Crazy people everywhere.

Doing crazy things.

Sure, the school was messed up, the authorities were fucked up and the students were in need of a psychiatric evaluation but all in all, Newland Secondary looked good from the outside. That's why it was difficult to see the chaos generated from the place.

If only they knew. If only we knew, we wouldn't have done some certain things.

Things like letting Zehan Essien and Charles Elias come back to school.

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

"This shouldn't be an issue, I don't want any problems escalating from Charles's return," Mr. Johnson emphasized as though he knew that was exactly what was going to happen. "After thorough investigation and delegations by the school board, the authorities deemed it necessary to revoke Mr. Elias' expulsion."

Murmurs of 'just like that?' and 'how come?' took over the once silent and orderly class.

"This man is just speaking too much English," Sola mumbled to Enock who was next to her, "simple, you brought him back because he's the principal's son, you're here capping nonsense," Sola said as though the Vice Principal could hear her talking to him.

Mrs. Elias stood next to her son but unlike him, she was boldly looking everyone and anyone who dared throw a questioning glare at her in the eye. Charles on the other hand thought that the tiles looked cleaner than the last time he'd seen them.

Zehan met Mrs. Elias' glare on him and he could've sworn his heart froze for a moment but he didn't look away, instead, he gave her a doze of her own medicine. Was it a glaring contest she wanted? That's what she'd get.

Zehan knew the principal didn't like him and that she was suspecting him of having something to do with the drugs found in her son's bag. Granted, he had subtly threatened her and revealed to her that her son did drugs on his first day back so she had every reason on the planet to point accusing fingers at him. He knew she would do anything to get rid of him especially since he knew that she'd taken that bribe from his mother the previous year.

To his defense, Zehan had never lied about Charles doing drugs and it had never been his intention to frame him. Zehan knew Charles was a stoner, same went for Enock Sakala and Dele and Ahmed who smoked weed occasionally and CJ Ikem being their usual dealer. Zehan knew all these things. Nothing fazed him anymore.

"Why is she looking at you like that?" Adam whispered to Zehan as the Vice Principal's voice could still be heard in the background.

"Who?" Zehan finally broke away from his glaring contest to turn to his friend.

"Principal."

"I don't know, go ask her." Zehan shrugged as though he didn't know what Adam was talking about.

"She's just looking like she would throw you off a bridge if she could," Adam whispered.

Zehan sighed and mumbled to himself, "Wish I could jump off a bridge."

"What did you say?" Adam turned to Zehan again with raised eyebrows.

"Nothing."

After talking for nearly ten minutes, the Vice Principal was finally concluding his long speech. "If you have any issues or complains, my door is always open. I want nothing more than peaceful coexistence in this school. Have a nice day," he said before gesturing for Charles to go and take a seat.

The Principal and the vice principal left Ms. Isong to her class just as Charles took a seat at the back-the one CJ was also occupying. Charles tried as much as possible to avoid the questioning glares that they were shooting his way.

"Silence, please," Ms. Isong said in an attempt to get the noisy class in order. When the students had finally taken a break from their gossiping, she went further, "Welcome back, Charles."

Charles didn't really act like he was the one she'd been talking to, he only fiddled with his hands that were rested on the desk.

"Okay, so, the only person who doesn't have a partner is..." Ms. Isong trailed, looking into her paper, "Zehan Essien."

The students had long forgotten about the ongoing project work assignment that been going on before Charles walked in. Zehan hadn't even noticed that his name had yet to be called.

"You'll partner with Charles, Zehan." That came as another shocker to Zehan. Did she say Charles?

"What?" Zehan mumbled but everyone heard him.

"You'll partner with Charles," Ms. Isong repeated. "Since there's only two of you in the group, I'll give you the liberty of choosing a topic of your choice, one person should propose and the other would oppose, it's left for you to decide." The words were going in through one ear and going out through the other. Zehan hung on to the fact that the evil principal's son who he'd accidentally framed for drug possession was now his project partner.

"Zehan, make sure to explain everything in detail to your partner." That was the last thing Ms. Isong had said before the bell for second period was heard. "So, we'll be starting with group seven next week on the topic 'Abortion should not be a crime', be prepared!" The English yelled as the Art students made their way to their class and caused just as much noise as they did while coming in.

• • •

By the time lunch break came around, Amira couldn't find her friend. As a matter of fact, Tari had stormed out of the class right after the English class and hadn't been seen since then. She had skipped classes.

Amira wasn't surprised when she found the Social Prefect on the other side of the fence at Newland Primary. As usual, she was seating on a swing, looking into space as the primary school kids rolled around and played on the white sand the playground was covered in.

Silence reigned even after Amira had taken the swing next to Tari's. It wasn't really comfortable.

"Charles is back," Tari said after awhile as though that would be news to Amira but Amira only figured that the situation still shook Tari.

"Yeah," Amira responded awkwardly. "I'm sorry for being selfish."

Tari didn't say anything, she wasn't even looking at the girl next to her. She still seemed lost in her own thoughts.

"It's just that," Amira continued, "I couldn't skip that exam-"

Tari interrupted, "Because of your parents."

Amira released a shaky breath. "Not just that," she said, "I knew Annika was going to write the exam and...I had to write it too." It was at that moment that Tari turned to Amira with a look of perplexity and disbelief. "My phone rang, I knew it would be you and...I could almost guess why you were calling...I knew you would need someone with you and even when you hadn't asked, I knew I should've volunteered to go with you because...you would've done the same for me."

After they'd had that argument in class, Tari knew she could simply let everything go and continue having her best friend by her side but at that moment, with Amira's confession, it was becoming harder.

Before Amira could open her mouth to speak, Tari stopped her with a raise of her hand. "Stop, that's enough."

Amira knew it. Her face fell in disappointment. Tari had probably heard enough of her betrayal and selfish vendetta.

"You're just making things worse," Tari mumbled. The look on her face was impassive. She shrugged and said, "I just need my friend. I thought getting rid of the baby would make everything easier, I thought I'd finally be able to breathe...I can't. It still feels like everything is crashing down around me. I just need a friend."

"Tari, I'm here for you," Amira said and Tari froze for a second. That was exactly what Ahmed had said to her that day he showed up at that park unexpectedly.

"Thank you," Tari mumbled.

"I tried to get Ms. Isong to change the topic though," Amira started and Tari scoffed knowing that couldn't have been successful, "she didn't listen to me."

"That's not a problem...it's no big deal." Tari knew she was only trying to convince herself that it was not a big deal.

"Did he know?" Amira asked after a while. "I'm talking about Charles."

"No," Tari replied immediately as though she'd been waiting for the question. "I wanted to tell him that day he got expelled, but then...he got expelled. I couldn't tell him at that moment."

"And now he's back?"

Tari sighed with a shrug. She was still looking at nothing in particular. "Everything goes on as usual, I guess."

"Oh, well, I was thinking that since he was your first and all...you'd want him to know."

Tari turned to the other girl once more with a look of concern that Amira wasn't able to pick up. Who'd ever told her that Charles was her first?

Nevertheless, Tari didn't say anything. They simply sat there in silence till the lunch break was over.

It was already heartbreaking enough for her goody-two-shoes friend to find out that she wasn't a virgin, Tari didn't want to think of how Amira would see her if she found out her body count was greater than five. Actually, no, she knew exactly how her best friend would see her.

As a slut.

• • •

The fact that the Head Girl had called a student council meeting without informing Timi almost made him angry. Almost.

He kept telling himself that he should've gotten used to Annika Malan's spontaneous decisions and actions without bothering to involve anyone but he couldn't just get used to it. She surprised him every time. So there he was, trying to catch up with her pace and reminding her that a student council meeting after lunch break would mean that all prefects would miss classes.

"It's an emergency meeting, Timi." Annika sounded less concerned as she flipped the notepad in her hands and still managed to walk gracefully without tripping over. When you saw Annika Malan coming your way, you immediately made way. That was the main reason why the Head Girl could walk around blindfolded and still not bump into anything, living or nonliving.

Kasy felt awkward walking next to Annika since she looked like her PA but she was happy that Annika wasn't calling her Mercy anymore. Although she wasn't really sure Annika knew her name.

"Annika, I cannot afford to miss Physics class for this," Timi said as he walked behind them. They were all headed to the empty classroom which Annika had arranged to look like a conference room, it just happened to be on the SS 1 floor.

Annika was about to respond to Timi's plea when a group of SS 1 boys walked past them, laughing and looking towards Kasy who they called 'flat chest'.

Kasy felt like her whole world would crumble at that moment. In fact, she would have loved for the ground to open up and swallow her whole and still erase her identity, memory and every ounce of her existence from planet earth.

A bunch of dirty-looking SS 1 boys had just called her 'flat chest'. It couldn't be happening.

Definitely, they must've heard Dele and his friends making fun of her but then, she never thought the nickname would escalate and the situation get so bad as having her juniors make fun of her.

Kasy froze for a second but unfroze when she remembered that Annika was by her side and that they were heading somewhere.

Timi hadn't even noticed anything. He was too busy worrying about the Physics class he was going to miss out on.

Annika was going to ignore it considering that those boys were dirty, ugly and juniors who were not worth her time. Besides, she had better things to do and they weren't even talking to her. They wouldn't dare.

But no, something hit differently. Kasy hadn't noticed but Annika had actually stopped walking at the same time she stopped and continued at the same time she did. But then the Head Girl stopped again when Kasy was ready to act like nothing happened and just keep walking.

"Excuse me?" Annika's voice echoed loudly in the crowded hallway. Everyone was confused but they turned to her nonetheless after she stood rooted to the ground.

Every SS 1 student within sight by then had been waiting to hear what she'd say next while hoping it wouldn't be something related to 'on your knees everybody!' Spontaneous, unnecessary and unexpected punishments were a normal routine when you had someone like Annika or Dele as seniors.

Kasy was as confused as Timi until Annika turned towards the three boys who were a few feet away from them since they'd also stood at attention on hearing Annika Malan's voice.

Those boys felt like melting into the floor when Annika marched towards them, taking long strides with that mean look on her face.

"G-good afternoon, s-senior..." the boys stammered one after the other as they unconsciously began cuddling and trying to morph themselves together as though Annika's eyes came with lasers. To their defense, the Head Girl's stare was too much for them.

"You made a comment when you walked by." She stood in front of the trembling three, her arms folded and her head held high up as she looked from one boy to the other.

The boys knew they were doomed. They should've known Annika would hear them. But again, in their defense, Annika Malan never gave a flying horse about side comments that weren't directed towards her. Everyone knew that.

Everyone knew Annika was like a programmed robot. They knew that Annika would never hear anything else that was not being said to her and she was too busy to defend people who were not her friends. Hell, she never even replied to greetings that didn't come from someone she was already familiar with. That was simply how the Head Girl of Newland Secondary worked and everyone knew that.

"No oh senior, we didn't say anything," the black boy in the middle said, looking petrified.

Wham!

Everyone gasped out of shock. The slap seemed louder than her voice.

The SS 1 boy couldn't see clearly anymore. He could only see star-like dots that were very colorful cloud his vision and even as Annika spoke to him, his ears were making a sound that resembled that of a mosquito using a microphone.

"What do you take me for? A fool?" Annika thundered. The other boys guarded their cheeks in other not to receive the facial abuse their friend was still nursing. "I clearly said you made a comment when you walked by, I didn't ask, did you make a comment when you walked by? It was obviously a statement not a question because I know what I heard and you telling me otherwise is very insulting!"

Annika was raging.

"Sorry senior," one of the boys said the same time the other one mumbled, "sorry ma." The boy in the middle was still nursing his cheek as he stared down at the floor, breathing heavily and trying to blink away hot tears.

"Now, who made that comment? Which one of you is it?" Annika asked.

The boys looked to each other, using their eyes to contemplate and delegate on if they should cast the boy who had already received a hot slap. They knew there was no way Annika Malan would spare him.

"Oh, you're still thinking about it?" Annika asked when she saw what the boys were doing.

"No, senior, lemme tell-"

Annika didn't let the boys finish. "I don't care anymore! You're all serving the punishment," she declared and the boys went on their knees, begging, "and I don't need your pleas, I've made my decision. Three of you, come with me!" Annika commanded before turning around and the two boys who had earlier went on their knees hastily went after her, still pleading for mercy they knew wasn't obtainable.

Annika hadn't noticed that the boy she had earlier slapped wasn't following her until he shouted, "Who you be sef?! Who gave you the right to lay your hands on me?! Is it because they're leaving you in this school? You're crazy!"

The entire floor and everyone who had silently been watching erupted in all sorts of noise and roars. Annika had stopped in her tracks but hadn't turned around yet.

Timi and Kasy's eyes widened in shock. Things were escalating and getting out of hand, that they knew for sure.

"Keep quiet! Shut your mouth!" Timi began yelling when Annika hadn't turned around.

The furious SS 1 boy still had his hands on his cheek as he glared holes into the Head Girl's back from where he stood twelve feet away. His friends stood right behind Annika as they looked in terror between him and the Head Girl's back which was turned to them.

Kasy stood at one corner still shocked to the core.

Irrespective of Timi's fruitless attempt to get the students to stop cheering and shouting "morale high!", it only took Annika Malan one, slow turnaround for total silence to reign again.

Everyone watched as Annika pushed the boys who had initially been following her to the right and left, respectively, at the same time with both hands since they were blocking her path as she took long, dangerous strides towards the boy who had challenged her.

It seemed like everything was happening in slow motion until Annika got to her target, grabbed his collar furiously and almost lifted him off the floor before she used her left hand to slap him hard across the face again.

Kasy was about running towards the enraged Head Girl but Timi held her back, shaking his head slowly-meaning it wasn't a good idea.

The students yelled profanities as they watched their classmate in the merciless hands of their Head Girl who seemed to had apparently lost control. They watched in awe as Annika-a girl-was rough handling one of the strongest boys in the set. The boy at some point looked like he was about to kick the Head Girl as he struggled in her hands but he couldn't.

Only few people were able to notice what Annika was doing as she still held the boy's collar tightly. Apparently, Annika had been using her other hand-her left hand-to loosen the belt around the boy's waist. Before the boy knew what was happening, it was too late to stop Annika when she furiously dragged the belt out of the belt holders. As soon as the brown belt-which she thought was very ugly-was now in her hands, she released the terrified boy from her grip and he stupidly staggered his way to the floor.

Annika smirked.

It was at that moment that other prefects had come down to the SS 1 floor after hearing so much commotion beneath them. Dele and his friends stood at the floor entrance close to the stairs as their mouths dropped open on watching as Annika used the boy's own belt to cast demons out of him.

"Damn," Dele mumbled.

"Show them who's boss!" Enock shouted next to him.

"Mey she use the head naw!" Ahmed yelled when he noticed that Annika wasn't even using the metal buckle of the belt.

The poor boy still hadn't managed to get up from the floor after Annika released him and he fell, giving her much more advantage and opportunity to deal with him.

Tari and Amira pushed past Dele, Enock and Ahmed and rushed into the scene like doctors going to attend to a dying patient.

"What's the meaning of this?!" Tari yelled just as Amira blocked Annika from the helpless boy on the floor. The boy took the opportunity and immediately scurried away, shouting like a mad man on fire. Granted, he did feel like Annika had set his entire body ablaze.

"How dare you?!" Annika thundered at Tari, stepping forward as though she wouldn't mind giving the Social Prefect a whooping in front of their juniors. "Who are you to interfere? What gives the you the right? The audacity!"

"I am the Social Prefe-"

Annika didn't let Tari finish. "And I'm the fucking Head Girl!" she yelled in Tari's face, arms wide open like she owned the damn school, every atom of it and everyone in it. "Now, I'm going to ask again, what gives you the right to interfere?"

Before Tari could speak, Timi was already in between her and Annika.

"Do you really want to fight in front of these SS 1 students?" Timi whispered, looking from his sister to Annika and back. "Let's not entertain them any further, please." He sounded breathless and tensed.

"Seriously, Timiebi, you're going to take her side right now? You'll just stand there and let her do things like this?" Tari whispered back to her brother as Annika stood on the other side of the tall, bulk Head Boy, glaring at her.

"I'm not taking anybody's side, Tari," Timi replied, looking down at his sister's disappointed gaze through his brown rimmed glasses.

Tari scoffed before walking away and Amira trailing behind her. She didn't bother smiling back at Ahmed who was smiling at them as they stormed out, Amira only rolled her eyes at her brother.

"Before I count ten, everybody should be in their class!" Dele yelled when he noticed the crowd of spectators where still standing around, "I'm counting in odd numbers!"

It was as though an earthquake was taking place, or rather, as though a bomb was about to go off and everyone was running to safely. Every SS 1 student, both blind and deaf, crippled and leprous, sick and healthy were running, pushing and struggling as though someone had just opened fire on them in the hallway.

"One!"

"Three!"

"Five!"

Ahmed flinging the belt Annika had previously been holding in the air and hitting anybody in sight wasn't helping matters.

Students tripped, fell, punched, slapped, dragged, strangled, bit and trampled and walked over one another just to entire the different classes before Dele finished counting.

"Seven!"

"Seven and half!"

Some students could be found crying at this moment, either because Ahmed had hit the belt on their back or because the count was almost over and they were still outside their classroom, struggling to get inside.

As soon as Dele yelled "Nine!", it was as though the trumpet for rapture had resounded and echoed for everyone to hear.

"Hey! You, you, you...you there, oya move this way!" Enock began pointing out and calling the students who didn't make it into their class. They were begging for mercy as Ahmed pulled them along.

Timi sighed. To him, it was as though everything had happened in less than five seconds and maybe it was because Dele counted in odd numbers. Who does that? Not even numbers, odd numbers!

Nevertheless, he couldn't say anything even if he summoned up the courage. Lunch break had been long over but those students had decided to stay and watch their classmate disrespect seniors, they were all at fault. Timi was sure that if Dele and his friends happened to find out what that boy had said to Annika, getting into their class on time would be the least of their worries, they would definitely spend the rest of that term cutting the never-diminishing grass in Newland Secondary School and Newland Primary School as the case may be. And by them, it means the entire SS 1 set, whether guilty or innocent, present or absent. It was those kinds of offences that Dele called for mass punishments even when it was one person who had committed the crime.

The students who were about thirteen in number followed Enock hopelessly knowing that the overgrown grasses in the football field was waiting for them. Of course, Enock Sakala being the Labour Prefect, his work had just been lessened a great deal.

Annika, Dele and Ahmed left afterwards after making sure everyone was now settled in their classrooms. The entire floor was pin-drop silent.

Kasy still found it difficult to move. She was still trying to process what had just happened. What shocked her wasn't what Annika did or what Dele and his crew did afterwards-that was already a tradition-but what shocked her was that she was the reason for it all. It was basically safe to say that Annika Malan had just stood up for her.

"Aren't you going to class?" Kasy heard Timi ask her as he made his way towards the stairs. "You look like you just watched a horror movie. What is it?" Timi asked after they were now walking.

"I'm just surprised..." Kasy trailed.

"Why?"

"Annika defended me."

Timi shrugged. They were climbing up the stairs leading to the SS 2 floor. "So?"

"She only stands up for her friends," Kasy said as though Timi was already supposed to know that.

"Then consider yourself her friend then." Timi shrugged again, not seeing what Kasy was so dazed about.

Kasy chuckled. "You're funny," she said, "she doesn't even know my name...sometimes she calls me Mercy."

"It's not a big deal, me myself, I'm bad at remembering people's names," Timi confessed, "it was recently that I found out that Ahmed's sister's name was Amira...the worst part is, I also recently even found out they're twins."

"Wow, you live under a rock, don't you?"

"A rock buried deep in the ocean with a whale on top is more like it," Timi snorted and Kasy laughed. "I'm not kidding, we've been in the same class since like...I think since Primary three or something,"

"You mean Ahmed?"

"No, Amira," Timi replied, "I only met Ahmed in JS 1, never crossed paths with him in Primary school."

"Hmm...primary school, fun days," Kasy mumbled and sighed. They were now in the SS 2 floor which was almost empty in the hallway, only a few Art students hung around outside.

"Annika stood up for you probably because she cares...or is starting to care," Timi said as though he'd remembered that they deviated from their initial conversation, "she's not a bad person. I mean, I don't really fancy her clique," Kasy could swear that she'd seen Timi cringe slightly at just the thought of Dele and the rest, "but she's the best."

Kasy nodded as she watched Timi stroll into his class and as she made towards hers, she thought of what Timi said and couldn't really totally agree. After all, birds of the same feathers flock together, right?

Oya complete this sentence: Annika Malan is a..............

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