𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬

46

"Okay, Ms. Dempsey, right this way." A man comes in looking to Maddie who tilts her head in confusion. "What are you talking about, I thought they'd both be in here." Karen says confused as well.

"Well, we can't do that, these are witness testimonies, in a sense, and we can't have them in the same room to testify. You can stay with Maddie, but they do need to be held in separate rooms." The siblings look at each other and nod in comfort. "You can stay with Zach, Mom, I'll be fine." Maddie says and lets the man lead her into the room next to Zachs.

"Alright, this camera will be taping the whole testimony and questioning." A woman explains as she sets up a camera in front of Maddie and turns it on. Maddie nods and looks to the man beside her waiting for them to speak again, but instead he gets up and lets another man in.

"Good morning Ms. Dempsey." It took only a few moments for realization to cross Maddie's face, it was the man who was also questioning Zach, so their interviews must be at different times, now. "My name is Dennis Vasquez, representing Andrew and Olivia Baker, and this is a deposition." Maddie nodded and he continued. "I'll be asking you questions, and you must answer them truthfully... unless your attorney clearly instructs you otherwise." At that statement Maddie turns slightly to the man and woman who were in the room before, she figured the woman was in charge of defending the school and nothing more, after a few seconds of looking at the mans face she realizes that it was her old lawyer, or current lawyer whom she didn't know she was affiliated with. Mr. Molena, but they were on a first name basis so Maddie always called him Mark, seeing him made her feel a little more at ease considering she trusted the man once before and he kept her safe.

"Do you understand?" Dennis questions and Maddie nods before speaking. "Yes."

"There is no judge present, but this is a formal legal proceeding. And you are under the same legal obligation to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Do you understand?" This whole thing was making Maddie uncomfortable, now she wished her mother was in the room with her. It was bringing her back to when she was a kid. But, whether or not she was comfortable she answered. "Yes, I understand." She said folding her hands in front of her. "Okay, great. For the record please state your full name," At this Maddie shrinks slightly looking to Mark who nods to her, he could tell why she shrank for a moment before straightening back up. "your age, where you go to school, and what year you're in." Maddie cleared her throat before smoothing out her dress and speaking.

"My name is Madison Marie Dawn Dempsey, I'm 16, and I'm a junior at Liberty High." Dennis nodded and continued on. "And when and where did you first meet Hannah Baker?" He questions.

"The first time I seen her was a party right before sophomore year started, but we didn't talk until school started that year." Maddie said making sure to clarify all aspects of her sentence.

"And how well did you know Hannah?"

"Uhm." Maddie fumbles for a moment before speaking. "We were close for a little bit, I guess, but we weren't great friends and we fell off really quickly."

"Do you know why this happened?"

"Uhm, well, she was dating my brother Zach. And when they ended up having a falling out we didn't stick long after."

"Are you aware of anyone bullying Hannah?"

"Dennis, we're going to object. That asks her to qualify behavior." The woman says quickly as Maddie opens her mouth. But even with the objection the interview doesn't skip a beat.

"Did you ever hear anyone say unkind things to Hannah?" Maddie frowns for a moment. "Uhm, yeah, there were some harsh things said to her by some of the popular kids, I also said some things myself when we got into a fight." Maddie says looking to Mark rather than Dennis who nods to her, he seemed proud almost. Proud of her for owning up to the things that everyone in the room could tell she wasn't proud of. Including Hannah's parents.