Collateral Damage

I

There was a slight small crash right next to her locker, but without a single glance she knew who it was. "Hi Maggie, how are you this lovely Thursday?"

Margaret Linden has been Halle's rock for twelve years, since Kindergarten when Maggie was five and Halle was four. She was everything Halle wanted to be, calm, collected, Ivy League bound, and of course, gorgeous. "I'm a little confused as to why my best friend is suddenly the talk of the school, when she was asked by the football captain to homecoming and said no. Said no without reason."

"I'm smart, there's your reason," she says, slamming the burgundy locker shut and giving her best friend a lopsided smile. She hoists her textbooks back up and begins walking to AP Music Theory.

Someone, obviously in a hurry, runs into the two of them. With a flash of auburn hair Halle and Maggie sigh in synchronization. "Hi Kyle, how are you today?"

"Don't give me that Miss Johnson, I know you've been denying cute boys the chance to take you to homecoming." He says. Acting mad but when he's not on stage, Kyle Wilson is a terrible actor. "If you don't say yes to someone, you're gonna have to go alone, and do you really want to go to your senior homecoming all alone?"

She shrugs, "I don't really think I'm gonna go to homecoming at all."

Kyle feigns hurt at her statement, "that's really just sad."

"If you really think he's that cute, why don't you ask him?" Maggie quips, even though neither Halle nor Kyle thought she was listening.

Walking into class, their peers go silent at the sight of Halle. You could hear a pin drop... if the floors weren't carpeted. She rolls her eyes and rushes to her spot, Maggie plops down next to her and Kyle behind the two of them. A junior girl who Halle didn't know much about turns to face her, "people are saying you slept with the entire football team, is that true?"

Halle rolls her eyes, "really? Is that the best thing they could come up with? It's very original, I'm sure they're proud."

"I'd hope they are, they sure seem like they think they're Picasso or something," Maggie says, nodding her head like she just solved the biggest mystery on earth.

Halle sighs and gently placed a hand on her best friend's knee. "Sweetie, Picasso was an artist," she says gently and Maggie rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, leaning back in the chair.

Kyle stands up defiantly and throws his hands up in the air. "Halle, you were Cosette in Les Miserables! Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, and you even got a standing ovation as Miss Christine Daaé in Phantom of the Opera, you can't let these people walk all over you like this! It's despicable!"

Halle looks up at Kyle with pleading eyes, his voice moves up in a crescendo. "Kyle, shut up," she says, but he can't hear her over the sound of his own voice.

"I mean, someone as talented and gifted as you? One day when you're on Broadway they're gonna talk about how they knew you back in the good ole days. They're gonna-" he yelps as Maggie grabs his hood and drags him to the floor.

Everyone was looking at Halle, expecting her to say something. She hated attention, ever since the accident it felt like people were just waiting for her to break. Since her life was so public, thanks to her parents, it was like this almost all the time. "Well what do you want her to do?" Maggie shouts at everyone, "you all know that if she denies it you'll just call her a liar."

There was a brief shuffling, "I'd rather be a liar than a skank," someone mutters.

Halle lets out a deep breath when the teacher comes in, "hello my talented students, hope you aren't getting into any trouble today."

A few snickers wave across the room, everyone knew that Ms. Haven could hear everything going on in the classroom from her small office, it was an afterthought so the walls were just painted drywall. Many a detentions were sent out that way, Halle didn't want to be next in that legacy.

Her heart pounded as Ms. Haven looked over at her, meeting each other's eyes, Halle's teacher gave her a small smile before taking attendance.

~

"I'm serious, if you prefer buttoned up flannels, you're wrong. I don't make the rules." Ben Samuelson tells the rest of the Shakespeare 12 class.

After flinging a pencil across the classroom Amelia, another top-of-the-class student, shrugs, "I don't know, I think girls look better with them open and boys look better with them buttoned."

Maggie and Halle share a look, this conversation had nothing to do with The Merchant of Venice. "Did they even have flannels in the seventeenth century?" Maggie murmurs.

Halle sniffles, "I don't think so, not that it matters."

"If the boy has a graphic tee on under the flannel, I don't think it's that bad," Maggie says to everyone in the room, causing Halle to roll her eyes.

Maggie shrugs, "please don't encourage them... did you get number four?" Halle asks, not that worried about whether or not all genders looked good in flannels.

"Halle, you're number one in the class, don't you think you could sacrifice one class of busywork to participate in a thoughtless conversation?" Maggie pressures her into letting go.

Contemplating for a second before putting her pencil away she looks around for a brief moment, "I think people can wear what they want, but if they're wearing a plain shirt under I think girls can pull it off better than guys, and then the opposite for graphic tees."

"Was that Halle? Having an opinion of fashion?" Isabella asks, "is she okay? Does she have a fever?"

Halle slumps back in her seat, all she was to anyone was a smart shadow. She liked that, but even so, she wanted to be someone else.