Hailey's Thorny Dilemma

He's got a way that makes me tremble

Hailey wakes up in a hospital after her fall in the woods and tries to recover from her injuries. She resolves to apologize and make amends for what she did with Sanjay, breaking the friendship with Scott, and pushing away Beta, and the list. However, things will not be the same as before. Hailey goes through this awkwardness, with help from Scott, who is more than happy to re-begin their friendship, and tries to figure out how she really feels about Scott, and how to balance working on the list with being able to do her own things in her life. In the process, Beta accidentally reveals the list's existence to Hailey and Scott's parents, resulting in them getting involved, in some way, in completion of the list. Through it all, Hailey has to figure out what she and Scott are together (friends? lovers?), how she can juggle her responsibilities to item item completion and what else she wants to do, and her family, and deal with the feelings that people, other than Scott, have for her.

When Hailey opened her dark grayish amaranth eyes, she was in a unfamiliar room. There were florescent lights on the ceiling. Intravenous fluids were going into her arm. She tried to remember back to what was happening when she was last conscious. She could recall her foot getting stuck in a crevice and being carried down a hill by Becker and Kennedy. She blushed when she recalled the next part: she admitted to them that she liked Scott! Why did she say that! She hoped that Scott didn't see her in the hospital... like this, although she couldn't stop him from coming, of course. While she had her foot stuck in that crevice, she had begun thinking about all the things she needed to do to mend the relationships she had broken apart. She didn't want things to stay this way.

Her mom came into the room with tears on her eyes. While it made her said it had come to this, she was glad that Hailey hadn't disappeared for good.

"Hailey, are you ok?" she asked. Through all that happened recently, she remained worried about her.

"Yeah, mom, I'm fine...it's just there's so many things I did wrong...with Sanjay...and Scott...and everything."

"It's okay, sweetie...take your time...tell us when you are ready."

She then whispered in her ear that a boy with very reddish brown hair was outside. "Can he come in?" she asked.

She knew who it was: Scott. She cringed a bit, but knew she had to confront him at some point.

"Ok...I guess." Her mom opened the door, leaving, while Scott walked in. She knew they both needed to talk.

Scott was surprised to see Hailey in a hospital bed and look the way she did. He wanted this to be a quick visit, so he could get back to finishing her list. What she said next disrupted this plan.

"Scott...I'm sorry...I should haven't have gone with Sanjay to the school dance...and I meant to say something to you..."

Scott tried to be as nice he could. He held in his anger at her for leaving him, requiring him and Beta to fight the chaos bots on their own. He decided to be honest this time. If they weren't friends anymore, what did it matter? "I accept your apology, Hails. I was going to say something to you too...that night...I had those flowers in my hand because I was going to bring you to the dance as my date." Then, if that wasn't enough, he added "Hails, I love you."

This caught her off guard. She hadn't expected him to say this. It embarrassed her. That was the reason that he was there? She could have completed that list item like that! Kissing Scott was the key of the list itself, it seemed.

"Scott...I've wanted to say the same for so long...I keep getting tongue tied." Scott already knew that. To have her admit that him was a good step forward. With that understanding, he had to ask her about that one list item.