ARI.

Crazy how rapid rumors can spread in today's generation. Thanks to social media, smart phones and free wifi virtually anywhere, nasty comments and lies about a person can reach the entire world in just a click of a button. The more I thought about it, the more scary it became. It was spine chilling the way someone can take one simple piece of information and twist it, manipulating an entire body by how it's presented to them.

So as my school day proceeded normally, one tiny rumor that started before the first bell morphed into one huge campaign by the last period the of the day-- I was not surprised. Percival Shores High was notorious for this type of activity that it became the norm, but when said rumors were about my best friend, I knew it was World War Three.

I sat in my government class alone that day. Normally I'd be with Luke, purposely trying to distract each other while trying to take notes on the lecture. However, my favorite quiff boy was still bumming it in the hospital. It's been three days and I missed the kid-- I couldn't wait till he was home. Granted, I've visited every single day but school just wasn't the same without him. Though, there was a huge part of me that was relieved he was nowhere near campus.

"He's crazy,"

That's how the rumor started. Pieces of Luke's life in Sydney somehow managed to surface and after everything that went down a few days ago, the entire student body believed it.

"Apparently he went into therapy after going ape shit when his dad left the family,"

I scoffed, rolling my eyes upon hearing Katie's snotty voice fill my ears like nails to a chalkboard.

"Do you have a problem Ari? If you keep rolling your eyes like that, they may actually roll away," Katie shot me a snarky, tight lipped grin, her Barbie minion giggling at her master's comment.

"Actually Katie, I do have a problem," I smiled, putting my pencil down on top of my question packet. "I have a problem with pretentious axe wounds discussing a subject they don't know shit about."

"Is there an issue Miss Quiroz?" Mrs. Duarte glanced at the three of us through her 1950's inspired glasses with suspicious eyes.

"No ma'am," I shook my head, returning to my question packet.

"Of course you'd defend Luke," Katie noted. "He's like your new and shiny object added to your repertoire?"

"Repertoire?"

"Word too big? It means collection,"

"I know what it means!" I shot Katie an irritated glare before looking back down to answer question number 12.

"Dimples McGee, Asian Boy, and Future Bald Boy," Katie continued, oblivious to the fact that I was done with her and her fuckery. "Come on Ari, it's obvious that you all are in some punk rock orgy and now you've added Luke into the mix."

"Do you hear the shit that comes out of your mouth?!" I threw down my pencil in ire, causing Mrs. Duarte to saunter over to me.

"Miss Quiroz, language. I'm asking you to quiet down or you can finish you work in detention," Mrs. Duarte threatened. I looked from the black-haired teacher who was stuck in a decade of poodle skirts and back to Katie, whose satisfied smirk I wanted to slap off.

"No, I'm not going to quiet down!" I argued, causing the entire class to shift attention to me. "Not when the Pompous Princess wants to talk shit about my friends and wants to get away from it."

"Miss Quiroz, I'm going to ask you one more time..." With an authoritarian point of the finger, Mrs. Duarte gave me an ultimatum that I was willing to take. I curtly turned back to the Barbie doll.

"Katie, you are a self-centered drama queen!" I spat. Hey detention. "And I am tired of the shit that's constantly coming out of your perfectly glossed lips. Don't you dare think for one minute you get to talk shit and spread rumors about people I care about and get away with it! Fùck that and fùck you Katie!"

"Excuse me! You're the little whore around here Ari. Did you get bored with your other punk-rock boy toys and now Luke is your latest fùck?" Katie retorted, prompting a slew of gasps to escape from my peers watching with their phones faced towards us.

"Call me a whore all you want asswipe because I can't find a single fùck! But keep your mouth closed about my friends, which I know shouldn't be difficult since your pretty little mouth is always filled with dick from every fùcking football player on campus anyway!" I snarled, several ohhhs and shocked expressions surrounded me. "Who's the whore now?"

Katie was speechless. She just sat there with a disgusted look painted on her face with her arms crossed in a huff. Katie was defeated; beat at her own stupid game and damn was this worth a detention. I gathered my things in a haste, hanging my messenger bag on my shoulder and slipping my beanie on top of my head, adjusting it with one hand due to the sling that adorned my arm.

"I'll see you in detention," I forced a smile towards Mrs. Duarte who was just as shocked as her students. I stomped through the rows of desks towards the door, opening it wide and sauntered into the hallway.

I let out a drawn out exhale, puffing my cheeks as I paced around the hall right outside of the classroom. I approached the opposing wall, resting my hands on the sill as I peered out the glass window. From the second floor, I had the perfect vantage point of the school parking lot, spotting my car in its normal parking space right by the football stadium. As I continued to cool off, I noticed a familiar head of lilac-hair running out into the parking lot.

Michael.

He would skip out early. I watched as my enigmatic best friend ran into the parking lot and towards a stalled, black car on the curb. When a head popped out from the driver's seat, my eyes widened with great intensity. When Michael was running late to school or skipping out in class, I thought he was just doing it on his own accord. But now I see that Michael and Reese were becoming best friends forever.

Not that I mind Michael having other friends, but if Reese was pulling him out of class, making him late for school and jeopardizing his education, then that's not the kind of friend Michael needs. He was the least motivated student among us already and a college student of all people should know that Michael needs to focus. But what bothered me the most, was wondering what could be so important that my favorite lilac-headed boy was compromising his senior year.

Endless suspicions.

When the last bell rang, I got up off of the linoleum floor, slinging my messenger bag around my body and slipping my phone into my pocket. Just as my classmates filtered out of the room, I unexpectedly received approved smiles, thumbs up and a high-five from Masturbating Manny-- I dumped sweet pea hand sanitizer into my hands the moment he disappeared into the bathroom for more activities. I guess standing up to Katie was inspiring to my peers and they were thoroughly pleased.

Out of nowhere, my body was slammed against a locker, my bruised shoulder pressed against the cool metal and the strong hold of Katie's hand. I cringed from the sting that shot through my shoulder and down my arm as I tried to slap Katie away. I guessed the steroids that the football players were taking diffused into Katie's system as she gave them blowjobs, but that was none of my business.

Katie and I intently glared at each other with more intensity than an Alfred Hitchcock classic.

"I've tolerated you Quiroz but now you've been nothing but a tumor to me and I swear the rest of your senior year will be worse than hell," Katie sneered. She faked a smile, flicking my temple causing me to wince, "nice bandage."

Katie turned away as her hair whipped my face. She joined her minions and sauntered down the hall as the rest of our peers parted like the Red Sea.

"Anywhere you are is worse than hell!" I yelled back, flipping both my middle fingers in her direction. If it weren't for the sling that still accessorized my outfit, I'd be waving both arms in the air.

"Whoa sister from another mister, what's gotten you all riled up?" Calum strolled towards me with a smirk and quizzical expression.

"Katie McQuaid," I grumbled, leaning back against the lockers. I gazed up at my friend and frowned, "I got detention."

"No way?!" Calum exclaimed. He seemed more excited at my statement.

"Is that snapback too tight or did you just not hear me correctly? I said I had detention, not a date with Liam Payne," I reiterated, sass dripping from my tone; I was still a little irritated to say the least.

"I heard you just fine," Calum chuckled. He pulled me away from the locker, draping an arm around my shoulder.

"Do you enjoy the idea of me suffering in detention instead of driving straight to the hospital to hang with Luke?" I walked with Calum down the hall, towards the staircase.

"Well you're gonna suffer with me," he stated with a goofy grin,"cause I have detention too!"

"What'd you do?" I questioned, surprised from his revealing disclosure. Believe it or not, but Calum rarely ever had detention. He was more of a goody-good than the rest of us.

"I told off some stupid guys from the hockey team who were talking shit about Luke," he professed, pride exuding from his tanned skin.

I was proud too; proud that we were able to stick up for one another. I couldn't have picked a better group of friends, and although Michael has been M.I.A. lately, I know he'd be there for us in a heartbeat.

Calum and I walked into room 134 where Mr. Sweeney the history teacher sat at the desk. Detention wasn't a full house as I spotted several empty chairs, but the seat at the back corner of the class was occupied. And when I noticed a familiar head of brown, curly hair pushed back by a black bandana, I wasn't too surprised.

"What'd you do?" I asked, taking a seat in the desk directly in front of Ash.

"What do you think?" He replied, a dimpled smirk forming on his face.

"Does it have anything to do with douchpants and their insidious affinity to spread nasty rumors?" Calum predicted, sitting down in the seat next to Ashton.

"Bingo," Ashton confirmed.

90 minutes in a quiet room was boring but my homework did get done. Despite the boys cracking jokes every few minutes, they did crack open their textbooks and managed to get a couple of assignments completed. The boys and I separated to our cars once detention was over and I sent a text message to Luke who was wondering why I wasn't at the hospital yet.

To: Lucas 🐧💙 - 5:41 PM
Sorry quiff boy. Got detention. Be there soon.

From: Lucas 🐧💙 - 5:42 PM
Fine. Hurry up bestest. The Amish A Haunting marathon is on. Bring me snacks. Hospital pudding is shit.

Before heading off to the hospital, I decided to stop by Starbucks to grab an iced latte for me and a bottle of chocolate milk and a chocolate chip cookie for Luke to compensate for being extremely late. After exiting the caffeine haven that is Starbucks, I walked back to my car, however I didn't make it right away.

"...then I used a special software to decode the password and was able to get into the system."

I gasped, almost spilling my iced coffee all over my shirt the moment I caught glimpse of two people I didn't expect to run into. Reese and Michael were waking down the street together, deep in some mysterious conversation. Hastily, I went back around the corner, hiding behind a metal trash bin.

"And every patient file was at your finger tips?"

"Yea,"

"So you were able to pull Luke's patient file and therapy sessions?"

I threw my hand to my mouth, trying my hardest not to scream out loud. This can't be happening. This seriously can't be reality right now because unless my iced coffee was spiked with hallucinations, I swear I just heard file, therapy and Luke all in the same sentence.

This morning, when rumors started to float around Luke being crazy, I automatically pegged its origin from the fight. But as school went on and rumors became specific, including Luke's father leaving and his therapy sessions, I knew something was off. Those slices of information were private, and besides his mother, I was the only one who knew of Luke's past in Sydney.

But this conversation, the one I was eavesdropping on, basically confirmed that both Reese and Michael had something to do with those rumors. I should confront them right now; scare them into admitting it on video that they're the ones torturing Luke and I. But I had to refrain myself. Because if Reese and Michael really are the masterminds behind everything, then who's to say that they aren't capable of crazier things?

Can I still trust Michael?

//

Hey! No Luke/Ari moments but I needed to establish some things that will come into play in future chapters. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter nonetheless. And I hoped you liked this double update! Won't be able to update again for several days as I'll be busy for the next few days.

Thank you all for reading my story & I'm so glad you guys are enjoying it. About 16K away from 250K views and I know we can all do it! Please do vote, comment and share this with all your friends! Thanks so much for all the support! <33