Chapter Twenty-Six
The fatigue from the past week seemed to fully press down on Lila as she laid on her bed that afternoon. She hadn’t even bothered to get out of her school uniform, she was that worn out. She kept refreshing her Outlook inbox, waiting for an email from the Headmaster, but it didn’t appear to be forthcoming just yet.
The calls and text messages were now only coming in drips and drabs – she’d only received two text messages and one call on the way home, which Lila bitterly considered a success. She opened up her texts with Asher and began typing for a moment before stopping herself. He said he wanted some time to himself. She wanted to check in, but it was surely way too soon.
Lila briefly wondered what Asher had told Isaac about the events of yesterday and today. Lila hadn’t actually seen Isaac at all that day. Did he even show up to school?
Lila swiped her phone to Snapchat and opened her dms with Isaac. Their previous conversation was already long gone, but he had seemed happy enough to talk to her on here…
She bit her lip as she stared at the blinking cursor in the chat box. Should she reach out to Isaac? ‘He should at least know that Asher’s going through a hard time, right?’ Lila thought to herself. Isaac didn’t need to know any of the details if Asher didn’t want to tell him. Though, it would at least be courteous to let him know that Asher needed more support now…
Hey, Lila sent tentatively. Isaac opened it up almost immediately.
What’s up, he replied.
Idk how much u know, Lila sent. She sent another message that read, but u should know that Asher is going through it rn
I thought so, Isaac sent back. Thanks for telling me
No worries, Lila sent. I’d check in on him but he said he wanted to be alone atm
Ok, Isaac replied. I’ll check on him later and let u know
Thanks, Lila replied before hastily adding, Not that I need to know
But u want to know, Isaac sent back, an emoji of two wide eyes next to his words. Dw, I can tell
… no comment, Lila replied, turning her phone screen off. She plugged it in on her desk and began to drift off into a deep sleep.
When Lila did wake up, several hours later with dinner having long passed, she opened her phone again to check her school emails. There was a new one now. It was from Mr Lockwood, the subject line reading ‘Private & Confidential’.
Heart thumping in her chest, Lila opened it up. It read:
Dear Asher and Lila,
As discussed, please find below outcome.
Piper Baker will be suspended from school, effective immediately, for the next two weeks. She is expected to return to school next term, however, the College will reassess as it comes closer to the time. She has been informed of the seriousness of her behaviour, and that I had considered expulsion. As I am unconvinced that Piper was entirely aware of the consequences of her actions, I have decided to afford her the benefit of the doubt.
Please note that as she is still a student, her exams next week will be held in my office, but she will be required to leave campus as soon as they are completed.
Thank you for your assistance. Good luck with your exams next week. Asher, please see me in my office next Monday to go through the belongings secured from Piper’s locker.
I request that you keep this private. I am aware that it may not be private for long, however, disciplinary matters regarding students are not for wider discussion.
Kind regards
Greg Lockwood
Headmaster
Forestglade College
Lila lowered her phone to her chest, thinking hard. She did agree that expulsion did seem too harsh, but she wondered how Asher would be feeling about it. Regardless, Lila felt the weight of the world slowly lift from her shoulders as she re-read the email. Either way, it at least eased her mind that she wouldn’t be seeing Piper around for a whole month, given school holidays were in a couple of weeks.
Checking the time, she saw it was 9.15pm. Her stomach grumbled. It was tempting to try and sleep again, but her stomach disagreed loudly. Sighing, she threw the covers off and trudged downstairs, yawning. Clare was in the living room, her face full of glam makeup, wearing suit pants, a blazer, and a jumper. It seemed to be far too hot for Clare to be wearing all of that, but before Lila could question it, Clare rushed forward.
“You’re alive!” she gasped, pulling Lila into a hug. Lila returned the hug and stood back, appraising Clare’s appearance once more.
“You look nice,” Lila said, lifting one of Clare’s curls from her shoulder and watching it drop back down.
“Thanks,” Clare beamed. “I was practicing today. I’ll be going out in a few.”
“Practicing for what?” Lila asked, tilting her head to the side. “Overheating?”
“No,” Clare rolled her eyes at Lila, poking her in the ribcage. “My makeup, dummy. My… uh- friends gave me some tips that I wanted to try.”
“Well, I’m glad that your ‘uh’ friends gave you tips,” Lila replied, looking around the living room. Clare turned the TV off, blatantly ignoring Lila’s comment, and began digging through her handbag that was sitting on the couch.
“Judging by the fact that no one complained at you turning the TV off, Mum and Dad aren’t here?” Lila asked.
Clare shook her head. “They’ve gone on a date. Daniel’s in his room though. There’s some fried rice and chicken in the fridge if you’re hungry. Mum prepped it before they left.”
Clare pulled out her glittery phone and began scrolling on it, her artificial nails, painted a pink ombre, clacking.
“Gotta bounce, sis,” she said, looking up at Lila with a small, tired smile.
“Are you sure you should be going out?” Lila asked, concern furrowing her brow.
“Can’t back out of this one,” Clare replied, shaking her head. “It’s a Friday night. Busiest night of the week, besides Saturday.”
“Ugh, I wouldn’t want to go anywhere busy,” Lila grimaced, shuddering dramatically.
“We’ll see how you feel about that when you’re 18,” Clare laughed, grabbing her keys, handbag, and bulging tote bag from the couch. “I’ll show you the ways.”
Lila sighed before smiling at Clare all the same. She pointed at the tote bag curiously and asked, “What’s in the bag?”
“Oh,” Clare looked down at it for a minute before replying, seemingly avoiding Lila’s gaze.
“My… friend forgot some stuff in my car. I’m meeting up with her tonight.”
“Righto,” Lila replied. There was something off about Clare’s reply, but maybe Lila was just overthinking things. She was dead tired, after all.
Clare hugged Lila again before walking off towards the garage. “See you tomorrow, probably. Don’t study too hard. You need some breaks as well.” Clare raised a hand in a half-wave before disappearing through the doorway, keys jingling, without waiting for a response from Lila.
Lila climbed the stairs to Daniel’s room and could hear him typing furiously on his computer. She knocked on his door and heard a huge flurry of commotion that sounded like papers rustling around before Daniel responded.
“What?”
Lila opened the door slightly. Daniel’s room was a mess of clothes, papers, and assorted rubbish on the floor, with schoolbooks haphazardly piled on shelves. Lila wrinkled her nose as she took in the sight of several empty juice boxes lining the back wall and the stacks of dishes sitting next to his desktop computer. He looked annoyed at her as he leaned over his desk as if trying to cover something on it, narrowing his eyes.
“What do you want?” he asked sharply.
“I was about to warm up some fried rice,” Lila said, narrowing her own eyes and widening the door. “I was coming to ask if you wanted any… Are you hiding something?”
“No,” Daniel said defiantly, his face flushing slightly.
“Sit up then,” Lila challenged, crossing her arms. Sighing heavily, he did, revealing an open notebook. It just looked like a whole bunch of maths homework, and Lila raised an eyebrow.
“Are you cheating on your maths or something?”
“No,” Daniel said, raising his voice to an almost-whine. “I’m just… borrowing this… from a friend.”
“Sounds like cheating,” Lila replied, rolling her eyes. “Whatever. I don’t care. Clare might, but go off, I guess. You want food or nah?”
He closed his notebook and nodded stiffly. “I’ll have a bowl. Thanks…”
“Yeah, yeah,” Lila sighed, shutting Daniel’s door and climbing back downstairs. While she waited for their food to heat up in the microwave, Lila swiped through her notifications. It seemed that she had received more missed calls and texts from unknown numbers, but altogether it had only been ten calls and messages.
‘Can’t believe I’m glad that it’s only ten,’ Lila thought despondently, rubbing her eyes. She opened her Outlook again and read the Headmaster’s email one more time. Had Asher looked at his emails yet? Lila checked her Snapchat but saw that Isaac hadn’t messaged her. Lila opened her texts and saw her draft to Asher still sitting there. Puffing the air from her cheeks, Lila deleted it and started again.
Hey. I’m just checking in. I hope you’re okay. It looks like Piper is suspended for the rest of the term, so you don’t have to worry.
Lila cringed at her message, and tried to delete it again but accidentally hit ‘send’ instead. Lila almost launched her phone at the ground but reflexively gripped it tightly. The microwave beeped, and Lila put her phone in her pocket. She carried both bowls of food upstairs, first putting hers on her desk and then knocking on Daniel’s door. He grunted in response and Lila entered.
“By the way,” Daniel said as Lila walked towards him, brandishing his bowl and spoon.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Yeah?” Lila asked, placing them on his desk. Daniel swivelled in his chair and pulled out what looked like a whole ream of photos from his school bag.
“I’ve been doing my part to clean up the streets,” he said, fanning himself with them, a mischievous grin on his face.
Lila looked at him in shock, taking them from his hands. She recognised them immediately as copies of the photo of her outside Asher's. “Where did you get these?”
“Some of them I took down from the bathrooms, but most came from others. At $1 apiece, it was a bargain. Should’ve seen all the people running around looking for photos. Almost started a few brawls. Granted, I didn’t expect to be out $432, but once word spread and more and more photos kept coming in, I couldn’t exactly refuse to pay up. You owe me, sis.”
Lila gaped at him. “I- Where did you get the money?”
Daniel glared at Lila. “Sold a kidney, what of it? … Don’t give me that look. Wasn’t my kidney.”
Lila exhaled in annoyance. Clearly, she wasn’t going to get an actual answer from him and she was too tired to fight back.
“It’s been dealt with now,” Lila said, “the culprit’s been suspended for the rest of the term.”
Daniel let out a low whistle. “Wow, wouldn’t it be nice to have a whole month off? Maybe I should put the photos back.”
Lila rolled her eyes at him and said, “Thanks anyway. It’s kinda oddly heartwarm-”
“Please leave,” Daniel said, cutting her off and avoiding her eyes. The faintest trace of a smile was on his face, but Lila took the hint and left his bedroom, still holding the photos. She contemplated what to do with them before stomping away downstairs. She wrenched open the front door and tossed them into the wheelie bin with a loud thud.
‘I shoulda put that in recycling, huh,’ Lila thought before shrugging. Returning to her room, Lila sat at her desk and began spooning fried rice into her mouth as she selected a YouTube video to watch on her personal laptop. Her phone screen lit up, and Lila looked down, dropping a couple of grains of rice on the screen. It was a reply from Asher.
Thanks for letting me know. I’m going to try and focus on exams next week, it read.
Okay, Lila sent in response. It was a good idea. She had some kanji to catch up on too…
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The stress levels of her cohort were palpable as Lila arrived at school on Monday. Exam week always had that effect. Piper wasn’t on her bus that morning, which was unsurprising as she was suspended. Between Study classes and exams during the rest of her week, Lila heard bits and pieces of students speculating where Piper was and whether she was away from school because she was devastated about Asher turning her down.
When she did see Asher during the week, he seemed incredibly worn out. While he wasn’t exactly ignoring her anymore, he seemed far more invested in his work than talking – including during Study, despite sitting with Lila again.
Once Friday arrived, all the calls and messages to Lila’s phone from unknown numbers stopped entirely. Lila was grateful to put that behind her and was in a much better mood by the time lunch started that Friday afternoon.
Standing in line for the tuckshop, no one seemed interested in any rumours, and were rather placing bets on how hard they failed exams, or what answers they put for certain questions, and similar. Grace and Elise arrived a few moments later, lamenting about their own exams.
“Hey, at least it’s almost over,” Lila said, shrugging.
“I guess so,” Elise replied, cracking into her lunchbox with interest. “This week has just dragged on though.”
“Next week will just be prepping us for next term. I hope they don’t give us any homework to do during the Easter break,” Grace sighed. The trio shuffled forward as the line shortened. Lila tightened her blazer around her shoulders briefly.
“Do you guys reckon it’s getting colder?” she asked.
“Well, March is almost done with,” shrugged Elise through a mouthful of cookie. “We’re in Autumn and all that.”
“By the way,” Grace asked, turning to Lila. “What happened to all those photos?”
“Oh God,” Lila groaned, bringing a hand to her forehead. “I didn’t tell you. It was so weird. Daniel had like 400 of them.”
“Ew,” Elise said, scrunching her nose. “Why?”
“I think he was paying people for bringing them to him,” Lila said. “He said he was cleaning up the streets. Made me actually feel like a ‘whore’.”
“Yo, that’s actually genius,” Elise said, eating another cookie. “How much was he paying them?”
“Just $1 a photo. I bet he was surprised after the 50th photo, but once he got it going, he said he couldn’t refuse to pay up.”
“Where’d he get $400 from?” Grace almost whispered.
“He wouldn’t say,” Lila shrugged.
“He could build an army,” Elise said, clearly impressed. “What’s that in total? Like over 500 photos?”
“She must’ve really hated me,” Lila said with a humourless laugh.
After finishing up lunch, Lila headed off to her final exam – Maths. It didn’t end up being as bad as she had expected, though perhaps that was a sign that she didn’t really know the material. But, there was no going back now.
She arrived at her locker, yawning as she packed her school bag.
“Hey,” Elise tapped Lila’s shoulder as she passed. “What’re you doing this weekend?”
Lila looked blankly at Elise for a moment before replying, “Nothing. Can’t believe I had to think about that.”
“I’ve got a morning shift at Maccas tomorrow, but we can go watch a movie or something after?” Elise suggested. She pulled out her phone, typing rapidly before adding, “I’ve just asked Grace, too.”
“Sounds good,” Lila replied. “Not that there’s anything really interesting at the movies.”
“We’ll find something. I mean, we don’t have to watch a movie. We could go shopping for semi-formal?”
“Either works for me,” Lila shrugged. “I haven’t really thought about semi-formal.”
“Well, I have,” a deep voice behind Lila said. She whirled around, face to face with Lucas. He had a hand behind his back, smiling.
“Oh, hey Lucas,” Lila said, blinking rapidly and stepping back. “What’s up?”
Lucas looked over at Elise, who was eyeballing both Lucas and Lila in confusion. He revealed what was behind his back – a bouquet of assorted roses, peonies, and carnations in various shades of pink along with some white baby’s breath. He thrust it towards Elise, a nervous grin across his face.
“Elise, would you like to go to semi-formal with me?”
“Holy shit,” Lila gasped, before clamping a hand around her mouth, backing away from the both of them. Elise appeared properly bewildered now.
“H-Huh?” she tentatively said, warily looking at Lucas like he was playing a prank on her. “Wouldn’t you rather go with Cecelia?”
Lucas’ smile quickly faded.
“I’m asking you, aren’t I?”
“I-I guess you are. I just never would’ve expected…” Elise bit her lip, gently taking the flowers from Lucas. She nervously glanced at Lila, who blinked at Elise as if trying to send her a message in Morse code. What message Lila intended to send, she wasn’t sure, but she was definitely screaming internally as she watched the exchange.
“These are lovely, Lucas,” Elise finally said, carefully caressing a rose petal, the cellophane wrapping crinkling in her hands. She looked up with a small smile.
“Yeah, okay,” she said, her smile splitting into a beam now. “I hope you’re ready to dance.”
Lucas bowed slightly, winking. “Dance Meister Greenwood, at your service.”
Elise laughed, and Lucas checked his watch. “Sorry, ladies, I’ve got to head off – my shift at Subway is starting soon.”
As soon as he left, Lila stared at Elise with wide eyes, her mouth open. Elise was red-faced and pointedly staring at her flowers, still fiddling with the petals.
“Well, I never guessed Lucas would ask you to semi!” Lila finally exclaimed.
“I wouldn’t have, either,” Elise said, her cheeks deepening even further. “I thought he would’ve gone with Cecelia, they’re so close.”
“Maybe she’s already got a date,” Lila said, trying to think whether Cecelia had ever mentioned semi-formal to Lila. Grace suddenly appeared behind them, out of breath and sweaty.
“S-Sorry,” Grace said, placing both hands on her knees as she panted. “I got caught up talking to a teacher about something. I saw your text, Elise.”
“About what?” Elise asked absentmindedly. Grace squinted at Elise.
“… about movies tomorrow? I ran all the way here so we could talk in person. Also, why are you holding flowers?”
“Grace, forget about movies, Lucas just asked Elise to semi!” Lila almost shouted in glee, turning towards Grace.
“What?” spluttered Grace, placing a hand on her chest. “Hold up, I need a min…”
Eventually, Grace managed to catch her breath again and straightened up, a hand bracing her side. Lila began relaying what happened with relish as Grace looked back and forth between Lila and Elise, her mouth agape.
“And you said yes?” Grace asked, seeming floored by the news.
“I did,” Elise replied, blushing again.
“Well, we definitely need to find dresses now,” Lila declared. “Now that you have a date, you can’t wear just whatever. Let’s have a look tomorrow.”
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That weekend, the trio hung out at the local shopping centre, perusing various dresses at a couple of different dress stores. Nothing stood out in particular, but at least they were narrowing down potential choices.
Otherwise, the weekend passed as all others had – with nothing of note. Lila did begin taking evening walks, however, in order to gently get her body ready to start hockey again, and she was joined by Clare on Sunday night.
“Are you going out again after this?” Lila asked as they strolled through their neighbourhood. Clare shook her head.
“Nah, I don’t need to,” she said, stretching her arms above her head.
“That sounds rare,” Lila laughed, also stretching her arms.
“Maybe, but it gets a bit expensive on Sundays, so I don’t really get asked.”
“Do the bars charge more or something?”
“Yeah, so they keep the staff who have been on longer on Sundays,” Clare said. Lila frowned.
“What do you mean by that?” she asked.
“W-Well, you get paid double on Sundays,” Clare finally said. “So, a lot of bars give those shifts to staff who have been working longer and charge a little bit extra to compensate.”
“Oh,” Lila replied. “I didn’t know you get paid double on Sundays... but, why do you know that? I thought you didn't work.”
“It’s only some jobs that do that. And I don't,” Clare quickly said, stopping in her tracks. “But all my friends are broke Uni students, so no one ever wants to go out on Sundays. ‘Cause of the extra charges.”
“Well, here we are, out on a Sunday. Can’t say no one ever wants to go out on Sundays,” Lila said, grinning cheekily at Clare who rolled her eyes dramatically. Lila’s phone buzzed, and she sighed as she pulled it out of her gym leggings. Since no unknown numbers had contacted her on Saturday, she had switched vibrate back on.
It was a notification from Instagram. Curious, Lila opened it up and saw a new dm from Cecelia.
Hey, it read, is it true that Lucas is going to semi with Elise?
Hey, Lila replied, sure is! Isn’t that exciting?
Yeah, Cecelia replied. Elise is pretty, so they’ll be a good match
Totally agree, Lila responded.
That’s all I wanted to know. See u next week, Cecelia sent. Lila double-tapped this message so Cecelia knew she saw it and put her phone back in her leggings.
“What was that about?” Clare asked as they pressed on with their walk.
“Oh, just a school friend. She was just checking that one of our friends was going to semi with Elise.”
“Oooh,” Clare cooed. “Elise has a date to semi! What about you?”
Lila shook her head. “No one’s asked, and I don’t want anyone to ask, either. While I’ve dealt with the rumours for now, I don’t want new ones to start.”
Clare’s eyes snapped to Lila’s face. “What do you mean, dealt with the rumours? I thought you were just gonna ignore ‘em?”
“… well, it got pretty hard to ignore… I guess you could say that they got worse. B-But it’s okay ‘cause I found the source of the rumours and dealt with them,” Lila said, somewhat nervously. She could hardly remember the rumours that she relayed to Clare earlier in the term. Those had been so mild in comparison to what Lila had been dealing with just last week…
Lila rubbed her face, squishing her cheeks as she looked at Clare. Clare simply nodded, carrying on with the walk.
“I won’t ask for details,” Clare said quietly. “But I did notice a big change in you over the past few weeks. Daniel, too. He must’ve heard them at school.”
Lila didn’t respond to Clare, who continued. “Hearing you say that you’ve dealt with the source of the rumours makes me happy though. It does make sense that you don’t want to go to semi with anyone in that case, especially if they’d gotten worse.”
Lila nodded. They rounded the corner of their street, made their way up the driveway to their house, and headed inside without further conversation. After showering, Lila lounged downstairs, as usual. Her parents were sitting together on the couch, watching a soap opera on free TV. Lila silently played some phone games, until a notification popped up on her phone again. This time, it was from Isaac on Snapchat.
Curious, Lila opened it up.
I forgot to tell you that Asher’s doing okay now, it read, a skull and crying emoji following the message.
All good, Lila replied, switching back to her phone game.
So… semi, Isaac sent. Lila opened the chat again and saw Isaac start and stop typing a few times, until he eventually sent, Do any of your friends need a partner?
Internally noting that Isaac hadn’t asked whether Lila was available, she replied, Well, I’m technically going with Grace but we already decided that if someone gets a better offer, it’s fine to split off
Grace huh, Isaac replied instantly. Doesn’t she have a bf?
Lila bit her bottom lip. Would Grace want her to lie about the gender of her partner with Isaac? If Isaac was assuming Grace’s partner was a guy, Grace evidently hadn’t told Isaac the gender of her partner. Perhaps a white lie would be fine…
Ya, but goes to a different school, Lila eventually sent.
I see. So, we could go together. Do u know if he’s jealous?
Lila contemplated Isaac’s question for a couple of minutes. Grace had been adamant with her that she was entirely lesbian, so it was unlikely that any partner would think she was cheating on them with a guy. But, if they did think Grace was cheating on them, it wouldn’t end well. She sent a message to Grace, but it didn’t look like Grace was online. If she waited any longer, Isaac would probably think she was telling Grace his plans, which Lila didn’t necessarily want to ruin…
I don’t think he’d be jealous, Lila replied, sending a shrugging emoji with it.
Guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask. Worst she can do is say no, Isaac replied, sending a shrugging emoji as well.
Thanks Lila. See you at school next week, Isaac sent directly after the previous. Lila replied to the same effect. As soon as it sent through, Lila was on the phone to Grace, who seemed like she’d just woken from a nap.
“So, for reasons I’m not telling,” Lila started off, “if someone was hypothetically talking to me about your partner, can you please let me know what I should say?”
“O-Oh,” Grace said quietly. “Um, for now, male pronouns are fine. A-And if they ask if they’re at the same school, just tell them no but you don’t know what school it is.”
Grace emitted a small, self-satisfied sound as she finished her requirements.
“Fab,” Lila replied simply. “That works.”
“Thanks,” Grace said in an almost whisper. “I truly do appreciate it. Thank you for checking.”
“Of course I’d check,” Lila said breezily. “Though… I was kinda in the moment… and you didn’t answer… but I said ‘he’ and that ‘he’ goes to a different school.”
Grace sighed heavily into the phone. “You’re so godamn lucky you know me well enough.”
“Pretty lucky to know you in general,” Lila replied cheekily. “But I’m glad I got both right.”