STARK, HADLEY NOELLA

"what the fuck do you mean you have to go?" hadley bit nervously at her lip as she sat in her idling car. she'd just pulled into the parking lot of this building where her latest interview was supposed to be conducted. if she didn't start walking now, she was going to be late. "yeah... i have an interview i have to go to... i'm sorry, noah. i'll call you after?" the longer the silence stretched on from his end of line, the faster her heart started to beat in her chest.hadleyi thought he might lash out on her, but instead the line simply went dead. honestly, that scared her more than his yelling would have, but she tried to push those worries to the back of her mind for now. after forcing herself to take a deep breath, the blonde forced a smile onto her lips before exiting her car and walking off towards the building. once she was inside, the receptionist directed her towards an office in the back which she entered with an excited little bounce in her step. "that's perfectly fine! i think i'm running a little bit late too." smiling still, she waited a beat before taking a seat in front of the desk. the room was cluttered, but still open enough that it was still possible for her to breathe. "well, i'm hadley, but some people call me had or hads, so you can pick whichever you like better!" she nodded, then fidgeted in her seat. they were only two seconds in and her restlessness was already starting to show. "i'm a twenty-two year old actress and dancer. i do a lot of competitions and i preform at a lot of shows and in theaters. my parents also own a dance studio, so i teach a few classes there when i can. i'm strongest in ballet, but i'm a pretty quick study so i can do whatever. obviously broadway and things like that." for someone so young, she definitely had a lot on her plate. but it's been like that ever since she was old enough to walk. there was always too much piled up on her plate. "and... oh! my birthday is may thirteenth."

the blonde shrugged in mild agreement. sure it was a lot of information, but that was the easy stuff. if she were to google hadley, all of those basic details probably would have popped up on her wikipedia page. "i'm originally from santa cruz, california. it's a beautiful beach town and my parents own a gorgeous house there. it's been a couple months since i went to visit them last, but i'm a pretty busy girl and there never seems to be enough time. there's always something for me to be practicing or performing, y'know? lots to do all the time. it's hard to get away." that wasn't necessarily the truth. hadley was sure that she could find time throughout the week to go visit her parents, but she generally just preferred not to. though her mother appeared to be vaguely impressed with her daughter's status as an actress, she had yet to make it on the big screen which was obviously some kind of a letdown. her parents disappointment was usually something she liked to stay as far away from as she possibly could, which was more the reason why she never went home even when it was so close to her. 

her shoulders shrugged lightly in response to this particular question. of course there were people here who she deeply cared for. though this wasn't her hometown, a lot of her friends from high school and college lived here and because hadley was such a popular young woman, she kept a lot of people close to her. none of them, however, really stood out in her mind. though she was always surrounded by people, she always seemed to keep a little to herself. her best friend, daniel strider, was probably the only one who knew everything there was to know about her. other than that, she always maintained this careful detachment with friends, fans, and the media. the only reason she stayed was because she felt tethered to this place. "sure! of course i do! i mean, all my family and friends live around here so there's plenty of people that keep me sticking around. of course i have to travel from time to time for shows and whatnot, but i always come back. this place is my home and i have no idea what i would do without the people who make it a home." a sweet smile coated her lips as she nodded, partially telling the truth yet again. little lies were always sprinkled throughout her interviews. being too honest about her personal life would have created all kinds of juicy scandal for the tabloids to feast on. hadley liked to keep her life quiet, she she attempted to downplay everything as best she could so they would leave her alone for the most part. 

"yeah, i guess it is... and i guess it does." hadley managed to smile, but her involuntary shift in her seat gave away her minor discomfort. it wasn't as if she hadn't talked about her past before. at this point, she was so good at giving the sweetly watered down version of it that this should be no problem at all. today, however, she was feeling a little more on edge than usual. that probably had something to do with the argument, or lack there of, that she had with noah over the phone. there were cracks in her foundation. "like i said, i grew up in santa cruz, california. my parents are two very successful people, but my entire family is known throughout various industries. um... i do have an older brother, owen. we were always really close growing up, even though he's a few years older than me. i have always looked up to him because he's such a good person. really, he is. he's always looked out for me when we were growing up and i'll never be able to thank him enough for that." her brother was always the one who was there for her when things in her life started to go awry. he would sit in her room with her until she stopped crying and would be the first to show up at her dance or cheer competitions when he had the time. the two of them were a lot closer than your usual brother and sister duo. he knew everything there was to know about her and she knew the same about him. "oh, i also have a twin sister, cora. i'm sure you've probably seen quite a bit of her. she's a model and the agencies love to use her in like... everything so yeah. she's quite beautiful and talented." though her voice was light and sweet, even touched with a little hint of fondness towards her twin, you could see in her eyes that she didn't necessarily enjoy talking about her twin. in the eyes of her parents, she was the better of the two. cora would make it big in this world. she had so many things going for her and had the kind of... hard personality that would get her far in life. not to mention the fact that she was already engaged and moving up in the world. growing up, the two of them kept as far away from each other as possible because they never had much in common. the only times when her sister would show any interest was whenever hadley found herself a boyfriend. there had been multiple occasions where she had her heart broken after walking in on her sister sleeping with her boyfriend. but at least she had ways to express the pain. "i started dancing from the moment i learned to balance on my own two feet. so that's always been a huge part of my life. my parents are perfectionists, which i don't say with any negative connotations, so on top of dance, i also had to stay on the honor roll in school while also joining the cheer team and drama club at high school. i was definitely a very busy kid growing up, but i mean, i've got so much energy all the time that i manage to balance it all." well, that and her parents sort of forced her to. while her brother was the perfect child, seemingly incapable of doing anything wrong, dani was a mistake. she was troublesome, always messing up this thing or that because she wasn't trying hard enough or she continued to get distracted. her parents were always yelling or scolding her, but eventually that wasn't enough. eventually they start to hit her. the first time she didn't really know what to make of it. she just sort of stared up at her father with wide eyes that soon started to glaze over. hadley couldn't even remember why he had hit her that time, but she became very familiar with the red impression of his hand on her face shortly after that first time. "after i graduated high school, i sort of had vague intentions of going to college in california. i didn't really know what i wanted to do yet or where i wanted to go... but then my brother sort of decided for me. during the summer after graduation, we moved to new york." there was more to it than that. hadley had every intention of staying in california because that was all she was familiar with. of course she wanted to leave, but she was too afraid to. she was afraid of what her parents might think or how she would even function without them planning out every step of her life. that summer, she had all kinds of dance competitions and things laid out for her. her stress levels were through the roof, especially after she found out that her boyfriend of two years had been cheating on her with one of the other girls from the cheer team, and she slipped up. instead of coming in first place at the ballet competition, she came in at third. the disappointment in her parents faces was easy to see through the crowd, but it wasn't until they got home that they lashed out on her. at this point in time she was used to it. hardly even flinched when her mother reached out to strike her. at that very same time, however, her brother walked through the door with a bundle of flowers in his hands. after that it was all sort of a blur. she could just remember him telling her to go to her room, hearing a lot of shouting from downstairs, and then owen telling her to pack up her things. during the plane ride to new york, dani told him all about the abuse she'd been silently suffering through for years. "i attended julliard, graduated, and then started working right away and moved back to california. my schedule is all kinds of crazy still, but i don't mind. i love what i do. i love performing for people and making them happy. it's really just a beautiful thing and i mean... i've really come to love everything about LA. it's such a wonderful city and close to home. i've missed it here." a lot of that was true. hadley slowly started to build herself back up and began to recover from the traumas of her childhood. she made friends and started to work out the details of who she truly was and who other people wanted her to be. things were really starting to look up for her... until suddenly they weren't. her director, noah, took a keen liking to her from the moment she walked into the theater. at first it wasn't so bad, and she almost liked the attention, but then his grip on her arm when he was correcting a mistake would get a little too tight and she would need to spend extra time in makeup to have the marks concealed. 

hadley folded her hands in her lap so that she could twiddle her fingers. she imagined that a lot of people had a lot of different things to say about her. it would all depend on the person you asked because she had a tendency to change herself in order to fit certain people. "uh... i guess interesting would be a good adjective? though i think energetic and friendly and annoying might suit me a little better." she laughed and smiled, having no problem with admitting to the fact that she was so energetic and friendly to the point where it could come off as pretty annoying. there was no doubt in her mind that a good handful of people didn't like her because of the sweet nature of her personality. there was just something about her child-like innocence and distinct lack of a backbone that got under people's skin. but she couldn't help it. hadley was raised to be submissive and it was just a part of her wiring to want to please other people. "my best friend would probably tell you that i work too much and sleep too little. and he'd probably say that i'm obnoxious and clingy. that i talk to much but am godawful at being mean or rude or anything like that. then there are some other people that would tell you i'm fake. that there's no way i could be so happy all the time. it really just depends on the person you ask." she shrugged, not too sure what else to say. hadley knew that her radiant exterior could be a little much for some people to deal with, but that's just who she was. all smiles and ready to befriend anyone who give her the time of day.


these questions about her personality and who she was was really starting to confuse her. mostly because she quite honestly had no idea who she was. never had and probably never truly would. for the first eighteen years of her life, hadley had to be (or try to be) the perfect daughter that her parents wanted her to be. smart, talented, polite. she supposed that technically she was those things... but did they define her? probably not. there was a lot more to her than people probably suspected. yes, it was true that she was submissive and also true that she was hyper and obnoxious and overly friendly. none of that was a lie, but there was a lot underneath the surface that she was hiding. there was a lot of pain underneath the smiles and so many secrets that she was hiding from everyone. some of the time she would be ashamed of herself and embarrassed of just how weak she truly was. there was always this pressure to be the right kind of perfect hanging in the back of her mind, driving her completely crazy because she could never get it right. she hardly ever slept just so she could get things done, and then she hung out with friends to distract herself from the things that upset her. there was a lot going on in her head and there were so many sides to her that no one person was wrong when they described her... they just didn't have all the pieces to the puzzle. "yeah, i guess i could agree with the things people say about me. i mean, i am pretty bouncy and hyper and annoying most of the time. i wouldn't really say that i'm fake... because i'd like to think that i'm a genuine person but that might just be bias opinion? i don't know. i just don't think that a lot of people see all sides of me. they just see this chatty blonde who probably doesn't have much depth to her, which isn't really true at all. guess it just depends on how close i get to a person or something." hadley bit her lip and shrugged her shoulders. it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to sit still in her chair. she was uncomfortable and uncertain of the things she was saying anymore. the walls of the room were closing in on her and she just wanted out. but she still managed to keep her place and smile, trying very hard to be polite and respectful. it shouldn't be long now before she could leave.

hadley shrugged again, not really interested in getting into this particular area of her life. she tried her hand at love quiet a few times, but it never worked out the way she wanted it to. being quite the romantic, she imagined falling in love right away and having everything go perfectly from there. well, she did fall in love, but she usually fell in love alone. after putting her faith and trust into one boy after another, they let her down by falling for the seduction of her twin sister, who seemed to find it pretty entertaining to aid in the breaking of her sister's heart. ever since she moved to new york and went to college, she just stopped trying. perhaps someone would say that she and noah were dating, but hadley would most likely disagree. there wasn't anything romantic going on there. just his odd sense of possessiveness he had over her. "uhhh... i'm on the market i guess? yeah. i dunno. i don't usually talk about that sort of thing..."

attempting to show some restraint, hadley rose slowly from her seat "oh, definitely! i had a great time speaking with you!" before she left, hadley smiled cheerfully and waved goodbye. as soon as she exited the room, she felt the urge to heck her phone for any missed called or messages, but she resisted. she didn't want to know how mad noah was with her or how much of an airhead he thought she was. so instead of looking, she pulled out her keys and climbed into her car with every intention of driving to her apartment where she would curl up on his bed and sleep until it was time for her to get up for practice