The chapter title is a song lyric to Justin Timberlake's song Cry Me A River. I love that song xx

As soon as Stevonté had left, it was just Treyi and her sister, who wanted to talk to her about Stevonté anyway.

"So... how is Stevonté?" Avantika wanted to know when Khadijah and Stevonté left together so that Khadijah could have dropped him. "You two would be a pretty nice couple."

She sat down next to her sister, who watched her as she did so. Avantika looked like she was just about to suggest that her and Stevonté should have gone on a date.

And she did.

"Couple? No... please don't suggest that. He's only a friend. Plus I haven't even known him for that long anyway."

"He's also the only person that's really been beside you since the whole rumours at school began," Avantika reminded her. "I see the way he looks at you. I think he likes you. Talk to him about it."

She wasn't going to do that. That wasn't even the most of her problems.

Wasn't even a part of it to begin with. End of story.

The biggest problem was what if people had never found out that Treyi had been telling the truth?

Some people even believed that she was the one that had started the rumours about Syeda despite the fact that she hadn't been in school.

"Treyi, if you know you didn't start them, then why do you care what others think?"

"It's not always easy to stop caring," she disclosed. "Especially when people have high expectations of you. I'm top set everything, remember?"

She wasn't initially. But she had done so well in school that teachers had no choice but to move her up. At least being suspended didn't affect that.

Sets were based on grades and behaviour, not study behaviour.

Else everyone well behaved would have been top even if their grades were absolutely terrible.

Sighing, Avantika stared at her, before saying anything else. She didn't know what else to tell her except from the fact that the truth would have always revealed itself eventually.

And it would have. She just needed to be patient. Everything would have worked out in due time.

It did.

**********

Monday, aka the final day for the rumour starters to confess, had quickly arrived, however no one had admitted to anything.

They had until the end of the school day to say something otherwise the Spring Fling would have been cancelled for everybody.

Thankfully, both Eucharia and Zafira were off suspension now, however Treyi still had to wait.

Saniyah and Candi were talking to both of them as they had made their way to the girls' toilets before school had started.

"I am so glad you two are back, honestly," Candi Rose beamed. "It was definitely not the same without you guys. Welcome back!"

"In a way, I'm glad we went off suspension," Zafira had to admit. "Everything that happened at school seemed a bit much, and with Syeda almost dying? Don't think I would have been able to handle it."

Just as Eucharia was about to add something, all four of them were stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Natalia crying near the mirrors.

She was the only one in the toilet at the moment, and the first bell for school rang in five minutes.

Normally the girls hated Natalia and vice versa, but with everything that had happened lately, they were allegedly friends.

It was Saniyah that was the first to notice a crying Natalia. She had been crying like like someone had just died.

Syeda was still alive, but Natalia was probably never going to see her again either way.

"Natalia, what's wrong?"

That was coming from Saniyah as Natalia moved on to her fifth tissue. They went closer to her but Natalia didn't know how to say what she wanted to say without tears.

"Syeda.... She... she..."

They stared at her sympathetically, encouraging her to speak.

Eventually the words came out after what seemed like a long time.

Syeda had emigrated this week and goodness knew if she was coming back.

Even though none of them had blamed her for emigrating, they were still astonished. Not just that; they also wondered how they had emigrated so quickly.

Where Syeda emigrated to.

And when Natalia had found all of this information out.

"She emigrated on Thursday morning. It was quick, I know. Her mum is a flight attendant and Syeda only has one sibling so it was quite easy for her. She spent the weekend up to Wednesday packing and sorting everything out vehemently. I'm not sure where she went because she won't tell me. I found out last night. Syeda wasn't trying to say anything but then she felt guilty. She sent me this text - blocking my number afterwards because she didn't want me to ask questions. She lastly said when she's ready to speak she'll unblock me and text me. I don't reach out to her. She does it to me. She promised she'll do it when she's ready to talk. Now all I have to do is wait I guess."

After saying that, Natalia passed the phone to the girls, with Euchy holding it as she was in the middle.

She read the first paragraph of the message out loud and everything else was read in their heads.

Sent yesterday, 21:03PM

Hey Natalia
Please don't reply to this message. I just wanted to let you know something before you find out the hard way.

I'm emigrating with my family. After my darkest secrets have come out in the school, I just don't feel very safe staying there. I have constantly been cyber bullied and laughed at by almost half of the school.

It's just gotten to the point where I've gotten so depressed I don't even want to go back to school anymore. Moving to another school within the same country doesn't do me any justice - they might find out.

Hence why I'm moving completely - to a new place where hardly anyone knows me. Where I can start afresh, and where most of my family lives anyway (don't try to guess).

So I didn't come back to school.

Principal Freeman doesn't know I'm emigrating - but I've already left the country with my sister and my mum, at the time I sent this anyway.

When I was typing this, we just arrived at my new country. I'm not revealing where I am because I don't want anyone to know. I've also deleted all social media except Instagram because I couldn't take the cyber bullying anymore.

Even when I made my account private on Instagram, people still found a way to get to me. So I deleted my insta account, creating a new one for only close friends and family, like you.

I'm going to block your number because I don't want you asking questions. When I'm ready to talk, I'll let you know. You don't reach out to me, I will do it for you. I promise - and I'll also give you my new insta.

I was going to say I don't want anyone to know about this: but knowing the school that's probably going to be very short lived.

Albeit if you do want to tell someone, please tell Euchy, Saniyah, Candi, Cynthia & Zafira first. Maybe Treyi, if she's not guilty anyway. I'm not sure.

Also thank Saniyah, Cynthia and Candi for all their help the other day. It really meant a lot. Whilst I'm not depressed much nowadays, I most definitely needed to reset.

Sorry for the long message. But yes. That explained everything.

Lots of love
Syeda xx

"Whoever did this must feel so bad," Euchy stated, handing the phone back. "And Syeda says she's okay, but what if she's not? What if something awful happens to her?"

That was what Natalia was afraid of. Syeda had been her best friend for almost all of her life. Her emigrating was like her leaving her life entirely, even though she was still alive.

It just haunted her not being able to be there for her. She seemed fine though, and hopefully though.

"The thing is, the person who started this needs to confess today that they did it, else there's no Spring Fling," Saniyah brought to light.

"There's no Spring Fling?!" Euchy exclaimed, gasping. "But no! That's the only thing I've been looking forward to for a long time. I even had this really nice non refundable dress! Whoever did this better fess up!"

The only problem was how?

The girls had been talking in the toilets for some time (the bell was delayed), that was until Cynthia had arrived.

Everyone greeted her, with Natalia informing her about Syeda.

Cynthia didn't say anything for a while, sighing. She showed her sympathy, however that wasn't the only reason as to why she looked disconsolate.

When the bell did finally go, the girls left, almost anyway, with Natalia asking Cynthia if she was coming.

Cynthia didn't reply instantly, before saying that she would have caught up with them.

Then suddenly, without warning she said something that she couldn't take back.

"It was me."

That was said as the girls were about to leave the toilets for good. They stopped, turning to face her, confused for a while on what she meant.

"What do you mean... it was you?" Saniyah repeated.

They all looked at her intently, none of them smiling. Cynthia avoided eye contact with every single one of them, turning red.

She started the rumours.

And the cyber bullying, getting other people that didn't like Syeda to help her.

When Zafira wanted to leave the group for Treyi and Euchy, Cynthia honestly wanted to join, but she couldn't.

And she didn't.

Natalia and Syeda would have definitely suspected something. Not just that: Cynthia had never really liked Natalia or Syeda to begin with. It was all a huge façade.

"So... Maitreyi wasn't lying when she said that she hadn't started the rumours?" Candi grimaced, slowly folding her arms at her.

"No, and when I found out that she wanted revenge on Natalia by digging up dirt about her past, I made everyone believe that she started the rumours - I wore a disguise and came to school early to post the dirt I found on everyone's lockers. Then I strategically waited a while to do it on Syeda."

Saniyah screamed at her that Syeda had emigrated because of her and almost killed herself.

And poor Maitreyi, the girls hadn't believed her when she had told the truth. At least Avantika was right though: the truth did come out.

"Was this some kind of sick joke to you or something?" Natalia yelled angrily. "You ruined so many people's lives!"

She had to tell Principal Freeman about this at break-time. Cynthia was the last person people was expecting but maybe looks really were deceiving after all.

Cynthia wanted someone to come with her as she had told Principal Freeman everything. They all disagreed, except from Zafira.

"Wait you guys." She muttered eventually. "I think one of us should go."