Always together, never apart. Maybe in distance, but never in heart. – Unknown.

The reason this chapter is as late as this is because apart from me trying to figure it out, I kinda had Imposter Syndrome. Hehe. But thank God, I'm out of it now.😂

Dedicating this chapter to May__hem because she's been a lot of help to my writing life lately. God bless you, May.❤️

•AYO•

I walked through the gates of River Brook Academy on Monday morning, the next thing I was going to do after heading straight to the assembly—because for some reason, I was late today—was meet up with Bolu and the others.

But getting to the Assembly Hall, I checked my watch for the time: eight-thirty a.m., and it was as scanty as the hairs on the head of a bald man.

Scanning quickly through the place, I realized that only a few of the junior students were around, scattered in different angles of the hall. No teacher was present, which wasn’t unusual, because most of the time, they showed up late to the assembly; what was unusual was the fact that I was the only prefect around.

I mean, not one of my classmates was present. It was also unusual that the principal and Vice principal were not around, but then, I remembered that they both had gone on a trip recently and were absent from school. It seemed that the teachers had left their duties in the hands of the prefects, all of them.

“What happened to the senior students?” Mide asked. I had forgotten that she’d been beside me the whole time. I looked down at her. She rested her weight on one foot, pointed her index finger towards the disorganized lines, one of her brows raised.

I shrugged. “I’m wondering the same thing.” I walked over to one of the disorganized lines, Mide walking closely behind me, and pointed at a random junior student. “Come here.”

“Yes, senior. Good morning, senior,” the scrawny kid—light in complexion, with freckles all over his face—said.

I nodded. “Why is the assembly so scanty this morning?”

I wanted, really wanted to, but couldn’t ignore how his uniform shirt came out at the sides, even revealing his undervest; how his shorts had pepper stains, how his white shirt was almost brown, and how his hair was synonymous to a mad man’s dreadlocks. On top of that, his mouth oozed the odor of rotten eggs. God, these children never learn.

“I don’t know, senior,” he started, “but I heard my classmates talking about something that happened between senior Ore, senior Bolu, and senior Chidera.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “Yes, senior. I didn’t get the full gist because I don’t have a phone.”

That’s right, my phone. Forgot about that.

“Okay, thank you.” Before he turned to go, I said, “Wait. Dress up properly. And learn to wash your mouth well. Got it?”

His face dropped before he gulped and said, “Okay, senior.”

“Do the dressing up now,” I ordered. I picked a random part of the hall, somewhere close to the instruments. “Go there and do it now.”

He nodded and dragged himself to the corner I sent him to. Not bothering to see if he actually did what I asked, because I knew he would anyway, I took out my phone from my pocket. I figured that whatever was happening, would probably have started from WhatsApp. 

I was about to turn on my data when I heard Mide say, “Senior Ore has been cheating with his seatmate on senior Chidera?”

I jerked my head to the side immediately and said, “What?” Not because I was surprised he was cheating, no. I was surprised to find out that he’d actually done nothing and let it become a huge scandal.

I resisted the urge to cuss out loud as I scrolled through the photos when I finally downloaded them on my phone. The pictures, tons of them, got me feeling week in my knees.

No, there wasn’t any explicit content there, but who had stalked both of them enough to take these pictures? Now I understand why nobody was present at the assembly. And with what had happened, I was pretty sure I would not find Bolu so easily. But hopefully, I could find my girlfriend.

“I’ll be right back,” I told Mide and began walking back to the hall’s entrance.

But soon as I got there, I saw all the students in a stampede towards the hall. In order for me not to get crushed by them, because they were probably being chased by a teacher, I moved aside quickly.

A teacher followed right after them once they were all in—our further math teacher. He stopped short when he saw me. Gave me the stink eye. His left eye twitched as he did, and the eczema on his face had cleared. He looked and smelled cleaner than he was on a daily. 

“Sir, I just got here a couple of minutes ago,” I said, trying to explain myself.

“Indeed,” was the only response he gave me before he strutted off to the podium to begin the assembly.

Sighing again, I ran my hand through my hair, hung my head, and walked back to the SS3 line. Just then, other teachers sashayed into the hall, like they had just remembered there was something like an assembly in their place of work, and they were supposed to be present.

• • •

“I am very disappointed at all of you!” the further math teacher, Mr. Ariyo, yelled at all the prefects present. Some of them flinched, mostly the girls, but I was unmoved. We were all currently in that small room somewhere in the assembly hall. Where we were first told we’d been chosen as prefects.

“How did all of you forget your duties?” he continued. “What was so important that you left the students roaming about? We chose you as prefects because we saw you could handle responsibility, but that? That was a very big mess.” 

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and point out that teachers—who had the first responsibility towards all students—were constantly slacking in their duties.

“We got carried away, sir,” Marybelle, the head girl, said. “We apologize. It won’t happen again.”

That was when I really took time to see those who were present. And, as expected, none of my friends who were prefects were around.  Most importantly, Nina was not around.

Today could not just get any more chaotic. I pinched the bridge of my nose as the voice of the teacher became a blur in the background. I would text Nina right now, but the teacher was already so pissed at all of us.

I was pretty sure he’d be furious if he saw me, who was always so well-behaved, texting while he was speaking. So, I resolved to doing that after this meeting. 

“…this must not repeat itself. The principal and vice will not be happy to hear this,” the teacher’s voice became clear again. “That’s why a word about this must not be said to them when they get back; am I understood?”

I would have yawned, but instead, I joined them to monotonously chorus, “Yes, sir.”

“Good. You all are dismissed.”

We walked quietly in a group to exit the room. Once we were out of the room and earshot, Marybelle hissed loudly and said, “Nonsense. The one wey we don do for RBA no reach? Are we now supposed to take the place of teachers?”

“Abi oh,” Joan agreed with her. “This is exhausting.”

I remained quiet as they kept stating their facts and complaints. Normally, I would walk ahead of or far behind them, because I didn’t roll with them, but today, I guess I was too distracted for that.

And also, as a matter of fact, I did not give two hoots. I took out my phone and decided to text Nina, once again, letting their voices blur in the background.

Me: Babe. Where are you?

One tick showed. I waited for it to tick twice; it never did. Sighing for the umpteenth time today, I texted Bolu instead. It also only showed one tick.

At that point, I wanted to pull out all my hair. Why did today have to be like this? And to make matters worse, just as we got to the entrance of the Senior Block, one of the prefects’ comments brought me back to their conversation.

“…it’s Ore’s fault, actually. And that Bolu girl is a slut. I’m sure all the girls in their group are like that.”

Ehn?

My ears perked up. Slowly, I raised my head and stared straight at the guy who said it. “Repeat what you just said.”

The guy—the technical prefect, Tobe Emmanuel—darted his eyes around, pretending to look for who spoke, like he did not know it was me. He pretended to finally find me, too. “Are you talking to me?” He put a finger to his chest.

“Did someone else say what you just said?” I retorted. Maybe my reply shocked them, because in the next moment, everyone else just stopped and stared. I ignored how their mouths hung open, and how their eyes remained wide.

Yes, I just spoke up; what’s the big deal?

“Well,” he shrugged, “I just said the truth. They are all—”

Two long strides were all it took for me to reach him and grab his collar. I heard gasps and whispers from the group. From the corner of my eye, I saw Joan grab the hem of Goke’s (the male social prefect) shirt. I focused my attention back to the boy in my grip. His eyes were wide, and even though he tried to mask it, I could see his fear. I could also see the frayed collar of his shirt, the growing mustache just above his lips, and the acne—lots of black spots, to be precise—all over his face.

“Repeat what you just said,” I sneered, gripping his collar tighter.

“Omo, I…” he trailed off. Gulped.

I glared at him. “Never speak about my friends like that again. Ever. You know absolutely nothing about them.”

With that, I exhaled and let go of his collar, not wanting to be the center of another drama. Turned around, and walked away. I knew the others were stunned by my action. I knew they were still staring at my retreating back; I could feel it. I also knew I was very close to losing control just now.

But there was no way on earth I would stand and let any of my friends be bad-mouthed like that. Never. They’d been through so much already, and even if they were wrong, they’d had enough back lash. 

I let out a frustrated sigh and kept walking to my class. Maybe there, I could cool off some steam.

• • •

MJ was not pleased about the whole situation, but he did try to make me smile. Prior to the next class we had after break, he started singing theme songs from old nickelodeon shows with his loud and, I might add, horrible voice.

My ears almost bled because of the noise. And it did not even help that the rest of the class joined him to sing along. Soon enough, we had some girls using folded exercise books as microphones, boys using the tables as drum sets, pens and rulers and drumsticks, and some of the girls offered to be back up dancers.

I was the only one seated in my chair, arms crossed, and staring straight-faced at them. It was funny how my classmates, who had been raving about what had happened just this morning, were the ones behaving like this now. I wasn’t surprised, though.

That alone buttressed the fact that it would only be a matter of time, and people would forget about what happened. Another story would trend and they would turn their attention to that one. And the cycle would continue.

MJ was in the middle of singing the theme song of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—one hand at the back of his head, and the other hand doing some weird movement as he wiggled like a worm—when our Financial Accounting teacher showed up and stood at the door.

I watched as the man's expression turned from shocked to amused and then, to annoyed. He crossed his arms. Apparently, I was the only one who noticed his presence.

“Leonardo’s the leader in blue. Does anything it takes—”

“Taiwo,” the teacher’s voice, firm and gruff, cut him off.

My classmates scurried to their seats immediately. Some tripped, some fell butt-flat on the floor. Some jumped over seats and posed like they had not just been dancing. Someone even had the audacity to be "solving" mathematics. Yes, the person happened to be directly in front of me.

MJ was shocked, but he quickly recovered, mustered a goofy grin, and said, “How are you, sir?”

The teacher just shook his head, familiar with MJ’s antics too. “Just sit down, everyone.”

That was when I cracked a smile. Maybe on a normal day, when I wasn’t in such a terrible mood, it would have been full-blown laughter.

But that was it; I only cracked a smile. Considering that all possible means to find Bolu and reach Nina did not even work out, and all means to try and gather the rest of the gang didn’t have any head—they were kind of nowhere to be found and at the same time, scattered—my mood didn’t get any better. If anything, it got worse.

I had seen Ore during Break time, though. He had looked so gloomy, and with the way his tired, sad eyes met mine when I’d gone to meet him about Bolu, I just patted his shoulders and, even though I hadn’t exactly felt it would, I’d said, “Everything will be fine.”

Immediately the closing bell rang, I stood up from my seat, slung my backpack around my shoulders, and walked out of the class, not bothering to wait for MJ as usual. I had a feeling that if I stayed another second longer, I was going to lose my freaking mind. I was going to do something I would regret.

In the next couple of seconds, I was in the hallway. I halted in front of one of the classes to text Mide to meet me downstairs so we could get out of this school as quickly as possible. Stuffing my phone into my pocket after texting her, I continued walking, nodding slightly at some of my classmates I was familiar with because of the basketball team.

Getting to the end of the hallway, as I was about to take the stairs, the hairs at the back of my neck stood, and almost immediately, three men-boys, who were the last people I wanted to see, emerged from only God knew where, blocking my path.

I rolled my eyes. “What do you want?”

Sukky spoke first, “Not that it really matters—or maybe it does—but we saw what you did today.”

I furrowed my brows, trying to recall, as Jare said, “You know, with Tobe. And the others.”

“Epic. Just what we need,” Kome said, a smirk on his face.

Then it dawned on me.

These guys saw what happened between me and the other prefects today? How often do they stalk me?

“Well, it’s good to know that you sickos have no other job than to follow me around all day,” I said casually.

Kome frowned. “Guy, Sukky. Be like say we don too let this boy grow wings oh.”

“Relax.” Sukky grinned—an unsettling one, by the way. Then he walked up to me, and for twenty seconds (I counted it), we had a stare-down match. He blinked first. I grinned. He grinned, too, letting me wonder if he knew I was the winner of this round or not. Normally, he looked angry each time I beat him to his own game. Today, it seemed like he was amused. I hoped my smug expression did not falter, because he grinned even wider. Then he said, “Remember the Samurai Rangers?”

I gulped as beads of sweat gathered at the back of my neck, suddenly feeling sick to my stomach.

“Ah, I see you remember.” His grin turned to a sinister smirk. And I could see identical expressions on the faces of Jare and Kome. The scar on Sukky’s face seemed to gleam. “But you can forget, Balogun. We can forget—on one condition. And you know what that is.”

I thought of how much I wanted them to leave me alone, how much burden would be lifted off my chest, how less guilty I would feel, how freer I would be, how I would be able to speak up more, how I would walk the grounds for the rest of the school year without any more blackmail, if I gave in to what they wanted.

But then, if I did give in, it would not change the fact that I was a criminal who would commit even more crimes. It would not entirely redeem me from what had happened in the past. It was only going to put it on hold for it to be revealed in the future.

So, with gritted teeth, I walked even closer to him, shaky arms crossed, and said, “Never.”

I could tell he was taken aback for a little while, because his eyes went wide. The smirk was back on his face. He raised his hands. “Okay, Balogun, okay. Don’t be surprised if, a day before graduation, your secret gets leaked. Just like what happened to your good friends.”

I clenched my fists, my chest heaving, willing myself to stay calm. When all I really wanted to do was punch him in the face. But then, I did not want to give them more resources for blackmail. “Go ahead and do whatever, Sukky. I am never going to join your band of idiots.”

Three of them shared a look before Sukky said, “Suit yourself.”

And with that, they walked around me, and were off. I exhaled. Rested my hand on the wall, placing my head on top of it. I heard an almost quiet shuffling from behind me, which caused me to turn around. She was quick, but I saw her—Anita Makinde. Based on the direction she was headed; I knew she had been lurking in the corners that hid the staff closet.

I wanted to throw away the thought of her being present during the whole fiasco. But no, I did not. Even if she was just a student, I knew Anita Makinde was not an ordinary girl. If anything, I knew she was way more attentive to detail than I was. I just stood there, hands massaging my neck, wondering what the heck she had heard. Because with how quickly she left the scene, I knew she had definitely heard something.

Y'all remember Anita Makinde? That weird girl?

Well, yeah. That's her.

Do you think she'll have an important role to play in this story? Let me know what you think.

That said, new readers, I see (some of) y'all. Welcome to the family and thank you so much for giving my book a chance.❤️

And oh, congratulations to my guy, vickyraee!!! Her book, Tints And Shadows, now has 10.1k reads. If you haven't checked out her book, what are you waiting for?👀👀 Check it out!!

We still have a couple of chapters to go before the book ends. Around 10-15 sha. I honestly thought I'd end the book at 50 chapters, but oh well, it is what it is.😂

The gbas gbos never finish sha.🌚

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All right. Too much talk.

Thank you for reading.

Till next time, mi amigas.❤️

~ Ife.💖💖