Secrets [Trans Jake AU, Juke Fanfic]

~ Chapter 5: Rumors ~

Wednesday

As the young girl enters the school, she notices people whispering all around her. She shrugs it off, not bothering to ask anyone about it. She unlocks her locker and puts her bag inside, taking out a science notebook for her next class. As she makes her way to the science classroom, the whispers grow louder and more threatening. A chill runs down her spine and she decides to try to listen in on a conversation:

"Hey, there's Daisy."
"I wonder where Jake is?" 
"Yeah. Shouldn't he be like right next to her?"
"One hell of a boyfriend if you ask me." 

Daisy's stomach drops when she hears the final sentence and quickly runs to find Jake. 

Upon finding the blonde boy, Daisy calls out his name. He turns around quickly and she stops in her tracks. "Daisy? What's wrong?" He asks, closing his locker. "Have you heard what everyone's talking about?!" She yelps. "No?" Jake replies, growing more concerned. "They all think you and I are a couple!" Daisy speaks, clearly unsettled with the situation. 

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. I'm sure it'll be over by tomorrow."

"What if Luke overhears something about it?!" 

Jake's heart nearly stops. "Shit.." He mumbles quietly. "W-Well he's smarter than that. He would never listen to a stupid rumor." I hope.\ He tells himself. Daisy steps closer, then quickly steps back two clear feet, careful not to start anyone up. "Just be careful. I'll deal with the rumor, you deal with Luke." She says, walking away. Jake nods and goes to his next class, worrying more about the subject. 

---

Luke strolls down the hallway to his class, holding his notebook tightly in hand. He ignores the students whispering left and right. Instead, he focused on the pink blur headed right for him. "LUKE!" The short student screamed, leaping in front of the taller boy. "Woah, Milly, what's up?" He jumped. "You wouldn't believe what just.." Her voice tuned out as all of Luke's attention was turned onto the scared blonde boy walking past them. His gaze is glued to the ground as he hugged a math book in his arms. Luke's cheeks flooded with a light pink color as he watched him quickly walk down the hallway.

Suddenly, he was pulled back into reality when he felt someone yank at his cardigan. "Luuuke!" Milly whined. "Are you even listening to me?!" The taller student turned to her with a light blush. She noticed the blush before it faded away. "Ooh, someone catch your eye?" She smirks, leaning closer to him. "Wh- Uh.. N-No." He responds. Milly just nods, not believing it. "Well, as I was sayi-" The bell sliced through her words like a knife as it roared throughout the school. The pink-haired girl groaned in annoyance and the two made their way to their classes.

---

The whole time Jake was sitting in class, his mind wouldn't let go of what Daisy told him this morning.. "They all think you and I are a couple! What if Luke overhears something about it?!" The scene replayed through his head a million times, along with countless different scenarios with Luke rejecting him thinking he'd be his side-guy. 

Jake never meant to cry; especially during class. He looked like an idiot and he knew it. Luckily no one seemed to notice other than Drew but Jake wouldn't give him a straight answer when he asked him what's wrong. Jake did his best to cover his nose when he sniffled and kept his face down instead of looking towards the board. He completely tuned out the teacher and the students that were talking amongst themselves. He had heard something about partner work, so he assumed that was the culprit. 

He just stared at the paper in front of him the whole time. He must have read over it a million times. It's not that he had forgotten the material though. When his mind is on something important like the situation at hand, he can't focus on doing work. Drew knew this and didn't bother him to help with the work. Instead, he just sat there and gave him his time. In the meantime, the tanned boy worked on answering the questions while he waited for Jake to collect himself.