"I'm sorry. What? A rumour watch?"

"Yeah. Something like that," Saniyah beamed. "I think it will be a great idea."

Saniyah and Candi Rose were currently at Principal Freeman's office again, shortly after breaktime had begun. They would have gone before school but they had arrived pretty late due to there being an excessive amount of traffic.

Saniyah had a seemingly good idea on how to find out who had started the rumours. Candi Rose didn't even know what her plan was, fully anyway, but apparently Saniyah couldn't have done it without her.

So she was just flowing with it.

"What does a rumour watch even mean?"

Candi Rose wondered the same thing, slowly folding her arms. When she asked Saniyah what it meant, she just said you don't know now but you're going to find out.

It was more or less like a neighbourhood watch, but this time with what was going on in the school.

Saniyah didn't really know what else she could have called it, however what they were going to do was to go around the school, and ask everyone what they knew about the rumour on Syeda.

"I might even ask people that look suspicious if they caused it," Saniyah had added shortly after she explained her plan to both a rather confused Principal Freeman and Candi Rose. "I think it will be a wonderful idea. What about you guys?"

She clearly hadn't seen the perplexed stare she was receiving from Principal Freeman after she told him her idea.

Candi Rose seemed indifferent, however both of them agreed that Saniyah was viewing her plan through rose coloured glasses.

From Principal Freeman's perspective, there were three things wrong with her idea.

The first one was that it was way too time consuming, plus how many people were they going to ask? They needed to speak to a good number of people to gain at least somewhat reliable results.

The second was that assuming they were going to be talking to people they didn't know - not everyone was okay with talking to strangers. Yes, Saniyah and Candi Rose were attractive girls, but that could have intimidated people, not brought them closer to them.

Principal Freeman definitely didn't say that they were attractive because he was married. The third thing wrong with her idea was that people could have lied, there was no guarantee that they would have told her the truth.

"I can only talk to people I know."

"That wouldn't be representative," he realised. "Not even if Candi goes with you."

Saniyah seemed vehement about her idea, plus Principal Freeman was no clairvoyant; this could have actually turned out well after all.

If it didn't, they needed a back up plan, which he had thought of as Saniyah said her idea. They could have had an assembly about everything after breaktime. That was when assembly normally was anyway.

"That's such a good idea, why didn't you think of that?" Candi Rose teased. "Also, no offence sir, but didn't you know about the rumours about Syeda earlier? That's kind of your job, isn't it? To be vigilant about these things."

Truthfully speaking, Principal Freeman had so many issues to deal with, mainly non school related that he couldn't always keep track or handle everything. Also, today was Friday and he came to the school later on a Friday.

Even if he came earlier, he would have been late anyway. He had heard from other staff members that there was a lot of traffic earlier through the way Principal Freeman normally came because of a tragic car crash.

Thankfully, nobody died, but all victims were hurt. Lastly, Principal Freeman took the shorter way to enter his office - he didn't take the main way where the lockers were.

He was saying that as he found out yesterday that the main entrance to his office was where all the news on Natalia's past were broadcasted. On people's lockers.

"I was going to do an assembly on it yesterday, but there was no time to. Also, I had a bit of a bad day, and I was also checking to see if things would have been more serious, or if it would have been resolved. I will definitely do it today. You two will help me. Thank you for letting me know."

The girls were okay with helping him, and they left to put Saniyah's plan into action.

Unsurprisingly, Saniyah's plan didn't go too well, albeit come to think of it, that was probably because she was speaking to the wrong people.

The girls had split up, with Saniyah talking to someone called Ethan, who had a girlfriend called Anais. Both of them were in Saniyah's Maths class and tutor group, however they didn't really talk.

A lot of people didn't like Ethan nor Anais since they were very anti-social and didn't talk to anyone. Saniyah must have forgotten this, or she didn't care, because the way she was interrogating them was on another level.

Ethan was British, with multiple freckles and black dreadlocks covering his face. Anais was French, with two dutch Braids and way too much makeup on. They were both talking about plans for Sarica's birthday - with Sarica being Ethan's younger sister.

Things stopped though when Saniyah came up to them unexpectedly. She didn't say anything, just showed them the picture that her and Candi had read earlier together about Syeda's anorexia.

There were many bad things about Syeda's dark past that had been broadcasted today, though the anorexia was the most serious one.

"Y'all notice this?"

Not saying anything, Ethan and Anais stared at it, reading it thoroughly.

Anais shrugged, with Ethan shaking his head.

"Seen it around," Ethan frowned. "Not too fazed. We don't really care about it."

"Syeda should have expected this," Anais continued, with both of them walking away from her. "She's popular. There's a lot of drama when you're popular. Why do you think Ethan and I are anti-social? And why do you think whoever started this started with Natalia? It's all part of popularity."

Whilst that was kind of insightful, Saniyah also couldn't have gotten over what they had just said about Syeda expecting this. That was so insensitive to her feelings, which she definitely had to call them out on when they were about to leave.

"How insensitive are you two?"

When Ethan and Anais heard that, they stopped for a while, with their backs turned to Saniyah as they whispered about whether she was talking to them or not.

"Yeah, I'm talking about you two. Who do you think you are, huh? How would you feel if this was you? How dare you say that Syeda should have expected this. Her darkest secret being made public for everyone to see is no joke and I wouldn't wish that on anyone regardless of who they are."

"I'm sorry but weren't you the one that came to us?" Ethan grimaced slightly, slowly folding his arms.

"Whether I did or didn't, it doesn't matter! Unless you guys started the rumours?"

Ethan and Anais turned red almost at the same time, not because they started it though, since they didn't. Everyone was watching them and they didn't like being the centre of attention.

"Stop making a scene, Saniyah," Anais hissed.

"Stop making a scene?!" Saniyah had rasped back, infuriated. Remembering she was in public, she sighed because she didn't want them to have the satisfaction of seeing her upset.

Ethan smirked when Saniyah told them they should have gone. So they did, but Saniyah stood her ground.

"Oh and Ethan?"

He stared at her blankly before he went, annoyed.

"You can do so much better. I hear Anais has been cheating on you. Check her Instagram."

She showed him proof that she was seeing someone else, with Ethan now being more mad at Anais than he was initially with Saniyah.

They had an argument about this in front of everyone, with Saniyah casually walking away and smiling. Desperate times had called for desperate measures - and boy did it feel good.

**********

"And what on Earth is a rumour watch?"

"That's what I'm telling you," Candi ranted to Diamanté, who was sorting out his books from his locker for his next class.

As Saniyah was actually doing the rumour watch, Candi Rose in the meantime had decided to rant about the rumour watch to Diamanté. His brothers were nowhere to be seen, though they were in school - Candi had seen them earlier.

No one knew that Stevonté was friends with Maitreyi. He was even going to see her this weekend to help her with their upcoming Chemistry test.

"She wants me and her to go around the school and ask random people what they know about the rumours. As if they'd tell her the truth," she laughed slightly, not at Saniyah, but more about her. "I love my cousin but honestly her ideas can be whack sometimes."

"I mean, it's not exactly a bad idea. But there definitely won't be a high success rate, unless she asks a lot of people." Diamanté admitted truthfully. "Does she even know you're here right now?"

She didn't but it wasn't like Candi Rose hadn't asked anyone. She asked 5 people.

2 gave her dirty looks, 2 ignored her and one told her that she didn't know who Syeda was, and she didn't know anyone who did - however she didn't mind helping her out to find out who had started everything if Candi needed help.

The 4 people who acted coldly were probably because Candi was prettier than them. Aside from the last person, Candi asked people in her classes that she didn't speak to.

"That's sweet." Diamanté beamed after closing his locker because he had gotten everything he needed out of it. "Did you get her name?"

"Daisy Grace I believe. She gave me her number." Candi yawned before saying anything else. "Anyway, let me go before Saniyah finds me gallivanting and ranting to you about her so-called rumour watch."

Speaking of the devil, Saniyah came to her, kindly wanting to know why she wasn't doing what she was supposed to be doing.

Stalling, Candi Rose had tried to think of an excuse.

"Diamanté said he was going to help me."

"I'm sorry, what?" He repeated, after zoning out a bit. "I know I said it was a good idea but I didn't say I'd help you!"

Candi Rose mouthed go with the flow to him when Saniyah wasn't looking, with Diamanté rolling his eyes comically and saying that he wouldn't have minded helping them.

The three of them split up, with Diamante going with Saniyah instead of Candi Rose, but Candi Rose being alone didn't last long. She came acros Benjamin, who Eucharia accidentally called a demon instead of Natalia.

They greeted each other, with Candi asking him if he knew anything about who could have started the rumours.

"All I know is that it wasn't me," Benjamin answered, shaking his head. "Natalia and Syeda are two of my closest friends. I would never do anything to hurt them - though I can help you."

Candi liked that idea, also calling Daisy from earlier. What was a seemingly terrible idea was a good one, as a lot of people helped them.

They had links to who could have caused it, but no definite answer. There were almost 15 suspects after, with Saniyah and Candi showing it to Principal Freeman at the end of their 20 minute break - they had a free lesson after.

"Wow, this turned out to be more successful than I thought. Well done Saniyah for the idea."

"No worries. You're not possibly going to rule them out, are you? Use the process of elimination?"

That was too long. That was also why they were going to have the assembly. Maybe the person would have confessed then. Principal Freeman would have used an ultimatum for sure. He didn't like using them but desperate times had called for desperate measures again.

The assembly would have been in half an hour as class had just started, plus Principal Freeman also needed time to prepare. The girls additionally needed a break.

They would have been back in half an hour.