The Hanahaki Club: Episode 13
Episode 13: Exposure Therapy, Part 2
So far…
Emery has a plan to cure her hanahaki. Step one: set the bait, get a bite.
Episode 13: Exposure Therapy, Part 1
Emery
“All right, Emery, Lila, let’s have a chat about your proposals for this month’s edition.”
Emery grabbed her notebook and pencil as she hopped off her chair and headed to the front of the classroom where Bethany Fischer was reclined in a high-backed, padded computer chair, with her socked feet up on her desk, and a fountain pen twirling between the fingers of one hand, whilst with the other she held up at arm’s length a print-off of the calendar for the spring term.
Here we go, Emery thought, as she joined Lila in front of their editor, this was probably going to be painful.
They both waited patiently whilst Bethany squinted at the calendar—in favour of making use of the reading glasses that were pushed up onto her head—and hummed pensively a couple of times before raising her fountain pen and aggressively circling a number of dates. She frowned for a second longer and then abruptly swung her feet off the table and slammed the print-off on the desk with the flat of her hand.
“Right!” she began, fixing both Emery and Lila with her usual steely stare. “First up. The STEM workshop at the end of this month—”
“I’ve got it,” Lila said, at the same time Emery rushed out: “I’ll cover it.”
They exchanged challenging looks.
“Try again,” Bethany suggested.
“I’m treasurer of the robotics club…” Lila began.
“I’m the president,” Emery countered.
“Emery is already writing up the Oliver! production,” Lila said, making her argument directly to Bethany, as if Emery wasn’t standing right next to her.
“You’ve got the Christmas concert and you’re covering the inter-school debating semi-finals this term.”
Lila rolled her eyes but continued to look at Bethany as she explained: “I’m president of the debating club.”
“I’m president of the robotics club.”
“She covered the workshop last year.”
“So, for consistency, I should cover it this year too.”
“No one wants to read the same turgid nonsense again.”
“I’m sure they’d prefer it to being bored to death.”
“I’m bored to death, right now,” Bethany cut in dryly. “Look, I don’t care how you decide it— Rock-Paper-Scissors, pistols at dawn, Russian roulette—but figure it out by the end of the day or I’m going to fire you both—”
“Fine, Lila can have it.”
Even though this had been her plan all along, Emery could feel her face heating up under Bethany’s stunned gaze and Lila’s suspicious stare in the awkward silence that followed.
“O-kay,” Bethany ventured carefully. “Lila will cover the STEM workshop.” She waved her fountain pen at Lila. “The deadline is rather tight—are you sure you can manage it?”
Lila’s response was immediate and a little angry. “Yes.”
“You should take the author visit next month too,” Emery said, trying to sound casual about the offer. “Since you are in the book club.” She turned her head and flashed Lila a grin, hoping it came off as friendly and not wicked.
Lila glared back at her.
“That’s unexpectedly reasonable of you, Emery,” Bethany said, glancing between her two subordinates as if looking for some sort of hidden trick or prank. “Which story do you want then?”
“I’ll take the charity fun-run, if no one else is covering it, and the upper-school art exhibition in March, if that’s all right?”
Bethany raised her eyebrows at Lila. “That work for you?”
“Sure,” Lila replied shortly, still giving Emery an intense side-eye.
“Great!” Bethany declared. “That was less bloody than I was expecting.” She gestured dismissively with her fountain pen before picking up the calendar print-off again. “Off you go then. Get to work, minions.”
Emery walked back to her desk, trying not to feel agitated at having given up two of the stories she most wanted to cover to the person she least wanted to give them up to. Big picture, she told herself. Remember the big picture. As she reached her seat, she glanced over her shoulder at Lila and caught her eye, giving her a smile before she settled down at her desk. Lila immediately diverted from her route to her own desk and made a bee-line for Emery until she was standing over her with her arms folded and a furrow in her brow.
“Can I help you?” Emery asked innocently.
“Stop trying to suck up to all the club presidents.” Lila’s tone was typically blunt and unimpressed. “It’s not going to get you anywhere.”
Emery quirked her head to one side. That wasn’t quite the accusation she’d been expecting. “I’m not,” she said simply, and then, because she couldn’t resist: “Are you jealous? Want me to suck up to you in chess club?”
“Don’t be gross. I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not going to work.”
“Really? Care to enlighten me? Because I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m just being nice.”
“You’re trying to get in their good books.”
“For what purpose?”
“To make everyone else look bad.” Lila sounded bored, like she didn’t really care that much herself, but was taking on the burden of calling Emery out on behalf of every club community.
Emery folded her arms as she leant back in her seat. “You mean you’re worried I’m making you look bad.”
Lila made a dismissive ‘tch’ sound and rolled her eyes. Emery wondered if Lila ever got eye-ache with all the exercise her eyeballs seemed to get around her.
“No one is going to fall for your gross little act.”
“If that’s the case, then what are you worried about?”
“I’m not worried about anything. It’s just irritating. More than usual.” Lila replied, before turning to walk away.
“No one else is irritated,” Emery stopped her, leaning forward with her crossed arms on the desk as Lila turned back to face her. “In fact, you’re the only one who is ever irritated. Everyone else actually likes me, you know.”
Lila scoffed. “God knows why.”
“You’d like me too, if you got to know me better.”
Lila didn’t bother hiding how offensive she found that idea with the face she pulled.
“You should try it,” Emery suggested, trying to sound easy-going about it, even though her heart was trying to hammer its way out of her chest.
Take the bait. Take the bait.
“What?” Lila asked, impatient but also a little confused.
“You should try getting to know me. I bet you’d find you actually like me.”
“No chance.”
“Worried you’d lose?”
Lila frowned. “Lose what?”
“The bet.”
“I’m not betting anything with you.”
“Because you’d lose.”
Lila suddenly unfolded her arms to lean on the table and stare coolly at Emery, just inches from her face. “I would not lose. I don’t need to win some dumb bet with you. I’ve got better things to do.”
“I’d make it worth your while.”
Another eyeroll. “You don’t have anything I want.”
“I won’t run for photography president.”
Lila looked unimpressed. “I’m going to win that competition anyway.”
“I’ll quit the club too.”
There was a moment where Lila’s eyes flickered with an emotion that Emery couldn’t quite identify. Was it intrigue? Excitement? Greed? They stared each other down for another second before Lila spoke.
“For how long?”
“Until we graduate.”
“Just photography?”
Emery raised her eyebrows. “You want me to quit chess too?”
“And robotics.”
“What about choir?”
“I don’t care about choir.”
Emery shrugged. “Fine. If I can’t make you like me, I’ll quit photography, chess and robotics. But if you lose, you’ll quit them.”
Lila actually smiled and the sight sent an unpleasant shiver down Emery’s spine. “Okay. You’ve got a deal.”
“Good,” Emery agreed, trying not to let her internal freak-out show on her face. This was a slightly higher cost than she’d been prepared for, but in for a penny, in for a pound. “We should put this in writing and set some terms.”
Lila pushed away from the desk as Emery flipped open her notebook and grabbed her pencil.
“Fine, then we should set a time limit. No dragging this out all year.”
“What about the end of this term?” Emery suggested calmly. “Easter holidays?”
“Sure.” Lila folded her arms again as Emery began writing down the conditions of the bet in her notebook. “What are your terms?” she asked after a moment, obviously expecting something intolerable.
“I only have one term,” Emery said, without looking up from her notepad. She swallowed as something shifted in the top of her chest and focused on taking a slower breath.
“Which is?” Lila demanded impatiently.
Emery fixed her with a serious look. “You have to give me the opportunity to win you over. You can’t just avoid me or ignore me. You have to actually spend enough time with me to give me a chance.”
“I see more than enough of you as it is.”
Emery gave Lila her most sly smile. “So you are afraid you’re going to lose—”
“I don’t want you stalking me,” Lila said flatly.
“It’s only for a few months.”
“You’re such a psycho.”
“An extremely loveable psycho… as you’re about to find out.”
“Hurry up and write down the conditions. Then date and sign them.”
Emery did as she was told, without bothering to hide her smirk. When she had finished, Lila snatched the notebook from her and signed her own name. She ripped the page out of the book and stalked to the photocopier, where she made a copy of the bet and returned to slap the original on the desk in front of Emery.
“This is going to be such an easy win,” she said, before stalking back to her own desk and opening up her laptop.
Emery stared down at the notebook page with her messy scrawl all over it and Lila’s neat signature beneath her own. Well, frick. That actually worked. Lila had taken her bait and now here she was with a contract in front of her that was going to decide her fate. If she won the bet, she might cure her hanahaki. If she lost the bet, then at least this entire scenario, her feelings for Lila, and the humiliation of losing, would all be carved out of her by the surgeon’s scalpel. She wouldn’t remember a thing, which would be a mercy, because it was going to take everything she had to follow through with this plan. She was going to have to crush and bruise her pride to try and woo her enemy. It would be a costly sacrifice on her part, but it would be worth it if she succeeded. If she won, then her suffering would end and Lila’s would begin.
Next time: Episode 14—Exposure Therapy, Part 3
Teaser:
Leon laughed again. He was always laughing. Which was awful, because he had a very nice laugh—warm, gentle, genuine—and the sound made Hassie’s stomach flip every single time she heard it. It was even worse when he was laughing because of her, because then a pleasant heat spread in her chest, triggering the desperate need to make him laugh again.
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Author’s Notes:
Emery vs. Lila. Place your bets now!
Next time: Episode 14—Exposure Therapy, Part 3
PJ
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I love the way we get to see how each individual sets about finding their own remedy rather than accepting going under the knife as the only answer. I’m so very fond of them all. It’s very insightful as to the nature of suffering of the heart and young people’s insecurities probably with a huge dose of hormones in the mix. You have given them a voice and made me question whether I ever have understood that, in nurturing my four children. It certainly answers a lot of questions on differing outcomes when you realise it’s not your parenting skills but the complexities that assault your children in education systems and the challenges they face with their peers.
Emery or Lila 🤔 I'll place my bet on Emery...