Loose Change~ Montgomery De La Cruz / Zach Dempsey/Scott Reed

Chapter 24

"My name is Dennis Vasquez, I will be representing Andrew and Olivia Baker, and this is a deposition."

Ophelia felt her breath catch. She folded her hands, sitting up straight.

The lawyer, Dennis, was seated across the table from her. Next to him was Clay Jensen's mother, who was representing the school. To the side, Hannah's parents.

And by the wall in front of her, her mother.

The man sitting in front of her continued, "I will be asking you questions and you must answer them truthfully unless your attorney clearly instructs you otherwise. Do you understand?"

Ophelia nodded. "Y-Yes." She cursed herself for stuttering. She should not be nervous, and she should definitely not let people know she's nervous.

"There is no judge present but this is a formal legal proceeding. You are under the same legal obligation to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Do you understand?"

Ophelia was more confident with this, "Yes."

"Okay, great. Can you please state your full name for the record? As well as your age, where you go to school, and what year you're in."

Ophelia gulped. She glanced at her mother, who sat against the wall of the room, judging almost as harshly as the actual lawyer may have. She glanced back to the man who asked the question.

"Ophelia Tristano. I'm seventeen. I go to Liberty High School and I'm a junior."

She watched as Dennis wrote something down.

"Alright, Ophelia. When and where did you first meet Hannah Baker?"

Ophelia recalled the time at the Cresmont when they first spoke. It pained her to remember. "I knew her from class, my sophomore year. But I didn't talk to her until I saw her at the Cresmont."

"The movie theater she worked at?" Dennis concluded.

"Yeah. She gave me some free popcorn."

"And why was that?"

'Us Liberty Highers have to stick together, right?'

Ophelia cleared the lump in her throat. "Because she was nice. She was really nice."

Dennis nodded. "That's very kind of to say about her. The two of you were close, correct?"

Her mother watched her intently. "I guess. For a while."

Ophelia saw Mrs. Baker frown at her answer.

"You slept over at her house numerous time, correct?" Dennis asked. "One time being the week before the incident occurred?"

Her mother leaned forward.

Ophelia felt that her mouth was dry. Before answering, she reached forward and took a sip of the water placed in front of her. "We used to be really good friends. We ended up drifting apart. Work and school and everything. We had our last sleepover because we both wanted to rekindle our friendship."

She recalled the real reason. Images of Montgomery pounding on his bathroom door while she cowered inside replayed through her head.

"Are you aware of Hannah being bullied by anyone?"

The school lawyer, Mrs. Jensen, spoke up. "Dennis, we're going to have to object. That asks her to assume behavior."

Dennis nodded, and rephrased the question. "Did you ever hear anyone say unkind things to Hannah?"

Ophelia had, multiple times. Terrible, awful things. So she nodded.

"Verbal answers only please," he told her.