THE UNMARKED GEM; A Girl Nobody Desired

Chapter 8: Rumors

After a fun filled weekend it was time to come back to school again. Monday, arguably the most boring day for teens and literally anyone that goes to work around the globe. The students were moving like a bunch of zombies, as though most of them were being forced to be there. Just gloomy handsome and beautiful faces all around. Now, amid all that bad energy, someone else was enjoying themselves. They were grateful to be there, Audrey. Rose had surprisingly offered to drive her to school that morning, that was one on the list of things that made her happy. Then it was another chance to see Mason and hang out with Tina that was two and finally, the library and her favorite books. The soothing feeling of being surrounded by knowledge in those thin pages just waiting to be discovered.

There was also a change in the body demeanor, how she walked even with headphones to block all the distractions she still felt confident despite the scornful judgmental body-shaming looks from other students. All this could be credited to Mason and Tina who had invigorated some self-belief in her. She walked to class and even her biggest tormentor, the zoo keeper had his lips glued tightly. Tina was a life saver or maybe not.

"What are you looking at you goof?"

The class burst into laughter. They laughed as though it was all they were waiting for. She didn't look at him, all she did was sit behind her desk and change her playlist yet sometimes there are a lot of people you'll bother by just minding your business.

"You think you can hide and ride on Mason's cocktails for long?"

The class gasped. The zoo keeper had just confirmed the rumor that had been circulating around about the hottest boy and the ugliest girl in school. Most of them thought it was just that incidence with the stray ball that was yet to blow over but zoo keeper remarks were proving otherwise.

"There is no chance in hell Mason will hang around her unless he is bewitched" one guy shouted from the back, all of a sudden it had become a class discussion.

"She is not that bad" one guy said invoking laughter, "you should have let me finish...she is not that bad for a contest of the ugly. Y'all are just spreading rumors"

"The zookeeper started the rumor" another cheeky girl said, she welcomed herself to a party that she wasn't invited and ruffled some feathers in the process. Bad idea

"Call me that again and I'll punch those pretty teeth down your gullet" the class chuclked again.

"Well at least unlike her I'm pretty even if it's the teeth alone"

"Can you just shut up all of you" the class president took charge, all that while he was seated quiet trying to read which was what Audrey was doing too. None of those mean words they said got to her with that loud music in her ears making her eardrums shake. Although from the non-verbal cues reading session she could tell they were talking about her and it was okay. For her, everyone was entitled to an opinion and their opinion did not define her reality. They were all viewing life from very different lenses.

"One more word about Audrey and you're out of this class"

"Do you like her?" The zookeeper was not done cracking up the class, good vibes for the first free lesson on a Monday morning.

"No one likes her but she doesn't muddle in your affairs, so don't meddle in hers"

That marked the end of the debate, at least a loud one. What followed was secret chats and exchange of pictures and articles from the high school gossip, the amateur journalists were already working on a story. It was not going to be the first time Mason was appearing there, but it was the first time he was being linked to a girl that was not his type, no one's type actually. One brave rumor monger, probably one of Mason's hundreds of secret admirers got tired of willowing in the sea of speculations and decided to confront Audrey.

"A word please"

"Hi...sorry" she got rid of her headphones.

"Is this true?" She showed her the article with a catchy headline, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Automatically she knew she was the beast they were referring to. When she raised her gaze, her uninvited guest tried to restrain laughter but failed terribly, "sorry"

"It's nothing, just a rumor. Now can I go back to what I was doing earlier?"

"Before you do, I'm curious why don't you fight back?"

"Because all of us either willingly or unwillingly by thought or by default we are responsible what happens to us"

"No one deserves what you go through"

"Yet you still enjoy making fun of me" she said smiling.

"I'm sorry. From now on I promise to behave better"

"Thank you"

Whether that was genuine or not it didn't bother her to know. As long as no one harmed her physically or denied her the right to study she had no problem with them. When the bell for the first period rang the entire class breathed relief. It had been a wasted three quarter of an hour but also time to rest and enjoy some sunshine. Audrey went for her snacks, bidding her time waiting for everyone to leave. The destination in mind was the park where she could enjoy some alone time.

"Look at you sneaking around" Tina said from behind, "Good morning"

"Morning, how do you always find me"

"So, you were sneaking around?"

Question answering a question and they thought Audrey was the weird one. She raised her brows a gesture that cracked Tina up.

"You look funny, it's not hard to spot you with this erstwhile sense of fashion"

"Erstwhile"

"Thank God, finally I know a word you don't. Ancient, in the past"

"Ooh, you want some snacks?"

"No, unlike you my metabolism works just fine and I don't use my brain a lot or use a lot of energy to move around and fight away opinionated bags of shit...but I got ice cream for you"

"For real?" She looked elated.

"Yes, you just have to catch me" Tina said running.

It was a choice between probably collapsing out of breathlessness or miss the ice cream and she chose to miss the ice cream. The last time she ran, a couple of weeks back down the library staircase the consequences of that short exercise had stayed with her for days, her feet hurt.

"You really can't run or you don't want the Ice cream?" Tina asked stopping in a halt.

"A combination of both"

"Ooh"

Before Tina could realize the trap set up for her, Audrey had her grip tightly around her arm. She smiled sheepishly restraining laughter. For something that Tina thought required energy Audrey chose to use her brain instead.

"You daughter of a b***h"

"Winning is winning a bet is a bet"

"You played dirty but I'll keep my word. How will it feel if you lost because someone cheated?"

That question was a make or break moment for one of them and it's true meaning would later make sense a few months later.

"Depends with how they did it"

"Meaning?"

"If it's smart it's fine"

"Okay now let go of my arm" she slipped out of her grip and led them to the grass, from her small bag pack she fished out two tins of ice cream and they both sat on the carpet green grass, side by side. Silently. Tina realized how much her chubby friend enjoyed the silence, sometimes she would freeze and just look at the vegetation or a butterfly flying away, a bird feeding its chicks somewhere on a tree or a bee collecting nectar from a flower. Her connection with nature was a mystery that Tina didn't struggle to solve but rather yearned to learn and master. In addition to her sharp brain and warm personality, it also made her wonder why people hated her, judged and assumed she was nothing but an overweight teen with a horrible sense of fashion and sweaty palms instead of trying to understand her, giving her a chance to be herself and like an onion show them all the different golden personalities hidden in one beautiful human being.

"What?" She didn't realize her eyes were fixed on her lacking coordination with her mind that was still debating on the social m******e, calumny and character assassination that had befell one of the nicest human beings she had met in her life.

"Nothing, there is something in your hair" came the perfect deflection not to make it awkward. Audrey brushed her hand through her hair.

"Still there?"

"Yeah" she wanted to go again but Tina grabbed her hand and tucked her hair behind her ears. She felt the lack of jell and went in her bag, "Just a minute, sit tight"

"What are you doing?"

"Why are all geniuses so dumb"

"You think am a genius?"

"Shut up"

She zipped as instructed. From eating ice cream Tina was now working on her hair, applying jell to it and using a small comb to straighten it. A painful exercise but she was told to relax and zip it. Her eyes shut and her lips twitched from pain of strands of her hair being pulled from her dry scalp full of dandruff. Tina knew that was going to help for a single day. There was no chance in hell she was going to spare time and work on her hair.

"Perfect"

"I'd say painful but what do I know about hair" she said taking two successive spoons of ice cream, Tina put a mirror in front of her, "wow!"

"Beautiful right?"

"Magical. Thank you, can you teach me how to do that please?"

"Yes, some other day. Back to class now, don't eat ice cream during class hours"

"Okay mum. Bye"

Audrey walked away touching her hair, turned back and waved at Tina who was watching her enjoy the little things done for her and Tina's heart sank. She didn't deserve the slightest shade of shame, if so, why was she taking part in it? We can only be hurt by those we put ourselves so close to, those we show our vulnerability.