Hidden Seams

1| The Life of Someone Without a [Social] Life

Hello everybody and welcome, here comes chapter one and I'll have more to say at the end! Also, warning, I'm not good at starting stories, so I'm just gonna jump in and go...

Dear everybody who doesn't believe in me,

"WHAT are you doing, Haylee?" the question came from my best friend, Lauren, as we sat in the library during lunch. We were going over an argument for debate club.

"Going over this, why?" I replied, turning to look at her with an innocent, wide eyed expression. In all honestly, I'd been daydreaming about having enough free time to read something that wasn't a textbook or required read for school. However, having a social life is out of the question when I'm involved in pretty much everything except for sports.

"You haven't been paying attention for the last five minutes," Lauren retorted, glaring playfully at me as her warm amber eyes brightened with amusement. Lauren was pretty, to say the least. Unlike me, she was tall and graceful, with glowing cocoa skin and big, beautiful eyes. Even without makeup, she was easily the prettiest girl in the grade. I stuck out next to her like a sore thumb with my own usually tangled, long blonde hair and feathery grey eyes that most people said either made me look like Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter, or like I had no irises at all because the color was so light.

"I have," I insisted, turning my thoughts back to the conversation.

Lauren giggled, but the sound was irritated. "No, you haven't. Do you want to be prepared or not, Haylee? Because, if you'd like, we can just lose."

I sighed, "Lauren, I can't focus right now. I promise I'll look at this, but I just can't at the moment. I'll take it with me to study tonight."

"Alright, but study," she handed me the stack of papers she'd prepared, and I stuffed them into my soft blue backpack beside the mock trial case that our government class was going through.

"I will, Lauren, I promise," I told her sincerely, entirely intending to. I thrived at debates, working on the sideline to make sure that Lauren had everything she needed. I was kinda like her assistant when it came to the meets.

(A/N I actually have never been to a debate or a mock trial, so we're gonna do some pretending about that)

Lauren flipped her perfect hair over her shoulder as she stood, slinging her bag onto her back in one smooth motion that I had yet to even attempt. "Cooper asked me out again," she said conversationally as I stood, too.

I froze, halfway between a seated position and a standing position in some sort of awkward crouch. "Dallas will be mad," I warned her cautiously. Dallas Crowford, a boy in our grade, used to date Lauren until she decided that she wanted to focus on education more. For her, that meant that she couldn't have a social life. The only reason she met me is because I am captain of the mock trial team and debate club, as well as the only female trombone player. And like her, I had absolutely no social life. But, Dallas and Lauren still liked each other and he was fiercely protective of her.

"Dallas can go chase bees in the meadow for all I care," Lauren snarked, her expression filling with sadness for a moment before she covered it with that false smile I'd grown so used to wearing myself.

"You know that's not true," I argued. "Lauren, you're not like me. You should be popular and dating the boy you really, really like. And-"

Lauren cut me off abruptly, "I chose education, Haylee, I'll have a social life once I finish my degree at Harvard," she rebuked sharply, already stepping towards the door. As she was leaving, she called over her shoulder, "And what do you mean not like you, Haylee? Look in the mirror sometime and judge for yourself."

"I-" I stared after her as she left with a hurt expression, before I reminded myself that we were only friends because we were useful to each other. Or, at least, that's how it was at first.

Lauren and I met when I was a freshmen here and she transfered from a different, private school. She told the faculty that she wanted to be educationally strong, and so I got thrown onto the task of showing her around and helping her. We didn't speak for a long time after that, but in sophomore year she tried out for debate club and I realized how much talent she had in public speaking whereas I...didn't. I'd never been a speaker for debate club. Teaching how to, preparing notes, organizing events and doing background work, sure, but not speaking.
Lauren, however, was wonderful at it. She started helping me with background work, and tried out for mock trial, too. I was still club leader of both of them, partly because I did most of the work for debate club still and I dominated over her in mock trial. We'd never met outside of doing homework, never even discussed our favorite T.V. show. It was strictly a work relationship.

/--~|:)|~--\

The school was quiet and empty when I finally left late on that Thursday afternoon. a mock trial meeting had gone longer than I'd thought it would, and I'd been ambushed by both band and debate club members the moment I'd adjourned, as well as a kid who'd just handed me an envelope and left. Finally, after sorting out the issue of a missing instrument, as well as making six new copies of debate club material and giving a strict lecture to the kids who'd needed them about responsibility, I walked out of the school at six o' clock sharp.

The envelope that the kid had handed me was lodged inside my overstuffed backpack, taunting me as I trudged to my lonely car. Pulling out my keys, I unlocked the door and then slung the bag into the back seat. I let out a sigh of relief when I closed the door and stuck my key in the ignition and turned it. The engine turned over once and then shut off.

Just my luck today, I thought angrily, getting back out of the car and opening the hood. There was nothing obviously wrong that I could see, however, and I wasn't exactly skilled in fixing cars. Thankfully, my house was only six blocks away and it wasn't dark yet. I could still walk.

Papers crinkled noisely as I put the poor, overstuffed pack over my shoulders again. I was remineded of the plain white, mysterious envelope, just waiting to be opened. To say the curiousity was eating at me was an understatement as I began the trek to my house.

WOW. So, there's the first chapter! Sorry, I know it's kinda tedious but I'm setting up for the second chapter...(insert that picture of person grinning and tapping their fingertips together evilly). So, yeah!

Please comment and tell me what you thought, and I would really appreciate it if you voted, too!

Thank you so much and have a great day!

-- Ivy :)