The Things We Do

FORTY TWO

One fact we need to establish is that no one really knows anybody. None of us are completely transparent.

Even those you knew and trusted would end up being something else.

Adam thought he knew Zehan. Enock thought he knew Sola. Timi thought he knew Amira. Kasy thought she knew Dele. Dele thought he knew Annika. But at the end of the day, we don't even know ourselves, and we never know what we're capable of until things get out of hand.

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T H U R S D A Y

The stadium tracks were as crowded as a trade fair that Thursday morning. It suddenly looked like every single student from both schools would be participating in the races which wasn't unlikely because there were a handful of races for the day.

The drummers were out again and they fired out beats under the scorching sun. The sun made the tracks blazing hot so no one dared stand or run barefoot on it.

It was Adam's turn to boost Zehan's morale for the day since Adam might have been the only one not running any race. But even Zehan seemed too busy illustrating something to the girls who would be running the relay race. Everyone else was too busy warming up.

A voice over the mic soon announced that they would soon begin. They would be starting with the 100 meter races.

"Guys! Who has seen my phone?" Adam turned to see Dele talking to his friends who had been stretching out on the tracks.

"Where did you drop it?" Enock asked him.

"In our room," Dele replied.

"Don't worry, make I dial your number," Ahmed said, getting up and walking over to his bag on the bleachers to retrieve his phone.

"My own phone is in that room, though," Enock was telling Dele while Ahmed was still getting his phone.

Dele shook his head. "I already turned that place upside down, if your phone was there, I'd see it."

Enock's eyes grew wide. "What the—"

"Who thief my phone?!" Ahmed yelled, getting the attention of everyone around them. Dele and Enock walked over to him as he turned his backpack over and all the contents landed on the floor. His phone wasn't one of them.

"Guys, what the hell is going on?" Enock asked no one in particular. He made to run to the hotel, probably to search for the phone but Dele held him back, telling him the race was about to start and Enock was up first.

Adam would've loved to find the whole thing funny but those guys used quite expensive phones. Dele even had the latest iPhone yet, he  didn't look as worried as Enock and Ahmed who looked like their world had ended.

Sola approached the boys, failing to notice their state of dilemma. "Enock," she grabbed his arm, making him turn to her, "I saw your missed call."

"Not now, abeg," Enock shrugged her off, still telling Dele that he needed to go and check the room for himself.

The male voice resounded throughout the stadium: "Let's all get settled down, we're about to begin. Settle down, settle down. We're starting with the hundred meters race. Runners for this race, please move to the starting line."

"What's happening?" Sola directed the question to Dele since Enock was too frustrated to pay her any attention.

"Our phones are missing," Dele replied before heaving a sigh and turning back to Enock. "Just go and run the race. After that, we'll go and search for the phone."