Chapter Fourteen

The rest of the week flew by in a flash of whirling colour, assignments, homework and stress. By the time Lila returned to school the next week, she couldn’t recall whether she’d heard many rumours about herself. Had they died down? Or was she too busy to pay attention to them?

Hurrying to English after her Design class ran overtime on Monday morning, she took her usual spot next to Asher. His eyes briefly glanced at her as she came through, but it otherwise seemed as though she didn’t exist. With each English class that passed by Lila, she kept trying to remind herself that Asher didn’t hate her. Though, admittedly, she was beginning to doubt herself. He hadn’t yet acknowledged her script and the distance between them felt like it grew with each day.

This class progressed much the same as the previous ones, except today they were to be assigned a slot for their presentation.

“… and finally, Asher and Lila,” Ms Shard called, reading down a printed list. Several students began to whisper among themselves, however, Ms Shard carried on regardless. “You two will present on the 9th of March.”

Lila didn’t say anything as she diligently noted this down in her notebook. They had just over two weeks to perfect their presentation…

A thought struck Lila so suddenly that she dropped her pen. It hadn’t occurred to her before now that, once the 9th of March came and went, she wouldn’t have any legitimate, school-related reason to continue seeing Asher. Not that they were seeing each other at the moment anyway, but if they didn’t resolve the rumours, it wasn’t likely that they’d ever see each other again outside of school.

Lila balled her hands into fists tightly. 'Then I won’t be able to help Asher find his Mum…' she thought solemnly. 'And if he still hasn’t told anyone, he’ll be all on his own again…'

The image of Asher crumpling before her due to the weight of his fear and loss when he had confessed that he was terrified appeared in her mind’s eye. Her heart ached as tears began to well in her eyes. How desperately she still wanted to take that terror away…

Ms Shard launched into an explanation of the criteria sheet for the presentation, like she had when the task had first been assigned, as a reminder of what was required of them. Lila only half-listened as she stared at the date of their presentation in her notebook.

Without warning, the buzzing of her phone inside her pocket broke her out of her musings. Pulling it out curiously, with furtive looks in Ms Shard’s direction, she looked at her notifications under the desk. A text message from Asher had arrived.

I tried to get a room at the library, it read.

A second text came through as she was reading the first.

But it was already full, this one read.

Okay, replied Lila, the beating of her heart overtaking any other sensation within her body. What’s the solution then?

Asher’s reply took some time to go through, though Lila didn’t dare to look at him. Eventually, her phone buzzed again.

If you’re fine with it, I think you should come over again. I’ve almost finished with the script, so if you want to finish the PowerPoint early, we can meet this weekend. Saturday maybe?

Lila stared at the words on her screen. Another weekend visit meant a visit where there was no Gabriel and Marlene was likely to be hovering around them.

We can meet on Monday if you’d prefer, but this way it’s less likely that anyone from our grade will see you, Asher sent swiftly.

Saturday it is then, Lila replied with a sigh, locking her phone screen and putting it back into her pocket. While she was glad that they were meeting up again, she didn’t want to risk upsetting the rumour mill even further. With Asher seemingly slipping further and further away from Lila, one misstep would surely have him avoid her for the rest of their schooling lives.

That night, Asher sent through a revised version of the script. Lila couldn’t see that much of her sections had changed, which surprised her. Did he think it was good? Or was it so horrible that there was no saving it?

'Don’t be stupid,' Lila told herself firmly as she continued scrolling through the script. 'Even if it was terrible, out of anyone in our grade, Asher would be able to fix it up.'

True to his word, Lila found some familiar words within the section regarding their original analysis of Daisy Buchanan’s character. Smiling to herself, she began to pull together the PowerPoint in its entirety.

Lila stood in line at the tuckshop the next day, yawning. She had spent a bit more time than she’d realised on the PowerPoint, and it was definitely punishing her today. Elise was on her way to Lila already to give her company in the slow-going queue, but Grace was once again held back with a private music lesson. Lila wasn’t quite sure whether she’d make it inside the tuckshop due to how fatigued she felt. If she didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought she’d run a marathon before waiting in line.

“Yo,” a voice to her left said. Looking around wildly, Lila’s eyes found themselves on Elise’s beaming face.

“Hey,” Lila said, shuffling to the right so that Elise could slot in next to her.

“I brought lunch again,” Elise said, swinging her lunchbox, illustrating her point.

“Anything exciting?” Lila asked.

“Nup. But sometimes boring is good, y’know?”

“I guess,” Lila smiled at Elise. “I’m glad you’re here though, I’m dead tired.”

“Tell me about it,” sighed Elise, unzipping her lunchbox and pulling out a green apple. “It feels like all these assignments are out to get me. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to sleep peacefully again.”

Stolen novel; please report.

Lila laughed in agreement.

“Are you going to do hockey again?” Elise asked through a mouthful of apple.

“Yeah. Care to join?” Lila asked, nudging Elise gently as they moved forward.

“Won’t be able to, sorry. Have to keep all my afternoons and weekends free. Saving up for a holiday, remember?”

“Surely you can roster off some time for co-curriculars,” Lila pouted. Elise shook her head.

“No can do. Someone’s gotta be the go-to for picking up shifts, and I’m not about to ruin my rep for hockey, I’m afraid. If I find time though, I’ll watch you play for sure.”

“Thanks,” grinned Lila. “I’ll try and do you proud.”

The girls fell silent as they waited in line. Gradually drips and drabs of conversations surrounding them carried over to Lila.

“… happened to the love rectangle or whatever?”

“Oh! I heard… fake news… Ayla said…”

“Makes sense. Connor’s not attractive anyway…”

Lila exchanged a meaningful glance at Elise and they both perked up their heads as if to extend their eavesdropping range.

“… visited Banker…”

“… so cool…”

“Yeah! … no worries… money…”

“Yo, can you introduce…?”

“For sure… super friendly…”

“Wesley… dumped… lol…”

“OMG! When?”

“Valentine’s Day…”

“Do you… music teacher… weird?”

“Yeah nah… she’s cool.”

“… fail at Maths…”

“… no allowance again…”

“… go see the Banker!”

“… stacked it in PE…”

“I saw… pissed myself…”

“Tiffany screwed… weekend.”

“… feel so bad… Lila…”

“I know right… crazy…”

“Isaac said…”

“They totally ignore each other…”

“… misunderstanding…”

“… always thought it was fake…”

“… new job!”

“Can I visit?”

“Holly… perfect girlfriend… no way Lila could…”

Lila’s breath caught in her throat momentarily before she swallowed hard. It seemed as though the rumours about her were starting to turn in a different direction or fade away entirely. Was that Ayla’s doing? Or maybe Brittany?

“Ha!” Elise suddenly half-shouted, grinning in a self-satisfied sort of way.

“What?” Lila asked, baffled by Elise’s sudden exclamation.

“Finally! People are starting to move on!”

Elise’s enthusiasm was infectious. Lila couldn’t help but grin back.

“Seems like it,” Lila said, relieved before adding, “I think it might still be early days, though.”

“For sure,” Elise nodded. “But regardless, I think we can count this as a win.”

For the first time in ages, Lila felt the weight on her shoulders begin to dissipate. Maybe she’d be able to continue helping Asher in peace after all…

Once Lila acquired lunch, Lila and Elise meandered over to sit outside their Modern History class, chatting about all the other things that they had heard in the tuckshop line. Grace didn’t end up joining their discussion of the various goings-on, despite the fact Modern History began straight after lunch. She showed up as soon as their teacher threw the door open and invited everyone inside, red-faced and sweaty, as though she had been running at full pelt.

After settling in at their desks, Elise eagerly filled Grace in with what she had heard at lunch whilst the class was going through a collaborative worksheet. Once Elise finished, Grace gave Lila a small smile that seemed tinged with sadness.

“That’s great, Elise, but… where I was, plenty of people were still saying that Lila’s trying to get with Asher while he’s dating Holly. They’ve been saying it’s her kink,” Grace said in a whisper.

“What the actual-” Lila began hotly.

“Shh!” Elise hissed, a finger to her lips. “We know it’s not true.”

“I’ve been thinking, though,” Grace added softly, “that the rumours were really persistent and vicious. I don’t think these are the work of students blowing things out of proportion, like what usually happens. This seems more… malicious.”

Lila sat back in her chair, contemplating Grace’s suggestion. She had known that she needed to find the source of the wild rumours to stamp it out, but she’d never considered that the rumours were being started maliciously.

“That actually fits,” Elise murmured. “I mean, especially if what Ayla and Brittany said was true. They’re, like, at the top of the rumour pyramid but said they dropped it as soon as Asher cleared it up. Yet, somehow, things got even crazier. Isaac and Asher were doing damage control, like, the day things started to get weird but it didn’t work.”

“They also said it independently,” Lila interjected, a hand to her chin, narrowing her eyes at her desk while she churned Elise and Grace’s statements in her mind. “I mean, they could have coordinated their stories for sure, but when Ayla walked into the change rooms on Valentine’s Day, she wasn’t talking about me, even though it seemed like I was the hottest topic around. I can’t say for sure if she talked about me after my stupid dance practice with Asher, but after Harrison-” Lila shot a quick look at Elise, who rolled her eyes at Harrison’s name before continuing, “-she seemed really genuine. Kinda like she was terrified for me.”

“They are gossips, for sure,” Elise said with a nod. “But I really don’t think they’re generally malicious about it. Which, now that I think of it, is probably what you need to run the rumour mill. If what you put in there is interesting and mildly salacious, your minions can take it and run it right into the ground with crazy additions. If it was too unbelievable to start off with, I doubt many rumours would have any legs. Part of the fun about gossip is speculating wildly if there’s anything more going on.”

The girls fell silent for a minute or so before Grace piped up.

“Did you get any names from Ayla?”

Lila nodded, pulling out her phone’s Notes app. “Uh… looks like it was Piper, Belle, Mia, Scarlett, Jackson and Brittany.”

“Have you narrowed down anyone?” Elise asked, peering at Lila’s phone.

“Well, Ayla said that Jackson was useless, and if we take Brittany out of the equation, we’ve got Piper, Belle, Mia and Scarlett. If we take Isaac’s theory into account, based on what you said last week… Piper and Mia are both in 11B and both of them are friends with Brittany and Ayla… so it looks like Piper and Mia are suspects,” said Lila, tapping the edge of her phone thoughtfully.

“How are we going to figure it out?” Grace asked, concern plain on her face. “It’s pretty obvious that Elise and I are your best friends. I doubt the person behind it would spill the beans to one of us, especially since I don’t know either Piper or Mia, like, at all.”

“Neither do I,” Elise sighed frustratedly, looking up at the ceiling as if a plan of attack would be written on the ceiling tiles.

An idea drifted into Lila’s mind and a grin slowly crept on her face. “I can send in Cecelia and Lucas.”

Elise and Grace looked at Lila as though she’d cracked a cypher.

“I reckon that would work,” Elise said incredulously. “You guys don’t really hang out outside of Bio.”

“As long as they’re good actors,” shrugged Grace. “If it’s being done on purpose, they could pretend that they want to spread more rumours around as part of a smear campaign.”

“Don’t you have Bio next?” Elise asked enthusiastically. “I bet they’d be able to get to work on narrowing it down pretty quick.”

“Yeah, I do,” Lila replied, “I’ll see if they’re up for it.”

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

“Of course I’m up for it,” Cecelia hissed as she wrote down notes from the whiteboard later that afternoon in Bio. She elbowed Lucas, who hadn’t reacted to Lila’s plan yet.

“I-I could do it,” he murmured, rubbing his side whilst writing his own notes. “But, to be honest, I don’t know them at all. They might think I was trying to get with them…”

“Maybe you could find things out indirectly,” Lila suggested, twirling her pen through her fingers.

“Oh,” Lucas replied, looking up quickly at Lila. “Yeah, I probably could.”

“I reckon maybe Jackson or Marcus know something. If they’re friends with Piper or Mia, surely they’ve heard what either of them have been saying about me,” Lila continued, her pen clattering to the floor. Sighing, she slid off her chair and retrieved it before immediately proceeding to twirl it again.

“Yeah…” Lucas trailed off as he struggled to copy down the diagram on the whiteboard.

“You don’t seem very enthusiastic,” Cecelia frowned at Lucas as she also struggled to copy down the diagram.

“Well, it’ll be tricky to not show our ulterior motives,” Lucas said slowly, crossing out his failed diagram and starting again.

“Yeah nah, I don’t reckon so,” Cecelia replied. “You just gotta pretend your ulterior motive doesn’t involve talking to Lila about what you learn.”

Lucas shot Lila an uncertain look before nodding. “I’ll see what I can figure out.”

“I’m so excited,” Cecelia said in a hushed whisper, beaming at Lila. “Hopefully we can narrow it down!”