Wandering Fireflies

Chapter 27: Castles Crumbling

Song: Unsteady by X Ambassadors

"Hey Zaavan, is something wrong? You seem really out of it today." I stopped in my tracks and slowly turned around. Why the hell is everyone asking me that like it matters?!

I glared at Ahmed.

You won't understand. Don't even bother asking because you don't know what you're getting yourself into. You'll run the second I say I feel.

I tried hard not to snap at Ahmed. It wasn't his fault, he's just being a good friend.

"It's nothing. I'm fine."

"Is everything okay with Vance? You guys always walk to school together..."

"I don't want to talk about it," I deadpanned, as I started to spin the lock on my locker door.

"Are you sure? Because sometimes, talking about your problems-"

"Just drop it okay?! I said I'm-" but I didn't get to finish my sentence because the minute I pulled open my locker door, a bucket which was placed in my locker emptied its contents onto me. I looked down.

Pads and tampons.

The sound of laughter filled my ears as I tried to register what had just happened.

"Well, how funny is this? The captain of the boys soccer team is actually a girl!" laughed Kolton. My stomach twisted into knots and the atmosphere thickened so much I could barely breathe. This couldn't be happening right now.

"That's not true," I said my voice shaking.

"Oh really? That's not what our inside source says," smirked Lydia.

"What is he, trans or something?" teased Kolton.

"Well according to this website, intersex, whatever the hell that means."

"Wha- what are you talking about?" I stuttered.

"Someone sent Kolton this link to a website about you. I feel that it's important that the whole school knows the truth about their soccer captain, the one who is supposed to be representing our school. Don't you?"

"Lydia, please don't do this. Just tell us what you want. And please, think about the consequences of what you're doing," pleaded Ahmed.

"Hmmm...then drop out of the race for school president," she demanded. I should've told him no, but I couldn't. I felt like I was paralyzed.

"Then I will drop out. Will that stop you from sending the link?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes," she smirked.

"But it won't stop me," said Kolton as he hit the send button on his phone, sending the link to the website to the whole school.

It then struck me that someone actually took the time to create a hate website about me.

"Hey AM, you've got 5 minutes before the beginning of class," came Dashiell's voice over the intercom, interrupting the song that was playing.

« Bonjour AM. Vous n'avez que cinq minutes avant le début de classe, » followed Katja in her flawless French. As our warning song (the theme song from Pirates of the Caribbean) started to play, everyone scurried to their first period classes. Thankfully, so did Kolton and Lydia.

"Ahmed, being school president is your dream. Don't throw it away like that for me," I choked, my voice filled with emotion. I couldn't believe he'd actually do that for me.

Ahmed shook his head. "I will do what's right, Zaavan. What they did was wrong and if dropping out of the elections would've stopped it, then I would make that same choice every time. Besides, you're my friend, I couldn't bear to just stand there and do nothing while they hurt you."