Hailey sat on her bed with the picture in her hand, vividly remembering them all laughing while saying "Cheeeeese!" during this picture, mainly because there was cheesy pizza in their hands. She held the phone up, her pizza barely making the shot. It's as if they pretended the pizza was wine glasses, and they were going "Cheers!". Hailey had her black dress on, for once had her hair down and the matching varsity jackets that the rest of the club had on. That was probably the last time they were actually a club, or more so a friend group. The night of the competition.
She put the picture back on her dresser and groaned, throwing her head back on the pillow, turning off the blasting music in her headphones. It was the night before the first day back to school from Christmas break. Which is, not including the Christmas when Luke went on vacation, the first Christmas break their plans didn't go through, and Hailey was terrified that she might've been the only one to care.
Ever since they won the music competition, everyone started to be nice to the music club. Milly got some new friends in her grade and out besides the club, Luke got more recognition and got a spot on the soccer team, Zander joined a book club, Sean looked for more colleges and got recognized by music producers and got more money for working with them, and Jake, well, he's been spending his time getting closer to Daisy, since that was his overall plan at first, but surprisingly he did check up on the club more often then the rest of them besides Hailey. Hailey on the other hand had people from time to time become more nice towards her, but she never really seemed to grasp on the concept of getting other friends besides the club, and she didn't understand how easily her band mates were doing it. Not even the friends aspect, just the simple idea of getting a new life after the competition. Which seemed even dumber in her mind, because she was the only one with nothing going on.
She picked up her phone and scrolled through her instagram feed, seeing Milly's new post. The pink-haired girl stood in the middle between two of her friends, one with black hair and the other with blue hair. She recognized the one with black hair since she was a junior like herself. Their arms were wrapped around each other's necks, and Milly had each hand hold a peace sign up on two sides, smiling widely. Hailey liked the photo and saw the amount of likes she had, not being surprised. All of her friends had the same amount of likes after the competition.
"Hailey, come on downstairs! It's time to eat!" Her dad exclaimed. She groaned and sat up from her bed, throwing a hoodie over her head to go eat. She slipped on a pair of fuzzy socks to keep her feet warm as well. She quickly ran down the stairs to see some of Bethany's beat up baby alive dolls. She grabbed it by its foot and saw a familiar looking pink tinted lipstick on it, looked down again and saw her favorite lipstick on the floor, cap off. "Bethany..." She groaned and picked up the lipstick, walking with the doll in her hand to the dining room. "Care to explain?" Hailey tilted her head angrily. Bethany giggled and Shannon, her step-mom rolled her eyes and told Bethany something under her breath. "Just tell me the name of it later Hailey, I'll get you a new one, right now is dinner time." Shannon reassured her.
Hailey put the items down and slumped in her chair, still holding the grudge on Bethany. She scanned the table to see her plate in front of her and her father taking a seat next to her. Her eyes darted to an empty seat and plate. "Wheres Zander?" She asked Shannon. At this point, Hailey never knew where her brother was these days.
"He's out with Luke and their friends." She picked up her fork and ate a brussel sprout. "I'm glad hes branching out. You should do the same." Shannon nodded at her and glanced at Michael, Hailey's dad, seeing him agree. Hailey looked between the both of them, dumbfounded. "Me?" She pointed to herself. Shannon had always tried to push Hailey to do more, she was used to it. But lately its been every other day instead of every two weeks, and it was getting to a point on both sides.
