Never Shut Up Again

Yes, I'm not physically dead... Surprise, surprise. Anyways, I am planning on writing for ML but I wanted to first give our girl Heather Duke the history in the musical she needed.

"Shut up, Heather!"

Heather Duke was tired of biting her tongue. She was tired of apologizing to some stupid junior that all the boys chased. She was sick and tired of Heather Chandler.

Heather seemed to enjoy towering over her and disregarding her every word. Why couldn't she do it to Macnamara? Because she was depressed? Heather might as well stop bitching on Martha Dumptruck. Heather definitely played favorites, and as usual, it seemed she would always receive the short end of the stick. It was funny to think there was a time Heather felt she was in control of her own life. But that was when… no. She's nothing more than a geek now.

But Heather was different than her. She seemed to embody power. There was something about her that seemed to make everyone completely obedient. Why couldn't she have that control?

Heather Duke finally came to the conclusion that she wasn't pretty enough. It started out small with eating less, after all the other Heathers did the same. But soon it led to vomiting her lunch on a daily basis. Heather Chandler would then begin to tease her about it. Heather just couldn't understand how the others could just stop.

Then she used her parents as means to alter her looks. After countless surgeries, Heather Duke finally felt content.

By the time senior year arrived, Heather was ready to snatch the power from the Wicked Witch of the West. But that's when Veronica Sawyer came into the picture and tried to take away the control she so longed. Heather Chandler seemed enamoured of her the second Veronica used a forged note to prevent her from detention. In an attempt to drive Veronica away, Heather tried to insult her despite the other's compliments, but alas, it failed.

Three weeks after the unwanted entrance of Veronica, Heather Duke walked through the entrance of Westerburg High School, still pissed at the events of Ram and Kurt's party. Tired and slightly hungover, Heather was startled when that conservative girl walked up to her.

"Hey Heather, just wanted to offer my condolences." she smiled.

"You've got the wrong funeral." Heather snapped back.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you hear?"

"About?"

She bit her lip. "Shit."

"Who croaked?" Heather's tone rose.

"Cops found Heather's body last night."

"Macnamara?" Heather scoffed. She knew the girl was suicidal, but felt she was too chicken to actually do anything.

"No, Heather Chandler."

Heather proceeded to cover up a laugh with a choke. Reading the girl's face, she realized she was serious.

"Someone murder her?"

"No, they found a suicide note."

Heather chuckled. "Well fuck me gently with a chainsaw."

As much as she wished for her death, there was no way Heather Chandler committed suicide. But as people apologized to her and wished for the best, it finally dawned on her.

Heather Chandler was dead.

The rest of the day proceeded to become some strange hybrid of a dream and nightmare. While Ms. Fleming forced her peers to talk about Heather's suicide, Heather Duke was able to land an interview on about ten channels. The best part: all she had to do was talk about those few childhood times she and Heather actually seemed like friends. That's the funny thing about grief: it makes people stupid.

After sacrificing Veronica in order to avoid date rape (win-win in her book), Heather Duke found herself cleaning out the dead witch's locker with Heather Macnamara. As much as Heather could annoy her, she did appreciate her company as it helped give her some sort of control over her life.

As she rummaged through Heather's things, searching for what will finally allow her to assert power, Heather continued to shoot down a pissed Veronica who was still a bit ticked off about the night prior.

"Shut up, Heather!"

It felt as if the laughs of the entire school began to echo throughout her head. In that moment, Heather could feel Heather Chandler creeping behind her, calling her nothing but a sad little poser.

"Well," Heather laughed in her head. "you're dead now. I don't have to follow you anymore."

"No, you shut up!" Heather Duke snapped. "I don't have to shut up anymore!"

Snatching Heather Chandler's red scrunchie, she raised it to the heavens as if she was taunting her.

"Hey, that's Heather's scrunchie!"

No. As much as she appreciated Heather Macnamara, Heather couldn't afford to lose the control she had waited so long for.

"Shut up, Heather."

Despite the reply being nonchalant, Heather felt a weight being lifted from her. She was finally a queen.

"Heather Chandler is gone. It's up to me to replace her." she smiled.

"Replace her?" Veronica questioned.

Heather Duke wasn't oblivious to the rumors going around Westerburg. Knowing fully well they weren't true, she had decided to stay away. After all, she already knew how fast rumors spread at her school- and how deadly they become. But Veronica lit the flame.

And she had to get burned.

"Kurt and Ram have been telling the whole school about your little three-way last night!"

That one sentence triggered a school-wide humiliation. As they all rallied to tear down Veronica's reputation, Heather felt intoxicated by the power. For the first time, people finally paid her attention. Her patience finally paid off.

She was finally in control.

After Kurt and Ram's suicide, Heather Duke once again felt threatened with Heather Macnamara, someone she assumed she could trust, when she blurted out her suicidal tendencies on live TV. When she continued to go in depth, it suddenly felt all eyes were on her. Discreetly yet surely, Heather Macnamara had traced some of her depression on her.

So Heather fought back the one way she knew how: defended herself with her at-risk power. Somehow, it worked as the student body chased Heather Macnamara to the bathroom, never to be seen again.

A while after, she was confronted by Jason Dean, Veronica's boy toy, who asked her to get Westerburg to sign some suicide day petition. After refusing, she was met with photos of her past. Somehow, Jason Dean was able to get childhood pictures of her and Martha Dumptruck. At this point, Heather knew she couldn't rely on her peers. She had to do what Jason Dean said. And so she agreed, and proceeded to burn the photos.

Because she was suspended, Heather had yet to see her again until a few days later when Heather Macnamara was playing croquet with Veronica. While nothing explicit was said, Heather knew what happened. Heather Macnamara had tried to commit suicide. While she did feel a bit bad, Heather knew that high school was survival of the fittest: something Heather Macnamara had yet to learn. When they refused to sign the petition, Heather Duke threw down a low blow. Knowing Veronica would never agree (since apparently she broke up with Jason Dean recently), she told them that Martha attempted suicide the night before. While she never did get that signature, the fear on Veronica's face made her feel a tiny bit better.

Just when she thought she would sustain power until the end of high school, a disheveled and soot-covered Veronica limped up to her and yanked the red scrunchie from Heather Duke's hair. In an instant, years of waiting and turmoil was put to waste as Westerburg seemed even more obedient to Veronica as they ever were to her, despite Veronica only promising they could stay young and happy if they "tried".

The worst part, however, was that Heather Macnamara then proceeded to abandon Heather and never looked back. Just like that, Heather Duke was doomed to spend senior year Bulimia-ridden and alone.

She had lost the one thing she held dear. She had lost the respect of everyone around her.

She had lost control.