A/N: Hey guys! It's me, Bambi and I hope you're doing well. I'm doing just fine. I am back with chapter two of, "The Gossip Around Shermer." I would like to thank all of you who have the first chapter. I really hoped you liked it and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well. As always, I do not/ have not/ probably nor will I ever own the rights to "The Breakfast Club" or any of its characters. Those rights to the estate of the dearly departed John Hughes and Universal Pictures. Now without further ado, here's chapter two. Enjoy.
CH. 2 Proceeding Reputation
At six-thirty am, Xia is rudely woken up by the wailing of her alarm clock. Begrudgingly, Xia gets herself out of bed and gets ready for detention. She showers, brushes her teeth, and gets dressed. To give herself some comfort, Xia puts on her favorite outfit. A white hoodie with a black checkered pattern going down the back of the sleeves, white jeans with hearts that Xia had painted on herself going down the legs, gold heart shaped hoop earrings, and red high top Chuck Taylors that she's only wearing to bike in.
Xia's clothes always have hearts somewhere on them nowadays. She never used to incorporate them, she thought it would be too on the nose. However, as time went on, Xia wanted to stand out. Suddenly, they're everywhere. It was her symbol. Xia's light pink hair, dyed in an act of rebellion against her mother, had been curled and put back with clips. She does her make up lightly and then starts packing up her back pack. Make up for touch ups, red pumps to change into once she got to school, a fuzzy white pen, The Snow Queen by John D Vinge to read if she gets bored, and her holy grail item. Her heart shaped notebook.
It's where she wrote down the most important gossip. Half of Shermer High was talked about in that book. If Xia ever lost it, she'd be in more trouble than she already was. She's bringing it with her today to get the scoop on her fellow detainees. Finally, Xia was ready to go to school. She grabs her house key, locks the door behind her, goes to her soft pink bike, and begins her ten minute ride to school. When she gets there, Xia notices there's nobody here yet but her and that the doors are locked.
She looks through the doors, seeing if anybody was there to let her in. That's when she sees Carl the janitor. Xia taps on the glass trying to get Carl's attention, Luckily, Carl heard the noise and turned to it. Unluckily, Carl grimaced when he saw that the tap belonged to Xia. "Well look it is, Little Miss. Big Mouth." Carl greeted the moment he unlocked the door. "Hiya, Carl." Xia greeted back sheepishly. "Why are you here?" Carl grilled, folding his arms in front of his chest and peering down at Xia blankly. "Saturday detention." Xia admits. A satisfied smirk appears on Carl's face. "Somebody finally got sick of your shit and did something about it." Carl laughed.
"Yes, Vice Principal Vernon did." Xia sighed. "Good. You know, I read what you wrote about me two weeks ago." Carl informs her. Xia stared up at him confused. She wrote about a lot of people. Once it hits print, it just all runs together. While Xia knows the gossip isn't meaningless, she doesn't understand why gets confronted about it. It's gossip, she writes a gossip column. The students and faculty should know themselves well enough to not be so worked up. Besides, gossip is inevitable.
Carl looked at her in disbelief at the fact she couldn't remember. "You wrote that I was sleeping in my car on school property and having an affair with Shelly Stanfield." Carl jogs her memory. Xia's eyes widened as she remembered. That rumor did go to print, but Xia had a good reason. One day she had stayed late in the journalism office to finish Hart Blast that was due the following morning. Carl had come in to clean up the room for the day. As Xia was pulling the page out of the typewriter, she dropped it. Carl picked it up and threw it in the trash.
After that Xia had flown into a rage. Pepper that in with the fact that Xia had heard that Shelly, a well liked senior, was sleeping with a teacher. Swap out the word teacher for janitor, couple that in with hard work lost, add in an absolute lie about him sleeping in his car for that extra razzle dazzle, and you had a scathing Hart Blast. "I'm sorry, Carl. You have to understand I was upset when I wrote that." Xia explained. "Yeah, yeah. Likely story. The next time you write about me, I'm suing your mother for defamation. And we both know that lady doesn't need any more legal trouble." Carl threatens as Xia's body tenses.
Nobody had ever threatened to sue before. "Yes, sir." Xia nods. "Enjoy your detention." Carl smirks, satisfied with himself. Xia walks to the library and takes a seat at the set of tables in the back. It keeps her away from everybody so she can be quiet. The quieter she is, the more information she can retain. Xia organizes her table for the day, changes into her red pumps, and waits patiently for people to come. It's quiet until a very familiar flip of red hair makes its way in. Claire Standish and Xia had met on the playground when they were little girls. That day, they had bonded over their shared love of Barbie and The Brady Bunch.
They became inseparable. Claire was like the sister Xia always wanted. Claire had even stayed with the Hart's for a bit when they were in sixth grade. They had stopped being friends two years ago. Now it was as if they were strangers. Xia had wondered what Claire did to get in here. As Claire sat down, she didn't even look in Xia's direction. The next one to walk in is a younger blonde boy. He decided to sit behind Claire but in front of Xia. She has no clue who he is, but she bets she'll know him by the end of the day. Next one in the room makes Xia sit up straight.
Bender had strolled in, messing with things up front. Of course he'd be in here. Detention was like his second home. Knowing he'd have words for her, Xia braced herself. Bender walks over to the table in front of Xia and intimidates the blonde boy into moving to the tabe over. Bender took a seat, eyes locked and loaded on Xia. "You loudmouth, bitch." He called out to her. "Good morning to you too, Bender." Xia greeted him. "Fuck that. You think you're really funny, telling the whole school I got Kristine Dibiase pregnant?" Bender asked,
Xia sighs. Honestly, outside of the fact he was an easy write up, Xia didn't know why she wrote about Bender so much. He never did anything to her. They didn't even talk. She had been on his radar until she wrote a Hart Blast about him stealing a lunch ladies wallet. The student body wanted more, so Xia gave them more. "In all fairness, that rumor was already around school. She has been seen with you several times. I just put it in the column." Xia defends herself. "It's bullshit and you're ruining my life." Bender snipped,
"Ever heard of don't shoot the messenger? I'm just reporting what I hear." Xia shrugs. "You're lucky you're a chick. I'd punch you in the teeth if you weren't." Bender warned. As he's turning back around, Xia notices Claire looking at her. Xia stares stoically back, wondering if she's going to say anything. Once she realizes Xia is staring back, Claire glares and quickly turns back around. Of course she wasn't going to talk to her. Xia goes back to looking around the room as a blue dot enters her peripheral. Xia looks up at the blue dot and stops dead in her tracks.
It was Andrew Clarke. The best wrestler on the wrestling team, one of the most popular guys at Shermer, and Xia's ex boyfriend. They had dated from seventh grade all the way up to the middle of freshman year. They were each other's first kiss, Andy was the first guy Xia ever had a slow dance with, and Xia was Andy's first biggest fan when he started wrestling for school. They had puppy love, until they didn't. Andy was the one to break them up. He had told her that his dad thought she was a distraction and didn't want them together.
He also thought that they had grown had been devastated. At the time, Andy was all she had. He was her first love and honestly she didn't believe his reasons for breaking up with her. She had tried to keep away from Andy. It hurt far too much to be around him like she used to. Until Andy started flaunting girls in front of her face as if they had been nothing at all. That's when Andy found himself in the Hart Blast. For the first real time in two years, Andy and Xia locked eyes, his eye blues staring a hole into her. She wants to say hi but she doesn't. She just gives him a faint smile.
He doesn't smile back. Again, why would he? Andy turns away from her and sits in the empty seat next to Claire. Suddenly, a short dark haired girl wearing dull layered clothing races down the aisle between the tables. She takes the table behind the blonde boy and throws herself into a chair sideways. She sits sideways in the chair, back turned to the others. Who was she? Xia had never seen her before, but she definitely piqued her interest. She looks as if she has a hellified story to tell and Xia couldn't wait to hear it. Claire and Andy start to snicker at the girl's presence.
A small part of Xia, longs to be in the middle giggling with them. But it's exactly that, longing. Xia knows she'll never get back to that place again. Even if she did, they'd never let her in. Xia begins assessing her situation with the other kids. There were two who didn't know her or hate her, one that didn't know her and hated her, two that knew her and hated her, and Vernon. Today was going to be hell.
A/N: Thank y'all so much for reading. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you guys next Friday! Bye guys! Have a great weekend!
