Kora

I took a deep breath and then let it out. I had my hands on the door knob for over fifteen minutes since I walked to the door leading into the dean's office. Fighting my subconscious and trying to decide if I really wanted to walk through it or not. Trying to calm my nerves and wrap my head around everything that had happened.

Just face it Kora, what's the worst that could happen anyway? It's not like you were going to be asked to withdraw your application because of something like this.

I guess I just had to be myself. I just had to summon my inner courage. I finally got the courage to knock once right before I twisted the door knob and walked in, taking my time. I just had to get it done and over with even though my entire body was trembling.

"Thank God she's here."

I slowly turned around so I could at least look him straight in the eye but then I paused the moment I realized that he wasn't the only one in the large room. There was someone else sitting right across him with her hands trembling right on top of her handbag. She turned to face me the moment I walked in.

"Mum?" I squinted my eyes, trying to make sure I was seeing rightly. What on earth was my mum doing in school? What was she doing in the deans office and why did she look so scared?

"Kora." She got up quickly and then rushed to my side. She grabbed my hands as fast as she could. I could tell she had been crying, I could also see the tears in her eyes.

"Mum." Now I could only whisper. What on earth was going on? Why did it feel like this was more than the news going around school.

"Miss Obidi, may I have your attention please?" I slowly turned to the forty something year old man sitting comfortably across us in his deep blue suit.

"Why-what-"

He leaned closer to his table and I followed his gaze until it led me to the transparent bags on it. What were those and why did it feel like they were somehow linked with why my mum looked a mess? I tried to have a good look at them.

"These were retrieved from your room this afternoon, after we got some anonymous tip that you might have been hiding them in there." The man continued. "Do you know what they are?"

I didn't understand. Did he just say he found those bags in my room? The same room I slept in? How on earth was that possible? I had never even seen those bags in my life. I didn't even know what they were.

"N-no." I stammered even though I could feel my mothers hands wrapped around mine, trying to give me the courage and confidence I needed. "I've never seen these bags in my life Mr Donald. I don't even know what they are."

I watched the man stare at me for a short while with his elbow on the arm of his seat and his jaw on his fingers right before he leaned closer to the table. His eyes still on me.

"Are you sure?"

I turned back to the table again. I had to take one more look just to ascertain myself. I knew I didn't make a mistake the first time. I really didn't know what those bags were.

"They are hard drugs." I drew my attention back to my mother. She squeezed my arms. She was finding it so difficult to even speak to me without bursting into tears.

"What?" I asked her.

"Cocaine and nicotine to be precise." I slowly turned back to the man. "Illegal on school premises and highly illegal in this country. You could be penalized seriously for having these on school premises, lose your admission and also have this on record. You could also go to jail."

"It wasn't me." I blurted out. I wasn't sure what was going on but I sure knew I just had to defend myself. "I don't know how these got in my room but I don't have anything to do with it. I've never used these drugs in my life. I've never even seen those bags before in my entire life."

I turned to my mother just in case she didn't hear me. I pulled her hand away from mine just so I could hold them.

"Mum," my voice broke. I was beginning to get so scared now. Really scared. "Mum I don't know what's going on." I shook my head. "It wasn't me I promise. I'm being framed."

"I know." My mother's voice broke too. She reached for my face just so she could clean the tears that were threatening to fall from my eyes. "I know darling. You don't use drugs, I know you. You'd never do something like this."

She slowly turned back to the man.

"I told you before, my daughter has nothing to do with this. She was obviously framed by someone else. She has never taken a hard drug in her life talk more of these ones. Please, investigate this, she's innocent."

"The drugs were found in your daughter's possession Mrs Olori. In her bedroom, a room that only she has access too. NAUN doesn't play when it comes to her security, all doors in this premises are highly impenetrable. It's impossible for someone to gain access into her room and plant this in without her consent."

"But I'm telling you the truth." I told him. "I didn't do it. I didn't do this."

"Isn't there a way you can help us?" My mother asked him. "Isn't there a way you can stop this from getting to the school authorities? I'm ready to do anything to make it go away. This school is all my daughter has, it's her future. This can't be on her record, it's going to affect her in the future if it does. She won't even be able to school abroad." She leaned closer to the man's table. "I beg you in God's name, please."

The man thought for a while. He exhaled.

"My hands are tied Mrs Olori." He said. "There is nothing I can do but hope that the NDLEA has not been informed about it yet. For now, I'm the only one that knows about this, I and the matrons. I can only beg them to keep their mouths shut for a second, while we find a way to deal with this. Although, I'm not sure that making this go away Is going to be an easy task-"

"You said no one else knew." My mother cut him off. "You said the drug law authorities didn't know about it yet didn't you? That's a good thing isn't it? They can't know about this please, I'd do anything to make this go away. My daughter is really innocent. I beg you."

The man exhaled just as his landline began to ring. It was so noisy.

"One moment please." I slowly turned to my mum the moment he took his call. I needed her to comfort me and tell me not to be scared. That she was going to handle it, that everything was going to be okay.

Who on earth did this? How did they manage to get into my room? What were they trying to do? Why were they trying to ruin my life? What on earth did I do to them? I could get all the previous parlor tricks but this one, this was my future, this was my life. How could they do this to me? No way, I wasn't going to let this go, I was going to find the person that did this to me the moment my mother and I found a way around the situation and make them pay.

"Okay sir." The man said. "Of course sir, I understand, thank you sir."

We turned to him quickly the moment we watched him drop the phone back on the table. He got up from his seat quickly and looked at us. There was something that had changed about his eyes, it was in the way he looked at us. There was a problem. Something was wrong and I could feel it. He slowly began to walk away from his table.

What was it? What was he doing.

"Mr Dean?" My mother tried to call for his attention but he kept walking towards the door. He paused for a minute and then drew a deep breath, he opened the door.

A man in a uniform got in quickly, and then another and then another, all in NDLEA uniforms. There was a policeman right behind them.

What was it? What was going on? Why were the drug law authorities here?

They turned to the man.

"That's her." He pointed at me. "Those are the drugs." He pointed at the table.

"Mum." I grabbed on tightly to my mum's hands, now I was scared. I was really scared as the men in uniforms walked towards us, my mum was trembling too.

"Kora Obidi?" One of the men looked like he wanted to be sure it was me. He got the gist without me even nodding my head. "You'd have to come with us."

I shook my head, grabbing on to my mum's arm as they walked closer to me. I couldn't let go, I didn't want to. I couldn't go with them because I knew the moment I left that office, everything was going to change. I had a big chance of never coming out.

"Mum," I called my mother's name as the men started to pull me. "Mum don't let them take me please." I started to cry.

"Where are you taking her?!" My mum was crying too, confronting the men at the top of her lungs. Trying to pull me back with all her strength. I wanted to go with her. "Where are you taking my daughter?"

"Please let go of her or we'd have to charge you for obstruction of justice." The police man told my mother.

"Obstruction of justice? She's only a child. A child that was framed, she has done nothing wrong. Why on earth would you take her away?"

"She is above the age of responsibility and thereby questionable by the law."

"Mum," I held on tightly to my mum, I was resisting as hard as I could.

"Mrs Olori lets just comply with them first." The dean told her. "Let's just do what the law says and then we'd find a way to resolve this right after. Resisting is only going to make things worse."

"You said you would help us." My mum turned to the dean, yelling at the top of her lungs. "You said you didn't inform the police, what on earth is this? Why are they taking my daughter and where are they taking her to!"

"Mrs Olori please!" The man yelled back at her. "Let go of her and stop making things worse for her. You're only going to make everything worse-"

"Mum," my mum turned to me quickly. "Mum I'm scared." I couldn't stop crying. Even as the men kept pulling me away from her, I didn't stop holding on to her as hard as I could. "I don't want to go with them mum, I'm really scared. Don't let them take me."

My mum sniffed and then pulled one of her hands out so she could clean my tears. She nodded, trying to stop herself from crying.

"I know." She said to me just as the men stopped pulling for a second. She swallowed hard as a drop of tear fell from her eyes. "I am going to do something about this I promise you. I won't let you sleep there tonight, I'm going to get you out."

"Mum,"

"Just go with them for now. Let's just go with them for now, I'd go with you, I won't let them take you there alone, I won't let you go through this alone. You'd be fine, do you understand? I'm going to get you out okay? So let's not resist anymore. Let's just do what they say so things don't get worse."

I sniffed. I could feel my heart break into bits. My heart was racing. I was only going to listen to my mum from then on. I wasn't going to fight them anymore or resist.

"Okay." My Mum slowly let go of my hand and then stood out of my way. The men grabbed me and I let them while the last one rushed to the table, my best guess, to pick up the drugs that were on it. They pulled me out of the room while I kept turning to see if my mum was right behind me. I could barely see a thing with all the tears clouding my sight but I could feel her presence.

We got out of the room.

"Kora." We paused for a moment the second Grace rushed towards me.

"Grace." A drop of tear fell from my face. I could see the way she stopped abruptly the moment she noticed the men in uniform. The look on her face changed, and then I heard claps from in front of us. We all turned to Seven and a few of her friends that happened to be walking towards us. Why were they here? What did they know about this?

"Wow, it looks like bad luck caught up with you in the end." She looked at me for a long minute. "I really didn't take you for a dealer."

"What?" I said almost in a whisper. I couldn't help but notice the smirk on her face. It just didn't sit right with me. "Did you do this? I asked her. Did you do this to me?"

She scoffed.

"Ouch." She placed a hand on her chest like she was in pain somewhere. "I'm hurt. Why would you think I did? It's not like I know your room number or I had access to your room while you were away or anything?" Her gaze shifted slowly to where Grace was standing, I had to look too. Why was she looking at Grace like that? And why why was Grace just standing there, trembling? She couldn't even bring herself to look at me. There was something wrong, something was not right. What was this? What was Seven trying to say? I needed it to make sense.

"I mean, there's only one person that actually has access to your room though, I'm just a regular student, I know nothing about you."

I still had my eyes glued to Grace. Why wasn't she saying anything? For a second, the tears in my eyes stopped to fall while I tried to make sense out of all I had just heard. Was it Grace? Was Seven trying to tell me that it was Grace that had framed me? Was she the one?

"I'm sorry." Grace whispered as low as she could, probably so no one else heard her except me. "I'm sorry." I saw a drop of tears fall from her face. What was this?

"You know what they say about the devil you know." Seven said at the background. "Look on the bright side though, you might actually look good in an orange jumpsuit." She turned to her friends. "Law offenders wear an orange jumpsuit in jail over here right?"

I was too busy glaring at Grace and trying to understand what was happening, to even listen to Seven and her friends. What was this?

"Take her away." One of the men ordered. They started to pull me again but this time, it was easier. I was out of strength to even fight it. My whole body weakened. I could feel how easy it was for them to pull me away like that. Everything had started to play in slow motion. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe any of it. All my senses failed me.

I closed my eyes as the last tear dropped from my eyes.

They pulled me away.