✮Ｓｔｅｐｈａｎｉｅ✮

CH.12: RELIEF

"Christian William! What in the hell?! I did nothing! He's lying! Stephanie is the one who hit him on purpose, she is a freakin' bloody b**ch!" Nicole bawled and before I could catch a glimpse of what was happening, tears came down her eyeballs and I was officially frozen solid.

"Enough young lady!" The principal snapped. "We have had enough for one semester! To my office. Your dad is gonna be here any minute," the principal said and pulled Nicole to her office. Mrs Kayla left after giving me a pat on the head.

"What was that for?" I questioned the boy when they had left, somewhat pissed.

"Shush, you wouldn't want them to find out it was you who did it," Christian smiled like it was some sort of a joke.

"I want them to find out! I can't let someone else take all the blame for something I did."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Oh Stephanie, this world is not for you," he shook his head. "Nicole has always been a severe pain in the neck, not to mention the fact that she picks on you and she made you seem like a freak on social media. She is so mean and arrogant to everyone and I wanna put an end to that. That'll teach her," he smiled silly again.

"That's not what I want."

"Well, that's what I want and technically, I'm the only one who's got the say on whether she stays or goes. And besides, you didn't mean to get me injured. Look here miss, I know exactly what's going on. I saw you when you ran out of the toilet in fear and that led to you pushing me, plus I saw Nicole with a knife which obviously shows that she caused you to run, which also means it's her who needs to take the blame."

Before I could make any more utterances, the school nurse walked in and I fiercely marched out to meet Arthur.

The plan was to get Nicole off the hook and me included, having in mind that I would settle everything without causing more trouble or exposing Nicole's immoral act.
I didn't want her to get expelled from the school even though she had been a jerk.

After school, I marched down to meet Arthur in the laboratory and before I could open my mouth to explain myself, Arthur grabbed and hugged me, "I'm so proud of you," he said.

"Uh, proud that I got a student badly injured or proud that someone else is taking the blame for it and is about to get expelled from school," in response to his questions, my face broadly spelt sadness.

"What?!" Slack-jawed, he replied.

The conversation went further as I removed my jacket and placed it on the chair I sat on. The heat of guilt was burning me up!

"So, what exactly happened?" Arthur asked and left what he was working on to sit next to me. He whipped his long, blonde hair to the side so I could clearly view the expressions on his face.

"Everything just keeps going bad! What did I do wrong? Well, that's a dumb rhetorical question cause I've done a lot of things wrong," I sighed and looked away with my hand placed on my left cheek in a somber way.

"Oh Steph."

"That boy, Christian, he lied. He made up a good story proving that Nicole is the culprit..."

"Let me guess, cause he's not a fan of Nicole and he thinks you're cool," Arthur said waving his hand sides and his head following the gesture of his hand—in a way that showed he could predict certain informations by just hearing the start of it. "You know, Nicole has done some mean things to some people in this school and they await the right time for payback. You are so lovable and that made the revenge on Nicole easier."

"Look, I'm not in the mood to blush. Honestly... I don tire."

"Huh? Well, what solutions do we need?"

"I don't know," I responded in a really thick Nigeria accent that really viewed I was in a weary state.

"Nicole caused everything. But expulsion... man! That's huge. You should turn yourself in, that's all I can say. If you go there and say all that really happened Nicole would be free but Christian would be penalized."

"And me?"

"You wouldn't be penalized," he released a light smile.

"So let me get this straight, I'm covering up for Nicole by not saying what truly happened... please remind me why."

"Cause if you claim to have caught her doing... whatever it was, there's a lot that could go wrong. Think about how viral it could go and think about how important Aristarchus is... in short, she'd get expelled anyway if the truth leaks out. Keeping this a secret could even cause her to begin to respect you and no longer mess with you cause she'd be afraid that you might tell on her," Arthur guaranteed.

"Oh, I see."

"Yeah. Nicky could get punished for having a knife with her and being unable to explain herself."

"Oh, what would I ever do without you?" I finally turned to look him in the eye, gladly.

"Probably die in confusion," Arthur chuckled and when I turned to give him a different facial expression than expected, he said, "just kidding," and I smiled.

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Oh no! No, no, no!" He kicked a can of soda on the floor and stood up vigilantly.

"What, what, what?!" I looked intently at him anxiously.

"The security cameras and footage!"

"Oh no! Damn it Arthur!"

"Chill. I know a guy," he smiled and rubbed his palms together. "I just hope we're doing the right thing. Are we, Holy Spirit?"

"We definitely are."

"We are?"

"We are."

"Fist bump."