Healing Hailey

James

"James." Ms Sage smiles at me. I roll my eyes. She sighs and I walk into school. She has tried hard to get to me, she has tried for the two years I have been here, and she has not succeeded.

I feel a presence behind me as I walk into school and I turn around to see Ms Sage following me. I sigh and sign in to school as I am late. I run my hand through my messy hair and lean in the reception desk.

"I know I am attractive Ms Sage. But you have to restrain yourself until I am at least out of here." I smirk. She rolls her eyes and motions for me to follow her into her office. I sling my bag to the wall next to the chair and I sit down as Ms Sage does. Her age and recent weight loss making her skin sag and droop with gravity. I sigh and lean back in my chair.

"James. You missed last Friday and yesterday." She says.

"I am aware." I say, waiting for her to continue.

"You need better attendance, if you work you can graduate this year. You aren't stupid." She says as she types at her computer, checking my file. I play with her name plate on her desk and pick at the corner of the metal.

"Yeah..." I trail off.

"Don't you want to graduate?" She asks. I shrug lightly.

"Yeah..." I trail off again. She sighs, knowing I won't give much else response.

"Go to class." She says. I pick up my bag and I go to the boy's bathroom. I make sure it is empty and I lock the door. I look in the mirror and sigh. I was so late I didn't get to shower this morning. I get some water and wet my hair and push it back, the waves making it hard to stay in place. I put my black beanie on and it makes it look better. At least my brown hair suites it. I wash my face and put on some deodorant making me cough and my green eyes water. I ignore the light stubble and I leave the bathroom and head to my careers class.

I meet up with my friend Josh at lunch. He and I have bonded over the two years due to our mutual music love. He sees me and smiles. He runs his hand through his long blonde hair and passes me a guitar. We sit on the table and start strumming.

As I follow Josh's lead I look at his fingers to anticipate his next chord. I notice that one of the strings is out of tune and I look at the pegs, as I do so my fingers stop playing and I see someone at the end of the hall. She is sitting alone on the only one seater table on the lunch hall. Her dark curls are wild and shiny. It is concealed by a black and red beanie. Her hazel eyes have black and red eyeliner above them and he slowly eats an apple as she stares out of the window.

"Dude, why did you stop?" Josh asks.

"One of your strings is out of tune." I say. "Who's that?" I ask and gesture to the girl with my guitar.

"Apparently her name is Hailey, she doesn't talk so no one knows anything other than that." Josh says as he tunes his guitar.

"She doesn't talk at all?" I ask.

"I don't know." He says. "Ask her." He chuckles. I put my guitar to the side and stand up. Josh follows me with his eyes as I walk over to her. I grab a free chair from a nearby table and I reverse sit on it. She looks at me with a slight frown and then looks back out of the window.

"New here?" I ask. She ignores me and just keeps looking out of the window. "I'm James." I smile and hold out my hand. She stares at it for a second and then gently shakes it. She returns her gaze to the view on the other side of the window. "What's your name?" I ask. Silence.

I sit there quietly for a second. My mind wonders to why she is so quiet. Her bag is on the table and I see a yellow piece of paper hand slightly out of it.

"Is that your timetable?" I ask as I slide it out. I look at the timetable and see we have English together. "Cool, English with you." I smile. She frowns and stands up. She closes her bag and puts it on her back as the bell goes. She snatches the timetable from my hands and smooths it out.

"I'm Hailey." She says quietly and walks away. I smile and go back to Josh proudly.

"So?" He asks.

"She can talk, just not a lot." I say.

"I'm surprised, no one got her to talk so far. She must like you." He laughs. I roll my eyes and push him.

At the end of the day I go back to my place and see that my mum is out, as always. I roll my eyes and go to my room where my guitar is. I start strumming but Hailey flickers in my mind. She intrigues me, and I know I need to get her to talk again so I can figure her out. I need to figure her out.