It's me again! Hope you enjoyed the chapter 3. Now is the time for the Fourth!

I usually don't like being the centre of attraction, but I eventually got used to being the favourite topic of a bunch of girls I never talked to and who would giggle whenever I looked at them.

But that Monday morning, when I walked into that corridor and everyone fell silent, looking at me, I had the bad feeling that they weren't discussing about my football skills. And indeed, they were not.

I couldn't catch any glimpse of conversations as they always stopped talking whenever they spotted me, but they looked at me as if I was some kind of hero.

On my way to my Spanish class, I met my "groupies" (remember, those giggling girls) and one even talked to me. Worst, she put her hand on my shoulder while doing this.

"This must have been so scary, Teddy. I'm glad you had the strength to come back to school after such a terrific event. I promise we will make sure he won't bother you anymore."

"What? What's that about? What event? Who won't bother me?"

"You're so kind to pretend it did not happen… We will protect you, don't worry."

And they were off. I was thinking so hard about the meaning of all of that that I did not even cared about my class falling silent when I went to my seat. What on Earth was going on?

"Altman, that's your English book. Try at least to take the correct one."

I watched at the person sitting next to me. Sasha Applebaum, chewing a Snickers and pointing at me the book I took out of my bag.

"Oh, yeah, you're… You're right."

"You don't look good. What's the matter?"

And I suddenly realized she would be the best person to ask.

"Have you, uh, heard about weird rumours about me?"

"All the times. Some girls say you're so awesome that you cannot be human."

"No, I mean… More recently. Today kind of recently."

She looked at me with her grey eyes, as if she could read everything inside of me.

"That might not make you happy at all. You sure you want to know?"

"I do."

"Do you want a Twix or something before? I have Kit-Kats too."

"Sasha… Just tell me."

She sighed and lowered her voice, so that the teacher would not get mad. Luckily, we were at the back.

"Fine. The rumour is for now the following : someone saw Billy Kaplan following you to your house. Apparently, he tried to kiss you, and you pushed him away, and he left crying. But that's just the beginning, Altman. By the end of the day, you need to know that the story will even be worse."

I was shocked. Kaplan, trying to kiss me? People were stupid enough to think that gay people were desperate enough to try to kiss anyone from their gender?

"That's just rubbish. All of that."

"I thought so. Kaplan looks like a good guy. I'm not sure I can do much about it, but do you mind telling me what happened?"

I couldn't tell her everything, so I summed up as well as I could, whispering as loud as I could so that everyone around could hear me.

"We were working on our science project at my house. I ended up telling him things that he misinterpreted and that hurt him, so yeah, he left crying. Not because he did anything wrong, but because I'm the jerk."

"Question : If I could write an article in the school paper to tell the truth, although I don't think many people will believe it, would you like me to?"

I thought about it for a minute.

"No. People want to believe I'm the good guy and a victim. They won't buy truth. And Kaplan will probably hate that publicity too - he made it clear that he doesn't want me to defend him. Even if I'm just saying the truth."

"Fine. Altman… I'm sorry for all of this. I'll do my best to stop the rumours, I promise. I just hate when people are spreading this shit."

I smiled at her. She was really a sweet girl. And honestly, if I was into girls, I would probably have a thing for her.

"Still no Twix?"

I laughed a bit too loud at that, earning a scowl from the teacher.

"Lo siento!" I apologized in Spanish, and the teacher turned back to the board.

At the end of the class, people started gossiping again. I hoped they heard my version of the story.

Next class was Maths. I had the unpleasant surprise to discover Kaplan was not here. I was sure I saw him when I arrived that morning - then what might have happened struck me : he heard the rumours, and left. Applebaum sat next to me again, but that time, she remained silent.

When the class ended, I hesitated to go home for lunch. Unfortunately, Walker managed to see me before I could escape, and put his arm over my shoulder, rubbing my hair with his fist.

"Here is he! The Boy Who Survived! Some nasty moves that fag made on you, right? If I were you, I would have punched him in the face!"

"You're the one I want to punch right now, Walker", I said while freeing myself from his clasp. "Nothing happened between Kaplan and me. I said something really rude to him, unintentionally, which is why he left my house. So stop spreading stupid gossips about him. Or about me. Or about whoever."

"Yeah, of course you would say that, Altman. That is so you, to protect the weak and the defenceless! But don't worry, you can tell me what really happened - that will stay between us."

I was boiling with anger, feeling like I could throw my fist at him with no afterthought. I closed my eyes and try some breathing exercises. Then, suddenly, I realised what I was supposed to do. What I should have done since a long, long time.

"You know what, Walker? I'm good at football, but I don't really like it. Our coach is never there and you are a poor excuse for a substitute. I don't get along with you, I don't get along with the other guys who are just a bunch of sheeps following you because they are scared of you. I am not. A sport team should be about having fun and I don't have fun. It should be about being enthusiastic when going to the training and this is much more a chore to me. So I made my decision: I quit. Don't bother picking me up at my class like an overly attached boyfriend. Don't bother keeping me a seat for lunch just to talk to me about how much this or that girl is said to be a slut. I'd like to say I'm thankful for this year and a month in the club, but I'm not. Now if you would excuse me, I'd rather have lunch alone than to listen to your stupid trashtalk one more day."

I left before the words could sink into his tiny brain. I was proud of me, I did not hit him, I did not turn green, and I was rid of him. Today was almost a good day.

I heard him shouting from behind "Don't you think you can go like that, Altman! I'll make you pay for this!"

And I knew he would. I knew he would make my life hell. But I promised myself not to regret that decision.

"That was the bravest thing I saw someone doing. Well, except that guy who jumped in front of a train to help an old lady who had fallen. But still pretty brave."

Applebaum, of course. She was sitting on a bench and looking at me with her sparkling eyes, an amused smile drawn on her face.

"If you have got no one to eat with at lunch, there is still room on my table… I was going to eat anyway. Feel free to join."

"Applebaum…"

"Sacha. I hate when people call me by my family name. Always feels like they despise me somehow."

I followed her to the cafeteria, where she joined a table of five people, three girls and two guys.

"Guys, Teddy freed himself from Walker The Terrible. Mind if he joins us?"

While all the people around were staring at me, the ones on Sasha's table barely even stopped their talks.

"Yeah, sure. Welcome to the newspaper club's table, Teddy Altman. So, what I meant is that if you want to give a body positive message…"

And they were off in their talks again. Sasha laughed "Don't mind them, they're a bit weird. This is Josh, Nathan, Sarah, Emily and Ashley. All 8th grade. Oh, and just so that you know, I don't force you to have lunch with us. Just know that you will always be welcome here. And even if I doubt he cares, so is Kaplan."

"Thanks, Sasha. I appreciate. Really." And I did. She did not pretend that we would become best friends, and she knew we probably wouldn't, she just was being nice and welcoming.

During the lunch break, I started a really interesting debate with Emily and Josh when Josh asked if we believed the Avengers were still active or not. We talked as if we had always ate together, and for a while I even forgot about the nasty rumours spreading behind me.

Even the afternoon classes went on quite smoothly. I ignored the admirative or disgusted looks. But when the end of the day came, I saw Sasha looking at me with a sorry face and I knew she wasn't bringing anything good.

"Do you want to be up-to-date with what is being told about you and Kaplan?"

"Do I want to? No. I want people to care with their own business. But I guess I'm still curious to know how stupid they really are."

"Well, first of all, rumours are saying that you're the one who told that. In the middle of the Maths class. So if you said it it must be true. So apparently, here's what happened according to you. You were going home when Kaplan stalked you and broke into your house. You told him to leave, but he refused. Of course, since you're not a bad guy, you did not want to get violent or anything. He tried to kiss you (some even say he tried to abuse you) several times, and when you pushed him away, he ran away. There are some 'witnesses' who can swear he shouted to you that you would better not repeat what he did, but of course you are not scared so you thought it would be better to warn people about that psychotic kid. You are so shocked that you left the football club to go back home directly after school, hoping he would not follow you again."

That was it. The whole story, who had nothing at all to do with what truly happened. A story so altered that you could not compare to the original. A story so sick that I wanted to punch every single person telling it, changing it to their own version.

"Teddy? You're crying."

I was so mad that I could not control my tears. Not only this story made me a victim, but the true victim, Kaplan, was depicted as a monster, a dangerous boy, when he was just a regular person trying to live his own life. Could he turn himself into someone else? Become green if he did not pay attention? How come was he the monster?

I stepped into the corridor, full of people going home or to their clubs. I cleared my throat and talked with the loudest voice I could.

"Listen up, everyone. I suppose you know who I am, as you are all fantasizing about my life. I don't care if you believe me or not, but at least I'll know I told you the truth, and those who don't believe it are stupid people who just like juicy stories over the truth. You know what happened between Kaplan and me? We were working at my place. Yup, working, writing a report. And then I told something incredibly stupid and insulted him, which is why he left my place. No kiss, no abuse, just a stupidly rude Theodore Altman. I quitted football because they're a bunch of machos and I don't recognize myself in that. So now, believe what you want. Believe your juicy stories, or believe the truth. That's not my problem. But if anyone bullies Kaplan because of what they think he did, be prepared to know how I look like when I'm really mad."

The whole corridor was silent. Many were staring at their feet, uneasy. Then, someone started clapping. Then another one. And another. Almost everyone was clapping at me, looking at me as if I were a war hero. Sasha bumped her fist into my shoulder.

"Way to go, Teddy. Now let's just hope they will be more clever than what we really expect them to be!"

I shared her fears. When I got home, I did not answer to my mum's "How was school?". I locked myself into my room, and I fell asleep.

The next day, rumours had almost all died. Kaplan was there, but his glare indicated me he wasn't in a talkative mode. Some people still gave him weird looks. I heard at least three "fag", "I hope you die", "Monster", but the one saying it always disappeared before I could catch them.

On our science lab on the Thursday, I started the conversation with a simple "How you doing?". He ignored me and started doing the experiments we had to do on his own. At the end of the class, he handed me a paper, with his own notes about the wind resistance for our project, with a handwritten note on the last page. I don't need a knight in a shining armour. If you talk to me, talk about the project. I won't answer about anything else. Don't think we're friends.

Every single word painfully echoed in my head. No matter what I did, it felt like I made his life even worse. But I refused to give up. Maybe he just needed time.

And three weeks flew. We started talking to each other - but only when it was about the report. He would ignore me if I ever talked about something else. Even when I offered him to work on the report from my place. Anything that made me sound friendly looked like an insult to him. I did all I could to make the best of it, trying from time to time to crack a joke just to see his face as he did his best not to smile.

One day, I got the feeling that I wasn't the one doing my best for him. He was the one trying his best to stay away from me, to protect me from more rumours.

On that Thursday night, in the middle of November, I learnt the hard way I could not be closer to the truth.

Sometimes I wish I had a friend like Sasha. I mean, she's an infinite resource of food, she's clever, and she's kind. But hey, my friends are not that bad either!

Feel free to leave a review, anonymous welcome. Next chapter soon :D