A Place To Call Home

1.one

1.

Home sweet home, Hayley couldn't believe it. She loved touring and traveling around the world to sing her band's songs and meet the fans, but waking up in her own bed and being able to hang out with her friends and family was something she wouldn't have traded with anything else in the world, never. She yawned and sleepily walked to the kitchen. Alf welcomed her joyfully barking at her.

"Good morning!" she greeted him, tenderly petting him. "Are you hungry, uh?". She poured some kibble in his bowl and then started preparing herself some breakfast. She was about to bite her jelly toast, when her phone started ringing madly. She snorted and answered, even if reluctantly.

"Brian, what's up? I've just woken up."

"Hayley, we have a problem. You need to come to the salon, now." her friends told her.

"What?" she asked, confused. "What happened?"

"A whole mess. You need to come here as soon as possible.". Hayley started worrying a bit.

"Okay, I'll be there in thirty minutes." she finally said. She turned off the phone and let out a sigh. She couldn't imagine what Brian was talking about. They had finally managed to open their own salon and it was going well, so she couldn't understand what the problem was.

"Well, guess I need to go there to find out." she said, looking at Alf. The dog barked, causing Hayley to chuckle. She finished her toast, then got ready to leave. She got in her car, started the engine and headed to the salon. Fortunately, there was no traffic on the road and she wasn't excessively late. She was about to pass the traffic light, when she suddenly slammed on the brakes. A girl had crossed the road on her skateboard without paying attention to the red light.

"Watch out!" Hayley yelled at her, a bit more harshly than she would have wanted. The girl, who shouldn't be more than sixteen and was wearing a large black hoodie that barely left a glimpse of her face, turned to her and showed her the middle finger. Hayley honked at her and gestured her to go away. She waved a hand through her hair and kept driving, until she finally arrived to the salon. She got out of the car and found Brian with some officers waiting for her outside of the building.

"What's wrong?" she asked, now seriously alarmed. Brian beckoned her to follow him and the small group entered the salon. Hayley jerked. Everything was a mess, all the chairs and the various tools were tossed on the floor and there were trash everywhere.

"What... Who..."

"We're still trying to watch the security footage, Miss Williams." one of the officers explained. "Whoever did this, they managed to break some of the cameras.". Hayley turned to Brian, who glanced at her with an upset gaze.

"The work of a life..." he sobbed, a broken hairdryer between his hands.

"We're gonna fix this." the woman tried to reassure him, squeezing his shoulder. "What about the footage? Is it okay?" she then asked one of the officers.

"Yeah, we're watching." one of them claimed. "Look at this. Do you know these people?". Hayley and Brian glanced at each other and joined him. The footage showed a group of teenagers vandalizing the salon.

"Of course not! Gosh, why did they do this?" Brian questioned, devastated. Hayley kept watching the footage, disgusted by what she was seeing.

"So, what about now?" she asked.

"We're going to look for these vandals. Don't worry, they'll get what they deserve." the officer assured.

"Thank you." Hayley replied. "I appreciate.". The cop nodded and snapped his tongue.