We all cry for help in different ways. If you pay enough attention, you might realize when the happiest in the room is crying for help.

In most cases, you'd never hear a cry for help until it was too late. And that's not your fault. You have your own demons to fight.

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

Sola had dared Enock to a dance off with Marcus Acha and  Affah from Castron High  and they were fire on the dance floor. Affah had to be a Michael Jackson incarnate because his break dance moves were mindblowing. Marcus on the hand was smooth with his moves as well, going at it like the professional he was. Enock was barely keeping up.

The Olympics officials had left long ago even before Casper's song. And there were no teachers in sight either so it was a full on party now.

After the dance off, Aaron  brought up the fact that they would want to see a Newland student sing as well since Casper already did so. Majority seemed to agree and soon, it became a matter of who was going to sing.

"It's your turn," Enock said, nudging Sola. Casper's light skinned friend, Aaron was on stage, calling out to the Newland students. It didn't seem like anyone was coming forth.

Sola turned to her boyfriend. "My turn for what?"

"I dare you to go and sing," he said. "You can't refuse. I carried out my own dare."

Sola laughed, shaking her head. "I'm not singing."

"Who's singing?" Annika pitched in on overhearing them.

"Sola," replied Enock.

"No, I'm not."

"But you have a nice voice…" Annika said.

Sola opened her mouth to speak but Enock grabbed her wrist and began pulling her towards the stage while she protested. People began cheering when they noticed them heading to the stage.

"See, Adam is already there, no need," Sola said on getting to the front of the crowd and seeing Adam getting on stage from the other side. "Enock, you're embarrassing me," she whispered as he pulled her up the stage. If he'd heard anything she'd been saying, he didn't act like it.

"Okay! We have two people!" Aaron said, turning to look at Adam and Sola on both sides. "Who's going first?"

Adam began making his way down the stage but Sola rushed towards him and held his wrist. "Where do you think you're going?"

"You can go first. I didn't even want to sing but Kasy was begging me and I couldn't say no to her."

Sola gave the boy a once-over. "You're sure you can sing?" She asked him. The audience patiently waited, watching them whisper. Adam simply shrugged. "You'll sing with me."

With that, she pulled him over to the center of the stage where the mics were.

"A duet!" Aaron announced the obvious and people cheered. "What will you be singing?" he asked them.

"Say Something," Sola replied immediately. Adam rolled his eyes at the fact that she didn't even care if he knew the song or not. He did, thankfully.

Adam noticed Sola's hands shaking as she held onto the mic like her life depended on it. She probably had stage fright, which explained why she wanted him to sing with her. Adam didn't have stage fright since he used to sing in the choir but he was still very shy. He didn't think there was a possibility they wouldn't butcher the song.

After Aaron pushed a few buttons on the karaoke machine, the song started. The entire room went silent at once. After the interlude, Sola took a deep breath and started.

Say something, I'm giving up on you
I'll be the one, if you want me to
Anywhere, I would've followed you
Say something, I'm giving up on you

They could already hear brief cheers and applause as she sang the first verse with a soothing alto. Adam was going to join her now and he prayed he didn't ruin it since she'd already started beautifully.

And I am feeling so small
It was over my head
I know nothing at all
And I will stumble and fall
I'm still learning to love
Just starting to crawl

Sola turned to look at Adam, a smile gracing her lips as the cheers got louder at how their voices blended, complimenting each other. Adam was on a very breathy and slightly pitched tenor that could be mistaken for a soprano.

Say something, I'm giving up on you
I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you
Anywhere, I would've followed you
Say something, I'm giving up on you
And I will swallow my pride
You're the one that I love
And I'm saying goodbye

One could tell that the duo had gotten comfortable now and they sang like they'd rehearsed a thousand times. The more Sola dug deep into her voice—giving Beyonce vibes—the more Adam pitched high and everyone was blown away. It was like their voices were made to be heard together, both of them beginning where the other one ended and coming out in perfect harmony.

They ended the song with whistle notes and falsettos and the audience couldn't have enough. Newland students were especially amazed since they'd never heard either Sola nor Adam sing before.

Say something, I'm giving up on you
And I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you
And anywhere, I would have followed you
Oh-oh, say something, I'm giving up on you
Say something, I'm giving up on you
Say something

The duo smiled, watching everyone give them a standing ovation after their performance. But something caught Adam's eye in the crowd.

At the far end of the hall, towards the exit, he could see his sister standing there with Uncle Ken and Ms. Isong. Lara was the eldest of his siblings and last time he checked, she'd been in Port Harcourt with her husband. What was she doing here? They were looking all at him, probably waiting for him to finish.

Sola was about to tell Adam how amazing he was but before she could get to him, he was already running down the stage and he disappeared into the crowd.

• • •

Kasy had been watching Adam and Sola's performance with Tari standing next to her all the while, the both of them screaming and yelling how much of a rockstar Adam was. Although Kasy didn't think anyone could scream more than Tari.

Kasy was happy they'd forced her to come to the party. It turned out to be one of the most memorable nights ever. She'd even gotten Casper's number and he promised to keep in touch. She wished she'd taken the chance to get to know him.

They were now watching another duo from CH, who introduced themselves as Yure and Ella, singing and everyone was enjoying every bit of it. Yure's voice was very soothing, the kind of male voice that was controlled and sweet to hear. In short, he sounded like liquid gold. Ella on the other hand could easily be mistaken for Ariana Grande with the way she sang, hitting the highest of notes. Her voice was like a soft reggae type voice but with an afro accent.

"Kasy," Tari called, making Kasy turn away from the duo on stage.

"Mhm…"

"Look at that girl," Tari said, pointing to her left, at a corner of the hall where some CH students clustered. "The girl standing next to that guy with a mane of hair."

Kasy followed her direction and saw the people Tari was talking about. "That's Dabi. I think the guy is her boyfriend, Acha." Acha had his arms around Dabi, they had to be dating.

"Yeah but doesn't she look familiar?" Tari asked. Kasy had never seen Dabi before the Olympics but she liked everything about her. "I can swear that she's the girl from TikTok. Her dancing videos are going viral."

Kasy scrunched up her nose. "Are you sure?" Dabi looked too calm and quiet to be a dancer.

"It's definitely her." Tari nodded, looking more certain every second she stared at Dabi. She turned to Kasy. "You haven't seen her TikToks? You need to see the girl move. I'm a big fan, honestly."

Kasy shrugged. She rarely ever opened her TikTok so she wasn't surprised she had no idea what Tari was on to.

"I'm going to go say hi, and maybe also do a TikTok while I'm at it. I've been trying to grow my TikTok—"

"And what do you do on TikTok?" Kasy asked.

"Well…" Tari looked around, looking like she was short of words. "Well… I do everything… Whatever there is to do. I do all the trending challenges."

Kasy nodded slowly. Tari was about to start making her way to Dabi when someone stepped in front of her, blocking the way.

Tari looked up at Charles, standing there and smirking.

"Oga, get out of my way." She eyed him, making an attempt to push him out of the way but he didn't budge.

Kasy left, deciding to go look for Adam.

"What exactly is your problem?" Tari snapped at Charles who was still standing there. "What do you want?"

Charles had an unreadable look in his eyes. He grabbed her waist, moving closer to her. "I want you," he whispered, looking down at her.

Tari turned away for a second. "Where the fuck did you get what you've been drinking?" She could perceive alcohol in his breath.

The duo who had been singing on stage finished and Fireboy's Bandana came on. Everyone began chanting the song on top of their voices making it impossible to hear anything else.

"Let's go to my room," he whispered in her ears, tightening his grip on her waist.

Tari slammed her fist against his chest. "Let me go, abeg! I can see you're crazy."

He grabbed her elbow, forcefully slamming his body against her. "Tari, why are you behaving like this? It's not like we haven't done this thing before. Stop acting like a chi—"

Tari managed to cut him off with a slap across the face with her free hand. "You're very stupid," she spark before trying and failing to get out of his grip.

Charles' smile turned into a grind as he shook his head. "You're the one who's stupid. Who do you think you're deceiving? Wetin you dey form sef?" He groped her boobs. "Is this not something you gave Ismael willingly?"

Tari flinched at the act and at his words. She ran her shaky hands again across his face, kicked him and pushed him off.

Charles stumbling and crashing to the floor got the attention of people around them including Ahmed who rushed over immediately, demanding to know what was happening.

Tari had frozen on the spot, glaring at Charles who was on the floor with teary ears. She managed to grab Ahmed as he made an attempt to pounce on Charles. She realized Charles was unpredictable especially now he didn't just know about her abortion but also about her and Ismael. No doubt Zehan must've told him.

Charles grinned, getting up on his feet and walking away knowing that at this point, he was untouchable.

• • •

Sola's phone was exploding again with calls and messages from her uncle. She'd been ignoring them all these while but she had to face the fact that she was going home the next day and there was no running away from him. The ideal thing to do would be to speak to him before she went home although she wasn't sure if that would do anything to pacify him.

"What's the matter?" Enock tried peeping into her phone to see what was making her look like she would throw up any second.

Sola looked up at him, shaking her head. "It's nothing. I just need to take this call, I'm coming," she said to Enock and Annika before getting up from her chair and making her way out of the hall.

As she looked for a deserted place to take the call, she thought of an excuse to give the man who didn't stop calling. Couldn't he take a hint?

She would just tell him her phone had been confiscated and she had just gotten it back. That seemed like a believable lie.

People lingered in the corridor leading up to the event hall so Sola made her way towards the staircase that led up to the second floor. It was almost 10 PM already and for some reason, the staircase area was very dark. The lights there must've been faulty so no one stood around that side.

Her footsteps echoed as she walked hastily with the vibrating phone in her hands. When she got to the edge of the large steps, she swiped the answer and put the phone to her ear.

"Hello…" she breathed out and her uncle's voice boomed out almost immediately.

She began giving him her excuse but he wasn't even listening to anything she had to say. He wanted her to come home immediately.

As her uncle spoke, Sola noticed there was something making a sniffing sound somewhere. She took the phone off her ear and walked around the stairs and peeked under.

There was someone there.

She turned on her flashlight and Adam came into view. He sat there in the darkness, his face wet with tears.

"What are you doing under the steps?" Sola asked, surprised. The last she'd seen him was after they'd finished singing and rushed off the stage.

"Hey, what happened?" She tried again but Adam wasn't saying anything and watching as his body shook slightly as he sobbed made Sola uncomfortable. The boy looked so unconsolable and she didn't know what to do.

Adam didn't even bother hiding the fact that he was crying. He wanted to say something but he couldn't find the words.

Sola moved closer to him. She dropped her phone on the floor, her uncle had already hung up. She took his hands in hers and asked him to take a deep breath. And he did.

• •

CJ had been in his room, trying to sleep, when all the lights went out. He wasn't sure whether it was a power outage or not but he couldn't just stay in the dark.

He managed to find the torchlight he'd thankfully brought with him. He turned it out and decided it would be better to go outside instead of staying in the dark, empty room that was starting to become very hot.

Since everyone had gone to the party, the hallway was completely deserted and thanks to the power outage, very dark too. The elevators would obviously not be working so he had to use the stairs. The whole thing was starting to look like a horror movie and for a second, CJ wished he had just gone to the damn party.

When he got to the floor below—which was also affected by the blackout—he started hearing footsteps. The normal thing to do would have been to simply continue making his way downstairs but as the footsteps got louder, CJ turned off his flashlight and turned the corner into the hallway of that floor. If he wasn't mistaken, Ms. Isong's room was on that floor so maybe she was the one?

CJ couldn't make out anything in the dark but he could hear someone walking down the corridor from the other end. If he turned on his flashlight now, he would immediately see who it was. But he didn't.

He stood rooted to the floor until he dropped hearing the footsteps.

He waited a few seconds and turned on the flashlight just as the footsteps started again. The light immediately highlighted the piece of paper that was poking out beneath Ms. Isong's door. CJ immediately raised the torch but he could only make out a figure that had just turned a corner, running towards the steps.

CJ ran after them as fast as he could but they were way ahead and the entire place was dark. He could hear them running down the stairs, so CJ took two steps at a time, almost falling over once.

CJ got to the ground floor and to his right, he could see the event hall at the far end, different colors of lights illuminating the whole place.

There were a lot of people making their way in and out of the hall and a few just lingering and talking. There was no way he could tell which one of them had dropped the note.

• • •

Kasy sighted Zehan sitting alone in a corner, his medals still dangling from his neck. He looked lost in thought and she thought it would be a good time to apologize since she didn't get to do it the first time.

People were already starting to leave and retire to their rooms. It had been an eventful week but it had come to an end.

Kasy walked past Annika who was speaking with the Igbo sisters and Timi and Amira, who she hadn't seen all night, at a corner, sipping Chapman and laughing. She had no idea where Tari was and she hadn't seen much of Dele all night either.

"Hey," Kasy greeted, smiling a little as she took the seat next to Zehan. He turned to her, looking surprised for a second but he didn't say anything.

"Have you seen Adam? He just disappeared after singing," Kasy asked and Zehan shrugged, looking straight ahead.

They stayed in silence for a while before Zehan turned to Kasy. "Were you the one who asked him to sing?"

"Yeah…" she trailed, smiling. "It's been so long since I heard him sing. And he'd even gotten better."

"Yeah…"

"I really wish things would go back to the way they used to be," Kasy said. "I'm sorry that we—"

"Kasy, I don't need your apology. I don't even want it…please."

Kasy took in a deep breath, trying to understand Zehan. Had he forgiven her? Was he still angry?

Kasy opened her mouth to speak but Sola was suddenly in front of them. "What are you people doing here? I've been looking for you." She looked between Kasy and Zehan who exchanged confused looks.

"Why?" Kasy asked.

"It's your friend—"

"Adam?"

"Yes, Adam," Sola replied to Kasy, breathing out.

"Did anything happen to him?" Zehan asked, he and Kasy had worried expressions on their faces.

Sola looked confused and then surprised. She shook her head and sighed.

"Didn't you know his mum just died?"

• • •

Kasy and Zehan raced up the stairs and down the hallway in a bid to get to Zehan and Adam's room where Sola had said he was.

Zehan never thought all those times Adam had mentioned his mum was sick meant she was critically ill. In fact, Zehan didn't think Adam thought so too. They all probably didn't think it was anything serious.

They got to the room and the door was left ajar. They rushed in but Adam Somoye was nowhere in sight. Kelvin, the other occupant of the room, was the only one there.

"Where's Adam?" Kasy and Zehan asked simultaneously, breathing heavily. Zehan walked towards Adam's bed and noticed all his things were gone as well.

Kelvin sighed, shaking his head just like Sola had done. "The poor guy lost his mum today. His sister came to get him and they just left like ten minutes ago."

Kasy and Zehan turned to each other, looking devastated and defeated. Kasy held the door frame for support while Zehan plopped down at the foot of what used to be Adam's bed, the both of them finally letting the tears fall.

We've come to end of Sola and Adam's part and ALSO this marks the end of our cross over with Too Many Broken Things by lovetori_xo and I can't believe it's over!!! Tori, thank you so much for lending me your amazing characters! I can't wait to see my characters in TMBT as well.

If you haven't started reading my new book, There's No Tomorrow For Me, then you better start. I can't guarantee how long it's going to be on Wattpad or free to read. It's about yahoo boys, you'll like it.

I changed my username to DonaldUzoka so please follow me if you haven't.

RIP Mrs. Somoye. No one saw that coming.

CJ almost caught our suicide letter writer. Who do you think it is?

Again, what's up with Charles?

Who's excited for Annika and CJ's part. Majority of the questions we have will be answered and things will spiral. Just try to keep up.

To everyone who reached out for an update—even on my email (again, lol)—I really appreciate you. It means a lot that you're still reading. ❤️