Chapter Twenty-One


    Brringg… brringg…


    Lila cracked an eye open, groaning. It felt far too early for her alarm to be sounding, but unplugged her phone regardless. She had been tossing and turning all night, hardly resting at all. She half-entertained the idea of feigning sickness and staying home from school today as her mind began to wake up.


    Lila lifted her phone high in the air above her, her eyes bleary and unfocused. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and tried to see the time displayed on her lock screen. With a heavy sigh, she slowly got up and went through her usual morning routine, ensuring that she packed her lunchbox again.


    She barely made it onto her usual bus, owing to the fact that she was going twice as slow today. Upon boarding the bus, however, Lila couldn’t see Piper. Frowning, Lila tried to remember the last time Piper wasn’t on this specific bus with her.


    ‘Is she sick?’ Lila thought to herself, placing her chin in her hand as she watched flashes of colour pass by the window. Her first class of the day was PE, so she’d find out soon enough whether Piper made it to school.


    Lila didn’t cross paths with Piper on the way to the locker room either. Yawning, Lila opened her locker and shoved her schoolbag and laptop inside. She grabbed her PE bag and leisurely walked to the gymnasium to get changed. There was no need to wait around for Piper given they had class together first up.


    Once dressed in her PE uniform, Lila made her way to the court. Ms Wright hadn’t yet arrived, but a couple of students were already stretching on the court in preparation for today’s class. One of them was Asher, though Lila coolly passed him to sit in her usual spot towards the stage. He similarly didn’t say anything to her or even look up at her as she walked by.


    After some time, Lila noticed Piper and Ayla enter the gymnasium in their PE uniforms, laughing together as usual. Again, Lila wondered why Piper hadn’t been on their usual bus, but Ms Wright shortly took command of the class’s attention with a couple of sharp claps.


    Today’s class was another practice run of the various dances for semi-formal, and there was a lot more giggling than usual in general. From the various snippets that Lila heard throughout the lesson, some people in her cohort had already asked others to semi-formal, with others still discussing their plans to ask particular students. Lila felt relieved that no one seemed to be talking about her this morning.


    After PE and Design were over with, Lila dragged herself to her locker to grab a banana from her lunchbox for morning tea, distinctly unenthusiastic for what the rest of the day had in store for her. The day was not close to finishing at all and Lila''s energy had rapidly depleted already. Hopefully, she''d perk up after some food...


    But there was something strange about her lock today. Lila put her code in and tried to open it, but it resisted. Was she at the right locker?


    ‘Odd,’ she thought, trying her code again. This time, it clicked open and Lila shook her head. She probably put the wrong code in but didn’t realise, she felt that tired.


    Sighing, she gripped the handle of her bookbag, preparing to shove it in her locker as she swung her door open. Instead, she immediately dropped her bookbag to the floor upon looking into her locker.


    A picture was covering the mirror on the inside of her door. A picture that Lila had never seen before. A picture that she definitely did not put there.


    Stomach swirling, she pulled the picture off her mirror with trembling hands. It was a picture of Lila looking back at whoever the photographer was on Asher’s doorstep. She was dressed in her uniform, and Asher was stood in the doorway in his uniform as well, his hand gripped around her wrist, a grin on his face. Lila’s breath hitched as she tried to take in every detail of the photo. When was this taken?


    Her mind went blank, her breathing growing increasingly disordered. It felt as though she couldn''t suck in enough air as her eyes drifted down to words written along the bottom of the photo in red marker. It read ‘WHORE FOR HIRE’, along with Lila’s own mobile number. She couldn’t think who had her mobile number except for her family, Grace, Elise, Asher and Isaac. Did Asher or Isaac put this photo in her locker? It surely wasn’t Grace or Elise. Was it a sick prank from Daniel? Any conversations she had with other classmates were usually through Snap or Insta, and she never posted her number anywhere.


    Tears welled in her eyes as she gripped the photo even more tightly. How did someone get into her locker? She was sure she locked it this morning after grabbing her PE uniform. Her stomach tightened and she clutched her blouse with her left hand. Her knees felt weak – enough that she might collapse.


    “Lila?” a voice suddenly called from her right side. Lila jumped, a pathetic whimper escaping her lips. It was Grace, her eyes full of concern. Lila wordlessly handed Grace the photo, placing her right hand on her mouth to prevent herself from throwing up. Grace didn’t seem to register what she was looking at before Elise hugged Grace from behind, making Grace leap almost a foot into the air.


    “Whoa,” Elise laughed, “that’s a strong reaction!”


    Grace spun around, passing Elise the photo silently, her face deathly serious.


    “What’s this?” Elise asked, her eyes darting between the photo and Lila, who was still struggling to get her breathing under control.


    “Actually, what the fuck is this?” Elise demanded a second later, her eyes flashing in anger, passing the photo back to Grace. “What happened?”


    “I-It was stuck to my mirror,” Lila managed to get out, stepping aside to allow Elise and Grace to peer into her locker.


    “How?” Grace asked in a panicked tone. Elise grabbed Lila’s lock and locked it. She tried to pull it apart without any luck.


    “I don’t know,” Lila whispered, tears now falling from her eyes.


    “We need to tell a teacher,” Grace replied, desperately gripping Lila’s shoulders and pulling her into her arms.


    “N-No, please don’t,” Lila said weakly. “Please.”


    Elise stopped fiddling with the lock and looked at Grace, as if formulating a plan with Grace via telepathy.


    “I think you need a new lock, at least,” she said simply. “I can go see Mr Morrison.”


    Mr Morrison was their kind, middle-aged and portly Head of Year who was also the Physics teacher for Senior School. He’d been their head of year since Grade 7 and was quite popular with the students. While Lila didn’t have much to do with him, given she didn’t do Physics, he did seem open to students who sought counsel from him. Perhaps he’d be able to help?


    ‘No,’ Lila firmly told herself. ‘I don’t even know who did this. It’ll be a major spectacle for no gain if Mr Morrison decides to call an assembly or something about it. Then the rumours will get even worse if it’s traced back to me…’


    Elise dropped Lila’s lock on the floor and it burst open. The three girls stared at it for a few seconds. Elise gingerly picked it back up again and locked it. She shook it close to her ear, as if it would tell her the combination required to open it.


    “Can I try something?” she asked, looking at both Grace and Lila. Lila nodded and Grace and Lila both moved away from her locker. Elise gestured for Lila to open the lock, which she did. Elise closed Lila’s locker and locked it shut, pulling at the lock. It seemed to be firmly keeping true to its purpose. Elise then rummaged around her bookbag for a moment before pulling out her scientific calculator. It had a hard plastic cover on its face and Elise raised it above her head before bringing it down on the lock at an angle. It opened without much resistance.


    “Hell nah, we’re getting you a new fucking lock,” Elise hissed, ripping it off Lila’s locker. “I’ll run and grab one from Mr Morrison. Someone needs to stay here to make sure no one tries anything else with your locker.”


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Before Lila or Grace had a chance to argue, Elise sped off.


    “There she goes, charging off again,” Grace sighed. She gave Lila a soft smile and gently wiped away the tears that had trailed down Lila''s cheeks.


    “Do you have some water?” Grace asked. Lila nodded and opened her locker. She avoided looking at herself in the mirror as she pulled out her water bottle and drank from it. The water seemed to help calm her breathing down somewhat. Lila finally stopped drinking and put her water bottle back, picking at her nail beds. She quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed what had happened, but the locker room was devoid of anyone now that they were fifteen minutes into morning tea.


    “This is some sick joke,” Grace finally said, putting the photo face down inside Lila’s locker.


    “I know,” Lila said softly. After a few moments of silence, she pulled out her phone and the photo. She took a couple pictures of the photo before placing it back in her locker face down. Grace looked at her in apparent surprise and confusion.


    “… just in case whoever left it there comes back for it,” Lila said, averting her eyes from Grace and looking instead at her shoes. Grace wrapped her arm around Lila’s left arm, leaning her head against Lila’s shoulder. They stood like this for some time before Lila heard rushed footsteps coming towards them. Turning, Lila saw it was Elise.


    “He has a couple in his office,” Elise said, thrusting a box at Lila. It contained a brand-new lock. “He was horrified when I showed him the drop test. He reckons if this one still has the same issue, they’ll look at replacing everyone’s locks.”


    Lila spent the next few minutes shakily setting up her new lock, ensuring she had a new combination in case the person had somehow figured out her old one. Elise did the drop test on this lock, and it seemed to hold up. Lucas’ words drifted to Lila as she firmly locked her locker again.


    “Someone said there’s pictures, proving…” he had said, regarding the recent rumours. Was this picture one of the ‘pictures’ mentioned?


    “Do you wanna head to PC?” Elise asked softly. “I’m sure Ms Wang won’t mind if we’re in there already.”


    “S-Sure,” Lila replied. “Let me just get my Maths stuff…”


    Lila didn’t speak to Elise or Grace for the rest of morning tea, nor during PC. She did say ‘bye’ to them before heading off to Maths, but otherwise, her mind was far too hazy to think of anything that she could say.


    She couldn’t concentrate on anything Ms Wang said during that lesson, which was fine as it was a revision lesson going through some of the concepts they had learned earlier in the term in preparation for their final exam next Wednesday. Lila’s mind whirled with trying to process the total invasion of privacy she had experienced. Not to mention the fact that someone had followed her to Asher’s house and taken a photo of him pulling her inside. She had clearly looked right at the photographer but she couldn’t remember seeing anyone, or a camera, that day – or rather, any day that she’d been to Asher’s. Were there more photos of her going inside his house somewhere? And did the person who had taken the photo intend on spreading this photo, or others, around?


    Lila did admit to herself that the photo looked bad. It didn’t look like Asher was just politely inviting a classmate inside his house for an English project. He clearly looked happy to see her as he was eagerly pulling her inside by her wrist, and Lila could imagine that it wouldn’t be hard for people to infer it was for a ‘romp’.


    “… Lila,” Ms Wang’s voice gently roused Lila from her musings. Lila looked up and found that she was alone in the classroom with Ms Wang.


    “Lunch started a few minutes ago,” Ms Wang said, resting against a desk in front of Lila. “I noticed in PC that you seem really lacklustre today. Is everything okay?”


    Lila nodded and began packing her math materials into her bookbag. She could sense, however, that Ms Wang was dissatisfied with that answer as she still remained in front of Lila.


    “Lila,” Ms Wang said lightly, a small, reassuring smile on her face. “I’ve been your PC teacher for the past, what, three years? Four years? You can talk to me about anything, you know. I promise I’m not as scary as I look.”


    Lila continued to look down at her desk before she nodded slowly.


    “I know, ma’am. Maybe I’ll talk to you about it one day. It’s… just been a lot, recently. I need some time to figure out my thoughts.”


    “That’s okay,” Ms Wang replied, standing up straight. “I just wanted to remind you that you’re not as alone as you may be feeling. Despite all the people that surround you every day during high school, it can sometimes feel like the loneliest place on this planet. I’ve been there, done that.”


    Lila looked up at Ms Wang, who still smiled at Lila kindly. She felt like she wanted to cry in the safety of Ms Wang’s kindness, but looked away before she could start.


    “Thank you, ma’am,” Lila said, standing up herself and putting her bookbag on her shoulder. “I appreciate it. Really.”


    “Off you go, then,” Ms Wang said, waving Lila off. “I’m sure you’d rather be having some lunch than talking to some crazy woman.”


    Lila cracked a half-hearted grin at Ms Wang before heading out of the classroom and back to the locker room. On her way there, her phone buzzed and she pulled it out. It was a message from Elise to Twisted Bitches’r’Us asking where Lila was.


    On my way to the lockers, Lila replied. Sorry. Ms Wang wanted to talk to me


    Are you in trouble? Grace sent.


    No, she was just concerned, Lila sent back.


    Sounds about right, Elise replied. Lila locked her phone screen and slipped it into her pocket.


    Grace and Elise were leaning against the lockers surrounding Lila’s when she arrived.


    “There you are,” Grace smiled, seeming relieved as her shoulders untensed entirely.


    “Yup,” Lila replied lamely, opening her locker and pulling out her lunchbox.


    “Saw Piper and her squad roll out,” Elise said, inspecting her own lunchbox. “They seemed way too happy about something.”


    “Do you reckon they’re gossiping about me too?” Lila asked absently as she locked her locker.


    “Probably,” Elise said, rolling her eyes.


    “Are we going back to the Home Ec building?” Grace asked.


    “Yeah,” Lila sighed. “I wasn’t able to really keep tabs on Piper today.”


    The trio casually made their way over to the Home Ec building, Elise attempting a few jokes which fell rather flat. It didn’t seem like Grace was in the mood to be joking around, either.


    The grass surrounding the Home Ec building was full of students having lunch, but the trio managed to find a spot that also allowed them to see Piper’s group of friends. Today, Piper’s group was joined by Brittany and a few of Brittany’s friends. Lila couldn’t bring herself to check if Asher was sitting in his usual spot. If she was being honest with herself, Lila didn’t really want to see Asher ever again. Why was she even trying all this for? Maybe she should just give up and go back to what they were before. Just two classmates who hardly ever spoke…


    ‘Don’t be a coward,’ Lila thought to herself sternly. ‘You’re doing this so that you can help Asher find his Mum. This will only be temporary until you get to the heart of the rumours. Either way, they can’t continue as they have been, you’ll need to stop it somehow…’


    Lila clapped her hands to her face and shook her head. She couldn’t let her resolve get beaten down like this. The investigation into Asher’s Mum’s disappearance was far more important than high school nonsense – she needed to get a grip on herself.


    Lila huffed and nodded to herself, unzipping her lunchbox with newfound motivation. She would get through this, and she would help Asher. Lila grabbed her sandwich and began to eat with a sigh of relief. She hadn’t realised how hungry she was until now as she ate with fervour. She glanced in the direction of Piper’s group. They seemed absorbed in their conversations, the occasional shrill laughter from one of Piper''s friends echoing across the grassy area.


    “I’ve got German with her next,” Elise said, throwing a couple pretzels in her mouth. “I’ll keep an eye on her. See if she says anything shady.”


    “Thanks,” Lila replied, swallowing roughly. “I doubt she will in class with you there, though.”


    “You’d be surprised,” Grace said, her voice dropping to a low whisper. “I didn’t want to bring this up earlier cause of… well, what happened. But I had Art with her this morning. She was talking to Ayla about how you’re like a ‘pick me’ and that she’d heard about the prostitution rumours and wouldn’t be surprised if it was true. She even said that if it was true, you’d be so disgusting, she probably wouldn’t be able to look you in the face ever again. Which is odd to say considering she said she wouldn’t be surprised if it was true, plus I was sitting at the next table.”


    “Maybe she thought you’d start thinking it was true and turn on me,” Lila replied with a shrug.


    “She’d be dumb as rocks if that’s the case,” Elise snorted, smacking her lips and scrunching her emptied snack pretzel bag.


    “I somehow doubt she’s dumb as rocks,” Lila said slowly. She bit her lower lip, contemplating whether she should tell Elise and Grace about Piper’s weird behaviour yesterday after school. She cast a look at Elise and Grace, who were both chewing in silence, looking down at the grass they were sitting amongst. After a pause, Lila decided against it for now. She wanted a little bit more intel before riling Elise and Grace up again, plus she was still trying to process what she had seen. It was too weird to even figure out a motive behind Piper’s actions, but perhaps with more information Lila would be able to understand what was going on…


    Lila’s next class, Japanese, finished up in the blink of an eye. Today, Ms Takahashi advised the class that next term, they would have some exchange students from Japan attend their classes. Ms Takahashi spent the rest of the lesson going over some common phrases and things to say to the students, so Lila didn’t have much time to think about anything else.


    Modern History was next, and Lila was grateful that she’d finish the day in Elise and Grace’s company. Elise hadn’t heard anything of note from Piper during German, but they were preparing for their reading exam next Friday, so she wasn’t surprised.


    They walked to the locker room after class ended, with Lila in a far better mood than she had been all day. She even mustered up a couple of laughs at Elise’s lame jokes as she prepared her school bag to take home. As Lila closed her locker, she caught sight of Piper looking intently in Lila’s direction. Before Lila could react, Piper immediately turned around and walked off the bus station. Elise and Grace exchanged raised eyebrows as Lila waved goodbye at them and headed off towards the bus station as well.


    Nothing of note happened on this bus journey as Lila’s exhaustion took over her again. She could hardly believe that it was only Tuesday. She quickly checked behind her as she left the bus at her usual bus stop and saw Piper staring out the window to her left. Lila had no inkling as to what Piper might be thinking now, but left the bus all the same – her eyelids were heavy and her muscles cried out for proper rest. Falling into bed was the only option she had for tonight.