Square One

Chapter 1

I feel like I'm in a haunted house.

It's eerie, and dark, and quiet, and all I can think about is if I am safe here or not. I hear my shoes scuff across the linoleum floor and then I make myself come to a skidding halt, clutching the straps of my nearly ratted backpack.

There's people here. Lots of people here, but it's too dim to see more than the backs of their heads and maybe the rims of glasses if I squint hard enough. I hear whispering, but oddly enough, no giggling. This isn't a rumor I'm hearing, this is something serious.

The lights come on, signaling the start of the day. People are on their phones, and if I look over their shoulders, they're all staring at the same picture. From this far away and with the dimness of some people's phones, all I can see is a rough outline of a tall, olive skinned girl with wide-rimmed glasses and a high ponytail. For some reason, the girl in the photo looks familiar, but I shrug it off, thinking it was just a celebrity or someone like that.

The bell rings and I sit down in my first class, which again, has a solemn and quiet aura to it. I pull out a pencil and start to fidget with it.

"Did you hear?" someone says from behind me. People keep talking, it's soft talking, almost inaudible, but I can still hear three key phrases being uttered on my classmate's lips.

Hailey. Coma. Last night.

There's more than one Hailey in my grade, and there's eight Haileys in the school. There's Hailey Sullivan, who's kind of a loner like I am. There's Hailey Maddox, popular in the theatre company, gets all the lead roles kind of girl.

And then there's Hailey Driscoll. Captain of the cheerleading squad and the most popular girl in school.

Thinking back to the photo I saw earlier, I know that the Hailey that every single one of my classmates were talking about was definitely Hailey D.

Hearing that Hailey Driscoll's in a coma sends me in a wave of emotion. First of all, confusion. What the hell happened? How did this happen? Hailey was as healthy as a horse, and I live in a small enough town that any car accident or the like would immediately be in the newspaper or on the local news.

Second of all, I feel angry. Why? I don't know. I'm pretty sure it was anger for no one telling me specifically that Hailey was in a coma, but I'm just Aria Bates, school loser.

And finally, I felt scared and sad. I dig in my backpack and pull out a pink and purple beaded bracelet. Whenever people ask where I got it from, I'd usually say that I made it myself.

That's a lie.

Hailey made it for me. Hailey Driscoll and I used to be best friends.

Hailey and I used to be neighbors. Not next-door neighbors, but Hailey lived across the street from me. She moved to my neighborhood in sixth grade and moved out in freshman year. Every single year from fifth to seventh grade, we would have at least one class together, and we found ourselves at each other's houses more often than not.

Eighth grade was when Hailey and I had our falling out.

Hailey joined the cheer squad, got a boyfriend, completely ignored me. And then she intertwined herself with the popular crowd and suddenly, like it was magic, she changed from the sweetest human on Earth to a complete monster. She bullied me, ignored me, talked smack about me behind my back...the list goes on and on.

I snap back to reality and turn to the girl behind me, who's putting up a poster that said We Love You, Hailey! on the wall. Hailey's tall,
powerful figure is the star of the show, her green eyes seemed to stare into my soul and her light brown hair is pulled back into a high ponytail. She's, in simpler terms, perfect.

"Did you just say that Hailey Driscoll was in a coma?" I say.

"Why do you care? Hailey hates you."

Not for long.

I'm gonna start from square one.