"What do you mean Natalia has been saying bad things about me?"

Maitreyi was at Diamanté's house because he wanted her to tutor her, and so far things between them had been going pretty well.

One thing that didn't go so well was when Diamanté had been yelled at by his mother, but that was more so to do with Diamanté than Maitreyi.

Maitreyi had noticed no red flags with Diamanté, even if Eucharia did say that him getting in trouble was kind of one.

Diamanté had just informed her that Natalia had been saying bad things about her to Diamanté so that Diamanté would have maybe changed his mind to have Maitreyi as his tutor.

Which definitely didn't work in Natalia's favour otherwise she wouldn't even have been at Diamanté's house right now.

"I have a voice recording of almost everything bad she said to you yesterday," Diamanté had explained. "Just in case you didn't believe me."

Natalia didn't know that Diamanté had discreetly voice recorded her, not just that but all this time Maitreyi had thought that Natalia was her friend. Clearly not.

Maitreyi wanted to hear the voice message so therefore Diamanté had played it for her.

"Bear in mind that this wasn't everything she said about you because I didn't think of recording her straight away. It was just something that came to me."

She had nodded and he had played it.

"You can't let Maitreyi tutor you."

Diamanté didn't say anything, he had just looked at her dead in the eyes before he had said anything else, and he had stopped walking.

"Why?"

Natalia had to think of a reason why without making it seem as though she was jealous of the girl, even though she was.

It would have been a lot better for the girl had she thought of this before she had talked to him, but she wanted to talk to him before it was too late.

"You're probably just using her for her looks, right?" She clearly wasn't there when he said he wasn't, although she was.

She had been eavesdropping on the whole conversation, waiting for the right time to talk to him.

"I mean, I did hear you say that she was pretty in Maths class. I'm on your table. Why didn't you ask me to tutor you?"

Diamanté had become angrier at that, staring her down.

"Do you really want me to answer that, Natalia?!" He had screamed at her. "You know I don't like you, so don't even go there! Me wanting Maitreyi to be my tutor has absolutely nothing to do with you, so just get lost already before I lose it!"

Natalia knew that he didn't like her, but that didn't stop her from using the dirt she had on Maitreyi against her.

"Her brother died. I bet you it was her fault."

"Why on earth would you say something like that?"

"I went to her house the other day for her late brother's death anniversary. It had been five years since he had died. Her family is pretty dysfunctional if you ask me. Not just that but... I heard Maitreyi does fraud."

That wasn't true and Maitreyi wasn't a fraud in the slightest.

Her family could have been dysfunctional at times, although that was mainly when they hadn't gotten along with each other due to one reason or the other.

Diamanté didn't say anything, with Natalia continuing to ramble on about fake information about Maitreyi because she was insanely jealous of her.

"Not just that but you know how you said she was really pretty in class today? Yeah, she got plastic surgery. And because that she devil is a fraud, she therefore didn't have to pay. Everything I'm telling you is the truth and I can show you where I got the information from."

She made some fake a anonymous website online about her, showing it to Diamanté, although he wasn't listening.

There was actually no dirt on Maitreyi yet, she was just making everything up. She almost had the audacity to ask Diamanté why he didn't like her, but she didn't.

Diamanté had tried to ignore her but she had kept on talking to him. She wasn't normally like this, she had just never been so jealous of someone before.

Natalia had said a lot more hurtful things about Maitreyi, not everything being recorded. Not once did she ever think that Diamanté would have used this against her, despite the fact that they were enemies.

The voice message had stopped after Diamanté had stuck up for Maitreyi, and he had left Natalia alone. When Maitreyi had heard all of that... she was speechless.

She didn't know what to say.

"But why... why would she do something like that? I never did anything." Maitreyi wondering. She wanted to cry, but she had held back her tears.

"Yeah I know. She's jealous of you, and it most definitely shows." Diamanté had answered. "But don't worry. If Natalia and/or her friends do anything to hurt you, I'll back you up. And I'll get my brothers to do the same thing. Plus I'm sure your friends will do the same as well."

She had acknowledged him, then she wanted to know if she could have used his bathroom, as well as where it was too.

"Yeah, it's upstairs to your left," he had informed her., watching her unconsciously as she had stood up. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I just need some time alone. I'll be back soon. I promise."

She needed to talk to someone about this: there was no way that she could have kept any of this to herself.

When Maitreyi had gone to Diamanté's bathroom, greeting his mum on the way, she too had asked her if she was okay.

She had said the same thing that she had said to Diamanté, she was fine. She just needed to use the bathroom.

Maitreyi didn't know how to lock the door for a while, that was until she had realised that she had been doing it the wrong way the whole time.

When she had done so, she had washed her face almost straight away. She was going to cry after she had talked to someone, as she didn't want them to see her in an emotional state.

That had led to the question on who she should have called.

Mum or Avantika?

They were both very supportive people, respectively and together.

However, despite this, they didn't go to her school, so even if their advice was good, it might not have been as good as someone who had actually gone to the girl's school.

That led her to tell her friends, who had actually gone to her school. So without further ado, Maitreyi had decided to text Eucharia, Saniyah and Candi Rose on their group chat.

Maitreyi
Hey girls. You free?
We need to talk. All of us.
At the same time would be preferable.

Nobody had said anything for a while, with Maitreyi sighing.

This had seemed like a good idea until Maitreyi had found out that they had seen her message, but they hadn't replied.

When it had seemed as though things were hopeless, they had all started typing straight away, coincidentally.

Just as Maitreyi had left WhatsApp, she had gotten 5 messages from the three of them.

Eucharia💜
I hope Diamanté didn't do anything.
And yeah, I'm free. What's up? x

Saniyah💙
I'm free but not for a long time. Same with Candi Rose. Is everything okay?

Candi Rose🌹
We're here for you, girl. Wanna video chat?

She had saved people's emojis depending on their favourite colour, unless their name had some aspect of an emoji in it, for example Candi Rose's.

Maitreyi had replied without even realising it.

Maitreyi
Yes please.
I'll call you guys now.

She had stuck to what she had said, calling all of them on her phone. They had picked up immediately, with all of them showing their camera as well.

As she was calling them, she had moved out of the bathroom to Diamanté's room. They all wanted to know what was up.

Maitreyi: Natalia's said some bad things about me.

Candi Rose: Which Natalia? There's five. I mean, I knew her name was common. Just not that common.

There was more than one Natalia?

Maitreyi had no idea about that.

She didn't know her surname, until she had remembered that it was the Natalia that was in the same Maths Class as her.

Maitreyi: The Natalia in our Maths class, Saniyah. Natalia Delores I think.

Eucharia: What did she do?

Maitreyi: She said bad things about me to Diamanté. Diamanté voice recorded almost everything. She said that I was the reason my brother died, I got plastic surgery and I do fraud.

The girls had started talking on top of one another, more so cursing Natalia at the same time.

Saniyah: If we knew you knew her then we would have warned you about her. This is beyond bullying. She's spreading false rumours about you.

Eucharia: Why do you care what she thinks, girl? You know she's only saying those things because she's jealous of you. Jealousy's not a good colour on anyone. Especially her!

Maybe it was because she was popular and she could have turned everybody against Maitreyi within a matter of time that had gotten to her.

Maitreyi: It's just seriously gotten to me and I don't know what to do.

Candi Rose: Whatever she does, we've got you, and that will never change.

Saniyah and Eucharia had agreed to that, with Maitreyi being beyond grateful for friends like these. She had thanked them.

Eucharia had suggested that on Monday at school, she had told someone about this, more so the principal. Then he would have dealt with the situation.

Maitreyi: What if he doesn't?

Saniyah: He most likely will. Explains why she kept on giving you dirty looks during Maths class, which I didn't remember until now.

It had then dawned on Candi Rose that neither her nor Saniyah were going to be in school on Monday as they had their aunty's baby shower to go to.

Candi and Saniyah were cousins.

Monday was the freest day of her schedule, every other day she was insanely busy. That had therefore left Eucharia and Maitreyi alone, which both of them were beyond okay with.

After their conversation, Maitreyi had thanked them once again, and they had gone, accepting her thanks.

She had cried for a bit at the bathroom again, but at the same time, she didn't let that ruin her day as that had reflected Natalia more than her.

Twenty minutes later and Maitreyi had gone downstairs to meet Diamanté. She genuinely felt as though she couldn't have gone on, wanting to go home.

"It's my fault. I shouldn't have told you anything."

"Yes, you should. I appreciate you telling me, otherwise I wouldn't have known. And I've been thinking she was my friend the whole time. Clearly not."

"You okay?"

Maitreyi didn't know. She did want to go home though, asking if Diamanté could have sent her that voice message.

She didn't want her mum and sister to know about it at first but she did now. Maybe they could have given her some good advice.

Diamanté had done that, suggesting maybe playing some video games could have helped.

Maitreyi wasn't sure at first, not saying anything for a while... then she changed her mind.

They had played for a couple of hours, studying for two more. Monday had soon come, with only Maitreyi and Eucharia being at school.