The Hanahaki Club: Episode 8
Episode 8: Rivals, Part 1
So far…
The hanahaki support group met for the first time on Thursday evening in the Blue Room of the Fenway Community Centre, where Emery revealed that her hanahaki is caused not by love, but by hate. Now, it’s the day after that meeting.
Episode 8: Rivals, Part 1
Emery
Emery took a camera from the charging dock and began casually checking the settings whilst she kept one eye on Lila, who was downloading files from her own personal camera onto one of the computers nearby. What if Merryn was right? What if the cure for her hanahaki was to get Lila to like her? Lila, who never acknowledged Emery’s existence unless forced to. Lila, who only ever looked at her like she was some brainless slimy creature that had crawled out of a muddy hole in the ground. Lila, who was curt and condescending to her whilst civil and pleasant to everyone else. Lila, who had rolled her eyes at the suggestion that Emery might be her only serious academic rival in the school and declared bluntly that it was the most absurd thing she’d ever heard in her entire life.
Then, I’m screwed, Emery had to conclude. There’s absolutely no way that girl is ever going to tolerate me, let alone like me.
Emery had no doubt that Lila hated her just as much, if not more, than Emery hated her in return. In fact, she was pretty sure it was Lila hating her first that had birthed these ugly feelings now blooming in her chest. Even now, as she watched the back of that dark-blonde head, with its immaculate French plait, Emery was sure she could feel a new flower budding from the tissue of her lungs. She’d put the idea to Maisie and Milo at lunchtime, during improv club—what were the chances that she could get Lila to like her, or even just hate her a little less?—and they’d been less than helpful.
Milo was adamant it was impossible. “You’re just completely incompatible,” he’d insisted. “And Lila’s a stone-cold ice-queen.”
Maisie thought that in theory it could work, but Emery would never get the opportunity to practically test it. “I don’t see how anyone who got to know you could ever dislike you,” Maisie had said, “But I also don’t see Lila ever giving you that chance. She treats you like you’re a plague victim; you’d never get close enough to try.”
Emery grimaced to herself and slipped the camera strap around her neck. Well, now was as good a time as any to see if her friends were right. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Taking a deep, mental breath and clutching the camera tightly, she walked over to Lila, who was scrolling through the photos she’d just downloaded, one hand on the mouse and the other cupping her chin as she rested her elbow on the desk.
“Nice composition,” Emery said over her shoulder.
Immediately, Lila stopped scrolling and half-swivelled on her chair to look over her shoulder at Emery with narrow-eyed suspicion. She didn’t say anything, so Emery nodded at the image on the screen and smiled as naturally as she could. “The positioning of the bench to the left and in the foreground almost makes it feel like you’re sitting right there, looking at the lake.”
Lila’s forehead creased as she stared at Emery for a second, as if she was contemplating whether to squish her beneath her shoe, and then her gaze shifted to the right and her frown became a wry smirk. Emery followed her gaze to see the current club president walking towards them.
“Everything okay here, girls?” Rika asked.
Lila didn’t say anything so Emery gestured at the computer screen again. “I think the perspective works really well.”
“Yes,” Rika agreed, “It really does. That’s a nice composition, Lila.”
“Thanks,” Lila replied, her brow still creased with cynicism as she side-eyed Emery.
Rika patted Emery on the shoulder. “Do you think you could help the newbie with her settings?” she asked, nodding in the direction of the first year who was fumbling with one of the cameras.
“Sure!” Emery said brightly, catching Lila rolling her eyes as Rika moved away to talk to another member who was having problems with the editing software.
As Lila swivelled back around on her stool to continue scrolling through her photo gallery, Emery contemplated grabbing a handful of that tidy plait and yanking it hard enough to pluck out a fistful of blonde strands. What was her frickin’ problem?
Fine. Lila could be like that if she wanted, but it wasn’t going to stop Emery from trying anyway.
“Where is it?” she asked, trying to keep her tone light as she shifted on her feet.
Lila didn’t look around but her response was loaded with irritation: “What?”
“The lake—where is it?”
“Don’t you have some babysitting to do?”
“Is it a secret or something?”
“No. It’s Lockley Park Gardens.”
There was a pointed pause as Lila kept clicking through the gallery, clearly determined to ignore Emery’s lurking presence behind her.
Well, that was a dead-end then.
“Okay, thanks.” 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. Well, screw her. She would find some other way to beat the hanahaki.
Despite her sulky determination to ignore the object of her loathing, Emery couldn’t help but watch Lila out of the corner of her eye for the rest of the club time: how she talked, and smiled, and gave advice, and made the other members laugh with her easy charm and quick wit. They had no idea, Emery realised; none of them knew what Lila was really like. They only knew her here and now, as a model pupil of Greenwood Girl’s Grammar School; they hadn’t had to endure the Lila that Emery knew intimately from middle school, the Lila who was the reason Emery’s left lung felt like it was full of threads and thorns, why she was spitting petals every day, why she inhaled toxic chemicals from a special inhaler to wither and disintegrate the blooms beneath her ribs so that, in theory, they would cause less permanent damage as they squeezed up her oesophagus and onto her tongue.
How would getting Lila to like her, even if it was possible, change any of that?
At the end of the club, after they’d packed up and were about to head home, Rika announced that they would be holding a photography competition to decide the next club president. In the next couple of weeks, the committee would nominate several candidates to participate, a theme would be released and they would have until May half-term to submit their entry.
May half-term? Emery would be in hospital by then, having flowers weeded out of her lungs with a scalpel… unless she found a cure before then.
Frick. Frick. Fricketty-frick.
She really didn’t have a choice. She had to get Lila to like her, and that meant she had to find an opportunity that would allow her to get close to Lila without being immediately—and probably brutally—brushed off. Emery loved a challenge, but she wasn’t sure that she was capable of performing miracles.
And then, as she was stopping at the school gates to adjust her bicycle helmet, and Lila came gliding past her on her own bike and shot off across the road, an idea sprouted in Emery’s brain like the first snowdrop peeking through the January frost.
Maybe it wasn’t about finding an opportunity but creating one instead. And Emery suddenly had the perfect plan to do just that. As much as she and Lila disliked each other, they did have one thing in common that Emery could exploit. If she could get Lila to take the bait, she would have her chance to turn her rival and enemy into someone who not only liked her but adored her; she would make Lila fall so hard that she would become a drooling fangirl, a clingy admirer, a fawning minion. Emery was going to turn Lila’s hate into fondness—and the beautiful thing was that Emery wouldn’t have to let go of her own feelings in return. Emery was going to make sure that, if Lila was unfortunate enough to have the hanahaki gene, then, in the next four months, she would be the one spitting up flowers.
Next time: Episode 9—Rivals, Part 2
Teaser:
“Just because she likes him, doesn’t mean he’s interested in her,” Izaak said, as they reached the car.
“I know,” Hassie replied, fishing out her car keys and unlocking the doors.
“You’ve got a better chance than Tabitha.”
Hassie gave him a cynical look over the roof of the car before sliding into the driver’s seat.
He’ll never choose me—she wanted to say. He didn’t the first time.
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Author’s Notes:
Lila, you’d better watch your back— Emery has a plan.
Also… Happy New Year! 🎀✨May 2025 bring you peace and joy.
Next time: Episode 9—Rivals, Part 2
PJ
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