As soon as Treyi had gone upstairs, the first thing that she had done was to quickly pack all of her electronics away to give to Khadijah.

Whether she had her social media accounts or not, it wouldn't really have mattered much because it wasn't like she had any electronics anyway.

Just as Treyi was about to give everything to Khadijah, she came across Avantika who had crossed her pathway.

Startled, Treyi jumped when she had seen her, attempting to close her door because she didn't exactly want to speak to anyone at the moment.

"No, sis, don't close the door," Avantika murmured gently, opening it again. "I really need to speak to you."

Treyi had truly wondered if she knew about her suspension or not. Avantika wasn't there when Treyi and Khadijah were talking about it since it was a private conversation, but it wasn't unlike Avantika to eavesdrop.

"I was just about to give my electronics to mum," Treyi had explained candidly.

Kindly, Avantika had offered to do it for her, which Treyi didn't mind her doing. Afterwards, her sister went downstairs, giving everything to Khadijah.

Since the two of them hadn't been speaking to each other beforehand, they didn't exactly speak to each other when Avantika went downstairs. She just showed Khadijah Treyi's electronics, and Khadijah collected it.

As Avantika did that, Treyi realised at the last minute that she hadn't given her second phone to Avantika mainly because she forgot about it. Maitreyi had two phones - one for her contacts and social media, and the other one for games and pictures.

Khadijah refused to give Maitreyi a phone with a lot of storage because when she had one, she was very irresponsible with it. Treyi was more responsible having two phones with small storage than one phone with a lot.

She gave the phone with her games and pictures to Avantika, and still had her contacts one. Which wasn't something intentional because she genuinely forgot about it.

Shocked to see not just one message but three messages from Stevonte, Treyi opened it. She didn't have his number earlier because she didn't ask him for it and vice versa, and she didn't ask him for it today either because she didn't have the time to.

Hey Treyi, just wanted to see how you were doing. You okay?

Btw we have a Chemistry test in two weeks, on chromatography and fractional distillation. It's going to be really hard. Want to study together? I can come to yours when you're free.

It's also Stevonté. I stole your number from Diamante. Hope that's alright

As fast as she could, she texted him back

Hey, my electronics have been confiscated because I got suspended

Thanks for the heads up :) And for you coming over, idk because I got grounded for being suspended, but I'll ask my mum when she's in a better mood

No worries

"I thought you gave me all your electronics?"

Just as Treyi had pressed send on her last message, Avantika came back, quickly closing the door behind her.

"I forgot about this one, but don't worry. I'll give it to Mum."

Avantika and Maitreyi were almost like best friends. She had gone on her sister's bed after Maitreyi wanted to know what she apparently wanted to talk to her about.

"I heard you got suspended. Is everything okay? You and mum were kind of shouting at each other."

Easy for her to say. Maitreyi had literally walked inside the house to hear Avantika and Khadijah ranting at each other like crazy. Even worse, they spoke in Hindi.

When they had argued with Khadijah and vice versa in Hindi, things were very serious. It had normally happened when they were being so rude to each other that they couldn't have spoken to each other in English, though not always.

"This isn't about me lil sis. It's about you," Avantika corrected her, pointing at her. "I wasn't eavesdropping, but I did hear about you wanting to seek revenge on Natalia and actually doing so, despite Euchy and Zafira telling you not to."

Treyi had once again explained everything, shortening it this time. She didn't leak the dirt she found out on Natalia last night, but everyone believed she did.

She knew she was innocent about that, but no one had believed her. All hope was lost, and everyone hated her.

She hated herself. Avantika was someone that Maitreyi could have easily opened up to. She told her everything, the good and the bad.

At the end of her very vehement venting, Maitreyi lay down on her bed, exclaiming that her life was over. Thinking of what to do, Avantika joined her, bringing their cousin up.

"Remember Shahidi?"

Shahidi was their older cousin, who had lived somewhere in Afghanistan. They didn't speak to him much but he was very kind, and he had 3 siblings.

Long story short, he had a girlfriend for a while the year before he had graduated from university (he was 27 and looking for a wife), but they had broken up because his girlfriend had become too clingy and emotionally dependent on him.

After a while, Shahidi had started to resent her, breaking up with her for being too overprotective, selfish and too needy. His girlfriend had still chased him after the break up, eventually tricking people to believe that he was the bad guy and she wasn't.

Some people believed her. Shahidi's girlfriend was very popular. Things had gone from bad to worse, with his girlfriend Sophia saying that he had only dated her because she was popular, making up lies against him.

A lot of people started to hate Shahidi because of it, and he lost a lot of people he thought were his friends. This happened for a month and Shahidi was lost, becoming depressed. He avoided school for a while.

Even though he tried over and over again to tell people the truth on social media, no one believed him, believing Sophia instead. Luckily Shahidi was a patient person, and after a while, the truth came out. People loved him again, but Shahidi only stayed with his true friends, the ones that never left his side.

"So you're saying..."

"I'm not saying your friendship group at school aren't your real friends, they most definitely just need some time." Avantika interrupted. "I'm just saying that sometimes, things have to go from bad to worse before they get better. And the truth will always come out eventually, even if you think it won't. I'm sure the real person that did this will feel so abysmal one day that they'll have no choice but to confess. And everyone will realise you were telling the truth. Don't worry about it."

Smiling, Treyi hugged her sister tightly and vice versa.

She wanted to ask her if she genuinely thought that she was guilty.

"Seeking revenge on people is something you'd do, no offence," Avantika confessed truthfully. "But leaking the information and doing something like this? You'd never do that. And I'm not just saying that because you're my sister. I'd still mean if even if you weren't my sister at all."

Their conversation really made Treyi's day, and she was super grateful to know that she did still have a few people that cared about her despite the many people that were currently mad at her.

"No worries," Avantika grinned before leaving, winking at her sister. "If you know that you're innocent, who cares what people think? Don't let anyone dull your sparkle, lil sis. Bye."

*******

If the girls had thought that the rumour about Natalia would have died down by tomorrow, they really had something coming.

If anything, the rumours had increased, and now it wasn't just about Natalia. It was also about Syeda as well.

The next day, neither Zafira, Maitreyi or Eucharia were at school because they had all been suspended. It had only been Saniyah and Candi Rose, who had met where the lockers were.

"First Natalia, now Syeda?" Candi complained, after she closed her locker because she got her books from them. "For goodness sake, when will this end?"

When would it have ended? It had just started.

It definitely couldn't have been from Maitreyi, because surely the person who had found out dirt on Syeda and broadcasted it was actually in school.

Then again, it might not have been from the same person. Plus Eucharia did admit to Saniyah privately on Whatsapp last night that they also found dirt on Syeda and Cynthia.

Eucharia and Zafira definitely wouldn't have done so because they were against the whole thing in the first place. Maitreyi - they didn't know. She could have planned this whole thing beforehand.

"Candi, we seriously need to find out who is causing this before things get worse." Saniyah had suggested. "What if the person or people causing this find something bad about the people that we care about? Our friends?"

Candi was just about to reply, however she stifled it when she saw a poster about Syeda next to someone's locker.

Not saying anything, Candi picked it up, with her and her cousin reading everything together.

Underweight or Anorexic?

As we all know, Syeda Campbell has lost a lot of weight between now and two months ago.
While a lot of people have admired her for this and they wish to follow in her footsteps ... I'm telling you now, don't.

Why?

I mean - why do you think Syeda has lost so much weight? Because she goes to the gym? Because she works out so much? Actually, it's quite the opposite.

She has anorexia! She was so obsessed with losing weight at some point that she stopped eating, and she even went to the hospital. I preferred her when she was overweight!

From Anonymous

Syeda's mum was from Sudan and her father was American, hence her name and her surname.

This was awful. So the person who broadcasted all of this definitely didn't like Syeda or Natalia.

"This is bullying." Saniyan shouted angrily. "We need to do something about this and--"

Speaking of Syeda, she was crying in one corner with Natalia and Cynthia surrounding her. Some other people were too, who didn't believe the rumours, although a majority of people were laughing at her.

Knowing that it was the right thing to do, Candi and Saniyah went over to her, where Natalia pushed them away because they suspected that they had something to do with this.

Natalia didn't just dislike Maitreyi. She disliked all of them - just mainly Maitreyi.

"We weren't involved in this."

"What makes us think we can trust you?" Cynthia reprimanded, resting her hand on Natalia's shoulder. "A friend of Treyi is an enemy of us."

Facepalming herself, Candi Rose threw light on the fact that they weren't actually there when Treyi, Euchy and Zafira had seeked revenge on them. Even if they were, they wouldn't have gone to Euchy's house, where everything had taken place two days ago.

Syeda wanted them to join, with Natalia and Cynthia reluctantly letting them in. She was bawling her eyes out because people found out her darkest secret.

This wasn't just something that was true - this was also something that was insanely personal to Syeda. They didn't know the full story though. Syeda didn't deliberately become anorexic, her family couldn't have afforded any food.

They were completely bankrupt at some point due to her parents divorcing. Her father started abusing her mum, eventually leading to him abusing Syeda and her two younger sisters.

Divorce had to be a unanimous decision, but Syeda's mum couldn't talk to her husband about it. He would have abused her again, so she had planned to run away with her children.

Long story short, they ran away somewhere, being homeless for a few months. Little money had turned into no money at all - and they were soon in absolute poverty.

Thankfully, Syeda's mum had been happily remarried again, but this was a very traumatic event that Syeda could never forget.

Syeda didn't tell anyone this story so how it had been broadcasted, nobody knew. Seeking revenge on Natalia had turned into finding dirt on Syeda and Cynthia but the girls would have never planned to use it against them. They weren't even planning to find out dirt on Syeda and Cynthia - it just happened.

After comforting Syeda, with Natalia and Cynthia still treating them horribly, Saniyah had come up with an amazing idea to try to find out who had started everything.

But she couldn't do it alone, of course not. She needed her cousin's help.