Fall really was the prettiest time of the year. The leaves started to fall off and crumble, leaving the branches bare.

Emma, Kyle and I walked down the street towards Amelia's house. Kyle hung behind us, staring off at nothing.

'Okay, but seriously, think about it. Raven and Everett get together in the house after she gets scared of something!" Emma started explaining to me.

"Em, as much as I love a good romance, my story is about a murder. Two teenagers cannot get together in a haunted house." I tell her. She rolls her eyes at me.

"Whatever, but you know that your stories always end up with the two male and females falling in love. It's just your thing. Race you to Amelia's!" She yells the last part and sprints to our friend's house.

I turn and look at Kyle. His blonde hair is wild and bounces with every step he takes. My hair is a tangled mess most of the time, which is why it always lay atop my head in a bun.

"Earth to Andre? Emma is basically screaming at you from down there." Kyle says, suddenly much closer than before. I can see the blue of his eyes clearly and the boyish grin he wears. I blush and step back a little. I must look tiny next to him. I'm 5'2 and he's 5'11 already.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Let's go." I spin around and run down the block towards where Emma stands. She starts running again and I catch up pretty quickly. She stops is amazement of how quick I got there and walks right into a wall.

I just stand there and stare at her for a couple seconds before bursting out laughing. She rubs her head and holds a face of disappointment. Before we can take off again, Kyle comes running down the block.

"Oh hell no! I will not lose to the dandelion crayon!" Em yells and takes off after him. I shake my head at both of them before following.

We stop at a red brick house and I run to the doorbell. The door swings open in a record time of one point two seconds and Amelia runs out.

"Hi!" She yells and hugs me tightly, before moving on to Kyle and Emma.

"How are Jaime, Alex and Ange getting to school?" Emma asked once Amelia let her go. She shrugged.

"Probably Jaime's grandma or parents. They take them everywhere." She guessed.

"Cool."

We start walking again, but this time Amelia is screaming at anything she can on the way. A new chapter for me to publish? Scream. New shoes? Scream. New blood? Scream.

I guessed she was still hyper from over summer break, but I was secretly hoping that she was excited to see a certain someone.

Since last year, Amelia and our other friend J.J have been flirting. Not even just kidding, like hardcore and not very subtle. The constant remarks were cute last year, but now I'm scared that they're all I'll hear.

So yeah, they're basically in love.

We got to the school gates and were about to enter the courtyard when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

"Andrea!" I roll my eyes at the high pitched whine that comes from her mouth.

"What do you want Natalie?" I say while Emma, Amelia, and Kyle just stand there and roll their eyes. Ever since freshman year, Natalie had a thing against us. I don't even remember how it started, but she showed up one day and started plotting against us.

She was wearing a plaid skirt and a light blue top, also referred to as our nonexistent school uniform. She insisted that it had once been in the public school's rules but no one else but her, Kayla and Gianna actually wore them.

"May I talk to you and Emma about something I heard yesterday?" She asks in a sweet tone. Too sweet.

I can see Kayla and Gianna sarcastically waving their hands, telling me to say no. I never trusted them and could see the lies in their eyes.

Why would I want to talk to Natalie?

"Um, maybe later? School starts real soon." I say turning around and heading towards the building. The excuse was genius and would have worked if it wasn't almost twenty-minutes till first period.

"Well then, I guess I'll just tell everyone about the little talk you and Emma had yesterday. I'm sure they're all interested in what I have to say, especially Kyle..."

Emma and I turn and look at each other.

What could she mean? We only talked about musicals, my book and then we said-

Oh.

"You little-"I start but get cut off by Kyle.

"Andre, what did she mean?" He says to me with a confused look.

"Nothing! Just a little private talk Emma and I had. Girl wants to share my whole private life." I quickly say.

He glares at me and walks in front of Natalie, who grins at me.

"Kyle, what are you doing? You really won't care. It was about lady stuff. Like makeup and monthly cycles you wo-"

"What did she say? If it was a talk than surely I can hear." He asks Natalie, facing her completely and ignoring my rambling.

"Anything for you cutie." She said, twirling her hair with her finger. Wonderful, now she's hitting on my friend.

I was just about ready to strangle this girl. I think anybody would strangle her, any time, any day, anywhere. It is quite possible that Captain America would strangle her.

"She said she didn't like any of you boys, that you were dogs. Pretty rude to say that about your so-called best friend, right Kyle?" Natalie said while looking at me, smiling stupidly.

I freeze.

"That's not what I said! I said I didn't like any of the boys!" I tell the brunette and she just stares at me. I quickly realize that sounds worse.

Kyle turns to look at me and I try not to make eye contact. I know that what he thinks is not what I meant, but that doesn't change his face of disappointment or how guilty I feel.

"Poor Kyle. Maybe you should just head to class, or wait by my locker." Natalie tells him and I finally make eye contact.

He just shakes his head and sneers at her before storming off towards our school. I go to take off after him but I hear Natalie snicker behind me.

I turn around and look her dead in the eyes. Then, I shove right into her friends. She gasps as she steps in a mud puddle. I feel Emma and Amelia start to pull me back, even though I wanted to push her into even worse places.

Preferably a volcano.

When, I'm free of my friends' grasp, I see Gianna taking a video of everything.

Even the part where I shoved Natalie.

What do they even have against me? I can't remember ever doing anything to them.

"Ugh. Listen, this is blackmail, and you must do what I say, or else I show the video to everybody you know. Including your mother and father." Natalie says, with an angry face.

"Now, you will-" She starts.

"No," I say. "I refuse to listen to you. Plus, you only have one thing on video. Who is going to believe you?"

"Oh well, about to post to Facebook so everyone can see who you really are..." She says smirking, looking to her phone. In what I recall as the most moment of my life, I reach over and slam her phone into the ground, popping off the back cover. She lunges for it but trips into the mud piles.

"Oops." I smirk at her. Looking down at the smashed phone, I spot the memory chip. I grab it and shove it into my pocket before anyone can notice. Gianna is covered in mud while Kayla is frantically trying to wipe some of it off with baby wipes. I can hear Emma laughing in the corner and turn to find Amelia recording everything.

I let out a small giggle. Natalie lets out a small scream of frustration.

"What did I even do to you?" I ask, still giggling.

"It doesn't matter what you did anymore. The only thing that matters is if Kyle told anyone about what I said." She exclaims, voice still angry.

I stop laughing and look down in defeat. I still have a relationship to fix and a rumor to stop. Groaning, I turn and grab the backpack that had come off my shoulders at some point.

"See you later Nat." Emma says, annoyance audible in her tone. We head into the courtyard and walk to the building.

The rumor couldn't have spread that fast, could it?