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What's up with Her?

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THE WAY a flag moved when the breeze swathed around it, made it seem like it was dancing along to nature's elements, seeking to gain their approval to show its similarity with them. That it was alive like they were and not a simple piece of material.

A flag of blue with three vertical green stripes that waved in the distance seemed too alive. The pole which the flag hung from rose higher than all the buildings on school grounds and even the ones outside the walls of Glory Bells Prep.

The movement made it seem like it was telling me something, but there was only one thing ringing in my head.

The flag of Glory Bells Prep wasn't blue with green stripes.

My four years here made me associate the school with two colors. Yellow and Black, with the occasional white. That was the color of our uniforms, the basketball team, our cheerleader squad, and our flag.

That was the Glory Bells Prep I knew.

After a long while of deliberating and not coming to any conclusion, I glanced at my watch before I left Perry behind. He had remained perched on the beam, still repeating those words. I had gotten used to it while I was thinking, with his chirpy voice fading into the background. I wasn't like Tony, who Perry always seemed to irritate.

A small smile played on my lips as I remembered my little brother, but the smile soon turned sour.

Would they have realized I was missing? What would they be doing now? Had anything even changed? Maybe they thought I was cooling off somewhere. Or maybe I had passed out in the woods and was stuck in my head until I learned this lesson.

I got to my room to find the door open, and Mariana was inside. As I entered, I noticed she kept staring at me, but didn't say a word.

Then I recalled her change in behavior since she saw me with Kai in the art room. It may be little and inconsequential and even Naomi might not have noticed, but I did.

"Mari, is everything okay?" I asked. She said nothing at first, before she stalked toward me, only stopping some inches from me.

"I should ask you that, no," she said with a sneer on her face.

"What do you mean? You've been having some attitude. If you have something to say to me, then say it. It's just you and me here."

I don't know why it agitated me, but her attitude was getting on my nerves. Nerves that were already worn from the sheer thoughts and questions racing around all day in my head.

"It's the fact that they chose you."

"For what?"

"The play! See, you don't even care. I'm sure you'll act all confused like you weren't the one who signed up for the play. You know Rhys and I wanted to act in the lead roles this year. You and some other guy have always had the lead roles, and it's not fair. But yet again, the most loved gets it all! Whether she deserves it or not!"

She grabbed her bag and stormed out of the room, bumping into Betty, who was entering and leaving me with one conclusion.

She was right. I had forgotten about signing up for the play, and it was the last thing on my mind right now. But I don't know where all that anger came from. I thought back to when I was in this grade. Mariana and I never argued about the play or our roles.

Come to think of it, she got the lead role during tenth grade, but because Kai got the male lead role and I was her understudy, she pulled out. When I asked her why, she said she knew of a kissing scene and didn't want to do it with Kai. He was like a brother to her, and she was too interested in Rhys to fathom the thought.

So why was now any different? Was this not supposed to be my past? Was it not supposed to go exactly how it did? Well, given I and Mrs. Morris never had that conversation, maybe things were different.

Or was it because of that conversation that things were different? Could that conversation have messed up the normal flow of things? After all, Mrs. Morris did say that she wasn't supposed to tell me that.

"Clara!" I heard someone call and snapped out of my reverie to see it was Betty.

"I get it. You and Mariana had an argument and you're thinking of a thousand reasons and how to save your friendship from the brink of extinction," she said with so much sarcasm it grated on my ears. "But Clover just announced that the people given roles for this year's play are to gather at the drama theater now. Aren't you the lead?"

"Oh yeah, um thanks," I said and left my bag. I hadn't even dropped it. Was I that deep in my thoughts that I didn't hear what Clover said?

I stopped by the cafeteria, and the name didn't surprise me. Ralcor Hall.

Yup, you guessed right, another wrong name. Flip it sideways and you'd have the real name, Corral Hall. I sighed at the thought but went to get some snacks before heading to the drama theater.

I entered and saw some students chatting in the front rows with others seated on the stage. But once they saw me, they stopped. I couldn't help but wonder if they were talking about me.

"Congrats. You got the lead," Olivia, one of my classmates, said. The smile on her face seemed real, but from my times with her in drama, I knew when she was acting.

It was common knowledge that some people—well, most people—in the drama club didn't like the fact that I always got lead or supporting roles. Nothing less. They'd always come up with rumors of how I must have bribed my way through and never believed I was that good.

Of course, because of their hateful comments, I had shied away from some roles altogether and didn't even audition, but now, looking back, I couldn't care less. If there was one thing I would tell my younger self now, it would be to keep doing what I'm good at and disregard their comments because they would always talk.

Regardless, I smiled and replied thank you.

"So what now? Clover said we should all meet here right," I said.

"Yeah, we're waiting for Mr. Damon to let us know how things would be this year," Rhys said.

He was the same buffed-up boy with hair as golden as the sun—like he used to say. When I first met him, he was intimidating. How did someone so young look so big? But he turned out to be far from the scary guy I thought him to be.

Then I remembered what Mariana said. Rhys was close to her, and back then, they were dating. But I don't know when they started, so I can't recall if they were dating now.

"Hey Rhys, can I talk to you for a second?" I said, and we walked to a private corner.

"Do you know what's up with Mariana?"

"Oh," he said and his shoulders fell a bit as if he was expecting me to talk about something else. Then his brows furrowed before he crossed his arms and looked aside, a scowl tugging at the side of his lips. "Well, I don't know."

"Is something wrong between you two?"

"I'm not even sure. She's just being unreasonable about this whole stuff. It doesn't even make sense. Some days after they announced the play, she said she wasn't interested since it was Romeo and Juliet. She said it was too cheesy, but then became obsessed, and kept talking about how she wanted to play Juliet no matter what. Then you got it and she just..."

He stopped himself to let out a sigh before one of his hands went up to run through his dark hair.

"Do you think it's something else, and maybe she's using this play as an excuse?" I asked, and he thought for a while.

It was common for Mariana to mask her problems. She despised talking about hers but would offer to listen and help others with their problems. It had taken a great effort to get her to talk to us throughout her parents' divorce. Naomi and I didn't even know about it until it was almost done.

"Or something's wrong," he said.

"Why'd you say so?"

"Now that I think of it, it's weird. Like she's not even herself with the way she reacted. I was too pissed to see that something might be wrong and it might not be the play."

"We should talk to her about it? She could tell us what's wrong."

"Maybe. But knowing Mari, she might use the play as her excuse so she wouldn't tell us. But then again, if something was bothering her, she would act as if there's nothing wrong so we wouldn't notice at all," he said.

"Yeah, that's true."

"She's so confusing," he sighed.

A small smile tugged at my lips. "But you like her."

His scowl gave way in return, but he didn't reply. Instead, he asked, "Anyway, how are you? Kai told me what happened with Mrs. Morris."

"I'm good, I guess. It was scary seeing her like that. Have you heard anything about her?"

"Nope, but it's Mrs. Morris' right, the woman who gives us hell in that class of hers. I'm sure whatever she's caught, she'll give it hell too, and soon enough she'll be back droning on and on about world wars and laudanum," he groaned but I only mhmed in response, my mind bringing back the pair of blank blue eyes.

Not long, we were complete and Mr. Damon came, but Mariana wasn't there. I figured she might not have gotten a role at all. He explained everything to us and gave us the rehearsal schedules for the play.

By the time we finished, the sky had turned blue-black and a slight chill wrapped the air. I glanced at my watch to realize it was thirty minutes till dinner. I rushed upstairs, had a shower, and soon got down for dinner before heading to our usual table, where I found Naomi and Mariana talking.

When Mariana saw me, she went quiet. The air around the table turned thick and one could cut the tension with a knife. I opened my mouth to say something to her but wasn't able to as she stood up and left without a word. Even as Naomi called out, she didn't stop.

Naomi sighed.

"I don't know why she's pissed. Rhys told me she wasn't interested at first, since it was Romeo and Juliet. We think it's something else though," I relayed.

"Really! Come on Clara, it's obvious how much she wanted this play."

"I don't think that's it. Her attitude started after she found Kai and me kissing," I said.

Naomi's brows furrowed before one arched. "What are you trying to say?"

"I don't know just that I think it's something else."

"What does she want now?" Naomi groaned, looking over my shoulder, and I turned in time to see Lilly heading toward us. There was never a time I had seen her without her friends, Rachel, Flora, and Linda. Gosh, I hated them.

With the person Lilly had become, it always shocked me how we were once friends.

Before the accident my mom caused, Lilly and I were close. She'd just moved from England, bringing along a posh, upturned attitude matched with her British accent.

I never knew much about British people and she had subconsciously planted a stereotype in my head about them. But the more I got to know about her and her family, the more they broke that stereotype.

I wouldn't say we were best friends, but we'd spent the final few years of elementary school always together. She always wore smooth pencil skirts and starched t-shirts and never had blunt pencils or small erasers.

None of her things were ever out of place and her preciseness rubbed off on me, but then she moved away. She'd never told me she was going to, and I never heard from her.

I didn't reach out either.

My parents' arguing had strained our friendship, and the accident destroyed it.

Even though our teacher had explained Lilly's absence to us in kind words, 'Lilly and her family found another place to stay that they liked. That's all. Don't worry, you might see her again sometime,' I hadn't believed I would and most students didn't seem to care for her absence.

She always told me I was her only friend, and that was true.

Imagine my surprise when I met her here, but she had changed. She was meaner and whenever I looked at her, I still couldn't picture the Lilly I knew from elementary school. They were two different people in my mind.

Her eyes were colder and her voice more demeaning. Her accent was still sharp despite her years in America.

At first, I tried to patch things up but didn't put in much effort. I also tried to think of what could have happened to her, but when she made things clear she didn't want to be friends, I didn't bother any further.

We weren't having similar classes and thank goodness for that, because she'd set out to make my life miserable.

I thought I deserved it, but I soon got tired and it started pissing me off. I stopped trying when I realized there was no getting back to the friendship we had or anything, even less.

"You know, I never thought you could be a bigger b***h than you already are," she said as she now stood in front of our table.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" I asked with as much bitterness as she had laced her voice with, giving her my hardest glare, like I usually did.

"All I'm worried about is poor Mariana. I know she wanted that role, yet you had to be you and take it all for yourself, not even sparing crumbs for those you call friends. Typical Clara Williams."

"Okay, first, no one asked for your opinion on anything and second, we didn't ask for your company. So take your terrible energy and attitude elsewhere."

She was the last thing I wanted to deal with.

"Terrible energy? I'm letting you know how bad of a friend you are."

"Yeah, and what would you know about friendship? You carry these three all around you like minions, not even close to friends."

"At least I make sure they get what they want, unlike you. I'm always there for them, always. Much less than I can say for you."

"You know what? Screw you!" I yelled and stood before leaving the cafeteria, not minding the stares or Naomi calling me back.

I went to bed soon after evening study hall and didn't speak a word to anyone.

The next day, waking up wasn't much of a deal. I had limited time and had to find out what I was doing here. If I could get in touch with Mrs. Morris again, maybe she could say something or tell me more about what I'm supposed to be doing to get out of here. I just hoped she was alright.

Our room was silent, and it seemed like tension had made it its home as we prepared for classes. Mariana hadn't said a word to me and me, not to her. Naomi had spoken to both of us briefly and Betty was in ignorant bliss, still annoying all three of us as she usually did.

Mariana left before us and by the time Naomi and I reached our lockers, she was heading to the first period. If I remember correctly—or rather, if that hadn't changed—on Fridays, Naomi had mostly science-related subjects and the only time we would see her was during lunch.

I was thinking of how to contact Mrs. Morris or find out about her condition at the end of the first period when an announcement rang out on the intercom

Dear students, it is with great sadness that we announce the passing of one of our kindest and greatest teachers, Mrs. Danielle Morris.

Some gasps and murmurs interrupted the announcement while I sat still.

We will hold a gathering in remembrance of her on Sunday. From 9 am to 12 pm. The school prefects will pass further information across. The school counselor is always available, Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5 pm.

We urge you all to continue putting your best in your studies and visit the counselor if you're having issues dealing with this information. Have a good day and be well.

The murmurs were loud, and I expected the chaos that ensued. Yet as loud as they were, I couldn't pick up a single word as the only thought in my head was, Could this have been my fault?

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That's some really bad news there. What do you think could be the reason for Mariana's behaviour towards Clara? I would love to hear your theories below.

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The Sparkling Authoress
Mis. A

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