Date, time, and place you're reading MITC.

EXAMPLE:
Date: 10/1/2024
Time: 12:59pm
Place: Lagos

˗ˏˋ༻ʚ♡︎ɞ༺ˎˊ˗

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆

˗ˏˋ༻ʚ♡︎ɞ༺ˎˊ˗

The English teacher, Miss. Susan kept highlighting the rules of question tags on the board when a phone's notification sound decided to put her on hold. She turned with a glare and a deep frown as her eyes manoeuvred the classroom.

"Whose phone was it?" She asked sternly. Every student turned to each other, mumbling their response. She wasn't sure who the phone belonged to.

"I asked a question, didn't I?" Her loud voice made half the class flinch. With annoyance, Miss. Susan turned to the board, grumbling. "Students using phones should be banned from this school."

Sitting at the centre of the class was Danielle. She knew how strict Miss. Susan was and how easily irritated she could get. She didn't like noise, phone ring tones, or even too many questions in her class. Danielle thought she'd kept her phone on silent before the class, but it turned out she didn't. Slowly reaching for her phone in her backpack, she brought it out and quickly silenced it.

"It was you?" Kim asked. Kim was her seatmate. Because there were fewer in this class than in other classes, they weren't sitting in threes but in twos.

"Shhhh!" Danielle pressed her index finger against her mouth gesturing for Kim to keep quiet.

Kim pressed her lips tightly together and decided to face the teacher instead of Danielle. Danielle, seeing that Kim was no longer all up in her business, decided to read the SMS on her home screen.

𝐔𝐧𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧
𝙸'𝚖 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚘 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝. 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚋 𝚍𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚕𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚑 𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚌𝚞𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

Danielle smiled when she saw that message. Finally, her everyday threats had paid off. She smiled and placed the phone back in her skirt pocket. This was the fifth period that was leading to lunch break. She just couldn't wait for the class to be over.

Ding~

The alarm sounded almost immediately, and Danielle was the first to get up, gaining everyone's attention.

"Danielle!" Miss. Susan called out angrily. Danielle gulped. She was so excited that she'd forgotten that, Miss. Susan was still in class. "Am I a stone to you? Where are you rushing to?"

Danielle darted her eyes every which way while trying to find an excuse. She knew she wasn't supposed to leave the class before the teacher did unless it was important.

"What?" Miss. Susan eyed Danielle as she quickly cupped her butt while scrunching her face in discomfort.

"Ma," Danielle tried saying while pushing her weight from one foot to the other. "My stomach is acting funny and I think—"

"Go, now!" She stretched her hands to the door for Danielle to leave immediately, and at the same time, the other students kept pinching the bridge of their noses in disgust.

Danielle wouldn't be told twice, as she dashed outside the classroom. She felt embarrassed that she had to use such an excuse, but a desperate situation called for desperate measures. She hurried over to the press club and opened the door. The inside of the room was dark. Danielle felt the walls with her palm so she could look for the switch.

Click~click!

The switch wasn't working. This hadn't happened before. Danielle didn't think much of it. She'd just have to complain to the head boy, so he could complain to the principal. With a sigh, she reached for her phone and clicked on the touch icon. She traced the light around the room, only noticing how empty it was.

"The hell?" Danielle cursed in anger. "Did I have water in my mouth when I told—"

Bang!

Danielle flinched and turned after hearing the door close. She scoffed, moved to her chair, and sat down with a confident smile. She wanted to save battery by turning off the touch, but the room would be too dark if she did that. She loved the frightened expression of those who deserved no mercy. It made her feel good about herself.

"Let's start talking, shall we?" Danielle crossed her legs, arching a brow. "Let's start with what you can offer me for my silence."

˗ˏˋ༻ʚ♡︎ɞ༺ˎˊ˗

I looked ahead while stretching my legs. It was a brilliant day to be on the track field. Being on the team was relaxing to me as well, especially when I knew I was the best on the female team and could beat some egoistic boys that were on the male team. It wasn't like I was being proud; I wasn't. I was just confident and loved being complimented on how good I was.

"Delphine, come here!" Coach Israel waved for me to come over. I was alone because I was doing some warming up. I didn't want to go over to him at first because he was busy scolding my best friend Seidi for being too slow on the track.

"Yes sir!" I stopped my warm-ups and got up to jog over. Only a few feet away, something strange happened, and I saw myself flying face down to the ground.

"Delphine!" It felt like everyone yelled out loud as I groaned to sit up.

"Delphine, are you okay?" Seidi asked. She was quickly beside me with the coach and every girl on my team. "What happened? Were your shoelaces untied?"

I looked down at my trainers, but my laces were intact. "I must have lost balance."

"Your knee!" Seidi gasped, pointing at my knee. That was when I saw the big scratch on my right kneecap and the blood trailing down my leg.

"Davidson!" The coach called out. Davidson who was the captain of the boys' track team, was closer to us, looking at my present state. "You and Seidi should take her to the sick bay, and after that, Seidi should help take her to the girls' hostel."

"Okay, sir," Davidson responded, while Seidi helped me get on my feet. Yes, I was schooling at a boarding school in Port Harcourt and wasn't in Lagos with the rest of my family.

Davidson and Seidi were a big help for me as they helped me to the sick bay. I thought Davidson would leave immediately, but it was sweet to watch him wait for me to receive treatment and then help me get to the gate of the female hostel.

"I'll take it from here," Seidi said, holding me closer to her.

"Make sure you take your meds." He commented, and I couldn't help but give him a small smile. I'd always liked him, ever since puberty hit him in SS1. He came back to school looking different but in a good way.

"Thank you," I finally said, and I let Seidi help me into the hostel. Once Davidson was out of sight, I couldn't help but feel strange inside. Seidi took me to the dorm room and led me to lie comfortably on my bunk bed.

My dorm room had four bunks in it. Seidi, though not my dorm mate nor in the same class as me, managed to be my best friend. She one day helped fight for my bunk space, which wasn't necessary because I ended up saving her by beating up the girl trying to ambush her the next day.

"Are you okay?" Seidi asked, sitting on the small space left on my bed while looking at my bandaged knee. "Should I make some tea for you?"

She was ready to head to my locker, but I stopped her. "I'm not hungry; no need."

"What happened? You've never gotten distracted during practice. How did you fall?" Seidi questioned with concerns lacing her tone. "It's all my fault. If I wasn't so bad, the coach wouldn't have scolded me. He was calling for you because he wanted you to personally put me through."

"It's fine." I didn't like it when Seidi got upset. She always rambles nonstop when she does. "It's just a fall. I just . . ."

"You just . . . ?"

"I felt strange." I tried to sit up with Seidi's guidance. "I felt a sharp, uneasy feeling, and that caused me to fall."

"Are you sick?" Seidi asked almost immediately, and I let out a small laugh.

"No, I'm not." I said to her: "I just felt like something wasn't right."

Seidi was quiet for a bit, then placed her hands on both my shoulders. "You may be feeling stressed out. Just rest your head; I'll go tell the coach that you're fine now. It's probably nothing."

"Yeah," I said, letting out a heavy breath. "You're right, it is nothing."

Seidi smiled softly at me and got up before dusting her track uniform. "Make sure you sleep."

"Mhmm!" I nodded, and Seidi, with so much hesitation, finally left my dorm room. I lay quietly on my bed. Facing up without tilting my head, I couldn't look at the white ceiling. So instead, I stared at the bunk iron bed above me while thinking of the weird thing that happened today. With so much thought roaming my mind and with my head feeling heavy, I fell into a deep sleep.

˗ˏˋ༻ʚ♡︎ɞ༺ˎˊ˗

'Delphine, Delphine.' I kept hearing Danielle's voice. It sounded close at first. . . . 'Delphine, Delphine.'

I opened my eyes slowly and squinted a bit at the bright light and Danielle's blurry face above my head. 'Wake up, Delphine.'

"Danielle?" I whispered, her blurry face slowly becoming clear.

"Delphine, wake up!" My eyes widened, and I could see who was above me, Seidi.

I groaned as I sat upright. Seidi was looking at me with concern, and my dorm room was now occupied by two of my dormmates. I got up because I needed to stretch my back, only to see my bunkmate's backpack on her bed, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"What is it?" I asked. She was the one who asked me to sleep. I didn't expect her to be the one to wake me up.

"Mrs. Emma asked to get you," Seidi informed the same time I yawned and nodded. Mrs. Emma was my school guardian. She usually called me to her office to give me my monthly allowance or to let me use her phone to talk to my sisters. "Do you want me to come with you? Can you walk?"

"I'm not crippled; of course I can walk." Seidi sent me a look, telling me that wasn't what she meant. I knew what she meant, but I was fine. "I'll be fine, Seidi; just go and keep the line for me at the tap, so when I come back, I'll just go and have my bath."

"The queue would be so long by now." Seidi groaned but moved to my locker and opened it to get my bucket before locking it and giving me the key. "I'm off."

"Thank you!" I exclaimed before she could disappear. I turned to my bed and lifted my pillow to grab my portable mirror. I looked at my face and saw the sleeping marks imprinted on it. Knowing I couldn't keep Mrs. Emma waiting, I decided to ignore it and drag my feet out of the dorm room.

I passed by Seidi, standing impatiently in the queue, knowing the tap was just outside my dorm block. She didn't see me though, so I just let her be. I walked to Mrs. Emma's office and knocked on her door.

"Come in!" I heard her say this before pushing the door open. Mrs. Emma, who was sitting behind her desk, quickly got up from her chair and slowly walked over to me with a pity expression on her face.

"Ma, is everything alright?" I was confused. Did she hear about me falling on the track? Knowing Mrs. Emma, she wouldn't act like this but instead scold me for not being too careful.

"I'm . . . I need to tell you something." I nodded slowly. Patiently waited for her to continue. To be honest, she was starting to scare me. Did she get fired? Was she leaving me? "But first, I need you to sit down."

˗ˏˋ༻ʚ♡︎ɞ༺ˎˊ˗

That's it for the first chapter, yay💐

There are lots of characters in book 2, and the names on the cast list are just half of it. Though some characters won't have larger roles, it still doesn't dispute the fact that they're important.

In this chapter we get to see: Danielle, Delphine, a glimpse of Kim, the characters named Davidson, Mr. Israel, and Mrs. Emma(Emmanuel), and also Delphine's best friend, Seidi.

What do you think about the first chapter in general? It's going to get better in the coming chapters.

Love y'all😚

Update schedule: We'll figure it out together.

Disclaimer: I did say it's got a mystery subplot, but it's not heavily on it (reasons why it's a subplot) cause Delphine is still a secondary school student. She isn't in the police force or a private investigator. She'll have a life, try to understand people, get to make friends and try to be mutual about her big sister's relationship while trying to understand the mystery surrounding Danielle's death.