CHAPTER 10

Rumours

As soon as Mark stopped the car, Jess ran straight up to her room and didn't move from her bed the entire weekend. She was angry and upset with herself for what had happened and couldn't bear to speak to anyone. The only time she ventured from her self-made prison was to go to the bathroom. She couldn't even bear to eat dinner with her surrogate family downstairs, as she didn't want to face them. She felt like she'd betrayed them, overstayed her welcome.

They'd done so much for her over the past year and what had she done to repay them? Got herself locked up in a police station for abusing her skills and they'd had to come and rescue her.

She couldn't believe the way she'd acted, and not just by showing off and gaining them illegal access to a University building.

She'd kissed Tom. One of her closest friends. Hannah's best friend. Well, he'd actually kissed her first but she'd enjoyed it and kissed him back. Not because she liked him, because she'd loved the attention; he'd been quite the charmer.

Hannah came up every so often to check she was alright, sat on the edge of her bed, stroked her hair and talked to her soothingly, which only made her cry.

Debby brought her food; a late breakfast in bed. Then an afternoon snack and dinner when they knew she wouldn't appear. Mark brought her hot chocolate complete with whipped cream and marshmallows but Jess couldn't bring herself to eat or drink. Instead she just picked and pushed the food around the plate with the fork and watched the cream deflate and melt into the hot sweet liquid.

It wasn't until late Saturday night that she realised she'd missed her morning lecture. She'd still been at the police station when it had started and hadn't given it a second thought. That brought a fresh wave of despair to come crashing over her and she cried herself to sleep.

On Sunday evening she finally pulled herself together to shower ready for the morning. She was done moping. It wasn't going to do her any good. She needed to be strong, to take control and rise above the situation rather than let it drag her down into something inescapable.

So half an hour later, in her pyjamas and her wet hair tied up, she walked downstairs smiling to herself.

Just be yourself. She thought.
Confident, cheery and optimistic Jess Parker was back.

As soon as she got to the kitchen, she hugged and apologised to Debby who was serving up her tea on her lap-tray ready to bring to her upstairs. Then she hugged Mark and thanked him for all he'd done for her over the weekend.

Hannah, who was curled up on the sofa, came running over to her and hugged her fiercely. Once they'd ate altogether for the first time in four days, Jess and Hannah retreated upstairs to Hannah's room and they talked until way past Jess's usual bedtime.

. . .

The next day began smoother than Jess expected, brightening her mood. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary other than posters dotted around announcing the infamous University Boat Race. Jess took note that this year it was on Hannah's birthday, meaning they'd couldn't miss such an opportunity. But with no other distractions she was able to get on with her work and focus in her lectures. Being in a different College to Tom had its advantages.

However in her 2pm practical session in the afternoon, Charlie demanded to speak to her outside of the room. She braced herself for a berating, as she fully deserved it. And he really went for it. He didn't shout, but there was a dangerous tone to his voice as he spoke. He was angry at her, understandably; couldn't understand what had led her to do such an irresponsible thing which was totally out of character for her.

His tone softened slightly as he said he was angrier with the three boys than with her, but he was nevertheless disappointed.

All the while she stood against the wall, eyes focused down on her star-patterned converse, biting her lip in an attempt to stop the tears.

Then she was whisked away to see the Head of the College, Mr Johnson, who had the manager of the museum with him. She was asked to apologise – which didn't take any forcing on her part – and promise that nothing such would ever happen again. Then her punishment was handed. She wasn't being kicked out, or even suspended, she was just not allowed near the museum. She was also grounded from nights out on campus until further notice.

"For your own safety." Mr Johnson finished. She nodded and he sent her back to her lesson.

As she retook her seat in front of her monitor, Carrie Foster asked if everything was okay, to which she nodded and simply replied with a brave smile, "Yeah."

. . .

The following day was hell. As was the rest of the week, and the whole of the following month.

Tom, Mike and Ed had talked. Told everyone they knew and pretty much anyone who would listen. Downing College being just next door, rumours spread fast.

Hannah accompanied her to her lecture even though she didn't need to be there until the afternoon. Jess guessed that she'd found out from one of her friends and wasn't leaving anything to chance. It comforted her knowing Hannah was by her side just for her sake, but it also made her nervous as to just what had happened to make her so on edge.

She found out pretty much as soon as they'd entered the college building. People were looking at her differently. Normally no one took any notice of her unless they knew her to say hi, but today everyone was staring, muttering as they passed, some even bumping into her to show their distaste. Jess was confused.

"Just ignore them." Hannah said in her ear, arm around her shoulder as she escorted her through to the lecture theatre.

Then as they passed a group of boys someone shouted, "Whore!"

Then another shouted, "Slag!"

A gang of girls walked towards them, one of them Jess recognised as Polly from Tom's party. To her dismay, it was her that shouted "Fucking sly Bitch!" right in her face.

"Shut your face, Pol. Fuck off!" Hannah shouted back. She then steered Jess off into some nearby toilets.

So far Jess had been too stunned to react, but as soon as they were inside the safe haven of the isolated WC she leant against the wall and burst into tears.
What had just happened?

Hannah pulled her into an embrace and let her cry.

"Shit Jess, I am so sorry. Everything's going to be okay, shh."

But was it all going to be okay? Most of the people who'd shouted at her hadn't been at the party and didn't even know her, but now they were all suddenly against her. What had they been told?

"Why does everybody think I'm some kind of hooker?" she sobbed. "How can that have happened? It wasn't anything like that! I hate this!"

"You're not and you know you're not. Don't listen to anything they say. I suspect the boys are behind this, making up lies trying to get their own back on me for grassing them in. I mean it's not like they were even punished! But we won't let them win Jess, I won't let them."

Jess pulled away, wiping her eyes. "I've got to go to my lecture. I don't want to be late."

"Are you sure you want to go?" Hannah asked tentatively.

Jess nodded. "I've got to. I can't let them get to me." She said confidently with a watery smile.

"That's my Jess!" her cousin said proudly, grabbing her hand and leading her back outside. "Text me as soon as you're done, yeah?"

"Yeah. See you. And thanks for…"

"No worries. It's going to be difficult, but we'll get through it. See you later."

. . .

The rest of the week passed by much the same. Hannah never left Jess's side until she safely was in class or to go off to her own lectures.

Even Jess's class of six, who'd been perfectly accepting and friendly to her before had suddenly grown hostile and suspicious. It got Jess so frustrated to the point where she blurted out one Thursday morning,
"I'm not a hooker! Or a slag, or a whore or any other names you people decide to call me. All I did was hack into the security system. We were caught a few minutes afterwards, nothing else happened!"

But she could tell from the looks on their faces that no one believed her. Even Carrie had retreated to the other side of the classroom so she wouldn't be seen 'fraternizing with the enemy'.

"Well you certainly dress like one." Jake Pearson remarked pointedly. The class burst into laughter and he sneered.

Jess gritted her teeth to stop herself retaliating.

"Hey, that's enough!" Charlie shouted.

But the seed of doubt had been planted into her mind. She'd tried to play modest as much as possible to avoid this exact accusation. Did everyone really think she dressed like a hooker?

. . .

The name-calling and false accusations were finally stopped mid-March upon the news that Edward Lutkin and Michael Dale had been admitted to hospital after a serious drug overdose. Tom was frantically retracing their destructive steps and telling everyone the rumours about Jess were untrue. As they knew Tom hadn't been stupid enough to get involved in Mike and Ed's drug-antics, Jess was instantly redeemed.

Although Jess wanted to thank him for putting things right, Hannah refused to speak to him and Jess thought it unwise to break her trust.

Now though, instead of being showered in nasty retorts everywhere they went, they were both pelted with guilt and apologies from people who'd thought badly of Jess.

"I was stupid to ever doubt her."

"Those boys are idiots, as if we ever believed them."

"How dare they do such a thing!"

All Hannah could do was smile with relief. "See, we beat them Jess." She said with a hug.

"Are your birthday plans going to change now?" Jess teased.

In the absence of friends, Hannah had decided to spend her birthday weekend in London with just her family, watching the Cambridge-Oxford Boat Race. They would travel down on the Friday night, stay in a hotel and then get up early on the Saturday morning to get a good place at the finish line of the race.

Jess's parents were going to join them which Jess was really looking forward to. They were aware of the party incident and how much trouble Jess had been close to being in. However, they'd actually admired her skill and honesty and they hadn't been angry, just praised Hannah's efforts at protecting her since.

"Of course not." Hannah beamed. "No-one gets my friendship back that easily!"

. . .

To be continued.

[A/N: For any of my lovely readers who don't know, The Boat Race is a UK tradition started back in 1829, and has been run annually since 1856. It's a 4.2 mile rowing race down the stretch of the river Thames in West London from Putney to Mortlake. The two competing teams are the Cambridge University Boat Club and Oxford University Boat Club, and the race takes place either the last Saturday of March or first Saturday of April. As of 2013, Cambridge lead Oxford 81 wins to 77 – Oxford won this year.

I am quite proud of myself for the amount of actual accurate dates I've been able to include in this story. In 2007, the race was held on Saturday April 7, which I've decided made into Hannah's birthday for the excuse of the two of them going to watch it.]