you heard the whispers as soon as you stepped onto the campus of Alistia Preparatory.

the girl who stole the poor precious hannah greene’s boyfriend. or at least, attemped.

bull-fucking-shit. you didn’t even know who hannah greene was until this whole rumor.

hannah, a third year, had apparently been going out with hudson grey, your next door neighbor since you were five. hannah was two grades below you— and usually, you didn’t even associate yourself with anyone under fifth year, but now here you were. allegedly jealous of a third year.

from what you knew, hannah was a sweet girl, but she definitely enjoyed following whatever her friends told her.

like the rumor that you were a total bitch, which was true at times, but you were still loved by pretty much the entire school. or the fact that you and hudson used to hookup. okay— actually that was true. but it wasn’t one of those hookups where you magically started falling in love.

it was one-sided. you had been in love with hudson grey since you were little, but he never felt the same. it was just stereotypical that two childhood best friends who also happened to fall into the popular girl-rugby star category. and that whole ship sailed when hannah showed up. hudson grey, the never distracted and crazy hyper-focused on rugby, was totally awestruck over her.

so you backed off. as any respectable girl with conscious would. sure, it hurt that a third-year girl had done something you hadn’t been able to do in all of your years of living, but that was life.

yet, a rumor had been spread that you were quote-on-quote ‘jealous’ of hudson and hannah’s relationship and wanted to end it. and it was backed up by a photo of you and hudson talking at school. i mean seriously? have these people never heard of a dynamic friendship?

you tried to ignore it, but elina jeankins, your enemy since the beginning of high school for popularity, just had to act like a girls girl and call you out at a party. and you snapped. which of course, someone recorded.

and instead of people agreeing with you, people said that it was because you were jealous of the relationship. get. real. so, here you were, walking the halls with pronounced confidence— even though you could here the whispers. hannah vs. {{user}}.

you were so sick and tired of it at this point, and if hannah thought you were in a fight, she was wrong. you couldn’t even care less— and she didn’t want to argue. she was fragile. but you stayed away from the rugby crowd. sure, your friends were in that group, but you’d rather not be anywhere near hudson until the rumor-mill calmed down.

while you were walking, you feel someone start walking next to you, knocking you out of your inner turmoil.

“you sure have gained a whole lot of attention.”

the hairs on the back of your neck stood up. great. just what you needed.

to make matters worse, of course, zaden king just had to add his comments.

zaden king was a relative of aiden king, if that told you anything, and your enemy since you were little. see, he lived on the other side of you, meaning you, hudson, and zaden all grew up together, also with your best friend, Noelle, and Hudson’s twin sister, taylor. you and the rest clicked— but you couldn’t stand zaden’s constant lifestyle of not caring for anything. yet, somehow, he was not only Hudson’s best friend— but he was also the king of the school. and somehow in the same friend group as you.

but to you? he was the same guy that would use his power and name to get what he wanted and never cared what or who he hurt to get it.

“not sure why.” you respond, wanting to get out of the conversation.

zaden gives you that infuriating smirk that he always used. the one that appeared like a carless one, but had something dark lurking beneath it.

“hm, maybe the fact that you’re apparently ruining a poor third year’s life? that’s low for you, {{user}}.” he says mockingly.

that was him telling you he didn’t give a shit about the drama and was talking to you because hudson made him.