Chapter 26 – Meeting with the Maker – Holly Hayfield

Today the atmosphere of the school was unusually colorful and lively. After lunch the school administrators gave the students the rest of the day off. We were allowed to freely roam the school as part of a student council event. Lilith and I were working on a poster in the middle of the hallway. We weren’t the only ones. Several other groups of girls were around us doing the same thing.

Two girls I had never even met before came up and volunteered to help me and Lilith. These two freshmen were so enamored with Val that they practically begged us to let them help. They bombarded us with questions about Val the entire time we worked on custom posters. I nearly gave up politely answering every stupid question they had. Lilith had given up altogether just a couple of minutes in. That left me as the only sucker playing as representative for Val.

That was what this student council event was about in essence. It gave students a chance to mingle with the student council nominees and work on making promotional art for the school hallways. It would give voters a chance to learn about the people they’d be voting for. This was a tradition that Meredith’s School for Troubled Girls had. My former school never put so much emphasis on the student council election. At public schools the student councils were mostly for show.

The student council was meant to be different for Meredith’s School for Troubled Girls. There was purpose behind the pomp. Ideally the student council members were meant to be the most shining examples of personal reformation that the student body had to offer. In reality they’d be getting a demon, a snake, or an idiot. No matter who won the only thing on display would be the fact that you couldn’t get far in this school without power, position, or popularity.

It wasn’t all so black-and-white though. This was the first time that I had seen the school so upbeat. Watching the students work together so cooperatively made this school actually look like a normal school for once. It was odd. For onces I wasn’t filled with existential dread by the mere act of walking through the hallways. I was off everyone’s radar today since the vibe was so chill.

That was until a fight broke out. Two girls started physically fighting over how they’d design a ‘Megan-For-Student-Council-President’ poster. They were separated by two teachers and taken away. Megan and Erica’s fans were especially ferocious. They both had slots still open for their student council group. Naturally people were competing for their attention and could get competitive.

Eventually Val’s fans stopped bothering us and went to go find her. That left Lilith and I alone. Val and Jay were in the cafeteria handing out leaflets. Jay said she stayed up all night making them the night before. Sam was missing-in-action. I assumed she was probably off with Naomi. Her role in our student council group was just a cover up anyways.

As each group of students finished up their posters they left to other parts of the school. This gave Lilith and me the chance to pick up our conversation from before we were interrupted.

“You were saying that Erica wants to talk to us privately?” I asked.

“That’s what she told me. She said she wants to meet behind the school at the Principal Taft Memorial at one-thirty.”

“One-thirty… That’s just a few minutes from now.”

“The entire thing sounds suspicious. I’m not going. You don’t have to go either. We still have more work to do putting up these posters.”

“No, I need to. I’d like you to come with me. She may have information that could be insightful.”

“What sort of information?” Lilith asked.

“Information on Val… Val has a massive grudge against her.”

“Then I’m not interested. Get Sam to go with you. She’s lurking around here somewhere.”

“I’d like you. I don’t know if I can trust Sam and Naomi with information anymore now that they put Val in-the-know.”

“Is that such a big deal? Besides, you were the one that told her everything.” Lilith said.

“That’s not fair. I didn’t have a choice. Sam and Naomi did. What I’m saying is that you’re the only person I know I can rely on right now. I’m asking you as a friend, please?”

She stopped working on the poster and looked up at me. She looked almost worn out to be talking to me like this. I was her ‘friend’ in a very limited way. This still had benefits for Lilith. She couldn’t alienate her only sounding board because she probably realized the same thing. I was the only person she had that she could rely on.

Maintaining a friendship meant working together to come to an understanding on things. In this case that meant making a compromise. I’d still listen to her rants and theories as long as she put up with my clinginess. Lilith was smart enough to realize that without it having been said out loud. That was probably why she was giving me such a dull look. She was realizing that having a friendship was going to be taxing.

“Fine, I’ll go with you, but don’t expect more from me than that, got it?”

“Got it, let’s finish this up and get going.”

Lilith could hardly keep the excitement off her face. She had a miserable scowl the entire time we walked to the closest exit. As comical as it was, I was having a similar feeling on the inside. Still, this meeting needed to take place. We had to be quick about it too. Otherwise any teacher on patrol question why we were going outside.

It was nice and warm outside. For some reason Lilith was practically burning up. Her pale skin was sweating profusely as we made our way to the side of the school. I never knew she was so sensitive to heat. When she stopped as we approached our target destination I thought it was because she was too hot.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

Lilith pointed ahead of her. Erica was standing near the statue, as expected. Unexpectedly, she had someone else with her. Lilith was having an unusual reaction to this girl. The girl was having a similar reaction to Lilith. I recognized that look. It was the look one has when seeing someone you hadn’t seen in a long time. Lilith and this girl were walking towards each other slowly.

“You… What are you doing here, Zoe?” Lilith asked.

“I could ask you the same thing, Lilith! What the hell, Erica? You didn’t tell me she’d be here? Is this why you asked me to come?”

“Now, now, you two, shouldn’t you make up and try to get along?” Erica said.

Zoe, furious, spun her whole body to Erica and waved her finger in her face.

“Make up…? You’re joking right? She’s the one that backstabbed me! If anything she should be on her knees begging for my forgiveness.”

Lilith scoffed.

“You’re one to talk! You recently published an article on the school website smearing me and my family. Could you be any pettier?”

“Funny you should mention that seeing as it was your connection with the school that got that article taken down. I’ve been hoping to ask you about that by the way. Do you just read everything I publish on the site? Do you stalk me on social media too?”

This was going nowhere fast. They looked ready to roll up their sleeves and brawl. I stepped between them. Zoe eyed me up and down as I did. Zoe was slightly taller than me, but not by much. She had thick black glasses and shoulder length brown hair. Like Lilith, she also had pale skin that was weak against this warm weather.

From what I picked up she used to have some sort of connection with Lilith. That was somewhat surprising considering how distant Lilith was. Stupidly I really wanted to believe that I was her first and closest friend. Of course she’d have history at this school. That made me unreasonably jealous.

“Hi. My name’s Holly Hayfield. I’m Lilith’s friend and the vice president for Val’s nominee group.”

Zoe winced at the word ‘friend’.

“Pfft, Lilith doesn’t have friends. She only has tools she uses.” Zoe said.

“You…” Lilith growled.

I held Lilith back.

“Anyways, my name’s Zoe Bailey.”

“She’s the vice president for my nominee group. I wanted you to meet her.” Erica said.

Zoe sighed.

“I told you, Erica. I’m too busy to be involved in your shenanigans. I said I’d join only if you couldn’t find anyone else.”

Lilith raised an eyebrow.

“What? Too busy running smear campaigns to do anything else?” Lilith asked.

Zoe raised her hands into the air and shook her head with a smirk.

“You know what? This is stupid. Why am I even bothering talking to you? It was ‘nice’ to meet you Holly. Let’s do this again never.” Zoe said.

Zoe began to walk away.

“Wait!” Erica called out to her, “I promised you a massive story for the school website, didn’t I? Lilith and Holly are about to spill all the juicy details.”

Zoe stopped in her tracks and waited for Erica to go on.

“What?” I asked.

Erica walked closer to me until she was standing uncomfortably close.

“You found something, didn’t you? Did you know that Zoe is the head of the school newspaper and runs the school website? She’s held that title for years. Don’t you have something you want to tell her?” She asked.

This incredibly aggressive assault was coming out of nowhere. How did she know that we were hiding something? Unless… Was she in league with Ms. Sampson? Or maybe she heard from one of the others. Even Jay was in on the secret now that Val told her. If there was a leak from someone in-the-know it’d be impossible to pinpoint the leaker.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said.

Erica took one step closer. I backed away one step further.

“Come on, don’t play dumb. You want to blow the lid off this thing right? I’ve brought the perfect person to help you with that.”

My lips were sealed tight. There was no need to respond to anything she was saying. Just like with Black Brittney, I’d give her the silent treatment. Erica watched me for a moment of awkward silence. When she came to terms with my resolve she turned her attention away from me and directly to Lilith. When she creepily walked up to Lilith with that icy smile on her face Lilith began to back away.

“Lilith…?” Erica asked.

Lilith looked down at the cobblestone bricks lining the area around the Taft Memorial Statute. She was seriously considering this. Was she crazy? Just how far would she go to try to get perceived justice for Malorie when we had yet to confirm our theory. If only I had a way to get Lilith’s attention without alerting Erica!

It turned out that Erica had brought said distraction herself. Lilith got one look at Zoe as she was lost in thought and immediately disregarded the idea altogether.

“You can go to hell.” Lilith told Erica.

Lilith turned around and began walking away.

“My sentiments exactly… Stop wasting my time Erica.” Zoe said.

Zoe walked away also, being sure to take a route that wouldn’t intersect with Lilith’s. Whatever game Erica was playing at she just lost it. If this was all a cheap attempt at getting information out of me then I wasn’t going to fall for it. Like Zoe and Lilith, I turned my back and walked away. Erica ran up and took me by the wrist.

“Don’t involve me in your stupid games. What was the point of all this?” I asked.

“The point was to see how Lilith would respond to my question. That pause she had just now was quite interesting. Getting her alone with Zoe would’ve been hard but you helped me with that.”

“What? Are you saying you used me to gauge a reaction out of Lilith?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

I turned away from her and went back to walking away. I didn’t get two steps before she tightly grasped my wrist.

“That hurts! Let go of me!”

“We still have more to talk about.”

“I don’t have anything to say to you! Do you know what Val will do if I tell her that you hurt me like this?”

“Haha, you’re cute. You remind me of Val when I first met her. You’re not going to tell her anything.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. You’re not going to tell her a single thing because I’m going to let you in on a little secret.”

She let go of me but came even closer. She brought her face close to mine and cupped her hand against my ear.

“Hey. Do you want to hear the story of Valentina’s first girlfriend?”

“Is this another trick?”

“Did you know that Val came here from another country? It’s hard to imagine since she has such a strong handle on the language. She used to have this really cute accent she carried over from Europe.”

“You’re lying.”

“It’s the truth!” She shouted.

Her voice was cracking as she spoke, perhaps out of frustration. This was the sound of a liar that wanted desperately to be believed. After telling so many lies she was offended when someone questioned the authenticity of her words. No matter how true they were. Even now it was impossible to tell. It would’ve been a silly thing to lie about but it was also something I couldn’t verify with Val without admitting I talked to Erica against her wishes.

“So why are you telling me this?”

“Because this is where the story of Val’s transformation begins. This is the story of how Val hospitalized my two closest friends and got expelled from school.”