It was already Friday evening, they'll be leaving tomorrow. The school authority had already granted her permission to leave for a week, to visit the doctor after the nurse told them what happened.

Hamidah too was allowed to go with her because she said that she wants to be with her friend, and she might be of use at the doctor's place.

"I'm having a weird feeling about this Hamidah. I feel like giving up at the last moment" Hamidah gave her a small smile and held her hands.

"Magic words? " She voiced out and they said they magic words together.

"How do you feel now?"
"Hamidah... You're a genius" She hugged her with a bigger smile.

"Now keep leaving me out during friendship hugs" Modupe feigned hurt looking at her finger nails

"Awwwwn" Sadiya and Hamidah said as they hugged her tightly.

"Okay.. Okay.. Relax. I c..can't breathe" She chuckled trying to get out of their hold.

"No. You're stuck here for the rest of your life" Hamidah exclaimed in a creepy voice making all of them laugh.

It's true that even when the whole world seems to turn around you, your friends will always be there for you.

(())

Saadiya had already informed her parents about what happened, the panick attack incident and he told her that he'll send a drive to pick her up.

The driver was already here and Modupe, Hamidah and Saadiya were outside the car, saying their goodbyes.

"I'll miss you guys" Modupe sniffed. She was crying already.

"Awwn baby don't cry otherwise you'll make me cry too" Saadiya wiped her tears.

"Why would you cry? It's not as if we are going to die or something. And also let all those year one students see you crying, you'll be the clown of the year. They'll be like " Look at that crying misstress" " Hamidah snorted jokingly. Modupe spanked her before hissing.

"You won't die now in Jesus's name. And so what if they see me, they won't sef" Hamidah smiled and hugged her.

"It's time already let's go" She pulled out of the hug and opened the car's door.

"Wait" Modupe gave Saadiya a paper "when you reach home, read this, please let it be when you reach home" Saadiya nodded with a cute smile.

Both Saadiya and Hamidah were shocked and curious to know what was in the paper but they shrugged it off.

"Bye" They hugged Modupe one after the other and got into the car. Modupe smiled as the car vanished out of her sight then went back to their room. It was definitely going to be the longest week of her stay in that school.

"What's in the paper? " Hamidah poked her head towards Saadiya's hand.

"Ya Allah! This girl, wait mana" Hamidah rolled her eyes at her.

"Better recite your Azkhar. " Saadiya chortled making Hamidah scoff.

"You don't need to tell me. I know"

Saadiya laughed at her behavior and shook her head.
"Please behave like your age"
"Teach me how to"
"Allah ya baki hakuri( May God calm your mind) "

"Duhh" She made a funny face then bursted out laughing.

(())

"Assalamu alaykum (peace be upon you)" Saadiya and Hamidah said entering the house.

"Welcome home " Mommy cheered as she hugged them. They did the normal greetings and proceeded into the sitting room.

One of the house helps brought them refreshments as they talked to mommy about school. Mommy knew that there was a reason for both of them to be back from school at this time. But she decided to keep mum, whatever it is, she'll get to know it soon.

After about 5 minutes of little discussion Saadiya and Hamidah went to Saadiya's room. They refreshed themselves and Hamidah called her elder brother to come and pick her up.

"You should stay for tonight dear" Mommy smiled at her as she was about to leave.

"I'd have loved to but I have to go home today" Hamidah said as politely as she could.

"Okay dear. Maybe next time" She bid them bye and zoomed off with her brother.

"Mommy I missed you and I have a lot to tell you" They were now in mommy's room sitting on her bed

"Go on" Mommy smiled but saadiya shook her head "when daddy comes back, I'll tell the both of you together"

"Okay then. Go and rest before he comes back"

"Okay mommy" Saadiya sauntered off to her room.

(())

"Let me see what Modupe gave me sef" She prayed Asr and was sitting on the prayer mat after waking up from a four hours nap.

She opened her bag and brought out the paper. It read:

Saadiya, I know you might be shocked when you see this but please believe me, I'm saying this from the bottom of my heart. I'm going to miss you so much even though we're not that close.

There's one thing that I want you to remember, even if ever there's tomorrow and we're not together, there's something you must always know, you're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is that, even if we're not together, I'll always be with you.

Have a nice day dear.

Saadiya was speechless. She couldn't believe what she had just read, it made her more emotional knowing that she didn't deserve this kind of people in her life, she has done what none of them could imagine.

She cleared her rears immediately she heard the sound of the gate, meaning her father was back. She had to tell them this tonight or never.

Knock knock

"Come in" She quickly wiped her tears and put the paper back into her bag.

"Your mom asked of you" A petite lady said standing outside the room.

"Okay. I'm coming" She washed her face and went to her dad's sitting room, she knew she'll find her mom there.

(())

"Saadiya what happened such that you need to visit a psychologist. From the reports I got from the school, you've had up to three panic attacks, what could be the reason. Nightmares? " Her father said after they had finished the greetings and normal day conversations.

"Daddy let's leave that, I have something more important to tell you" She said with her head ducked down.

"What could be more important than your health? " Daddy inquired. Mommy was just looking at her waiting for her to spill.

"Daddy promise me that you won't judge me when I tell you and that you'll allow me to tell you all of it" Now she made them more confused. What was she talking about?

"Okay dear. I promise" She sighed and turned to mommy. "Mommy you too.. Please" She inhaled deeply as mommy nodded.

"It all happened four years ago, if you can remember, I wrote my exams then" She looked at them waiting for their reactions. When she got satisfied, she continued.

"As usual, I'd go to school with the driver then go back home with my friends"

"But I had provided the driver to do so didn't I? " Daddy said getting furious. His daughter violated his rules.

"No daddy, I mean y...yess" She stammered "daddy you promised not to interrupt me" She shivered..

"Okay. Go on" He relaxed a bit.

"I told the driver to stay at home and that I'll go by myself. I did that not because I wanted to disobey you but my friends were always talking about the fun when going home alone, the natural breeze, street food and all. At first I didn't pay much attention to it but with time, I got interested and decided to try it once. The first time it was fun, because we chatted all the way, looked at things around the place and all. Mommy you weren't in Nigeria throughout that year so you didn't know what was going on, while yaya Hafiz, ya Nana and ya Hanifa come back home two hours after I do so I became more confident and free".

" Two weeks passed and I enjoyed it more, in fact, I'd go to school with extra clothes so I'd change into them after school just like how my friends do. We walked down the streets of Kaduna, fearlessly and happily thinking that we're doing the right thing".

"Luckily for us, no one noticed at school and even if they did, they chose to keep mum. By April, we started writing our exams and we all focused on them. We no longer went home by ourselves instead we all went home by our respective drivers. "

"During that period, a lot of things had changed and we didn't even notice because we were busy with our examinations".

"Time flied by and we had already finished exams. We decided to go home alone that day, all in the name of celebration".

Chapter five is here
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I need your prayers because I'm very sick😩😩

Till further notice and if I die then please put me in your prayers🥺🙏

Amina Hassan.