E V E R E T T

"SO OUR FIRST PRIORITY is to clean all the lockers in the school building. We're going to need plenty of utensils for that, " Lily said, putting down her pen on the open page of her notebook.

So far, the first official school meeting was going pretty well. Together, we had decided that our first official task was to remove all the vandalism from the lockers and then from around the rest of the school.

"Lana, did you put that in the budget?" Ali asked, seated across from her.

Lana, who to everyone's surprise, eventually decided to join the council, nodded while seated next to me with her eyes fixated on the laptop she was typing on.
Throughout the meeting, Lana hardly spoke, kept pizza the whole time, and had some logical and meaningful one-line answers when she was questioned about something. She didn't talk much but when she did, it was like a conclusion to every argument and discussion on the table.

When someone spoke to her, she made eye contact and replied in short sentences but without any expression on her face. However, I couldn't help but notice how she tried to ignore Lily at all costs. It was almost like Lily's whole existence was bothering Lana. There was definitely some tension there.

"How are we going to make sure they don't get vandalized again?" Sonya asked, curiously.

Kevin nodded. "Yeah. It's not like this clean up we're doing is going to last for that long. It'll probably be back in a few days. Maybe even the next day."

Perplexed mumbling broke across the table as Kevin's words spread doubt through everyone's minds. However, before the wheels in my head even started spinning, Lana cut in and said, "Give and take."

Lana's words switched the bewilderment in the room with curiosity. Lana raised her eyes from her laptop screen and continued, "Give and take. The lunch served in the cafeteria is free and is loved by the whole school. If they continue vandalism, we refuse free cafeteria lunch."

I couldn't help but smile a little to myself at the word "we". She really was on board on this whole student council thing.

"Yeah, but they'll hate us if we do that. We're supposed to be on their side," Kevin argued.

"They always hate you before they start respecting you."

Everyone's eyes with the slightest of surprises stayed locked on Lana. She really was the conclusion. Thus, I cleared my throat and nodded. "Lana's right. Okay, guys. I think this is all for today. Lana, can you email the cheque to the principal so he can look over it?"

Lana nodded and started typing on her laptop while the others started gathering their things and stepped out of the crammed student council room one by one. Now that I thought about it, this place could really use a rearrangement. I guess I could fix that tomorrow with the whole team.

After the others left the room, leaving Lana and me to pack up our things, I glanced at her and said, "Hey. Thanks for agreeing in the end. I really appreciate-"

"-I'm not doing it for you. Only for pizza and money."

I nodded, anyway. "That sounds okay too."

"This is the last time I'm letting you convince me to do anything," she muttered.

Before I could say anything to that, I suddenly heard a knock behind me. Isha was standing there with her shoulder leaned against the door.

I raised a brow. "The Sirens knock?"

Putting on a cheeky grin, she skipped over to Lana and wrapped an arm around her. "Only for you, Prez. You're being respectful to our little one."

My brows furrowed. "Others aren't...?"

My gaze darted to Lana who's gaze darkened for a brief moment while she was shoving her notebook inside her panda backpack.

"Dude. You haven't gotten the picture yet. Here I was, thinking you had more than two brain cells in that brain of yours. There's no respect around here. Around here, people pick on the weaklings. You gotta turn into a monster to escape it."

Come to think of it, she was right. This school was definitely filled with some scary kids who gave off the vibe that they'll rip out your throat or hang you upside down from the windows on the top floor. The nice kids were bullied instead of being respected. The only way to escape the bullying was to turn into one of the bad kids.

Isha changed the subject by ruffling Lana's hair. "Hey, dumpling."

I struggled to hold back my amusement, but the moment Lana scowled in my direction, I cleared my throat and shoved my notebook in my backpack pulled it on my shoulders.

"Ooh! Free pizza!" Isha plopped down on Lana's lap and grabbed a slice before biting into it, eagerly.

While munching the pizza bite, she glanced at Lana who wrapped her arms around her and nestled her head in the space between her neck and shoulder. "Have you eaten?"

"That's all she did," I joked.

"The fuck you say?" Lana snapped, sharply.

"N-Nothing!" I muttered quickly.

Chuckling, Isha stroked her hair while saying, "Easy, Lee. He's just teasing."

Lana closed her eyes against Isha's shoulder while she finished the last slice of the pizza left in the box.

"Okay. We're heading home. You got a ride?" Isha asked, surprising me.

I nodded. "Yeah. I brought my bike."

She smiled. "Cool. Lana rides too."

I nodded, again. "Yeah. I know."

She gave me a slightly puzzled look but eventually shrugged and pushed herself off Lana's lap. Then she grabbed her had. "Okay let's go."

Lana grabbed her backpack and glanced at me once and I smiled while waving briefly. "Bye. See you tomorrow."

Her response was her usual flat look while Isha lifted two fingers to her forehead to salute me before exiting the room. "See ya, Prez."

~

Over the weekend, Lana created a Facebook group for the school's student council and posted an announcement that by Monday all the vandalism would be taken down and new furniture would replace the broken. Additionally, if anyone tried to vandalize the school property again, the cafeteria lunch won't be free any longer.

As for their reaction, let's just say I got quite a few death glares when I walked down the hallway and crossed the cafeteria to enter the lunch line today. They all hated me now, and while it really sucked, I hoped Lana's wise words would turn out to be true. I hoped they'd soon or at least eventually go from shooting death glares at me to showing some decent respect, but I knew I had to earn it. And for that, I had to be patient. They couldn't just start liking me overnight. This was a process as much as I wished it wasn't.

I was standing at the back of the lunch line, lost too deep into my own jumble of thoughts, I didn't notice Lily stepping in line next to me before she had poked my shoulder at least four times.

"Oh. Hey, Lily."

She smiled, politely. "Hi! The school's looking pretty good, right? The students seem to be loving it too."

"Funny, every person I've made eye contact with so far look like they want to shove me up against a wall and choke me."

"What? No. You gotta look on the positive side! Things are already starting to look up around here and it's only been like a week since you were announced as the student council President. It'll work out. Don't worry. Plus, you didn't do this alone. The whole student council team is in this together."

Lily's words made me feel slightly better, so I gave her a smile in return. "Yeah. You're right. Thanks."

Suddenly, I spotted Lana and Carmen behind us in the line. I cleared my throat. "Hey, guys."

Carmen looked up from her phone briefly enough for her green eyes to make eye contact with mine. Then, she made the peace sign with her hand before dropping her gaze down to her phone's screen again, her sharp black-painted nails rapidly tapping the screen. The way her fingers rapidly danced on the screen, I was torn between whether she was angry or excited about whoever she was texting with. Maybe both.

I glanced at Lana who just yawned like a sleepy, lazy cat. Lily's smile immediately faded when she and Lana made brief contact. Lana looked away.

"So," I cleared my throat, attempting to make conversation to clear the awkward tension between the four of us. "What do you guys think about all the vandalism being gone and the new furniture?"

Once again, Carmen's fingers briefly stopped dancing on her phone's screen and she looked up to shrug. "I don't really care."

Lana sighed at my flustered face and quietly but flatly said, "It's nice. The school looks new and clean."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Exactly."

Despite the cafeteria being loud and crowded, silence fell between the four of us once more and Lily and Lana were continuing to avoid each other's eyes at all cost.

"So-" I began once more but was abruptly cut off.

"-Does he ever stop talking?" Carmen cut in, glancing at Lana for an answer. Lana shook her head.

I was about to protest when the cafeteria started getting more and more cramped up and a bunch of loud groups of boys was pushing past us. Exactly then, I couldn't help but notice how Lana inched closer to Carmen's side while inhaling a few sharp breaths. Her shoulders were stiffened, ears perked and eyes alert as if she was looking out for someone about to attack her.

Watching her, the words left my mouth quicker than I intended them to. "You okay, Lana?"

In response, Lana blinked and her eyes met mine. She swallowed hard and tried to keep a flat face but was failing miserably as more boys kept bumping into her as they passed by in huddled groups, carelessly laughing and joking amongst each other.

"You don't look so good," I added and that made Carmen's head jerk up and she took in her surroundings from both and left and right before cursing under her breath, "Oh shit."

A tall guy was laughing along with his friends while brushing past us when one of his friends punched his arm playfully, only to send him crashing against Lana's side. Luckily, Carmen stopped the collision by quickly stepping between them but Lana's eyes immediately widened as she froze.

"Hey, assholes! Watch it. Follow the rules, dammit," Carmen shouted, shoving the boys who quickly scrambled away when they made eye contact with Lana and Carmen.

When Carmen wrapped an arm around Lana's shoulder, Lana's frozen expression eased and her stiff posture immediately relaxed. She exhaled softly and kept staring at the ground.

Assuming she was probably not going to answer my question, I turned around and started off after Lily who had gone ahead but then I heard Lana whisper, "I'm fine.

I was pretty sure I imagined it.

~

After Lily, Ali, and I cleaned up the student council room and properly arranged the new furniture in the room, an hour had passed since the last period of the school day ended, and the school building was left vacant as if nobody was here in the first place.

After Ali and Lily had left, I was walking down the hallway past the newly cleaned lockers when I stopped short at the sight of something so disappointing that I felt my stomach drop along with my jaw.

At the very end of the row of grey lockers, bold letters forming the shittiest words decorated the last locker that this morning had been squeaky clean just like the rest of them. Now it was standing out like a sore thumb.

"Seriously? Why?" I muttered, frustration rising within me. Groaning, I stopped in front of the locker and made a silly, failed attempt to wipe off the word bitch with my thumb.

Now what? Was I supposed to tell the principal? That the students had failed me already. It legit hadn't even been one day and here I was being hopeful about the next couple of days.

Maddie used to be right. I was too hopeful about everything. I didn't know how to be a pessimist or a realist. I was too optimistic for my own good.

So was I just supposed to leave it like this and let the principal know along with the rest of the council tomorrow? Or maybe...my brain trailed off in another direction. Was it cheating? Maybe. But I guess I wanted to give whoever did this another chance.

I quickly jogged back to the student council room and grabbed the wet cloth from the bucket we used to clean up the room with, and returned to the locker. Pressing the cloth against the vandalized locker door, I rubbed it over the words a few times and felt a relieved smile tug on my lips when the words started fading. Eventually, the locker was as good as new.

"It'll be back again to tomorrow."

My heart stopped and my head snapped to the right to find a pair of dull, onyx eyes staring at me. Lana watched me with a blank face and the crooked edge of her bangs touched her eyes.

"Holy shit, Lana! You scared the crap out of me. What are you doing here?"

"Forgot a book."

I stared at her.

She stared at me.

I cleared my throat. What was happening here?

"Can you move?" I blinked and the sudden realization of that this locker belonged to Lana hit me.

"Oh, yeah. Sure." I stepped back to give her the space to open her locker and take out the book she needed.

"If your plan works, then it probably won't. Or maybe not. If they did it to your locker, they might do it to another locker tomorrow," I said, answering her question.

"Probably not. It's just my locker."

Furrowing my brows, I opened my mouth to ask her what she meant but Lana had already closed her locker and started limping away from me. I assumed it because she was a part of The Sirens.

"What's thank you in Japanese?" I asked catching up with her and eventually tagging alongside her with at least to meters of distance between us. Despite her injured food, she was really fast.

Eyes fixated straight ahead, she scowled. "Baka."

"No. I looked up Baka and it means idiot in Japanese. So I figured you must be Japanese."
That's cool. So what did you think about the school's new look?"

"Not bad."

"Right. Feels like a totally different place."

"If it lasts."

"Yeah. I'm worried about that too," I admitted.

"I never said-"

"Do you think it will last? People here are so violent and lose their shit so early so I'm sure a few lockers will break here and there. But we've decided that if one person screws up, the whole school will suffer. And one person has already screwed up by vandalizing your locker, but I want to give them another chance...," I trailed off abruptly when I suddenly made eye contact with Lana and found her scowling at me.

"What?"

"Baka," she repeated, annoyance laced to her raspy voice.

"Want to race home again? That's if you're not catching a ride with you one of your friends again? Is your foot better? I guess not. You're still limping," I continued, subconsciously scratching the back of my head.

"Baka," she repeated but this with an eye roll.

Suddenly she stopped and I turned to her. "What?"

"Arigato."

My brows furrowed."Arigato...?Oh! It means thank you in Japanese. Of course. I knew that."

Scowling, Lana had folded her arms across her chest. "You done rambling? Can I go?"

My eyes widened slightly and I felt the blush creep up my neck as I cleared my throat. "Uh, Yes. Sorry."

Why couldn't I learn to shut up? My mouth was like an engine that never stopped running.

"So...no racing home today?" I asked, trying to keep my mouth from blabbering unnecessary shit.

"No."

Despite the fact that she didn't seem the slightest of apologetic or guilty, I offered her a dismissive smile. "It's okay. Maybe another time. Bye then. See you tomorrow."

Lana limped away and I watched her until she disappeared into the night.

***

Author's note: Hi everyone! Here's a new chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it. The story has started for real now and I can't wait to post the next chapters.

Remember to
Vote⭐️
Comment ❤️
Share with friends 🌹
Follow me 😊