Hange Zoe Short Story Collection

Line Without a Hook (Part 11)

"Guess there is something, and there is nothing, there is nothing in between. And in my eyes, there is a tiny dancer watching over me, he's singing..."

"This is a replica of the woolly mammoth," Hange explained. "Don't they look so cool? They're direct ancestors of..."

Hange trailed off, their smile falling when they realized the girl they had been talking to wasn't listening. (Y/N) had moved away, and eventually, had stopped hanging out with Hange entirely. They had been left alone. No friends. No people that wanted to talk to them.

Hange stopped talking, turning to look out the classroom window. They missed (Y/N) more than anything. Ever since she stopped hanging out with them, many had started to tease them again. The kids called Hange mean names like four-eyes and weirdo, insulting the books and replicas that they brought with them. All they wished for was (Y/N)'s presence again.

Were they not interesting enough?

Were they boring to talk to?

Were they embarrassing?

They thought about (Y/N) often. They thought about reasons why she stopped hanging out with them. Most of the time, they blamed themselves. Perhaps they really were weird and embarrassing to be around. And so, they stopped talking as much. They left their precious books at home, they swallowed back all the comments they wanted to make...they chipped off pieces of themselves so that (Y/N) would come back.

But she never did.

One week had passed. One week had changed everything. For starters, she had been "shunned" from her previous friend group. Nanaba ghosted her and encouraged Miche and Rico to do the same. She didn't mind that all too much, but there was one thing she missed...the security that came with being Nanaba's friend. Nobody touched Nanaba's friends. Now that the entire school (which was considerably small) knew that (Y/N) and Nanaba had a falling out.

And that led to snide comments in the hall. Oh look, isn't that the girl who broke into city hall? No, that's the girl who thought it was okay to play with people's feelings. She was no longer (Y/N), the actress and model. She was (Y/N), the jerk who did crimes and broke people's hearts. She felt horrible knowing that Hange was hurt because of her. She didn't even mind half the insults.

That was until the paparazzi got involved.

"Look this way!"

"No, look here!"

"How does it feel that you've been exposed by someone who called your friend!"

"Did you really toy with someone because of a dare?"

"Don't you think you should be arrested for breaking and entering, along with stealing?"

Those sentences echoed in her ears as she tried to shove past the reporters, trying her best to get to school. They grabbed at her backpack, trying to get her to stay. They shoved microphones in her face, trying to get her to speak. The lights flashed as random people took photos of her. All she felt like was crying. There were rumors going around that weren't even true. Some said that (Y/N) was in a drug cartel and was the leader. Some said that she killed a person with the fireworks. The rumors were preposterous and stupid, nowhere near the actual truth.

"Leave me alone," she muttered, wishing that she still had a bodyguard. She wished her parents were home so they could take care of it. She wished she had never gotten into acting.

She finally made it through the crowd, arriving to her first class ten minutes late. Biology. The class she had with Hange. She didn't want to turn around and see them, so she stared ahead as the teacher droned on about mitosis. At the end of class, she received her quiz—which was a D. Great. As if her day wasn't going horrible enough.