Scattering Lilac Ashes

Chapter Eleven

Valentine's Day at Forestglade College the next day began under a threatening, all-encompassing thick cloud of grey that only intensified the humidity sticking to Lila as she marched from the bus stop to her school locker. Despite the gloomy backdrop, there was an infectious buzz amongst the entire student body that Lila tried to pay no mind to as she battled her way to her locker, dodging couples displaying serious PDA left and right.

Upon shoving her bag inside her locker, Lila pulled out her smaller bag containing her gym uniform and threw it over her shoulder, making the lonely trek to the school's gymnasium at a casual pace. Despite the humidity, Lila found the walk itself quite pleasant, stopping every so often to admire the recently trimmed shrubbery, native proteas and other seasonal plants dotting the landscape.

Along the way, she heard many exclamations and squeals of delight as students presented each other with gifts of flowers, chocolate, teddy bears and the like before classes commenced. Lila momentarily wondered what it would be like to be showered with such gifts but shrugged the thought off as fast as it had come. Wishful thinking wouldn't help her with the more pressing matters that she needed to address.

By the time she arrived, there weren't many other girls in the change room, which filled Lila with relief. Facing the cream brick wall, Lila quickly began to change out of her school's alternative blouse and skirt combo. The buttons on her blouse easily came undone, much to her chagrin – she wasn't able to find her newer uniforms as they were all in the wash at home. Lila, having slipped on her much roomier PE polo and shorts, was pulling her runners on when Ayla and another female student waltzed in, giggling amongst themselves.

They didn't appear to react to Lila's presence in the change room and were instead absorbed in their conversation about who had received what that morning and speculating who might get asked out that day. It didn't pique Lila's interest in the slightest, so she left, her heart just about leaping out of her chest.

Now that she had actually seen Ayla, the thought of talking to Ayla sent her nerves on edge. What would she even say? '"Hey, are you talking about me?" Yeah, right. As if she'd answer that one...' Lila gritted her teeth at the thought as she slowly made her way to the spacious, full-sized basketball court within the gymnasium. The gymnasium also had a stage, given it was used for assemblies and other important events at school, but today it was curtained off. It didn't appear that any students were lingering on it either.

Ms Wright, an athletic, young, brunette teacher with a severe fringe and bright pink glasses, was already standing in the middle of the court in her PE tracksuit, stretching. Behind her sat a conspicuous silver wireless speaker, which stood out to Lila as being odd for PE. Some students were following Ms Wright's stretch routine while others splayed around the court floor, chattering excitedly.

Since starting grade eleven, Lila had noticed that most of the Core classes that she had shared exclusively with her Pastoral Care (aka PC) classmates for the past several years now contained a mishmash of students across the whole cohort, PE being one of them. Lila knew this was to account for the various combinations of the higher-level classes that her cohort was now taking, but it still took some time to get used to. Disappointingly, she hadn't been lucky enough this term to have had Grace or Elise share her PE class and so had thus far kept to herself as best she could.

However, she was also unfortunate enough to share PE class with Asher. Whilst it hadn't been a problem for the beginning of the term, due to her intent on remaining as invisible as possible, this fact now made her anxious, given his strange behaviour yesterday and the circumstances they now found themselves in that she was trying to resolve. After a desperate wild glance around the court, Lila couldn't see him and breathed a small sigh of relief. She then picked a spot near Ms Wright to sit down and wait.