Gretchen glanced from side to side as she walked down the hall way. The trip to her locker was exceptionally long that morning considering just about everyone she crossed paths with were either staring in her direction or obviously whispering about her. She passed the cheerleaders, AKA the Ashleys, just in time for Ashleys A, Q and B to chant "Scandalous!" and outright smirk in her direction.
By the time Gretchen had made the journey to her locker she was panicking. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. She usually made her way through the day being completely undetected by the rest of her peers. What could have changed in the two day weekend that would have all eyes in the student body on her?
Her books clattered on the floor as it finally hit her. This wasn`t about her. This was about Spinelli. Someone had probably found out about her secret and had already spread it threw the entire school and as Spinelli`s best friends, Gretchen, and probably the rest of the gang were probably going to be subjected to the gossip as well just by being associated with her.
"So, is it true then?" Gretchen nearly dropped her books again when she heard the voice coming from so close behind her as she rose from just collecting them. She turned and came face to face with Randall Weems.
Puberty certainly hadn`t been as nice to Randal as it had been to Gus. His back had become severely hunched. His red hair was cut uneven and his long narrow face was missing all traces of attractiveness that had come to most boys that she had grown up with.
Gretchen, adrenaline still pumping, pushed Randall away from her. She was suddenly filled with anger that someone would come right up to her and be so straight forward about Spinelli`s condition. She was still a person and as a friend Gretchen was going to protect her. "Piss off Randall!" She screamed at him.
If all heads in the hallway weren`t already turned towards her, they sure as heck were now but oddly enough, she didn`t care. She had to protect Spinelli from what was going to come no matter the cost to her own reputation.
When Ashley T had gotten pregnant the year before, she had been abandoned by the other Ashleys and had been completely cast away by the rest of the student body. She had dropped out of school much sooner than she had needed to just because the other students where making it their personal goal to make her life hell. Now, no one even mentioned the girl's name even though they had grown up together since they were old enough to dig up cat poop in the sand box.
Gretchen turned on her heals and dashed away from Randall and the peering eyes of the other students. It was only 8:30 am and she couldn`t take the stares anymore. She had no idea how Spinelli was supposed to hold out with all of this.
She caught her breath as she entered her first period class and collapsed into the seat beside Gus. The boy looked at her questionably. "Are you okay?"
Gretchen sighed. "So I guess you're not getting any of the stares then?" She piled her books onto her desk and shoved her bag underneath her chair.
"What do you mean stares?" He asked showing concern. It really wasn't all that strange that Gus wasn`t calling on any of the attention. He wasn`t as good of friends with Spinelli as Gretchen was. The other students probably forgot his affiliation to the girl. "What's going on?" he asked.
"I don`t know. People are just acting weird today. "She grabbed her pen and began to write down the agenda that was written on the chalk board. She could feel Gus's questionable gaze still on her face. She turned to him and sighed. She could tell Gus about the looks she was getting from the other students. She just had to keep her mouth shut about Spinelli. "I don't think there was one person in the entire school that didn't burn a hole through my head in the hallway." She looked down at the blue pen in her hand. "You, uh, don't know what it could be about, do you?"
Gus laughed a little. "If you haven't noticed, I'm not really in the gossip ring. I'm sure it's nothing. You know how high school can be." Just then, the teacher walked in, apologised for being late and began their class.
Spinelli rounded the back ally of the school just as the bell rang that signalled the beginning of class. "FUCK THIS SHIT!" She yelled and began an Olympic style sprint to the door. She had been warned only the week prior that if she received one more tarty slip she was going to be sent to the principal's office. Not that she was afraid of him or anything. It was more like the old man creeped her right out.
She yanked the door open and ran face first into a wall. Or what she thought was a wall. It was hard enough to be one at the very least. "What the-"She dropped her sentence when she looked up to see an all too familiar shit eating grin. "Cutting class again Lawson?"
"Oh don't act like you're innocent in that department." He tapped his finger on his chin ponderingly for a second before the grin came back. "Actually, don't act like you're innocent at all."
"What bull shit are you talking about now? Get out of my way. I don't have time for your shit right now." She tried to push around him. "Well to be honest, I don't have time for you ever." Just as she managed to squeeze by him, Lawson spun around and caught her wrist.
"No bull shit today Ashley." He gave her a full teeth grin causing her to give an animalistic growl. "I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about." Spinelli looked on either side of her to find some sort of escape but was now pushed up against the wall with her captor's arms blocking each way. "How is the baby by the way?"
Spinelli choked on her own spit. "What the hell are you talking about?" She said in between coughs.
"Oh, now I'm sure that you know exactly what I'm talking about. I overheard you and the nerdy girl having a heart to heart at the party." She tried not to panic as she looked up bewildered at the tall boy.
"You can't tell anyone!" She couldn't keep her calm for a second longer. "I'll do whatever you want. Just name it!" She could feel her heart beating in her chest as she bordered on hysteria. She was wrong in thinking that the worst case would be TJ finding out about the baby. Lawson could be so much worse.
"Ah, see? Now we're getting on the same page." Laweson ran a hand threw her short hair. Something that was meant to be a calming gesture, but somehow made Spinelli want to vomit.
She looked straight ahead into the v-neckline of the shirt in front of her face and bit her lip. "What do you want?" She was only able to get the sentence out in a whisper. Never before had she ever felt so week.
The quite entrance was suddenly filled with a shrilling laugh. In all the years knowing Lawson, Spinelli had never once been afraid of that sound, quite frankly she had day dreamed many times of clogging the hole that made that noise with her fist. "I hate to take advantage of you in this pathetic state Spinelli. It really doesn't suit you at all, but you must understand that this could be a once in a life time opportunity for me to finally crush Detwieler's annoying confidence."
Suddenly the fear was gone and Spinelli could feel her natural, but somehow amplified spitfire attitude run back threw her system. "And how are you going to do that? TJ's not the one whose belly is going to swell up like a balloon in a few months."
"No, that's not really the angle that I was planning on taking." Lawson grabbed the underside of the small girls chin, forcing her to cram her neck at an awkward angle and look him in the eyes. "I'm going to hit him where only you can hurt. " He finally let her go and took a long step back, sure that she wasn't going to run away now. "You're going to break off whatever it is that you and Detwieler have going."
It was Spinelli's turn to let out a dark laugh. "I don't know what you think TJ and I are but I can promise you he won't care in the slightest. He can have whoever he wants. I'm nothing special."
"Ithink there's more there than you realise, but if you're used to being used by guys that don't have any feelings for you then the second part won't be very hard for you." If possible Spinelli got an even worse feeling about what was to come. "You're going to dump TJ, and you're going to do it ruthlessly. After that you and I are going to put on a nice, glamorous, lovey dovey front and pretend to start dating."
Now Spinelli hadn't been experiencing any morning sickness but right about now she was pretty sure it was going to start happening.