Searching for Sawyer

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Searching for Sawyer
Prologue

Malory Keagan found being alone came natural in all purposes of the word.

Keeping to one's self was much easier when being seemingly unapproachable by the outside world. While Malory was mostly mute, opting to only show those she cared for the sound of her voice. She was mute by choice, merely due to the fact she hardly saw it necessary to use it. There were not many people she deemed worthy enough to bother talking to.

Being alone was easiest for her because it gave her the opportunity to bury herself among the many books of high school. She found that there was never an amount of studying that could equal to being too much. She was ambitious in every sense. She felt she had no time for a social life, if she intended to get the highest GPA in Lakewood School of Fine Arts.

She found speaking through her photography was easiest – there would be no confusion for anybody.

The more she had buried herself in her art, the less she understood the definition of a 'friend'. Malory could hardly remember the last time she'd had a friend nor could she remember the last time she had ever desired one. They had seemed pointless in contrast to all she was trying to achieve in life.

Friends were a distraction.

They led to forgetting about your studies and attending parties that threw your GPA wildly off course. The last thing she wanted was to ruin her chances at a perfect score. Friends were not on the to-do list. People had tried, a few times, in the earlier years of schooling, but Malory had made it quite clear that she didn't require the services of one.

Friends also led to opening up, something Malory hoped she would never have to do in her life.

It had become startingly obvious that she blended into the shadows perfectly, without a single soul knowing a thing about her.

Malory Keagan hated the spotlight with every fibre of her being. She would avoid it at all costs, if she needed to. She often ran away when things got tough; a trait she had learned long ago.

Sawyer Wright was the complete and utter opposite of Malory Keagan.

He was friendly and approachable in all accounts of the word. He always had the perfect words to fill the silence. He spoke to strangers as if they were merely old friends of his. He was a ridiculously good person that had a way of rubbing Malory the wrong way.

She hated the golden boy and yet everybody else adored him.

Sawyer was the only person standing in the way of Malory getting the best GPA of their year level and she hated him for it. He was effortlessly perfect, and it grated on her every nerve. People just did not know how he did it all.

Neither did Sawyer, if he was being honest.

Studying had never been too important to Sawyer; he was too busy being an outstanding citizen. He attended every party he was invited to because it was just common curtesy. He was a member of a few of the clubs in school, helping keep their school on the map.

He was simply too good of a person to find fault with even if you tried and Malory, on the other hand, could pinpoint every fault in her body.

Unfortunately, Sawyer was extremely virtuous even for his own good. He cared a lot about individuals and always found a way to remember unimportant things people told him about them. He cared a lot about people which was surprising to some; how much a person can truly care about another.

More than his closest friends think he should.

A friend to all, he was described as.

Malory thought he was surely fake.

He was a well-liked guy and he was quite popular. Girls flocked to him and eyed him like a piece of meat while boys pretty much bowed down to him.

In a way, Sawyer Wright was Lakewood's hero.

There was always an ever-present smile across his lips and a cherry tone in his voice. It seemed as if he didn't have a bad side to cross at all. There didn't seem to be any kind of negative characteristics in this boy's personality. He didn't snap randomly like Malory did when somebody chose to sit next to her. He instead would smile and welcome the person as if they were old buddies and hadn't talked in a while. He was a saint and Malory thought it was incredibly weird. She couldn't careless who he was or what he'd done for this school. To Malory, he must've been the most fake person on this planet.

Sawyer Wright was the school's prince and Malory Keagan was their dark princess who hid away in the shadows as if she was afraid that if she came out into the light, she'd burn alive.

Life had a habit of always dealing Malory with the terrible cards. She often wondered if it would be entirely bad if the world dealt him the terrible cards for a while. It has only been a passing thought in her mind from time to time whenever a sour mood presented itself.

She had never meant for it to be literal.

If anyone had known her internal wish would come senior year, she would've unwished it in hopes for a year without a hitch.

A wish gone wrong in all the worst ways too.

Too bad fate was going to be cruel and come the first day of senior year, the Sawyer Wright everybody knew seemed to be long gone. It was as if he was kidnapped and replaced entirely all together.

The vibrant colours of his clothes had became darker. The smile had finally wiped itself off his lips. He no longer emitted a welcoming aroma. He seemed unapproachable – quite similar to Malory herself now. He hardly noticed people were even talking to him anymore. He had distanced himself from his friends, barely speaking to a single soul anymore.

He was always in his own world, unbothered by the real world's affairs and their apparent lack of a hero now.

It wasn't his job to save everybody anymore.

He had grown a dislike for the spotlight and the idea of group projects, opting to scare his partner away with a few chosen words of ice.

It was as if Sawyer Wright had turned bad in an unlikely turn of events.

He was beginning to mirror Malory Keagan in more ways than she would've ever liked to admit.