She felt there was no hope. Or if there was, she wasn't sure where or how to find one.

It rained heavily that morning, and the gloominess of the morning was nothing compared to the gloominess in her heart. Ifechi she sat alone at the bleachers, the dripping remnant from the roof soiled her old braids, goosebumps traveled up and down her arms, but that wasn't anything to her. More less important was the fact that her second paper was less than 30 mins away- chemistry, and everyone knew neco chemistry wasn't friendly, but even that wasn't enough to deter her from her myriad of thoughts.

Mummy will kill me if she finds out

How am I going to study now

SAT is in 3 weeks

Who could have possibly stolen my money

Maybe to most of her classmates, twenty thousand wasn't a lot of money,  but to her, that was probably her last hope of getting a SAT book. She thought of how difficult it must have been for her mum to bring out that money, especially now that things were hard for them.

"Ifechi Ifechi" She heard a familiar voice.

"Anita?" She said rather surprised, were her eyes deceiving her or did Anita who had not spoken to her for almost a month just call her name?

"Ye..yes?"

"Jude is calling you" She said in a bored tone. Ifechi's face dropped at the tone. She must have been naive to think that Anita had come to console her.

She trudged to the class to find a small scene in the class. Benita, a science student from class B was crying on Joyce's locker. Joyce and Confidence seemed to be trying to console her and the rest of their classmates just gathered around, mostly science students as art students didn't have exams that day.

"I promise I kept it here" a sobbing Benita pointed to Joyce's locker. Jude had his hands on his chin and one on his waist trying to analyze the scene when Ifechi walked in.

"What happened?" Ifechi found herself saying against her wish. Everyone turned to her and she saw a mischievous smirk on the wailing girl's face before it was quickly covered up.

"Ife..." the head boy started but Joyce beat him to it.

"So it's not enough for you to steal millions of Naira from the school, that you had to steal my friends 30k ehn?"

What?

"Excuse me?" She asked incredulously.  What type of useless accusation was that.

"Aunty you heard her correctly,  better start bringing out the money, we know you stole it" Confidence butted in. Ifechi wondered what they were even doing in her class.

"What do you mean"

"She's still speaking English, somebody should call the form teacher" Joyce yelled.

"Wait, calm down, nobody's calling any teacher...you all should calm down" Jude said and turned to her.

"Ifechi..."

"What's going on, I'm sincerely confused, why are they even in our class, what's Joyce even saying..."

"Hey hey hey hey, don't even mention my name with that silly mouth of yours...broke ass b*tch"

"Ah ah nau"

"Joyce Haba"

"That was too harsh"

Her classmates commented, Ifechi blinked back the sting in her eyes and turned to face Jude.

"Please explain what's going on to me"

Jude scratched his temple nervously. "Um...what time did you come to school today?"

"Haa! What type of question is that?" She flared up.

"Chill...please just answer"

"Fine, I don't know...but it's definitely before 8" She said, aware of her new daily appointment.

Jude sighed. "I really don't know how to say this Ifechi, but Benita claims that she left her money in Joyce's locker this morning, and since you were the only one she saw around when she came, she thinks you took it."

She was stunned.

It came as a fit of giggles, then chuckles, before it turned into a full blown laughter. Ifechi laughed, partly out of amusement at what she deemed their foolishness and partly out of sadness, she kept on laughing as her classmates eyes her scornfully wondering what she found funny.

"What's funny?" One of them asked.

"You guys...you guys are all funny...do you really...do you really think this is funny, if this is a joke abeg stop it"

"Ifechi we are not playing" another of their classmate, Mike said more seriously.

"Why...why would you guys even think I did this in the first place?" She asked then it dawned on her.

"Oh...wow...oh wow...wow, oh I see..." She said. "Of course, the school's suspect, now exposed scholarship kid whose parents aren't very rich, I see...you people see me as a thief now right?, even you,  even you Anita..." She turned to the pretty dark girl who only looked away.

"How can you people even believe her, where's the evidence??? Clearly she's lying!" She said pointing to Benita who had a look of mischief on her face, she and Joyce exchanged knowing looks at each other, making the fact that this was a total fake scenario more obvious.

But apparently,  no one else seemed to notice.

"We know you always come early Ifechi" a classmate said

"Yes, and Sarah told us that yesterday you were looking for something in my locker" another added. Ifechi didn't hate Sarah, but at that point she really wished the quiet girl had done what she knew to do well- shut up.

"Yes, I was...my money" She blinked, unsure of what response to expect.

"Is it really yours?" A random classmate asked.

"What type of question is that?" Ifechi snapped.

"Who gave it to you?"

"What the hec...." She yelled. Jude butted in.

"Not to be rude Ifechi, but this is a very serious matter, just answer the questions let's get this over with, we have exams in 20 minutes" he said in a monotone. Ifechi felt another sting in her eyes.

"Okay" She said biting her lips to hold back tears.

"Is it your money?" The classmate who had asked earlier repeated.

"Of course its mine, it was for my SAT book and yes I was looking for it yesterday. As a matter of fact..." she added a bit wary of her next words "...it was stolen!" 

Her classmates murmured amongst themselves. Joyce burst out laughing.

"The hunter gets hunted"

"It's not funny Joyce"

"I never said it was"

"You guys should calm down first" Jude said to get the class quiet again. He turned back to Ifechi.

"So?"

"So what?"

"Ifechi..." he started slowly indicating to her that he was about to say something she wouldn't like. "...did you take Benita's money to replace your stolen money?'

"Wha..what, why would I do that?!!" She half screamed, half cried.

Jude rubbed his temple. "Look I'm sorry Ifechi, really, I know things may be difficult for you this period, and I know your family is not..."

"Please please can you just stop? All of you...please just stop!" She said, sadness mixed with anger laced her tone.

"Clearly, you've all lost your senses..." She blurted, taking them by surprise. "Because tell me how, since I entered this school, and I've been coming early everyday, earlier than most of you, for over two terms and nothing has gotten missing, but suddenly I got accused of something I know nothing about and all of a sudden everyone thinks I'm a thief, bravo to all of you, just bravo"

"You can't talk to us that way!" A random classmate said.

"But you can? Tell me, how would you feel in my shoes? You know what...I'm done, do whatever you want. Search my locker, all of you, bring down all my books, tear all my papers, and if you still aren't convinced, go to the admin and take my damn bag and tear that too, did you hear me? Screw all of you, every single one of you...! Do you hear me...screw you!!!" She yelled leaving then stupefied.

She stomped out of the class in anger, picking a small race when she got to the staircase. She ran to the bleachers not minding who was looking at her or calling her.

Tear drops rolled down her face which turned into a stream of tears and finally an outburst, and Ifechi cried deeply- for the past one week, for the accusation,  for her family's situation, for her loneliness, for her insecurities and just flat out for her misfortune. She cried until her eyes got swollen and didn't stop crying until she heard the bell ring for their paper.

She walked into the hall with a puffy face and a lot of attention fixed on her but she didn't care. Her only desire was to finish the bloody paper and get the heck home.

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

"The church is hosting a 3 day retreat and it's starting today, would you like to go with me" Her mum peered into her room where Ifechi had been lying defeatedly since she got back. Her mum didn't even bother to scold her about not removing her uniform.

"I'm tired" was her first reply, not as an escape, but because she was genuinely tired, both mentally and physically.

"Okay" her mum said, deciding not to push further.

But as Ifechi laid on her bed, she felt an overwhelming flood of emotions becloud her- anger, rage, sadness, guilt, pain, heartbreak at all once.

She was angry.

Angry at the school for their stupid incompetence at letting an entire flock of expensive equipment be stolen right under their nose, such school they were, only big for nothing,  they couldn't even secure their property well.

And she was angry at Gabriel, what type of  egotistical airhead would accuse a teenage girl of stealing an equipment that she'd barely mastered using let alone conniving to steal.

And she was angry at herself for speaking rashly, infact why did she even go there in the first place? Oh yes, to try to get into MIT

And so she was angry at Britney, for convincing her to take a "bold step", she always knew her comfort zone would have been better. After all, that's why it's called "comfort zone" because it was safe.

And she was angry at her parents too. Perhaps if they were richer, she could attend a private uni in her country. What was her dad doing when the likes of senator were making money, infact why wasn't her dad a senator, how did senators even get appointed or elected, what type of constitution did Nigeria even have.

And to top it all, she was angry at God. Yes, God! The big man who knew all things and was bigger than all this. If indeed He was the Almighty, couldn't He see that she was completely innocent in her situation. What did a pure, sweet, nice, good person like her do to deserve such ill treatment from Grace, from Aliyah, from Anita, from the Principal and that detective whatever...and what type of God would sit and watch His people be mercilessly accused. She thought they said He was merciful and powerful and Almighty, why then couldn't He just snap His fingers and make all her troubles go away.

She sighed and turned to her side, a fresh set of tears soon turned to a heavy downpour and she found herself shaking on her bed from crying.

God where are you?

Mathew 5:4

What? She paused, something had flashed across her mind.

Mathew 5:4

She sniffed and stayed still, trying to recall what that Bible verse said.

"Mathew 5:4" She heard much louder this time, it took a second to realize that she'd said that out loud by herself. Suddenly running out of tears, she stood from the bed and cleaned her eyes, turning around and checking the corner of her room for her little book.

"Mathew 5:4, Mathew 5:4, Mathew 5:4"  She repeated as she searched for the book, she finally found the black small Bible on the pile of books on the floor beside the table. She picked the treasured book and sat down with it, opening the first page with a sense of uncertainty. Scanning through the new testament for the highlighted verse, she paused when she got to that page and read the verse softly.

[4]  Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them!

She gasped. God was speaking to her, this was God speaking to her!

She exhaled softly with her lips quivering, then she closed the book and dropped it and ran to her mother's room.

"Can I follow you?" She asked hurriedly,  her mother who had fully dressed was fixing one of her earrings when she barged in. She stared at her surprised, wondering what caused the change of mood before replying.

"Of course, but hurry up and change so we won't be late."

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