"Psst. Maitreyi. It's me."

That was coming from Stevonté as he had sat on Maitreyi's table. Maitreyi was on her phone playing a game because she had nothing else better to do on there.

She had deliberately uninstalled all the social media apps she had since breaktime, because the last thing she needed right now were people throwing shade at her both online and in real life as well.

If worst had come to worst, she would have deleted all of her social media accounts for good, except from WhatsApp as that was important - but uninstalling everything would have sufficed for the time being.

As she was so into the game she was playing on her phone (Subway Surfers), she unintentionally didn't see Stevonté until he had gently tapped her, subsequently making her jump.

"Stevonté, what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to check up on you," he had soothed, looking at her through her sunglasses. He could have seen himself in it, kind of looking concerned. "You okay?"

No. She was not okay.

Everyone hated her. Maitreyi was even starting to resent herself. That was how bad her life was at the moment.

No one had believed her when she explained to them that she wasn't guilty.

Yes, she wanted revenge on Natalia for almost constantly ruining her time at school, and she got the revenge on her along with Euchy and Zafira.

However she was being serious when she said that she had changed her mind. She did not print the dirt she had on Natalia, even if she wanted to.

That would have reflected her more than Natalia. Not just that, but there was no reason for Maitreyi to even stoop that low, irrespective of how much she had disliked the girl.

Composing herself from crying, Treyi had opened up to Stevonté about everything.

What she didn't understand the most was how everyone knew she had gotten dirt on Natalia.

Only Zafira and Euchy were there last night when they were seeking revenge on her. And apparently they hadn't told anyone about it.

Unless they did?

"No, they didn't. I know they currently don't like you but they're not one to snitch on their friends, even if they're extremely mad at you. I know that from experience."

"Then how do people know?"

"To be fair, rumours do spread here pretty quickly," Stevonté remembered. "Also I think Natalia has this thing on her phone that tells her when someone's hacked into her account for something. I think she somehow found out it was you three. Then things inevitably went downhill from there."

Of course she had something like that on her phone. It was smart though.

Maitreyi would have done the same.

Stevonté had promised that the truth would have come out eventually, also offering to help Treyi catch up with any classes she had missed.

Classes she had shared with Stevonté, that was. So about 6 out of 10.

As for the classes he didn't share with Maitreyi, that may have been difficult as neither of them didn't exactly know anyone in school that didn't dislike Maitreyi at the moment.

Even some of the teachers did. And the ones that didn't didn't even teach the girl as they didn't know her.

"Thanks, Stevonté. That really means a lot."

"No worries, Treyi. You know I got you. And don't worry, the truth will come out eventually. I'll make sure it will."

Maitreyi wanted to know how, only for Stevonté to smile.

"Don't worry about it. However, I'll definitely think of something." He promised. "I always try to keep my promises unless something comes up last minute. And like I said to my brothers, are your friends truly your friends if they don't believe you?"

That was a good question but like always, Maitreyi didn't blame them. As she was just about to reply to him, she didn't because she noticed her time was up.

Before someone had come to collect her, and make more of a scene, Maitreyi had left, hugging Stevonté and vice versa before leaving.

And she knew very well that her time here was up - suspended Euchy and Zafira had already left the canteen.

A deliberate choice that Maitreyi decided to make was not to tell her parents or her sister about her suspension. There were two doors required to enter her house, and while the first one inevitably required a lock, the second one did not.

Just as Maitreyi was about to open the second door, she relented because she heard her mother Khadijah and her sister Avantika arguing.

I thought I told you to do the dishes last night! But no, you didn't, because you were spending so much time on your stupid phone! I swear, you are addicted!

No, you told Maitreyi to do the dishes, not me! And if you think my screen time is bad, why don't you take a look at my sister's!

Then they started yelling at each other, eventually speaking Hindi. Hindi was spoken a lot in Maitreyi's household, however she didn't really do so herself.

Great, what now?

This was probably the worst ever time for Maitreyi to let her mum know that she had been suspended for two weeks.

And it wasn't like Maireyi could have asked anyone for advice except from Stevonte.

Lunch had just finished back at school, with Treyi knowing that Stevonte had never used his phone in lessons.

It was now or never.

Plus Treyi didn't have much of a choice anyway. Sooner or later, Khadijah, and maybe Avantika too for that matter, would have wondered why she was back from school almost three hours early.

Halfway through their argument, Treyi had begrudgingly waltzed into the house. She greeted everyone, with Khadijah turning to look at her, and Avantika had mouthed a huge thank you to her for saving their argument.

"Maitreyi?" Khadijah was confused when she saw Treyi because she knew she was supposed to be at school. "Why are you back from school so early?"

"Oh, erm..."

She got suspended, along with Euchy and Zafira, who both weren't speaking to her.

Treyi didn't blame them at all. She didn't even want to speak to herself either.

She didn't know why she had tried to come up with an excuse instead of just telling her mother the truth.

Then again - it wasn't exactly easy for someone to admit to their parents that they had gotten suspended from school for a fortnight. More so if their parents annoyingly had high expectations of them.

The suspension had only included school days. Weekends didn't count as a day of suspension.

"The teachers are having a meeting right now and school finished early."

"No, they do that on Wednesdays. It's Thursday." Khadijah grimaced. Then she folded her arms, looking at her daughter gravely. "Maitreyi Krisha Kimaya Ramakrishnan, what is going on?"

Screw it, Treyi.

She even used your full name. You know you're in huge trouble or will be soon whenever she does that.

Treyi didn't know how she had blurted it out so casually but she did. She explained how Principal Freeman had suspended her earlier today in a way that didn't even sound like anything was a problem.

Even though Avantika was asked to leave the room for the two of them to talk privately, she couldn't have helped but to become astonished. Treyi had never been suspended from school before.

Their younger cousin Santito had a few times. But not Treyi. She must have really screwed up, and she seriously did. They had another adoptive brother called Dominico, however he tragically passed away five years ago after being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He was shot. His killer wasn't actually aiming for him, they were aiming for someone close to him, but missed. He was currently in prison for manslaughter.

"What do you mean you got suspended?"

"Eucharia and Zafira did too!"

"This isn't about Eucharia and Zafira!" Khadijah vociferated at the top of her lungs, loudly enough to wake up the dead. "This is about you, Maitreyi! Now how on Earth did you get suspended?"

Khadijah didn't know the real reason that Treyi had gone to Eucharia's house last night. Treyi couldn't tell her. She had to now though.

"Okay, so you know how yesterday I said I was going to Euchy's house with Zafira?"

"Yes. To study, why? But how does this have anything to do with you being suspended?"

Yeah, the three of them were studying, but not always. They had managed to study for 3 hours before they had started seeking revenge on Natalia.

Long story, Maitreyi had vehemently explained everything from her point of view.

Do you remember Natalia Delores? She came to the 5 year death anniversary memorial for Dominico.

Carolina's daughter? What about her?

Khadijah may have been speaking to Maitreyi in a calmer tone, but they both knew that she was still mad at her.

I thought she was my friend but I found out recently from Diamanté that she's my enemy. The day I went to Diamanté's house to help tutor him, he sent me a voice recording about Natalia talking badly about me but I can't remember what she said.

Ever since then, she's just been making my life miserable in so many ways that I can't even explain them all. It was on Monday after school that I told Eucharia that I had enough and I wanted revenge.

Treyi didn't leave out how Euchy and her had reported Natalia and her group of friends to Principal Freeman.

He had given them all a warning because he had only just found out on Monday that Natalia and her friends minus Zafira had bullied people, so it wouldn't have been right to just expel them straight away.

They had three strikes and they were out.

Anyway, Eucharia and Zafira had only helped me out because I had refused to take no for an answer. We found out a lot of dirt on Natalia last night, but I didn't tell them that I had changed my mind about everything until much later.

Basically, I wasted a lot of time and that's why Euchy's not speaking to me. She's insanely mad at me, and I just hope she can forgive me.

My other friends are mad at me because some of the dirt I found on Natalia leaked at school today. People think it was me that did it, but I was serious when I said that I felt guilty about doing everything last night.

Principal Freeman suspended me because he thinks that I'm the one who leaked everything but I'm honestly not.

Though I can see why he and anyone else would think that. The CCTV cameras aren't working at school right now as they need rebooting. Euchy and Zafira are suspended too since they decided to go along with everything even though they could have said no.

It wasn't by force for them to join me when I wanted to seek revenge on Natalia.

Euchy and Zafira didn't tell anyone about last night, Natalia had also found out that her accounts had been hacked by someone.

She didn't know that Zafira had seeked revenge with them. She had only seen Maitreyi's name on who had hacked her.

Euchy and Zafira weren't mad at Maitreyi for seeking revenge, they were mad at her for wasting their time and for leaking everything. Who else would it have been?

"Is that everything?"

"It's a long story," Maitreyi sighed. "I'm sorry. I should have told you everything."

Khadijah had jokingly muttered under her breath why she couldn't have had any children that had behaved themselves, giving Treyi a hug.

Surprised and perplexed, Treyi had hugged her back.

"You're not mad at me?"

"Oh I am, and you're grounded for a month. No electronics unless necessary, and I will monitor everything you do there."

She just didn't want to tell her off as she knew she had a rough day. Having an argument would have made it worse.

Khadijah had sent her upstairs, with Treyi thanking her and leaving.