Rumors

At 17 years old I thought I had it all. I was acing my classes, held a 3.8 GPA average, captain of the cheerleading squad, vice president of the student council and my high school sweetheart and I were campaigning for (and sure to win) Prom King and Queen. It’s not like I wasn’t self-aware though, I knew I was a walking high school cliché, and that’s probably how I won the popularity contest we call senior year. I was not only sitting at the popular table at lunch, but I had a chair reserved at every other table in the cafeteria, the reason being I was never afraid to be exactly who I wanted to be. I wasn’t ashamed to call myself a nerd, I loved Harry Potter and comic books, neither was I ashamed to call myself a drama geek after participating in every school musical since freshman year. As a freshman I didn’t limit myself to one club or personality type, if I loved something, I wasn’t afraid to participate in it. I loved to dance; therefore, I was a cheerleader. I loved science; hence AP Chemistry. My mum said I loved to argue and so second semester of junior year, I joined the debate team. The point of all this bragging is not to make you jealous. The point is that objectively I had the perfect life, and at the beginning of this story, I would have agreed to that. However, two weeks into my last semester of high school something happened to me that completely changed everything.

Tuesday was usually a day reserved for my A.P classes and rehearsals for the spring musical, but the Tuesday this all began has something else planned. The halls of Middleview High usually hummed with the low sounds of gossip every Monday morning, the stories of kid’s weekend plans spread around so quickly and changed so much it was impossible to keep up. That was the noise I walked into when I passed through the big blue school doors Tuesday morning. It wasn’t an unusual sound to walk into, just an unusual day for it. I stopped to consider this for a few seconds before continuing to walk down the hall towards my locker, my heeled leather boots echoed and mixed intangibly into the whispers of my peers. As I tipped my books into my locker haphazardly, I found a note in my locker that just seemed to add to the already bizarre day.

Allie,

Emergency student council meeting today at lunch in Classroom 14b.

Jennie

Ah Jennie, our SC secretary was always up in arms about something, An emergency meeting was weird however. The words “blonde”, “hot” and “Pie” filled my ears as I walked to my first class, the latter completely unrelated and actually a conversation about today’s lunch menu, but the first two piqued my curiosity for sure, and it didn’t take me long to get some answers without proactively looking for them. As I opened up my textbook in my first class, AP Calc, my smirking boyfriend and his attached-at-the-hip best friend slid into the seats on either side of me. Each of their faces an identical reflection of mirth as they stared at me expectantly. “So…” Jeremy extended the word in a grating sing-song voice, “have you heard?” I chose not to reply to him, as usual, and decided to turn towards the more tolerable of the two with a raised eyebrow as an answer. Peter’s smile only grew with that look as he realized he had information I didn’t. “Oh, you totally don’t know do you?” Peter tried to sound pitying but the look in his eyes made it hard to take it seriously. Smiling I reply “Why don’t you just save us all time and just tell me what you’re obviously dying to tell me.” They stared at each other again, and impossibly their smirks grew bigger. “Well then I’ll make it short. New girl. Super sexy. Also, extremely gay.” After that apparently major statement the two boys sat their staring at me expectantly, waiting for some sort of shocked response. Which, I obviously didn’t give. “Seriously, that is the reason the whole school is foaming at the mouth this morning? We get a new girl and you all just wet your pants like little preschoolers? Honestly boys, I expect better from you, well no that’s not true, I expect better of Peter. Jeremy, I expect nothing of you.” Both boys rolled their eyes simultaneously, annoying me further. “Al sweetie,” Jeremy’s impossibly annoying presence got worse as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder, “did you not hear my boy? There is a new girl on campus, she’s blonde, long legged, rides a MOTOR CYCLE, and she’s a lady lover. I heard her and her mum moved here ‘cause her dad got arrested for drink driving.” Peter chimed in helpfully. “Well, I heard that they moved here after her dad’s side of the family disowned her for her… choice in partners.” The last bit a careful choice of words after seeing the scathing look on my face. “I think… that the both of you need to exit my personal space right now before you say anything that will make me change my mind about socializing with either of you, ever again.” After consideration I added. “Actually no, Jeremy you’ve already lost that privilege, get out. You don’t even take this class.”

***

The student council was already gathered and waiting as I walked in, 5 minutes late after Peter insisted on making out behind the Science building because he said he’d miss me too much otherwise. All heads turned in my direction as I came in and sat down at the head of the table, obviously anxious to know why we’d all been gathered. Jennie cleared her throat, garnering the attention of the room once I’d gotten myself comfortable and stood up to talk. “As you would have all heard by now, we have a new addition to the senior class. Now usually this wouldn’t be a cause for us to meet but as I got to school this morning, early of course, I was shocked to see I wasn’t the only person waiting at the locked school door.” She looked around pompously to see if everyone was paying attention to her story. “I was also surprised to see that I had no idea who this person was, as SC secretary I make it my business to know everyone and everything about this school. Anyway, this girl marches towards me, and it’s terrifying let me tell you, she is like a whole foot taller than me and dressed head to toe in leather with a motor-cycle helmet under her arm.” I could see Jennie starting on one of her classic tangents so I stepped in impatiently. “The point please Jennie.”

“Right sorry, so she’s stood in front of me and addresses me by my name, which I have no clue how she knows, and she says the worst thing in the world. She says we have to cancel senior prom.” It was like someone had said Barack Obama had been shot, everyone gasped and immediately erupted in outraged conversation, I gave it a few seconds before I banged the ridiculous gabble Jennie had bought for the council. Everyone grew quiet and stared at me, looks ranging from panic to anger. “Jennie, I really do not understand why this caused you to call this meeting, one girl asking you to cancel prom really isn’t a big deal.”

“Well, that’s not all she said, she told me she has secret that will ruin the life of one of Middleview’s seniors and that if we don’t cancel prom, she will release that secret to the student body.”

“Well Jennie” I started, keeping my cool while the tension in the room continued to rise. “I’m sure we will all agree that canceling prom would ruin a lot more then one student’s life.” A murmuring of agreement started but was quickly diminished by Jennie’s next words.

“That student is you Allie.”

***

I spent the rest of the day floating around campus, I barely heard any of my classes and didn’t make one sarcastic comment when Jeremy sat next to me in music to tell me about the party, he was planning at his grandma’s house that weekend. I spent the whole day sunken into my thoughts, and the only time I wasn’t was the time I spent feeling watched. It was an eerie feeling that started at the meeting and I thought it must have been in my head but as I stood up on stage struggling to get through rehearsals, I noticed a figure in the empty auditorium. The director called a break soon after, clearly exasperated at my distraction. I barely heard him as I climbed down from the stage and walked over to the leather clad person at the back of the room. As I got closer, I could see that the rumors did not do her justice, her hair was an incredible natural blonde, cut sharply at the shoulders in a way the made her incredible bone structure even more pronounced. She really was as tall as Jennie said, I myself was 5 8, but as I got closer to her I could see she even towered over me, her legs long and strong looking in her leather mini skirt. How she got through the school day without being written up for inappropriate clothing is beyond me, but I respect her for it. Her eyes were a piercing grey but they also held a smugness that instantly wound me up. As I got closer to her, all the frustration that had built up inside me and the angry I had towards her washed away, and I was left with the feeling of a deflated balloon. Before I could figure out what I wanted to say the new girl spoke for me. “So, I know why you’ve come over here and you’re not going to make me change my mind. Prom is stupid, and what I know about you is way more important than your sexist dance is.” Her voice was both cutting and soft. “Look I don’t know what you think you know about me, but it’s probably not an actual secret, I’m probably the most honest person at this school, which isn’t saying much but still. You’re new, so it’s understandable that you would get your wires crossed and that you’d feel uncomfortable about prom. I get it, you know no one here, we’ve all spent 4 years as friends, of course you feel left out. Maybe it’s not even about prom, maybe you just want people to know who you are. Which can I just say, if that’s the case, you really didn’t need to do anything to garner attention, I mean, look at you.” I realized I’d started to ramble at that point and quickly shut up before I could embarrass myself further, but I was strangely really nervous, my palms were even sweaty. “I don’t care what you all think of me, I don’t even care if you hate me. All I care about is getting the damn prom cancelled okay? So, what are you going to do?”

“I’m not going to cancel prom, whatever you think you’ve got on me, I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think it is. So go ahead.” With that I walked away with my head held high. It wasn’t until I got home and checked my texts that I remembered that rehearsals hadn’t finished yet.

***

I spent all night obsessing over the new girl. How could someone so rude, look so welcoming, even her smell made like her. I barely slept and when I was able to, I dreamt of motorbikes and beautiful smiles. I woke up confused and agitated and I didn’t know why, I wasn’t worried about the secret but yet I couldn’t get the new girl out of my head. I don’t remember how I managed to function that morning on 3 hours sleep, but I somehow got dressed, ate breakfast and drove to school in record time. As I walked through the school doors, I felt a weird sense of Déjà vu, the hall was filled with the same whispers of gossip from the day before. Only this time I heard my name in the waves of kid’s voices. Before I could figure out what was being said a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me into the nearest empty classroom. Jennie’s face stared up at me, an unreadable mask. “Allie, what I’m about to tell you is not easy to say, but as your friend I feel I must…”

“Jennie, please get to the point.”

“Right, okay. The new girl made good on her promise. She came in early this morning, earlier than me, and she slid these pictures into everyone lockers.” She hesitantly handed me a open envelope, and I took it confused. Inside were four pictures. The first was a zoomed-out photo or two figures kissing inside a car, a car I instantly recognized and so with dread I turned to the next photo. This photo was a zoomed in picture inside the car window. The picture showed Willow, a girl from my cheerleading squad and none other than Peter, making out in the backseat. The other two pictures were too graphic for me to describe here, but you get the point. It was never my secret under threat, it was my boyfriend’s, and his secret was the fact he was a stinking cheater. “Allie, I’m really, really sorry.” She sounded it, in fact, she sounded way worse than I felt.

“Actually Jennie, I’m okay. I’m weirdly not that sad about it.” And I wasn’t, really, I kind of felt relived. “Oh, well. I’m still sorry I guess? Also, as I thought you were gonna be way madder than you are, I did a little digging of my own.” There was a small self-satisfied smile on her face.

***

"Al, babe, I am so sorry, I had no idea. But you know what this all means, you and I… can now be together.”

“Jeremy, I say this because I don’t care, In your dreams. Also get out of my way, you stink of desperation and Axe body spray.”

I marched my way down the hallway bypassing the stares of my peers, I had my destination and I wasn’t going to be stopped. Not when Willow’s smug tiny frame tried to intercept my journey, and definitely not when Peter’s self-pitying face came into view. I marched my way to the back of the building, across the football field and under the bleachers. There, sat on a blanket smoking a cigarette was the new girl. “So, you found me.”

“Yes, well, you’re not the only one who can find impossible information around here.” I sat down on the blanket next to her and took the pre offered cigarette out of her hand, coughing wildly from my inexperience. “I get why you did it, a friend of mine did some digging and she found out what happened at your last school. What those boys did at the Sadie Hawkins dance was hard enough to just read, you and your girlfriend didn’t deserve it.”

“Obviously”

“Also, even though you went about it in the worst way possible, I’m glad I found out. But, why did you do it, surely the threat was a good enough try at getting prom canceled and when I didn’t, you should have just given up and told me personally, what did you think all this would get you?”

“Honestly, I thought that you were vapid enough to cancel prom out of anger the second you found out. I thought it was a solid plan. I didn’t picture you being this cool about it.” She looked me over approvingly and it made me go hot all over.

“Well, I guess I’m not the person you thought I was.” I paused for a second. “I’m not going to cancel prom. If you don’t want to go, that’s fine. If you do, I will make sure that what happened to you won’t happen again. I promise. But I can’t ruin everyone else’s evening just for you, I’m already gonna be the talk of the school for the rest of this year, I don’t want to make it any worse.” The new girl stared at me for a long time, smoking her cigarette thoughtfully.

“Are you still going?” she asked, and for the first time I heard something other than confidence in her voice. I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded my head, looking at her nervously.

“Well then, maybe I will see you there.” With that she got up, and I stood up stupidly next to her not really knowing what to do. She leaned towards me, a question in her eyes and I just stood there awkwardly not knowing what to do. She took my hand, placing a rolled-up piece of paper into it, and leaned in a kissed me on the check. My whole face burned and my hands grew clammy again. Without another word she picked up the blanket and sauntered away, out from under the bleachers. At the last minute, she turned towards me and shouted “Cathy, that’s my name. If you could get everyone to stop calling me new girl, that would be cool.” And then she awkwardly nodded and continued to walk away. I opened up the paper in my hand. Inside was a phone number.

I ended having the best senior prom imaginable. I didn’t win queen, but as I held Cathy’s hand as we danced around stupidly to the Spice Girls, I knew I’d won something a whole lot better.