Chapter Fourteen:

The Gossip

"Hey, Seaweed."

"Hey, Duane." Seaweed was used to walking to school with Duane; they'd been doing it every day of their educational lives, since Maybelle and Duane's mom had decided that their kids needed buddies to walk the two blocks to North Avenue Elementary School. He was not, however, used to Duane being this jumpy. His eyes darted around nervously, and his left hand kept twitching every minute or so.

"So, uh, where's Penny?"

"She went with Tracy earlier." The two girls had to go to an early-morning geometry tutoring session every Thursday morning now, because they had respectively missed or slept through so many classes this year. "Why?"

"Just keep an eye on her today, okay?"

Now Seaweed was beginning to get suspicious. "Duane, what happened?"

"I think now would be a good time to remind you that we've been best friends since kindergarten."

"Duane, what did you do?"

"All right, class, we've got two minutes left; does anyone have a question about the Pythagorean Theorem?" Just as Mr. Scalera turned to face his review students—and Penny was thinking that she couldn't be more bored if she tried—Seaweed burst through the door, his eyes wild. He saw Penny and immediately turned to the teacher.

"Mr. Scalera? If you don't mind, I really need to borrow Penny for a minute." The geometry teacher's eyes narrowed, but he waved his hand and Seaweed ran to grab Penny.

"Seaweed, what is it?" He didn't answer as they barreled out of the room and down the hallway. Finally, they stopped outside a broom closet, and Seaweed pushed her in, closing the door behind them.

"Seaweed, what is going on?" Penny was starting to get frustrated.

"Oh, don't ask me," Seaweed snapped. "Talk to Duane about it. He'll tell you everything. He's good at that."

"Shut up," Penny heard Duane bark back. "It was an accident!"

"Accident, my—"

"Does anyone want to tell me what's going on here?" Penny interrupted.

Seaweed glared at Duane, who started to look nervous. "Penny, I just want to ask you to give me a five-second head start after I tell you this."

That doesn't sound good. "Duane, you know I'd never try to fight you."

Duane pointed at Seaweed. "I mean from him."

Penny nodded, feeling uneasy. "Okay."

"Good…. So, uh, I guess I should start explaining now."

"That would be nice."

Duane took a deep breath. "I, uh, ran into Amber at the record shop yesterday."

"What was she doing there?"

"Beats me. She was hanging out by the window, watching y'all dance." Just then, Seaweed glared at him again, and he quickly got back to what he'd been saying. "Anyway, we started talking, and I… kind of told her some stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Penny was starting to see where this was going.

"I told her that…" Duane mumbled the rest of his answer so quietly Penny couldn't understand him.

"What was that?"

"I said I told her that you were staying at Seaweed's."

Penny stopped breathing. Her heart was pounding, going a million miles a second; she suddenly had the sensation that she was on the highway and all the other cars were speeding along around her while her engine stalled.

"Oh… my..."

Seaweed whacked Duane sharply upside the head. "She's freaking out!"

"Man, I'm sorry. I just—"

"Just cut out, all right? I'll calm her down." Seaweed told him, sounding completely disgusted.

Duane didn't say anything, only left the closet in silence. Finally, it was just Seaweed and Penny, alone with a couple of mops.

"Baby girl?" he asked softly. "You all right?"

Penny concentrated on breathing. When she didn't say anything, Seaweed got down on the floor next to her (had she collapsed? She hadn't noticed) and put his arm around her.

"Hey, listen. I can't tell if you're looking at me, 'cause it's dark in here, so just pay attention, you dig?" She moved closer to him, and his voice softened a little. "Duane? Yeah, he's an idiot, and he's a sucker for anything in a skirt, but he's honestly sorry. Don't get me wrong, I'm still gonna smack him around a little later, but don't be mad at him for too long, okay?"

"I'm not mad!" she blurted suddenly, making him jump. "I'm worried. Seaweed, I'm the school slut now! What am I supposed to do?" Her voice started to get shrill, another unfortunate trait she'd gotten from her mother.

If Seaweed had been shocked earlier, he was floored now. He had never in all the time he'd known Penny heard her use the word slut. Girls all over the school said it, and so did some of the guys, but Seaweed had grown up around women, and he knew that it was a bad word, the kind you never used unless you were drunk and didn't know what you were saying. "No, you're not. Penny, don't you even think that for a minute, you got that? You haven't done anything wrong."

"But he told Amber," she moaned.

"So?"

"So everyone's going to think I'm… that we're…."

"Since when does what everyone thinks matter?" Seaweed asked. "We've gotten through this before."

"But that's the thing, Seaweed! This isn't the same thing we've done before. Before, it was just that people didn't like us being together at all, but now people either don't care or just avoid us. This is completely different! It's a reputation, not a relationship! No matter how many people I tell that it's all a lie, they'll just keep believing it until they start thinking nothing else was ever true…" Penny started to get hysterical. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a sarcastic voice whispered, "Gee, when was the last time you had a cow?"

Seaweed just held her, desperately trying to think of something to say that would make everything all right again, but coming up short. "I'm so sorry, baby," he whispered. "So, so sorry."

Suddenly, they heard a bell ring outside the door, and the sounds of pre-first-period chaos going on outside: footsteps, talking, lockers slamming.

"You wanna ignore that for a little while?" Seaweed asked quietly.

"Just until everyone's out of the hallway."

They sat in silence until the late bell rang and the people who were too hip to get to class on time finally left the hall. Then they got up and left the broom closet.

Seaweed gave Penny a quick, chaste kiss on the lips, completely dropping his usual passion. "See you at lunch?"

"Okay." Penny turned and walked back to Geometry, her first class.

For the first time, she was relieved that she and Seaweed had different first periods.

"I just thought she was such a nice girl…"

"I guess those are the ones you have to watch."

"I hear she's already"—now in hushed tones—"P.G." Gasps flew around the table.

Penny tried to walk by without looking at any of them, but she could feel their eyes on her as she got her mystery meat, her mashed potatoes, and her roll. Even the cafeteria ladies were skirting around her like she was some kind of leper. She closed her eyes for a moment, and then turned around to look for her friends.

Nothing could have prepared her for what happened next.

Everyone was staring at her. The entire cafeteria had fallen silent. They were scrutinizing her, hoping for some outward manifestation of her newly and unduly received reputation.

Penny tried to look away, but somehow she managed to glance at Amber. She had a smug little smile on her face, taking a little private pride in her work.

Suddenly, Penny dropped her tray, and the noise echoed through the silent cafeteria.

She ran. Out the door to the courtyard, which was already covered in a thin layer of frost, and around the corner, off campus. She could vaguely hear voices calling her name, but she didn't hear footsteps running after her, so she just kept running, not even thinking of the frost under her feet, just hearing the rhythm they made as they pounded the pavement. Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go.

She didn't stop running until she got back to the record shop.