Rumour

noun – a currently circulating story or report of unverified or doubtful truth.

... The dictionary's an idiot.

"So how's the kid?" asked Tasha pulling her polo top over her head.

"What Molly?" I asked, looking up as I yanked on a pair of shorts. "She has a name Tash, not just, 'the kid'."

Tasha shrugged. "Sorry." she muttered. "I was tempted to call her something else, I completely forgot her name."

I sighed. "That's ok. And she's fine."

"Good." said Tasha as she pulled her hair up into a ponytail frowning. "It's weird you know."

I glanced up at her. "What is?"

"It's... well it's you."

"Thanks Tash, you're pretty great too." I said with a grin.

Tasha grinned back at me. "That's not what I meant." she chuckled. "Although, while we're on the subject."

"Black eye alert." muttered Lucy from the other side of the bench. "Stop now while your teeth are intact Tasha."

"Oh shut up." I laughed, pulling up my gym socks. "I'm not that violent."

"No, just violent enough to beat all of us that time when we had to do that karate class, remember?" giggled Ceci from beside Lucy.

"I didn't beat all of you, remember?" I said with a deliberate look at Sophie.

Sophie grinned her cherub like smile. "Yep, fear me and my man like muscles!" she said seriously, pulling a stupid body builder type pose so that we all laughed at her.

"Oh, I meant to tell you." I said, suddenly remembering the morning. "Mum went into labour last night."

All of their jaws dropped as they looked at me. "... and?" pressed Sophie, poking me gently in the side.

"Less of that thank you." I said, poking her too, so she doubled over giggling. "Anyway, Nathaniel was born this morning..."

Before I could say anymore, Sophie squealed and threw her arms around me, Tasha threw her arms over the top of that and Ceci dashed round and threw her arms over the top of Tasha's while Lucy stood aloof, looking slightly awkward.

"That's ok, I didn't want to be part of the hug anyway." she muttered. Unfortunately we heard her and bundled her, involving her in the random happy hugging.

"Girls, can we have less emotion, more shooting balls please?" bellowed the gym teacher.

"Just give us the boy and the gun." Tasha muttered, and the rest of us collapsed into giggles as we made our way into the gym which constituted as a basketball court.

Gym lessons were always fun with Tasha and Sophie, and with Lucy and Ceci hanging around us more, the fun could only increase, I was sure. The main thing I liked about gym lessons though, was that it was one of the few times when I didn't have to be around Xandrell. Don't get me wrong, I still loved him more than anything, but something I'd always wanted to make clear with whatever boy I was with was that I wanted to keep my independence. It was my right as a woman.

Something I'd noticed today though... whereas before Helen had followed Lucy around recently, today she was back with Sadie. And something else I had noticed... they had spent much of our Music class whispering before staring at me and giggling... maybe I was being paranoid... and maybe pigs had wings. No, I was sure that Helen had told Sadie something about me... I just wasn't sure what.

"What were you saying earlier by the way?" I asked Tasha as we collected basketballs from the cage. Our school was strange like that. The teachers kept the basketballs locked up in a cage until they were needed. They said it was to keep vandals out, but I often wondered vaguely if it were to keep the balls in. I'd been whacked in the back of the head and someone insisting they were aiming in totally the other direction, one too many times.

"About what?" asked Tasha, bouncing her ball over to the nearest hoop and shooting at it. It hit the wire rim and bounced away so she had to run after it.

"Well, you asked about Molly, and then called me weird." I said throwing the ball at the hoop. It sank through the centre and bounced back into my hands. I smiled. Basketball was one of the few sports I wasn't overly bad at. Certainly when I wasn't under pressure, I could get the ball through the net.

"Oh, yeah." said Tasha, wandering back and shooting at the net. The ball bounced off the backboard and through the hoop. I grinned at her encouragingly before moving forward and aiming at the net. "I noticed her eyes." said Tasha as I threw the ball. "She has very similar eyes to you."

The ball hit the side of the net and ricocheted off, hitting Leslie Hart on the back of the head. I felt my heart hammering against my ribs, my head spinning.

She knows!

How could she know? Don't be stupid!

Why else would she bring it up?

I straightened up and looked at Tasha. "Do you have a point?" I asked wandering towards where my ball had stopped. "Lots of people have green eyes."

"Yeah, but yours are an odd shape... and I mean, they're heavy-lidded to the point it looks like they don't open fully." said Tasha frowning at me as I made my way back. "I mean, seriously, what are the odds of a baby you randomly found having the exact same eyes as you?"

"Got to be low, but hey there you go." I said in a hurried voice, aiming the ball at the hoop again and shooting. I pretended to be interested in the ball hitting the backboard before bouncing into the hoop, but I could still feel Tasha's eyes on me.

"You know something, she has Xandrell's hair colour as well." she said quietly after a moment.

I frowned at her. "Yeah, well you would have noticed that wouldn't you." I said nastily.

I knew I was acting like the Queen of Bitchington, but at that moment, I really didn't care about how Tasha would react to me being mean. I just needed to get her off of Molly's case.

Tasha stiffened. "Are you accusing me of eyeing up your boyfriend?" she asked, folding her arms and glaring at me.

I folded my arms and glared back. "No, I'm accusing you of eyeing up my baby!" I snapped.

Tasha's jaw dropped, and she was not the only one. It hadn't occurred to me until now, that Helen and Sadie were stood watching us.

"Told you so." muttered Helen and Sadie raised an eyebrow.

"So it's true is it Amy?" asked Sadie, her tone mocking. "You've had a baby in secret?"

"What? No." I said quickly.

Sadie laughed a little. "Well you certainly hid it well, I'll give you that."

"I didn't have a baby!" I yelped, as quietly as you can when you're as freaked out as I was by this time.

"That's what you say anyway." sniggered Sadie and Helen imitated her.

"I didn't though!" I said, quite truthfully.

"She didn't." said Tasha glaring at Sadie. "Actually Sadie, Amy and Xandrell found Molly half dead on the streets. If they weren't looking after her like she was their own daughter, she'd be a dead baby by now."

Helen looked slightly abashed at Tasha's words, but Sadie simply tossed her dark hair over a shoulder and looked back at me. "So there is a baby?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, what of it?"

Sadie smiled her mocking smile. "Just wondering." she said before turning and flouncing off towards a hoop, Helen following her closely.

I glanced at Tasha, who's lip had curled a little. "Rumours going to be selling like hotcakes now." she muttered.

I frowned at her. "What?"

"You know what I mean." she shrugged tossing her ball at the hoop again. "Everyone's going to get the wrong idea about you and Xandrell."

"Maybe." I said slowly before grinning at Tasha. "Hey, Tash? Thanks for sticking up for me just then."

"No problem." said Tasha with a grin. "That's what best friends are for."

But of course, having a best friend meant nothing in teenage life in school. Sure enough, by the next lesson, History, everyone was staring at me as I made my way to the back of the room, where I usually spent the lesson chatting with Sophie, James and Charlie, and of course now Xandrell too.

Charlie and James were already at the back of the room when I entered. I took my usual seat between them.

"So where's Xandrell?" I asked, acting as nonchalantly as I could considering people were nudging one another and staring at me. "He was in your last class wasn't he?"

"Yeah." said James, flicking through his text book. "It was hilarious. He fails at football as much as Charlie."

Charlie rolled his eyes and feigned an unmistakably false laugh. "You're so funny, James, you should do a stand up act."

"Stop it both of you!" I muttered, rummaging in my own bag for my book.

"Is it true?" hissed a voice. I looked up to find myself face to face with James Baker, one of the popular, weed smoking crowd that ruled the school. "Are the rumours true, birdie girl?"

I frowned at him. "Ok, first of all, birdie girl? Sod off you freak. Secondly, what rumours?"

"About you and the weird new kid." muttered Baker lounging against my desk.

I glowered at him. "Comfortable there are you?" I muttered in a low voice. It was the voice I knew James and Charlie knew meant, in Lucy's words, 'Black Eye Alert'.

Baker gave me one of his 'I'm-so-cool-and-full-of-myself' smiles, before putting a hand on my desk, just in front of me and leaning his face right close to mine, so we were practically touching noses. "Come on now, birdie, you can tell me."

"Tell you what, cake-boy?" I muttered. I heard Charlie snigger beside me, until Baker shot him a death stare.

"Tell me about you and new kid." said Baker leaning still closer in. I wondered vaguely if he'd start giving me CPR in a minute. "Did you, or did you not? All I'm asking."

I folded my arms and narrowed my eyes at him. "Go screw yourself, Jam Puff."

Charlie spluttered with laughter, while James seemed to go deathly pale. As Baker straightened up, James leaned towards me. "I'm not sure that was a good idea, Amy." he whispered.

It was only as Baker moved back to his friends, that I realised how right James was.

"Oi, Amy!" yelled a boy after a few moments. "You and Xandrell eh?"

"How'd you manage to lose the pregnancy flab so quick?" yelled another.

"What was it like?" a girl with a brace in front of me asked, turning around to stare as well.

"Hey Amy?" called Gibby. "How big was his..."

Suddenly the door swung open and everyone whipped around. Xandrell stood in the doorway, looking almost shocked. For all of a second, there was deathly silence in the room... and then...

"Oi, oi, Xandrell! Get in there my son!"

I whipped round, my jaw dropping as I stared at Charlie. "What the hell are you doing?!" I snarled. "You've seen Molly, you know I wasn't pregnant."

Charlie frowned as the shouts started up again around the room. "Sorry... but I mean you have... haven't you?"

"No!" I hissed earnestly. "Oh, God, Charlie! You've messed this up even more!"

He blushed. "I'm sorry!" he whimpered, looking so apologetic, I almost let him off.

Xandrell made his way towards us, and it was only here I noticed James banging his forehead on the desk. I stared at him. "What on earth are you doing?" He didn't respond, just carried on banging his head. So I did what all good friends should do. I put my hand underneath so he wasn't killing his brain cells on the table.

"Wow, those boys really like you Amy." said Xandrell as he reached the table.

I suddenly froze and stared at him, now realising why James was hitting his head. "What?"

"Well, they asked how you were." said Xandrell, almost eagerly. "So I told them the truth."

I felt the pit of my stomach drop about fifty metres... kilometres...how wide is the Grand Canyon? Times that by fifty and keep going. "Xandrell, please tell me you didn't..."

"I told them you were amazing, as always!" he said with his annoyingly happy grin.

I blinked, before moving my hand away from James to let it fall at my side. Then I dropped my own head onto the desk, with enough force that I hoped it would kill enough brain cells to send me into a coma, anything to get me out of this place!

At times, I hated my life... so much...