Ayako preferred boys. That was it, nothing else to it.

She knew what they whispered behind her back. She was aware they cast jealous glances at her. She knew what the rumors said.

"She only joined the basketball club to be close to the boys"

"I bet she lets them do nasty things to her"

For the most part, she ignored the girls who spoke vicious lies about her. She told herself that they were unimportant and the very reason why she preferred the company of boys to girls. They reinforced her belief that teenage girls were petty, vain and spiteful creatures.

Of course, she knew not all of them were like that. She had two close friends whom she trusted and cared for, and she knew the younger sister of her team captain and her compatriots were sweet girls who couldn't possibly hurt a fly without crying over it.

But on average, on the whole …

'Teenage girls were nasty creatures' Ayako thought decisively, as she stalked past a couple of her seniors, who immediately stopped whispering as she walked by, and who picked up twittering again as soon as they thought she was out of earshot.

"Look at her, pretending that she's better than us. She's not even pretty!" One of the older girls sniffed while the rest murmured in agreement. "I bet she curls her hair on purpose, because she thinks the boys like that"

Ayako gritted her teeth, her hands automatically balled up into tight fists.

'Just keep walking' she told herself as she stuck her chin out in defiance and strode with her head held high. Despite her outward confidence, Ayako could hear her heart pounding in her ears. As soon as she rounded the corner, she broke into a run and kept running and running until she was out of breath. She knew it was silly to run but somehow she felt suffocated and all she wanted to do in that moment was to break free.

—

"Aya-chan, could I…." Ryota began, his eyes lighting up as he tried to shyly ask the girl of his dreams out.

"No," Ayako said quickly and sharply.

"Nani? You don't even know what I wanted to say." Ryota said, a little hurt and mystified by Ayako's abrupt response.

Ayako sighed. She knew what Miyagi was going to ask. It was always the same. "Aya-chan, can I walk you home?" "Aya-chan, would you like to catch a movie with me?" Aya-chan this, Aya-chan that. Some part of her felt bad for always rejecting Ryota. He was after all earnest and sweet, and he really did care about her. But, Ayako knew that going out with him would just cause the rumor mill to spin out of control and the last thing she wanted was for Ryota to start picking fights against the girls in their school. She had a pretty good feeling that Ryota would try to protect her against every snarky female who made a snide remark about her, and that his passion in defending her good name might lead to more unwanted attention.

"Sorry, that was rude of me," Ayako admitted. "But, I can't go home with you today, I um, have an errand to run for Tanaka Sensei" Ayako felt a twinge of guilt about her little fib, but she rationalized that the lie would form a more delicate rejection.

"Oh," Miyagi was visibly disappointed. "I could wait for you."

"No! I mean, its going to take a while and I rather you rest. We have an important practice game tomorrow against Ryonan" Ayako said, mentally congratulating herself on her quick thinking.

Ryota shrugged his shoulders. He knew the importance of tomorrow's game. Tomorrow would be the first match they would play since the Inter-High games. It was important in terms of boosting team morale as well as a testament to how much they had improved over the summer.

"Ok, well email me when you get back." He said finally. When she nodded her assent, Ryota cheered up. At least, he had her email to look forward to later tonight. Giving her a quick flash of a smile, Ryota ran off to pack his things. Ayako smiled, relieved that everything was smoothed over so quickly.

"You know, it wouldn't kill you to say yes" Ayako jumped at the deep voice near her ear.

"Senpai! You scared me!" Ayako said accusingly as she stared up at the tall senior leaning against the wall. She wondered how much of their conversation had Mitsui heard.

"Why don't you give the boy a chance?" Mitsui drawled, "Or do you have someone else you're waiting for?"

Ayako tried to keep the color from creeping onto her face. She couldn't tell her senpai how close he was to the truth.

"Maybe I don't like boys." She said defiantly. Mitsui raised an eyebrow.

"Really? I never figured you for the type" He said and walked towards her. "Let me know when you can be honest with yourself."

"What makes you think I'm not!" Ayako retorted but Mitsui wasn't listening. He pushed past her and waved his hand dismissively at her as he walked off towards the bevy of girls waiting near the entrance of the gym. Since the Inter-high games, each of the starting players had managed to amass a fan-club of their own.

"Idiot" Ayako muttered under her breath, ignoring the strange looks Mitsui's fan club cast at her. She didn't need to deal with more jealous females.

—-

"Did you hear? I heard Ayako says she likes girls"

"She's a lesbian? So that's why she's in the basketball club"

Overnight, the gears of the rumor mill had sprung into action, and by 9am in the morning, on the fourth floor women's bathroom, Ayako learnt that she was lesbian, had been seen with 4 different girlfriends and was chasing after 2 different girls at the same time. At two minutes after 9am, a bunch of girls streamed out of the fourth floor bathroom, each in a seemingly big hurry to leave. They had heard a weird cackle from the bathroom and the cackling showed no signs of stopping. If they had taken the time to turn back to look, they would have seen a girl with curly tresses come out of the second bathroom stall, clutching her sides, her face streaming with tears as she shook and laughed at the strange turn of events.