Alex was right.

It only took 2 days for everyone to move on to the next newest hot topic.

This time it was about a classmate who supposedly got knocked up and is dropping out of school because of it.

The stuff they were saying abt her sickened me.

The second that I stepped into the building, the atmosphere, the air, was already buzzing with people talking, whispering, mumbling, murmuring, about what happened to the the poor girl.

Her name was being mentioned everywhere, it was almost impossible not to hear it. I've heard of her name before and I'm sure I've seen her around school a few times, I just never really interacted with her.

Elizabeth Lee, member of the student council, dated a member of the basketball team and is rumored to have gotten pregnant from sleeping with her sugar daddy.

Sugar daddy? Really?

Regardless of whether or not those allegations were true, who were these people to judge her actions and stick their noses into her personal affairs? They needed to get a goddamn life and start worrying about themselves more.

Despite not knowing her that well, my heart still ached for her. I couldn't imagine how she's holding up with all that's going on in the school. I hope to God that she hasn't caught wind of what they were saying about her. I don't know how anyone would be okay if they heard these horrible things being said about them.

Having experienced what it's like to be under the scrutinizing eyes of many firsthand taught me how unnerving it could get.

No, unnerving was putting it nicely.

I didn't have a word to describe the feeling.

I was constantly on edge and always second guessed my actions, wondering if what I was doing would spark more absurd rumors about myself, worsen the situation I was already in and jeopardize my reputation even further.

I can't imagine how anyone would be okay if they were in Elizabeth Lee's shoes right now and overheard what was being said about them.

At one point, I was unbelievably close to punching a guy in the face for saying something that was just straight up degrading. I knew I wasn't her friend or just someone who knows her in general, but this all comes down to basic human decency.

Whatever she's done, it was her decisions and actions, it was her life and her business. I didn't see what right these people had to pass judgment like they're doing right now. It wasn't like all these people that were talking about her didn't have skeletons in their own closets.

I can't stand these idiots.

Perhaps having been on the receiving end of their nonstop verbal onslaught for the past few days had made me into this vengeful person who took whatever they said to heart, even if it wasn't about myself but needless to say, my opinion remains unchanged. These assholes needed to go if they don't start changing to be better people.

Morning turned into afternoon but it was as if these people have a never-ending stock of things to talk about regarding what's happening with Elizabeth Lee. It took everything in me not to scream at the top of my lungs for people to just shut the fuck up.

Wow.

Look at that.

Of course I would turn into a hulk when it comes to defending other people but shrink into a corner when the time comes for me to defend myself.

Typical dumb Em.

Our last class was gym but the teacher redirected the class to the open field where multiple balls were lined up by a straight rope that has been laid out in the middle of the field. It didn't take a genius to figure out what we were supposed to play.

"Oliver! Thea! Captains. Start choosing your teammates." The teacher instructed in a booming voice as he flipped through his charts.

I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt but sometimes I suspect that he hasn't been able to memorize any of our names. That doesn't sound like such a bad thing until you find out that he's been my cohort's teacher for the past 3 years.

I mean, I get that our school is a big one but 3 years should give you enough time to at least recognize a few faces and put names to them, right?

I heard my name getting called, causing me to snap out of my train of thoughts to look at Thea. She waved me over to her side once while Oliver called out another kid's name. As the other kid jogged to the other side of the rope, Thea calls out Alex's name, causing my heart to do a small flip at the realization that we were going to be in the same team. I clenched and unclenched my hands nervously, not understanding why my heart started doing these acrobatic tricks when Alex's name is mentioned.

I mean I've read enough books and watched enough movies to at least have a faint idea of what I'm feeling, I just didn't want to admit it to myself.

Yes, I'm in denial. Strong denial. Sue me.

Looking at Alex from a few feet away as he surveyed who was in our team and the people that haven't been picked yet, I found myself weighing the emotions I was feeling.

I felt a bit elated that I get to be in a team with him but remembering how fun it was to be in opposite teams with him back when we were closer brought a pang of disappointment.

Ball games would be so much more fun when we were in different teams because we get to go up against each other and have our own mini one-on-one battle in the middle of a game. We'd get so much shit from the rest of the team whenever that happened. Though, I couldn't really blame them.

The two captains alternated in calling out names until no one else was left standing on the sidelines.

When the teacher looked around at the people in both teams, he nodded in approval and brought the whistle to his lips before blowing, signaling the start of the game.

Look, I wasn't half bad at dodgeball when I'm having one of my lucky days. I usually have really bad aim but during the rare instances when luck would strike me like a bolt of lightning, I make a decent throw.

Fortunately for my team, today was one of my lucky days.

Halfway throughout the game, I realized something interesting.

Remember when I said that stealing brief glances at and searching for Alex's face in the crowd just became a habit I couldn't grow out of? That's my excuse as to how I even came to this realization.

Before the game even started, I had already managed to pinpoint the people that has been talking so much shit the entire day that, because of them, I felt like my ear was covered in so much shit now.

I guess that was what Alex was doing too when his eyes scanned the crowd, because I realized that every time he would get his hands on the ball, he would target the same people I'm targeting.

The genius would even purposely hide behind a teammate to avoid getting hit.

I know what you're thinking. How does that make him a genius? Technically he should just catch the ball instead of letting the ball get our teammate. But the catch was that the teammate he used as a human shield was one of the people that did some trash talking.

Like I said, genius.

As I swerved away from an incoming ball with a yelp, I caught his glinting eyes. I flashed him a knowing smirk once I successfully dodged the ball for a split second. He shared the second with me, smiling in return, realizing that someone had figured out what he was doing.

The disappointment that I felt when I thought I wouldn't get a chance to have fun playing against him in this ball game vanished right then and there. At that moment, playing dodgeball in the same team with him, I had no objections, because the thing that I missed more than playing in opposing teams was our ability to communicate almost telepathically with each other.

Having the same target, thinking of the same thing without having to say it to each other and just coordinating so well without having to discuss it before hand made me feel the connection that we used to have stronger than I have ever felt it in the past 4 years ever since we stopped being close friends. I finally felt like we were acting as the unbeatable mischievous duo again.

Oh, how I missed my best friend.

A ball came hurtling straight at me and I don't know what overcame me but my hands started acting on its own accord and caught the ball.

Oh wow, okay. Didn't know my hands could do that but okay, cool.

I pulled my arm back, ball in hand, and catapulted it. The ball went flying across the field, to the other team and hit another player.

I fist pumped the air in victory but quickly jumped out of the way as another ball came at me in retaliation.

Since Alex and I have been targeting the same group of people from the very start of the game (plus, I've also started adopting his strategy of using certain people as my human shield too), there was only one person left on the other team that I knew had been going around spreading some nasty rumors about Elizabeth.

In that split second, I made a vow to not get kicked out of the game until I hit that person. Or at least, if I was going down, I'm taking him with me.

Yes, this is my ugly vengeful side. What can I say, I can turn into a petty bitch too.

You might think that I was going overboard with what I was trying to achieve here because I wasn't "close" to Elizabeth or knew her personally. But honestly, it wasn't just Elizabeth. Having experienced being on the receiving end of the heat of people's groundless and unreasonable resentment has enlightened me in a way.

No one deserves to be subjected to that.

People shouldn't be so hateful and judgmental in the first place. It isn't their place to pass that sort of judgment. They're not Elizabeth's parents or family so as far as I was concerned, they can go fuck off somewhere and figure out how to get their heads out of their asses.

What happened in the next few seconds should have been captured on camera.

The other team threw a ball, targeting Alex, and while they were distracted with that, I snatched a ball from my teammate and flung it at the guy I had my eyes on. He was busy watching Alex because Alex, being Alex, was obviously skilled enough to catch the ball thrown at him and was already ready to get back at the other team.

The ball I had let go hit the guy with a loud thud and he yelped in surprise and, I was hoping, slight pain.

His head whipped to the side, trying to see who had hit him but I snuck behind someone else and pretended that I had nothing to do with it.

Hey, I take pride in being able to take him out but I wasn't dumb. These high schoolers are vengeful beings. They will track you down outside of this game and give you hell for whatever happened during the game.

You think you've seen petty? They'll show you the real definition of petty.

A few of the kids from our team that had been taken out started to shout at him to get off the playing field, telling him off for just standing there like an idiot and disrupting the game.

I crab walked - or skipped, whatever it was called - to Alex's side.

"Nice throw, Waterhouse." Alex complimented as he kept his eyes on the other team.

"Thanks, West. Nice strategy you developed there." I acknowledged.

I saw Alex let the end of his lips tug upwards into a cheeky smirk.

"I know. I don't remember your throw being that good, though. Must've been practicing, huh?" He pointed out.

I slapped his arm lightly. "Don't fucking jinx it. The game's not over yet."

Alex chuckled, shaking his head.

I guess some people didn't like seeing us being buddy-buddy because next thing you know, a ball was flying right towards my face.

It would have smacked me right at the face if Alex's hand hadn't shot out at the very last moment to catch it before it hits me.

I put my hand over my chest, feeling like my heart was about to jump out from the shock I got from almost getting hit right on the face.

"Rude.." I muttered under my breath.

Alex held the ball out to me and I looked up at him questioningly. "What?"

"Let's see if I've jinxed it or not." He said.

I rolled my eyes at him and took the ball from him. I tried keeping my hopes in check, knowing that the probability that I do a lame throw when I know someone's expecting me to do a good one is very very likely.

I took a good look at the other team. There were only two people left. We still have four people left on our side and we had all the balls. Two people remaining makes the target very small but if we rain them down with balls, we might get lucky and take both of them out quickly.

I sighed, not confident in my throwing skills despite being pretty lucky so far. The thought that Alex had already jinxed that luck dropped my confidence quicker than anyone can say cheese but I still made the throw nonetheless.

The second that the ball left my hand, I knew that it was going to be a shit throw. I could feel my aim being so off that I had the strong urge to just cover my eyes and not look at where the ball land.

But just as the other balls flew past the rope and targeted the two girls, they scurried in opposite directions to avoid them, not realizing that there was another ball flying towards their side of the field.

One of the girls that was running towards the left side of the field actually got hit by the round of balls that were thrown at her while the other girl that ran in the other direction actually got hit by the single ball I threw.

My jaw came unhinged and my mouth dropped open in shock.

No way.

My shit throw actually hit a target.

Wow.

I slowly turned to Alex.

"Did you see that?" I asked him, making sure that my eyes weren't making things up to cheer myself up just because I felt too depressed over my pathetic throwing skills.

Alex nodded, invalidating my worries.

That really just happened.

Alex looked just as shocked as I was but he snapped out of it quicker, bursting into a hysterical howl of laughter.

He started laughing so hard that he had started to bend over, clutching his stomach.

"Oh that's priceless. That was crazy!" He said in between laughter.

I could only nod along, watching as the girl that I had hit walk off the field and stand on the sidelines with everyone else that had been kicked out.

As Alex continued to laugh uncontrollably beside me, a smile started to grow on my face as I realized that my shit throw had actually hit someone and helped us win the game.

I guess my luck hasn't been jinxed out after all.

I looked at Alex who was still chuckling about what just happened and simply thought to myself, coming to the conclusion that today was fun.

I had fun.

Loads of fun.