One fact we need to establish is that no one really knows anybody. None of us are completely transparent.

Even those you knew and trusted would end up being something else.

Adam thought he knew Zehan. Enock thought he knew Sola. Timi thought he knew Amira. Kasy thought she knew Dele. Dele thought he knew Annika. But at the end of the day, we don't even know ourselves, and we never know what we're capable of until things get out of hand.

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

T H U R S D A Y

The stadium tracks were as crowded as a trade fair that Thursday morning. It suddenly looked like every single student from both schools would be participating in the races which wasn't unlikely because there were a handful of races for the day.

The drummers were out again and they fired out beats under the scorching sun. The sun made the tracks blazing hot so no one dared stand or run barefoot on it.

It was Adam's turn to boost Zehan's morale for the day since Adam might have been the only one not running any race. But even Zehan seemed too busy illustrating something to the girls who would be running the relay race. Everyone else was too busy warming up.

A voice over the mic soon announced that they would soon begin. They would be starting with the 100 meter races.

"Guys! Who has seen my phone?" Adam turned to see Dele talking to his friends who had been stretching out on the tracks.

"Where did you drop it?" Enock asked him.

"In our room," Dele replied.

"Don't worry, make I dial your number," Ahmed said, getting up and walking over to his bag on the bleachers to retrieve his phone.

"My own phone is in that room, though," Enock was telling Dele while Ahmed was still getting his phone.

Dele shook his head. "I already turned that place upside down, if your phone was there, I'd see it."

Enock's eyes grew wide. "What the—"

"Who thief my phone?!" Ahmed yelled, getting the attention of everyone around them. Dele and Enock walked over to him as he turned his backpack over and all the contents landed on the floor. His phone wasn't one of them.

"Guys, what the hell is going on?" Enock asked no one in particular. He made to run to the hotel, probably to search for the phone but Dele held him back, telling him the race was about to start and Enock was up first.

Adam would've loved to find the whole thing funny but those guys used quite expensive phones. Dele even had the latest iPhone yet, he  didn't look as worried as Enock and Ahmed who looked like their world had ended.

Sola approached the boys, failing to notice their state of dilemma. "Enock," she grabbed his arm, making him turn to her, "I saw your missed call."

"Not now, abeg," Enock shrugged her off, still telling Dele that he needed to go and check the room for himself.

The male voice resounded throughout the stadium: "Let's all get settled down, we're about to begin. Settle down, settle down. We're starting with the hundred meters race. Runners for this race, please move to the starting line."

"What's happening?" Sola directed the question to Dele since Enock was too frustrated to pay her any attention.

"Our phones are missing," Dele replied before heaving a sigh and turning back to Enock. "Just go and run the race. After that, we'll go and search for the phone."

"It'll be too late by then! We need to find who took the phones, now!" Enock snapped. At the starting line, they could see Uncle Ken waving Enock over. His Castron High counterpart was already there.

"Just go," said Dele. Enock reluctantly began marching towards the starting line. "Where's Annika? We need to conduct a search."

"You should know a search never works. If someone took the phones, they won't be stupid enough to leave it somewhere you'd find it," Sola said. "And besides, where would you even start?" She motioned around the stadium.

Her point had been made. Everyone was everywhere. Whoever had taken the phones did it at a perfect time. Even if they wanted to search everyone—their bags and respective rooms included—it would have to be after the races which would be too late.

"Wey Canada?" Ahmed who had been quiet ever since rose to his feet with new-found fury. "Na only that idiot go get mind take my phone."

"Chill, oga," Sola said to Ahmed, motioning for him to calm down. "Just pray it's not CJ. Because if it's him, then by now he's already sold the phones for 2k each. All hope would be lost, he doesn't waste time."

"Heiii, God!" Ahmed exclaimed, his hands on top of his head like he'd just heard the worst news.

Sola wanted to laugh but it wasn't a laughing matter. She had been serious with what she'd said about CJ. She was one of the people who knew him well or rather, knew a lot about him. Sola lived across the street from CJ and everyone in that neighborhood knew his Canadian mother was a prostitute. Sola didn't know exactly what made the woman popular—whether it was the fact that she was foreign or the fact she'd had four kids for four different men.

Sola also knew about the cultist slash drug lord, Tega, who had somehow managed to insert himself in their lives. Tega was mostly abusive and no one understood why CJ's mother kept him around. People at school didn't know that Andy, the junior student in a wheelchair, was CJ's immediate younger brother and Sola believed CJ and his brother wanted to keep it that way.

CJ being a pickpocket was common knowledge but only people in his neighborhood knew about the time he'd tried breaking into a supermarket in the street to steal groceries and was caught. The owner of the supermarket had decided to let him go. That was in JSS 3. And although CJ seemed to have quit breaking and entering, a few people knew he stole and sold off car parts from the mechanic he worked at.

Sola knew all this, Enock knew only a few because they all lived in the lower ring but neither of them ever said anything to their classmates for different reasons. In fact, Sola always avoided CJ in school because she believed he knew a lot of her secrets as well. CJ had never acted like he knew or cared about Sola's business but she just couldn't trust him.

"Sola, I was calling you yesterday. You just disappeared." Sola heard Annika saying after she took a seat next to her. The race was about to begin.

Sometimes when Sola looked at people like Annika, she wondered how they could be so oblivious and carefree about some certain things going on. Sola believed that if people looked deeper, they would see through CJ and see that he was just trying to survive in a world that had been so cruel to him from the beginning.

And if they looked deeper, they would see through her too and see her dirty little secrets.

"Sola, what's the matter? You're not here," said Annika. Sola was looking at her friend but couldn't say anything.

It was hard to believe that the lower ring and upper ring were in the same estate sometimes because people in the upper ring were so oblivious to what went on on the other side. Did they know that Newland Estate had cultists? Drug dealers? Or even the two girls that had been raped the previous year?

To people like Annika and Dele who lived one the other side, the world seemed easy and black and white and that's why they would never understand people like Sola and CJ who just didn't have a choice.

"Sola, you're acting strange. Say something." Annika was starting to look confused.

Sola simply shook her head slightly. "Nothing. I was just thinking of who took the guys' phone."

"Oh, yes. Dele told me," Annika said before looking out onto the track. "I've informed Ms. Isong. There isn't much we can do right now. To make matters worse, Ahmed swears he came out with his phone, it was in his bag. Meanwhile the other ones were in their room, charging."

"So…"

"So, it's hard to think of how someone stole the ones in the room and still came out here to take Ahmed's own," Annika explained.

"Then… someone targeted them in particular. It wasn't just something that happened in the moment,"

Annika turned to Sola. "What're you saying?"

"It means that someone didn't just go into their room, saw the phones and take them. The person wanted to get their own phones in particular, three of them," replied Sola. Annika seemed skeptical. "Abi James is in the same room with them?" Annika nodded.

"He also left his phone behind. Dele saw it while he was searching…" Annika trailed, getting Sola's point.

"Why didn't they take his own? In telling you, there's something in Dele, Enock and Ahmed's phones that they want." Sola shrugged.

Annika rolled her eyes. "Sola, you watch too many spy movies."

• • •

It might have been the thought of his stolen phone messing with him but Enock lost the race. Newland was starting off on a bad note and it didn't look like Enock was having any of it.

Sola and Annika went down to the tracks to console Enock but instead, it turned into something else when Enock exploded at her.

"Will you just leave me alone?! Stop pestering me for Christ's sake!" He yelled, getting everybody's attention before turning away like he'd not just humiliated her.

• • •

Sola barged into the girl's bathroom like a mad woman. What she didn't expect was to find someone else there.

The girl seemed to have been staring at herself in the mirror like she was seeing something else. Sola didn't care who she was or if she was a Castron High student, she'd had enough. She felt like her chest would explode if she didn't let it all out.

She wiped the tear rolling down her dark face as the Castron High girl stared back at her, looking frightened. No doubt, the girl would've run out of the place if only Sola wasn't standing at the door.

"Why are people so cruel and daft?" Sola croaked. "Do you have a boyfriend?" she asked Dabi, who stared back at her. "Does he abandon you and humiliate you even when he knows nothing about what's happening in your life?"

Sola wiped more tears. "I'm just so alone in this! My uncle is using my body to make money and all my best friend cares about is why I disappeared yesterday! Yesterday that I thought about ending my life so many times—"

Sola stopped mid sentence because Dabi had pushed her out of the way at that moment and ran out of the place like a deranged person. Sola realized two things.

One: there was something very wrong with that girl.

Two: she had just told a mad Castron High girl a secret she wanted to take to her grave.

Sola wanted to scream her lungs out at that moment and just cry till eternity. But the tears weren't forthcoming.

• • •

No one had seen anything like Zehan's speed on the track. They'd always known he was a good runner but that day, they got reminded of it. With Zehan winning all his races, Newland had hope.

Their only problem had been with the female races. The Onuoha twins from Castron High had been just as good as they predicted. They had been too fast for any girl in Newland to beat.

The male relay race was about to begin and Adam was making his way over to Kasy who stood at the starting line alongside other people cheering on the runners when two Castron High boys blocked his path.

Adam's heart jumped to his throat when he recognized the boys to be the same ones CJ had been doing 'business' with. What did they want? Did they want to make sure Adam kept his mouth shut? Because so far, he'd been doing a good job at that.

"Why are you looking like that?" the very tall one with the red cap asked, hitting Adam's slightly in what he must've meant to be a playful manner with the back of his palm. "The name's Oshio. And this na my guy," he gestures to the other guy next to him, "Bobzee,"

Adam was confused as to why they were introducing themselves. He didn't need to know their names, he already knew they were bad news. Nothing they said made him feel at ease.

"We saw what that guy did to you yesterday at the lawn tennis court," Bobzee was speaking now. Adam knew they were talking about Ahmed and the stunt he'd pulled. Adam's lip was still bruised from the impact.

"We can take care of him for you," Oshio said.

Adam only moped at them, not knowing what to say. These guys were dangerous and as much as he hated Ahmed, Adam didn't exactly want to have his blood on his hands.

"Just give your word and we go teach am a very good lesson," said Oshio. "Look," he stepped closer to Adam, "Kaniru saw something in you. He's the one that sent us… In fact, he wants to introduce you to someone who can help you… toughen up." Oshio hit Adam's chest again, more painful this time.

"Meet us exactly where you met us yesterday by five today," Bobzee said as they began retreating.

"It's not a request, better be there or else…" Oshio added, not sounding friendly anymore.

The spot where Oshio had 'playfully' been hitting him still stung so no, Adam couldn't have imagined the whole thing. What exactly did they want with him? What had he gotten himself into?

"Hey, what's up? You look like you've seen a ghost," Kasy was saying before Adam realized he had been mindlessly walking over to her.

He shook his head. "Nothing, nothing." He changed the topic, "Did you later speak with your brother?"

Kasy shook her head. "No," she said. "I can't even imagine what I'll tell him. I'll just mind my business and act like I didn't see them kissing. And you better not tell anybody."

"I'm not telling anyone," Adam assured.

The runners for the relay race were already in their positions. Charles Elias would be starting the race and Zehan would be finishing it. In between them, there was James and an SS 1 boy.

"So what have you been up to?" Kasy asked.

"Nothing much. I'm finally watching this Euphoria series Zehan has been disturbing me to check out. It's not bad but it's just as depressing as 13 Reasons Why. In fact, I'm starting to think Zehan has a thing for—"

"Did you say Euphoria?" Kasy asked, bushy eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes."

Kasy seemed to think for a while. "Oh… I remember where I heard it. Casper was recommending it a lot…" she trailed.

"Casper?"

"Yes, while we were chatting. He went on and on about how it was the best series and how I should watch it," Kasy replied. "Although, he claims it's not him, so…" She shrugged.

The whistle went off and the race began but so did a train of thoughts in Adam's head.

He suddenly began recalling how undisturbed Zehan had been about Kasy's whole situation the past few days.

And if it truly wasn't Casper who had been talking with Kasy…

Zehan wanted revenge, Adam knew that. But that had been weeks ago… Adam thought Zehan had let go of his thirst for revenge.

Maybe he was wrong?

It couldn't be.

Zehan wouldn't…

Zehan finishes up the race and wins and Newland students cheer and jump around the sports prefect.

"Kasy, I'll be back, I need to get something inside," Adam informed Kasy amidst the jubilation, she nodded and he began making his way back to the hotel.

If Zehan had been the one to leak the nudes, it would be on his phone, hopefully. Zehan usually left his phone in their room before heading out. Adam just needed to make sure.

• • •

"No reason wetin Enock dey do," Ahmed said to Sola. They were on an hour break before the 800 meter and 1500 meters would start. "I go still reason am, just calm down. No reason em matter."

"Abeg, fashi that stuff," Sola brushed off the conversation like she didn't care. But deep down, she hoped Ahmed would be able to talk some sense into Enock like he'd promised. "What about your plan? For Castron…" She changed the topic.

"I say make I leave am for tomorrow. E go make sense tomorrow. Na Canada I dey wait for now," Ahmed replied. That explained why they were standing outside CJ's door.

When Ahmed saw him approaching, he immediately started making his way towards him. Ahmed didn't want to take his chances, CJ could vanish into thin air.

"Na you thief my phone, ba?" Sola was surprised at the first words that left Ahmed's mouth. She had even forgotten that Ahmed and the others were still searching for their phone. Nevertheless, they were there to get CJ on their side, not accuse him.

CJ didn't look like he knew what Ahmed was talking about but he also didn't look surprised he was the first person Ahmed was pointing fingers at.

"No de look me like say you no know wetin I dey talk." Ahmed was pointing at the boy now and Sola could see his anger rising.

"Ahmed, chill," she intervened, pulling him back. "We'll settle that matter another time. Let him help us with what we came for first."

Ahmed complied and stepped back, his eyes still shooting glares at CJ.

Sola turned to CJ and sighed. "We need your help."

• • •

Zehan had waited for Adam to return back to the stadium but there was no sight of him. Although he was a little pissed that he'd just leave like that, he wanted to know if all was well. He was exhausted from all the running and all he wanted to do was sleep but he couldn't do that until after the races.

Zehan opened the door to the room and was confused at first as to why his things were scattered all over. Kelvin, the other boy in the room with he and Adam wasn't there. But Adam was.

"Adam," Zehan called out slowly to the boy he had his back turned to him, looking out the window.

Then it hit him.

"Adam, I can explain."

Adam still wasn't saying anything but Zehan knew he knew everything.

"Adam,"

He finally turned around and Zehan was sure he had never seen that look on Adam's face before. He looked down to his hands and saw Dele, Ahmed and Enock's phones in them.

"All those times you were with your phone in class… all those times you were chatting on Facebook… Who were you talking to?" Adam asked.

Zehan swallowed. Adam already knew the answer.

"Okay," Adam nodded, looking down at the phones in his hands, tears dropping down on one of the screens, "if you won't answer that one, at least tell me why you stole these phones."

"They lied against me," Zehan found the courage to walk in and close the door behind him, "don't act like I'm the bad person here."

"Zehan…" Adam croaked out, "even if what you say it true… Kasy didn't deserve what you did to her—"

"I'm not even done—"

"You are very mad! You hear me? You're a heartless fool!" Adam yelled like a maniac, making advances at Zehan.

Zehan clenched his jaw, standing rooted to his spot. "Don't you dare!" He pointed at Adam. "Don't you dare act like you don't know how they ruined my life!"

"You ruined your own life!" Adam shouted back. "Kasy and Dele did nothing to you! They don't deserve this!"

"They deserve it and more—" Zehan was cut mid sentence because Adam had grabbed his neck and slammed him up against the door. "Let me go, Olumide," Zehan said as calmly as possible.

Adam went extra when he got angry but Zehan didn't want to match his energy. Zehan knew he would do something he'd regret if he got furious. Adam was his friend, he just needed to reason with him.

But Adam was choking him.

"Why did you take Dele's phone?" Adam asked.

Without warning, Zehan punched the side of Adam's head and he freed him.

Adam stumbled back but immediately rushed to the corner and grabbed the mop stick there. Before Zehan knew what was happening Adam was already hitting his arm with it before he managed to grab it and it became a tug of war.

Zehan got the stick out of Adam's grip and threw it to the side. "Adam, will you calm down? I don't want to—"

Before he could finish, Adam was already jumping on his and pushing him backwards. They both stumbled and crashed into one of the bedside tables, making the lamp and everything on it fall to the floor.

"They were your friends! They were your friends!" Adam was crying now as Zehan pinned him against the wall and he couldn't move a muscle. "Kasy didn't deserve what you did! How could you be so heartless?! Do you know the gravity of what you did?! When are you going to stop?! When are you going to realize that you're the cause of your own problems?! Stop ruining people's lives!"

Zehan didn't know when he'd let Adam go. The words were like bullet straight to the heart. Everyone else had blamed Zehan for what had happened but not Adam.

And so Zehan let Adam slap him. Once. Twice. Three times.

Adam couldn't even fathom how angry and devastated he was. All he wanted to do at that moment was tare Zehan to shreds. His heart bled for what Zehan had become. What he was capable.

Adam was so angry that he'd missed the tear that dropped from Zehan's eyes.

Adam him out of the way and was storming out just as Charles was walking in. Adam looked at him and turned back to look at Zehan who wasn't trying to stop from telling the whole world what he'd done.

"He's been helping you, right?" Adam asked, motioning to Charles. That was the only explanation as to why Charles had been around Zehan lately.

Zehan didn't say anything, he only stared down at the floor.

"What did you find in Dele's phone?"

Zehan slowly looked up. It seemed like he held the end of the world in those eyes of his.

"Something that could send him to prison."

Adam walked out. He couldn't spend one minute in that room anymore.

• • •

E I G H T  M O N T H S  E A R L I E R

The entire SS 1 Art class had been given manual labor by their Government teacher for failing his test. So, Adam found himself in the football field under the scorching sun that afternoon with a hoe in one hand. He preferred the hoe to the cutlass because he figured it would be easier to use.

"No one is leaving here till all the weeds are cleared!" The teacher walked around, supervising the students.

Adam had been sweating profusely and his hands and waist were aching. So he stood up for a second to stretch and catch his breath. That was when he noticed Ismael next to him, seriously dealing with the grasses.

Adam had been meaning to talk to him concerning Kasy. Maybe now was the chance, he thought.

"Hey," he said, getting Ismael's attention immediately.

"What's up?" Ismael asked, flashing those white teeth. Adam didn't understand how he could be grinning under the hot sun but he didn't ask.

"You know that Zehan likes Kasy, right?" Adam asked, deciding to just go straight to the point.

Ismael chuckled, standing up properly. "Yeah, I know."

"So…" Adam trailed, "he's a little shy to make his move but he doesn't like seeing other guys around her."

"So you're trying to play matchmaker?" Ismael looked amused. "Kasy and I are just friends, Zehan has nothing to worry about."

"It doesn't look like you're 'just' friends."

Ismael laughed a little. "Okay, so what if we're more than friends? I'm not saying we are but… it wouldn't be such a bad thing. I'm not a bad person. Zehan is the one you should be worried about."

"What do you mean?"

Ismael sighed. "I know you're his friend and all… so you should know how he is. Zehan is… complicated."

"I'm still yet to get your po—"

"Zehan is destructive," Ismael cut him short. He toned down his voice and said in a whisper, "He's my brother, and if you ask me… he shouldn't even be allowed to socialize with anyone. I don't hate him or anything but… Zehan is just… He's not really okay…"

Adam didn't even know what to say. He stared back at Ismael until Ismael chuckled and bent down to continue his work.

"Adam, I'm telling you, he's crazy. He might even kill me one day," Ismael joked and laughed it off.

Yes! Zehan will finally be exposed!
Well... That's if Adam talks sha.

So tell me, what part shocked you the most? For me it was Ismael "jokingly" predicting his own death. But do you think he was right about what he said about Zehan? Psychopath or Sociopath?

And what the hell is Ahmed and Sola planning with CJ? And why does Kaniru want to see Adam?

Let's not forget that Sola told Dabi her secret!

And what did Zehan find that could send Dele to prison?!

My head is spinning, I'll see you later 👋