Lady K

Unlike other kisses, the ones we see in the movies, this particular kiss was taking longer than I had seen in Jeremiah's head. Best part was, Kora seemed to be enjoying it for the second time. Just like she did at the gala, she stopped fighting, I hoped this particular kiss wasn't going to land her into a different kind of trouble.

Sigh.

Should have seen how tightly Jeremiah was holding on to her waist, and how he had her hand suspended in the air, same level with his chest, as she was trying to pound her fist on it before the kiss first came. She hadn't even realized she had stopped crying even when her last drop of tear had shared a spot on Jeremiah's pale face, while Jeremiah on the other hand, had completely forgotten how sick he was. How his head had almost torn apart while driving to school, and how pale his skin was.

In a few more seconds, I guess he had enough. He retracted his lips slowly from hers. Really slow, his hands too loosened on her waist. The look on his face, it was surprise mixed with anxiety and satisfaction all at once, even as he looked into Kora's eyes. Wondering if she was mad about it. Kora slowly opened her eyes. She was so numb, too numb to even make a sound, and the moment she looked into his eyes for an extra two seconds, she hiccuped.

God that was embarrassing!
Those were her thoughts and mine too. It was really awkward. She shut her eyes for a second to breathe when another hiccup came out. Now Jeremih was concerned. He leaned closer to her and gently grabbed her by her shoulders.

"Are you okay?" He asked her.

Kora needed more than the few seconds that had passed to snap out of her imaginations. She was still in a lot of shock, and still had a problem with talking. She hiccuped, even when she tried too. It was going to be difficult getting an answer from her at that point. Jeremiah knew that. He exhaled and then pushed himself towards her.

"Wait here." He told her. "I have something I need to take care of. I'll be back for you."

She just kept staring into his eyes. That was his affirmation. His ticket to leave, since she looked like she was okay. Jeremiah turned and stormed to the door as fast as he could, while Kora just stood there backing him. The hiccup stopped the moment she heard the door shut behind him, and her legs became weakened too. She fell to the ground quickly, breathing harder and harder, trying to catch her breath and stop her heart from flying out of her mouth. She placed her hand on her chest so she could feel her heart beat. It was racing so well. She took a deep breath, and then another one, hitting on her chest gently. She knew she had to keep herself together. She took another deep breath.

Jeremiah on the other hand, had his whole head somewhere else. He was hurrying down the stairs so fast that it shocked everyone he walked past. Everyone had to stop for a second to look. No one had ever seen him hurry so urgently before. Kingsley was right downstairs, starring into his phone. A huge sigh of relief escaped from his mouth when he raised his eyes and saw Jeremiah rushing down the stairs like a tornado. He was getting closer to him.

"Jer-"

Jeremiah walked past him. Kingsley wasn't the one he was after, neither was it Luke who was just walking into the hallway at that moment. Jeremiah had his eyes glued to his target. To the one who made Kora cry. To Charles and both his friends, as they made their way into the hallway too, laughing at each other. One of Charles' friends must have caught a quick glance at Jerry and noticed how extremely bothersome his frown was. He gave Charles a small push, encouraging him to turn around before Jeremiah came closer. Too late though. Charles was too dumb to read the signs. Jeremiah grabbed his shirt and pulled him around to face him, before he took a deep breath and then threw a punch at him, straight to his nose.

Charles flew to the ground immediately, causing a lot of attention on his way. Everyone had stopped walking and turned to look. Jeremiah knew this was his cue. His sides were starting to hurt, but he managed to pull himself together and on top of Charles, throwing punches at him while Charles dogged some or didn't. Charles' friends tried to intervene. The both of them grabbed on to Jeremiah and tried to lift him off of Charles so he could return the favor, but Kingsley and Luke stepped in right in time. They took on one of them each, and before anyone knew it, the entire hall had turned to a WWE wrestling cage.

A fight had broke out between the six boys, while everyone just stood there with their hands over their mouth, gasping, some were even recording. Charles kicked Jeremiah off him and jumped on him as fast as he could. He had his face covered in blood, but he knew he had to return the favor no matter what. He threw a punch at Jeremiah, and then another one right on Jerry's left cheek. Jeremiah dogged the last one that was heading towards his lower left eye, grabbed on to Charles' fist and threw him off him again, climbing on Charles and punching harder than he did the first time. It was crazy.

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"Kora!"
Grace yelled as soon as she had noticed Kora on the floor, taking deep breaths and holding on tight to the neck of her uniform, as she ran into the rooftop. She looked better than she did at the cafeteria anyway. At least she wasn't crying anymore.

"Grace." Kora managed to whisper the moment Grace ran to her. Grace had spent the past thirty minutes searching for Kora, since Jeremiah grabbed her out of the cafeteria. Just as much as she wasn't comfortable with her being around Charles and Luke, she felt the same way about Jeremiah. Probably because she knew how much trouble being around him could be for Kora. Thank God the last person she had asked had seen Jeremiah pull Kora to the rooftop.

"Are you okay?" She bent over, squatting so she could see Kora better. A worried look on her face. She was so worried. "Are you hurt?"

Not anymore.

Kora managed to smile a little. Grace's concern about her warmed her heart a lot. She shook her head. She was fine. She was fine now. It had been exactly ten minutes since Jeremiah had left her on the rooftop, and her hands hadn't stopped shaking yet. Grace could see it. She exhaled.

"Come on, Let's get you to your feet." She slowly grabbed on to Kora's arm and helped Kora up gently. Kora managed to stand, her legs were still trembling, but she knew she could get a hang of it. She was fine now. She held on to Grace's hands, but the both of them were barely standing straight when they heard loud footsteps approaching the rooftop. They felt a presence behind the door. Not just one. Kora was the first to raise her head, and it was after she did, after Grace had seen the surprise look in her eyes, that she turned too. It was Oma and her minions, and they were not smiling at all. They didn't look like they were there to offer their condolences either.

Oma started to walk towards them, Queen and Sonia tagging behind her as she tried to maintain her steps, even when her hands were folded into a fist, and her frown got worse with every step she took towards Kora. She had her eyes glued on Kora. Whatever it is she was there for, whatever she wanted, it couldn't be good. Kora and Grace were standing fully now, wondering why they were coming at them like that but before both of them could say Jack, Oma grabbed on hard to Kora's hair, tighter and harder, pulling it as hard as she could, if you saw her you'd have felt or thought Kora's hair was going to rip off from her head.

"What are you doing?" Grace yelled at her.

"Shut up." Queen said in Oma's defense, causing Grace to turn to her slowly.

"What?"

"Shut up if you don't want your hair getting pulled too."

"Let go of me, Oma." Kora tried to be diplomatic at first, even when Oma kept pulling harder on her braids. "If you want to talk, just talk. You don't have to do any of this."

"Just who do you think you are?!" Oma yelled at her. "Who do you think you are to ruin everyone's lives?"

"Ruin everyone's-" Grace started. "Just what are you talking about? And can't you say what you want to say without pulling her hair like that?"

"I said shut up." Queen reminded Grace. Grace scoffed.

"Let go of my hair, Oma, and let's talk like adults." Kora was hurting a lot and she honestly just wanted it to end.

"Does it hurt?" Oma asked her. "What about this." She pulled on harder. "Does it hurt too?"

That was it. Kora was done trying to be diplomatic. She grabbed Oma by her weave and then pulled it out, then she reached for Oma's hair. If Oma was going to pull her hair like that, she just figured she might as well do the same. Now they were both pulling on each other's hair.

"Are you out of your mind?" Queen and Sonia took a step to stop Kora, but Grace grabbed on to Queen's arm. Queen turned, her frown getting worse, she pushed Grace so hard that Grace fell to the ground immediately.

Ouch.

They hurried to Kora and tried to pull her hand away from Oma's hair, but Kora kept pulling just as much as Oma kept pulling too. Three against one? Kora wasn't that strong. Queen and Sonia managed to pull her away together, giving Oma a chance to breathe and get herself together. She threw about three strands of Kora's braids she had pulled from her hair earlier on the ground, and then raised her head to Kora who was breathing just as fast as she was.

She slapped Kora so hard.

"How dare you?!" She asked her. "How dare a piece of trash like you?!"

Kora had her face turned to her side, as an effect of the hit. She could feel Oma's fingers leave a handprint on her cheek.

"How dare you cause so much trouble, and involve everyone in your problems? Are you that important?" Oma asked her. "How dare you get him involved?"

Kora held her breath for a second.

Get him involved?
Get who involved? Was it Jeremiah? Did anything happen to him?

"Do you know who he is? Do you know how important he is? Do you know how the slightest mistake can dent his reputation and put him in trouble? How can someone like you- a worthless person like you try to get him into trouble?"

Kora turned to her immediately. It was definitely Jeremiah.

"Did anything happen to Jeremih?" Her voice was shaky now. She had fear gripping her. What happened? What if something bad had happened to him?

"What do you think?" Queen yelled at her. "Of course, what was I thinking?" Queen scoffed. "I forgot you lack the ability to even think."

"Jeremiah and Charles are fighting in hallway three right now." Sonia had to add. "Kingsley too, and it's all because of your wretched ass."

"Wh-" Kora was having a hard time believing it. "What?"

"Are you deaf?" Oma asked her. Kora was in so much shock to even look at Oma. "Do you have any idea what you've done? I really don't care about you or what you do. Stop involving Jeremiah into your mess. I'm not going to remain silent and just over look it from now on. I will ruin-"

Before Oma could say her last words, Kora had begun to run to the door as fast as she could. She couldn't. She couldn't stand there and listen to Oma, when there was a possibility Jeremiah was in trouble.  Grace got up too.

"Kora, wait for me!" She ran after Kora.

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Kora stopped for a second the moment she noticed the crowd from the top of the stairs. There was a lot of noise too. That had to be it. That had to be the fight. She could barely even see anything, since there were so many people blocking her view. She hurried down the stairs as fast as she could, approaching and pushing her way through the crowd. It looked like the fight was over just as some of the students tried to pull the boys away from each other. Jeremiah still had some more punches left to give as it was. He kept trying to pull his way out of the hold of the boys that tried to restrain him. He had a cut on his left brows. Charles on the other hand, had his entire face swollen, and covered in blood. His friends were really lucky Kingsley and Luke didn't punch that hard either. Kora had her jaw dropped as she stared at all of them one after the other, until her eyes finally rested on Jeremiah who had barely even noticed her.

"It's the dean of students affairs- it's Dean Rotimi."
The crowd began to whisper as they made way and cleared a path for the man in a grey suit that walked towards them, with a chubby woman and another man right behind him. Grace pulled Kora out of the way too, while the adults made their way through the crowd. They stopped in front of the boys.

"What on earth is going on here?!" The Dean's loud voice echoed all around the hallway as he had his eyes glued on all six of them. Jeremiah and Charles were still having their face offs. Luke, Kingsley and Charles' friends on the other hand cared so much about the Deans presence to ignore him the way Charles and Jeremiah did.

"Jay." Kingsley tired to pull Jeremiah so he could acknowledge their presence, but it didn't look like he was interested. "Jerry."

Jeremiah scoffed. He was getting really frustrated. He wasn't close to being satisfied. The fact that they had stopped him made him so upset, but he managed to turn to the Dean who just stood there staring at all of them. That was when his eyes met her. That was when his eyes met Kora. He didn't stop looking at her.

"All six of you!" The dean yelled. It was obvious he was so angry. "In my office right now!"

Kora had her eyes glued to him, even as kingsley was starting to pull him away, towards the direction of the dean. They were supposed to walk behind him all the way to the administrative block. She froze when they walked past her. Luke too.

What on earth had happened? What was going on?

"The rest of you," the woman announced, turning to the man beside her, holding a basket. "Drop
Your phones inside the basket before you leave. It would be returned to you after classes today."

Of course.  They were going to eradicate every evidence. NAUN was too big to know that a news like that getting leaked could ruin the reputation of not only the students involved, but the school too, and five out of three of the students involved were just as important to the school as the school itself.

The crowd was slowly beginning to move to the basket. Kora too. She joined them to submit their phones.

It was going to be a long long day.