the High-Calorie Collection

You know the characters in this story just as well as Haley knows the roles that they play in her life. The essence of any Life of Haley story is a sense of comfort and embracing familiarity. One that, for better or worse, relies on the people in the Life of Haley being predictable.

But what happens when these assigned roles are filled by different characters? The doting mother and annoying sister are essential, yes, but does it matter who the friend is that Haley meets in college? What about the troublesome sister—surely, Tara doesn't have a monopoly on getting under Haley's skin. Could Dani fill that role? What about Mackenzie? And the antagonistic role that Dani often plays could almost certainly be filled by another familiar face from Haley's cast. Courtney, perhaps? Or Tara, now untethered as her own character, separate from Haley. Obviously certain things are a must in the Life of Haley, but in such a simple story, does it matter who fulfills that need?

What happens when Courtney, Dani, Tara, Mackenzie, and just about everyone else are shuffled around? Haley is the only constant here, but what does a world look like where Tara is no longer her older sister? What happens when Courtney is the one who waits tables at Big Daddy's? Or maybe she takes Tara's place as a DynaCorp rep that comes home? What does a world look like where "Doughy Dani" is a struggling mother of one who can't shake the baby weight? As a struggling college student? The possibilities are almost endless.

When Haley is the only constant in a world that's been shuffled around... what does the Life of Haley even look like?
[point of divergence:"Life of Haley" ]

You've read the story. You know what they tend to look like. And for better or worse, Haley always plays a large part in the narrative of her friends' and family's collective lives. But what if she didn't?

What if, in a world where Haley's history was wiped away, she was still left to interact with her friends and family? Mrs. West would no longer be her mother, but a woman that she rented the room upstairs from. Courtney no longer her classmate, but someone whom she had never met. Dani no longer her jealous frenemy, but merely the waitress that had gone to Boiling Springs High. Tara no longer her sister, but the only child of the West Family?

Erasing Haley's history with the cast changes them. But Haley knows these people. She remembers her life with them, and she remembers being in their lives. Things are different, but Haley isn't different... is she? Should she change to fit her new surroundings? Or rather, the same old surroundings without the hospitality that she had taken advantage of?

What does a Life of Haley even look like without Haley in it?
[point of divergence: "...And company" ]

Haley West is a simple person. Her life can go lots of different ways, but ultimately, she stays more or less the same regardless of what happens to her. At her core, Haley is always Haley.

But while Haley West is a simple person, the laws of Narrative Causality are anything but. What would Haley say if she could see herself just a few years down the line of living with her mom? What would the Haley West that was so proud of being able to live on her own for two years in Charleston came face to face with the big lazy brat that squashed chairs and got out of breath coming down the stairs for breakfast? What would Haley West at 21 say to Haley West at 25? Would it force her to change? What would seeing what the future holds do to a Haley without years of pampering literally weighing her down?

Because of a fold in space and time, Haley is unceremoniously plucked from her story and dropped several years down the natural flow of her timeline as an extra character. One day, a younger and significantly thinner Haley meets the "canon" Haley. And things only get more complicated from there as she adjusts to the Life that Haley made for herself.

Haley West, meet Haley West.
[point of divergence:"Welcome Home, Tara!" ]

Haley West tried to live on her own. After high school, she moved away from home and did her level best at being a grown-up. But unfortunately, she couldn't quite crack it.

Coming back to her mom with her tail between her legs, Haley very quickly became accustomed to living life with her mama and let herself get spoiled rotten. Her mama cooked her food constantly, didn't make her get a job, and let her sit on her ass as it spread wider and wider and wider. She and a cast of characters steadily expanded over the years as they became friends, or at the very least frenemies in the case of her older sister and good ol' Doughy Dani, and a good time was had by all.

But one day, Haley woke up and the clock had been moved back to her first day home. All of the progress that she had made in her life had been undone—college, friendships... everything! Well, almost everything gets undone. Every time she completes the loop, she carries a fraction of weight with her.

The only question is... how long can this go on?
[point of divergence: "The Exceptionally Extra-Large Life of Haley" ]

Regardless of the avenues that the Life of Haley takes, it stays simple. The faces are familiar. The cast is relatively limited. New additions are scarce. Where her stories do twist and turn, they're ultimately grounded to the well-treaded ground of Spartanburg. Some stories aren't quite so lucky.

Haley's is not the only story to tell. Suddenly, Spartanburg is getting more and more crowded, and Haley's history is getting more complex without her knowledge. Things are changing and, though the faces seem familiar, she can't quite shake the feeling that they weren't there before. Mrs. West had never mentioned Carrie Cooleyfinger or Stella Stanford-Sterns before. Haley didn't really remember dating a boy named Caleb in high school. Dani never mentioned her friend Keeley who works at the comic book shop and she was certain that there hadn't been a Cutie Pie's there...

The list of familiar faces in Haley's life is getting longer and longer, and as narrative plotlines ground themselves to Haley's hometown, she's starting to feel like her relatively simple life is getting a lot more complex. As more and more odd characters who feel like they have their own stories to tell sort of drift in, Haley's world is getting a lot... bigger.

Can the Life of Haley make room for the rest of the High Calorie Collection?
[point of divergence... unclear.]