"The trouble with rumors was they had the tendency to stick. To coat over your logic like tea stains on teeth. What was even more troublesome was that there had been times in the past when they turned out to be accurate." -Tanaz Bhathena

                                Rumors

On the other side of the main building, Monique was on her way to join the sports club. The sports club table was right outside of the gym, and it had a line of students waiting to sign up, including the curly pink haired girl. If she had gotten there sooner, then she would not have to wait in a line to sign up for the sports club. It wasn’t completely Monique's fault since she didn’t know where the gym was located and had to ask around to get to the location. Though it would have been easier if she hadn’t lost the school map Headmistress Roseburg had given out on her first day at Pandora Hill Academia. 

Monique pouted at the sight of the line but was still eager at the thought of being in the volleyball club. Who knows, maybe she’ll be able to make a friend or two with the other students participating in the volleyball club. Yeah that's right, no need to dwell on the mistakes of the past, Monique thought with an optimistic smile. She still had the opportunity to join the volleyball club and finally make some friends! 

"Huh?" Monique had joined the line, when a female student walked by dragging another female student who was crying. 

The female student ignored her weeping hostage and walked straight into the gym. She wanted to ask if the crying girl needed help but it was too late. Monique let out a sigh,all she could do was wait in line and hope the crying girl was alright.

The other students in the line didn't seem fazed by the crying girl being dragged by what Monique assumed was her friend, almost as if they were used to seeing such a sight.

The line was a long one but it certainly wasn’t a slow one. She only had to wait a few minutes until she was able to sign up for the volleyball club. Luck seemed to be smiling on her, for there was one more spot left open for the volleyball club. There was a separate paper for the basketball club, and she saw that there were a long list of names on the basketball club paper compared with the volleyball club. Monique assumed not many people wanted to sign up for volleyball as she happily signed her name in the last spot and joined the others who went inside the gym. 

The gym was nicely sized, the wooden floors were squeaky clean and shining, and the bleachers had a dark purple and yellow pattern on them. On the court, a group of students were playing basketball, some still wearing their uniform shirts, others in tank tops and their uniform pants. Some students were sitting on the bleachers watching the game including the weeping girl who was still crying and her friend who was cheering for some of the basketball playing students while ignoring the crying of her friend. The rest of the students were talking to one of the club leaders inside the storage room. Monique had nothing better to do, so she decided to head over to the bleachers and watch the other students play basketball. 

“I heard that the volleyball club leader is looking for a captain for the volleyball club.” A male student sitting in the row in front of her told his friend.

“Really? I thought they already had a captain?” His friend responded in a confused tone.

“Yeah they did have one,” The student paused and glanced around them. Monique pretended as if she was watching the basketball game and wasn’t eavesdropping on their conversation. The boy turned back to his friend after making sure nobody was listening. “Apparently the previous captain disappeared last year so now they are looking for someone to replace her.” 

“The previous captain went missing?”

“One day she was here, the next day she was gone without a trace.” The boy nodded to his friend.

“Wait, weren't there other students who went missing last year?”

“That’s righ-”

“What happened to the missing students? Why did they go missing? Did someone come on campus and snatch them up?” Monique interrupted with her own questions, leaning forward from her row on the bleachers, her purple-reddish eyes sparkling with curiosity, causing the two students in front of her to jump. 

“Huh?”Both the students exclaimed and looked back at her in surprise. 

“You were saying that some students went missing last year. I’m asking you how they disappeared.” Monique responded with a bright smile.

“Oh uh, I don’t know all the details but I did hear that all the missing kids went missing on the exact same night.” The boy who started the conversation about the missing students answered her while blushing.

“Did you know any of the missing students?” Monique asked the boy who shook his head.

“I didn’t know any of them personally but there was one student who went missing that everybody in the school knew.” The boy said. “Her name was Ro-” The male student’s head was drenched in water, cutting off his sentence. 

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.” A yellow haired girl with reddish brown skin and angry dark purple-blueish eyes wearing a black backwards baseball hat, white tank top and uniform pants held an empty water bottle over his head while holding a basketball against her hip with her other hand. 

The other students on the bleachers stopped their conversations to stare at them and those closer to the wet boy shifted away from him. The students who were previously playing basketball had stopped to take a break and also ended up witnessing the yellow haired girl pouring her water bottle over the head of the male student. 

“Aww man, Kamari is in one of her moods again.” One of the students behind the angry yellow haired girl shook his head. 

“Poor guy, I doubt he’ll last long considering how Kamari gets when she is angry.” The other students nodded in agreement while giving the wet boy looks of pity but made no moves into stepping in to help the other student or defend him against the angry girl.

“Hey! What is wrong with you?” Monique shouted, quickly standing up and glaring at the yellow haired girl. She had no plans on sitting back and watching the other girl bully the defenseless male student.

 “I suggest you mind your own business.” Kamari responded back to Monique while glaring down at the trembling water soaked male student. The male student’s friend was also trembling in fear beside him despite the girl’s anger not being targeted at him.

“Excuse me?” Monique raised a hand to her chest and scoffed. “You're the one who interrupted our conversation by pouring water on him!”

“Yeah I did pour water on him, but that had nothing to do with you."Kamari said through clenched teeth."I did what I did for a reason.”

“Kamari, she was just curious and I was trying to explai-”The trembling boy tried to explain himself but was cut off again by the angry yellow haired girl.

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear your excuses!” Kamari growled out, throwing the water bottle away and grabbing the boy’s uniform shirt. Monique was ready to intervene as the situation was about to escalate when the gym doors opened with a loud bang.

“KAMARI! I’M HERE, I’M HERE! PLEASE DON’T PUNISH ME FOR BEING LATE!” A tall boy with the same yellow hair and purple blueish eyes as Kamari screamed out while panting as he held the doors open with both hands. 

Everybody’s attention had turned to the gym doors when they were slammed open, even Kamari stopped glaring at the wet male student to look and see who was causing the ruckus. The tall boy paused when he noticed that everyone’s attention was on him. He also noticed the empty water bottle knocked over on the floor, Kamari standing over a trembling boy and her clutching the wet uniform of the boy. It didn’t take long for him to piece together the events that just happened.