I heard a rumor
Rumors spread like wildfire, so quick to devour everything in its path. The worst part was that people were so bored with their lives that they were all to happy to perpetuate it. Nico knew this better than anyone and at the age of sixteen he was not surprised when it was his name traveling from mouth to mouth. His parents had died in a car accident that left him battered and broken. His body was bad, but his spirit was worse. In a frozen ditch, he held his eleven year old sister with a dislocated shoulder, a broken leg, and no more time to help his parents before the car was engulfed in flames.
Six weeks was how long it took for his leg to heal, though it would never be the same. Six short weeks until he was walking back into school. All the faces were familiar, but none of them looked like the friends he left before winter break. By lunch, his childhood friend Sevastyan was tossing his lunch down on the table beside him. "Nicky, glad you're back buddy. I head a few really crazy stories going around." The oddly large Russian boy was speaking louder than necessary, clearly the message was for all the people sitting around him and not for Nico himself. Sev was the only person that had been by Nico's side practically through his entire recovery. "I even heard a rumor that you're bouncing from home to home because you keep starting fires." Just barely, but Nico was able to stop himself from cringing, the vision of his parents' car in flames flashing in his mind. Looking over at Sev, Nico knew he had a decision to make.
Two options, two choices that would color the rest of his high school career. In the end he tried to remember the values his parents had taught him but with an adolescent flare. The grin that spread across Nico's face was soon followed by a matching image on Sev's face. "Technically, I didn't start the fires…" He let that linger in the air as some of the closer students turned back to their respective group of friends. High school was just one big game of telephone. By the days end, he knew that the story would probably change in ways he could have never imagined. He wouldn't be here long and at the end of the day, what these people thought of or about him meant very little. Life had a way of balancing and he didn't want to tip his scale with anger.
