There was a rumor during my sophomore year of high school that I beat up this guy at a party. The truth was that I was walking down the street and saw him fall off his skateboard, crash into his moms car and fall to the pavement hard. I ran to help him but the moron who started the rumor just saw me running thus ASSuming I was the culprit. Since then, everyone at school thought I was a bad ass and didn't bother me.
Even better was that at our 10 year reunion last year, they did a before/after slide of us and what people thought you were going to turn out to be. Most of my high school peers voted they thought I would be a corrections officer or bounty hunter. They were shocked to find out I was a kindergarten teacher.