Chapter 412: Haley Leaves The Group
Princess and Faye did not take that lightly.
First, they had missed their first son’s very first steps because they were out trying to save some guy, and now Minny was crawling around calling someone else Papa.
His first actual word was Papa instead of Mommy, Mama, or anything remotely acknowledging them.
To make matters infinitely worse, Minny and Ronny kept repeating that exact word nonstop. They said it when they were playing on the mat, when Princess was trying to wash their hair in the bath, and when Faye sat by their cribs at night trying to sing them to sleep.
"Papa, Papa, Papa."
Not knowing what else to do, both girls ended up curling up together and crying. It was becoming deeply annoying, dragging down their mood and starting to mess with their daily activities.
After school wrapped up for the day, Princess had somewhere else to go with her friends, so Faye happened to be the one stuck taking care of the pups for the afternoon.
Inside the gym, the four pups were safely contained inside a padded play arena in the corner, tossing their toys around while Minny continued calling out the word Papa to the empty air.
Faye just sat on a bench, keeping her gaze locked on the little pup playing inside the fence.
She was already completely tired of crying, her eyes dry and heavy, and she simply had no words left to throw at the wall.
The rest of the group was present in the room, huddled together trying to have an urgent meeting about finding the best sea animal.
Faye finally turned her head slowly toward Malo.
"What were you saying, Malo?"
Malo paused mid-sentence and stared at his best friend.
Haley and Sasha stopped talking as well, turning their heads to look directly at her.
"You have to be kidding me Faye. You have said that like 7 times already," Malo snapped, throwing his hands up in frustration. "If you don’t want to be here, go and join the pups in their playground."
He had been talking over and over, laying out the search grid and trying to get through to Faye, only for her to zone out and keep asking him the exact same question every 5 minutes.
"Okay, to be sincere, you have no idea what it means when your child starts calling someone else the name you wished to be called," Faye said, her voice completely flat as she gestured back toward the playpen.
"Oh no, Faye. We absolutely have no idea because we’re still teenagers in school and don’t have children," Haley said, her tone dripping with heavy sarcasm as she adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose.
She still hadn’t recovered from the brutal fact that her girlfriend had killed the one girl who had considered her a sister, someone who had no actual family left to call her own.
"That is right. I happen to be a teen mom," Faye shot right back, leaning forward and staring Haley down. "That’s a fact. You can fucking rub it in my face. It’s not going to hurt. It’s true, so find something else to sulk over."
Haley’s eyes snapped wide behind her lenses. "Sulk over? That girl had no family, and you made Sasha kill her!"
"So if I had died, would you feel better?" Faye said back, standing up.... "Why on earth is it not getting through that head of yours? It was either me or her. She fired her gun, and she died by her own bullet. Sasha did not kill her. She killed herself."
"Okay... I thought we had already settled this problem in school," Malo interjected, stepping bodily between them and holding out his arms to calm everyone down. "Why are we doing this again? Please, let’s just focus on the main problem here."
Haley immediately rounded on him, turning all her pent-up heat straight toward his face.
"Problem? Finding the Beast Morphs isn’t my problem," Haley hissed, her chest heaving. "You and your selfish ego got us into this mess, and I’m the one contributing. I’m just helping, but I’m the one who gets hurt!"
"Honestly, what have you done for this group, Haley?" Malo shot back, his own temper flaring as he fully involved himself in the argument. "You’re nothing but a side character. An extra. Someone who stays behind while the rest of us do the heavy lifting. You’ve done nothing!"
Haley scoffed, a dark, disbelieving laugh breaking from her throat.
"I’ve done nothing? Are you serious right now MG?"
Sasha reached out, her fingers catching the edge of Haley’s gown to hold her down. "Haley, calm down..."
"Don’t touch me," Haley snapped, ripping her sleeve out of Sasha’s grip. "All of this is happening because you killed my sister-in-law."
She turned back to face Malo, her voice trembling with pure rage.
"You said I’ve done nothing for this group? When Faye was kidnapped, who provided the van and the electronics we needed for her rescue? Who provided the safe house? Who used her gadgets for surveillance whenever this group needed it?"
She looked around the room, glaring at each of their faces one by one.
No one answered. The gym fell completely dead silent.
"Did I even get a thank-you from Faye for helping save her?" Haley asked, her voice dropping into a quiet, painful edge.
Hearing that raw truth spill out from Haley, everyone stayed silent because she was making a completely valid point. None of them could deny the work she had put into their survival.
"Malo, apologize for what you just said," Faye said, her aggressive edge fading as she tried to calm things down.
"Save your apology," Haley said, taking a step back toward the exit. "None of you have ever accepted me into this group anyway."
Haley wiped her wet eyes and took another step away from the bleachers.
"Maybe you’re right. I’m nothing but a side character."
She paused, looking at every single person standing in that room.
"Maybe it’s time I became the main character."
With that final statement ringing in the air, Haley turned on her heel and walked straight out of the gym, the heavy doors swinging behind her.
They all wanted to go after her, guilt locking up their chests, but before anyone could move a single step toward the doorway, the handle turned again and Bambi entered the gym.