It's a double update! Also I've been wanting to get through this chapter for ages. It came earlier than I thought.
Happy reading !

⬆️Jadah Marie as Eucharia
Rob Murat as Principal Freeman (right)
Benjamin Norris as himself

Natalia had been on Maitreyi's case for most of the day, mainly because Maitreyi and Eucharia didn't really have any lessons together today.

The first time that they had really seen each other all day was at lunchtime, because Eucharia had an exam that had led to break time. Her break time was later than normal.

"Girl, thank you so much for always being there for me," Maitreyi had said to her at lunchtime, after they had eaten and almost when lunch was about to end. "It really means a lot. I know we've only known each other for like a week now but it feels like a year."

"No problem, Treyi. You know I got you!" They had closed their lockers together, sorting it out at the same time, in the middle of the corridors. "Besides, with Saniyah and Candi gone for the day, who's going to look after you?"

Maitreyi smiled, but she didn't reply.

They hadn't talked about Natalia all day, which had changed now.

Eucharia had gone from walking behind her to walking next to her, talking excessively about Natalia.

"So," she had paused before continuing. "Have you figured out what you're going to do with Natalia yet?" Eucharia wanted to know. "She doesn't even deserve having me call her by her actual name. I'm still thinking of a mean, but good nickname for her."

Maitreyi didn't know what she was going to do at first - then she had thought about it.

Natalia and her friends had gotten on her nerves for most of the day. She couldn't let that have gone unnoticed. It wasn't right.

"You know, I thought about it, and I decided," she had stopped. "That I'm going to seek revenge on that girl."

Eucharia metaphorically exploded.

She had literally stopped Maitreyi dead in her tracks, by walking in front of her.

"Girl? Are you crazy?! You want revenge on Natalia?! Revenge is a no-no! It's never the answer!"

"I'm tired of her, Eucharia, and I can't take it anymore." Maitreyi had sighed. "I need revenge on this girl."

"In what world has revenge done any good to anybody?" Eucharia had looked at her quizzically. "Besides, two wrongs don't make a right. You don't need to stoop down to her level."

Maitreyi didn't even think of reporting Natalia to the principal. Luckily, that had come up later - but by Eucharia.

Not by Maitreyi.

Eucharia had hated revenge.

Even if she had extremely disliked someone and vice versa, she would have never let revenge take over anything.

She would have just reported them privately, stuck up for herself when necessary - and let karma deal with everything else.

"Crud. She's coming. Quick! Let's act as though we were never talking about her."

They had chilled by the lockers, as Natalia had gone past with Zafira, Syeda and Cynthia: her main group of friends.

Eucharia and Maitreyi had watched them go past discretely, with Eucharia yelling the word demon! just after they had gone past.

Maitreyi facepalmed himself.

Even though Natalia and all of her friends hadn't heard her, someone else did.

His name was Benjamin, he was a skateboarder and he had gotten pretty good grades.

"Did you just call me a demon?" He had asked Eucharia, who had freaked out.

This wasn't on Maitreyi so she didn't say anything - she didn't even back the girl up whatsoever.

"Erm. No." She lied. "I said... Principal... Freeman... rocks!"

Benjamin had eyed her suspiciously, not saying anything else. Eucharia was panicking - until he had smiled.

"All right!" He had checked to see that no one was listening, his voice turning into a whisper. "You know, once my teacher undermarked me in a test, and she refused to mark me higher. I told Principal Freeman- and he moved my B to an A*! I had only been undermarked by seven marks. He marked me 17 marks higher!"

The girls had pretended to be interested, with Benjamin telling them that he would have been them later.

Eucharia had breathed a sigh of relief when that was over, although that didn't stop Maitreyi from being unhappy with her.

"Way to be discreet, Eucharia!"

"I'm sorry!" She had apologised. "But hey - just be lucky that demon rhymes with Freeman, and that he's a good principal. Otherwise I don't know what the heck I would have done."

Not just that.

Benjamin and Natalia were pretty good friends, so if Eucharia had told him the truth, she was done for.

Benjamin was friends with most people.

"Anyway, we're not done here. You shouldn't seek revenge on her. Like I said - two wrongs don't make a right."

"Then why is Natalia doing the wrong in the first place?"

"Because she's a miserable little girl that likes bringing others down to feel better about herself," Eucharia had answered almost instantly. "And speaking of the principal earlier... Have you considered telling him about this? I know you haven't, else you wouldn't have suggested seeking revenge on that girl."

She hadn't thought of that no, and they were very close to his office.

Now Maitreyi wanted to talk to him about it, with Eucharia following her.

-----

Maitreyi had paused the voice recording that Diamanté had sent to her.

"And that's why I think you should expel Natalia Delores."

"Correction!" Eucharia had butted in, loudly. "What she means is that's why we think you should expel Natalia two timing, stuck up, irresponsible, she devil, back stabbing, cat-fishing, pretentious, obnoxious, Delores."

She wanted to say more and Maitreyi could tell. She didn't though - Principal Freeman didn't really like time wasters like that.

After having to wait a while, both Eucharia and Maitreyi were at the Principal's office:

With Maitreyi letting him know what had happened.

Principal Freeman wasn't a very fancy person. This had explained why most staff members had fancier rooms, but he had decided to be simple and conservative.

But he was a good principal regardless.

Inevitably, before Maitreyi had shown him the voice message, he wanted proof that Natalia had actually said bad things about her to Diamanté and it wasn't just a scam.

Anybody that knew Principal Freeman well knew that he didn't take any nonsense and he wasn't an all talk and no action type of person.

"So let me get this straight," Principal Freeman had summed up after the voice message had been played.

Maitreyi didn't play everything due to time constraints, however she did definitely get the main message across.

"Natalia said some fake rumours about you to Diamanté to convince him not to let you tutor him. Diamanté showed you on Saturday at his house, and he forwarded the message to you. Which was what you just showed me."

"That's exactly what happened, yes," Maitreyi had agreed, with Eucharia nodding.

"And you want me to expel her because of that?"

"She didn't even know that Natalia was a bad person before then. But sir, she's been on her case since the start," Eucharia had chirped in, even though Principal Freeman wasn't talking to her. He didn't seem to mind though.

"No one in our friendship group knew that Maitreyi knew Natalia, otherwise we would have definitely warned her about her. So yes - an expulsion would be wonderful."

Yeah - Principal Freeman wasn't going to do that. He couldn't. It wasn't right.

The girls had reacted negatively just as Principal Freeman had expected them too, although they didn't act negatively enough for him to become annoyed.

"What do you mean you can't do that?"

"This is literally the first time I'm hearing about this," Principal Freeman had stated. "If you had told me about this before and then she had continued doing this - then I would have expelled her. I also just found out that apparently you're not the only one she is plotting against, Maitreyi. It's on everyone she's jealous of."

Which had seemed to be a lot of people.

"So you're not going to do anything about it?" Eucharia had frowned.

"I never said that," Principal Freeman disagreed. "Listen, you two. I'll definitely have a talk with her after this conversation. I'll give her three warnings. And if she oversteps my boundaries - or in this case, if she messed up all three of her warnings - and I find out, then I'll expel her. How does that sound?"

Better than nothing, they had guessed.

Now Maitreyi had wished that she had told him this sooner.

Something didn't make sense though.

"Sir, you said that you know she does this to everyone she's jealous of. Isn't that a good reason for you to expel her without giving her three warnings?" Maitreyi realised.

"No, Maitreyi, I said I just found out she does that, if you and Eucharia were listening." And obviously, I want to give her some chances to redeem herself. Expelling her straight away is kind of evil, if you ask me. Is she the only person in her friendship group you're having trouble with?"

Yes. Syeda, Cynthia and Zafira weren't half as bad as Natalia.

Syeda and Cynthia did get on Maitreyi and her friends' nerves at times - albeit it was nowhere as extreme as Natalia.

"No sir. That's all. Thank you."

"No problem."

They had inadvertently stayed as Principal Freeman had made an announcement to the school.

Hello everyone, this is Principal Freeman speaking. Natalia Delores, could you make your way over to my office right now please? I seriously need to speak to you about something.

Eucharia and Maitreyi had heard people talking about that through the speakers which Principal Freeman deliberately didn't switch off.

Oooh, you're in trouble!

No, I'm not, I didn't do anything wrong, she had laughed nervously, as if she wasn't sure about that herself. It's probably for a good thing, right?

"It's not for a good thing, you're in pretty big trouble," Principal Freeman had corrected, with everyone shouting oooh!

The girls had smiled, high fiving themselves after they had heard that, and also when the principal wasn't looking.

They were free to go after - which just so happened to be when Natalia and her group of friends had seen them. They were close to the office before too.

"You idiots snitched on me, didn't you?!"

"No we didn't, you played yourself," Eucharia had smirked, flicking her hair. "That's us one, you zero. You're finally getting what you deserve."

Natalia didn't know about the voice message and neither did her friends. But she was just about to find out.

Natalia and her group of friends minus Zafira, who had just looked at them solemnly had given them death glares.

Eucharia and Maitreyi had done the same thing as them.

It had seemed as though their rivalry was just getting started.