Burning Bridges ✷ Gale Weathers

03. FULL THROTTLE

✷

Harriet had never wanted to kill someone as much as she wanted to kill Gale Weathers.

Maybe the term kill was a little far-fetched, but the anger sure was there, burning embers deep in her gut. She couldn't even get through the News channel. Hearing Gale talk about the Ghostface murders with no sympathy at all made Harriet want to plunge her hands through the screen and strangle her.

Of course Gale would do something like this. Nothing was ever off the record with her, even if she claimed it to be. She lied and manipulated people in order to get what she wanted, and everyone seemed to fall for her perfect girl charm.

Everyone but her and Sidney, who looked a little like she wanted to kill Gale as well.

"This is unbelievable," Sidney muttered, snatching the remote and shutting off the TV. "She talks about the victims like they're toys. As if their lives didn't matter."

"It's not a surprise," Harriet said, still glaring at the screen. "Gale only cares about herself. No one else."

Sidney nodded in agreement, her fingers fiddling with the pendant around her neck. Then she sat up. "I'm gonna go to Jill's, see if she's doing okay. Wanna come?"

Harriet shook her head. "No, I'm good. You take care of your family."

"Alright. See you later."

When the door shut softly behind her, Harriet shot up from the couch and went to grab her laptop from the guestroom. She brought it back downstairs with her and settled at the kitchen counter, flipping it open and immediately typing Gale's name into the search bar.

A few sites instantly popped up. Images of Gale lit up her screen and she scowled, hating herself for finding her attractive. But she had to admit it. The woman exceeded the definition of pretty. She was exquisite.

Unfortunately she wasn't as pretty on the inside as she was on the outside.

Shaking away the thought, she clicked on the first site and skimmed her way through it.

Gale Marie Weathers, Woodsboro's News Reporter And Author. Known for her published book "The Woodsboro Murders."

Harriet wrinkled her nose in distaste. How could she profit off of innocent lives like this? It was always like Gale to maintain her pedestal, even in highschool, but this was a whole nother kind of low.

Without wanting to even think about what Gale had written in her thick book, she shut her laptop, nestled into the couch, and sighed. She was heading off track. She needed to stay focused on catching the new Ghostface, not stalking Gale Weathers on the internet.

Yet her fingers itched to search for more about her anyway.

Shaking her head to clear it, she reached for the case files she was meant to be looking through and busied herself with work. As much as she tried to focus on the task at hand, her mind kept floating back to Gale.

And she hated herself for it.

✷

The cafeteria buzzed with conversation, and Harriet tried to keep to herself at her personal lunch table in the corner.

She never had many friends growing up. She'd always been an outcast, mainly because she her family was poor and she brought sacked lunches of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school everyday while everyone else got to eat the school lunch. She would say her lunch was far better than that vomit, but people would assume she was only saying that to make herself feel better about having no money.