Mixed Signals

Chapter 1: Rumors

School is stressful.

Yes, you have the professors, you have the homework, and don't even mention the projects- but sometimes that's not what makes school so taxing.

It's the judging, hateful teens that are there with you.

On this particular day, it was about 85 degrees, normal for a spring day in Florida. As usual, it was so sunny you had to put on layers of sunscreen to avoid getting sunburned. That is, if you didn't sunburn and unless you had been living here most your life and had a golden-brown tan. That was about the only thing girls here envied me for, though.

Right now, I was sitting in the cafeteria before school, waiting for my best friend, Ethan, to show up. Some girls had started laughing at me right when I walked in, because of the rumors.

The rumors.

I had a reputation for being one of those girls who didn't exactly fit into one clique, like the athletics, the populars, the nerds, or the goths. I was just normal. Too normal, that some populars had soon started rumors that where crawling all over the damn school. It was about my ex boyfriend.

They where not exactly wrong about what happened, but they had obviously gotten all of the facts wrong. Almost nobody had known the real facts except Ethan. At a party, someone had seen us walk into a room together and shut the door, assuming that we where having sex, when in reality, I was breaking up with Jacob, my ex. Very few people could really believe me and stand up to those rumors, which where my friends. Jacob, on the other hand, had his own side of the story where he had used me for sex and dumped me. And, to make matters worse, about everyone believed him. Damn populars, I muttered as I peered from the table I was sitting at. 3 of them smirked and gossiped and laughed about the rumors. They all where the same- blond hair, heavily makeuped faces, and where about as fake as you could get. Not to mention their wardrobe, which consisted of barely anything in school dresscode. I sighed and forced myself to try to forget about what they where saying about me now.

A creak of a door broke my thoughts and a skinny, tall boy walked through. He shot a disdainful look at the whores in the other table, and walked to the seat next to me, and slid into it.

"Well, good morning to you, Ethan. Did you get me Starbucks like you promised?" I gave him a wide smile and wiggled my eyebrows, hoping he did. "Yeah, yeah. I got it Ashlyn. Here" He handed me what he got me every morning- a frappucino, but every time it was something different. That's one of the reasons I love Ethan- he always knew that I like surprises. "Thank yah, casanova." He muttered something like your going to make me go broke, but I was too busy enjoying my drink to care. Ethan is a senior like me, but he's

exactly a year and two days older. We had been inseparable since freshman year. He's skinny, and definitely not athletic. He spends most of his time on Netflix and homework. He has dirty blonde hair and green blue eyes, and is pretty attractive. There was once a time where I had a crush on him, but it was clear that friends would be better than a relationship. He just didn't have relationships often at all. His hair is long, bit not long enough to be shaggy. Just the perfect length to look classy.

I, on the other hand, have shoulder length dark brown curls, long eyelashes and deep, almost black, eyes. I'm not considered as pretty to be a popular, but I am semi attractive, thank god. I'm a little shorter than Ethan, but I'm still considered tall for a girl. I am also more muscular and built than him, because I had been on a year round swim team for as long as I can remember. We are opposites, but were still best friends.

I sighed and looked at my phone. 8:45 AM. School starts at 9:15, but Ethan and I always get here early to talk and have breakfast or finish homework. This time, I had to finish some trigonometry stuff that I was having a hard time with. I hate math, and it pisses me off that Ethan is ten times better at it than me. I grumbled and fished around my bag for my binder, and Ethan checks his phone. "Hey, I'm gonna need you to help me with this trig shit," I say, pointing to my ragged binder. Ethan rolls his eyes. "Seriously woman? Trig is like the easiest thing. Ever." Ha. Ha. Ha. Trig is easy? No, its not.

"Just help me with this stuff, idiot." I shove the binder at him and he starts using that genius brain of his to do my homework. In turn, I always help him with his English assignments because it's the one thing i'm actually good at, besides swimming and sketching. This morning, I have to do Ethan's assignment on double negatives and other grammar stuff that comes extremely easy to me. While I'm scribbling answers down on Ethan's paper, we talk about the texts we sent the previous night and what we are planning to do tomorrow, which is Friday. "I'm going to Sarah's sweet 16.", I say as Ethan asks me about my plans. "Oh seriously? I didn't know you where still invited to those. Isn't Sarah a sophomore?" Ethan asks. Sarah is a sophomore, but she's on my swim team, so I have to go. "Yeah. Wanna come?" I ask. "Yeah sure. I have nothing better to do than lay in bed and watch Netflix anyways, so ill go with you", He responds, not even looking up from my trig assignment. I let out a sigh of relief. Sarah may be a sophomore, but she's one of those populars, so I would feel much better with someone like Ethan by my side. Plus, she wouldn't care if I brought along Ethan.

As I start to go back to Ethan's assignment, I hear my name whispered. I turn sharply to the left, towards the popular girls who where whispering about me earlier. They're laughing and pointing at me. I start to grow red from embarrassment. I seriously don't want to look at the rest of the cafeteria to see if they're staring at me too. "Hey, hey, just ignore them. It'll pass," I look at Ethan. He has a sad smile on, and I put one on my face for the sake of him. "I know, i'm okay. I'm fine." Although I say these words, there is a knowing silence between us that means we both know that I'm not.

"Let's just get this work done," I plead. So for the remainder of the morning before the first bell sounded, we where silent. Usually we would be dying of laughter over a sexual innuendo or a sexual joke, but once the rumors had started, a sad mood had settled around us. I tried not to let it bother me as much as it did.

Finally, the first bell sounded. I quickly got up and switched Ethan's English assignment for my trig one, and we both hurried opposite ways, saying a short goodbye followed by a quick hug. I sped walked to class and tried to avoid the horrible rumors that seemed to follow me like a magnet. Can I just not go to Interior Design? I thought. It was my 1st period, and about the most boring, too. I could always skip, but I'm sure that would just be an excuse for more rumors. I yawned, and sighed, passing by some populars laughing at me.

What am I going to do about these rumors?

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Hi guys!

This is a story based loosely on my life, and Iv'e substituted the names of myself and my friends with other character names.

I'm sorry the beginning chapter is bit slow moving, but i really hope you enjoy the story.

Let me know what you think!

-Gaby