LAWLESS

★★★★★

Twelve Years Ago...

It was Monday, and the morning bells had rung for classes to begin. While everyone was inside, Zayn sat on the bench under a tree somewhere in the school premises, well, not doing anything in particular, just waiting for the classes to begin just so he could stroll in when everyone was seated on their various classroom chairs. It was a habit he couldn't help.

When everywhere had cleared out, the hallways deserted, the almighty Zayn could now bring himself to go to his class. He had been reading a book while walking, the Da Vinci Code, a book by Dan Brown that he found very intriguing.

"Hmmm, interesting. I didn't see that coming. Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ?" He said thoughtfully as he wore his sling backpack over one shoulder and held out the book in front of him with the other hand. He knew his way around even though he was quite engrossed in the book that he was reading. He had been in the school for three years and was currently in his final year so if he were to be blindfolded he still wouldn't miss his way.

He would come to school early but always entered the class late for some egoistic reasons. They had Further Math by 8 am, which was their first class. The class was already going on by the time he sauntered in.

"Good morning, Zayn." The teacher said sarcastically, earning his attention. He didn't acknowledge the teacher who was a potbellied and bald man with large eyebrows which made Zayn think he didn't lose his hair, he might have cut them off because it looked so unnatural to have that many eyebrows and still be balding. "You're late again today."He pointed out in a warning tone.

"Good morning, Mr. Maxwell." He replied sarcastically too, closing the book upon acknowledging the presence of the teacher he despised the most in the school. It wasn't just his appearance but his attitude that made Zayn sick to the stomach and because he didn't want to be disrespectful he halted on the spot waiting for the grumpy old man's permission to sit, perhaps chastising him for coming late to his class. He was just fifteen minutes late but for someone like Mr. Maxwell even coming one minute behind the time was a crime.

"Sit in any empty seat." The unclear and rather open-ended instruction confused Zayn to the point where he was about to ask if Mr. Maxwell was talking to him alone or the entire class. But then he realized there was only one empty seat in the back row, his usual spot. He sighed in relief. For Zayn, deciding where to sit would be too big of a decision to make as the teacher had deliberately rearranged everyone like he usually did before he began teaching.

As he walked up to his seat, he saw Marium in the middle row. She was one of the smartest girls in the class and always took the front seat near Ahmad. Well, Ahmad was lucky enough to remain in his spot too.

He always thought that Marium was mentally attractive and often wondered why she stared at him sometimes. Maybe because she was crushing on him, he thought to himself even though he knew he might be wrong. The funny truth was that he was the one infatuated with her and he had been trying to suppress the feelings for a long time. She was the only girl he had ever had such funny feelings for and that was because she was just too intelligent and maybe not so pretty but her physical appearance meant nothing to him. She was brilliant enough to compete with him in grades, that was all he found attractive about her. She had been part of the reason he worked extra hard to keep up his lead in the class with his good grades. She was a formidable opponent as such he grew afraid to approach her. They had never spoken to each other, perhaps exchanged greetings. Deep down he constantly had to pretend like he wasn't watching her secretly, which hurt more because the universe didn't give him so many choices.

"Here comes Dracula." One of the school bad boys, Christian called and they shared a handshake before Zayn took his usual spot near Chris. Of course, Zayn was a backbencher but unlike the other backbenchers he was very smart and they all depended on him for answers during tests and exams.

At the top of the social hierarchy there in Baze Academy was a group labeled The Phoenix, which consisted of Zayn, Christian, Jake, Omar, Shifu, and Mohammad. They were the very popular ones. They were the baddest boys in school. In Fact, the most notorious of them all was his seatmate, Christian, The Big Bad Wolf.

"What's up, Chris? Wetin baba dey teach(what's this old man teaching?)" Zayn asked glancing at the board to see the wave equation boldly written on there. The teacher was teaching a very familiar topic that had nothing to do with calculus or further maths. He wondered why the man was teaching physics, instead of his usual subject.

Christian chuckled lightly "I don't know man. I'm just as confused as you are."

"He's our new physics teacher. Mr. Saleh is currently out of town and for the time being, Mr. Maxwell will be taking us on both physics and further math." One of the girls in the front, across from them, said quietly mostly to Zayn. He instantly detested the bad news and thought, well, he'd be leaving for the United States in a few weeks so he would probably not be around to put up with his bad teaching.

He got bored after five minutes of listening to the teacher as he went on about the topic that he already knew. He was reteaching what Mr. Saleh had already taught them and according to Zayn, Mr. Saleh was a hundred times a better teacher than the old man.

During the class, Zayn thought of doing something really nasty. Something they would remember him by. He didn't care whether it was good or bad. He just wanted to create a scene in front of the class. And because he despised Mr. Maxwell so much he wanted to do it during his class. An idle mind really is the devil's playground. The young soul began to plot something in his mind and when he had everything all planned out to detail, he decided to fill Christian in on it. Just like the saying, like minds think alike Christian welcomed the idea and wanted in on it.

Zayn being the mastermind wrote down the plan on four pieces of paper with each note carrying the same piece of information. He learned from Chris that Mohammad was absent so he passed two notes to Ahmad and Shifu in the front seat. The other two were meant for Jake and Omar, but those two were in a different class, Art class, so he needed someone to help him deliver the notes to them. Mr. Maxwell probably would not let him leave the class with the fact that he came late.

The man hated him as much as he did him. Anytime he made a mistake or spelled something incorrectly Zayn was always the one to correct him and he hated that because it only made him look inefficient in front of the other students. He hated the fact that Zayn was very smart yet one of the most notorious kids in school.

As he thought of a way to get on with the plan he suddenly remembered Marium. I could easily use her since she already likes me and she wouldn't resist this bad boy. If she falls for this trick, it would confirm my hunch about her. Perfect, I'm going to use one stone to kill two birds.

He wrote something down on a note and gave it to someone to pass it to her. Marium was shocked to learn that Zayn had something sent to her. She never thought she'd see that day since he didn't always notice her. She slowly opened the paper and read what was written on it.

Dear Marium,

Did you know that Mary Magdalene was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ?

I just want to let you know that I like your red hair. I think you look beautiful from behind. I'm entranced by what I see.

At first, she thought she was dreaming and the note couldn't be from Zayn but that neat calligraphy that she had always admired so much could only belong to one person. She knew it belonged to him. When she turned around and saw him looking at her from behind her heartbeat quickened and she immediately turned around to face the board.

Zayn is looking at me. He finally, noticed me. She mentally screamed, holding a hand to her chest. She turned around again and their eyes locked. His gaze was so intense and it was doing nasty things to her mind. One wink at her was all it took to have her under his spell. He made gestures with his fingers, more like he was compelling her to come over, knowing very well that he had the innocent girl trapped already.

She waited for the teacher to face the board and when the coast was clear, she moved smoothly. An opportunity to talk to the almighty Dracula, who wouldn't want that?

In a moment she was standing in front of him, meanwhile, the teacher was focused on the board, writing something on there so he didn't notice when Marium left her seat.

"Hand these notes to Khalifa. Once you've done that, take this bag and wait for me at the basketball court." He instructed and she willingly followed his orders.

She headed on to take permission from the teacher and subsequently excused herself from the class. The teacher saw her clutching a backpack and because she wasn't Zayn or any of the other bad boys, he couldn't care less.

It was time for him to disturb the class, the moment he had been waiting for. He was going to act as a decoy to distract Mr. Maxwell while Christian would sneak behind him and write something on the board which would definitely provoke the class.

"Hey! Mr. Maxwell." Zayn put up his hand as though he wanted to ask a question.

"Yes, Zayn do you want something?" Asked the teacher, Zayn stood up and began to approach the man with slow steps, then untamed his hair in front of the class. All eyes were on him. His good looks was already a distraction because he was devilishly handsome. Some of the girls might already drop dead.

"Mr. Maxwell, I was going to tell you that Wave frequency can also be measured by counting the number of crests or compressions that pass the point in one second." The boy stood in front of the class, directly opposite the teacher.

Here comes Einstein Junior. The man rolled his eyes the moment Zayn's voice echoed across the class. He hoped there wasn't any error in the equation he had written on the board. He was tired of the boy always coming out to correct his errors. He saw it as a huge embarrassment and instead of taking the boy's corrections, he did overlook them, which was more reason why Zayn despised him. Bad Teacher was an understatement for what he was.

"The higher the number of crests or compression in a time period, the greater the frequency of the wave." At this moment he was satisfied because he had everyone's attention, including the teacher's, meanwhile, things were going as planned as Christian had already sneaked behind the teacher, doing what he knew how to do best, making a scene.

Zayn was second to none in the class and everyone wanted to be like him. How he was able to maintain excellent grades and good social status in school was something that seemed almost questionable. He was a rare edition for a nerd.

"The SI unit for wave frequency is the hertz, where one hertz equals one wave passing a fixed point in one second. So in a time of one period, the wave has moved a distance of one wavelength." He didn't stop talking regardless of the huge eye rolls he received from the teacher.

Mr. Maxwell suddenly realized that the students were laughing at something behind him. When he turned around instead of the note he had written on the board, what he saw was:

TELL THE WORLD THAT COUNT DRACULA AND THE PHOENIX WERE HERE.

When the bald man turned to face the class he saw that Zayn had disappeared and five seats were empty. Meanwhile, the class was already rowdy as everyone was laughing uncontrollably. Staring out the window, he saw Dracula and the Phoenix making off. What perplexed him the most was that Ahmad, who was one of the most disciplined students in the class and probably his favorite student had joined them.

The class cheered them on as they ran off, flying their uniforms, and singing the song of victory. They were young and reckless.

Mr. Maxwell, now as angry as hell, called the school security guard to shut the gate instantly which was a waste of time because unknown to him the boys had plans to take a different route out of the school premises. They were going to fly the fence.

*****

Teslim could hear the loud noise coming from the science class which was just a class away from hers. She looked around and saw that Omar who was standing right next to her desk had vanished and when she looked through the window she saw Zayn running with Ahmad behind him, she knew he and the Phoenix were up to no good.

"Zayn!" she called between clenched teeth from the window of her class. He heard her and turned in the direction of the voice. "I'm going to tell your mother." She threatened.

Zayn grabbed Ahmad by the hand with a dirty smirk plastered on his face. "No, you won't do that because I'm taking Ahmad with me." He knew very well that Ahmad was her Achilles heel and the best way to get her off his neck. It was because of her that Ahmad refused to be a member of the Phoenix.

"That won't stop me. I'm going to tell her anyway." She yelled at him and fixed her eyes on Ahmad. One look at him and he knew that he was toast. "And you, I'm going to tell Mum about your reckless behavior in school."

Ahmad gave an apologetic look with a nervous smile. "Come on! Let's go. She won't try anything funny." Zayn pulled him along, taking to their heels.

"Oh yeah? Then watch me try. I'm definitely going to tell on you two this time, trust me." She yelled after them as they ran off.

"Good luck with that. Adieus Tasleem!" Zayn shouted.

Both boys ran to the basketball court and joined the others. Marium was there as well, waiting for Zayn to come collect his bag.

He grabbed the bag from her, then thought of a way to say goodbye to her as that day would perhaps be their last time to see each other. Without thinking it through, he took off the diamond ring on his middle finger and handed it to her while Omar watched them with a disapproving look in his eyes.

"I don't know when we'll see each other again but I want you to have this. Maybe as something to remember me by..."

"Thank you so much, Zayn."She smiled, spellbound by his action as collected the gift from him.

"You can go now while you can because you don't want to get into trouble." He told her, and she nodded before turning to take her to leave. She couldn't help but admire the ring as she made off with it.

Omar stepped in front of him as he couldn't wrap his head around what just happened before his eyes."Zayn are you mad? That was a royal treasure, your betrothal ring and you gave it out to a stranger"

"She's no Stranger. She's marium." He asserted.

"What are you going to tell Grandma?"

"I'll tell her that I lost it. It's really that simple" Zayn shrugged.

"You have to be kidding me. You know the consequences, Zayn."

"That I'll remain unmarried as long as the ring remains missing." he scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Don't tell me you believe in such a stupid tradition?" He walked past Omar, heading somewhere.

"Where are you going?" Omar asked as they all watched him throwing long steps across the schoolyard.

"You guys go, I have something I want to do." He told them over his shoulders.

"Wait up, we are coming with you." Said Christian, tailing him and the other boys followed behind Zayn as well. They were heading toward the school library. Once there, at the back of the building, he opened his school bag and took out a spray bottle from it.

"What's that?" Shifu asked, collecting his thick dreadlocks in his palms. He was about to tame the long dreads with a rubber band around his wrist. He was smallish in structure and always wore his dreadlocks in a ponytail.

"Something I've been wanting to do for a long time now."He was going to daub the wall with graffiti of Mr. Maxwell's fat face.

They stood behind and watched him scribble an ugly head with giant brows on the wall. Once he was done the others laughed at the ugly sight which was exhilarating to watch

"Wait, is that supposed to be Mr. Maxwell?" Ahmad couldn't suppress his laughter.

"Who else looks like that?" Said Jake, another hater of the man. He and Zayn were competing for the position of who despised the man the most.

"That is the ugliest piece of art I've ever seen," Chris exclaimed amidst laughter. "I bet I can do something better than that."

"It's a free world and everyone gets the chance to express themselves." Zayn was saying as he scrawled the teacher's name on the wall just below the graffiti art.

"Can I try something?" Jake requested, aiming for the spray can and Zayn handed it to him.

"Do what you do best. Make a scene. Spray whatever you feel within." He cheered Jake on while the others stood by and watched, getting their minds prepared to laugh harder as Jake had already begun spraying something that looked like an Amoeba on the wall.

"No! That's not the Mr. Maxwell I know." This time Omar cracked up more than any of them.

"Your painting is the worst." Shifu teased him and laughed along with the others.

"It looked pretty awesome to me." Zayn shrugged. "At least that's how I picture him in my mind."

"See, Dracula knows a fascinating art when he sees one," Jake told them, sharing a high five with Zayn. They knew they had already gotten themselves into some deep mess but they just couldn't care less. The daredevil in them was awakened the very day they entered their final year. They just wanted to do things that excited the peace of the school and provoke anything or anyone that stood in their way.

While they all carried on making a mockery of their teacher they saw trouble heading their way, Mr. Maxwell and two of the security guards were marching in their direction.

"Oh no! We got company." One of the boys said, drawing everyone's attention to the men. For a moment they all stared in shock at their doom before Zayn pulled them out of their subconscious mind.

"Guys, it's time to RUN!" He screamed, running ahead of everyone.

They were being chased down by two angry security officers and a paranoid teacher who was screaming at them to stop running. Instead of escaping through the fence as they had initially planned, they decided to play around with the men, as usual, they were going to turn the whole school upside down.

The boys ran down the school field, pushing against each other and filling the air with their laughter. For Zayn, It was exhilarating looking back at the potbellied teacher who was chasing after him in particular, the man was desperate to catch him. He looked at the man and a loud laugh escaped his lips when he saw how his belly flopped, bouncing in sync with the motion of his body. He just couldn't contain his laughter after seeing that. He found the situation more exciting than scary. Amidst the chaos, the others did equally find the situation thrilling. That wasn't their first time getting into trouble. In fact, they lived for trouble.

Soon loud screams and thunderous cries started blaring from practically every corner of the school as they toyed around with the men. The whole school was already aware of what was going on outside, The Phoenix were at it again. As usual, they were cheered on by the other students who now threw their heads out of their various classroom windows. Everyone was trying to see the chaos that was going on there. Some of the students had to run out of the class just to watch the scene and possibly have it captured on their phones.

As they were being chased around they could feel the adrenaline rush in their blood. The fact that they were being watched was exciting enough to boost their spirit. They wanted to make a scene and that was it, they did it, and they made a glorious one. They had the whole school chanting their names, the feeling was electrical. They were young, they were brave, they were legendary, they broke the rules, they were being acknowledged for that and they felt more alive because life is sweet when you're young.

Back To The Present

"This bad boy was my classmate in high school." He liked the sound of her selection of words, it reminded him of his reckless days in school. Memories of his last day at school played in his mind as he sat there not believing how time flew. His thoughts were interrupted when Prof. Stein's voice cut through the air:

"I'll leave you two to get to work immediately." Prof. Stein said to them, standing up to take his leave. "You should use all the resources you have in your possession to unveil this mystery. I'll do my part and support you. I'm counting on both of you, especially you Zayn."

Zayn stood up, extending a hand to the professor."Insha Allah, I'll do everything humanly possible to restore his health." He assured him as they shook hands.

He recalled the time when he had first met the professor. It was eleven years and six months ago when he had gone to California for his studies. The professor had played the vital role of a mentor in his life while he was still training in medical school. Zayn happened to be very close to the man because of how he saw the world differently.

The professor would always talk about Africa and how much he wanted to start a life there for a reason unknown to Zayn. He also talked about raising his family and probably setting up a hospital there. And now it wasn't until five years ago when Stein came down to Nigeria to join his old friend on his secret mission, a friend who happened to be Zayn's father.

Prof. Stein exited the room, leaving him in the company of Marium who was smiling in amusement at Zayn.

"To what do I owe that creepy smile?" He questioned taking his seat. She held out her left hand in front of him, wiggling her fingers. She knew he was forgetting something by the look in his eyes. It didn't take him a moment to recollect the reason for her action.

"How long have you been wearing that?" He held back a smile, his eyes following the movement of her fingers.

"As long as I could remember." Her smile grew bigger and he caught himself smiling as well, her smile was contagious and it wasn't helping at all, maybe because he didn't expect to ever see her again. Even if they were going to meet someday in the future he didn't expect it to be in this facility, working together.

He tilted his head a little to support his chin with his long fingers and his eyes monitored her intently as she uncrossed her legs and subsequently took off the ring from her index finger. He wondered how long she had been wearing it.

"I guess it's time to return this to the rightful owner." She leaned forward, placing the ring on the table right in front of him. "I thought you might want it back because it's a royal treasure." She told him, returning to her position. "I shouldn't keep it with me."She stressed and he smiled reaching for the ring.

"What a nice way to reject my kind gestures." He said in a joking tone as he tossed the ring away in his drawer.

The diamond ring was a betrothal ring that was passed down to him by his grandmother. According to tradition, a betrothal ring was a ring worn by the crowned Prince until he could then give it out to the one to whom he was engaged. According to the myth, the prince may never marry if the betrothal ring went missing and there was no replacement for it. Marium knew about this custom and decided to return the ring. She didn't want to be the reason why he remained unmarried for the rest of his life if that was even possible.

Unknown to her, Zayn dared to defy the tradition by wearing a fake ring in place of the original one. It was a long time ago when he bought a ring similar to the original. To avoid having to explain to his grandmother how he misplaced the original ring.

"Thanks, I owe you one." He said, standing up swiftly."I'm sure you're aware of the situation at hand, do you need me to give you a breakdown." He stepped away from the desk and watched as she nodded in response. Almost immediately she stood up.

"Alright, I'll do that when we get to the lab." He let her Walk ahead of him as they headed out of the office.

"You look good in a white coat." He complimented her.

"Really?" She stole a glance at him.

"Absolutely," He nodded, leading her out of the door.

"You're not so bad yourself."She returned his gestures, smiling ever so gracefully.

"I know." He stated cunningly, his lips crooked into a sly smile."I'm glad you acknowledge that for yourself." She rolled her eyes, then turned to look at him.

"Cheeky as always, now that's the Zayn that I remember." She ridiculed him, knowing where his thoughts were leading.

"So you're saying that I was cheeky?"He tucked his hands into the large pockets of his lab coat.

"Is that a question?" She chuckled. "Stop acting like you didn't know how intimidating you were back then."

He laughed at the sound of that. "If I may ask in what way was I intimidating?"

"Your outward persona and that big brain of yours always had me hiding in my shell." She smiled and shook her head at the thought of him always topping the class. All her attempts to beat him in grades always ended up futile.

Zayn smiled at her words, looking ahead of him as they approached the pathology laboratory."I was not intimidating. You couldn't just stand that I was wonderful." He said slyly with a smirk.

"You haven't changed." She shook her head at his sarcasm. She couldn't help laughing. Years ago she couldn't be having such a conversation with him and now they found themselves teasing each other over the smallest things. Time really is the measure of change.

Once in the lab, he filled her in on what she needed to know and his deduction from what he had observed. In no time  they began to work tirelessly, studying the case. The rest of day was spent in there running blood analysis.

★★★★★

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