Hailey's Thorny Dilemma

So put another dime in the jukebox, baby

After Hailey refused to have her life dictated by the list, and Beta, she went out with Sanjay at the school dance. Quickly thereafter she realized that she didn't have the chemistry with him that she thought. Refusing to go back to her old life, make up with Scott (and admit she had feelings for him) or tell everyone she was wrong all along, she skipped town, and left her bracelet behind, showing she no longer wanted to be bound to completing list items. Meanwhile, Scott and Beta try to put the pieces together, fighting off the chaos bots, and are unsure how they can convince Hailey to finish the list.

Originally she had made up Sanjay Singh as a way to hide her feelings for Scott, but when the compatibility app showed that she didn't share any commonalities with Scott, it broke her. The app (despite having faulty results from Scott) confirmed her worst fears. Seeing Scott go with another girl made her furious. So, in revenge, she contacted Sanjay and he ended up as her date to the dance. She could tell that Scott was distraught, but, she wasn't sure how to get out of this situation. She had already set aside the list and Beta. She had put aside her wristband too. She wanted control over her own life, not to have it dictated by someone from the future.

However, dating Sanjay caused her friendship with Scott to fizzle into nothingness, even after Scott attempted to contact her. People at school weren't sure what to think of her anymore. She had a sense that her own parents didn't support her partner choice. She soon learned they were all right about Sanjay. He was nothing more than bluster. Sure, he had the looks, but he had no substance. Soon enough, she saw on his social media that he was with another girl, who he openly called his girlfriend. When she was about to text him, angrily, he sent something back, declaring: "It was fun, but it's over." She cried for days, not over Sanjay but her thoughtless decisions.

Hailey had lost everything. Not only had she cowardly refused to ask Scott out, and admit she had a crush on him, but she had put up this whole charade. It became too much for her. Beta wouldn't even talk to her either. For him, talking to Scott as more worth his time. One early morning, after the sunrise, she snuck out her bedroom window, without a plan or place to go. She couldn't hide out in the lighthouse or anywhere else, as they would find her. She decided to take her phone with her, as an emergency, but turned it off, so no one could contact her. She was a lost soul, unsure if returning to Oceanside was a good idea or not.

Later that day, Scott and Beta were panicking. If this wasn't fixed quickly, the world would descend into chaos. The best they could do, for now, was to stop chaos bots. Although Scott had been helping Hailey on the list, he didn't have one of his own. They both rejected the idea of creating an alternate list, thinking it would make things too complicated. Perhaps the situation was lost.

"This is bad...really bad." Scott agreed. But what could they do? They needed Hailey back, but how? They knew she left that morning, thanks to Patricia coming over to the Donegas, saying in horror that Hailey was nowhere to be found. Some people would have called the police, but knowing that the police didn't help people like them, and hurt them more than anything, they wanted to give her...space.

"Beta, you are right...Hailey...for everything she is done...is still a good person." Beta begrudgingly agreed. As much as she annoyed him, she was the key to the world being saved, as absurd as that was to think about sometimes.

Solemnly, they left his room, walking through Oceanside to make sure chaos bots weren't causing trouble. Beta could sense the robots. And with his help, they had done a pretty good job. It wasn't the same without Hailey being there. He had never told her that he had feelings for him. Her disappearance caused his feelings to bubble to the top, again. He was in worse shape than ever.

"We can't go on like this...Beta...we really need Hailey back!...I need her back!" Beta patted him on the head. He knew it must be hard for him. He couldn't do much to console him. But he needed their romance to work out. Otherwise, the world would fall apart, and chaos bots would destroy everything. That was the nightmare he had to prevent.