Dick yawned, with his forehead resting against the cooling metal of his locker.

He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the waves of tired washing over him. Sleep...

This Monday sucked.

Just like every Monday.

Mondays...

He sighed deeply, as if to prepare himself for the troublesome day ahead.

Too bad nothing couldve prepared him for this particular Monday. Even though it looked just like any other Monday, on any other week.

Well, looks can be deceving.

With another small, inward groan, he lifted his head from his locker. Through bleary eyes, his stiff feeling fingers clumsly spun the dial, barely noticing witch numbers it landed on, but he was grateful all the same when it opened.

Slowly, very slowly, he pulled the books reluctantly from their cavern.

robotically, he stuffed them into his bag, and shut his locker.

Then almost had a heart attack.

"Gah!!" he jumped "Raven! Don't do that!"

She stood stoically "Stripper."

He rose an eyebrow "No thanks, I'm fine."

She scoffed, blandly.

Raven was the only person Dick knew he could scoff in a monotone.

"Ha. No."

Dick closed his locker door shut with his foot. Now that his heart rate had gone back to normal, his body returned to being tired. He yawned. "Then...what?"

"Kori Anders. Shes a stripper."

Dick's eyebrows creased together.

"What...no..."

Raven nodded. "It's everywhere. Everyone's talking about it."

He looked up at the hoards of people surrounding them. But it was impossible to tell. Girls walked and talked and gossiped in their usual tightly knit exclusive groups.

Or maybe he just didn't notice the difference because Dick was a guy. And guys...well...they hardly notice anything.

Either way, you could always trust Raven to get the scoop on things. Somehow, she always knew. How, he had no idea. But she did. She was very sneaky that way. Maybe she had friends in high places, though, to Dick's knowledge the only friends she had were his friends too.

But then again there are completly different sets of rules for girls consider friends, and what guys consider friends.

"how...who...?"

"Apparently some guys went out to the strip club on the edge of town." she shrugged nonchalantly, even though she knew this was the biggest deal since the discovery that the captain of the football team was gay. "She was on the pole."

Dick was definatly awake now. "And...so how did you find out?"

"a friend, of a friend, of a friend, of a friend, whos the girlfriend of the guy who saw her."

"So it might not even be true. What if its a stupid rumor? Like the lunchlady with eleven fingers?"

she snorted again "Oh, its true alright...obviously you havent seen her today..."

He hadn't, but he didn't know how that would prove it.

"Besides," she continued, dragging a hand through her dark hair "She hangs out with Xaiver. She's his girlfriend, for god's sakes."

Dick sighed, and nodded. He knew that anyone who hung out with Xaiver was bad news, is bad news, or is going to be bad news. And it was true, she was his girlfriend.

So he knew she must be a bitch.

"Well..."he chuckled, though it wasnt really funny "That was...unexpected."

It was certainly enough to wake him up.

"eh" Raven shrugged one shoulder "Maybe. Maybe not." she pushed off the locker she had been leaning on. "I'll see you in class."

He waved bye at her over his shoulder as she left.

He was still trying to digest this unbelievable new development when he turned, and as fate would have it, caught a glimpse of Kori Anders.

Her red hair, usually so vibrant and full of body, and bounce, and all that good stuff the shampoo commercials always promise, was limp around a downcast face. Eyes glued determinedly to the floor, she power walked to class. Her shoulders hunched in, and her arms were crossed over a book covering her chest which was adorned with a black ribbed turtleneck sweater.

He immediately knew what Raven had been talking about. The girl had 'guilt' written on her forehead in red permanent marker.

Well, not literly.

As she passed, one guy tapped his friend on the shoulder, pointing at Kori and laughing at a joke he shared with his friend. It was a similar story with every person in the hall. They either whispered critically behind cupped hands, pointed in judgemental persecutions, or openly jeered their accusations.

But, amazingly, she ignored them all, walked right into her classroom and sat down obediently.

He didn't think she looked like a bitch.

But then again she didn't look like a stripper eaither.

High school...

Raven had been right. As soon as he entered his classroom, he heard them talking.

"...yeah! the one just across town..."

"...a total slut..."

"...dating that Xaiver guy?..."

"...soo hot, oh my god..."

But other than that, nothing had really changed, that much. So he just figured that it would eventually die down, as gossip usually does after all the juicy details are spread out far enough, or whenever the next tasty piece of gossip floats by.

So he didn't bother thinking about it. Or getting involved. Or volunteering any real information to those confused individuals outside the circle of students who had only heard half truths, thus just spreading around more rumors.

Besides, he didn't even know if what he knew was the truth.

In fact, Probably no one knew the real truth. They thought they did, but really they had no idea. That's the way things usually worked.

These days, the truth was like the most valuable gem. Those who had the greatest of fortune to stumble upon it now faced a choice.

They could hoard it and keep it to themselves, or they could share it with everyone, until it was spread so thin, that no one even remembered who had originally found the gem. It belonged to everyone, like public property.

Dick knew he had a small, dull, piece of truth.

But he was a greedy person, and he wanted the whole gem.

I know, it's short. I apologize.

Please review anyway.