Labels || H.S. [#Wattys2020]

SEVENTY-FOUR

The thing about Hailey was that as shallow as she may have acted, she was not stupid by any means. Much like the boys she had been groomed to act a certain way in order to gain stardom as quickly as possible. She was to be beautiful, coquettish, coy, sweet, and most importantly not act as if she were that incredibly intelligent. They told her that intelligence was off-putting, that a pretty face with shallow words was worth much more in this world. She was supposed to be the beautiful new pop sensation, witty at appropriate times, and charming 24 hours of the day. Thus, watching Reagan not having to constrain herself to the same labels, she found herself envying her, especially as Reagan laughed so incredibly hard that she began snorting. Hailey would have been mortified, she would excuse herself from the room and locked herself in the ladies' room until the embarrassment had passed. But there was Reagan, the boys laughing at her and saying how endearing she was.

She didn't understand it. She was brought up in a world where boys liked pretty, thin, delicate girls. All of her life her mother had chided her for wanting to play outside, for wearing baggy clothes, for not having every hair in place. So she began to absorb her mother's criticisms, began to believe that the world would see her in the same way. She began to believe that society judge's one's character solely on the way they look, and so she began to focus more on her hair and clothes than being a good person.This of course does not excuse Hailey's shitty personality, but it makes it understandable to see what kind of children are being raised in a society that's so fixated on what they define as beauty.

Beautiful and smart as she may have been, Hailey didn't see past labels. She just couldn't. She had been brought up to believe that if she was beautiful, she'd get everything that she'd ever want. And there she was, as beautiful as a super model with the voice of an angel. Watching as chubby Reagan Bailey obviously flirted with the boy Hailey had come to fancy, she felt her blood boil. And what irked her the most? That he really seemed to be reciprocating, much more than if he were just being polite. In fact, he seemed to be flirting as well. His eyes were heavy-lidded, pupils dilated as Reagan giggled and looked away. Hailey could feel a vein throbbing on the side of her head. She recalled the pair on the plane. The excuse of "doing work". Sometimes the perks of people thinking you're stupid is that they don't try as hard to cover up something because they don't think you'll figure it out. She knew that she could use that to her advantage in figuring out if Reagan and Harry actually, by some miracle, were involved.

"Hails?" Niall asked, watching pensive Hailey as she picked at her food.

"I told you not to call me that." She muttered.

"I like Hails, sounds cute." Harry said, looking away from Reagan for the first time since they had sat down together.

Hailey shrugged, hiding a smile, "I guess it's fine then."

Niall rolled his eyes, but continued nonetheless, "You excited to be recording with Julian?"

She nodded, "Yeah, I guess so. I haven't met him yet, but Lydia's said he's the best."

The boys nodded around the table in agreement, "Yeah, he is."

She looked across the table at Reagan and stretched her arm across to place a hand across hers, "Thanks for the advice about the shirt, by the way." She smiled, "I'm so glad we're friends. No one would ever be that honest with me."

Reagan smiled just as sweetly, "Anytime, Hails."

"You should help me pick out an outfit for the concert tonight. I imagine we're going to be photographed, right?" She asked, looking at Harry.

"Yeah," He replied, "We all got the email from Lydia, right?"

The boys nodded, Louis rolled his eyes, "Of course, we're always being pulled into your publicity stunts."