It's been a minute! Here's another update for you guys. Almost done with the book❤️ this will deffo be the shortest book I've ever written - or one of it. It's a lot shorter than I thought it would be. That's for sure.

Half an hour had gone pretty quickly, and soon after, there was an assembly about everything like Principal Freeman said there was going to be.

Saniyah and Candi Rose were going to help Principal Freeman with the assembly about who was spreading the rumours. First it was about Natalia and now it was about Syeda. This seriously needed to stop.

More people looked happy than angry that they had to miss class due to the assembly. At least it was after break time. If it was during break time, then surely everyone would have been fed up.

Extra minutes break time couldn't really have been added like that. It would have messed with a lot of people's timetable for the day.

After the school had headed inside of the hall where assembly was taking place at the moment:

Principal Freeman had gone to the stage, with Saniyah and Candi being backstage.

Saniyah asked someone to record everything for Eucharia because Euchy wanted to be updated with everything happening at school whilst she was on suspension. That had happened when Saniyah was at her aunty's baby shower and she had missed school.

Even not having 100% attendance got to her. Saniyah may have been no perfectionist, however she always liked doing well at school.

Principal Freeman didn't seem very happy about this assembly, because he wasn't. Anytime there was an assembly, everyone had to call the assembly host by their name.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning, Principal Freeman. Good morning everyone.

The assembly started, with Candi being nervous as she hadn't exactly hosted an assembly before, kind of freaking out backstage.

It has recently come to my attention that some rumours have started, concerning Natalia and now Syeda.

They have been about some insanely personal things. I don't know who started them or why, or if it's a group of people or just one person - but this definitely needs to stop.

"Saniyah, I'm scared," Candi Rose fretted backstage. "I don't know what to say. Not just that. We're pretty girls. What if people focus on our looks more than what we have to say?"

She had a right to say that.

A lot of people only saw them superficially. That kind of happened when Saniyah was trying to spread awareness about the rumours earlier on today.

Some boys came to her and asked her if she was single.

Hence why she avoided talking to some boys when she was trying to find out who could have started the rumours.

This was unless she was friends with them, or maybe unless they were with a girl - or didn't seem like someone that would have been intimidated or attracted by her looks.

"Candi, Principal Freeman will definitely back us up. He even promised to do so. Don't worry about it. We'll be fine. I promise."

Unlike Saniyah, Candi Rose didn't really like public speaking that much. Anything to do with it, she avoided unless she couldn't.

Hence why she was trying to distract herself from talking to strangers this morning by talking to Diamanté instead.

She may have been extroverted however that didn't mean she liked speaking all of the time. Just to people she was close with. She was an extroverted introvert.

So yes. This assembly is all to do with rumours. But I'm not going to do a lecture as to why you shouldn't spread them. I've got two people to do that for you.

I know most of you guys have had enough of me by now and I don't blame you.

Before I do that though, I'm going to give you an ultimatum. If the person that started the rumours doesn't reveal themselves by the end of the week... then Spring Fling is cancelled for everyone.

Spring Fling was just basically prom, but with a date. It had happened every year in April. It was a nice way to mark the end of the term before half term, aka a one week holiday where there was no school whatsoever.

Sounds of annoyance had gone round from everyone - with everyone expressing their anger in different ways.

No fair, sir! Why does everyone have to get into trouble for something that only one person caused? Shouldn't they get into trouble?

Word. Plus wasn't it Maitreyi?!

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought it was Maitreyi, Principal Freeman admitted truthfully. But now that this is affecting both Maitreyi and Syeda, with Maitreyi not even being here because she's been suspended for a fortnight? I'm not so sure anymore.

That doesn't mean that she didn't send someone! Someone proclaimed. You don't know her sir, she could have done anything. She could have planned this beforehand even though she's absent.

It wasn't Maitreyi. It was someone else.

Who though? Nobody knew. Yet anyway.

There was one person for sure. The person who did it was definitely in the audience, looking like they hadn't done it.

Also it was affecting everyone so that they could have worked harder to find out who it was before it was too late. It was currently Friday, and they had until next Friday.

Until Principal Freeman realised that Friday was a day off of school due to some construction and renewal of buildings. So therefore they had until Monday instead.

A lot of people still thought that it was Maitreyi despite the fact that she hadn't been in school since Thursday lunchtime.

Seemed like a lot of people were completely set in their ways.

"Anyway, without further ado, I have two very special people that are going to talk further about this since they know more information than I do. They even kinda drove me to do this assembly today. Just don't do anything you'll regret, guys. Seriously. I mean it."

Principal Freeman had announced Saniyah and Candi Rose, with people wolf whistling when they came on the stage.

This was exactly what Candi Rose didn't want, with Saniyah encouraging her to stay when she wanted to go back.

"Hi everyone. I'm Saniyah and this is my cousin, Candi Rose," Saniyah announced, with a lot of people clapping.

She had never heard of so many claps before just because she had said her name.

Not letting that get to her, Saniyah continued, with Candi Rose and Principal Freeman supporting them as promised.

We just wanted to briefly talk to you guys about rumour spreading and why it's not right, Candi continued. We already know you know this so we're going to keep this short.

But you guys don't understand. This is seriously affecting Natalia and Syeda, Saniyah added. I mean, they might not be our closest friends, no offence to them. However, that doesn't mean that we don't care about them.

Candi Rose: Like Principal Freeman said, don't do anything you'll regret. If you know who started it and you're not saying anything - or if you were involved in it, then you're holding everyone back.

Saniyah: Obviously we don't expect you to admit yourself to everyone here, albeit you can always come to Principal Freeman when you have more information about it, or you did it. He even wants you to do that anyway.

Principal Freeman jumped in by asking how people had been a victim of rumour spreading, including Natalia and Syeda.

He didn't mean people that had started rumours, but those that had been the topic of one: whether the rumour was real or fake.

Not a lot of people put up their hands at first because they were embarrassed. Slowly though, one by one, people shot up their hands.

"It's not a very nice experience is it?" Principal Freeman queried, with people shaking their heads. "No. You may not know or like the rumour victims, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't care, especially if you've been a victim yourself."

Some people even started sharing their stories, not caring who was listening. It was very insightful.

One person almost killed themselves due to their darkest secret being spilt out to the school. They weren't going to reveal it: but it was that they used to have a heavy addiction to gambling and consequently wasted almost tens of thousands of money on it. They were addicted to money basically, and was shortly involved in fraud.

One had an anonymous texter target her and someone else because they were one of the very few ethnic minorities in their previous school. Hence why they left.

And then some.

Just as the assembly got better and more personal, it was interrupted by some very alarming news: Syeda was about to kill herself on the balcony.

The rumour got too much. She didn't know how someone got to know her darkest secret about anorexia but it had really gotten to her.

She was even being cyber bullied about this online by people with unidentifiable usernames.

When this was announced, everyone freaked out, with a lot of people rushing to the balcony before Syeda had done something she regretted.

They were so focused on the assembly that no one even realised that Syeda wasn't there.

To be fair, there were a lot of people there, almost 700 (the school had 1.1K students) - though they should have been more alert at the same time.

Too many people were rushing, with one of the many teachers on the side telling them that only Syeda's closest friends should have gone.

As quickly as they could Natalia, Saniyah, Candi and Cynthia dashed outside to help her. She was about to jump off the building and end it because she had enough - until Natalia stopped her.

"Syeda, wait! Don't!!!"

Syeda stopped what she was doing, with the girls completely catching her off guard. Saniyah and Cynthia had stopped her simultaneously as Natalia talked to her in the meantime.

She had been really crying but she didn't want anyone to see her. Anorexia wasn't the only rumour revealed about her.

Once she had almost been arrested when she was younger for accidentally shoplifting. The rumour made it seem like she shoplifted on purpose. This linked to her anorexia as she didn't have enough food.

"What are you guys doing here?! Leave me alone! I don't want to speak to anyone right now!"

"Syeda listen, please. Suicide is not the answer. It's a permanent solution to a hopefully temporary problem."

She practically hollered when Cynthia said hopefully. Was she saying that this would have never ended or something?

That wasn't what Cynthia meant. Either way, a lot of people cared about her even if it didn't seem that way right now.

"Easy for you to say, you haven't been the target of rumours. You don't have any problems to deal with. At least your secrets won't be spilt for the whole school."

What was unfair was that Syeda had been targeted more than Natalia had been. Natalia being targeted wasn't as severe as this.

This was more than bullying. Someone definitely had something against her. She just didn't know who, what or why.

"That doesn't mean we don't care, hence we wouldn't be here right now," Saniyah assured her, with Candi Rose nodding. "And everyone has problems, even if it looks like they don't. They may not be rumour related but just know that they have them."

"And everyone had skeletons in their closets, boo. Or something in their past that they've done or is worried will haunt them later. Inevitably, they may not reveal it - albeit that doesn't mean it doesn't exist," Candi chirped in.

They all encouraged her to stay alive and not die- especially Natalia and Cynthia as they knew her more.

She would have hurt a lot of people if she did.

Staring at them blankly, Syeda looked down then at them again - and another time.

She wouldn't have done it, but that didn't mean she wouldn't have done it later. It all depended on how long this had lasted for and how long things had lasted for.

They all hugged each other after everything. They were going to get to the bottom of this, with or without Maitreyi, Euchy and Zafira too.

Woo! Deffo my longest chapter yet! Hope you enjoyed though! Can't wait till you finally find out who it is. 😘😉