Purple Violet Flowers: Book One

Chapter 11

Sunflower looked outside the window. It was time for Sports Day. Except.. Sunflower coughed, feeling her chest and throat tighten. 
She had become sick. Sunflower walked to the bathroom. She looked in the mirror, checking out her forehead. 
She's had a fever for a long time. It truly hurt, and it was annoying. She also felt light-headed.
"Sunflower! Are you ready?" Kate called out. 
I can't really let this take advantage of me, I need to uphold my duties and ignore this feeling. 
"I'm ready." Sunflower would say, trying her best not to show her sickening side. Sunflower walked down the stairs.
"We're going to be late, are you that excited?" Kate sighed. "Sorry, I was just doing some-." Sunflower was cut off in a coughing fit. 
"Sunflower? are you all right?" Gabby asked with a worried glance. "I'm fine, I guess I just breathed in so much dust, huh?" Sunflower wheezed. 
"Are you sure it's dust? You might be getting sick, you should just stay." Kate pressed in, a worried look appeared on her face as she looked at the girl. "No, I'm good. I just have a small cough I guess." Sunflower walked to the door. 
"I'm sure everything will be fine, I have you two after all." Sunflower stated, walking out.
It had become worse. She had to get through with it, this was her first ever sports day and she didn't want it to be ruined by some silly cough.
Sunflower started to walk, Gabby and Kate would most likely follow her. Sunflower continued to walk down the sidewalk. 
"Hey, Student Council President!" A girl called out. Sunflower turned her head to the side, looking at the female.
"Yes?" Sunflower would say curiously. "Where should I hang the sign?" The girl asked as she held up a sign that read 'Sports day.'
"Perhaps hang it on the pole." Sunflower suggested. "Thanks! That's a pretty good idea." The girl would say before she hung it up. 
Sunflower nodded as she began to walk down the road again. She tensed her shoulders, letting out a cough. 
"Sunflower!" Sunflower turned around to see a running Jesse, Louise, Aqua, Lavender, and a cranky Elisa. 
She craned her head to the side, looking at the girls. "Oh- wow, you look horrible." Elisa grinned. 
Sunflower sighed before looking away. "Don't say such mean stuff." Lavender bonked her head. "I'm sorry but not sorry, also don't go hitting me." Elisa gave Lavender a dirty look.
"You alright though?" Jesse asked her. Sunflower turned to Jesse. "Of course." Sunflower nodded. 
"Ah- Sunflower, make sure to watch me when i'm running. I'm sure it'll be beneficial." Aqua put her arm around around Sunflower, almost knocking over Jesse. 
"Erm, sure. Just remember that I'm gonna be running with you most of the time, so I won't be able to watch you as much." Sunflower pointed out. 
"Ah, I see. I'm looking forward to being alongside you then." Aqua chuckled. "Me too." Sunflower smiled. 
"It's not always when you see her smile." Elisa whispered to Lavender. "She mostly smiles when the person she is closest to is speaking to her." Lavender's eyes narrowed to Jesse. 
Jesse was gazing at Aqua and Sunflower, her gaze was bitter and saddened.
"That's Sunflower for you, always full of surprises." Elisa stretched her arms. Sunflower glanced at Elisa before looking ahead of her. "It's a busy day for me." Sunflower says. 
"I know how it feels to be overworked." Aqua sighed. "I'm the Student Council President so I'm constantly working hard." Sunflower thought for a moment before coughing.
"A-Are you alright?" Lavender put her hand on her shoulder. Sunflower shrugged off her hand. "I'm fine." Sunflower avoided eye contact before walking ahead once again.
The girls looked at each other in a worried way before following her. 
.
Sunflower stretched her legs. "Tch. I hope you're not planning on running." Sunflower turned her head to see Dia.
Sunflower had never really spoken to her before but she knew that Dia was always watching her. "What do you mean by that?" Sunflower muttered. 
"It's clearly obvious that you're sick. Have you no sense?" Dia sighed. "How do you know I'm.. getting sick?" Sunflower looked at her. 
"It's very easy to see through someones lies, especially when you've known them for a long time.. tch, I guess that wasn't really farewell." Dia walked off. 
Farewell..?
Some people at this school can be very weird. Sunflower jogged to the Student Council Booth, she had suddenly felt very dizzy. 
She stopped for a moment before checking her burning head. She had a fever still.
"You alright?" Sunflower looked up to see a curious Melissa.
"I'm good. Just a bit dizzy." Sunflower nodded. "I see.. well, I think you should sit down- you may need a drink of wate-." 
"No. I don't need anything." Sunflower looked her dead in the eye before walking away. I don't need others pity. 
This is a challenge I must face myself. With the help of others it'll drag me down.
Sunflower stretched her arms.
"Uhh, hey." Jesse stood beside her. Sunflower looked up. "Hello." She continued to stretch. "Listen. We sort of have a problem with.. something." Jesse fidgeted. "What's that?"
Sunflower murmured. "You have to come with me." Jesse motioned her to get up. Sunflower stared at but soon decided to follow her. What am I expecting?
They continued to walk until Jesse stopped. "I really am sorry." Jesse turned around, begging for forgiveness.
"Huh? Why are you-"
"Now!" A yell was heard. Sunflower turned to the side to see her friends. Kate, Gabby,  Louise, Aqua, Lavender, Erlen and Elisa.
They all jumped her, holding her down. The memories flashed in her mind one by one, she had remembered when she was being pinned to the ground. She remembered the cliff. 
She remembered the blood stained ground as it appeared before her very eyes.
Sunflower squirmed around. Her eyes shot open.
The only thing she saw was Louise- No, Lottie. It was her.
Those cold, lifeless eyes staring back at her. 
Sunflower's eyes watered, she began to squirm more.
"S-Stop!" Sunflower raised her voice nervously.
Elisa pulled away. "Did she just stutter?"
"Let her go-." Louise pulled Kate off of her. The eight girls backed away from her.
Sunflower immediately got up, her eyes were slightly watery as she dusted off her shirt.
"A-Are you okay?" Jesse asked anxiously, the girl was worried.
Sunflower glared at them. "Don't do that to me ever again! I mean it." Sunflower raised her voice, giving them a cold look. 
"We only wanted you to tell us why you were trying to participate when you're sick." Jesse admitted with a frown.
"We didn't mean t-." Louise let out a small gasp as she looked at Sunflower. Tears went down Sunflower's eyes.
Sunflower stared at Louise dead in the eye. She backed away slightly, her lips were quivering as the girl stared back at her. 
She was devasted, feeling the dark thoughts take over her head.
She wiped her tears, walking past them.
"The events are starting soon, get in your groups."
Jesse frowned.
"But-." Jesse was cut off by Sunflower.
"It wasn't a request, it was an order." Sunflower says bitterly as she walked forward.
"We really screwed up.." Kate sighed. "It was your idea!" Louise protested. "I got scared for a second, I never saw her like that before." Erlen shuddered.
"I don't think any of us have much experience with her berserk reactions. There's a lot of things we don't know about her still." Jesse says as she turns her head to face them.
"We know plenty of things about her.. but what we just did must've scared her a lot." Gabby says with a worried smile.
"I think it's me." Louise blurted out, facing them. "Huh? What does that have to do with you?" Kate asks anxiously.
"Well.. I've noticed something.. whenever she looks at me.. she just freezes in place and trembles. She always has this terrified and saddened look when she glances me .." Louise looked at the ground in a saddened way.
"I thought you and her settled things?" Kate questioned, putting her hand on Louise's shoulder. "No.. well, at least I thought we did." Louise mumbled, looking at the ground.
"Didn't she mention something about how you look like a girl named Lottie?" Lavender questioned.
"Well.. yeah." Louise sighed.
"She told us that Lottie caused destruction for her family." Erlen leaned on the bleachers.
"You fools!" A girl spat. "Huh?" The eight girls turned their heads. A girl emerged from the side of the bleachers.
"Dia? What do you want?" Jesse tensed up. "I simply came to remind you girls about the perks of being her friend." Dia took off her glasses.
"What do you know about her?" Aqua asked in an aggressive manner. "You should pay attention to what she wants instead of thinking about what you want, consider her feelings." Dia stared at them sternly.
"You speak like you know her. She's never mentioned you before." Jesse shot back.
"You know her. Yet you fail to understand why she's doing this to herself. Do you know what she wants? I doubt you even know this knowledge. You're supposed to be her friend, Sunflower is a senstive and precious human being. She doesn't deserve to be treated like this, she's been through so much and you're all making it wrose." Dia gave them a cold glance. 
"I-." Jesse was cut off by Dia.
"Why even bother being her friend if you lack the knowledge of knowing what she wants. You all are a failure of friends. I think you should stop. You'll just continue to drive her insane until she eventually loses her mind." Dia glared at them.
"We don't just make her sad and cry. We have our happy moments and the ones we treasure the most. You don't have the right to walk up to us saying we don't have the right to be her friend." Jesse took a threatening step forward.
"Tch. You know nothing. You don't know what she's all been through. You know what you just did a few minutes ago? During the time when her father was announced to be executed, she was held down and forced to watch." Dia shot back at Jesse.
"I-I didn't know tha-." Jesse trembled on the spot.
"You say you know her but you don't. Why she doesn't smile was influenced from her past. Open your eyes! Why can't you notice it? Pretty pathetic if you can't seem to notice these simple things. You call yourself her friends? I bet you didn't know of anything I said. You're all a sorry excuse of a friend." Dia glared at them, her eyes were menacing. 
"You can't expect us to just know that about her." Kate faced Dia.
"I do expect it. Do me a favor and stop trying to be her friend. You all don't understand anything, if you did you wouldn't be making her feel so bad." Dia put her glasses on, walking off.
Jesse looked at the ground. We don't know everything about her.. she's right.
"How does she know all of that about her?" Erlen questioned with a mutter.
"More than us I guess.." Jesse looked at the ground.
"What if she was right? Are we really not good enough to be her friends?" Louise looked at the ground.
The seven girls looked at the ground. Lavender watched them all sulking. Her eyes narrowed side to side.
"Why don't you all just shut up?" Lavender says with a smile as she faces them.
"What is it?" Jesse muttered as she looked at Lavender.
All of the girls looked at Lavender.
"Why are you all giving up so easily? We can't let Dia take advantage of us can we? but.. at least I know how it feels now.." Lavender smiled with a chuckle.
"Lavender.." Louise frowned as she watched her friend.
"Sunflower needs us. We can't just give up on her. If she went through all that stuff we should help her. She needs us the most right now. Stop feeling sorry for yourselves." Lavender smiled cheekily as she stared at the group.
"Why aren't you feeling like this?" Erlen muttered.
Lavender smiled. "What's the point in feeling sad? I had my own experiences with this before. You all already know that, It really doesn't help at all." Lavender's eyes narrowed to the side.
"I'm the one who made myself feel like that anyway, I made the choice to make you feel all so bad about yourselves. Feeling like that.. really doesn't help." 
Lavender stared at the ground with a troubled stare.
"Look, we all forgive you for that. You don't need to feel bad, we've all decided not to talk about that right? We all don't like it." Louise frowned.
Lavender had a darkened look before looking up, she had a surprised look appear on her face.
"Oh? What do you know.. Sunflower is up to run. It's time to worry for once." Lavender quickly made her way to the side of the bleachers.
"Wait- She's actually gonna run?!"
Sunflower took a deep breath. She went in the lane alongside her opponents. Sunflower glanced at the bleachers.
She caught the eye of Lavender. They all looked worried. Sunflower gave them a disdaining stare before looking ahead.
I don't want to look into the eyes of the people who wronged me.
I deserve more than what I have now, I can't be held back.
This is what I wanted and I need to achieve something that'll make those proud of me.
Sunflower coughed, covering her mouth with her arm.
"Are you alright?" A girl asked with concern.
"Yes, I'm fine." Sunflower gave her a weak stare.
"Get in your positions!" The gym teacher yelled.
Sunflower was losing consciousness. Her vision became a blur. Once she heard a bell ring, she knew she had to run.
Sunflower started running. She became tired in almost a second. She felt so, so light-headed. 
She shook the thought away. She started to push herself harder, she let out loud pants. Her vision became unfocused.
I want to succeed, I want to make those around me proud. I want them to acknowlege the things I've gone so far for, please be proud of me.
Her heart pace quicked while her chest was tightened, her legs giving out.
Just a little further, come on! I'm almost there!
Her legs became unstable, her body trashed to the side causing her body to crash down at that very moment.
Sunflower hit the ground, scraping her arms and legs.
"Agh!" Sunflower winced as the pain was hard to bare.
Sunflower laid on her side, breathing heavily.
"Sunflowe..r..." The faint yells became quiet in a matter of seconds, fading away as she looked at the sky. 
Her vision became a blur, twitching slightly.
In the end.. what did I really want? For me to crash and fall?  Sunflower closed her eyes.
Darkness washed over like an oceans wave as she slowly closed her eyes.
What did I achieve? Are you all proud of me?  
Are you proud of this?