Page 62 of A Vicious Rumor

"It just doesn't feel right, Mom. None of this feels right."

"Well, tell me again why you decided to make the change," she said.

I gulped, knowing what I was about to tell her wasn't the whole truth. "Because this is an amazing opportunity to be able to go to college right after I graduate, and we'd never otherwise be able to afford it."

"Look, sweetie, I know that I got myself into a lot of debt when I was drinking, and I hate that it's affected you and your opportunities."

"It's okay, Mom," I said honestly. "No one expects you to be a perfect person."

"I know," she said. "But, I can't help but think that you're crying because of me. If I'd been able to control myself."

I cut her off. "Mom, that sort of thinking doesn't help. But, you are right to remind me about why I'm here." I sighed. Even if things with Tyson hadn't happened the way they did, Zachary's offer of paying off the debt and college money was far too good to pass up.

"Did you make any friends at the school?" my mom asked.

I grimaced, thinking about the girls Zachary told me to befriend. It was a group of roughly five girls and they went by the name, "The Zoo," because you could look but you couldn't touch. I almost felt bad for pretending to like them, but then I supposed that they were probably pretending to like me, too. "Not really," I said, realizing I could be honest with my mother.

"You're always so quick to make friends, Lily. Just be yourself and you'll see, things will get better."

"Thanks, Mom," I said, feeling a little better for being able to talk to her.

"Call me anytime, honey."

"Okay, love you," I said before hanging up the phone.

I decided I was going to put whatever had happened with Zachary out of my mind for the evening and try and do as my mom suggested and make a friend tomorrow.

I walked into my last class of the day completely exhausted and unsuccessful in my attempts to make a real friend at King's Academy. The entire day I'd been bombarded by fake friends, all telling me that they'd seen me and Zachary's TikTok and were really excited about the party.

I had been looking forward to this class the entire day, however. English class had always been a favorite of mine, and the teacher had given us a pretty interesting assignment to prepare for the first lesson.

As I entered the classroom, I held back a sigh as I realized that, not only was the entire Triad in this class together, but also Kitty. She was currently sitting next to Tyson, her arm around his, as he thumbed through his phone, mostly ignoring her. I'm sure as soon as he saw me walk in all that would change.

"Over here, babe!" Zachary called to me. Tyson looked up and we briefly locked eyes before I looked away.

"Coming!" I said in a cheery voice before making my way over to Zachary. I sat down and he threw his arm around me. "Can't wait till this class is over so I can fuck you home," he said. "Oops, I mean take you home," he said with a laugh.

I blushed. A few of the girls in the class looked jealous, a few others looked disgusted. One, however, caught my eye. She was sitting in the corner reading a book. She had pitch black hair cut into a bob with bangs and was wearing fairly large glasses. No one talked to her, no one even seemed to notice her, for that matter.

She reminded me a lot of myself before I'd let Zachary turn me into his little experiment.

"Alright, alright," the English teacher said as she walked in the door. "Let's all get started. My name is Ms. Murdoch and this is World Literature. If you're not supposed to be in World Literature, you are in the wrong class."

Zachary moved to get up and the teacher gave him a stern look.

"Sit down, Mr. King. You are in the correct class."

"Was worth a shot," he said before high-fiving a classmate next to him.

"How original," the teacher remarked. I instantly liked Ms. Murdoch. She had a no nonsense air about her. Her grey hair was cropped short to her head and she was wearing your classic quirky teacher outfit, completely with bright red reading classes held around her neck by a string of beads. "Alright, I hope everyone completed their assignments, because we'll be sharing them in class, right now."

Ms. Murdoch had asked us each to write a Haiku, which was a Japanese poetry form with specific syllables to each line.

"I'm not going to ask for volunteers, because I know how this goes. Therefore, Zachary, I volunteer you as tribute since you were so excited to be here just a moment ago."

"Awe, come on Ms. Murdoch," he said. "No fair."

"We're all waiting," she said.

---