The Rumor Mill

“Did you hear the news?” One of the other girls in the shoot leaned over to Etoile, whispering. 

“What news?” She replied as she adjusted her pose.

“Apparently the bust of the late Queen in Verdant Castle has disappeared!” the other model exclaimed quietly. 

“There’s no way that’s true.” Etoile rolled her eyes, skeptical.

“Excuse me! Models please focus on the camera, we will take a break in just a few minutes.” the photographer interjected.

The four models on set, Etoile included, finished the current set and were shuffled into the green room so the next could be staged. 

“Where exactly did you hear about this rumor?” Etoile’s brow furrowed before she pushed away the lines the expression might crinkle into her features.

“Well I heard it from my driver, and I think he heard it from his cousin, who’s a verdant castle guard!” The chatty model yammered on, and Etoile sighed, resolving that this alarming game of telephone certainly wasn’t anything to take heed of. 

“I heard something similar as well, actually.” Camellia, one of the quieter girls who was visiting for the shoot from far away chimed in. She was a lockette with lightly tanned skin and pink and green eyes. 

“Well where did you hear it from?” Etoile questioned again.

“I heard it from my manager, whose best friend works in the palace as a maid.” she clarified. This gave it only slightly more credibility in Etoile’s mind. The concept that the guards of Verdant Castle could be so foolish as to allow the theft of the late Queen’s memorial? It was a preposterous notion. 

“Well.. until I hear it from the direct mouth of someone who has seen the missing bust with their own eyes, I refuse to entertain this drivel.” Etoile huffed, taking a delicate sip of water as a stylist started to fuss with her hair. A notification buzzed her phone on the table, and she leaned forward to pick it up. It was a text from her newly cured acquaintance, Mila Cardalucci.

“Etoile, I have been asked to join on an investigation regarding the disappearance of the late queen’s memorial bust. Let me know if you hear anything you might be important, please.” she read and growled, before bouncing up out of her chair and leaving the shoot all together, her scowling expression unable to untwist itself for the remainder of the day.