Hailey just got back from a photo shoot and she was feeling so tired. All she wanted to do is to go home and lie on her bed but she had to find those photos. Rob had been bugging her for the photos. Her desk was in a mess with papers and photos all over the place. She wondered how shes going to find those photos in this mess. She started to regret not tidying up her table. Throughout her life, she has never been an organized person. Its not that she cant be bothered but she always finds her stuff in a mess shortly after packing and organizing them. Shes just not meant to be neat and tidy. But no matter how messy her table is, she is still able to find what she wants and she is quite amazed at this ability of hers. She smiled to herself when she thought about it. She was still digging through the mess on her table when her phone started to ring. She dug her left hand into her back pocket and took out her phone while her right hand was lifting up a stack of paper at the corner of the table.
Hi, Hailey speaking
Hail? Hailey recognized Bettes voice immediately
Hi Bette, whats up? Hail, I need your help. Could you get down to CAC now? Hail could sense the urgency in her friends voice. She took a look at her watch and reckon that she could spare sometime for her friend
Sure, no problem. Ill be there soon.
After putting her phone back into her pocket, Hailey took a step back and looked down at the mess on her table. She took a deep breath, shrugged her shoulders, grabbed her helmet on her chair and walked out of the office.
Hailey was stunned to see so many people outside CAC. They were holding signboards and chanting something which Hailey couldnt quite made out what it is. Whats going on here? She wondered as she tried to look for Bette. Then she saw Shane and Alice. She waved to them and quickly ran to them. Bette was there, beside Alice, locking arms with Alice and a lady in a blue overall. Hailey took up a position between Bette and Alice and did what the rest were doing, locking arms with Bette on her left and Alice on her right.
Thanks for coming, Hail. Bette was breathing the words through her teeth. Hailey could feel the tenseness in Bettes voice and decided to help her friend ease up a bit by teasing her .
Youre welcome Ms Porter. Your wish is always my command.
Hailey saw a small smile creeping across Bettes face. Satisfied that she has accomplished her mission she turned to Alice and said
Hey, Alice, wheres Dana?
Shes on her way. Alice answered.
Ohand. may I know what kind of activity are we engaging here?
Hailey smiled teasingly at Alice who was struggling to maintain her balance. The pushing and shoveling from the people behind them was making it difficult to keep their balance.
What are you, Hail, a reporter. Cant you see that we are trying to form a human shield to get the provocation paintings in the museum. Have you been living in another planet? Didnt you read the newspaper. Dont you know that Bettes museum is having an exhibition? Alice gave Hailey a looked that said that your question is so dumbed .
Hey, give me a break. Al, Im new on the job.
O.K. Rookie, listen up. The first thing you have to do is shut up and stop asking questions. The second thing you should do is ( pause) Get your ***** shoe off my foot (Yelling).
Hailey looked down and realized that her right foot is stepping onto Alices left foot. Hailey looked at Alices face which is changing color and gave her an embarrassed smile. Shane had been listening to their conversation and tried to control her laughter but she couldnt stand it anymore when she heard Alice yelling at Haileys for stepping on her foot and burst out laughing
Oh God, You guys are so funny.
Alice gave Shane a scathing look that said Its not funny Shane.
Shane was about to retaliate when Hailey shouted
Hey, theres Dana.Danas over here.
Dana spotted them and quickly ran over. She took up a position beside Shane and locked arms when Shane and a man.
So what are we supposed to do? Dana looked innocently at Shane and asked. Alice rolled her eyes and mumbled Not again.
Shane burst out laughing again
Guys, please. stop doing this. I cant take it anymore.
Do what? Dana asked with a confused look in her eyes. Hailey stole a look at Alice through the corner of her eyes and tried to contain her laughter. She enjoyed teasing Alice and making her angry. Its something which she is good at, teasing her friends. She didnt really mean to make Alice angry, she just wanted to ease the tension which is in the air and she knew that Alice wouldnt really get angry with her, Alice loved her too much to be angry with her. Hailey turned her attention from her friends to a guy standing behind her. He was holding a mega phone and shouting into the mega phone.
Doesnt he know how to use a mega phone. Hes so dumb. The guy was starting to get pushy. It was obvious that he was trying to force his way through. Hailey felt irritated and wished that she could turn around and kicked him in his balls maybe that will shut him up and stop him from pushing. Hailey was lost in her thoughts when all of a sudden, ***** broke loose. Hailey didnt know what happened but the human shield that they formed broke up and things started to get messy. The guy with the mega phone saw the chance and pushed his way through. He stood in front of a big, brown crate and pointed to a woman and said something about her being the artist in the video and started to tell her that she will burn in *****. Bette raced forward and stepped in between the guy and the woman. For a second, Hailey thought that Bette was trying to protect the woman but then it looks more like Bette was trying to protect the crate. Bette shoved the guy in the shoulder and he stumbled back a few steps. He was yelling at Bette and Bette was yelling back. Hailey started to worry for her friends safety. That guy was getting very angry and Hailey knows what anger can do to a person. She had seen and read about the nasty things that people do when they were angry. They just seemed to lose control over themselves when anger overwhelmed them and this guy looks like he is gonna hit Bette any minute. Hailey decided to pull Bette away from the guy. Then, it happened. Hailey saw the guy raising his left hand with the mega phone. Oh my god! What the ***** is he doing? Hailey screamed to herself as she rushed forward and pushed Bette away from the guy. Hailey saw the mega phone coming down on her head followed by a loud thud. An intense pain started to spread across her head. She stumbled back and tried to steady herself by leaning against the big brown crate and slowly lowered herself onto the cold, cement floor. A pain shot through her head and she felt like her head was going to explode and then she realized that something was dripping down her face. She used the back of her hand to wipe it,
*****, its blood. That idiot broke my head! Hailey muttered to herself.
She looked up at the guy and he looked back at her with fear and regret in his eyes. They stared at each other for a few seconds before the guy turned around and fled. Hailey felt anger overwhelmed her, she wanted to go after that guy but the pain in her head was excruciating, a tiny bit of movement would sent the pain shooting up her head. She looked at Bette who was standing there with both of her hands covering her mouth and her face was twisted with fear and shock .The color is slowing draining from her face and she was trembling. She knew that her friend couldnt stand the sight the blood. Bette had confessed to her once about her fear for blood.
This must be freaking her out. Hailey thought to herself.
Alice, Shane and Dana saw what happened and they quickly rushed to Haileys side. They were so shocked to see their friend with covered with blood and they didnt know what to do. Shane quickly took out her mobile phone and called the paramedics. Hailey was really in pain but she knew that she had to stop the blood from flowing. She took a look at Alice and saw tears in her eyes. She looked at Dana. Dana had her mouth opened so big that Hailey swear she could put her whole fist in. Bette was slowly making her way to Haileys side. There were tears rolling down her cheeks. Hailey could tell that Bette is really scared and her knees looked like they are going to give way anytime. Shane was the one who is more composed although she could sense that Shane was as shocked as the rest of her friends.
Al, could you help me to take my shirt off?
Alice did not show any response. She was still trying to come to terms with what had happened to her friend. Shane took a glance at Alice, seeing that Alice was not doing anything to help Hailey, she moved forward to take Haileys shirt off. Hailey rolled her shirt into a ball and put it over the top left corner of her head, where the blood has been dripping. She tried to apply pressure to stop the bleeding but it only ended up with intensifying the pain in her head. Hailey decided to just concentrate on wiping away the blood that keeps dripping down her face. She didnt know how deep or bad is the wound and thought that it would be best not to touch it coz it will only make the pain unbearable. Hailey looked at Alice and said in a weak voice
Hey, Al, Im not dead yet. Ive just got a cut on my head. Im gonna be o.k. Dont worry.
Alice felt her heart filled with guilt. She should be the one comforting Hailey and not the other way round. She regretted yelling at Hailey for stepping on her foot and thinking about it makes her want to cry. Tears started to roll down her cheeks. Alices tears had opened the floodgate. Dana started to cry and Shanes eyes were watery.
Comon . Im not dead yet. Its just a nasty cut. Hey, at the rate you guys are crying, this place is gonna get flooded in no time.
There was a few seconds of silence and then Dana started to smile followed by Alice, Shane and Bette. Well, thats the power of Hailey, always managed to cheer her friends up and bring a smile across their faces. Everyones attention was on Hailey and they didnt realize that the police were going round arresting people. The sight of a man in blue uniform standing and staring at them brought them back to their senses.
All right guys, lets go. One of the officer said
No look our friend is hurt and we need to take card of her until the paramedics come. Shane stood up and looked at the officer in the eye.
We will take care of her but you guys will have to go with us. The officer replied. Dont you get it..We are not going anywhere until the paramedics arrived! Shane said with anger in her voice.
The police officer didnt say anything. He took out his handcuffed and put it over Shanes wrist. The rest of the officer did the same thing to Alice and Dana and Bette. What the ***** is this? Shane shouted at the officer.
The officer ignored Shane and pushed her towards a van, parked at the side of the road. Shane tried to struggle but the officer is stronger than Shane and she just couldnt fight him. Shane turned around and yelled at Hailey,
Dont worry. The paramedics will be here soon. Youre gonna be o.k., before climbing into the van. A few minutes later, a lady in blue overall climbed into the van followed by Bette. Bette lost her balance and ended up on the ladys lap. Shane shifted a bit to make some space for Bette. Bette sat down beside the lady in blue overall, stared into space. Few minutes later, she started to speak in a soft and weak voice
Shane, do you think Hail is really gonna be O.K,? Shes bleeding badly.
Dont worry Bette. Shes a fighter. Shell be o.k. Shane tried to reassure her friend. What am I going to do if anything happened to Hailey. She tried to save me and all I could do was to stand there and looked at her. Im so useless.
Look Bette, what happened out there is not your fault. Believe me, shes gonna be o.k. The paramedics will take care of her. Shane tried to give a reassuring smile to her friend.
Bette could not stop blaming herself for Haileys accident. She started to regret asking Hailey to come over to help her but Bette knew that theres no point in regretting now. All she could do now was to say a silent prayer for her friend, praying that Hailey would be fine.
Hailey saw her friends being arrested by the police but she couldnt do anything. She felt so helpless. The pain in her head was getting worse by the minute and the blood dripping down her face was blurring her vision. She saw Shane turning back before entering the van and yelled something at her but she couldnt hear anything except for the buzz in her ears. She felt that she was slowly slipping away.