Hazel sat silently in the school library, her eyes scanning the notes she found with a frown on her face. She missed her lessons, the school day had ended. Yet she was still in the school, shoeless.
After the scene at Jason's house, she spent an hour simply trying to figure out the coded notes. Yet, she couldn't think, no matter how hard she tried.
She had been happy to find the evidence, but she was beyond stressed now. It felt ridiculous.
She wanted to go home, show the notes to Archie and get his help figuring them out, maybe even call Roderick over to spend extra time with him. But she couldn't. She would be in far more trouble if she did. So this was something she would keep to herself for as long as she could. With so much going on, the identity reveal, the notes, the hotel- she felt too complicated to be able to figure anything out. Her mind was a wreck.
And what made it worse was the news. It hadn't been a few hours, but already she was seeing article after article about the news of her only being eighteen. She couldn't even look at her phone without seeing it. 'Hazel White Only 18?' 'The biggest crimes solved by a kid'. When she read them, they were worse. They went on and on about things she already heard time and time again, still wondering who she was, slipping their own negative opinion in. If they weren't sexist, they were now condescending. 'How could somebody so young understand the severity of the crimes she solves?' 'Is she really smart enough to have solved these mysteries?'
"Tweetie?" A voice spoke through the silence of the often abandoned library. It was so abandoned, most times she visited, even the librarian wasn't there... She wondered if there even was a librarian.
She turned sharply, flinching a little in the anxiety she still wore, her tired eyes glancing around in search of the owner of the voice. But she already knew who it was from the name alone. Really, she was surprised.
"Ryan?" She hummed, watching the silver-haired boy approach her table, quickly shoving something into a shelf in the hopes of her not noticing. She did, she always did. It was obviously a book.
"What're you doing here? You skipped lessons to sit in here?" He asked, far too curious not to as she hurriedly shoved all of the evidence she worked through away. Instead, she switched it with a random book about Geography she kept to hide her work behind... of all subjects.
His voice was soft, eased after what felt like the longest day and she found herself warmed by his tone and the silkiness of his words. Her day was particularly rough, going from being ill to hiding under a likely dead boy's bed. She was thankful he was able to feel like the peace in the eye of the storm.
She shrugged while sinking down a little.
"Sorta," she said, resting her cheek in the palm of her hand.
She felt conflicted. She wanted to tell him and the others the truth, tell them she wasn't actually who she said she was, tell them that she didn't deserve the nickname Tweetie... But, she shrugged her shoulders, bringing herself back to the conversation as she continued to talk. It was too risky despite the new theory that was forming.
"I got back halfway through the last period, I decided to sit in here to save me from trouble."
"Aren't ya' gonna miss your bus?"
"I don't feel like going home," she shrugged again. There was obviously something wrong, she couldn't be bothered hiding it anymore. But she knew he wouldn't push. Obviously, she didn't have a choice but to go back home eventually.
The apartment was too full of Hazel White and she didn't want to be her anymore. She was tired of the investigation, of crime, of all of it.
"Why are you here?" She asked, trying to fight her own mind off of her, "Didn't you skip school?"
"Leo needed a new textbook," he sat across from her, glancing over her book and raising an eyebrow. "Since when have you liked Geography?"
"Who said I don't?"
"Your face in class." He laughed, a breathy sound in his wariness of the long day. "You always look miserable in Geography."
"I figured if I told myself I liked it while studying, I might be able to trick my brain into believing me."
"How's that going for you?"
"Terribly." She sunk down, a frown on her lips as he laughed again. "I feel like my brain's gonna explode."
"Maybe you should go home," he suggested, hearing her sniff every once in a while as her earlier cold continued to linger. "Can you get someone to pick you up?"
"Yeah..."
She stopped, squinted, then frowned.
"No. Roderick's probably got his hands full at the station..." She sunk further, her voice drowsy as she flicked the page she didn't even read. "Today sucks, I hate Thursdays."
"Oh, right, yeah, Chief Hemms." He nodded, trying to figure out who Roderick was for a brief moment. "I heard about the mess at the police station. Tons of people there about Hazel White... I don't get why people care about her so much."
He scoffed, forcing her to pout a little, her head tilting slightly as she looked at him.
"You don't like her?" she asked, genuinely curious.
"I don't really care about her, well, I do, a bit," he admitted, glancing towards an approaching figure but he still chose to continue. "I'm more bothered about what she does than who she is, she fucks with people's lives and gets famous from it."
"Does she?" She paused, turning as she felt a presence behind her and turned quickly, glancing up towards an ashy haired boy with a smile. "Hi, Leo."
He smiled back, taking the seat beside her while she continued.
"Isn't she just doing her job?"
"Sure, but does she ever think about how she's affected the families of the people she incriminates?"
Hazel paused, a little surprised by the sudden thought. She didn't realise he disliked her so much. But perhaps she ruined his life without even thinking about it. She never thought about that... How many lives has she ruined?
"...Whatever," Ryan sighed, turning towards Leo, "did you find the textbook?"
"Yeah," he nodded back, his own shock evident on his face. He didn't expect the pair to be talking about that.
"Oh," Hazel perked up a little, turning to Leo curiously, "did you find out if it was Amelia who did the shoe thing?"
"No," he shook his head, "but, we haven't seen her at all. So, that might mean she's hiding from Ryan, y'know, just in case."
"Ah," Hazel nodded, accepting this fact. She knew the truth and she intended on holding onto it as long as Leo was able to move past it and not worry about losing another pair of shoes. Though, saying that, she recalled him telling her this was the second pair lost. "What about that first shoe you lost...? Do you know who took it?"
"No," he shook his head, "my locker is broken because someone," he turned to Ryan who smirked, "decided to kick it in. Anyone can get in and out of it. I just don't get why they only took one shoe."
"Maybe they saw you comin' and only had time to grab one." Ryan suggested and Leo seemed to furrow his eyebrows in thought.
"Makes sense," he nodded, "I took my other shoe out of the locker after I found the first one missing... y'know, just in case they came back for it. God knows why, I don't know what I'm gonna do with a single shoe... Anyway, you don't need to walk around shoe-less anymore," Leo said, glancing down at her own feet and towards her bag which Ryan had placed on the table.
And quickly, feeling the sting of cold on her soggy toes, she took her bag and pulled her shoes out.
"I think I'm going to make this a weekly event," she said, pulling them onto her feet. "Once a week, we all have to walk without shoes on for the full day."
"Why?" Ryan joined in, his own judgemental glance aimed at her. Though, she was learning that the judgemental glance was just his face. He didn't seem to express emotions too well.
"To commemorate our friendship."
He brought a hand to his face.
"Sometimes the things you say trigger my fight or flight response."
"Why do you think I get beaten up so frequently?" She laughed, shooting him a gummy grin. "I'm destined to die."
"See, there it is again. I'm going to fight you."
Leo shook his head with a smile, glad that they were getting on in their own weird way.
"Tweetie," Leo caught her attention, "how're you feeling now? Your cold seems to have passed."
"Oh yeah," she hummed, remembering that she was ill just this morning. She wondered if it was possible that she became so distracted through the day that she just forgot she was ill and stopped noticing? Maybe she just recovered quickly? Or, would she fall ill again once she got home?
Did she even have time to be ill? How long until enough was enough and whoever had her identity would spread it to everyone? If that happened, what then?
"Tweetie?"
"Hm?" She zoned out. Again.
"You should probably go home soon if you can," Leo oozed concern, letting it drip from his tongue in the form of worried words. "You might not be ill now, but if you don't rest, you'll get sick again."
She nodded, appreciating the way he seemed to be thinking of her health and state of mind more and more. It was nice to have someone show such genuine concern when he really didn't need to.
"I will," she agreed, shutting her book. "I think I'll go now before I end up falling asleep here or something."
"Alright," he smiled, glad to see she was taking his advice, "we'll see you tomorrow, Tweetie."
"Buh-bye!"