CHAPTER 11: FESTIVAL DAY BEGINS
The school barely looked like a school anymore.
By eight in the morning, the front gates were wrapped in ribbons and paper flowers. Strings of lights hung across hallways. Hand-painted banners swayed above the courtyard in the soft spring breeze.
Music drifted from somewhere near the main building.
Students rushed in every direction carrying props, posters, boxes, costumes, and last-minute panic.
Kai stopped just inside the gate and stared.
"…What happened here?"
Mira walked past him dramatically.
"Magic."
"This looks expensive."
Jaden adjusted the strap of his bag.
"This looks chaotic."
Liora was already holding her camera.
Her eyes moved across every detail—the decorated archway, students laughing in colorful outfits, sunlight catching on ribbons overhead.
Click.
The first Polaroid of the day printed into her hand.
Evren, standing beside her, glanced at it.
"You've been here thirty seconds."
"And already productive," she said.
He sighed.
"You're impossible."
She grinned.
"You're carrying the extra film, Ren."
He lifted the bag on his shoulder.
"I know."
Kai looked between them.
"I'd like to report favoritism."
Mira linked her arm through Kai's and dragged him toward the building.
"Move, civilian. We have a booth to run."
Their classroom had been transformed overnight.
The desks were pushed aside, leaving open space in the center. Fairy lights framed the walls. A hand-painted sign above the doorway read:
CLASS 3-A MEMORY WALL
The large board they built stood proudly against the far wall, already decorated with colorful pins and small paper notes.
Beside it was a Polaroid station with markers, stickers, and a tablecloth Mira had insisted was "essential for aesthetic success."
Kai looked around the room slowly.
"…Why does this actually look good?"
Mira flipped her hair.
"Because I have taste."
Jaden pointed at the sign.
"The letters are crooked."
Mira gasped.
"Take that back."
Liora walked straight to the Memory Wall and touched one of the empty corners.
"It's perfect."
Evren set the supply bag on the table.
"You said that before even checking if anything's missing."
"I trust the vision."
"That's not how planning works."
She turned to him.
"You're here. That's enough planning."
Kai made a face.
"That was weirdly smooth."
Evren ignored him.
By ten o'clock, students from other classes began visiting.
Some came because they were curious.
Some came because Mira stood outside the door dramatically announcing:
"Step inside and preserve your youth forever!"
Kai leaned against the wall nearby.
"She sounds like a suspicious merchant."
"It's called marketing," Mira said.
The room quickly filled with chatter.
Students laughed while taking Polaroids.
Friends posed together.
Couples shyly stood side by side.
Groups wrote messages and pinned them to the board.
Liora moved through the room with her camera, helping people adjust poses and angles.
"Closer," she told two students.
They moved an inch.
"Closer."
They turned bright red.
Kai snorted from the table.
"She enjoys this too much."
Jaden handed markers to another group.
"She was born for this."
Evren quietly replaced empty film packs, untangled cords, and steadied the table every time someone bumped into it.
No one noticed how often he was fixing things.
Except Liora.
Every now and then, her eyes would flick toward him.
Then back to the room.
Around noon, the line outside the classroom stretched into the hallway.
Kai stared at it.
"Why are people voluntarily waiting?"
Mira looked smug.
"Because we created culture."
Jaden checked the supply box.
"We're low on markers."
Evren picked up the list immediately.
"I'll get more."
"I'm coming too," Liora said.
"You're busy," he replied.
"I can walk and be busy."
"That sentence made no sense."
"It made enough sense."
Before he could object, she had already grabbed her camera and followed him into the hallway.
Behind them, Mira watched with narrowed eyes.
Kai looked at her.
"What now?"
"That."
"What about it?"
"They disappeared together."
Jaden shrugged.
"They're buying markers."
Mira placed a hand over her heart.
"You people never appreciate subtext."
The hallway was brighter and quieter away from the crowd.
Students passed carrying trays, balloons, cardboard swords, and trays of snacks.
Liora walked beside Evren, swinging her camera lightly.
"You're doing a lot today."
"You're doing more."
"I'm having fun."
"I'm surviving."
She laughed.
They reached the supply room near the stairwell.
Evren grabbed markers from a shelf while Liora wandered nearby, studying old posters stacked in a corner.
Then she turned suddenly.
"Ren."
"What."
"Stand there."
He looked up.
"Why."
"The light is nice."
He stared at her for a second.
"No."
Too late.
Click.
The flash went off.
Liora caught the Polaroid with a grin.
"You looked annoyed."
"I was annoyed."
"Exactly."
She watched the image slowly develop.
Evren standing under the stairwell window, sunlight cutting across one side of his face, expression flat with mild irritation.
"…This one's good," she said softly.
He picked up the marker box.
"You say that about all of them."
"Not true."
"Then delete it."
"It's film."
He sighed.
"You're impossible."
She smiled.
"You said that already."
When they returned, the room was louder than before.
Mira was trying to organize a group photo of seven people who refused to cooperate.
Kai was eating festival snacks behind the table.
Jaden was somehow managing everything else.
"You left me with children," Mira said dramatically.
"They're your age," Evren replied.
"Emotionally false."
Liora laughed and slid the markers onto the table.
"Need help?"
"Yes," Mira said instantly.
"No," Jaden said at the same time.
Kai raised a hand.
"I need more food."
No one answered him.
The afternoon passed in a blur of voices and camera flashes.
The Memory Wall slowly filled.
Notes overlapped one another in layers.
Some were funny.
Kai complains too much.
Some were sweet.
I hope we stay friends after graduation.
Some were anonymous.
Thank you for being here when I needed someone.
Liora paused in front of that one.
Her smile faded into something softer.
Evren noticed from across the room.
He walked over quietly.
"What happened?"
She pointed at the note.
He read it once.
Then looked at the board full of photos and messages.
"…You made something people wanted."
"No," she said softly.
"We made it."
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Mira yelled from the doorway:
"EMERGENCY!"
Kai appeared behind her holding an empty snack tray.
"We ran out of cookies."
Evren closed his eyes.
"That's not an emergency."
"It is to me," Kai said.
By late afternoon, golden sunlight poured through the classroom windows.
The rush had slowed.
The room was finally quiet.
Pins glittered softly across the filled Memory Wall.
Photos covered nearly every corner.
Students' laughter still echoed faintly from the courtyard outside.
Mira sat on the floor, exhausted.
"I can't feel my legs."
Kai sat beside her.
"That's because you made ten dramatic entrances today."
Jaden leaned against the wall.
"Eleven."
Liora stood in front of the Memory Wall with her camera in hand.
She turned toward the others.
"One photo."
Kai groaned.
"Again?"
"Yes."
Mira sat up instantly.
"Wait. Let me look alive."
Jaden sighed but stood.
Evren walked over last.
The five of them gathered in front of the wall they built together.
Photos behind them.
Lights above them.
Sunset spilling gold through the windows.
Liora set the camera timer on a shelf and ran back into place.
Three seconds.
Two.
One.
Click.
The flash lit the room.
For a second, everything froze.
Five friends.
One day.
A hundred small memories.
When the photo printed, Liora caught it and looked down.
No one was blinking.
Kai looked annoyed.
Mira looked radiant.
Jaden looked tired.
Evren looked calm.
And she was smiling in the middle of all of them.
Perfect.
She slipped it carefully into her bag.
Another memory saved.
Outside, festival music swelled across the campus.
And somewhere in the golden ending of the day, none of them knew how precious this season would become.