied, his tone teasing.

“Definitely not. I’m this close to breaking out my gloves,” Lila said, pinching her index finger and thumb together.

“If you’re getting this cold already, you’ll probably freeze into a popsicle next month.”

“If I do, I guess I won’t have to do exams.”

“I’ll see if I can take them for you.”

“Please do!”

They shared a chuckle and Asher opened the door to the library for Lila. Finding an empty meeting room was much more of a mission than usual, though at least it was warm in here.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Maybe we should start booking one,” Lila suggested as she sat down in the only meeting room they could find.

“We’ll probably have to,” Asher lamented. “Though… I did say we’d only be having lunch until the end of this week.”

Lila’s face turned red, and she brought her scarf slightly higher in an effort to hide it. “That’s right.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t mind having lunch with you past this week,” Asher said quickly, unzipping his lunchbox. It looked like they were having chicken wraps, with one being teriyaki-based, and the other being a Caesar salad-style wrap. Also included were small cupcakes and a bunch of grapes.

“I’m sure Isaac would mind,” Lila replied with a smile.

“I mean, we’ll need to until we find out who the Banker is,” Asher said pointedly. “It’s not like we could really investigate with Isaac around, especially since it involves him. It would just be messy.”

“I guess so. By the way, aren’t we supposed to be looking at classrooms today?”

“I completely forgot. I can’t believe I got distracted,” Asher cried, standing up and shoving his Tupperware container back inside his lunchbox. “That’s why I asked Gabriel to make something more handheld.”

Lila laughed. “I forgot too,” she said, zipping up her lunchbox. “Let’s go. From yesterday, it seemed like maybe they’re based in a science classroom at the moment.”

They quickly shuffled out of the library and made their way to the STEM area of campus. There weren’t many students out in the open, unlike during the warmer months. The cluster of science labs was mostly empty, but one in particular seemed to be bustling with activity. Lila glanced at Asher as they silently approached.

“Thanks!” they heard a student call out as they exited the lab at the far end. He held tightly onto an Uber Eats bag and walked up the stairs and out of sight behind the lab.

“Looks like we’ve found it,” Asher nodded.

“Yeah,” Lila replied, suddenly feeling nervous. How was this all supposed to work, anyway?

Asher began confidently striding forwards before Lila grabbed his wrist and pulled him back.

“What’s up?” he asked as he stumbled into Lila. He was right. He did run hot. Lila blushed as she started to speak.

“What’s the game plan?” she asked, her voice slightly higher-pitched than normal.

“Dunno,” Asher shrugged nonchalantly. “Just walk in there and find out, I guess.”

Lila gaped at Asher. He normally liked plans.

“I have next to no information to plan with,” Asher said, as though reading her mind. He raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s simple debating rules.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, this year we only get an hour beforehand to plan out the points we need to debate,” he said. “An hour to plan out a five-minute speech, mind you.”

“That sounds insane,” Lila said incredulously. Asher shrugged.

“Next year, it’s still an hour for an eight-minute speech.”

“Jesus.”

“Anyway, the best asset to have in a situation like this is confidence,” he said with a grin. Lila noticed his trembling hands despite his grin. “Just follow my lead.”

“If you say so,” Lila replied dubiously.

“We’ll be fine,” Asher said breezily. “Let’s go.”

Lila tentatively followed Asher as he headed into the lab, the door shutting behind them with a rusted clang. It was much warmer in here, but Lila kept her scarf up around her face. She didn’t know how long they’d be here for, after all. There were two beefy Grade 12 students standing beside the teacher’s desk. Lila didn’t know their names but recognised them as athletes – one for rugby, the other for soccer. An attractive, slender Grade 12 girl sat behind the desk, her shiny brunette hair cut into a sleek bob. She had round glasses perched on her lightly freckled nose. Intelligent-looking hazel eyes darted between Lila and Asher as her face split into a perfect smile.

“Newbies,” she said in greeting, gesturing at them to come forward. Lila glanced around the room and saw several other students sitting around the lab tables. Lila didn’t recognise any of them at first glance, but they all definitely seemed older.

“I’m Olivia,” the girl behind the desk said. She clicked the top of a bright yellow pen and brought it down to a notebook in front of her on the desk. “But you can call me Livi.”

Asher glanced at the two ‘bodyguards’, and Livi quickly introduced them.

“That’s Jake,” she said, pointing to the one on her right. His black hair was cut into a buzzcut, and he grunted in acknowledgement, seemingly entirely bored of the interaction.

“And that’s Zack,” Livi continued, pointing to the one on her left. He had shockingly blond hair falling into messy curls but seemed much friendlier than Jake. He at least smiled at Asher in particular - most likely since they’d be on the same soccer team.

“And we’ve got Violet in the back corner. I call her Vi, but we’ve been friends forever. Teachers call us Vivi-Livi,” Livi laughed in a bubbly sort of way as she indicated to a shy-looking, red-haired girl buried behind a novel Lila didn’t recognise. “And that’s Jason, next to Vi.”

Jason was someone that Lila did recognise. The Head Boy. He had a dazzling smile and a deep tan, owing to his incredibly successful tennis career at school, which he was also the Captain of. His blue eyes seemed curious as he appraised Lila and Asher.

“Then we’ve got Theo and Harper,” Livi waved to the last two occupants of the room who sat alone at different tables. Theo was a thin, bespectacled Asian boy who seemed to be concentrating far more on his textbook and writing notes down than on Lila or Asher. Harper, however, was a prim-looking Asian girl delicately eating a sushi roll that Lila also recognised. She was the Head Girl and the Captain of the Dancettes.

“We’re all from Grade 12. Anyway,” Livi said conversationally, “what can I help ya with?”

“U-Uh,” Asher stuttered, staring about the room. Lila felt slightly starstruck, surrounded by a whole bunch of Grade 12s, some of whom were at the very top of the food chain. Speaking of food…

“We… heard you guys can help organise Uber Eats?” Lila uttered. It sounded more like a question than the statement Lila had intended. Livi nodded, flipping her notebook upside down and opening it to a partially filled page.

“Sure thing,” Livi said, jotting something down. She then looked up at Asher and Lila and leaned in. “Normally it’s just me, Jake, Zack and Vi,” she whispered. “Sorry you had to come in when there’s so many people just sitting around. They were a bit cold today.”

Asher and Lila glanced at each other, then looked back at Livi.

“So, uh, how does it work?” Asher asked hesitantly. Livi looked up at him.

“Ohhh,” she breathed. “You guys haven’t been referred here?”

Asher shook his head. Lila instantly felt panicked – was Livi going to kick them out without a referral?

“No worries,” Livi said chirpily. She began filling out another column. “I can fill you in.”

There was a knock at the door. Lila turned and her eyes landed on someone who looked significantly younger than everyone else. He was visibly panting, carrying two armfuls of Uber Eats bags.

“Hey Nate,” Livi called, waving at him. He entered and put the bags on the table nearest the exit. He opened up the bags and began separating out whatever was in them according to a sheet of paper he’d pulled from his blazer.

“That’s Nate,” Livi explained to Asher and Lila. “He’s in Grade 9. He’s one of our Uber Eats runners.”

Another knock sounded at the door, and a teacher Lila didn’t recognise leant against the doorframe.

“Hello, Mr Singh,” Livi announced. “You’re just in time. Nate came back with your food, I believe.”

Asher’s jaw dropped open as Mr Singh walked over to Nate.

“I’ll grab Mr Johnson’s and Ms Woodward’s, too,” Mr Singh said politely to Nate. Nate handed him three boxes of what looked like pasta and some cutlery sets.

“Thanks, guys,” Mr Singh nodded, carefully carrying the containers in his hands and out the lab.

“T-That’s my Chem teacher,” Asher whispered to Lila.

“Mr Johnson’s my Bio teacher,” Lila whispered back.

“Sorry for all the interruptions, guys,” Livi sighed. “This has ended up becoming a much bigger operation than we thought.”

“It definitely seems pretty big,” Asher said, coughing slightly. “Surely you guys have a leader, though, right?”

Livi narrowed her eyes at Asher, and Jake stood up straighter. “Who’s to say I’m not the leader?” Livi challenged, her previously chirpy demeanour cooling.

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Asher said quickly.

“Don’t be like that, Livi,” Jason interrupted. “Don’t you know who that is?”

Livi clicked her tongue. “Nope. Am I supposed to?”

“He’s the Dux of Grade 11. Probably will be Head Boy next year, or at least Captain of something or other,” Jason said with a long-suffering sigh. “And he’s the son of the CEO of Forestglade Private Hospital.”

“Huh,” Livi said lightly, tapping her pen on her notebook. She glanced at Jason, before looking back at Asher and Lila, her warm smile returning. “Big paying customer, then?”

“Sure,” Asher replied confidently. “I’ve got some cash.”

“We like that around here,” Livi laughed. “Alright, an Uber Eats order you said? It’s easier if you order ahead of time, but since you didn’t know the rules, we can see about doing a priority ord-”

“Oh, we were looking for tomorrow,” Asher said, exchanging a look with Lila. “Since we’ve never done this before, we just wanted to do some research today.”

“Sounds very Dux-like of you,” Livi said approvingly. She turned the page of her notebook and looked up at Asher. “You ordering for both of you, or will she be making her own order?”

“I’ll make my own order,” Lila said hurriedly. Asher shook his head.

“Just put it under my name,” he said firmly, giving her a stern look. “Um, her name is Lila, by the way.”

“You look very familiar,” Zack suddenly said, peering intently into Lila’s face. She stepped back and hiked her scarf up higher. The realisation that all the boys in this room likely saw her photo plastered around the boys’ bathrooms suddenly hit her with full force in the stomach. Did any of them contact her?

“She does hockey,” Asher said swiftly. “You might’ve seen her get an award or something for it.”

Zack nodded. “Sure.”

“Anyway, tomorrow lunch, right?” Livi asked, her tone suddenly very businesslike. “We’ve already got an order in for sushi, one for Maccas, and another for KFC. You can hop on one of those orders, or pick from a list.”

Asher looked at Lila and she shrugged. “I’m down for whatever.”

“She’ll say that now, but she’ll probably change her mind,” Jake laughed crudely. “Girls do it all the time.”

Asher seemed to ignore the comment as he perused the printed list Livi provided him.

“Indian curry?” he suggested.

“Sure. I’m down for a butter chicken, or a lamb korma, or whatever,” Lila replied with a smile.

“Can we grab one of each? The ones with rice in them.” Asher asked Livi, handing her back the list. She nodded and jotted them down.

“You can pay now, pay on delivery, or open a tab,” Livi said, almost robotically. “Which will it be?”

“What’s the charges like?” Asher asked. She looked at him, her eyes wide with surprise. She quickly collected herself.

“Well, you pay for your food, plus services, delivery, and 10%,” Livi said slowly, ticking off her fingers as she spoke.

“What’s the 10% for?” Asher asked. Livi blinked at him blankly, but he waited for a response.

“Uh, it’s like a fee for us organising it. Our runners have to be pretty sneaky. While a lot of teachers are pretty cool with this, there’re plenty of others who would shut us down in a heartbeat. So, we like to pay our runners well,” Livi said after a few moments.

Asher nodded. “Okay,” he said, pulling out a $50 note from his wallet and handing it to Livi. “Just want to make sure what I’m paying for is worth it.”

“We take the utmost care,” Livi said smoothly, giving him $3.05 change. “Please let me know your phone number so we can text you when it arrives. And you’ll need to sign here, and here.”

Asher completed the necessary paperwork and he gestured at Lila to start leaving. Lila’s eyes darted between Livi and the ‘bodyguards’.

“I’ve heard you guys do loans, as well,” Lila said. “What’re the rules for that?”

Livi looked far more pleased with this question than for Asher’s Uber Eats query.

“That’s our bread and butter,” Livi said with a charming smile. “Pun absolutely intended.” Jake and Zack guffawed as if on cue.

“That’s where it all started. Basically, you can get a loan for almost any amount. We don’t charge interest for the first week, but after that, we do. I fit your loan into a schedule, and once you’ve signed up to the agreement, I send the payment terms via text. We can do cash or bank transfers,” Livi continued, still in a businesslike tone.

“I see,” Lila said, nodding. “What’s your highest loan amount?”

“Well, I think we currently have one at 3k,” Livi said after perusing the other side of her notebook. “But that’ll jump up by $100 at the end of next week. The next one down from that is about 1k. Like I said, we can loan out almost any amount.”

Asher stiffened, but Lila gently tapped his arm. Today was just to get information. He could wipe Isaac’s debt another time.

“I’m still curious about your leader,” Lila pressed. “And how this all started up.”

Livi smiled at Lila and shook her head. “Trade secrets, sorry. If I told you that, then we’d have to have these guys,” Livi jerked her thumbs at Jake and Zack, “keep an eye on your every move. The leader could be me, or it could be anyone else in this room. Could be someone who’s not even here. Could be a student, could be a teacher. Not knowing who it is – well, that’s how you keep something like this safe.”

“That’s fair,” Lila said shortly, though she wanted to keep pressing further. “See you tomorrow.”

Livi beamed at Lila and Asher. “See you then.”

Asher and Lila left without saying another word. They walked back to the library, with Lila hoping that their meeting room was still unoccupied. To her surprise, it was, but it seemed like someone had been in there after they left. Maybe they just wanted to eat in peace.

Lila flopped down into a chair and opened her lunchbox. She didn’t feel too hungry now, but after all the effort Gabriel had gone through, she couldn’t waste it. Asher ate in silence for a few minutes, before looking at Lila.

“You don’t have to eat that all right now, by the way. You can keep the lunchbox and give it back to me tomorrow. We don’t have much of a lunchtime left, anyway,” Asher said.

“Thanks,” Lila replied gratefully. “I’ll probably take you up on that offer. And thanks for paying for tomorrow.”

“No worries,” Asher replied, waving a hand dismissively. “It probably comes out around the same as what you paid yesterday.”

“Not even close,” Lila smiled. “But I’ll pay you back one day.”

“I’m good if you don’t.”

“I definitely will, then.”

He smiled at her again before focusing on eating.

“So… do you think Livi is the Banker?” Lila asked after a few minutes. Asher pursed his lips.

“She seems like she knows all the ins and outs like the back of her hand,” he said with a nod. “If it’s not her, though, it could be Jason or Harper, given they’re the Head Boy and Girl and clearly know about it.”

“I suppose it would be easy to hide an operation like that if the Head Boy and Girl are the ones steering it. So, what now? Do you still want to find out who the leader is?”

“Of course,” Asher said, looking up at Lila as though she personally attacked him. “I need to settle the debt for Isaac, face to face.”

“Alright,” Lila nodded. “Let’s keep investigating, then.”

“Glad to hear it,” Asher grinned and checked the time on his phone. “It’s time for English,” he added, zipping up his lunchbox. “Let’s go.”