"A Hunt With No Violence Doesn't Feed Anyone" // Heathers Fanfiction

Prologue

Sherwood, Ohio. 2009.

Interviewee #1

"And to think that could have been me..." the woman smashed her cigarette on the ashtray, but the strong smell of smoke lingered on. She took a sip of her martini before continuing, staining the glass with her bright pink lipstick.

"Were you on the team?" Vivian leaned in on her seat, pen in hand, ready to take notes.

"Well, no," the woman put the now empty glass on the coffee table between the two of them. "But when something like this happens, especially to people that you know, you can't help but wonder, right?"

***

Interviewee #2

"Those kids were outstanding. The pride of this school."

Vivian crossed her legs. She hadn't been to the principal's office since her high school years, and it felt weirdly nostalgic, even if that wasn't her school. She looked up from her notebook to face Westerburg High's principal.

"Some of your old students told me that you dedicated four whole pages of the 89 yearbook to them."

"It's true," Principal Gowan nodded. He leaned on in his leather chair, a faraway look on his face, like he was back in the 80s, reliving the good old days. He probably had more hair back then, Vivian couldn't help but think. "I mean, God forgive me but some of our students? It wouldn't have been much of a difference if it had happened to them. But those girls? They were special. They were champions."

***

Interviewee #3

"They were kind of bitches, actually," the former Westerburg student said.

"I'm sorry?" Vivian blinked.

"Don't get me wrong, they were hot," he added as if that somehow made things better. "I remember that year because I had gotten super jacked from working at my uncle's mechanic shop and I was finally ready to hit on one of them but I never got the chance..."

"Do you think any of them would have said yes?" Vivian humored him.

"Nah, they were all way out of my league," the guy said, scratching his beard. "Plus, a few of them had boyfriends, you know? I didn't want to get my ass kicked."

"Are you referring to the boys that were with them during the accident?"

"Yeah," he said. "Hey, you're not gonna quote me in that, are you?"

***

Interviewee #4

"I know I will be judged for saying these things but most of those kids were troublemakers," the fourth interviewee, an old math teacher, said. "They were always in detention, for smoking in the bathroom, getting into fights, violating the dress codes."

"But isn't that what most teenagers do?" Vivian asked. She had been guilty of doing a few of those things back in her teenage years. The old lady made a face at her comment.

"Maybe. But all I'm saying is that when things like that happen, people tend to romanticize the victims," the woman, already 78 years old, started to cough violently, so much that Vivian feared her lungs were going to fly out of her mouth. After she recomposed herself, she grabbed another cigarette (did everyone in Sherwood, Ohio smoke?) from her crochet purse. "But don't believe what the people in this town tell you. Those girls were no saints."

***

Interviewee #5

"I didn't know them that well, to be honest," the woman walked towards the couch, with two cups of coffee in hand. She handed one to Vivian before sitting down. Vivian could see that she limped a little every time she walked. "I was a freshman, so I was new on the team."

"Had you been in any games with them before your injury?" Vivian asked.

"A few. I don't think they were very happy with me on the team, though," she chuckled. "I wasn't very good. That's partly why I hurt my leg."

"I'm sorry about that."

"Thank you. I was terrified at the time," she licked her lips. Vivian took a sip of her coffee and started scribbling on the paper. "But if I hadn't broken my leg, I would have been there with them that day. So, in a way, I'm grateful."

"And what do you think really happened out there?"