“You got your finger on the trigger but your trigger finger’s mine.”
- Billie Eilish (COPYCAT)
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As she would on any other Friday morning, Hannah Honey stepped off the school bus that was now parked in front of her school, Somewhere Central High. Walking inside, she attempted to crack her knuckles, but to no avail (she had already run out of cracks before breakfast). She opened her locker to get her things for her first few classes. As she did this, other students nearby were busy mingling amongst themselves, getting the latest on the daily gossip, making plans for tonight’s football game, or gushing about someone’s new crush.
Hannah was never involved in these kinds of conversations. Though she wanted to be, her reasons for keeping to herself were personal and difficult to explain.
It’s for the best.
Despite this, her best friend, Norah Barlowe, would have approached her by now to chat about something fun and mysterious. Something like a new crime documentary series on TV or a horror novel that claimed to be “based on a true story”. They had a mutual passion for those sorts of things.
Is she sick?
Or maybe she just doesn’t want to talk to me anymore?
Self confidence wasn’t something that came naturally to Hannah. These days though, it was something she was actively working on.
No, I’d be surprised if that were the case.
…
“Hannah? Hannah, can you answer the question please?”
The students sitting at the desks nearby laughed as the teacher called for Hannah’s attention for the third time. Once again, Hannah had dozed off in the middle of her second period science class.
She sat up abruptly, “Huh, what?” She said as she awoke, rather loudly at that.
“Answer the question please.” The teacher, Mrs. Wilson asserted.
“Umm…” She wiped a bit of drool from her cheek, her face now gleaming beet red. “Can you uhh… repeat the question.”
The teacher sighed before continuing, “I asked if you could explain what the recent absence of a Doppler Red Shift tells us about our universe.”
Hannah was puzzled. Normally, she would have picked up on something like this after reading the textbook outside of class. But she hadn’t recalled Mrs. Wilson or the textbook going over that particular concept yet. “No, I can’t.” She said in a matter of fact tone.
The students nearby giggled some more as Mrs. Wilson only sighed, “Just try to pay better attention, alright? And stick around after class, I need to speak with you.”
…
“Hannah, are you alright?” Mrs. Wilson asked as she moved her papers over to the side of her desk, “You seem more exhausted these days. Is everything okay at home?”
Hannah needed to take a moment to figure out how to answer this, mainly because “home” seemed like an ambiguous term to her.
Home? Like… with my family? Or… just me?
Her parents were fine, just like always. They got along with each other and both worked stable jobs. In fact, Hannah often spent time with them doing family activities like board games and movie nights, the sorts of things that an average teenager would be too stuck up for. Her home life couldn’t have been better in that respect. No problems there.
Despite this, Hannah hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. She had spent yet another night wandering around the city, letting her look for that. Hannah didn’t like doing this as often as she did, but she didn’t always have the strength to say no to her. And now, Hannah was the one facing the consequences, too sleep deprived to stay awake in class.
At this, Hannah heard a faint giggle in her mind. She didn’t like hearing her in there, especially while she was in school.
“To be honest, Mrs. Wilson, I haven’t been sleeping very well lately. My family is okay and all, it’s just… too much late night reading I guess. I’m sorry, I’ll get some more sleep so I can listen better in your class.”
Liar
“Ahh, I see. I admire your passion for reading, but yes, sleep is still very important. I’m curious though Hannah, what do you like to read?”
Surprised by her teacher’s attempt to connect with her for the first time, Hannah had to make a deliberate effort to hold back a delighted smile. Doing her best to keep her poker face, she continued with her white lie, “Well… it’s not so much reading in the traditional paper sense. It’s called a “visual novel”. Have you ever heard of ‘Zero Escape’? It’s about nine people trapped in a cruise liner, and they have to open several doors and solve a bunch of escape rooms to survive.”
“Interesting! Sounds like a horror/mystery kind of thing. And no, I don’t think I have heard of it before.” Mrs. Wilson looked at the clock, noticing the time. “You’ll have to tell me more about it another time though, I have to get going. Also be sure to get some more sleep, ok? Double also, don’t forget about Friday’s quiz!”
“Yes, Mrs. Wilson. And thanks for the pep talk, I appreciate it.” Hannah gave a mature nod to her teacher.
“Of course, Hannah. Thanks for sticking around.”
…
Just before Hannah could walk into her next classroom, two girls had prepared to ruin the delightful day that she had just begun to have.
“Need a pick-me-up, sleepyhead?” one girl poured iced coffee into Hannah’s hood before the other girl smacked it against her back. Hannah winced from the sudden chill. She held back tears, hoping no one else in the bustling hallways had seen. But of course, they had. Some students laughed while almost everyone else was too busy or nervous to do anything about it.
All but one.
“Hey! I saw that! Leave her alone!”
Upon seeing Norah, the two bullies ran off. Norah had gotten them sent to the principal’s office just a few days ago, and they weren’t eager to go back again any time soon. “Teacher’s pet!” They called out.
Ignoring them, Norah turned to help her friend, “Are you alright Hannah?”
She only nodded slightly as she cracked her knuckles, managing just two cracks before they stopped producing sound again.
“Let’s go to the Nurse. I think she has some spare clothes.”
“But aren’t you going to be late for your next class?”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t matter. There’s something I need to talk to you about. It’s urgent and I can’t focus in class. Are you cool with skipping?”
It didn’t take much to convince Hannah at that point. Talking to a friend felt like a much more valuable use of her time than third period study hall could ever be, regardless of the consequences.
“Yes.”
…
“My brother’s been acting strange lately. Our parents have been out of town for ten whole days now, and they won’t be back until next Wednesday. In the meantime, Noss has been stopping by to take care of the house while they’ve been gone. But he’s been… different.”
“Different? How so?” Hannah was already digging into the lunch she had packed for the day, opening a bag of barbeque chips as Norah expressed her concerns.
“Well, for starters he’s been WAY too helpful with the chores. He handles everything himself, and when I ask him if he needs help, he insists that I relax and enjoy myself. He’s a nice person, but he’s never been that nice.”
Hannah answered after she finished crunching, “Maybe he just wants to be a supportive big brother. We’re both in our junior year of high school after all. Maybe he's just considerate of how much school work you have these days.”
“I don’t think that’s it though.” As she spoke, Norah extended an open hand towards Hannah, a request for a chip.
Hannah obliged, and Norah continued as she crunched, “It’s more so like… he’s just very… efficient. Or maybe… ‘plain’ is the right word? Those chips are good by the way.”
“I know right, I practically inhale these things whenever I bring them.” Hannah gave her a few more before finishing off the last of the bag, “What do you mean by ‘plain’ though?”
“I don’t know. I asked him about his work and his new girlfriend, and he kept going on and on with very ‘matter of fact’ answers. Stuff like, ‘the relationship is developing in a positive fashion’ and ‘I think you will enjoy her company when I introduce her to you and our parents.’. Like… that’s not really how he talks.”
“Hmmm… maybe he’s just not sure how to explain it? Or maybe he was trying to be funny about it?” Hannah grasped at straws. In truth, she didn’t know Noss well enough to say.
“I don’t know, it all just seemed unlike him. Maybe if you saw him in person, you’d understand. His face was really plain and stiff looking. In fact, his skin looked almost… like it was made of wood.”
“Wait, what? Wood? Why didn’t you start with that!?” Hannah threw her hands in the air out of sheer surprise and intrigue.
“Eek! I’m sorry, I didn’t want to sound weird right off the bat. I didn’t want you to think I was making it all up. I know these are small things, but it’s enough for me to be concerned.”
“It’s okay, I understand. And I believe you.” Hannah proceeded to clean up the rest of her lunch, giving herself a moment to think to herself.
Made of wood? He didn’t look like that when I saw him last Tuesday… Oh wait!
Midway through zipping up her lunchbox, she interrupted her own train of thought. “I never told you! I saw your brother early last week!”
Norah’s ears perked up, “Really? Where? Did you talk to him?”
“Well… yes and no…” Hannah paused before explaining herself.
I’m the one who saw him that night, not you!
Don’t steal my thunder!
Ignoring her, Hannah continued, adding in a white lie, “I was walking around the city… with my family, and we ran into him. He looked pretty distraught after I, or uh, we saw a girl storm off away from him. He started to follow after her, but he looked a little strange. I looked closer at his forehead and I noticed that the word ‘LIAR’ was written there. It was the weirdest thing. But he didn’t look very ‘wooden’ though.”
“Seriously? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
Without a good reason, Hannah paused again. This time, she couldn’t come up with a reasonable excuse that was far enough away from the truth, “I’m sorry, I just… didn’t really process it until now.”
Because YOU didn’t see them. Jerk!
Norah was quick to forgive her friend, “That’s okay. I’m just glad you told me now, when it matters. But more importantly, this girl. What did she look like? The girl that stormed off I mean.”
This was only becoming tougher for Hannah by the minute. Hannah was often crafty under pressure, but at this point, she was only digging herself further into a hole.
You got yourself into this mess, now you have to dig yourself out.
If you help me out, we can go looking for it again tonight. I promise. And I won’t make it difficult like I usually do.
Wow, really? Even after the little agreement you made with your teacher earlier?
Well… yes. This is for Norah, so that’s a price I’m willing to pay.
Fair enough! Her name is Virginia “Ginny” Fire. She has short, red hair, blue eyes, a few freckles, and a rather small nose. She’s a tad more expressive than the average person, and it’s easy to tell when she’s happy, sad, or angry, or anything like that. She’s 27 years old and makes a living as a cafe barista in the daytime, so she can perform as a saxophone player in the evenings. Busy little thing, dontcha think? She’ll probably become popular in the near future. In fact, I like her music a lot! Anyways, she is very recognizable on the street, you can’t miss her.
Whoa… what’d you do, google her or something?
Nope! I don’t need google. I get all the answers I want all on my own! What, did you think you were my only vessel in this city? Don’t go thinking you’re special or anything!
“Hannah? Do you remember what she looked like?” Norah asked after her friend had stayed silent for a tad too long.
“Oh, uh, sorry, I just needed to refresh my memory. If… if I recall correctly, she had short red hair and blue eyes.”
“That’s gotta be Ginny! Noss described her like that too.”
“So… what are you gonna do?”
Norah held a hand to her chin without realizing it, indicating to Hannah and the rest of the world that she was, in fact, thinking to herself. “Hmmm… Maybe I can find her and see if she’s also noticed anything odd about Noss. Maybe she knows why he looks different too. Anyways, I hope she’s nice though, I’ve never met her before.”
Hannah realized then that she could kill two birds with one stone, “I can help you look if you want.”
“Really? That’d be huge! Noss says she plays saxophone for some local venues sometimes, so maybe we can ask around at spots like that after school today.”
“That’s… a pretty good lead! That actually works out well for me. I’m looking for something too.” Hannah added.
“Really? What are you looking for?”
What the fuck! Why would you say that? She didn’t need to know you had another motive! Don’t blow it you idiot!
“Oh, uh, nothing important. I’m uhh… curious about playing trumpet actually, so maybe if we run into Ginny I can ask about it. Maybe she can give me some pointers.”
She’s never gonna buy that…
Norah nodded eagerly, “Oh cool! You’re right, that does work out!”
Seriously? She’s either really nice or really dumb.
Hannah nodded, relieved that she was able to maneuver that on the fly. “Want to meet me at the park at around… 5pm then?”
As if on cue, the bell went off, ending the class that they both skipped.
“Sounds like a plan!”
A plan indeed.
…
~~ Page 3 ~~