XI. Breaking News

Wangari and her team walked into their clubroom and stopped. Constanze was still writing all over the whiteboard, erasing other notes and Jaminka was making a mess with the coffee machine, leaving puddles of coffee all around her. Wangari closed her eyes and face palmed. Joanna was simmering with rage and Kimberly marched straight over to Amanda.

"That's the last straw! I don't care how great your story is, you and your team can't keep doing this to our clubroom!" Kimberly bellowed, red in the face. Amanda's face was buried in the giant article about Diana, she glanced up and jumped back, startled to see such angry faces.

"Oh, you guys are finally back." Amanda said in surprise. Wangari stepped forward, looking at the tabloids scattered about as she shook her head. Her usual cheerful personality was dimmed when she knew as a leader she had a responsibility to her team.

"Amanda, Kimberly's right, we need to talk about you working with us, because you're causing too much of a disturbance." Amanda rolled her eyes, but Wangari snatched the tabloid away from her, holding it at a distance. Amanda glared and leaned back in her chair.

"YOU guys should be thanking us. We managed to dig up all of this and a recording." Amanda said, gesturing to the stack of tabloids and tape recorders sitting on the desk beside her. Seriously, they had managed to do most of the investigation by themselves, no thanks to the News Crew.

"By the way the other day at the Cavendish place, you guys completely let us down! You were supposed to be distracting everyone else so we could slip in, but we ended up getting caught the second we climbed through a window. I wanna hear what you have to say for yourselves." Amanda demanded causing Wangari to get angry.

"We DID create a distraction, but after we used every trick we could, they aggressively asked us to leave and we did. That's what being a PROFESSIONAL JOURNALIST actually looks like!" Wangari declared firmly, causing the rest of the green team to stop what they were doing. Amanda gritted her teeth and stood up.

"You trying to say we're a bunch of phonies?" Wangari narrowed her eyes.

"I'm saying that we'll finish the article but after that YOU'RE on probation. Only are YOU allowed in the clubroom and only WITH supervision. I'm giving you plenty of chances, all things considered." Wangari said firmly.

Amanda looked away angrily, her and Wangari were supposed to be on the same side, yet she was treating her just like Diana would. Amanda sat back into her chair, slouching. Wangari looked around the clubroom again, closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Kimberly, Joanna. Please tidy this place up and get Constanze and Jasminka to help." Joanna looked at her in dismay.

"But- but they-" Joanna started.

"PLEASE, just tidy up the room while me and Amanda work on what to do with the story. The sooner that gets done the sooner we can go back to covering real news." Wangari answered in an exhausted tone. The rest of Wangari's team went to carry out her orders and Wangari sat down in a chair facing Amanda.

"Amanda, as much as I want to wring your neck, I'm not going to. I believe that-

"It's like I said the other day, you're just like everyone else. You're scared of Diana." Amanda interrupted. That had to be it. That was the real story, Diana had everyone scared into silence including the News Crew. It was her job to expose Diana, she was the hero of this story, so why was everyone working against her on this? Wangari ran one of her hands through her hair, clearly fatigued.

"For the last time I'm not afraid of Diana. She isn't bribing me to keep quiet about her or anything. The truth is I wanted to do a story on her about a year ago. Back then the climate surrounding Diana was different, there were plenty of allegations about her sneaking around with girls and the like. Hell, there were even some voice recordings on the subject."

Wangari explained, with aged experience in her voice. Amanda sat up in her seat. Her hunch was right, there had been past rumors about Diana, finally some fucking validation! Joanna approached, holding back her resentment for Amanda she placed two cups of coffee down on the desk between them. Wangari took a sip and continued.

"I had almost everything I needed to break the story. In fact I was actually in the process of writing it."

"So why didn't you?" Amanda asked, pleading with the reporter. Wangari placed the tabloid with Diana's face on the desk.

"Because someone else was a step ahead of me and sold the story to the tabloid you were reading. You have to understand that despite what I've said, this whole thing wasn't about me. It was about Diana. That story and the way they told it really fucked up her life, she was much more open and vulnerable back then. Things were bad before the story broke but once it was let loose, she experienced a lot of shaming and harassment.``

Amanda was taken aback. So she was right but the truth was so much worse than she expected. Diana had already gone through something like this before, that's what Diana was crying about in that classroom. The red-haired witch was conflicted, she had gone to great lengths to get enough on Diana. Could she afford to stop now after all of the things that she'd done? Yet there were some things that still didn't add up.

"Well, if Diana's been through all of this before, with the rumors and everything, why doesn't she just come clean, own up to everything and stop being such a bitch. Even if everything's not 100% true, she at least takes away all the secrecy." Amanda commented, trying to think what she would do in that situation. Wangari took a long drink of her coffee and cupped it between her hands.

"It's not that simple, I have some pretty credible sources that claim that even before the story broke her family was deeply ashamed of her for all of it and tried to cover it up. A while later, I followed up with Hannah and Barbara a couple of weeks after the story and it was bad. Diana had gotten pulled out of school for a while and when she came back, her teammates noticed that she'd changed. She was back with a judgemental attitude and a burning hatred for anything that would make others question her sexuality."

Amanda looked at the tape recorder and it clicked. That's what Diana's aunt and her guests were talking about in the garden. Setting Diana up with a boyfriend to dispel the rumors. It made sense, Diana really was gay but trying to hide it, because of the pressure from her family. Wangari continued.

"I read the article by the way. I still remember how horrible it was. They caught Diana on a few dates with various girls and blew it up into her womanizing all the girls in town and seeking to trash her 'family's good name'. Terrible journalism." Wangari finished shaking her head. Amanda finally drank some of her own coffee. She was at a crossroad, what now? Should she expose Diana and unleash another wave of vicious harassment on her? Or keep quiet like Wangari did? Amanda took a big breath and decided to ask for advice, something she rarely did.

"I don't ask this kinda question very often, but what do you think I should do?' Wangari sat there quietly for a couple of minutes thinking after a while she seemed to come to a conclusion.

"I would talk to Diana myself. I wouldn't threaten her or anything, but you haven't got her side of the story yet." Wangari said, smiling as the last bits of the room were cleaned up and their teammates sat down in some chairs to have coffee.

"Okay...so how do I convince Diana to come talk to me? She hates me." Amanda said playing with strands of her hair. Kimberly spoke up.

"Just ask her to meet up in Professor Urusla's classroom to help you with something school related. That's how we get people to interview with us all the time. Usually the professor's in there grading so the two of you won't be completely alone and she'll assume it has something to do with making amends to your recent fight." Wangari scratched her head and sighed.

"Yeah, normally I'd say don't lie to her but we do need to hear her side of things before we move forward with the story soon. You guys probably noticed this today but rumors are starting to spread and we have a chance to try and help Diana get ahead of them, for her sake." Amanda started to try and protest against this but she let it go. Maybe she had been wrong, Diana wasn't the villain in all of this. Maybe she had just fallen victim to the bigotry around her. Amanda didn't like admitting that she was wrong but maybe...just maybe it wasn't time to break the story just yet.