This chapter is dedicated to Feran_meee

˗ˏˋ༻ʚ♡︎ɞ༺ˎˊ˗

I sat beside my sister, who was sitting between Trust and me. No one said anything aside from the occasional 'Amen' from the congregation as the pastor kept preaching on the altar. 

"God is determined to bring the devil's control over mankind to an end. He is determined to undo all damages done by Satan, and we can see that in Hebrew, two versus fourteen." I opened my Bible to the passage the pastor was referring to before writing it down in my notebook. "Now see what God says about Jesus. His son is the complete opposite of the devil. He isn't selfish; he isn't cruel. He will have pity on the lowly and the poor. He will rescue them from the oppression and violence of the wicked, and we can see that in Psalms seventy-two, thirteen to fourteen. Amen?"

"Amen!" Everyone exclaimed.

"You can see that it's from the Bible. I cannot lie, because God is not a liar. Hebrew six versus eighteen says, . . ."

I waited behind as I watched my sister greet the pastor. Sundays so far have been filled with this routine. She'd leave me with Trust to go greet the pastor before heading home. I played with my heels on the dusty sand as I watched kids running around. Anything to prevent me from talking to Trust.

"Happy Sunday," a woman passing by said.

"Happy Sunday, ma," I responded with a smile.

"You didn't tell your sister and me about what happened at your friend's party." My smile faltered. "I didn't know you were such a grown-up lady."

"Please stop." I turned to him. "You're sounding so disgusting, and if you don't stop, I'll tell my sister."

Trust laughed at my words and leaned on the hood of the car handed to him by my sister. "Debby loves me so much and will support me no matter what. You should stop trying to get her to turn against me. Besides, she won't even give you listening ears."

I clenched my jaw in anger, but the little kid dragging her father's huge hands got me to relax. "Ninety-nine days for the thief, one day for the owner. Karma is slowly knocking at your door."

I matched to the back door and opened it; at the same time, Trust decided to open his mouth. "Karma doesn't exist," he said, but I closed the door after that. Even the Bible states that everyone reaps what they sow. Who was he to say it didn't exist?

˗ˏˋ༻ʚ♡︎ɞ༺ˎˊ˗

I dragged Kim out of class after she'd announced that the Data Processing teacher was absent from school. Though it was a free period because the teacher was absent, no one was to leave the class because it wasn't an official free period. I'd been tensed ever since Romeo greeted me in the morning, and every time, I'd always turn my head to his seat, only to see him sleeping in awkward positions. I just couldn't take it anymore; I needed to talk to someone.

"What is it?" Kim asked me in a worried tone. "What happened?"

I didn't stop until I'd dragged her to a corner, away from other students. I turned to Kim, exhaled, and said it in a hush. "It's Romeo."

Kim hissed at the mention of his name and turned, ready to head back to class. "Wait!" I moved to block her path. "This is serious."

"There's nothing about that boy that will ever concern me." She answered defiantly, "So just give up."

I closed my eyes to contain the anger boiling inside of me. "Need I remind you that you're the class rep? It's your job to look out for the students you're representing. They might not admit it, but they look up to you. They wait to listen to you, to let you lead them, as long as they're in the four corners of that classroom. Kim—"

"What is it?" She asked dryly. "Did he steal someone's money? No one can trust scholarship students these days."

I tried not to show how much I was disappointed by her words and shook my head. I looked left, then right, before leaning in to whisper in Kim's ear. "I think Romeo is doing drugs."

"Drugs!" She yelled, covering her mouth with both hands.

I gave her a grim look, and she pressed her lips tightly. "What—what can I do? What can we do?"

"I don't know." I was confused as well; that was the reason why I needed her. "Maybe . . . get him to know the dangers of taking drugs?"

"How sure are you that he's taking it?"

"Not sure," I admitted. "I saw him giving it to someone at Femi's party in exchange for money. I think he's selling it."

I looked at Kim, but she refused to say a word. "Look, I know you don't like him, but we've got to help him. Next period is a free one, so he'll be out on the field with the rest of the class, playing football. How about during lunch break?"

"I don't know . . ."

"Kim!"

"Fine!" She snapped with a frown. "Fine, we'll talk to him during lunch."

"Thank you," I sighed. It was good sharing this with her, and I was happy she was going to help.

˗ˏˋ༻ʚ♡︎ɞ༺ˎˊ˗

I sat on the bench with Daniela beside me. Kim had excused herself to go use the bathroom not long ago. Daniela pointed at the field. "Romeo is good, abeg. No ball can get into his net."

I looked at where she was pointing, and there was Romeo, stretching his legs, and clapping his gloved hands. The boy about to take the penalty kick looked at the ball, then at the net, then at the ball again, before jogging a little and kicking the ball. The ball flew and went straight to Romeo's hands, which caused a loud groan from the boy and those on his side and loud cheers from Romeo's supporters. 

"He's good," I admitted. My eyes scanned the place after I'd said those words. There was someone as good as him, but he was on the sidelines, watching the game instead of being a part of it. 

"Guys, guys, guys!" A fair girl from my class rushed and sat on Kim's chair, gaining the attention of everyone around her. "Guess what."

"Amebo Anita, talk if you want to talk." Someone else commented. 

"Don't call her amebo," Daniela scolded. "Whatever gist she's got is beneficial."

I shook my head, then decided to look at the ongoing game instead. Daniela loved this sort of thing so she could tell her friend Chika. 

"Mr. Obi is going to our class right now." I heard Anita say: "Someone told him a student from our class is having drugs."

I whipped my head to look at Anita. "Drugs?" 

"As in paracetamol and vitamin C?" Daniela urged her.

"Cocaine, mumu!" Anita hissed. My eyes widened, and I watched an unaware Romeo. 

"Wow, what's keeping Kim so long?" I yawned and stretched both hands before turning to Daniela. "Let me go look for her. Do you need something while I do that?" 

"Help me to get water," Daniela said, stretching money to me. I took it, quickly got up, and left the place. 

Mr. Obi is going to our class right now . . .

I couldn't do anything if Mr. Obi was already heading to class and Kim wasn't picking up her calls either.

What should I do? What to do?

I tapped my legs anxiously on the floor, and at the same time, someone walked past me. That scent. I looked up in time to see it was Krystian, and I quickly stopped him by holding his upper arm. Krystian stopped to look at my hand, then at my face.

"Look, new girl," he composed himself, standing straight and looking down at me. "At this rate, I'll start calling this harassment."

"I need your help."

Krystian stared at me for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. Some students walking past turned their heads to us but said nothing. "I'm sorry, but it sounded like you said you needed my help."

If only Kim was picking up her calls, I wouldn't be here asking him. "Mr. Obi is going to search the class for drugs. I'm not sure how he's going to do that without students there or if he's going to wait for the students to arrive . . ."

"I wouldn't have guessed that you do drugs."

"I don't!" I snapped. He raised an eyebrow at me, so I thought of being on my best behaviour if I needed his help. "Remember when I dragged you out during Femi's party?"

"How could I forget?" he grimaced, lifting his left leg and showing me his feet, which were in his sneakers.

"Well, I was using you as a shield," Krystian stared. I knew I had to explain more. "I don't know if I should be telling you this, but desperate situations call for desperate measures. I was trying to hide from Romeo," I explained further. "I saw him . . . selling drugs to someone."

"How sure are you that it was drugs?"

"It was! Or I think it was." I frowned. "Well, Mr. Obi is on his way to class, and I need you to stall him so I can check Romeo's bag to see if it's clean."

Krystian scoffed at my words, then let out a sigh. "You know who my dad is, new girl?" I nodded. "Then you should know that I erase myself from whatever scandals that would tarnish his image."

"I'm not asking you to do much,"  he was becoming unreasonable. "I just want you to stall him for a few minutes."

"And if things go south? . . ."

"Things won't go wrong—" 

"And if things go south?" Krystian raised his voice, cutting me off. "Then I'll be a part of this cover-up. I'd be sent to bring my parents to school; the reason will fly around, and eventually, the media will make an article about it."

"You're going too far," I groaned. 

"You won't blame me," Krystian shrugged. "I need to measure the pros and cons."

I closed my eyes, trying to control my breathing pace. "Are you coming or not?"

Krystian didn't respond immediately. It looked like he was contemplating. "I'm sorry, new girl."

I accepted his decision with a nod and headed for the entrance back into the school's main building as I kept dialling Kim's number. Where was she? If I knew Krystian wouldn't accept to help, I wouldn't have wasted time with him. At this point, I was running, hoping I would get to class before Mr. Obi. 

I raced up the stairs and then to the small lobby leading to where my class was located, and I almost bumped into someone after rounding up a corner. I looked at my front, scared it was Mr. Obi, but grimaced seeing how it was Femi. 

"I was looking for you everywhere." 

"Not now, Femi." The classroom door was right there, a few feet away. Why did Femi have to show up now? 

"It's urgent," I wanted to grumble like a child as I centred my attention on him. "I . . ."

"Be fast, Femi." I felt irritated at his sluggish attitude all of a sudden. 

"I just wanted to say thank you for the gift." I kept looking at him, then at the door a few feet away. "You were the only one who gave me a valuable gift on Friday. Even my parents didn't get me anything aside from the money wired to me."

I gulped, turning to Femi again. "I know you need to thank me and all of that, but now's not the time. How about after school? You won't jump at me and you'll talk like an educated person."

"Deal," he accepted, then creased his brow. "Aren't you going to the field? Everyone's there."

"Oh, I'm just looking for Kim." I said to him: "Bye Femi."

He accepted that I didn't need his presence at the moment and walked away. Good thing he could take the hint. I braced myself and took a step closer to the door. It was right there, eight to ten feet away. 

"Delphine." I paused, turning to look at Mr. Obi. "Good thing you're here. Go assemble the rest of your classmates. Tell them to get here in the next one second." 

"One second?" 

"That shows how fast I want you to gather them back to class," he ordered, and I nodded. 

"Yes, sir." This wasn't what I needed at all. I wanted to try my best to help Romeo while giving him a scolding of his life. What was he doing with drugs? What would his parents think of him? I rounded the corner I came from but stopped and peered at Mr. Obi. He was already at the classroom door and was pushing it open to get in. There was nothing I could do at this point. The bad thing about all this was that Romeo might get expelled based on the school's handbook. 

˗ˏˋ༻ʚ♡︎ɞ༺ˎˊ˗

Delphine's a good friend, isn't she?

Here's a surprise update. I wanted to publish it yesterday, but something came up.

What do you think about this chapter? Comment your thoughts on it.

Hit the star button, it won't even take one second and stop being a ghost reader. Lol, I've got lots of ghost readers.

Question: who is your least favourite character, the character you hate, or the character you can't stand?