Leon POV – One Hour Later
The bell rang.
I stepped out of class like a condemned man tasting his last breath of freedom.
I swear the air had changed. Heavier. Sweatier. Judgier.
Then I heard it.
"Did you hear what he did?"
"Yeah, MJ caught him in the locker room with Gwen and Felicia."
"That's not even it. Liz says he was naked!"
"I heard he had Gwen pinned to a bench and Felicia was filming it!"
"No no no, Felicia was joining in. There's a whole video, but the school took it down!"
I froze in the hallway, my soul leaving my body. My ears ringing.
Then more voices swirled:
"He's like... dating all of them."
"Power move."
"Bro must be packing a death wish."
"Or a third leg."
"Dude's running a harem!"
"Is he blackmailing them? Hypnosis? Pheromones???"
Somewhere down the hall I heard:
"He's a sex wizard!"
"A what???"
"A sex wizard! Like he casts spells that make girls lose their minds! My cousin goes here and she said he made her start panting during chemistry!"
"I heard he turned invisible, walked into the girls' showers, and blessed them."
"Blessed them? That's not a real thing!"
"Why else would Gwen be blushing this much in class? Huh?!"
I stumbled through the hallway like a walking corpse, desperate to find the nearest hole to crawl into and die.
Then someone shouted—
"There he is! THE LION!"
Heads snapped toward me. Phones came out. A few students started clapping.
Clapping.
"What are you people clapping for?!"
A jock clapped me on the shoulder like I'd just returned from war. "Respect, man. Triple threat in the locker room? MJ, Gwen, Felicia? You're a legend."
"I—I was hiding! From MJ!"
"Even hotter!" someone yelled.
"I didn't do anything!"
"Oh, he's humble too," a freshman girl whispered, swooning.
My hands went to my face. "Please. Make it stop. This isn't me! I'm a loser! I'm invisible! I don't even—!"
Then the school's intercom crackled.
"Leon… Lion… whatever your name is. Report to the principal's office. Immediately."
A collective "Oooooooooooh" rippled across the crowd.
One guy whispered, "He's getting expelled for too much rizz."
I turned to walk away, and the crowd parted like I was Moses on a womanizing streak.
A kid tried to high-five me. Another handed me a napkin with her number. Teachers avoided eye contact.
I dragged myself toward the principal's office like a man heading toward his own televised execution.
Rumors were now officially radioactive. I'm famous in the worse way possible.
Not the way I expected my day to go when I woke up.
God help me.
....
INT. PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE – MOMENTS LATER
The door shut behind me with the quiet click of doom.
Principal Merton sat behind her desk like a woman who had seen things—deep things—things that required therapy and a shot of whiskey by 12 p.m.
She didn't even look up. She was just... sitting there. Hands steepled. Eyes closed. Breathing like she was counting to ten. Or fifty. Or a hundred-thousand.
I cleared my throat. "Uhm. Hi."
Nothing.
I tried again. "So… about those rumors—"
Her eyes snapped open.
"Leon."
"Yes, ma'am." My body stood still like a stuffed turkey on an Easter Sunday.
"Sit."
I sat robotically.
She slid a Manila folder across the desk. I opened it—inside were printouts. Screenshots. Memes. A few fan edits of me shirtless with devil horns photoshopped on my head.
Shit
One said: "THE LION'S DEN: Three Enter, None Survive."
Another read: "Leon 'Triple Threat' Williams: MJ, Gwen, Felicia. Godspeed, King."
There was even a crude school map someone annotated with "rumored conquest locations."
"I... I can explain," I choked.
She held up a hand.
"Leon. In the last 43 minutes, I have received eleven emails from parents. Six from teachers. And one from someone claiming to be Gwen Stacy's lawyer. You are a child, Leon. A child. And yet somehow, you've turned this school into a Hormonal Hunger Games."
"It's not true! I'm innocent!"
She tilted her head. "You broke into the girls' bathroom."
"I was thrown!"
"You were caught with Mary Jane Watson's panties on your face."
Oh! She's good.
"I was unconscious!"
She stared. "You're saying you accidentally headbutted your way into the stall of the most dangerous redhead on the Eastern Seaboard... and lived."
"Barely!"
"And then—while still recovering—you allegedly seduced Gwen Stacy in the gym, gave Felicia Hardy a hickey in chemistry, and invited Liz Allan to a 'Lion's Den' meetup in the band room."
"I don't even know where the band room is!"
She sighed. "Leon, do you know what this school was before you?"
"Underfunded and deeply traumatizing?"
"It was boring. We were boring, Leon. And now I have to give a press statement about a freshman sex cult before third period."
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Then said, "So... detention?"
"No. You're going to fix this."
"Ehh...?"
"You are going to go out there and publicly deny every single rumor. And you're going to do it without somehow making yourself look more guilty. You are going to be boring, Leon."
"That's literally the opposite of who I am."
"I am aware." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I swear, if this escalates into a TikTok dance trend I'm going to have a stroke."
"Wait, there's a dance?"
She slid me a printout: "#LionShuffleChallenge" trending locally.
I let out a slow, broken sigh. What the fuck!? Lion!? At least get the name correct.
"I'll... do the speech."
She leaned back and gave me a look that could curdle milk.
"Good. Because if one more girl faints in the hallway because of you, I'm calling your parents and letting them explain why their son is being worshiped like a teen god of lust and chaos."
"...My dad thinks it's funny."
"I hate your father."
To Be Continued...
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