Beside You - Ashton Irwin

10

Cal and I had taken our place in the middle of the class for our Politics class. We were the only ones of the group taking this class, but it didn't really bother me much. Calum was a fun person to be around, and I really wanted to know if he had a crush on Eddie since it was becoming more and more obvious throughout the day that she had one on him. The teacher was already sitting in her chair as the stragglers walked in and took their seats. "Welcome back to Politics 101. Last lesson I mentioned we would be looking at current affairs in the political world. We're going to start the lesson by watching last nights 'A Current Affair' episode. She switched on the episode and we all sat back with pens in our hands, ready to take note. Because of everything that had happened today, I had completely forgotten to research the updates on my dad's case with the FBI.

                                          BREAKING NEWS ON 'A CURRENT AFFAIR'

The FBI has just released a statement about the 'Bruce Pentworth' case. FBI liaison administrator has said that: "We have reason to believe that Mr Pentworth has multiple offshore accounts in Belgium, Lithuania, Costa Rica and Australia. These accounts have recently been disconnected from the Senator's main accounts and we will be doing more investigations into this information." More inside information says that Pentworth's daughter has fled to Australia and his wife has gone to Washington DC. Could his daughter be hiding some hidden information about the now ex-Senator? More updates on this story later as we move onto the serial killer who is now behind bars...

I felt like I could faint any second. Calum noticed me turning pale. It only made matters worse when Kyle from my music class turned and spoke to me very loudly. "Andy, isn't your dad a politician, and your last name is Pentworth, and you're in Australia when you're clearly American. Wait a second. The guy on the screen is your dad?! That's so fucked." I only now realised that several students were filming this interaction between Kyle and I. "I-I have to go." I jumped out and ran out of the classroom. I didn't know where I was running but I spotted a ladies bathroom and pushed the door open. Tears ran down my face as I heard sniffling from a stall. 

"I-Is someone in there?" I called out. "No" a cracked voice spoke back to me. A stall door opened as someone I never would have expected to be in crying was. Rory. Both of our tear-stained faces looked at each other in the eye. "Wh-why are you here?" she asked me, "Everyone in my class- they found out a huge secret I was hiding from everyone after I lied about it to them." She nodded her head. "I-I come here to cry because of the shit Tori says to me. She's a bitch." I nod and look back at the floor. It didn't matter to me that I had never had a conversation with this girl before. I used to be in her place, I knew what it felt like. "I used to have a friend like Tori back in America. It sucks. I know." She nodded her head. Her phone dinged and she opened it up. 

"The rumours have started about you, uh, someone was filming you in class. People are speculating a lot of... not very nice things on twitter." I nodded ash she faced her phone towards me. I saw words like 'rich brat' and 'her dad's a creep'. I saw other comments like 'who is she?' and 'daddy's money'. But the one comment that made me almost have a heart attack was from someone I was hoping to forget.

'@Dee.Vonson: I went to school with Andy, she is a bitch. She only cared about popularity and shoved her dad's money and power down other people's throats.'

"Th-that's a lie, she was my ex-friend. She's my Tori, you gotta believe me. I hate talking about my family and our lifestyle." Rory nodded, understanding my pain. She grabbed my hand and walked out of the bathroom, pulling me along. "We're going to Eddie's biology class." I nodded as we started running down the halls. We didn't even bother knocking on the door as Rory pushed it open. Everyone looked up at both of our tear-stained faces. "Andy? What's wrong." Eddie asked, completely confused with what was going on. I shook my head and Eddie, Luke Mikey and Ashton jumped up. Eddie dashed over to and engulfed me in a hug. "E-everyone knows about m-my dad. Someone p-put it on twitter, and my ex-friend saw i-it and started a rumour about me being a stuck up bitch." I broke into more tears confessing this. 

"Miss Clarke, Mr Clifford, Mr Hemmings and Mr Irwin, get back in your seats. I will deal with Miss Williams and Miss...?" I looked up at the teacher that was just now speaking to me. "Andy Pentworth" More tears rolled down my face as the biology teacher walked Rory and me outside her class. "Coming into my class, mid-session is not good, girls? What is going on that is so important that you had to interrupt my class?" I cough and look up at her. She towered over me with her grey hair and old fashioned glasses. "It's hard to explain, It's a big family issue and Eddie is my cousin, this is my first day here, and something came up, now everyone has started a rumour about me. I-I just need Eddie right now?" She thought about this for a few seconds. 

"I will excuse Miss Clarke from my class just this once, Miss Williams, get back to your class." her face softened before she spoke again. "I'll write to you and Eddie notes to excuse you from the rest of school today. Go home and sort out your family problem." I nodded and stood outside her class awkwardly while she walked back inside to get Eddie and write up notes so we could skip school. The last thing I wanted to do was to wait around any longer, in fear of being picked on by my new school mates. Just my luck I heard a high pitched laugh from behind me. 

"Little Miss Daddy's Money? Forgot to mention to everyone that your dad got himself jail time? What do you think about that, oh, guys look she's crying!" I paused and turned towards her. I knew if I said anything bad at all she could make a statement to a news channel and there would be more focus on me, which I didn't want. So I said the only thing my Dad had trained me to say in these situations. "I have been asked not to make a comment on the current situation. I do not represent my father with my actions or statements. Thank you." I turned back to face the door waiting and hoping the biology teacher would hurry up.