The Five Dimensions Part 1: Shadow World

Chapter 2

Being different had never bothered Hailey. She was proud to be the outsider of a town that she hated the customs of. It was the being singled out that annoyed her. She wasn't hurting anyone by existing. So why would they have to hurt her existence?

This was a question she had been asking herself for at least a decade but probably more. When assignments were handed out at the very beginning of her life, it seemed that everyone in her town – everyone but her – got assigned a normal life. Even though she had absolutely no wish to be anything like them, sometimes it seemed a normal life would be so much easier than the one she was trying to struggle through.

At some point, she had stopped calling it being bullied. This had been because she found out that the definition of bullying was a big bad guy nagging a smaller or weaker person. That was how one of her pre-kindergarten teachers had put it, anyways. Of course, she didn't want to be the weaker one. Since then, she had thought of it as pestering. The way that a tiny, insignificant mosquito could pester a human being. They were annoying, and mosquito bites can even be very painful, but it only took a well-timed smack and that would be the end of them.

She wished that a well-timed smack could solve her problems now.

They had done it again today. They had singled her out, trapped her, waited until a big enough group had gathered, made their move, and eventually hoped she would run away crying. The last thing hadn't happened since she was really small. Hailey's sarcastic retorts were getting better every time and sometimes they were even recognized for their greatness. Even if it was only by their dumbstruck faces.

This had been one of those times that she hadn't wanted to say anything. She hadn't even had the energy to swear at them and, for her, that meant it was really serious. It hadn't even been about anything. Julia must've had a bad day and Hailey so-called bumped into her.

"God, you smell," Julia had said at some point. Of course, a big group of people had already gathered around because everyone had been on their way home and they were in the parking lot. People immediately knew things would get interesting when Julia focused her precious self on Hailey. "My veggie smoothie smells so much better. Did you know that?"

During all that time, Hailey hadn't said anything. There wasn't really a point in making Julia angrier than she already was. All she could do was wait until she was done. Besides, Hailey knew that if she allowed herself to react, Julia had won.

"This might help," Julia had said just before pouring her drink over Hailey's head. Hailey hadn't expected that, even though she had been stupid not to. There wasn't much in Julia's head that could come up with a more creative type of embarrassment.

Without so much as a grunt, Hailey had turned around and walked away, her mouth hanging open in shock. Julia and the rest of the group had yelled after her, but she'd ignored them, trying to force the sound of their voices out of her head.

Now Hailey was walking back home, the way she always walked, and thinking about how it was possible for Julia Smith to be popular. What was Pinemarsh High thinking? Hailey supposed the girl was their kind of hot and of course she was very rich too, let alone the fact that she was also the perfect image they wanted to see in Pinemarsh. The girl was tall, with a tiny waist that looked biologically impossible. Long, blonde hair and piercing, hateful, blue eyes. She could fit right onto the cover of a magazine.

Okay, maybe Hailey did know why she was popular. It didn't mean she had to be such a pain in the ass.

Jayson Smith ― her twin brother ― wasn't any better. He was again the same sort of hot that Pinemarsh High liked. Matching dark blond hair and blue eyes, like his sister, what was not to like, right? Well, he looked like his twin a lot. If they'd been the same gender, they would be identical. It creeped Hailey out. That was the main reason Hailey hated his appearance. His character was a whole different story, that part she loathed.

If there was ever a real-life stereotypical jock, it was him. He was the captain of the field hockey team ― why the school came up with that particular sport was still a mystery to Hailey ― and all the girls except herself were after him. Of course, he loved that, and he loved to break hearts too. And whenever he had some heightened emotion, whether it was positive or negative, he loved to find Hailey and act it out on her. Although it wasn't exactly the same way that his sister did...

When they had met for the very first time when they were still very young, they'd liked each other immediately. It had been during some sort of neighborhood party ― Pinemarsh organized one for every special occasion ― and Hailey had found Jayson in a room, empty of people. They had played like children do, but then Julia had found them, and not much later Hailey had run to her father crying with very ruffled pigtails.

That was a very long time ago though and both of them had immensely changed. If that part of Jayson had still been there, he would've stopped Julia, probably. And if that part of Hailey had still been there, she would've cared. There was somebody else who did care, and she sighed when she saw him running out of the house. Seeing her dad seemed to give Hailey back her ability to breathe. For him she didn't have to keep her emotional wall up. At least... she didn't have to actively guard it; her wall never went down completely. Never.

"For God's sake, what happened this time?" her father asked, his voice full of concern. He started towards her but tripped over a rock on his way and only just caught himself before falling. It couldn't have looked more awkward.

"I told you I was going to school this morning, remember?" Her attempt at sarcasm was weak. She knew her father always hated her remarks but sometimes she forgot and luckily this time he didn't hear the underlying tone. "Then you know what happened, who did it and why they did it."

"Rubbish. Of course, I don't have a bloody clue why. Those kids are as mad as a bag of ferrets. I'm through with it." He said this kind of thing all the time, his upbringing was strongest when he was irritated. Hailey never let him do anything rash. Something that would ultimately bring more harm to their family than to the Smiths. For example, going to their house and insulting them openly, that would only make things worse.

"Well, if you insult them with all the British slang you're coughing up and you smile friendly enough they won't even understand you're agro," she said and there was a slight twist in the corner of her mouth that could've been interpreted as a smile. Her dad saw this, even though he didn't comment on it, and then laughed.

"Go take a shower then. After you've finished your homework, we can prepare supper." He walked back to the front door and opened it for her.

She sighed. Her father and her had had many conversations, and fights, about the way that some people treated Hailey at school. He had gone to her principal some years ago once, but it had only made everything worse. Afterwards, he had promised he wouldn't do anything like that again without Hailey's permission. She had decided a long time ago that she would just endure the pestering, and wait until she could get as far away from Pinemarsh as possible. As she was in her senior year, that sentence wasn't too long anymore.

Hailey looked at her house for a moment and then went inside. The atmosphere of the forest helped her mind settle. It was her home and not only because their house was right in the middle of it. The house itself seemed to be part of the plants. It had a thatched roof, which was higher than the walls of the one floor they had. The walls in between the windows were so covered with vines that the color wasn't visible anymore. Hailey remembered it had been a reddish brown but that was ages ago and it might've been different. The white of the window frames was clear of any vines, even if the paint was chipped in places. All windows had rectangular shutters which had two red and two white triangles each.

She had never lived anywhere else than in this house. This was her childhood. Her home. That was also how she liked to think of herself when she was little ― running around among the trees, being nature's best friend ― because school wasn't the best memory lane to go down. The image of small Hailey rolling in the fallen leaves stuck in her mind.