Hello! Another chapter is here. Enjoy!
It was the week after Halloween, and school had started again, but not much had changed: Rachel was still glued to Liam and would spend most of her free time with her cheerleader friends. Monica still felt alone, although she had started to talk more with Will since the Halloween party.
They had started to talk one day when she was walking around alone, waiting for the classes to resume after lunch. They would say hi to each other when they walked by in the hallways, but that day, Monica was alone, and he spotted her and came to say hi. They spent the break talking, and for the first time in a while, Monica felt good. The next day, the same happened, and Monica started to consider Will as her friend.
It was already Thursday, which meant that Rachel had cheerleading practice. She had promised Monica that they could hang out after she finished, so Monica stayed in the school until later to wait for her friend. She had loads of homework to do that day, and since Will was not around to keep her company, Monica headed to the library to do her school work.
She spent most of the afternoon there because it was the most peaceful place in the entire school. Besides, surrounded by her books, Monica somewhat didn't feel as alone as she would if she walked around the campus, seeing the groups of friends laughing together. Absorbed by the complicated exercises of her math homework, she lost track of time. She only noticed that Rachel's practice had finished about 10 minutes ago when she looked at the clock on the wall, thinking about how to solve one of the equations.
Like she had promised, as soon as cheerleading practice finished, Rachel packed her uniform and headed out of the gym to meet with Monica. She had to turn down an invitation to hang out with Sarah, but she missed her best friend and was sure Monica missed being with her as much as she did.
However, unlike Rachel expected, Monica wasn't outside waiting for her. For a second, she felt sad, thinking that her best friend had abandoned her. But then, Rachel remembered that Monica would probably be doing her homework and realized that maybe Monica got too caught up with it and forgot to check the hours. So, Rachel headed to the library, the only place she could think of where Monica could be.
She entered the empty room, looking around for Monica. But when she passed through the card catalogue, something caught her attention. Behind it, a boy with familiar afro hair was making out with someone. After a moment, she realized the boy was Ross, Monica's brother. But when she realized that it was Mrs Altman, the librarian, whom he was making out with, Rachel froze, completely shocked by the scene.
She decided to walk past them, pretending she didn't see it and go find Monica. As she had predicted, Monica was alone at a table in the corner, hastily packing her things. She went to greet her friend, and they both headed out. Rachel made sure they didn't pass through the card catalogue. She wanted to tell Monica about it, but she decided that perhaps it would shock Monica more than it had her. But she would definitely mention it to the other cheerleaders; After all, it was a great gossip material.
The weekend passed, and in the next week, when Ross went back to school, he noticed that everyone kept weirdly staring at him in the always. He went to the bathroom to check himself in the mirror but could not find anything wrong with his appearance. He shrugged, thinking that he was probably just being paranoid, and it had been something else people had been staring at.
However, by lunchtime, he started to get suspicious people were talking about him. Everywhere he went, people would stare and sometimes avoid him. Ross stood in the middle of the cafeteria with the food tray in his hands when he spotted a vacant seat near one of his classmates.
"Hey, can I sit here?" He asked
Jake, his classmate, looked at him with that same judgemental look everyone had been giving him.
"Sorry, man, but I don't want to hang out with weirdos that kiss older women," Jack said, not bothering to be friendly.
"Sorry, what?" Ross asked, dumbfounded, pretending he didn't know what Jake was talking about. They couldn't be talking about his fling with Mrs Altman, could they? How could everyone know about it?
"You know, the old librarian. She's like 50, man. You're weird," Jack answered him.
Ross stood still in his place. Mrs Altman was 50?! She looked so much younger; he could swear she was around 30. He wished that no one knew about it. He had felt on top of the world when it happened. He had never had a real girlfriend, and suddenly, he managed to kiss an older woman. It felt like a triumph to him. But now, Jake had ruined his boosted ego, turning his feelings into disgust. He had kissed someone as older as his mother; Ew.
Not wanting to know more unexpected details, Ross walked away, ready to find another place to sit. The only seat available was next to Will, his fat classmate.
"Ross, right?" Will asked when Ross stood next to him.
Ross nodded, getting ready to be rejected again and have his lunch on the floor. But instead, Will studied his face as if trying to remember something about him.
"Hey! You're Monica's brother, the guy that also hates Rachel Green! Have a seat!"
Ross got confused with the statement but then remembered the Halloween party. He had said he hated Rachel, but it had just been an expression that came on the moment. Ross was about to tell Will that it had been a misunderstanding but then realized that it was not a good idea. If he did it, Will would probably hate him too, and at that moment, he was the only person who did not seem to hate him.
"Yes, that would be me. I hate Rachel Greene too," He said, desperate to not end up eating alone.
What he didn't know was that his answer would backfire. Ross spent the rest of the day ignoring the stares and the people who would come and ask him if the rumours were true. At the end of the school day, he was next to his locker, picking up some books to take home, when Will walked to him again.
"Hey, Ross," He started. "I was thinking about something: we both hate Rachel, right? Maybe we are not the only ones; maybe more people around here also hate Rachel."
Ross looked confused at his classmate.
"So, what do you want to do about it? Create the 'I Hate Rachel Greene Club' or something?" He asked, not confirming or denying the fact that he hated Rachel too.
"Well, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but your idea sounds better! We should create the 'I Hate Rachel Greene Club'!" Will said excitedly.
Ross didn't know how to react. We wanted to tell Will that he did not hate Rachel, but he felt so vulnerable because of the rumours that he did not have the courage.
"Rachel, Club?" They heard someone say. Both boys looked behind to see the exchange student standing next to them.
"Hey, do you hate Rachel?" Will asked the Thai boy.
"Rachel!" He said back, and Ross wondered if the boy had understood any other words from the sentence.
"We need more than two members to form a club. We can officially be the 'I Hate Rachel Greene Club' if you join us. Are you in?" Will asked again to the Thai boy.
"Rachel, club." He answered, which Will took as a 'yes'.
"Perfect!" Will exclaimed. "She will learn to stop making peoples' lives miserable."
Ross forced a smile, wondering how he would get out of this situation. So far, his last year of high school was not going great.