"Don't think you're free, I'm sure they'll use something to hold you"

"You better pray they find those printers, else you'll pay dearly for it"

The shadowy figure stood a good distance away, smart enough not to be noticed but still close enough to hear everything that transpired. What a wonderful way to ease the burden of guilt, it was almost as if the universe had given her a pawn to play with, and the new girl was just the unfortunate victim. Now, all that needed to be done is to give the authorities more reasons to doubt the scholarship girl, and the rest would take care of themselves.

This was too good be true.

***********************

Ifechi said at least five prayers that no one would notice her or look at her weirdly the next day when she stepped into school. And for the early part of the day,  it was answered. She didn't have any papers that Friday, but they were mandated to be in school, even on the days they didn't write exams, for extra lessons and study time.

Ifechi trotted down the corridors to her class and stayed there for the next two hours, grateful that no one had suspected anything or asked her any weird questions concerning yesterday's event. Perhaps Gabriel wasn't the blabbermouth she thought he was.

However as she left her class during break, she noticed the stares...small at first but then more heads turned as she passed. Most of them were juniors and she could almost feel their eyes boring holes into her back.

"What!?" She snapped at one boy whose stare was particularly intense. He shuddered and scampered away, giving her time to recollect herself. She didn't have a reputation for being a mean senior,  and she wanted it to remain like that.

She was taking the last flight of stairs down when she overheard some SS1 girls at the mid-step.

"Wait, isn't she the senior that got the highest in jamb."

"I heard they called her to the principal's office yesterday " one of them spoke

"Maybe it's for another competition" another said

"No way, I'm sure it has to do with the missing equipment..." a different voice spoke

"But how.."

They paused when they saw her coming. Few seconds after she'd passed, the first girl spoke up again in a not-so-subtle voice

"I heard she got caught sneaking into the new lab"

Ehh?

Ifechi turned sharply, about to retaliate when Emmanuella beat her to it.

"Somto, Miracle, Alozie, I assume you were at the assembly yesterday and you clearly heard what the principal said about spreading false rumours. Surely you don't want to face any disciplinary action do you?" The headgirl appeared at the top of the 1st floor stairs.

"No senior"

"Good, now back to your classes"

"Yes senior" they scurried away leaving Ifechi and a worried looking Emmanuella at the mid-step.

"I need to talk to you" She said grabbing Ifechi's hand without even waiting for a response. They sat at the last corner of the cafeteria,  the place where she'd formerly held math lessons for Damien. It was a nice and quiet spot, convenient for these type of discussions.

"I overheard what happened yesterday, what's wrong, is everything okay?" She asked, worry evident on her face.

Ifechi looked around before replying. "They think I have something to do with the missing printers"

"Wh...why? why would they assume something like that, did they see you around there...have you even been to the lab..."

She paused when she noticed Ifechi's expression, it took her three seconds to register.

"Wait have you...no don't tell me, you...Ifechi!"

"I promise I didn't do anything"

"You snuck into the lab??!!!" Ella half whispered, half yelled.

"No, it wasn't like that, I..."

"...but Ify I told you that place was out of bounds nau...OUT OF BOUNDS! When this school says something is out of bounds, they mean it!"

"I didn't sneak in okay!" Ifechi snapped in annoyance. She sighed and put her hand over her head, taking deep breaths to calm her nerves.

"I didn't sneak in" She said more calmly, Emmanuella nodded for her to go on "okayyy?"

"Someone was there the day I went to check"

"Who?"

"Gabriel"

"Gabriel Ojo, from class C?"

"I don't know his surname but I think he's the one."

Emmanuella signed "...and?"

"He let me in, apparently he had keys to the place and I thought that perhaps, if a fellow student was there then maybe being there wasn't so bad..."

"No no no no...Gabriel isn't just a fellow student, his dad owns all that stuff..."

"Well I found out later..."

"...yeah, so him being there didn't mean you'd be exempted too, being the son of the donor,  he was entitled to waltz in and out anytime be wished"

"Yeahhh I get that now geez..." Ifechi sighed throwing her hands in the air.
Ella sighed as well and sank further into her seat. "So what happened next?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well from the looks of the story, there's more. Plus I'm sure your mere presence couldn't have been what prompted Gabriel to accuse you before the principal, something else must have happened. Come on, spill it"

Ifechi bit her lips and played with her fingers avoiding eye contact.

"Come on...I'm waiting" Ella said tapping her fingers.

Finally, she gave in, revealing everything including the fight and the careless threat. Emmanuella sat there shocked for the most part. When Ifechi had finished, she remained silent for a few moments. After a while she finally spoke up.

"Well you better pray..pray they don't find anything that'll implicate you"

"Implicate me? I didn't steal it, clearly. How can a young, female teenager like myself pull such a stunt?"

"I know. See, thank God yesterday's incident was only witnessed by few students, and majority of them are juniors, so no one's pointing any fingers now. But at this point, the authorities are getting desperate, and any scapegoat they get will be a pitiable victim, so as your friend, I'm begging you, pray!"

With that, Emmanuella got up and walked off leaving Ifechi in a perplexed state.

What had she gotten herself into?

**********************************

"Your WAEC ID cards are very important,  I don't need to tell you this..." Mr Winifred spoke as the students of SS3A fumbled with their newly handed ID cards, some of them folding the rope onto the card and then in their bag/purses, while the majority hung theirs around their neck. Ifechi was among the few that folded theirs into their bag, their form teacher's warnings about not losing the card at all cost faded behind her thoughts.

He left just as the bell rung, causing most of her classmates to rush out of the class. It was the last period before school end, which meant they had sports.

"I thought you said it's Geography we have on Monday" a passing voice said.

"Oga, don't you have the timetable?"

"Nawa for you o..."

She tuned out her classmates conversation, stuffing her notebook and calculator into her bag, before zipping it. Just then, an unexpected person came up to her seat.

"We need to talk." His voice was calm and collected, as if he'd rehearsed it beforehand.

She stared for a few seconds before masking her surprise and bending her head downwards to look at her bag zipper.

"About what exactly?"

He let out a sigh. "Um...can you come outside, then I'll tell you?" He said looking from her face to her seatmates, it was then she remembered that her friends were still waiting for her.

Anita and Dami nonchalantly took off, while Rachel threw the duo a weird look before leaving.

"Can we stay here? I don't want to go outside and stand under the sun, plus they've left so you're free to say whatever you want to say" She said casually. 

"I'm sorry" he blurted.

She looked at him well for the first time since he walked up to her. She didn't fail to notice his new haircut that was different from the ones he usually got. Forcing herself to look away from him, she replied rather quickly. "For?"

Pedro scoffed, it wasn't a mocking scoff, rather he scoffed at her bad pretense of showing oblivion.

"You know what I'm talking about"

She raised a brow and folded her arms, shifting her weight slightly to one leg for more balance.

"Okay...fine. I'm sorry, for being rude and dismissive, and snobby." He said in a sing-song manner and gazed right into her eyes. "I'm sorry" he repeated.

Ifechi exhaled quietly, letting go of the knot that had built in her chest. "It's fine." She lied. With both WAEC and SAT on her mind, college application and now the recent event that had her both scared and worried, everything was not fine, she didn't need a teenage boy reminding her of a semi-humiliating episode from the previous week.

"You sure?" He raised a brow. Her reply was off and rushed, like she said it just so she could go, she'd shifted her weight to the other leg.

"Yeah" She responded with a smile that was obviously fake. She waited for a few seconds waiting for his next words. Thankfully, there was none, so she left and began to walk when he held her hand. She turned swiftly to look at him, then to the place where he held her hand, and back to his face with a quizzical look.

"Ifechi..." he said in a calm voice, his hands not leaving here. "...I know I've been a jerk, and I know that..." he paused and shook his head unsure of what to say. Suddenly he stopped fighting with his words and decided to come clean.

"I like you, I really do, and when I saw you with Damien you know teaching him and stuff, I got a little angry and jealous, and yeah I know that's silly and immature and..." he let out a loud sigh "...it doesn't matter how I felt. What I did was stupid and childish, and  I just want to let you know that, whether you like me romantically or not, I still want to be your friend...no strings attached"

She was stunned. His words sounded sincere and she wasn't prepared for how direct he came.

"I...I didn't know that's how you felt" She said, even though a part of her wasn't surprised that it had something to do with Damien, she wasn't even sure of their friendship anymore. A part of her felt pleased that both guys liked her, even though she wanted to remain just friends. But another part felt guilty, like she was in some sort of way the reason for their divided friendship.

"It's okay, I guess I should work on my self expression" he flashed her a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

She pondered on his apology as he left, wondering what to do her erratic feelings when a loud whistle from the field brought her out of her reverie

Oh shoot...sports!

She ran all the way to the field. She'd promised herself to get more involved with sports for her college application, particularly volleyball since that was the easiest to get into. Ifechi didn't think she was cut out for track events, and the school didn't have many other options left.

The sun was blazing hotter than usual that friday afternoon, but it didn't prevent the students from forming groups to hangout or play sports. Ifechi jogged to where the girls were, arriving just in time for them to pick out the last player.

"Can I play?" She asked gasping for air.

"We are already complete dummy" Aliyah spat, Ifechi frowned deeply and turned away with a hiss.

"Ifechi!" Someone called from inside the field. She turned and saw Damien standing and holding a bunch of equipment,  a junior boy by his side. He waved his hands, motioning for her to come over.

She left at once, jogging towards the tracks which wear a good distance from the volleyball court. On getting closer, she inspected the equipment in his hand and found them to be javelins.

"Hi"

"Pretty girl, what's up?'

"I'm good, you?"

"Cool as ever..." he said widening his free arm. "...wanna try?" He said motioning to the javelin sticks. Ifechi's eyes widened at the thought, this was actually a good opportunity,  why didn't she think of this, they were other field events she could get into that could improve her chances of getting into her dream college, she felt like hugging Damien.

"Oh sure..." She said, taking a quick glance around her surrounding when she felt someone's eyes on her. She turned and met Gabriel staring at her from afar. The darker boy didn't say anything, only folded his arms and kept looking at her with fury. She swallowed an invisible lump and turned back, shaking off her shoulders and pretending like she didn't see anything.

"How does it work?" She asked Damien, choosing to ignore the seething boy at the bleachers.

He proceeded to show her, and Ifechi got lost in the art of learning a new sport. Javelin was surprisingly interesting, and easy too, well they only seemed easy to her as she shockingly threw very nice shots even though they were her first shorts. Damien said she was a natural and she blushed, perhaps it was for good reason that she didn't play volleyball today. She lost track of time as she was having so much fun until the guys playing football blew the final whistle for the game to end.

"Gee...I have to get my bag upstairs" She said getting up from where she'd sat on the grass.

"Okay" Damien said while sipping a chilled bottle of water.

Ifechi ran towards the class building and upstairs to her class. Dami and Anita were packing their bags as well.

"Is it just me whose reg number is blurred at the end?" Rachel said walking in on the girls with her card in her hand, the blue strap that was fastened to it was hung around her neck.

"Hmm lemme see" Dami said checking hers. She peered at the plastic for a while before looking up and shaking her head. "Mine is clear o"

"Me too" Anita added. Rachel turned to Ifechi who had flung her backpack on one of her shoulders.

"Ify what about yours?"

"Hmm.. lemme check..." She said bringing her bag down and unzipping it. She rummaged her hand through the top of the inside and the corners, expecting to feel the card immediately as it was among the last things she'd kept, but didn't feel it. She stood briefly and bent down again, this time unzipping her bag fully and searching with both her eyes and her hands. The three girls watched her.

"Ah ah..."

"What?" Dami asked.

"Ah ah.. I kept it here na"

"What happened?" Rachel asked again.

She raised her bag and poured the content over on the table, carefully looking through each item and placing them in the now empty school bag, she even opened the books to search, perhaps the card must have snuck in one of those big books.

"Try opening the books and flapping them facing the floor" Rachel suggested.

"I've checked there...' Ifechi was in a frenzy now. She went over the motions of searching everything in her bag and every compartment over and over again. Then finally she gave up and searched underneath her desk, retrieving only a stray paper she'd used to jot down bits of formulars she'd memorized for her previous day's exam.

Frantically, she rushed to the back of the class where the lockers were, flinging hers open and searching through her other notebooks and textbooks even though she knew it wasn't there. She was very sure that she kept that card in her bag, it was before P.G came to apologize to her.

Yes P.G!

She remembered and rushed outside ignoring the call from her friends. She went to the staircase where she'd seen him while coming up, but he'd already gone. She placed a palm on her head, it couldn't be him, he'd left before she'd even gone downstairs.  Plus it was pathetic to even accuse him, what would he be using her card to do?

She ran back to the class, her eyes stinging from the tears that were threatening to pour. What was happening to her these days? First the accusation and now this?

She starting to pace up and down her seat thinking with her hand on her chin. The three girls gathered round her sympathetically.

"Ifechi...Ifechi...ify" Rachel said tapping her. Ifechi turned to the three of them, red from sobbing and worry and fear etched all over her face. With a shaky voice, almost about to break down, she revealed.

"I can't find my waec ID card"

************************************

Dun dun dun...