Wonder • Five Hargreeves

18

Run boy, Run

Allison Hargreeves sat on a windowsill, smoking a cigarette and watching its thin trail of smoke swirl among the stars. Her head was stuffed with cotton balls for thought.

She was trying to pinpoint the moment where it all went wrong. But the deeper she went; the more absorbed she got with every terrible thing shes ever done.

Soaking up every dark moment until those cotton-balls were saturated with filth and grime. Not unlike her lungs were with each breach of smoke.

All the same, she kept smoking.

And she kept thinking.

—
"Do you feel any better?" A crystal and sweet voice asked her.

A preteen Allison stood in front of her floor length mirror. Her curly hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail with a scrunchy, and her small body adorned in her signature uniform.

Allison looked past herself in the mirror, to see Winnie Hargreeves. A sight that usually brought her so much joy, but now filled her with bubbling hate.

"No! Get out of my room!" Allison hissed.

At her feet was an open Teen- Vogue magazine. The centerfold was a cropped photo of the umbrella Academy, with only Winnie and Allison. They stood grinning and euphoric, clutching one anothers hands.

They had just defeated a master criminal!
But.. that didn't seem to matter.

No one cared they had been awake for 32 hours, staking out a genius terrorist. That Allison had evacuated crowds of people and saved hundreds of  lives. That Winnie had spent a day and night, working her hands bloody, trying to enrapture the entire plan on canvas.

No, they cared about their looks. They cared about how they styled their hair, and painted their nails, and how clean their skin looked.

They circled each flaw on their body's in highlighter circles with catchy statements like "Dream Hair? Not!"

Klaus had found the magazine in a back alley where he was supposed to meet... a friend. He called a child-hargreeves meeting to show everyone. There, Allison had snatched it out of his hands and ran to her room to cry.

Because it didn't stop at just pointing out their flaws. It decided to compare the two girls. And in their eyes, Allison fell short.

Allison was growing into her body and Winnie hadn't aged a day. Allison had teenage acne and Winnie's skin was still baby smooth. Allison had dark skin. Winnie was peachy.

"Alli, you cant listen to those people.." Winnie tried.

It didn't matter. Allison didn't hear her words. She only saw the elements that the magazine deemed "Perfection!"

She couldn't stand it.

"I heard a rumor you thought you were hideous!"
—
"I heard a rumor you didn't want to hang out with us."
—
"I heard a rumor you hate that dress-"
—
"I heard a rumor-"
—
"I heard-"
—

Was there an actual moment that began her down hill morality? She was a good person once... right?

"Ah.. Miss Allison."

Allison flinched and instinctually snuffed the flame. She quickly pushed away from her spot, leaving the crushed cigarette on the sill. Then she lifted her lips into a smile she perfected so many years ago.