The next day Layla and Ashton didn’t get a chance to see each other but Ashton wanted to thank Layla for the drink. He tried finding her but it was taking too long so he headed back to the English building. On his way in he saw someone on the other side of the building turning the corner. He walked into the classroom and another sports drink had been placed in the same spot as yesterday. Ashton laughed because of how ironic it had been that while he was finding her, Layla had been going in the opposite direction as if she didn’t want to be found. The next few weeks continued with Ashton and Layla being too busy to meet but Layla always left a drink for Ashton when she got the chance. He started to feel bad about how many drinks she was giving him but they hadn’t exchanged phone numbers so he couldn’t call or even text her about it. The day before homecoming had arrived and everyone had finished the preparations. Luckily nothing had gone wrong so Ashton wasn’t stressed out about the next day. Ashton waited in the English classroom all afternoon for Layla. Sophia has gone home already but Ashton wanted to see Layla before homecoming. He heard the door click and slightly jumped. He turned off his phone and he grinned but it wasn’t forced at all. It was the first non-forced smile he had for a while. She didn’t expect to see him but when Layla looked up her eyes widened, and she slightly jumped back.
“Oh! Haha...” she smiled nervously while waving the sports drink in one hand.
“Hey, I thought you weren’t gonna show up today,” Ashton said while walking closer to the middle of the room.
“Well I just thought I’d finish what I started.” Layla sighed as she met with him in the middle of the room.
“Why’d you start leaving these here in the first place? Not that it was bad or anything I just felt...y'know confused.” Ashton asked
“Uh...it’s just that one time I saw how tired you were and I had one of these on me so I thought I’d give it to you because it wasn’t my place to tell you to stop working y'know...” Layla said while shifting her eyes towards the ground.
“Well, I’m thankful but I have to pay you back” Ashton suggested.
“Oh you don’t have to, I mean I didn’t really buy these anyway, they were a gift” Layla explained, Ashton made a confused expression. “We have this family friend that comes over and gives us stuff for free when he has extras. Sometimes its fruit, clothes, but this time we had a bunch of sports drinks just lying in a box at home so I thought if anyone should drink them it was you because you work for so long.” Layla said as she handed him the drink.
“Hmm. Haha, alright then. Guess this is the last one, but thank you and I’m sorry if I cause you trouble. “ Ashton said concerned.
“It’s fine. Goodbye see you tomorrow” Layla said while turning to leave.
“Uh wait! What uh, what are you doing for homecoming? I mean I know you’re in charge of the float so you’re going to be busy with that but after that are you going to the game or the dance?” Ashton asked hopefully.
“No. After I’m done helping with the float and cleaning up I’m going home. Did you need me to stay to clean up at the dance?” Layla slightly tilted her head while turning back to him.
Ashton had a cleanup crew already but he wanted to see Layla enjoying homecoming. He thought maybe he just wanted to see Layla tomorrow in general. He had thought about her these past few weeks but hadn’t actually seen her until now. Ashton wanted to get closer to Layla especially since he had seen a new side to her. She still spoke distantly but the things she said weren’t coming across as cold anymore. He lied about being short on hands and asked if it would be too much trouble for her to stay until the dance was over. She agreed and let out a sigh. They said goodbye and Layla left first. Ashton made a call for a ride home and realized he should’ve asked Layla if she needed one but sure enough, it was too late and she had gone too far already. He felt guilty for lying but the guilt was overwhelmed by expectations.
The next day, homecoming had finally arrived. Those who were involved in the behind the scenes of the making were relieved and exhausted. Ashton got through all of his daily classes smoothly, because of homecoming the day was shorter and the workload was small. Layla had just been going over her schedule for the day and planning for any bumps that she may have to handle. She wasn’t an over-thinker, she just planned ahead a lot, sometimes she planned really far ahead but she wasn’t a perfectionist so she knew some things may go wrong and always tried to prepare for those. The exhausted class officers, homecoming helpers, and student council were pouring all of their fleeting stress into making sure homecoming went by without any confusion and that people are able to enjoy themselves. Luckily with all the members on hand, things were covered in all corners. Student council had 7 members that looked over the whole school, President, V.P., Secretary/Historian, Treasurer, Fundraising Officer, and a representative for the boys and girls each. Then each class had their own officers, including the same titles only instead of two gender representatives, each year had one representative for the whole class, and Layla was the junior representative. There also wasn’t a fundraising officer for each class, instead, the treasurer worked with the fundraising officer on student council. The homecoming float committee members included one person in charge, the class rep., and ten other volunteering class members. Any other aspects of homecoming were handled by anyone in the class officer that was available or any student council member available.
The rally went well, it was mostly the student council and spirit club that worked on the behind the scenes for it. The spirit of the students could have been better though, many students involved were excited, and others were only there because they had to be. Right after the school day ended, the football team members had already begun practice and preparing for the game, as well as the float members who planned to show off the floats during half time. Layla and her team were preparing the float in place, there was still an hour before half time, so everyone was enjoying the game and concession stands. Layla was waiting on her float, writing on a notepad, the floats were empty because the members had already finished practicing. The theme that year was popular novels, and the juniors had “The Great Gatsby”, which Layla was confident in the final product because she had done many essays on the book before.
Ashton was enjoying the game as well and would stay until they showed the floats because right after the game, was the dance and where they would announce the queen and king of homecoming. Ashton tried looking for Layla. He found one of the float members for the junior class and stopped them.
“Maria!” yelled Ashton
Maria turned around to look at who called her name, and made eye contact with Ashton and started jogging toward him. “What happened Ash?” she asked.
“Everything's fine, I was just looking for the float members for our class,” said Ash
“Oh! Ash, you’re gonna be so impressed I bet we’re gonna win!” Maria lit up
“Really?” ash asked suspiciously
“Yes! For real, I had read the book before in class but Layla came up with all kinds of cool things we could do for the float and got a lot of good supplies for us. I wasn’t even that excited for making it honestly I wanted to get out of class haha but it was fun like for real it was so yeah, me and Katie and them are gonna be at the stands until we have to go do the floats, I just came here to grab a snack.”
“All of you are sitting at the stands right now?”
“Yeah all the float people are hanging out in like the bottom part of the stands, like rigggghhtt there, you see?” Maria said while pointing towards the bottom left section of the football stands.
“Okay, I’ll come to say hi in a few minutes,” said Ash
Maria went on to looking for a snack to buy before heading back, a lot of clubs were selling different items as well as the school concession stand. There were options like lemonade, bbq, ice cream, tacos, cotton candy, etc. Their town had many family businesses that loved to come and sell their products.
Ash headed towards the stands and said hi and did handshakes with all the people in the junior float committee. He didn’t see Layla. He asked,
“Where did Layla go?”
“Oh she wanted to wait and hang out by the floats until we had to go on to catch up on work or something,” answered Henry
Ash looked at Henry, feeling disappointed that he couldn’t see Layla. Henry was the treasurer for the juniors, but since his class needed extra help, he decided to be on the float committee.
“Did you need her for something? I’ll call her to come up here” Henry said as he pulled out his phone.
Ash, confused at first wanted to tell Henry he didn’t have to call her, but the thing he ended up saying was,
“Wait, you have her number?”
“Yeah, hold on” Henry dialed Layla and put the phone to his ear.
“Oh! No, if shes at the floats then its fine, I was just wondering.” Ash responded as the phone rang.
“Are you sure- Oh! Layla hey, are you still at the floats right now?” Henry was now talking to Layla on the phone, leaving Ash feeling guilty and anxious.
“Yeah, what's wrong? There's still another 40 minutes until halftime isn’t there?” Layla responded, only Henry could hear, the crowds and sounds of the football game were too loud for anyone else to be able to hear their conversation.
“Yeah yeah haha sorry! We’re gonna head over there in a while, you sure you don’t wanna come up here?” Henry asked
“Yeah, did you need me for something?” Layla asked
“No no, just callin, all right see you soon” Henry hung up after he heard Layla hum. “Sorry, I know you said its fine but I was already calling her so I asked hahaha” Henry laughed
“Haha..well I can’t wait to see what you guys did, good luck!” Ash waved and headed towards another section in the stands to sit, thinking and feeling uncomfortable. He had realized he was putting in more effort than usual to see Layla and hadn’t started to realize why yet. He was also curious on how comfortable Henry and Layla had gotten, they’d obviously spent a lot of time together but he wished he could sound as natural as Henry when talking to Layla, and wondered if Layla sounded different when talking to Henry.
Half time finally arrived and the crowd was ecstatic over the floats. They had pulled it off without any problems and introduced the candidates for homecoming king and queen. Ashton stayed until they announced the winner, which ended up being the Senior class, who had the novel “Catcher in the Rye”.
“Don’t feel down guys the seniors had all kinds of people from the art club that's why” Henry tried to cheer up the float members after taking the floats to the back of the field.
“Who was even the judge? What if they were picking favorites or whatever yknow?” asked Emily
“No! The judge was that one advisor that teaches history or something, remember?” said Alex
“Oh yeah he comes to the school sometimes, dude he's so out of it so he probably was all rules about it” said Maria
“Thank you all for helping with the float and being here until the end,” said Layla “I’m glad we impressed the school even if we didn’t win, we should be proud of what we made” Layla slightly smiled.
“Woo! Yeah, guys c’mon we're gonna dance and drink in like an hour so who cares eh? Forget the seniors and their Bread maker book or whatever I didn’t read that shit haha!” Henry screamed and the rest of the members laughed while collectively feeling relief.
“I know right after the game there's an hour before the dance, so if you guys want you can go ahead and enjoy the rest of the game and get ready for the dance early, I’ll clean up the float,” said Layla
“What the? You’re not gonna come dance with us “captain?” henry said sarcastically and confused
“No, I’m just going to help with the clean up after so I didn’t even buy a ticket,” said Layla
“You don’t need a ticket Layla!” said Maria
“Yeah, we get in for free cause we worked on the floats, c’mon we’ll help you clean and then you come with us yeah?” said Katie
“No, I don’t feel like going anyway,” said Layla
They all felt bummed out that Layla wasn’t going, not particularly cause they wanted her there, but just the thought that they spent so much time together and she wasn’t gonna be there one last time. Some students decided to help clean up but little by little the members left to get ready or watch the game until it was only Henry and Layla left. The game ended but there was still some clean up to do, although the other classes were done.
“Thanks, Henry, you should go get ready now so you get there on time,” said Layla
“Are you sure? What are you gonna do with the big bottom thing?” asked Henry
“Markus said his brother is coming to pick it up soon so I just have to finish throwing this stuff away and putting the rest in the storage at the school before they close it,” said Layla
“Hm, Okay then! If you get bored tho like, you can still come y’know to hang out” suggested Henry
“Yeah, thank you, see you on Monday.” Layla waved goodbye
Ashton had already been at the dance, which was being held in the gym. He didn’t have time to try and contact Layla, even if he could, but he was still completely unaware that Layla only planned to come when the dance was over.
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