"It's not true, nobody thinks it's true." There was a crowd outside of the school, waiting for the buses to leave so the rest of them could walk home.

"It is too, everyone knows the Bunny Girl story." Another voice argued back

"What's the Bunny Girl story?" Milly was short, and maybe a little squat, unable to part the crowd well enough to see who was talking. She wormed her way through the other freshmen, always trying to be included, even though she very clearly wasn't cut out for that.

Two senior boys looked down at her, their eyebrows quirked like they couldn't believe this pipsqueak was trying to talk to their group. They both ignored her, looking back to the redhead who was in disbelief.

"If anything like that actually happened, it would be a violation of about seventeen legal codes. This entire school would've been shut down and never reopened. Trust me. My dad's a lawyer, I know what I'm talking about." The redhead was another freshman, but she was outstandingly popular, her family name and older boyfriend giving her pull with the senior class.

Lindsey Chandler.

Milly had been absolute best friends with Lindsey for years, but as time went on, Milly stayed weird and Lindsey grew up normal, the way teenagers were supposed to.

Lindsey looked at her for a moment before her eyes went back to Blake, her boyfriend and the person who was trying to convince her that the Urban Legend he was telling her was completely true.

"What happened?" Milly cut in again. Everyone just looked at her, sighs and groans heard from different corners of the group.

Blake rolled his eyes.

"Forget it. Come on Lizzie. Let's just go." Blake put his arm around the girl and led her off, the crowd dispersing, leaving Milly standing there alone. The buses pulled out. The other kids emptied out of the gate.

Milly walked home by herself, deciding that she'd find out the Bunny Girl story one way or the next.

--

When Milly got home, she went right to her brothers room, banging on the door. There was a groan and some shuffling, and the door opened, a very tired and grumpy looking boy standing in the doorway.

"Maverick, can I ask you something?"

Maverick was Milly's older brother who had graduated from her same school two years back. Now he was mostly an exhausted college student who lived off of energy drinks and jacking off to random girls on livecams.

He looked down at his sister, sighing again and opening the door.

"Don't have much of a choice if I don't want you banging on my door all night."

Maverick knew that his sister's questions always turned into long interrogations, and if there was something she wanted to know, she'd want every detail, so there was no point standing in the doorway hoping this would be a one and done kind of thing.

She ran into his room, diving into his bed, sitting cross legged in the middle, her eyes wide as she rocked with excitement.

If anyone knew the Bunny Girl story, it would be him.

Maverick sat in his desk chair, closing several tabs and muting his audio before spinning around, looking at Milly. She kept looking around at all his new posters, turning his lava lamp on and off different colours.

"Are you a stoner? Sometimes your room reminds me of a stoners room--"

"Milly, was that what you wanted to ask me?"

"Well no, but--"

"Then just ask me what you wanted to ask me." He pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing. Maverick felt like he had a lot of patience for her. Milly was always a little hyperactive, a little blunt, a little not so sure of how to act like a normal human, but Maverick gave her the benefit of the doubt, because he thought of himself as a great brother.

"Do you know the story of the Bunny Girl?"

Maverick's eyebrows went up.

"Freshman year and they're still feeding you that garbage?" He laughed, spinning his chair again, grabbing a pen so he had something to fiddle with.

"Is that a yes?"

Maverick nodded his head.

"Yeah, duh, everyone knows the story of the Bunny Girl, it's a classic school grounds staple. It was something we used to tell each other on the playground back in elementary school-- Honestly I'm kind of surprised you're only just now hearing it--"

"I haven't heard it yet!" Milly crawled to the edge of the bed, making a pout. She knew she came off as childish, but she never seemed to care about how she was received as a person.

"Some kids in school were talking about it, but I caught the very very tail end-- Can you tell it to me? Please?" Milly clasped her hands together like she was actually begging him. Maverick just shrugged.

"Okay, sure. It's nothing creative. Uhhh, once upon a time--" Maverick cut himself off with his own laughter.

"Who starts a horror story with once upon a time-- Okay okay, so, whatever, anyway." He was a bad storyteller, but he never claimed to be good at it.

"There was a girl who no one knows the name of, they just called her Bunny Girl, because she always wore a bunny-ear hoodie and loved rabbits. So like a horse girl, only for bunnies."

Milly rolled her eyes.

"Clever."

"Shuttup. So Bunny Girl was a total wack job weirdo, didn't have any friends, was constantly bullied because, ya know. High school." Maverick made gestures with his hands as he spoke, like he was trying to pull the story out of his memory and really couldn't think of the right words.

"One day, a group of bullies cut the ears off of Bunny Girl's hoodie and she lost it, throwing a gigantic fit, having a total meltdown, screaming and crying, the works. The whole class thought it was hilarious. One of the guys in the group went way too far with the joke though, and took the scissors and cut the actual ears off of the actual class pet, who was also a rabbit and also Bunny Girls only friend."

Milly looked horrified, and the look of terror only fueled her brother to keep going, a sick little grin on his face.

"So, of course, the poor rabbit bleeds out all over the place and dies and this sends Bunny Girl into an absolute rage. Like, full insanity. She took the scissors from the bully and cut his ears off, and then proceeded to basically mutilate her entire classroom, killing herself at the end with the same pair of scissors."

Maverick delivered the story like he'd told it a dozen times on the playground, like he knew the details by heart. Which, to be fair, was pretty true. He'd been telling the story alongside a hundred other kids their whole time in elementary school day in and day out at recess. All the new kids heard it their first day on the playground. Even the teachers knew it.

Milly still looked traumatized.

Maverick just grinned wider.

"But that's really only half of the story."

"What do you mean?"

Maverick shrugged as if he were indifferent.

"I mean, that's literally only half of the story. Why would anyone care about some psycho girl who murdered her classroom? There's more, duh." Maverick tapped his head with the pen.

"It comes with a rumour, like all good urban legends. They say if you go into the school in the middle of the night and play hop-scotch, you'll awaken Bunny Girl, cause that was her favourite game or something, right?" He laughed.

"But what happens if you wake her up?!" Milly was on the edge of her seat, wide eyed.

She was gullible, and Maverick was basking in it.

"Mm, apparently if you wake her spirit, she makes you play games with her since she doesn't have any friends." He shrugged.

"Or... something. I don't really know. That's where it gets muddled. Some people say she'll follow you home and kill your parents and your pets if you lose her games, some people say you'll be haunted by her pet rabbit no matter what you do, it's an urban legend, Milly, it gets changed over time."

And that was it.

The story of the Bunny Girl.

Milly stayed up all night thinking about it. She drew pictures of a ghostly figure behind the school's doors, she drew out hop-scotch in coloured pencils and thought about how she almost couldn't even remember how to play the game.

In the morning, she knocked on her brother's door again.

The door creaked open and he glared at her, half dressed and mostly entirely asleep.

Milly smiled big.

"Can we break into the school tonight to play hopscotch?!"

"... Excuse me?"

Milly was still beaming, hugging her school books tight to her chest.

"Can we please? I want to see if the rumours are true!"

Once again, Maverick found himself pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to keep calm.

"You're waking me up at seven in the morning to ask me to break into your highschool?"

"Well, not just you-- I thought maybe you could bring some of your friends-- You said you guys all used to tell each other the story, right? I bet someone would want to go with us!"

Maverick flopped back into his bed, shaking his head.

"Milly, none of my friends have time to break into a school in the middle of the night to play Bloody Mary over a fucking hopscotch game." He didn't want to get mad at her, but holy shit.

"We have lives, Milly. We're adults, with jobs and classes and social lives. We could also, I don't know, get arrested for breaking and entering?!"

Milly chewed her cheek, listening to Maverick without really hearing what he was saying.

To her, it sounded like he just didn't want to play with her.

"Here, why don't you and some of your friends go break in? The worst they'll give you is detention or some shit for a month, okay?"

"I don't have friends, Maverick." She spat his name, like she was suddenly pissed off that he wouldn't do this for her.

He didn't care if she was angry. He put his hands up.

"Your friends like me. Tell them I want them to go and I bet they would."

Maverick's eye twitched.

"My friends don't like you just because they play scrabble with you when they come over. You're a child to them, of course they play games with you-- Oh my god, Why am I arguing with a fucking twelve year old?!"

"I'm fifteen!"

"Oh holy shit, I can't count I guess!" Maverick yelled back at her and Milly just rushed out, slamming the door.

He groaned, thunking his head back down.

"God damn it, you little fuckin' wack job."