Rumours

Audrey Cooper was her name. Audrey Rebecca Louise Cooper to be exact. Only, Audrey hated her middle names with a passion, so she dropped them. No one called her by them, and she never revealed them to anyone, it just didn't sound like her. Audrey Rebecca Louise Cooper was too much of a mouthful, by taking away the middle names, her name sounded sharper. It was snappy and sliced through the air like a freshly sharpened knife. Just the way she liked it.

She strutted through the school corridors, proudly wearing her 'I don't give a fuck what you think' attitude. It was her trademark, along with big bouncy blonde curls and striking blue eyes. Her two inch heels clicked against the hard floor with each confident step she took. She flicked her hair and glanced over her shoulder at the younger boys she passed, all of them melting under her gaze, feeling the beginning of an erection over the beautiful senior girl who gave them 'the look'.

Audrey didn't care for them. They were just her play things. Her puppets. She wrapped them around her little finger, letting them do whatever they liked for her, before cutting the strings and ending the 'friendship' at the drop of a hat. Audrey was well known for her cut throat behaviour. She whizzed through friendship groups like a Tasmanian devil, and although she often thought she was better off alone, she got her kicks from playing with other people, toying with their emotions and manipulating them, molding them into what she wanted. Every student in the school was a Barbie doll, ready for Audrey to play pretend with, making them act the way she desired.

She was on the prowl for her next victim, as she walked through the halls on the first day of senior year.

And before she knew it, she had found them. A sly smirk crossed her gloss coated lips and she narrowed her eyes, flicking her hair behind her as she began the walk towards her form room, the cogs spinning inside her twisted mind, ready for plans to form so she could start setting them in motion.

-

Standing in the busy halls, Cass leaned against the locker besides Ashton's, where her friend had her head buried inside the metal box, desperately trying to find the books she left to rot over the summer.

"You know, you could help a little," Ashton's voice was muffled, as she pulled more loose papers out of her locker, leaving them to fall gently towards the grey linoleum below them.

"There's not room in there for both of us," Cass stated, inspecting her nails. She glanced up at the sound of two inch heels clicking against the floor, a dark look crossing her otherwise pretty features as she spotted the person she really wasn't expecting to see today. She scoffed to herself and folded her arms across her chest, choosing to look away from Audrey Cooper as she strutted past, she had enough of an audience anyway, as the younger kids gawked at her, the first years wondering who this mysterious blonde beauty could be. Little did they know she could ruin their lives in minutes. Cass scoffed again.

Ashton removed her head from the confines of her dark locker and looked at Cass expectantly. "What's up with you now?"

"Audrey Cooper's back this year," Cass wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"Oh, is that it? I thought something terrible had happened."

Audrey swept past the pair, throwing a mega watt smile over her shoulder. Cass visibly shuddered. "I feel unclean now."

Ashton chuckled. "I guess she's changed, and she's trying to be nice to everyone this year."

"Until she finds some unsuspecting young girl to manipulate, bully and destroy."

"Ah, yeah, but that isn't going to be us now, is it? I mean, she usually preys on the first years, right?"

Cass nodded, looking around at other students milling around. Every single person looked refreshed and happy, ready for another year at school, prepared to welcome stress with open arms, none of them burdened with any worries just yet.

"Cass, you're in the way."

She turned to see Alex Gaskarth grinning at her. She moved aside slightly, allowing him access to his locker, which was situated beside Ashton's. The latter still had her head inside her own locker, as she rifled through all the rubbish that had been left and forgotten about over the summer.

"Ash, are you okay?" Alex asked, opening the door to his own locker and dumping a thick pile of text books inside it.

Ashton emerged and scowled at him. "No, I'm not," her voice came out snappy, and somewhat stressed already.

"Ashton, baby, get your pretty head out of your locker and let me kiss you!" It was almost as if Jack Barakat appeared from no where. He was an expert at creeping up on people, especially his number one love interest. He slipped his arms around Ashton's slim waist and gently pulled her backwards.

Cass rolled her eyes and Alex chuckled at her. "Jack, you can deal with her, Ash, I'm going to history, I'll see you later."

"Bye," Ashton called, before allowing Jack to attack her lips with his own.

Cass turned and began walking in the direction of her history class, Alex falling into step beside her. He started rambling about something that had happened the previous weekend, but Cass chose to tune out and ignore him. It wasn't that she found Alex boring, he was anything but. She just felt preoccupied. Something in the air was different. She knew this year was going to be a roller coaster ride, of course it would, it was their final year, everyone was going to go off and do their own thing at the end of it all, but as she expected twists and turns she didn't expect the upside down loop that was just on the horizon.

Something bad was about to happen, and it was going to turn her world upside down.