The Phantom of Scranton Hill

6

It went on like this for two weeks, two long, excruciatingly painful, socially murderous weeks. Until it stopped. Rumors didn't die out over time. Nope. One day they were being fired at her like a never ending rainstorm, and the next, not one soul said a thing. The subject was just spontaneously dropped as if it had hit a brick wall.

As it turns out, Justine discovered that there was simply nothing else to talk about. Students craved a new story for days, weeks, and they just kept reharvesting the one about Justine's father. They finally came to their senses and realized they were beating a dead horse. And the horse was already being eaten away by squirming maggots. Interestingly enough, the next story wasn't spread by the usual suspects but about them.

Various stories and timelines hung in the air of the chatterous hallways, students at their lockers, gossiping with their friends, the friends of their friends. While removing some textbooks from her own during the early hours of school, Justine had overheard some talk about Karma personifying herself and placing a flower on Katherine Cane, to sum it up.

Here is how it went down.

As per usual, Justine stood fiddling with the knob of her locker. Struggling to keep her eyes open at such an early hour, Justine plugged in the first number, then the next, then the next. But before she could open the locker, girls huddled just outside the ladies' restroom half a dozen lockers away began to talk.

"Have you seen Katherine today?" a brunette asked around her clique.

"No. It's too early. She doesn't show until around third period," a redhead replied, brushing her long, frizzy hair off her shoulder.

"Apparently, she'll be showing soon. Like, real soon," the brunette stated again. "I heard from Angelica, who heard from Nico, who was told by Sage, who overheard Jason talking to Kait, who was told by Alyssa that Thomas was told directly from Chase that Katherine is pregnant."

Justine was dumbfounded. Who could have possibly followed that, she thought, her brain slightly fuzzy from the lengthy, unnecessary information.

A blonde spoke up and the brunette's head whipped in her direction. "Like actually pregnant."

"Yeah. It wasn't a false this time." She nodded overenthusiastically.

Even now, Justine couldn't figure out how that girl remembered so much about a topic so useless.

The bell distinguishing the end of lunch had just rung, and Justine was furiously making her way toward her fifth period class, inevitably having to pass Dax's locker.

Tensions were still thick, but Dax's attempts at socializing had died down tremendously. Only once or twice per every few days did he try to talk to her anymore, and admittedly, Justine missed speaking with him. She cursed herself for acting younger than she was but failed to muster enough courage to apologize herself. And he's seemingly never alone. She would wake up, confident that today would be the day but psyched herself out every time.

As she became close and the distance decreased, Justine expected to see him digging through the pile of books and old water bottles, but, instead, her view was blocked by a mop of poorly dyed blonde hair, the roots black as night. Her vision focused more and Justine noticed the tight yellow tube top, one size too small. Justine wondered if it would fit the kids that attended the preschool across the street--probably not, she concluded. The girl's clown face supported glued on eyelashes that were being fluttered so quickly Justine thought she had something in her eyes.

As Justine watched, a deep pit formed in the midst of her stomach, an unfilled ditch of desire. For some reason, it hurt her physically to watch, so she kept walking, but a part of her refused to look away. She was physically unable to. Her eyes were transfixed on the scene like she needed to see this. And she knew she had no right to feel so possessive, but she couldn't help it.