V. A Real Story
Amanda stood awkwardly next to Wangari inside one of the many classrooms of Luna Nova. They were interviewing one of the members of the Botany Club for a story on the new Mandrake plots they created on the school grounds. The rest of Wangari's team was shooting with a camera and scribbling down notes. Amanda had to admit for all of the reporter's theractics, she was good at talking with people. The Botany Club's members were notorious for being shy and closed off.
"So, how will these new plots affect the students of Luna Nova?" Wangari asked, pointing the microphone back at the senior with an acne ridden face.
"Well, that means the locker rooms next to the potions lab will smell like fruit. We plan to have more than enough Mandrakes for the Botany Club as well as for potions courses that Luna Nova will offer. It just means that instead of ordering them we'll grow them fresh, meaning that the school saves money and can use the funds on other things, like the students." The upperclassman finished with a plain tone. Seriously, Amanda thought, who the hell cares?
"And what would you like to see the money go towards?" The reporter asked without skipping a beat. Amanda yawned, this whole conversation was so run-of-the-mill.
"Well, I think that the school could order some new gym uniforms or something." After the student finished, Wangari turned professionally back to the camera.
"And there you have it, Luna Nova! If we find ourselves with new gym uniforms then we may have the Botany Club president's actions to thank. Back to you in the studio." Wangari finished.
Amanda snickered a little bit and the rest of the yellow team looked at her as Wangari pulled the Club president aside.
"What's so funny? We've been chasing this story for weeks. Poppy has refused to talk to us live and only agreed to a private interview." Kimberly stated. Amanda got herself under control.
"It's just that, a story about school Mandrakes is so freaking' boring. Literally, nobody cares about what the Botany Club does except for the 7 people in it." Amanda said, knowing full well that she was right.
"It's news, that's what we do, report what's actually happening at school. We don't chase stories that don't have any basis, we don't do yellow journalism, okay?" Joanna snarked, making corrections on her notes.
Wangari walked back over cleaning off her microphone, smiling.
"Yeah sorry, I might have given you the wrong impression yesterday, but we're not a News Network if we just report on gossip."
Amanda thought back to their conversation yesterday. Wangari was such an extrovert on screen, it was interesting to see how she had such sage-like knowledge about reporting. Surely, she wanted to chase bigger stories.
"What about some investigative journalism? You know, chasing a REAL story is something that could put your club on the map. Give people a story that they'll be dying to read. Not this lame school club nonsense." Amanda said, putting her hands on her hips.
Wangari chuckled a little bit, shaking her head.
"It doesn't work like that, investigative journalism can take years on a single story, we're talking about TEAMS of people, search for a story and following up lead after lead -"
"What if I could give you something now?" Amanda dared, surprising herself with her boldness. The yellow team went silent, with baited anticipation. After looking around the classroom to see that they were alone, Wangari set down her microphone and eyed Amanda with a bemused look in her eyes. The kind of look an experienced anchor gives a fresh faced intern. Amanda knew she couldn't resist a possible story.
"What do you have in mind?" The reporter asked, the rest of the team also leaned in to hear. Amanda prepared a pitch quickly in her mind. She was pretty good at thinking on the fly, but this was something important. This might be a chance to investigate Diana herself and maybe get to the bottom of what was really going on and expose her. Questions: like why Diana was so closeted? Why was she so bent on suppressing her own family history that she claimed to be so proud of? These could be answered if the red haired witch was given the chance to search for the truth herself with experienced help.
"I want to do a story on the Cavendish family and their public versus private image. Beatrix Cavendish was Luna Nova's founder after all so it's related to your guys' job. Look, we'll focus on Diana as a link between this story and the student body. I have a sinking suspicion that Diana's stunt she pulled with trying to cancel Free Dress Friday is only the tip of the iceberg. I think that there's more a lot more nefarious, homophobic dirt that the Cavendish family is hiding that could be a fucking gold mine of a story." Amanda finished with dramatic flair.
At this point Amanda was stretching it. She had no facts to back up that the Cavendish family was in fact part of this devious conspiracy to suppress queer witches or that Diana was the ringleader but she knew she had to sell the story to Wangari and her team. She just had to, Amanda knew she couldn't take another story about some stupid school club or interviewed teacher.
Amanda took a deep breath as Wangari was rubbing her chin thinking about the proposal. She could do this, Amanda reasoned. Wangari finally spoke.
"You know I'm a sucker for a good story. I'll admit, day time news can get pretty boring. So I'm in! I'll let you and if you want your team investigate Diana and her family. I'll tell Professor Finnelan that you're working on a project to get outside funds for the club. We'll even help you out with parts of the investigation. However, if you get caught, the three of us had nothing to do with it. Got it?" Wangari said with emphasis on the last part.
Amanda grinned widely.
"You got it! Trust me this will be a story that will immortalize your club, just think. If you get your hands on this story and break it, you'll be set for life in reporting!"
Wangari looked off into the distance and stars in her eyes grew thinking of all the awards, accolades and opportunities that could come out of this. The rest of her club members were more skeptical. Wangari grabbed a seat from one of the nearby desks and sat down in a chair in front of a desk between her and Amanda.
"Okay then, tell me more about what evidence there is for this story. Sell me on the idea if you will." Wangari said letting Amanda talk her more into this.
Amanda smirked and mimicked Wangari's actions sitting across the desk from her.
"Okay, so the story can start out with Diana's involvement with the school's dress code." Amanda started.
"I'm listening…" Wangari said, leaning in. Kimberly sighed and put away her camera as Joanna sat down and flipped to a new page in her notebook and listened to Amanda.
"Next we go into Diana's own fucked up comments on other students and how they should dress. Then -"
"Wait. Hold on. That's not objective at all." Joanna said, speaking up.
Amanda was taken aback, this was such a good story, so what gives?
"What are you talkin' about?" Amanda asked.
"You're already painting Diana as the villain in this and you haven't even investigated anything yet. You're just basing it on a hunch. Sure there are news stories that have "bad" and "good" guys but true investigative journalism is uncovering the unwavering truth. You don't take sides." Joanna explained, Wangari smiled widely.
"Yep. It's good to see that some of my knowledge had rubbed off on you. Amanda, I know that you want to take Diana down a peg and let's face it, I even want to strangle her from time to time but are you really going to chase the truth about Diana and her family or just use what you find to paint whatever picture that you want of them?"
Amanda leaned back into her chair for a second but decided that she had to be right.
"I'm not making up anything! Sometimes your gut instinct is right. I'm telling you what I know through experience. Diana's against anything that doesn't jive with her prissy world view. You three and everyone else has heard her multiple times say fucked up things, surely it doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude that Diana must hiding in the closet but you guys still won't expose her for the hypocrite that she is!"
The yellow team silently looked at Amanda, aware of the silence but letting the words sink in. They all exchanged nervous looks.
"Jesus! You three are just as scared of her as everyone else. Maybe you're fine with her hypocrisy but I'm not." Amanda said getting up and leaving.