Chapter Twenty-Three

“I’m going to talk to her this afternoon,” Lila said to Grace and Elise as they walked towards tuckshop. She was ravenously hungry now and, as she didn’t bring lunch today, needed to buy something to eat.

“Are you sure?” Grace asked, seeming surprised. “The week isn’t over yet.”

“Ms Wang told me just now that the teachers are starting an investigation into the photos,” Lila said in a low voice.

“Photos?” Elise asked, biting into a sandwich.

“Oh, sorry,” Lila said sheepishly. “I forgot to tell you guys since I haven’t wanted to go on my phone. Daniel told me yesterday that copies of the photo that was in my locker are in all the boys’ bathrooms. But for some reason, Asher’s face is blurred out in those ones.”

“Oh hell no!” exclaimed Elise, dropping her lunchbox. She swiftly picked it up again. “All the boys’ bathrooms?”

“That’s what Daniel said,” Lila shrugged. The trio joined the back of the line to get into the tuckshop.

“I heard that all the Dance girls have been asked to stay back after school today,” Elise said, eating more of her sandwich.

“Why’s that?” asked Lila, surprised. Perhaps this would work in her favour…

“Lauren was complaining about it in German this morning,” Elise sighed. “Apparently their teacher hasn’t been happy with the quality of their practices. She’s booked out the dance room for this afternoon so they could practice some more. It’s mandatory apparently, since their performances are due tomorrow afternoon.”

“Did she say how long the room was booked for?” Lila asked.

“Oh, about half an hour. Apparently, the Eisteddfod competition is coming up in July, so the room is booked out after that for the competitors. Unfortunately for Lauren, that means she’s stuck there for an hour and a half after school today.”

“Is Piper part of Eisteddfod?” Lila asked, excitement beginning to brew within her.

“Nope,” Elise smiled. “I heard from Lauren a few weeks back that Piper tried to get into the Dancettes this year, but bombed the audition. Ayla got in, though.”

“Do you want us to come with you to talk to her?” Grace asked, shuffling forward as the line into the tuckshop shortened.

“I think it’s better if it’s just me. One-on-one, y’know? She might not talk if she’s being ganged up on,” Lila replied thoughtfully.

“Makes sense to me,” Elise said. “Besides, I can’t stay back today. I’ve got a shift at Maccas.”

Grace nodded in agreement. Lila finally made it inside the tuckshop and bought a cheeseburger, hashbrown and chocolate milk. Not the healthiest of meals, but it would do. Instead of heading over to the Home Ec building, the girls decided to head over to their usual lunch spot. There wasn’t a need to see what Piper was doing anymore, after all.

Once lunch was over, Lila strolled to her English class. She was gradually feeling more positive as time ticked by. She’d have a conversation with Piper, tell her how she was feeling, and ask her to stop the rumours. She’d understand once she saw Lila’s phone. Depending on Piper’s response, Lila could go back to Ms Wang and ask for leniency for Piper. Then, it would all be over…

Asher was standing outside as usual, waiting for class to start. As soon as he laid eyes on Lila, however, he turned around and walked towards the other end of the Language Block.

‘He’s taking this whole ‘ignoring me’ thing really seriously,’ Lila thought, before shaking her head. It was fine. They’d be fine soon enough. And then they’d be able to continue their investigation into his Mum’s disappearance...

Asher continued to ignore her as usual during English, and Lila counted down the minutes until her Maths class began.

Ms Wang smiled brightly at Lila as she entered, but didn’t otherwise act differently around Lila that afternoon. It was the last class of the day with more revision piled on them. Lila worked through the examples, employing the study techniques Asher had taught her by connecting the exercises to theory whilst keeping an eye on the clock.

Once dismissed, Lila almost ran to her locker and threw all her materials in it. She didn’t want to lug around her school bag whilst waiting for Piper that afternoon. She paused before shutting her locker for just a moment. She should probably take the photo from her locker…

After pocketing it in her blazer’s breast-pocket, she said goodbye to Grace and Elise. She then headed off to the library to wait out the next twenty minutes. Nervousness began to creep onto Lila as she waited. It felt more like she was waiting twenty hours than twenty minutes, but she took the time to browse the library’s offerings. Nothing really stood out, but perhaps that was because Lila was anxiously willing time to pass faster.

Her phone started to ring a pleasant tune, indicating that time was up. With a heavy exhale, Lila walked back to the locker room, her stomach twisting.

She was in luck – Piper was already there, opening her locker. There was no one left in the locker room, either. Piper looked up at Lila and pressed herself against her locker as usual.

“Hi Piper,” Lila said, standing a couple metres away from Piper. Piper furrowed her brow, her eyes darting about behind Lila.

“Hi?” she finally said questioningly, her eyes resting on Lila again.

Lila inhaled deeply, trying to stem the anger burning in her veins. “I know you’ve been spreading rumours about me.”

Piper sighed, slamming her locker door shut. She held onto her lock for a moment before pocketing it. She turned to face Lila, her arms crossed and eyebrow raised.

“Why do you think that?” Piper asked flatly.

“First of all, I don’t even know you but you’ve been telling people that we’re close friends.”

Piper shrugged. “Sure, I’ve said that. Doesn’t mean I’m spreading rumours though.”

“You told Cecelia that you didn’t know anything about the rumours, but Ayla told me that she talked to you about Asher and me outside Bio. I also heard that Brittany told you about that separately.”

Piper stiffened, her hands on her hips now. “So?”

“So you’re known to lie,” Lila said triumphantly. Piper blinked at her.

“I doubt you’re perfect either,” Piper drawled. She began picking at her nails.

“What I don’t get is why you’re so obsessed with me,” Lila continued, ignoring Piper’s attempt at a jab. Piper scoffed.

“With you? Don’t make me laugh. Why would you think I’m obsessed with you?”

“Apparently, you know my hockey position, favourite ice cream and what books I’ve got borrowed out at the library, among other things. I barely even know what they are, so why do you? If you’re not the one spreading rumours, then why lie and say we’re friends? It sounds more like a tactic to provide legitimacy to rumours you make up.”

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Piper fell silent, her picking increasing in intensity. Lila took Piper’s silence as an admission of guilt and pressed forward. She didn’t have any evidence, but that didn’t mean Piper knew that.

“Once I figured out that you were the most likely person spreading rumours, given all this and the fact that you’re friends with the Gossip Queens, Ayla and Brittany, I decided to do some investigating on my own.”

Lila paused for dramatic effect. Piper looked like she was hanging onto every word Lila was saying now, her eyes locked onto Lila's face.

“I started with finding out what classes you take and keeping tabs on you casually last week. But this week… well, I’ve been following you around pretty closely.”

At this, Piper’s face drained of all colour, her light brown eyes looking positively owl-like. She wordlessly tangled her fingers in the end of her ponytail, her lips quivering.

“I’m sure you know what that means,” Lila said slowly, raising an eyebrow. “I saw you outside Asher’s house. I thought you would’ve noticed me following you, but you didn’t look back even once.”

Piper began breathing heavily, stepping back from Lila before breaking into a nervous grimace.

“S-So? W-What does that have to do with rumours about you?”

Lila wordlessly pulled out the photo from her blazer pocket and thrust it towards Piper, ensuring the picture was facing her. Lila was silently grateful that she had taken this version with Asher’s face clearly in it. There was no way Piper could play dumb that Lila was outside Asher’s when the photo was taken.

“Out of all the people I narrowed down, you are the only one who undeniably knows where Asher lives,” Lila said, waving the photo between her index and middle fingers like a flag. “Someone saw you breaking into my locker, too. You certainly chose an odd time to do it, Piper. You weren’t on the bus with me that morning. You were probably testing how you could break in with those old combination locks we inherited from the upperclassmen. Unfortunately for you, it didn’t work like you wanted it to, so you ran out of time to put this photo in my locker before I arrived.”

This was obviously a lie – but it looked like Piper took the bait as she tugged at her hair, almost to the point of tearing it out. She also didn’t refute Lila’s claim. Lila lowered the photo before she continued.

“So, I’ll ask another question. Why have you been spreading rumours about me?”

Piper suddenly tore her hair-tie from her head, running her fingers through her stringy hair. “You were standing in my way,” she finally spat, looking up at Lila, her eyes bulging.

“In your way?” Lila raised an eyebrow. She looked back down at the photo of her and Asher when it suddenly struck her like a gong, her realisation slowly becoming clearer with each reverberation. Why would the photo in Lila’s locker show Asher’s face but the ones spread all around campus have his face hidden? The photo in her locker… needed to have Asher’s face so that Lila knew the photo wasn’t photoshopped… but the ones in the bathrooms…

“Do you… like Asher?”

Piper let out a guttural growl and threw open her locker. Lila took a step back, her face frozen in a silent scream as she took in what was inside. Plastered on all the walls were photos of Asher throughout the years. It looked like the collection started when Asher was in Grade 8, judging by the haircut. Asher was always looking away from the camera. Photos that included other girls had their eyes crossed out in red pen. One of the photos included Lila standing next to Asher, laughing, but Lila couldn’t remember when it would’ve been taken. It definitely wasn’t this year…

Her eyes roved upwards to the top shelf. She could see several items that definitely didn’t belong to Piper. A boy’s sock, patterned with flamingos, was hanging over the edge, along with a deflated soccer ball and weathered notebooks. Other trinkets were scattered about, but Lila didn’t recognise any of them.

“Wh-”

“Like him? Like him? I love him! I was so close to getting with him this year, after he finally stopped pining after you. I tried to break him and Holly up by spreading so many rumours but none of them took! And then you came out of nowhere after crushing his heart, getting so close to him… so I had to kill two birds with one stone. Eventually, Holly would leave him. Who stays with a cheater?”

Piper looked positively deranged now as she proudly looked at her shrine of Asher. “I spent years researching everything about him. I’ve tried everything to get him to notice me. For the past few years, I’ve been spreading rumour after rumour to beat him down and make him so undesirable to anyone else but me! So he’d have no one else! But it didn’t work. So this year, I started getting my grades up – if I become second in line, or even third in line for Dux, there’s no way he wouldn’t know who I am. Then, we’d get to talking and then dating and then he’d propose and we’d get married and I’d have it made!”

Horrified was an understatement of how Lila was feeling. Her head was spinning, and she hardly had the strength to stand any longer.

“So why don’t you just fucking give up?” Piper snarled. “It’s not like you even like him anyway. You just toyed with him when he was right there. Then you got with Isaac in front of his eyes! You’re the worst of the worst!”

The absolute insanity of Piper’s accusation was not lost on Lila. Lila was the worst of the worst? Whatever Lila had been expecting of Piper, it certainly wasn’t this. This was a level of depravity she hadn’t considered. Piper was a bona fide stalker, and it seemed like she was mere inches away from becoming totally dangerous.

“Why are you ruining my life?” Lila finally asked quietly, her face downcast as she tried to think of a way to escape.

“Ruining your life?!” Piper half-screeched. “You’ve ruined mine! Everything I’ve worked so hard for has been ruined because of you! You’re a stupid dumb whore that doesn’t deserve any happiness. There’s no way I’m going to stop until I bury you in the ground.”

Piper slammed her locker shut, breathing heavily. Lila’s horror escalated in her throat, sending shivers throughout her whole body. Should she try and get a teacher? Were there any left at this time?

Footsteps sounded behind Piper, and Lila could see Ayla running up towards them.

“Piper!” she called, waving. Piper’s expression and entire demeanour instantly changed to one of joy as she turned to Ayla, her face returning to that of a normal schoolgirl. This sudden change in Piper was battling for the top position of the most disturbing things Lila had seen this afternoon. Piper had seemed on the edge of a rampaging breakdown only a second ago – and now she was hugging Ayla like it was an ordinary Thursday.

Lila took this as her chance to get her stuff out of her own locker and make a break for the bus station. She could feel Piper’s angry, piercing eyes on her as Ayla started begging for Piper to come with her to the dance room again.

“Please! Ms Drew said that you can come train with us as a sub for Eisteddfod! Apparently, Tia’s swollen ankle isn’t healing as fast as she’d like…”

Lila drowned out the rest of their conversation as she threw her books into her school bag and hoisted it on her shoulder, along with her laptop bag. She closed her locker hastily but still made sure it was firmly locked before escaping the locker room.

“Oh sorry, were you guys talking?” she heard Ayla’s voice ask behind her. Lila didn’t care to hear Piper’s explanation, if she provided any at all.

She rushed to the bus station, her mind reeling faster than a snapped fishing line, adrenaline pumping through her veins. The emotions running in her mind were changing and flipping faster than she could process.

She couldn’t keep this a secret from Asher any longer. He had to know how unhinged Piper was. It was clear that Piper wouldn’t be listening to Lila. That wasn’t the civil conversation she’d been hoping to have. At best, Lila thought that Piper was likely ignorant of the effect the rumours were having on Lila and Asher and would stop out of guilt. But knowing that it was all intentional, and she had no plans of stopping filled Lila with dread. Plus, she’d now poked the bear. Surely it would ramp up even more, though Lila wasn’t sure what ‘ramping up’ would even look like in this scenario.

Lila made it to the bus station, puffing slightly. The last school bus of the day would be leaving in ten minutes. Without a real plan in mind, Lila whipped out her phone and started calling Asher. Three beeps sounded as she waited for him to pick up – a new unknown number was calling. She declined the incoming call with a frustrated sigh.

“Hello?” Asher’s voice came through Lila’s phone. She fumbled her phone for a moment before replying breathlessly.

“I’m sorry but can I please come over? Now? It’s important.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

“… Is everything okay?”

“Definitely not,” Lila replied in a shaky whisper.

“I’ll let Gabriel know you’re coming.”

“Okay.”

Lila hung up the phone and messaged her Mum to let her know that she would be studying at Asher’s tonight. Lila’s Mum sent a thumbs-up in reply.

A message appeared on Lila’s screen from an unknown number, and she turned her phone screen off. The bus screeched to a halt before Lila and she fretfully looked around before boarding with a few other students. Thankfully, Piper was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps she’d gone with Ayla to the dance room after all.

Lila tried her breathing exercises as the bus weaved its usual route through the suburbs. For some reason, the exercises heightened her anxiety, so she stopped, electing to bite her nails instead. Finally, she reached Asher’s bus stop, and she jumped off, virtually running towards his house.

She banged on Asher’s front doors as soon as she could, looking behind her every so often while she waited for someone to let her in. She couldn’t see Piper, but knowing that Piper had already taken so many photos of her and Asher without either of them noticing deeply disturbed Lila. She didn’t care if she seemed paranoid at this point – there was no being ‘too careful’ anymore.

The right side of the front door tentatively opened. Lila couldn’t see anyone behind the door but kicked off her shoes and rushed inside all the same. She took a moment to place her shoes neatly in their usual place before the door closed behind her by an unseen person.