"Okay, Mary finally brought the letters" Ruth announced the moment I walked out of the bathroom and I shook my head. "I'm so tempted to report that she brought it a day later than she was meant to" she extended one of the letters to me and I took it from her.

I walked over to my bed and plopped down on it with a grunt before I began opening the letter, "to be honest," I paused "I don't feel like reading this. It's probably one crappy apology letter and I'm better off without it" I tossed the letter aside and laid down. Today was Saturday and there were no classes. We had a church service in the morning and that was it. It's currently 1 pm and all I've done was lazy around. I pulled the duvet over me.

I groaned and turned to the other side of the bed, there was nothing to do. It's scary to be so free, something bad always happens when one gets an opportunity to relax and they do relax. I can testify to that. The one time they left me alone for three days straight, I thought I could finally rest my nerves and relax. But they barged in the very next minute, and that day it wasn't just them.

It was them and three other men.

I struggled to catch a breath as their laughter resonated in my ear and their faces flashed before my eyes. I immediately peered the duvet off my body when it began to feel like their hands on my body.

"Are you done reading the book of Luke as President said?" Ruth's voice rang in my ear and instantly cleared up the images that were conjured in my mind.

I let out a shaky breath and slowly turned to her, my lips tugged up in a tight-lipped smile.

"I read it all during study time yesterday" her eyebrows shot up and I chuckled nervously.

"You didn't study your notes and revise all you learned in your classes?" I shrugged and shook my head. Truth was, there was nothing to revise. I didn't take notes cause I didn't have the materials to.

Ruth shook her head and sighed, "Basileia is a tough school, Jophiel, and you have to be serious or you'll be repeating a lot of classes. Or even worse, expelled. There's nothing wrong with reading your Bible, but there's a time for everything." she reprimanded and I lowered my gaze in shame.

"I'm sorry"

She stood up from her bed and rushed over to me with her arms raised. My entire body instantly tensed up and I recoiled from her. "Hey, I'm not going to hit you," she said I slowly looked up at her and she had a look of hurt on her face.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to hug you" I immediately let out a breath and gave her a curt nod before she slowly and cautiously wrapped her arms around me. She took that opportunity and sat on my bed with her arms still wrapped around me. "I'm sorry if I scared you" she apologized and I bobbed my head stiffly.

"You know it's been like 2 days since you came to this school, and we are already friends but I know nothing about you"

"You didn't ask" I retorted and she gasped dramatically, the corners of my lips tugged up in a smile at her reaction. "Since we are on the topic of knowing each other, who is the dude on those picture frames?" I pointed to her side of the wall, where pictures were pasted everywhere. All of them were pictures of a particular man, but there was a different picture of a couple, whom I assumed were her parents.

"Is he your boyfriend? Because he doesn't look like you nor the couple, but at the same time he looks a little too old to be your boyfriend" I dragged my eyes away from the pictures and turned to her, only to see her staring at me with her eyes wide open and her lips slightly ajar. "Ummm..." I breathed out when a few seconds passed and she was still staring at me like that.

She closed her eyes after a few more seconds and took a deep breath before opening them back up, "are you sure you have never seen that man's picture before?" She asked I glanced at the pictures before I shook my head, and she gasped dramatically. "Ever?" I nodded and she immediately stood up, brought out one of the pictures, and shoved it in my face, "you've never seen this picture before? This is Jesus' picture and I'm sure it's everywhere" the moment she said that I burst into laughter.

"Nice joke," I said amidst laughter, but when I noticed she wasn't laughing along, I immediately stopped and looked at the picture again before I looked back at her. "If there's anything I'm very sure about in all this Christian stuff, this man in the picture is definitely not Yeshua," I said and her eyes slowly widened.

"You are bluffing," she said and I shook my head, "can you prove that?"

I took a deep breath and bobbed my head, "I can, because I've met Yeshua" I said and this time around she was the one that burst into laughter. I let her laugh for a little while before I cut in, "I am a scholarship student here and I was given the scholarship because of Yeshua" her laughter immediately ceased and she stared at me with wide eyes.

"Listen up," I said and began telling her all that happened and how I was led to this school, deliberately leaving out the part where I wanted to end my life just like I did when I first told the story. The moment I was done, she stood up, bought down all the pictures of the strange man, and shoved them into her drawer before she rushed back to me, sat down on the bed, and squealed.

"I can't believe this!" She whisper-yelled after her squealing session. "I'm so jealous right now! You met Yeshua!" She squealed again and I immediately covered my ears. "How come you still call him selfish when he came through for you like that" she pouted and I shrugged, answering that would mean telling her all about my life and I wasn't ready to relive that.

She stared at me for a while before she stood up and paced around the room, "do you remember what he looks like? I want to sketch him" I slowly shook my head and she dropped to the ground.

"I know his face, but trying to explain it to you is near impossible and I don't know why," I said and she nodded

"That's fine" she stood up from the floor and walked over to her drawer and began bringing out clothes, "but this information now has me bustling with energy and if I can't invest it in sketching, I'm going to invest it in shopping with you" she announced and my eyes widened in horror, but she was too busy picking out clothes to notice.

I gulped and took a shaky breath, "um... Ruth?" I called out in a tiny voice and she glanced at me from over her shoulders.

"Whatever excuse you are about to make, save it. We are going shopping, bills on me" she turned back to the clothes sprawled out in front of her and picked out a pair, "check these" I begrudgingly stood up and took the clothes away from her, making her smile. "I think we should match, so I'm going to wear this" she muttered and shoved me into the bathroom to change.

A few minutes later, we both were dressed in matching white T-shirts and while she wore a pink skirt, I matched my top with a pair of black trousers. "You look so good, smile for the camera" she brought out a camera and shoved it in our faces, forcing me to smile. When she was finally done taking hundreds of pictures, she turned off the camera and smiled Innocently, "let's go get our pass" I shook my head and trudged behind her silently.

Mrs. Kweenton wasn't hesitant in giving us a pass, the only thing she did was make sure she gave us a strict time to be back; 5 pm, but after much whining and pouting by Ruth, she moved it to 6 pm, giving her more time to shop and to torture me.

"Thank you!" She blew her a kiss and took our passes before she dragged me away. "Ah!" She breathed out and let go of my arm when we had stepped out of the Dormitory arena "It's 2 pm. We have exactlyyyyy 3 hours and 30 minutes to shop. It's not enough 'cause we have a lot to buy, especially for you but this will do"

"What do you mean by for me? I don't have to buy a lot of things, I'm..." My words were cut off by her glare. I gulped nervously and forced a smile on my face. "What I mean is..."

"What are you two doing here?" A strange voice asked cutting me off and I grunted in annoyance before I turned to the direction of the voices. I raised both brows once I saw Gabriel and Zadkiel standing right behind us. "Hi, Jophiel" Gabriel greeted with a smile and walked over to us, specifically towards Ruth who had a look of annoyance on her face, "hello my Ruth" he bowed as he greeted her and she rolled her eyes.

"How many times do I have to tell you that you are very much incapable of being my Boaz?" Ruth retorted instantly and he chuckled.

"Why not? I'm pretty sure I have more than the looks"

"Pretty looks plus an inflated ego equals ugly"

"Did you just admit that I am pretty?"

I shook my head as they continued bickering back and forth, "hello" Zadkiel whispered beside me and I turned to him with a smile on my face, "how are you?"

"I'm okay, how are you?" I whispered back and he breathed out a laugh.

"I'm okay, but why are we whispering?" I immediately cleared my throat at his question and one corner of his lips tugged up in a smile. "Are you done reading the book of Luke?" I immediately nodded and his smile widened a little bit, "that's good" he said and silence fell on us while the other two kept bickering.

"Honestly, I'm thinking of shutting their mouths with a tape, you in?" I asked and turned to Zadkiel, who was staring down at me with a small smile on his face. I was still awaiting his reply when Ruth grabbed my hand and dragged me away.

She kept dragging me till we got to the gate and entered a cab. "That dude Gabriel is so bloody annoying, what a waste of beauty. I can't believe someone as handsome and anointed as he is, is that bloody annoying!" She huffed throughout the ride while a smile played on my lips.

"How come you find him bloody annoying, yet you keep calling him fine. Isn't that kind of contradictory?" She turned to me with a deadpan look

"I'm a Christian, I can't deliberately lie" she retorted and that instantly shut me up for the entire car ride while she kept grumbling and mumbling till we got to the shopping mall she wanted. We immediately alighted and walked into the mall while Ruth kept mumbling and grumbling.

She only managed to stop when we got to a cloth boutique and her face immediately brightened. "Here we are!" She exclaimed and immediately dragged me into the mall, and just like I predicted, it was utter chaos and torture.

For a solid hour, all I did was watch her pick out clothes and have her push me into the dressing room over and over again, "okay!" She clapped her hands and grinned. "I think this is about enough for now," she said and I stared at the 5 bags we were carrying in utter horror, "time for shoe shopping!" She announced and rushed out of the shop

"What!?" I immediately exclaimed but she ignored me and walked right out of the boutique, having me stomp right after her in hopes of making her stop but my entire being froze the moment I walked out and laid eyes on the last people I hoped to see.

*****
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Thank you all again for reading and supporting this book. There'd be more shout-outs in the coming Chapters, hopefully, 😅❤️

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