Before anything else: God loves you and wants to teach you something that makes friendship stronger and your heart lighter. It's a gift, not a scolding.
Do you know how a bonfire works? While we keep adding sticks and logs, it grows. If we stop adding them, it shrinks little by little until it goes out on its own. A fire needs someone to keep feeding it, or else it dies.
Gossip is a lot like that bonfire. Gossip is when we keep talking about something bad about someone who isn't there to defend themselves. Every time we pass it along, it's like throwing another stick on the fire. And guess what? If nobody passes it along, the gossip goes out, just like a bonfire without wood.
Here's the coolest part: that means you have a power. When someone comes to tell you something bad about a friend, you can be the one who doesn't pass the stick along. You can say you don't want to talk about it, or change the subject, or go play something else. Then the gossip dies in you, and nobody gets hurt.
And there's something even better than putting out a fire: lighting a good one. Instead of repeating something bad, you can say something nice and true about the person. That's the kind of fire that warms and doesn't burn anyone.