Wednesday's assembly was heavily anticipated. Everyone could feel the tense atmosphere at school that day, especially when they saw the troop of cars that adorned the parking lot of the big hall that morning.

The school directors were around.

Nobody needed to tell Ifechi that it had everything to do with her. She walked head low into the assembly hall and took a hidden seat at the back.

A tall, classy woman took on the stage when she climbed the podium to speak.

"Warm greetings to you all..." She started in a very polished accent.

"Over the past week there have been series of events that has happened at our school which I am sure most of you are aware of. These events have been unfortunate, more unfortunate is the discovery that one of our students may be involved in this criminal activity. Investigations are being carried out as we speak, but for security and discretion purposes, Henceforth, no student or staff should be seen around, talking or even associating with Miss Ifechi Okereke Stephanie"

Whispers and mutters filled the air, teachers and prefects stood at their post in a bid to restore order to the frenzied room.

"Assembly dismissed!"

Her head was on the desk and her back heaved up and down as she sobbed. She ran out of the hall as soon as the assembly had ended. Nobody dared to stop her, none of her classmates not even her friends rushed to console her.

It became worse when she heard the footsteps of her classmates coming into class. Aliyah mercilessly spoke up.

"Isn't anyone going to say anything about the fact that we have a thief in our class!"

Some of her classmates laughed, some hissed, many remained mute, the heaviness in the air was rather unsettling, even for her classmates.

"It's true o, I've been looking for my purple headband since last week..." Joyce spoke up. "...I wonder who could have stolen it" She cackled at her joke, Aliyah joined in along with some others. Grace didn't laugh.

"Oh but for real, class guys let's keep our things safe o, you know how it is when some of these poor kids get access into schools like ours..."

"Asin eh, I wonder what's going on at home, maybe her parents are struggling to feed, that's why she has to ste....."

Gbammm!!!!

Someone hit their desk, they all turned to Pedro who stood up fuming, about to say something when Jude the assistant head boy beat him to it.

"Aliyah...Joyce, that's enough." He said with a tone of finality. Both girls shut up but not without snickering and throwing mocking glares at the girl at the far corner of the class.

"Well they said nobody should be caught talking to her, so y'all better stick to that, as part of my prefect duties, if I catch anyone I'm snitching" Aliyah said. Most of her classmates rolled her eyes at her silliness, some even hissed but the girl didn't care.

Ifechi faced the worse bullying from class B girls, and especially their guys.

She'd finished her last WAEC paper with an hour to spare, partly because it was physics, and mostly because she felt suffocated in the hall where multiple invigilators mounted her to inspect her every move.

Haba nau.

The external invigilator barely allowed her to leave the hall even after she'd submitted the paper, perhaps the school teachers had informed him of what was going on, although she highly doubted it.

She ran to her class to rest when the realization dawned on her that they were very few art students in her class and most of her classmates were still in the hall. Choosing to not be there alone, in order for no one to accuse her of stealing anything, she turned her back to leave to the field instead when she saw a few art students in next arm.

"Shey I tell una say that Ifechi girl Sabi bad thing" one of them said loudly when they sighted her passing the corridor.

"Ifechi abi wetin be your name, so you dey on scholarship" one of them quickly ran to the door, Ifechi ignored him and continue to walk when he rushed and dragged her from behind.

"Are you mad?" She snapped, he held her hand forcefully,  grinning stupidly as he did.

"When you hear your name, you answer...did you hear me?"

"Who does she think she's forming for" one of the girls spoke,  Ifechi counted their stupid faces from the door, they were six in number, she wanted to slap all of them with a metal packer if she could.

"So after all the hype, she's not even that rich, a common thief"

"You dey mind am, and she bin get mouth dey defend who even better pass am that time"

"Leave my hand alone!" She warned

"Who do you think youre talking to like that?" The boy spat. "Wait o, it seems you don't know your class anymore..." he laughed dryly.

Ifechi tried to wriggle her arms free, regretting why she finished too early.

"Let me tell you something Ifechi or whatever you call yourself, don't you ever...."

"Leave her alone!"

They both looked up, Damien stood confident as ever, his hands in his pockets as he glared heavily at the boy who had pinned her arm.

"This is none of your business" The boy spat, Damien remained unfazed.

"Leave her alone" he said again.

"Or what?" The boy replied arrogantly, Damien brought his arms out and cracked his knuckles, Korede and Charles appeared beside him repeating his action as they did.

The boy exhaled loudly and hissed, dropping her hand forcefully and sauntering back into his class, Ifechi rubbed her wrist where he had held it.

Damien walked to her.

"Are you alright?" He asked concerned.

"You're not supposed to be talking to me" she said.

"Let me see" he said taking her wrist softly to inspect ignoring her statement.

Korede and Charles left them alone at the corridor, she was shivering a little, he noticed it but didn't say anything. They both stood there for a while without saying a thing, mostly because they didn't know what to say to each other. Finally, she spoke up.

"Thank you" She said and left.

For the rest of the week, Ifechi repeated the same routine: come to school, take exam, talk to no one and go home. NECO started immediately after WAEC with no breaks in between and Ifechi felt an atom of hope, knowing that her journey at the school would soon come to an end.

If they didn't detain her that is.

The school authorities has strictly warned her to show up before 8am everyday, even on days when she didn't have any paper, and she was expected to submit her bag at the admin office as well, and only take her writing materials. All of which she found rather unnecessary.  If indeed she had a hand in the crime, what made them think all these would make her speak up.

The principal finally took matters in his hands when he called her parents the next Monday. Ifechi was surprised to hear her mother's voice in the principal's office.

"My daughter is not a thief, she has never been and she will never be, I don't raise thieves as children"

The principal's response was rather unpolished.

"So far, she's our only lead, and she has just a week more before we will proceed to call the police. You may leave"

"Haa!" Her parents exclaimed, he even dismissed her parents uncourteously.

"What disrespect is that, calling my daughter a thief, my own daughter! Is it because we don't have money" her mum complained loudly, while her dad as usual tried to pacify his wife.

They queried her at home.

"I didn't want to upset you people"

"Upset us?!! Can you imagine...those ignoramus your school insulted you and your family and called you a thief and you didn't tell us because you didn't want to offend us?" Her dad scolded, Ifechi had never heard him use the word "Ignoramus"

"Well I... I knew that things weren't going well for you and mummy so I didn't want to add anymore bad news"

"Which things are not going well...what do you mean"

"I...I know that mummy lost her job"

Her parents paused. "Who told you?"

"Amanda"

The living room grew quiet for a minute.

"Ifechi" her mum called out softly.

"Yes"

"Whether I have a job or not, whether things are going well or not...never leave out things like this again, do you hear me?"

"Yes ma"

Despite her bad situation,  Ifechi felt relieved that at least her parents now knew. And best, they were more understanding than her sister.

Even though her reputation at school grew worse, with her social circle getting smaller, and even junior students now disrespecting her, she felt a beacon of hope.

The next morning, her mother gave her a surprisingly fat envelope.

"It's for your SAT study book, I wanted to give it to you since last week but I've been too occupied. Inside there is 20k, pls keep the money safe and buy the book as soon as you can"

"Yes mummy" She replied putting the envelope in her bag. She made a mental note to head to the school's bookshop to buy it after her exams that day.

Emmanuella slipped a piece of paper on her desk after assembly.

'They said we can't talk to you, but they never said anything about writing letters, meet us at the back of the cafeteria after our paper"

Ifechi managed a weak smile at their headgirl's cleverness. She headed to the spot right after the paper to see what remained of her friends - Ella, Rachel, P.G, Damien and surprisingly Temi. Not even Dami showed up, she felt a pang of hurt, but then who could blame her, anyone seen associating with her was risking a suspension.

Ifechi told them all they needed to know as they sat down to analyze the situation.

"Its a set up" Pedro stated.

"That was exactly what I said" Ella replied.

"But who would want to set me up?"

They all gave her the 'are you serious' look.

"Oh" Ifechi said in realization.  Nobody needed to tell her that she had enemies, especially one of them who seemed to have not gotten back at her after their terrible fall out.

"Do you think Grace did this?"

They looked at her as if she'd just muttered something insane.

"How is that even possible, I mean I get that she doesn't like you, but how is that even possible?" Pedro asked.

"She could have hired guys to do it and then stolen Ifechi's waec card and dropped it there to frame her" Rachel shrugged, they looked at her stupefied.

"What? The girl is rich, so It's possible!" The skinny girl defended. Damien shook his head.

"She won't stoop so low"

"Well who else has the tendency"

"I just think it's someone else who really knows this school well, it could even be a staff and then your ID just happened to have mistakenly gotten involved, my opinion though" Temi spoke.

"Nope, this was intentional, purely intentional. Only someone who already knew that she was a likely suspect would arrange for her ID to be missing exactly at that spot for her to be blamed" Pedro spoke, others nodded in agreement while Ifechi stared into space.

Other than the speculation that her circumstances were as a result of intentional planning, there wasn't much help their conversation could bring. Ifechi was grateful for her friends, but even they couldn't save her from this one.

She dragged her feet back to the class at the last bell. Most of her classmates went home immediately after the paper and some an hour later, but she had to stay till the closing.

She'd submitted her bag at the admin's office in the morning, but the envelope was in her locker because she didn't want to risk any chance of the admin worker searching her bag and seeing a fat envelope. Without any hesitation, it would surely raise suspicion.

She opened her partition of the tall locker at the back of the classroom and stretched her hand to the back, she'd carefully sandwiched the money in between her biology textbook and her jamb past questions textbook.

She didn't feel it.

Choosing not to panic, she reached in again, this time carefully pushing aside all the other books till she got to feel the metal plate that held the back of the locker together.

No no no no...this can't be happening

She brought out her books and searched again, few of her classmates that were around had their eyes fixed on her. Ifechi sobbed as she searched in futility for the money she'd dropped in her locker that morning.

She fell to the ground.

The money was gone.