Rue's POV
Rue didn't believe in fresh starts.
She believed in relocation. In reinvention. In holding your breath long enough that no one could hear it shake. Halewood was just another town. Another place to disappear.
The school building smelled like disinfectant and pencil shavings. Rue kept her hoodie up , her beats on no music in particular. It gave her something to focus on besides the hallway noise, shoes squeaking, lockers slamming, voices overlapping like badly written dialogue.
names blurred.Face blurred.Until one didn't.
It happened during transition & first period.
Rue sat two rows from the back , near the windows. She was staring through the glass, watching fog cling to the field when she felt it .. a shift. Like someone had turned the air.
She looked around.
A girl across the room. Dark hair, sweater sleeves pulled tight at the wrists. Sitting still like she was trying not to exist too loudly. Her eyes weren't red.Her face wasn't tear streaked. But Rue recognized the expression.
Not sadness. Not fear
Maintenance.
the daily labor of pretending.
The girl blinked and looked away, but not before their eyes met , just for a second. Rue didn't flinch she'd learned a long time ago that the most people broke eye contact first.
This girl didn't
not until the teacher called out Rue's name.
"Rue?"
"Here"
soft, even. No last name Rue never gave it unless someone forced her.
She glanced back , the girl had turned away again but something had shifted in her posture.
As if she's felt seen..
Lunch was noisy , Rue didn't eat she never ate much around strangers, too many eyes, too many questions. Instead of small chit chat she wandered around the halls like she belonged in them , knowing she didn't. That's when she passed the classroom again, empty .. except
The girl was still there.
Alone
head down , pencil dragging lines across the paper like she was trying to disappear through the page. Rue paused just out of sight , watched.
she looked exhausted
Not tired, Rue knew the difference.
Exhausted from pretending to be fine
Rue backed away she could've left , should've but something stopped her
The girl had dropped a pen earlier, a small thing, blue plastic , no cap, teeth marks on the end
Rue still had it in her pocket.
She hesitated in the doorway
Then knocked once on the inside of the frame soft not to startle her , just to say I see you without saying anything at all.
The girl turned her eyes locked with Rue's
not confused not scared
just surprised.
"You forgot this." Rue said holding the pen out
Their fingers brushed. And Rue felt it was not a spark, not magic, just stillness. Like something inside both of them had paused
"You always stay behind after class?" she asked
"Only when it's easier than pretending."
That was it that was the moment Rue knew
this girl?
she was like Rue just better at hiding it.
"same"
Rue left after that she didn't want to linger . Didn't want to explain herself but the girl Mireille she'd heard someone say , stayed with her even after Rue disappeared into the noise of the hallway.
Rue had seen a lot of people who were sad. But Mireille? Mireille was surviving.
And Rue had a feeling the girl wasn't used to anyone noticing.
Not until now.