Free Catalyst (The Best Days #1) by Delaina Lake

doodle-covered notebook and pen to the floor. 
    Without a second glance, she stepped over them and bolted from the classroom, slamming the door behind her.
    There was a pause in Mr. Fanning’s droning lecture.  He opened one eye and, squinting, peered around the classroom.  “Pay attention!” he barked in his trademark gruff, inappropriately loud voice, running a calloused hand through his unruly mop of snow white hair. 
    “Now where was I?” he mumbled to himself, annoyed at ha ving his concentration broken.  With that, he leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms and resumed his monotonous recollection of some guy who fought in some war at some point in history. 
    Rory had an uncomfortable notion that there just might be a war brewing at Belleview High, too.
    * * * * *
    For Grace’s sake, Rory had hoped that the disaster in second period would blow over as the day wore on.  That wasn’t the case.  The second the bell rang signalling the end of history class, the entire room was abuzz with excited whispers and snarky giggles. 
    “Why would anyone want to make out with Jeremy Beal?”  Rory overheard one of the drama freaks wondering aloud.  “That Grace chick must be desperate if she did try to make a move.” 
    “Or maybe there’s something wrong with her,” the drama freak’s gothed out friend replied.  “Maybe no one else wants her.  She’s not that ugly but maybe she has like...I don’t know, deformed boobs or bacne or something.”
    “Bacne?”
    “Yeah, it’s like acne only on your back.  I saw pictures online one time.  It’s nasty.”
    Rory sighed and shot the pair a disapproving look.  This was how rumours got started.  Pretty soon all kinds of untrue stories would be spreading through Belleview High like wildfire…of that, she was sure.  She knew how it worked.  After all, she’d been responsible for starting a rumour or two of her own in the past. 
    The first time had been unintentional.  She and her friends had been speculating as to where the algebra teacher went every day when he slipped out of class.  Rory, ever the hopeless romantic, had suggested that maybe he was sneaking away to call his girlfriend.  Maybe he couldn’t get through the day without hearing her voice, Rory had reasoned.  That would be kind of sweet, actually. 
    But somehow her innocent suggestion had turned into a rumour that the algebra teacher abandoned his class, locked himself in the janitor’s closet and called phone sex lines on a daily basis.  Rory still felt a twinge of guilt when she remembered that she had, in a roundabout way, been partially responsible for the creation of such a scandalous rumour. 
    The second time Rory had spread a rumour hadn’t been an accident.  Shortly after she’d started high school, it seemed she’d caught the eye of one of the seniors, Matt Pike.  He’d asked her out, but, apprehensive, Rory had turned him down.  It hadn’t helped that he’d stared at her chest for the duration of their conversation. 
    Rory had wanted to demand to know who he was aski ng out - her or her boobs.  But since he was older and semi-popular, she hadn’t dared.  Instead, she’d made some lame excuse about not wanting to date anyone right then. 
    He hadn’t taken it well.  In fact, he’d started harassing her after that.  Every time he saw her in the hallway he’d make vulgar gestures or yell demeaning things.  It was as close to being bullied as Rory had ever come and she didn’t like the way it felt one bit.  So, Rory had started a rumour that he had a micropenis.  It had spread like wildfire. 
    Mike had left her alone after that.  Truth be told, the claim was what had propelled Rory to popularity.  It turned out that Hilary had dated him briefly and, after things had gone sour, she wanted nothing more than to see him humiliated in front of the entire school. 
    That was one rumour Rory didn’t regret starting.
    “Rory!”  Monica grabbed her arm