My, oh, my, doing what I always do
Yeah, I'm crossing every line to get to boys like you

"Did you hear about Katherine Solace?"

"Of course! You know, I heard she already slept with two of the Playboys.

"What? Hasn't she slept with them all? I mean, she's so slutty lately."

"I heard she did it with Ivan in the mall. The mall!"

I didn't even need to guess who started these rumors. Natalya had sources everywhere, so I was sure she knew about me hanging around the boys. I was sure she wasn't happy about that, she loved having the attention only on her after all. I felt like Emma Stone in Easy A as I walked through the hallway to my locker. I heard whispers about me being a slut and others about why the hell I was forcing myself on the boys for the whole day. And most of the rumors and gossip were ridiculous. One actually stated that I was a hired, high-paid prostitute that the boys had to share, causing me to be pregnant with all of their babies. Apparently, to the student body, this was a logical reason as to why I was hanging out with all of them at the same time.

Nancy literally asked me the whole thing with a whole bunch of 'like,' making my want to scratch my eyeballs out.

The Playboys' goons, some other athletes and their friends, came up to me and asked if I was free for them. If it wasn't for Jade holding Zoe and I back for a pervert who slapped my ass, I would have been in more trouble than I ever was before. Some girls tried to befriend me, but it was obvious that they were transparent as hell whenever they asked about one of the boys.

Needless to say, playing with the boys was tiring. Not only did I have to bond with them one by one, I also had to deal with the hate and the gossip.

But somehow, I was thrilled with all the action. It was quite entertaining, hearing the absurd rumors about me. It made me wonder why some fellow students would waste their times coming up with the stupidest things and not use their brains for something more useful like, I don't know, a cure for cancer?

Thank God it was the end of school and I didn't have to listen to any of those bullshit anymore.

"Hey, slut!" Zoe jokingly called me, making me roll my eyes at her. Jade was trailing behind her, an amused look on her face.

"Yes, how may I help you?" I answered sarcastically. "Are you gonna schedule for tonight? Sorry, but no slots are available. Maybe tomorrow, by seven p.m.?"

Zoe pouted. "But I really want you tonight. Can't you make some adjustments for me?"

I pretended to calculate in my head. "I suppose I can cram you in."

She threw her arms around me. "Oh, I love you!"

We both burst into laughter after that, causing Jade to shake her head at us.

"You guys are weird," she stated with a smile on her face. "But really, Kath, how are you holding up? With all the rumors spreading around."

Leave it to Jade to be sweet and really ask how I was. "I'm actually okay. It doesn't bother me at all. It actually does the opposite, it amuses me."

She stared at me weirdly. "You're really something else. If I were you, I wouldn't want to go to school."

"The rumors are funny." I shrugged.

Jade snapped her fingers, remembering something. "I heard one that you were a witch and you dumped love potions in their meals that made the boys hangout with you so willingly."

Zoe nodded her head frantically. "And one said that you kidnapped all four of them, tied them to the bed, made them promise that they'll hangout with you so that you'll let them go after you uh—" she glanced at Jade warily. "do unspeakable stuff to them."

"What unspeakable stuff?" Jade asked innocently as I wrinkled my nose in disgust.

Where the hell did they even get those ideas?

"You don't need to know," I said, patting her head. "Zoe's just really messed up."

She raised her hands up in surrender. "Hey, I didn't make the rumors."

Jade huffed, "You guys never tell me anything."

"Aw, that's because you're too pure to know these kind of things." Zoe cooed while Jade continued to pout at us.

It was true. She was too pure for this world while Zoe and I were heavily tainted. Jade could barely say the male's genitals out loud while Zoe constantly pretended to do the motion where her hand was curled into a fist with a hole in the middle as she repeatedly thrusts it in and out of her mouth.

Yeah, you get the picture.

Zoe was doing the motion-that-shall-not-be-named when Ryder Rowland walked up to our little squad. He raised an eyebrow at Zoe as she quickly put her hand down. She muttered something I didn't quite understand and left with Jade smiling awkwardly, following after her.

"Yes?" I questioned impatiently.

When I didn't get an answer, I trailed after what he was so busy looking at to see he was still looking at my friends walk away. I snapped my fingers in front of his face, shaking him out of his thoughts.

"What are you thinking?" I inquired, tilting my head. I was sure he was looking at Zoe because he had nothing to do with Jade—the two never spoke to each other.

I was curious to see if he was thinking about my best friend, if he actually cared about her before playing with her feelings.

He covered everything up with a smirk. "Nothing," he said as he leaned against the wall. "Just never realized that the nerd had ass."

I stomped on his foot.

"Ow! What the f—"

"Never," I growled to his face after I grabbed onto his collar and put his face at the same level as mine, "talk about my friend that way. You have no right to speak about her like that, let alone look at her. You got me?"

His annoying beautiful brown eyes stared at me for a while, wide open, before letting out a whistle.

"Woah, sweetheart. I know I should've been intimidated by you or something, but I am really turned on." Ryder breathed out, making me let go of him and stand further away.

I threw my hands up. "This is no use."

"Aw, come on, sweetheart."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What, it's sweetheart now? What happened to kitten?"

He shrugged. "I realized it was actually kind of cringey. And besides, sweetheart's more endearing, don't you think?"

I stared at him for a while before breaking into an amused smile. "Whatever, I'm not even gonna argue anymore."

He chuckled at me before stepping closer, squinting at something on my head.

"What?" I asked, stepping away from him.

Ryder ruffled my hair. "You have glitter on your hair."

After my late night rendezvous with Zachary, I took dozens of baths because his stupid self decided to shower me with glitter. It was really hard to take them off, and it has already been a long time since the and I still had glitter. I hadn't talked to him about what happened after that night though, if Aurora really did tell his father and etc. We saw each other a while ago though, and I briefly laughed at the glitter left in his hair. Little did I know I had some myself too.

"Oh right," I said, fixing my hair when he was finished. "Thank you, I guess?"

"No problem."

I had swimming practice and detention was cancelled since there were no teachers available to watch over us, so I started to walk away from him. He started to follow me though, and I finally stopped when we were in front of the girls' locker room.

"Are you following me?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "Get your head out of your sweet little ass, sweetheart. In case you have forgotten, I'm a basketball athlete, and I have training, just like you do. The guys' locker room is right beside the girls' but if you'd skip training for me, then I'll be much happier to skip mine too."

"Oh, shut up!" I stammered, heat rushing up to my cheeks.

With one last obnoxious laugh, he went into the guys' locker room, leaving me standing there looking dumbfounded.

*~*~*~*~*

I hated land training.

Once in a week, Coach doesn't let us swim. Instead, he would train us on land and would give us work-outs that made me want to call Death and beg him to take me.

I better have abs by now or else.

I was waving goodbye to my teammates before realizing that I forgot my phone in my locker. I groaned before walking—well, lazily dragging my feet to my locker.

That was when I heard the faint sound of someone singing and playing the piano.

"Why don't we rewrite the stars..."

I immediately perked up and followed the sound just like how Dorothy followed the yellow bricked road, and ended up in front of the Music room. Since the door was slightly ajar, I peeked at the inside of the room.

I wasn't really surprised to see Ivan Miller there, but imagine my surprise when he suddenly burst into Zendaya's part of the song.

"You think it's easy," he sang in a much higher voice than normal. "You think I don't wanna run to you..."

I wanted to burst out of laughter, but fortunately, I was able to stifle it. I continued to watch him as he changes in Zac Efron then Zendaya to Zac Efron, and it went on and on.

When I couldn't take it anymore, I jumped in to the chorus with him.

"Why don't we rewrite the stars?" I sang with him, a smirk on my lips as I twirled in front of him and his piano.

A rush of blood flooded his ears as his jaw dropped in surprising, the next lyrics stuck inside his mouth. He shook it off once I waved his embarrassment off and urged him to continue singing.

"Say you were made to be mine," we sang as I sat on top of his piano like the people in movies, especially musicals.

We continued to sing like idiots, laughing at some parts and making faces at each other. Sometimes, we even swapped roles. I made my voice deeper in exaggeration while he made his higher. In the end, we applauded ourselves, guffawing at our small performance.

"How much did you see?" he asked once we were sobered up.

"Pretty much everything. Love the girly voice, bro." I teased, making him shake his head at me.

"Why, thank you," he bowed sarcastically. "But really, I just needed a break and I had no girl to sing with."

I chuckled at him. "Sure, Ivan. Sure."

"Anyway, what are you still doing here?" he inquired, changing the subject.

"Training," I answered exhaustedly, my body suddenly remembering the pain it endured a while ago. "What about you?"

"I was writing a new song fo the band. I can't really write a song at home since my siblings are too loud, so I'm here." Ivan explained, playing random keys on the piano. "Speaking of which, why don't you watch my band play next week?"

"Sure," I agreed. "Just text me the details, I'll be there."

I never watched any of their small concerts, but I heard they were good. Zoe was a secret fan of theirs; she was really fond of their music but was too shy to admit it. She would invite me to some of their gigs, but I was always too busy with training. The only thing I knew about them was that they were a trio and that Ivan was the lead singer. Their band called Until Dark was pretty popular in our area.

Yeah, I didn't really like the name either. They sounded like a male prostitute office.

We talked for a while, mostly about the details, before saying goodbye. At first he told me to stay for a while and give him inspiration, but I told him my dad was waiting for me. Truthfully, my dad didn't care and I was just hungry.

I grabbed my phone from my locker and checked it to see that Karl sent me a message an hour ago.

warning: the nerd squad is here.

I sighed deeply. Karl had a lot of friend groups, but the nerd squad was the worst. They would always ask me dumb questions like if they could go on a date with me.

I had nothing against women who like their men young, unless the said man was too young, but younger men were really not my type.

And I had no problem telling them all about high school, but they would literally whisper among theirselves and called me hot every time I finished a sentence. Ever since meeting them, I'd tell Karl to warn me if they were over, and I wouldn't come home to avoid them.

I walked over to the parking lot to see that it was raining heavily. I didn't have an umbrella with me, so I leaned against the wall and scrolled through my phone, just waiting for the rain to lessen.

"So, you too, huh."

I jumped in surprise, whirling around and ready to attack, to see it was just Ryder. I sighed in relief before glaring at him, as he was busy laughing at me.

"I'm gonna get you back, you ass." I promised witheringly.

"Sweetheart, I'd like to see you try." Ryder smirked, running a hand through his fluffy blonde hair.

"Oh, I will," I vowed. "And I'll succeed."

He rolled his eyes at me. "Did you bring your car with you or are you waiting for an Uber?"

"I brought my car, but it's raining so I'm just waiting for it to die down. Why?"

"I didn't bring mine," he said nonchalantly. "I'll ride with you."

"In what part of our conversation did I say yes?" I scoffed.

"Everyone says yes to me," he boasted.

I realized that the rain wasn't pouring as hard as it was, so I ran to my car, leaving him behind.

Or so I thought.

"Sweetheart!" he called as he pounded on my window. I got in before him, and I made sure to lock the car doors. I really would've allowed him to ride with me, but since he got too full of himself, I got annoyed.

I stuck my tongue out at him as I started the engine. His hair was already flat on his forehead, and he was drenched from head to toe. After playing with him for a few minutes, I finally decided to unlock the door.

"You're a bitch," he grumbled as he got it, throwing his sports bag at the bag.

"So I've been told," I winked before stepping on the gas.

Ryder being an annoying ass he was, started to shake off the water like a dog. Water fell on everything, including me.

"Ryder!" I hissed, slapping him on his arm. "You're getting my car wet!"

"It's your fault for leaving me out in the rain," he snickered, shaking his mop of blonde hair at my direction.

"Stop it, Rowland." I demanded, glancing at him to shoot him a glare.

He laughed at me. "Okay, fine. Your wish is my command, sweetheart."

Since Ryder didn't have to tell me where his house was due to the numerous occasions I've been there from his parties, the car ride was silent. When we arrived at his huge mansion, I unlocked the doors, but he didn't step out.

"I don't wanna go home," he admitted when I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Why?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows at him. He was looking down on his lap, a forlorn look on his face. It was weird seeing him like this—he was usually wearing a proud smirk on his face.

"I don't tell anyone this, so I don't know why I'm telling you," he sighed, glancing at me with his warm, hazel eyes. "It feels lonely at home. My parents are never home, and I have no siblings. I don't really have anyone else to talk to."

I felt sorry for him, I really did. But I have heard this story a thousand times from almost all the girls he played with, including Zoe. It was how he'd lure his women in his house because of course, he'd want company. When he finally got the girl alone with him, in his house, he'd make-out with them or I don't know, I never really asked the girls what happened next.

"Ryder," I began, lifting up his face gently with my hand so that he would look at me. "I'm not dumb. I know you tell this to all the girls you 'date.'"

Gone was the sad look in his face. He scowled, "Damn it, I thought you'd finally show some feelings after that line."

I burst out laughing. He looked so defeated, it was actually funny. He kept shooting daggers at me for ruining his move, but I kept laughing.

"Whatever, sweetheart. I'm leaving," he said when I wouldn't stop laughing, opening the door.

"Wait!" I exclaimed, trying to calm myself from laughing. "Okay, okay, I'm done. Close that door."

He furrowed his eyebrows at that, but he closed the door.

Even though I knew that was a trick for the ladies to feel sorry for him, I knew that deep down, it had some truth in it.

"To be honest, I don't want to go home too," I confessed. "So I suppose we can hang for a bit."

He smirked. "That's what I'm talking about—"

"No, we are not staying at your house." I proclaimed, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Well, I'm happy to stay in your car and have car se—"

"Don't even finish that sentence!" I interrupted loudly. "You dirty bastard."

"It was opportunity, I just grabbed it," he chuckled. "So where are we going, sweetheart?"

I didn't answer him and started driving. It was just a couple of blocks away from his house.

"Why are we at the playground?" he asked when I stopped the car.

"Why not?" I retorted before taking my slippers off and stepping outside, the rain immediately falling on my skin. I smiled as I ran to the playground with my arms open wide, just feeling the rain and the cold breeze.

"Sweetheart, you are crazy!" I heard Ryder yell from behind me, the sound of his footsteps running after reminding me of my childhood.

The last time I went out and played in the rain was when I was younger—with Brett. We used to love playing in the rain, even when our parents always told us not to. We didn't care though, because there was just something magical playing in the rain. We would play role play, where Brett would always make me the hero and I always had to save him from the evil pirates, race with our paper boats, and sometimes, just run around and splash each other with puddles.

"Are you—are you crying?" Ryder asked, bending down to my level to study my face.

"What? No, that's just the rain," I sniffed, wiping my face. "Come on, that slide is calling for our butts!"

The concerned look on his face vanished. "You know who else is calling for your butt?" he said suggestively as he waggled his eyebrows.

I shoved him playfully. "Race you to the slide!"

The big, red slide was right in the middle of the playground. It was larger than any other slides in regular playground, and much wider. I could hear Ryder catching up behind me, so I ran faster, climbing up the nets that connected to the slide as fast as my noodle arms could take me.

I was already sat on the top of the slide when I felt Ryder's legs around me. "Got you," he whispered in my ear, making me feel shiver. He pushed himself down, taking me down with him. We let out a loud holler as we slid down, our arms above our heads.

I looked at him when we reached the bottom and was shocked of how close we actually were. I could see golden flecks in his brown eyes, his blonde hair that I just wanted to fix, and his red cheeks from the cold rain. His eyes were fixated on my lips, but as he leaned in, I stood up and ran away, sticking my tongue out at him.

He simply shook his head at me with a smile before running after me. I sat on the swing and looked back, urging Ryder to push me.

"I'm not gonna push you," he said with finality.

"Please?" I pouted.

He looked at me for a few seconds before sighing in defeat. I smiled giddily as he started to push me, and squealed when it went so high. I closed my eyes as I felt the rain drip to my bare face, and I couldn't help but feel like it was washing my