Tweetie

31

Hazel sat on the floor of the school library, her back against the shelves as she read through her notebook and all of the information she had gathered over the months. Loose photos that she threw in to refer back to later, written copies of files and statements, even information about teachers within the school. But, nothing jumped out at her. Nothing was prominent enough to be a solid lead nor even be worth mentioning. Nothing told her what happened to Jason Barber.

She wondered if by the time it was solved, she would want the satisfaction of having her name listed as someone who helped to solve it. Did she deserve that? Would she even reach that point or would she end up dropping the case before completion? She didn't know anymore, she felt like she was rebuilding her entire personality on uncertainties and doubts.

The fact that Hazel White was already associated with this crime made her want to tear her hair out. It was too late to drop it now.

Eventually, once she had gotten past the fast-flowing thoughts and began to work again, she let a heavy sigh escape her and glanced around. It had been half an hour. Not too long, but long enough for the school to become quiet and disorienting, like finding yourself in an empty shopping centre after hours, it was surreal.

Hazel lowered herself, resting her elbows on her knees and her head in the palms of her hands as she grew more and more tired. She was thankful that because of how busy she was at school, she didn't have time to pay any more attention to the media. Unfortunately, that meant she had been paying much more attention to the comments made by petty students which may be just as toxic as the words said on the news about her.

"-God, he's such a douche, Misty." Cutting Hazel from her thoughts, a familiar, nasally voice grew louder in the empty library, "what do you mean? He just broke up with me!"

It sounded from the lack of a second voice that she was on the phone. And after a moment of recalling where she had heard the voice, it clicked in Hazel's mind as she remembered the conversation with the popular girl. Amelia.

"That new girl? Of course I think she's involved, Leo probably didn't help either," she sighed, unaware of Hazel's presence, "nobody likes her, the boys only keep her around because she does their homework. She told me herself... The bitch."

Hazel sunk, her hands reaching for a book to hide her face behind in the fear of the girl rounding the corner and finding her only a bookshelf away. She listened carefully, but really, she just wanted to go home and sleep.

"She won't last long, I mean, have you heard what everyone's saying? Honestly, I don't know why she's still here, it's like she's totally deaf. I've never heard anyone say a nice word about her. What a manipulative bitch. That's probably why Ryan broke up with me, I bet she manipulated him... Gah, I wish I could get her back."

Hazel shuffled uncomfortably. She didn't know what the girl was planning, but really, she didn't want to find out. If she didn't know, she could live peacefully and ignore it.

As silently as possible, Hazel began to gather all of her belongings and shoved them into her bag, aiming to leave before it was too late. She placed the yearbooks back, fitting them into the shelves and quickly stepped around the corner, using the shelves as a barrier to hide behind until eventually, she was close enough to the door to run and possibly go unnoticed.

She released a breath she didn't realise she was holding as she stepped into the empty school corridor, everything was completely silent. Hazel glanced around and checked her pockets and bag, ensuring that she had all of her belongings before she began to leave the building.

She walked thoughtlessly, her tired eyes barely taking in her blurred surroundings and within seconds, she found herself outside, standing in the cold, damp air of the darkening day wondering when she had gotten there. In truth, she barely felt there at all, instead, she felt like she was floating along. She had been drifting around clueless for a while, waiting for people to bring her back to reality when she was needed, otherwise, she would spend all of her time in her head, theorising and planning.