Hailey’s POV
By the time I stepped onto school grounds that morning, the air already felt different, thick with whispers and barely contained excitement. I did not need to check my phone to know why.
Everywhere I turned, students were huddled together, phones in hand, voices buzzing with the same name repeated over and over again. Madison's engagement to Pedro Ford. The news had spread like wildfire overnight, and by morning, it had swallowed the entire campus whole.
I heard it in passing comments as I walked down the corridor, girls giggling behind their hands, boys pretending not to care while still craning their necks toward every screen.
Some people compared her to me openly, others did it in hushed tones, as though afraid I might hear.
Madison was elegant, Madison was lucky, Madi
