Hailee Goes Home

A few hours later Hailee was walking home, not realizing that the place she was headed to hadn’t existed before today. As she neared her house she realized it was dark, not a light on in the place. Her parents probably weren’t home yet. Or they’d gone out with the McMillans for drinks at the club or something. They were always hob-nobbing with them. She knew for a fact that her parents didn’t really like them much, but since they were the only other family as well off as Hailee’s parents were, it seemed like there was no one else to spend time with. At least no one else that would understand their lifestyle. For her part, Hailee actually kind of liked the McMillans. Sure, Zoe was nice and a good friend, but there was something exciting about the way the McMillans lived. It was so much larger than life compared to her family…or anyone else she knew for that matter.
And then there was Sarah McMillan. As far as Hailee was concerned, Sarah was the coolest girl in the whole school. She always wore the hottest clothes in the latest style. She was dating one of the best looking guys in school who also just happened to be the quarterback of the football team. And Sarah basically ran the school. As her whims went so did the trends at Lakepoint High School.
Hailee was still imagining what her life would be like if she had the same kind of influence as Sarah as she unlocked the front door to her house and walked inside. As she did, though, she was caught by the strange sense of stillness in the house. It wasn’t like when her parents normally left the house. It almost felt like she was the first person to ever enter the house.
Of course Hailee had no way of knowing this was true. No one before Hailee had ever walked into the house because it hadn’t even existed until Karyn’s wish had brought Hailee Blanchard into existence in the first place. Hailee turned on the lights in the living room and sat down in a recliner, tucking her legs under her. She felt something dig into her hip and, upon inspecting her pocket, found the strange stone she’d been holding earlier at Zoe’s. She’d forgotten all about it.