The Hanahaki Club: Episode 7
Episode 7: Two Can Keep a Secret, Part 2
So far…
The hanahaki support group met for the first time on Thursday evening in the Blue Room of the Fenway Community Centre. Now, it’s the day after that meeting.
Episode 7: Two Can Keep a Secret, Part 2
Remi
“Okay, so that’s the final rota for this term. I’ll stick a copy up on the board too, so there are no excuses for missing duties—remember if you can’t make one of your slots you need to swap with someone in advance.” Gio raised an eyebrow as he cast a stern look around the table. “If I get any complaints from Mr Ryder, I’m not going to make your excuses for you—you’ll have to explain to him in person why you should be allowed to keep your prefect position.”
Remi watched a couple of the team sheepishly avoid eye contact whilst the rest nodded solemnly. The slackers knew who they were, and they knew they were hanging onto their positions by their fingernails. There were plenty of eager candidates waiting in the wings to snap up a prefect position should one suddenly open up, and Remi and Gio had already demonstrated last term that they weren’t afraid to cut someone from the team if they weren’t pulling their weight. So long, Sabrina DeVere.
“Right,” Gio continued, “Last on the agenda is the Spring Festival.” He turned to Remi with a grin. “I’ll hand over to you, Rem.”
“The Spring Festival isn’t until April,” Remi began, “But I want to get it organised sooner rather than later, especially as a lot of the companies we might want to hire tend to get booked up quickly the closer we get to Easter. So I’m looking to put together a committee to get things arranged. I’ll take names now, if anyone is keen, but you’ve got until Monday to put your name forward.” She scanned the table pointedly. “Who’s interested?”
There was a tense silence whilst no one spoke or even dared fidget, in case the movement was misconstrued as a sign of volunteering. Sheesh. It was like she’d asked for volunteers for a human-sacrificing ritual. Remi had been expecting this response; everyone wanted the status and privilege of being on the prefect team, but most of them didn’t want the work or responsibility it involved. That was fine, she had a couple of strategies up her sleeve if necessary. Strong-arming people into doing something they didn’t want to do was a skill she’d learnt first-hand from her mother.
And then Sam Trynall, who was sitting the other side of Gio, raised his hand. “I’ll do it.” He sound indifferent about it, but then Sam’s attitude was always pretty indifferent—never one to express enthusiasm for anything school-related, he could usually be found sprawled out between two chairs in a corner of the Prefect Office, arms crossed, headphones on and eyes closed. Despite that, he was a reliable and competent member of the team—if you asked him to do something, he always delivered; he never missed a duty, attended every event, maintained good grades, and, on top of all that, he was Gio’s best friend, which was perhaps why he’d been first choice for Deputy Head Boy when they’d been putting the team together.
“Thanks, Sam,” Remi acknowledged. “Anyone else?”
“Joe?” Sam offered with a half-yawn and vague gesture at the boy sitting across from him. “Your mum’s a governor, isn’t she?”
“Uhh,” Joe Suggsby-Jones stuttered, fumbling to remove his glasses and clean them on his tie. “Yeah?”
“Great,” Remi jumped in, typing away on her laptop, “That will be useful when we’re sorting out finances. I’ll put you on the list, Joe.”
“Uhh. Yeah,” Joe agreed, looking a little miserable as he put his glasses back on. “Sure.”
Olivia Cole and Hayley Chan also volunteered, which brought them up to a total of five, including herself—a much better start than Remi had anticipated. She had her eye on a couple of others she could probably persuade to join the committee, but she could give them the weekend to relax before she pounced on Monday.
“Great,” Remi concluded, “I’ll set up a group chat and we’ll aim to have our first meeting next week.” She swallowed and then cleared her throat softly. “Any other business?”
There was silence again and several people firmly shook their heads. Remi swallowed again, took a careful breath and forced a smile. “Meeting closed then. Have a good weekend everyone.” She wasted no time in getting up and closing her laptop, without even bothering to power it off.
Shoot. She get to get out of here. Right now.
A hand landed on her shoulder. “Nice one, Rem,” Gio said, flashing her a bright smile. “I didn’t think we’d get any volunteers for the Spring Festival, first time asking.”
Remi made a ‘Mmm!” sound in agreement as she pressed her lips together and focused on packing her bag.
“And thanks for rearranging the duty rota,” Gio added. “I know it was a pain, but I don’t think we’ll have any issues now with missed duties this term.”
Remi slung her bag on her shoulder and then looked up to give Gio a tight-lipped smile. She swallowed again, felt the petals shifting in the top of her chest and managed a curt: “I’ve got to print off some homework before next period.”
“Okeydokey,” Gio said, giving her shoulder a friendly shake. “See you last period for politics.” He turned to Sam, who was stretching slowly into his blazer on the other side of him and patted him on the head. “Nice one for volunteering, buddy! Glutton for punishment, eh?”
Remi heard Sam mutter something like ‘Oi,” and ‘Piss off’ as she turned on her heel and sped-walked out of the Prefect Office. The girl’s toilets were just down the corridor, but as she made towards them, she saw at least three of the girls from the prefect team turning into them. That was no good.
Remi kept walking past the toilets, through a set of double doors and turned left into another corridor. The first classroom was empty, so she ducked inside, hurriedly kicked the door closed, ditched her bag on a table and ran to the bin. Grabbing it from the floor and falling into the chair at the teacher’s desk, she held the bin on her lap and retched into it until she had projected half a withered flower from between her lips. She coughed a couple more times and a few loose petals followed, sticking on her tongue and mouth until she scrapped them out with her fingers and discarded them in the bin.
“Shoot,” she sighed.
“Bloody hell,” a voice said from the doorway. “Have you got hanahaki?”
Remi jolted in her seat and dropped the bin which rolled away from her across the floor, spilling its contents, mangled bloom and all, all over the carpet.
“Shit!” she exclaimed, glaring at the figure standing by the door. “Sam!”
Sam didn’t react, other than to step into the room and close the door behind him. “Door was open,” he said, “And I heard you…” he gestured vaguely at the bin.
Remi made a noise of both embarrassment and frustration as she curled forward and buried her head in her hands. She heard Sam put down his bag and take a few steps across the room.
“Got a tissue?” he asked after a moment.
Remi raised her head to see he was crouched by the bin, which he’d righted and was now refilling with some of the paper it had spilled.
“Don’t,” she said quickly. “I’ll do it.”
“Okay,” Sam agreed, scooping up the last of the paper, but leaving the flower and petals where they had landed. He stood up and leant against a desk as Remi got off the chair, took a tissue from her blazer pocket and bent down to collect the evidence of her humiliation.
“Shoot,” she muttered as she put the bin back where it belonged and then slowly turned to face Sam.
“So,” he said calmly, “Who is it?”
“What?” Remi asked, folding her arms and drawing herself up to her full height.
“Who do you have hanahaki for?”
“How do you know about hanahaki?”
Sam shrugged. “I watched a video online once about rare diseases. Hanahaki’s the unrequited love one, right?”
Remi glared at him, to try and compensate for the heat in her cheeks. “It’s not unrequited love,” she said, “It’s just a unlucky crush.”
“Okay,” Sam said, annoyingly unruffled—which, of course, he would be, since he wasn’t the one coughing up his feelings in the gloom of an empty classroom in the middle of the day. “For who?”
“Like I’m going to tell you that!”
“It’s not me, is it?”
Remi’s glare became a stare of disbelief. “No!”
Sam actually had the audacity to grin at her. “Good. That would be awkward.”
“Get lost.”
He shrugged innocently. “I’m just saying, I’d feel bad if it was me.”
Remi tilted her head disdainfully as she looked at him. “Why would it be you?” she asked.
Sam’s grin didn’t budge. “Wow,” he said. “I was going to feel bad for you, but now I’ve changed my mind.”
Remi scoffed. “I don’t need your pity,” she said, a scathing follow up ready on the tip of her tongue until the facts of her situation suddenly became coldly clear to her. She hesitated and then softened her tone, just a little. “You’re not going to tell anyone, are you?”
“Why would I?”
Remi thought about this for a moment as she quietly appraised the boy in front of her. “Promise?” she asked, eventually. “You give your word? As a matter of honour?”
Sam eased himself away from the desk he’d been leaning against and moved to collect his bag. “I’m not sure about honour,” he said indifferently, “But I’m not a gossip, so I won’t tell anyone.” Having shouldered his bag, he turned to face her again. “It’s Gio, isn’t it?”
This time, Remi didn’t blush, but she was aware of the blood rushing away from her face at the statement. Lucky guess? She hadn’t thought Sam the type to notice that sort of thing. But then Gio was his best friend, so perhaps this was an exception. Or was it really just that obvious? Did everyone know?
“It’s okay,” Sam said, “You don’t have to admit it. I don’t get why you don’t just tell him though. He has no idea.”
Remi felt her chest tighten and for a moment she struggled to get her voice to work. “There’s no point. He’s never going to think of me that way. I’m not his type. Besides, it would complicate things with our—”
“Please don’t say ‘working relationship’.”
“Responsibilities,” Remi finished.
Sam snorted. “Even worse. And I don’t think Gio even knows what his type is—but if you’re not going to confess, what are you going to do? This thing can kill you, right?”
Remi unfolded her arms and dug her hands into the pockets of her blazer instead, hoping she conveyed an air of nonchalance. “It’s not going to get that far. I told you, it’s just an unlucky crush. I’ll be over it soon.”
Sam raised his eyebrows. “Okay.” And then, somewhat cautiously: “Are you going to need help with that?”
Remi rolled her eyes. “I can manage, thanks.”
Sam nodded. “Good for you.” He walked toward the door, opened it, and then paused as he half-turned to face her again. “By the way, I take bribes in the form desserts, cake and pudding.”
And then he shut the door behind him, leaving Remi to work out, after a few seconds of panic, that he was only joking. Probably. Hopefully.
Next time: Episode 8—Rivals, Part 1
Teaser:
Emery spun on her heel and headed over to where the first year was handling her camera like a bomb disposal technician on their first job. Emery empathised… she felt like she’d just had her only hope blow up in her face. Both Milo and Maisie were right: Lila was a friggin’ glacier and there was no way she was ever going to give Emery a chance to change her feelings towards her.
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Author’s Notes:
I also take bribes in the form desserts, cake and pudding. Just so you know.
Let me know what you think of the new next episode teaser. Yay or nay? Is it in the right place? Would you prefer it somewhere else?
Next week: Episode 8—Rivals, Part 1
PJ
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