Huge problems start out as little things.

You probably don't think that anything would ever come out of Amira and Annika's little academic competition. You probably don't think anything would come of Ahmed's temper either or Zehan and Dele's hatred for each other.

Even in the scriptures, we are told that everyone would be held accountable for their actions. The same is applicable here.

I write like this because I've seen the end of all of it and it isn't happily ever after. There's always something to regret in the end.

Being perfect wasn't the solution, but being careful of what we did, what we said, how we laughed, every smirk, every snicker, every glare, every eye roll, how we made others feel. We should've paid attention to these things from the start.

In the end, you might want to ask, "Who is to be blamed?"

Of course, you already know the answer to that.

Was it all worth it? No.

Did our decisions make anything better? No.

Did we end up scaring ourselves? Probably.

As we move on, it's only fair that we look at the only beginning we have; when things were a lot better and probably when things started to get out of hand.

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

ＯＮＥ ＹＥＡＲ ＥＡＲＬＩＥＲ

With the amount of noise and laughter that came from the Akindele residence, one would think there were people high on drugs who had moved in, but the only thing Dele, Kasy, Zehan and Adam were high on was the happiness of finally being on summer vacation.

Zehan and Adam sat shirtless on the ground with a board game of ludo in between them. Adam raised his hands in the air when he'd won for the fifth time and Zehan shook his head.

Dele and Kasy were supposed to be watering the flowers in the large garden but had decided it was much more fun to chase each other around with the water hosts. Kasy was the first to get miserably wet.

With Kasy's screaming, Dele's laughter, Adam's joyful noise anytime he won and Zehan shouting about being cheated, to an outsider, it would sound like a mini party.

Zehan and Adam had abandoned their board game after they'd heard a huge splash coming from the other corner of the house. Just as they'd suspected,
Dele had thrown Kasy and himself into the large pool.

Dele motioned for the two boys watching them jump in but just as soon as Adam began protesting, he felt himself leap forward and fall into the pull with great force. Zehan jumped in after making sure Adam was already in the water.

The Akindeles were the only ones who had a swimming pool in Newland Estate and Zehan never missed an opportunity to get wet whenever he was at Dele's house.

The coolness of the water was in contrast to the hot sun.

Kasy was the only one who had gotten into the pool fully clothed. It wasn't like she wasn't drenched before getting into the pool anyway.

Asides from Zehan, none of them were swimming. Zehan would occasionally tease them and say they walked around in the pool like external invigilators.

Soon, they all faced Dele and began splashing water on him. Dele couldn't take on three people at once so he simply tried to walk past them.

Dele navigated to the other end of the pool and shouted, "I'm hungry," Whether it was an attempt to stop them from attacking him, or he was actually hungry, they could all agree that it was time to put something in their stomach.

They all went inside and changed into Dele's clothes. Dele found it funny how they'd ransacked his wardrobe in search of dry clothes but he couldn't complain since he had a lot of clothes. Even Kasy had settled for one of Dele's old t-shirt that seemed to fit her, but the shorts were out of this world.

While Dele and Adam robbed the fridge of all the snacks they could find in it, Zehan and Kasy remained in the sitting room arguing about what song to play in the home theater.

After Dele and Adam came in with different junk food, they decided to watch whatever was on in the decoder.

"I can't believe we're watching SpongeBob," Zehan said in between chewing. He had a big bag of Chin Chin in front of him as he sat in between Adam and Kasy on the big couch, Dele sat at the far end downing a bottle of Coke with bread.

"I told you ZeeWorld was better," Kasy mumbled before throwing popcorn into her mouth.

"No!" Dele and Zehan shouted simultaneously.

"There's nothing wrong with Indian movies," Kasy defended before bending over a little to get a good look at Adam who was on the other end of the couch next to Zehan, "Adam, tell them."

Adam shrugged. "They're a bit unrealistic."

Dele and Zehan immediately burst into mocking laughter as they watched Kasy's embarrassing figure.

"You hypocrite!" Kasy threw popcorn at Adam who only chuckled and continued sipping his yogurt.

"Hey, leave him alone he's telling the truth," Zehan said in between laughter.

About thirty minutes later, they found themselves in Dele's room, all sprawled on top of his King-sized bed, looking up at the newly painted white ceiling.

"I'm feeling sleepy," Adam said as he made himself much more comfortable on the bed next to Zehan.

"Oga, better go home if you want to sleep," Dele said from the other side of the bed. Kasy had used his bare chest as a pillow. The vibration of her pillow was one to make her smile.

Zehan looked at the two of them in that position and frowned. Adam saw the frown but said nothing about it.

"I wish it would just be like this forever; no work, no school, no stress, just relaxation," Kasy said.

"Madam, wetin dey hungry you no dey for market o," Dele jokes, and they all chuckled.

"I want to be a famous pianist," said Adam after a while.

"I won't be surprised if that happens," Kasy said, acknowledging the fact that Adam knew the piano like a second language.

"I just want a comfortable life. Maybe I'll be an Engineer... Or architect..." Dele trailed, still looking up.

Adam tickled Zehan's ribs when he noticed his friend had probably zoned out or probably still jealous of Dele and Kasy.

"I don't know what I want to do," Zehan said, catching up with the conversation, "I hate planning for the future. It's stressful."

Dele snickered. "I agree with you."

"Well, I'm going to do business admin," Kasy said.

"You said it was Law the other time," Adam got up to look at Kasy.

"Plans change, mister man," Kasy replied with a chuckle.

"You're just a confused human being." Adam scoffed before lying back down on the bed. Zehan saw the opportunity and began tickling Adam and the latter laughed till he was breathless.

Adam picked up a pillow to hit Zehan off but missed and hit Kasy who was next to him instead. Kasy on the other hand picked up a pillow and hit Zehan. Before anyone could say "Jack", the teenagers had already engaged themselves in a pillow fight.

• • •

Zehan and Adam were the only ones remaining on the bed after Kasy and Dele had left the room to feed Scott and Stiles, Dele's German Shepherds.

"Instead of behaving like a baby anytime you see Kasy with someone else, you can tell her that you like her," Adam said, ending the silence.

Zehan looked up from his tablet and sighed. He was tired of discussing the same issue with Adam. "That's not going to happen, Adam, I've told you."

"And why not?"

Zehan sighed again. "Well, because she doesn't like me and I'm not going to tell her if it's only going to make things weird."

There was a few seconds of silence before Zehan mumbled, "Besides, she likes Dele and it seems like he also has feelings for her."

"No she doesn't," Adam furrowed his brows, "she doesn't like Dele."

"She does."

"The only person I suspect she likes is your brother." Adam shrugged as he sat yoga-style facing Zehan who had his against the headboard.

"Ismael?" Zehan raised his almost invisible eyebrows. "That's a lie."

"But he likes her," Adam said.

"He doesn't. If he did, I would've noticed, I swear." Zehan scoffed at the idea of Ismael and Kasy, it was simply impossible.

"Okay, if you say so." Adam shrugged before picking up a magazine on the nightstand.

Zehan continued playing the car race game he'd been playing but his thoughts kept wandering to what Adam had said.

In all honesty, Zehan knew he would prefer seeing Kasy with Dele than ever seeing her with Ismael. That was just what he was afraid of. Ismael couldn't possibly take another important thing from him, not again.

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

At Newland Secondary, any missing items belonging to members of staff were taken very seriously. So when Ms. Isong's phone suddenly went missing that Tuesday morning, it raised alarm.

Mr. Dimeji, the Literature teacher, and Kendrick had escorted Ms. Isong to the SS 2 class after they'd made sure that all the students were in that room. She'd begun looking for the phone right after she left that particular class so they thought it would be a good place to start.

"Usually, we don't find anything because the culprit would've hidden it well but we still try our luck," Kendrick mumbled to Ms. Isong who stood with her hands folded across her chest.

She immediately turned to him, "Ken, I can't afford a new phone," she said with a calm tone.

"Are you sure you did exactly what I asked you to do?" Zehan mumbled to CJ as they moved towards the front of the class with their bags to get searched.

"Yeah, so where's my money?" CJ mumbled back.

"I'll pay you once Bamidele Akindele gets expelled," Zehan replied.

They added their bags to the pile like the rest of the class as they went over to get body searched by Mr. Dimeji who searched the boys and Ms. Isong searched the girls. Kendrick searched bag after bag. He saw many things but not a phone.

"Guy, were you keep-"

"It's in my shoe," Enock cut Ahmed off from asking where he'd put the leftover cannabis from the pack they had smoked that morning. They were on the boy's queue that was moving slowly since Mr. Dimeji took time to search each boy, in and out.

Kendrick opened up a black, shiny bag and as he went through the contents of the bag, he found contraceptive pills and other pills he was sure were used for getting rid of a young fetus. For a moment, he thought of calling attention to Ms. Isong but then, he took out a notebook from the bag and looked at the name written on it.

He put the notebook back into the bag, closed it, and added it to the pile of bags he'd already searched.

Tari Disemi heaved a sigh of relief as she watched Kendrick move on to the next bag without drawing attention to what he'd seen.

After they'd finished the body search and everyone was asked to return to their seats, Mrs. Elias walked into the classroom and stood in akimbo as she watched Kendrick ransack the remaining backpacks. She'd heard of the missing phone but she very well knew that they'd been wasting their time because nothing ever came of searching students. They were too smart for that.

Time seemed to slow down when it finally came to Dele's bag. Zehan and CJ sat up and paid attention to see everyone's reaction when they'd see the contents of the bag.

After a full sixty seconds of searching, there was nothing and Kendrick zipped up the bag and tossed it aside.

Zehan turned to CJ with a quizzical look but CJ was still looking at Kendrick as he searched other bags. They were both confused.

"He didn't search it well, he didn't open the maths set," said CJ.

"What maths set?"

Kendrick thought he liked the grey-colored bag he picked up next until he opened it and began searching its contents. The bag was nearly empty with only two books and a mathematical set in it. Kendrick retrieved the metal maths set out of instinct. It looked like a good place to hide a phone.

Kendrick opened the mathematical set and his eyes widened.

"What is it?" Mrs. Elias asked as she watched Kendrick's horrid expression.

"Shit," CJ mumbled since he knew what was coming next.

The entire class watched in silence as Kendrick turned the maths set over and the contents fell to the floor.

White crystalline substances tied in small waterproof bags and different sticks of cannabis, weed, and other drugs had been stuffed in the maths set.

"Is that cocaine?" Enock mumbled, turning to Dele.

Everyone was on their feet at that moment.

"Cocaine?! In my school!" Mrs. Elias screamed murder after Kendrick explained to her what it was. "Who's bag is it from?" She yelled.

Kendrick pulled out a notebook and checked the name. He gulped before turning to the principal. "It belongs to Charles Elias, ma."

"Ewoo!"

"Oh my God!"

"What the fuck? How's that possible?"

Different exclamations came from different angles of the classroom. Everyone was in shock.

Charles Elias stumbled his way to the front of the class.

Mrs. Elias stood like a statue. She hadn't said anything and she hadn't blinked either.

The principal's son had been caught with drugs. It would be the reigning topic for two weeks.

"I swear, I don't know who put those things in my bag, it's not mine!" Charles began swearing and trying to defend himself. He was already in tears.

"What the fuck did you do, CJ?" Zehan turned to CJ again. The light-skinned boy didn't know what to say, he was sure he'd put the drugs in Dele's bag.

Dele sat on his seat, his entire boy shaking and his heart beating against his chest rapidly as he began connecting the dots.

No one saw it coming but the sound of Mrs. Elias's palm connecting to her son's right cheek was thunderous.

There was silence. Then another slap.

And another one.

Charles knew he was done for.

° ° °

ＴＷＯ ＨＯＵＲＳ ＥＡＲＬＩＥＲ

It was during the morning assembly that CJ had sneaked into the empty classroom to carry out his task. Normally, he wouldn't be in school that early but knowing that Dele and everyone else would be on the assembly ground, it was his only chance.

He was going to just hide the drugs in Dele's bag but when he found out there was a mathematical set in there, he decided to empty the maths set and stuffed the drugs into them instead.

If he was lucky, Dele wouldn't even open his bag until the search.

CJ quickly did everything and left the classroom before anyone walked in and caught him.

After the assembly, students returned to their classes. Dele was one of the first people to return to class, and when he opened his bag to retrieve his wallet, which he'd left there, he saw and remembered the maths set he'd borrowed from Charles the previous day.

Since Charles wasn't in class, Dele took out the maths set and went over to Charles' desk, opened his bag, and dropped it inside.

English was the first period and while everyone was too busy writing down whatever Ms. Isong wrote on the whiteboard, CJ only had to walk past the teacher's table once and the phone on the table had followed him.

° ° °

"You went a little too far," Zehan said to CJ as they stood in the boy's bathroom, "when I said drugs, I didn't mean cocaine,"

"I got what I could lay my hands on and I needed something that would definitely get Dele expelled," CJ replied, "you're only angry because it wasn't Dele who got in trouble,"

"He was just lucky, too lucky," Zehan mumbled.

"Yeah, now, my money." CJ outstretched his hand.

Zehan looked down at CJ's outstretched hand before sighing and retrieving a couple of naira notes from his back pocket.

"I hope you don't expect me to pay you for the coke." Zehan handed CJ the bundle of cash.

"No..." CJ trailed as he counted the money, "this will do,"

Zehan couldn't help but wonder how five thousand was going to make up for all the cocaine CJ had supplied. He'd never bought cocaine before but he knew they weren't just something you get easy and cheap for that matter.

"If I may ask-"

"Don't ask," CJ cut Zehan off immediately. He knew exactly what he was going to ask and he wasn't in the mood to answer silly questions. "It was nice doing business with you."

Zehan watched CJ walk out of the bathroom immediately.

Everyone has their secret, Zehan thought. But he felt CJ's secrets were a little more than everyone else's.

• • •

Tari walked into the fully air-conditioned Computer Laboratory during lunch break to find Kendrick behind his desk with his eyes glued to the monitor as usual. This time around, his fingers weren't furiously hitting the keys on the keyboard, he seemed to be reading something as he just kept scrolling.

"Good afternoon, Uncle Ken," Tari greeted with a smile which Kendrick returned as soon as he looked up to meet her eyes.

"Tari, welcome," he replied before Tari dropped the nylon bag containing doughnuts as usual. Kendrick smiled but he couldn't remember telling Tari doughnuts were his favorite snack. "Sit down." He motioned to the only seat across his desk.

Tari couldn't explain how she felt at the moment. As she took the seat, she couldn't believe she was going to get lectured about pregnancy and the issues that came with terminating it. At what point did her life become a Nigerian movie?

The funny part was that her parents weren't even aware. If they ever found out, they would send her packing or even disown her. She couldn't be more thankful that it was Kendrick who had found out.

"How did it happen?" That was the first question Kendrick asked the girl sitting across from him. She looked miserable.

Tari didn't want to cry but she found tears running down her cheeks before she could even utter a word.

She shook her head "I don't know."

"You don't know..." Kendrick mumbled in form of a statement. "Who's responsible?"

That question. She didn't want to answer it. She couldn't.

"I can't..." She shook her head again, she'd broken down into tears now.

"You can't what? Tari, you can tell me anything," Kendrick tried to assure the teenage girl. He felt horrible seeing the ever-vibrant Tari Disemi in that state. "Have you told anyone?"

Tari managed to shake her head as she tried to stop herself from sobbing.

"Now, listen to me," Kendrick reached out to grab her hand on the table, "I don't know what you're planning to do but, whatever you do, don't think of harming yourself or the baby. Sorry to say this but everything happens for a reason. What happened has happened the only thing left for you to do is make the right decision now, you already made a mistake, don't make another one."

"I can't," Tari said, "I can't keep the baby. My father is a pastor and a strict one. He won't like his name to be dragged to the dirt...and me...I can't be a mother, not at this age, and with everything that's happened today, I can't tell anyone..."

Kendrick kept mute for a few seconds. "What does what happened today have to do with this?"

Tari only looked back at the teacher with wide, puffy eyes.

A million theories were popping into Kendrick's head. He asked slowly, "Tari, who is responsible for your pregnancy?"

Tari began sobbing again. Her breathing was unsteady and her chest felt as heavy as a rock.

Her lips quivered as she opened them to speak.

"Tari, talk to me," Kendrick urged.

"It's... It's Charles Elias."

• • •

"Charles Elias," The Vice Principal called, "what do you have to say for yourself?"

With his arms wrapped around his body and with dried tears mapping his face, Charles looked from Mr. Johnson, the Vice Principal to his mother who had refused to look at him after the slap.

"I'm not the one who... Those drugs aren't mine," Charles said.

"That's exactly what you've been saying ever since you came in here and yet you can't give us a reasonable explanation as to why the drugs were in your possession," Mr. Johnson snapped.

Charles burst into another round of tears on hearing Mr. Johnson scold him. He turned to his mother with red, puffy eyes, "Mom, please, you know I can't do something like this. Mummy, please... I was framed, I don't do drugs, mummy please, I was framed..."

Mrs. Elias tried to fight her own tears but it wasn't working.

She finally looked up at her son with teary eyes and asked, "Are you saying you've never done drugs?"

Mrs. Elias kept on thinking of what Zehan had said the previous day about her finding drugs with her son if she were to search. Which would've known? Her own son?

"Mum, not cocaine," that was Charles's reply.

"But you do drugs," Mrs. Elias mumbled.

"Mummy-"

"I spoke with the proprietor on phone," Mrs. Elias cut her son off. She wiped her tears and adjusted properly on her seat, "He said he wasn't going to involve the police but... Charles Elias..." Mrs. Elias paused. The words seemed to be choking her.

"Charles Elias," Mr. Johnson continued, "you're expelled. Effective immediately."

• • •

Seeing Charles Elias walk down the corridors of the school with his things, his mom and Mr. Johnson behind him reminded him of that day. The day he'd been accused of killing Ismael.

Students stood at the side watching, some poked their heads out the window.

Zehan couldn't help but blame himself. It was his fault after all.

Dele was still trying to put his head around it. Was this his fault somehow? Was he somehow involved?

CJ thought the guy was simply unlucky but as he watched Zehan from across the corridor, he knew that Charles Elias was only the first casualty in this war. A war that Zehan had started had planned to win.

Charles walked with his head facing the floor. He couldn't cry, not in front of all these people. He hadn't seen how shattered Tari looked when he'd walked past her. She'd planned on telling him about her pregnancy but she couldn't. Not with all this trouble.

Tari felt lost, she felt confused and she felt like she would run mad. Charles wasn't a bad person. Of course, he wanted to be like other boys his age and he talked too much sometimes, but he was understanding and caring and she was hoping he would understand her and be there for whatever decision she would make.

What would she do now? Who would she run to? Who would come to her aid? Who would hold her hand and tell her it would be fine?

It was funny how it took only a few hours for all this to happen.

Zehan had to ask himself if he was ready to see this revenge through. Would he end up hurting people he hadn't planned on hurting? Well, no matter what happened, every war had a casualty.

CJ stood at the entrance to the classroom watching as students whispered to one another. Everyone had their theory about what happened. He couldn't even imagine how Mrs. Elias would ever work effectively as Principal after this. Would she resign? No one would blame her if she did.

He couldn't believe he'd played a part in this disaster. Charles was never the target. But in as much as he felt sorry for what happened, he had only helped Zehan for the money and nothing else. It was all for the money.

CJ was so lost in thought that he hadn't noticed when Ms. Isong came up behind him. They were more or less the same height as they stood next to each other.

"CJ," Ms. Isong's voice was calm and collected which made CJ immediately turn to her with shock. "I know you took my phone,"

CJ immediately opened his mouth to speak but Ms. Isong put up her hand, meaning she didn't want to hear it.

"Don't bother denying," she said, "I don't care about the phone. What I want to know is how you got those drugs and why you decided to frame Charles."