Nico and Vince Am I Wrong
Myria sat in their favorite booth, a cup of latte in front of her as she smiled at Veronica and gestured for her to take a seat opposite her.
" What are you doing here?" Veronica wondered glancing around to verify if there were any more of her seniors loitering there.
" You'd think it'd be hard to find you on campus. Well baby, it's either you're with your friends or you're with Calvin. You guys seemed to have momentarily disappeared from the quad so I figured you'd be here." That was the most Veronica had heard Myria say in one instance.
Veronica's eyes still asked the question.
" Did you also get the drugs?" She hits the nail right on the head.
" No...I mean I have before but not since then and that was way before midsem break." Veronica explained, Myria seemed to have relaxed a bit.
" Ronnie, I've literally tried to be there for you so why did you turn to Velar?"
" I don't know, I guess I wasn't thinking straight." Veronica deflates feeling so ashamed she disappointed her school mom.
" Are you sure you haven't been to her again?"
It seemed she was unto something.
" Why are you so keen on this what's up with Velar?"
" Ronnie, Velar is one insane kid you shouldn't get involved with. Just promise me you wouldn't cross paths with her again."
" Fine I promise." Veronica agreed.
" Good." With that she left leaving her steaming latte untouched.
Veronica groaned loudly, why was Manhattan house so intense and constantly filled with drama?? She wondered.
Just then Sarah rushed through the doors, " Faye's been discharged!"
Faye was already at their table by the time they got there. She looked so pale, fragile and disoriented. The girls had a lot of questions for her but knew best not to ask at the moment, she already looked like she loathed herself and they didn't want to add to it.
" How are you feeling?" Ashanti asked as Faye attempts scratching off the band-aid behind her palm so people would quit staring.
" I'm fine guys." She says sounding pretty disappointed in herself.
" Hey, how about Healenore?" Efua asked sipping her can of coke.
" She's still on oxygen. If after 24 hours she still can't breathe on her own they'll have to inform her parents and transport her to the General hospital." Faye sighs.
The Blood tests had been scheduled for 11am that morning so recess was cut short as all freshmen were ushered to the assembly hall for their tests.
Both petrified and curious, they join the many queues to about twelve Lab set-ups around. Most of them were honestly afraid of the needles and thus constantly stayed back from getting their shots until it was finally their turn. The girls had a good laugh at Sarah and Ashanti who were giving the nurses a hard time. Anytime they glanced at the needle they quickly withdrew their arms totally frustrating the nurses until their friends had to finally intervene holding them in place.
Faye had been poked enough the previous night but still had to endure this new needle in the vein at the hinge between her arm and elbow. As she placed the round bandaid provided on and turned, the eyes that caught hers freaked her out.
" Oh f***!" Kweiba turns to look in her line of vision and realized what Faye was talking about. Faye quickly dashed into the crowd of students easily blending in since they were all in the same uniform.
It was Kwamena, the guy she'd flirted with at the tavern during their first night out with their seniors. She totally forgot he was into the health sciences, even if he was she wasn't sure he ever mentioned he was a nurse so why show up at her school? She wondered.
As if this wasn't enough, Ladi had skipped class to come see her since he heard she had been discharged. He was currently asking Kweiba Faye's whereabout and as Kweiba points her out to him, she is also surprised to see Kwamena just a few feet away from Faye so she quickly jumps infront of Ladi so he wouldn't see them.
" On second thought I think Faye is outside." She insists and Ladi looks over her shoulders and she mentally cussed at her height.
" No I think she's right there." He points out.
" Ladi I seriously don't think you should talk to her now." Kweiba begins to search for an excuse.
" But why? ...who is that?" He suddenly asked and Kweiba turned to look at the two. She didn't know what lie to make up but she could try.
" My, I thought I'd never see you again." Kwamena grinned at the sight of Faye.
He looked at her like some long lost treasure finally found.
" What are you doing here?" Faye whispered still holding on to the band-aid on her arm applying pressure with her thumb to stop the bleeding.
" Let me be honest with you, I am not a nurse but I never saw you again after that night and I just couldn't erase you from my memory so I joined the team coming over, we have a few classes together." He refers to the health practitioners, " It's quite surreal to meet you in person again after that night."
" How...You didn't come to the frat party I invited you to so I figured then you must be a student from around and after a few words with some girls I knew on campus I figured you'd be a student here but it never crossed me that you could be a freshman." He answered the question she was about asking.
" Well you thought wrong, I am a freshman and you're in college. Everything wrong with it starts from there."
Now they seemed to have drawn the attention of other students because they were all wondering why the handsome nurse was talking to Faye, maybe he was her relative or something. Some thought.
Faye turned and made eye contact with Ladi from afar, it looked like Kweiba was trying to hold him up with a conversation but it wasn't working.
Shoot!!
" I have to go." Faye states simply and turned to leave.
" Tanya wait!" He called her with the make-believe name she had adopted that night.
" This is a school, you're going to make a scene so just go. Whatever you thought happened that night was just a fantasy. You deserve better. " Faye turned and told him, " Bye."
She quickly walked away towards the doors but Ladi meets her halfway and reached out to her.
" Geez you're so scarce Faye, how are you doing?" He says in between breaths from weaving through the throngs of students to get to her.
" Hey." She tried a smile.
" Seriously are you okay, I heard you weren't feeling so good, was it the game?" He inquired.
Faye deflates feeling distraught all over again. Ladi didn't deserve to be lied to, she liked him way too much to do that so she just walked out the door and he followed suit.
She walked towards one of the benches under the tree next to the assembly hall and sat signalling him to join her.
" I know for the past couple of days I haven't really been myself, neither have I been open about everything." She begins and he listens trying to figure out what she was talking about.
" Yes I was sick yesterday mostly because I felt so pressured to match up to you, to do better in the game so...I got some pills which sort of knocked me out last night."
Ladi is suddenly overwhelmed by the information.
" You don't have to try to get to the same level as I am. I mean you're amazing in your own simple way and that's one thing I really love about you." Ladi says taking her cold hands in his.
" And let's be fair here, I train 15 hours a day 60 hours a week before an official match. You barely train for 10 hours before a game and yet you're so amazing out there. Don't be hard on yourself. I have also been there, I used to compare myself to Nana Osei because I wasn't much of a soccer player, more of a track and field athlete but coach told me I could work on my skills and with time I'd get there and I guess it's working because now I know I have someone who looks up to me." He chuckled.
" Don't be so full of yourself." Faye snorted.
" I'm actually on the verge of jealousy right now, who was that guy?" He suddenly changed the subject.
" That guy." Faye begins,
" That's Kwamena a college boy I sort of met recently." Faye tries to relate.
" When did you get time to meet someone else, we're in a boarding school and I was literally with you the entire time during the midsem break."
" Can you keep a secret?"
" Cross my heart." Ladi gestures getting her to laugh at his boyishness.
" We kinda snuck out of campus one night to a tavern where I first met him. It was me and a couple of girls in the dorm." Faye recollects.
" Wait what? How? When?"
" Relax, there's a secret passageway from some parts of Manhattan house to the outskirts of campus. Only Manhattan girls know about it and probably Jeremiah because Kweiba snuck in with him after we abandoned them at Ink It, I think Kobby also knows about it cause Ciarra tells him everything."
" How am I now hearing about this?"
" Maybe because I hadn't met you at the time."
" But you have now, so please don't hide anything from me. Tell me everything and please please please don't get any of those pills from anyone. If you ever feel scared or uncertain just let me know, I'm going to be there."
" I'm going to hold you to your word." Faye informs him.
Heather and Ashanti met after their first paper, Chemistry. It was exciting to have her best friend back.
They stood on the empty balcony overlooking the astounding hills in Kwahu.
" Your sisters are pretty intense." Ashanti observed.
" Not really but when it comes to my association they are really rigid because they believe anything that could go wrong with me would start from the people I hang out with."
" They're right you know."
" Yes Ashanti, it was during that time that I realized I didn't know much about you. They kept asking questions about you and I was found speechless at a point, I couldn't even say anything to defend you because all I know about you is what I have observed." Heather tells her, " I mean you know literally everything about me but I feel like there's more to you than you bring out. Like when I see you with Rebecca. She seems to know so much about you and it makes me feel jealous and bad and disappointed all at the same time."
Ashanti nodded in comprehension.
" The reason why I don't tell people about myself is confidential...but not too confidential to not tell my best friend. What do you want to know?"
" What your full name is. You write Ashanti Goodman which seems too tightly encompassed." Heather asked.
" You're more intuitive than I thought. Yes Ashanti Goodman isn't the name I used growing up. My name is Alison Ashanti Efriye Goodman or Ashanti E.A Goodman as documented officially. You know of TF Inc don't you?"
" Wait...Tech Fields corporation? The cellphone and technology company?"
" Yes that one. What's the name of the renowned owner?"
" Mar..no, no, Pharel something.... Pharel.." She tried to recall then turned to meet Ashanti's eyes upon recalling the last name, " Goodman. Pharel Goodman, your father is Pharel Goodman!"
Ashanti nods.
" But he died just recently." Heather recalled then it dawned on her, " That was your Dad."
" Yes Heather, at least you know my family now." Ashanti sighs.
" But I want to know who you are?"
" I've been a lot of things Heather so which do you want to know about?"
" Everything."
Ashanti chuckled at the thought. Come to think of it she had evolved over the years.
" Well Ashanti Goodman is the daughter of Pharel Goodman and Thalia Goodman. My mom is from Argentina, I was born and raised there but my Dad is fully Ghanaian. I speak nine languages, was admitted to Stanford University but attended only for a semester until I was pulled out by my grandma who you will soon know of. She's the person I fear the most in the world."
" Reminds me of my grandma." Heather recalled fondly.
" I was born in Esperanza Argentina and was practically the slowest child to develop. My Dad says I didn't walk until I was two years old, I wouldn't talk till I was four years old and I couldn't read until I was ten by which time I had completely given up on myself."
" You don't say. You're literally my Academic yardstick." Heather states in bewilderment.
" Whomever you're seeing now is someone millions were spent on. That is what makes me envy you, Ciarra, Faye, Veronica all of you. You can study retain an amount of what you learnt in memory and produce it on paper. I couldn't do that growing up. My grandma assumed I was being lazy and encouraged my parents to send me to boarding school so at age seven I was all alone in an elite boarding school, I didn't know how to do anything, not even how to tie my shoelace."
" You must have been bullied a lot." Heather says solemnly.
" Of course, I couldn't read, couldn't do any sports because it was difficult to judge speed and distance, but I could swim, dive actually because in water it didn't matter how fast you were and I could play the piano by age six because I didn't necessarily have to read the sheet, the sound of each key was imprinted on my mind. But I couldn't do basic math, distinguish various alphabets from each other or even write in a straight line. My classmates made fun of me, made up names for me...but I had a great best friend at the time. He was probably the best part of my childhood."
" He??"
" Yeah and he was a very intelligent perfectionist. Whatever traits of perfection you see in me possibly emanated from my constant association with him."
" But you never talk about him." Heather points out.
" He passed away when I was twelve after helping me fully accomplish my Academic goals. He helped my parents realize I had a defect in my vision, my Dad corrected that, I had glasses by then and two highly paid tutors who made sure I knew every single strategy for studying by age twelve. I was a geek by then, a very haughty one at that. Another disastrous moment in my life. With Austin gone, I felt alone. I hit puberty soon and started acting out. I guess that was when my parents realized the consequences of boarding school. I was more independent of them, when I came home I literally didn't need their help with anything, I didn't care what they thought. Have you ever heard of the series Vintage?"
" I don't have a TV back home, but I think I have heard one of my classmates back in Junior high talk about it."
" I was casted as lead in that TV drama, there were three seasons. I started when I was twelve, a little after Austin passed. It was like my outlet, I had fun with my fellow casts and we went out a whole lot."
" How hasn't anyone recognized you yet?"
" I was twelve and already in highschool at the time, the last shoot was when I was fourteen and my parents just couldn't take my rebellious attitude anymore and decided to dump me in Ghana after just a semester in Stanford. I had a change of hair colour, I am bleach blonde like my mom, my contacts also conceal my eye color and everyone here literally sees me in a uniform so nobody noticed except for Rebecca."
" So that's why!" Heather nods finally getting their little friendship.
" She must be so smart." Heather gasps.
" Rebecca is an entire story of personalities on its own." Ashanti says, " So I got here in Ghana, I was still misbehaving at the private school my mom put me in so my grandma thought, why not send her to one of the public boarding schools that have a reputation for discipline? So I wrote the national entrance exams, a month after, my Dad died in a bloody plane crash. A week later I received my admission letter to Nelson's. He didn't even get to see me go here." She sniffed back a tear.
" That's right." Heather realizes, " But why does your family keep pushing you away, from all you've been telling me, they seem to push you away at every instance. I mean after spending seven years in boarding school, why would they put you in another one? If you ask me I think that was why you were acting out."
" They are major shareholders of the cooperation so they were extremely busy, traveling constantly and never being at the same place at once, sometimes I felt I was a distraction to them. Yes my Dad did make me feel special, but it seemed as if his job was his first child. He bought me a lot of very costly things but I was growing up... those things meant nothing to me at some point. I needed my parents, my Dad realized that shortly before he passed away. He... spoke to me on the phone the night before his departure. I would have held the call and spoken to him longer if I knew what was going to happen."
Ashanti had already begun to cry.
" I miss him a lot." Heather embraced her consolingly for a few seconds before letting go.
" But you have your mom."
" My mom hasn't had a real conversation with me in eight years and I don't know, I constantly feel like she's trying to avoid meeting me or crossing paths with me."
" Are you sure she's your real mom, cause if she is she will definitely look for you one of these days. You'll see." Heather assures her.
" Sometimes I feel I was adopted or I was the bastard child of my Dad and she was my stepmother or something." Ashanti chuckled.
" Hmmm." Heather sighs lightning the mood, " But seriously you speak ten languages? How?"
" Yeah, my first language was Fante obviously from my Dad, everyone in Argentina spoke Spanish, so did my mom so I picked that too. When I got to the boarding school, Austin was learning seven languages. One for each day and he was pretty strict when it came to learning stuff so each day he stuck to speaking the language assigned and we were best friends so I couldn't help but keep up. "
" Must have been fun."
" Definitely, I remember Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, French, Sign Language, German, Zulu. It was amazing how similar some of the languages were, after seven years together I had mastered all."
" How did you speak English then?"
" I spent Winter breaks with my grandma in London, she was head of the English department of a university and according to her it was going to be an abomination to have a granddaughter who didn't understand the language so I had to learn. Spring vacations were with my aunt Ashanti."
Heather arched an eyebrow.
" I was named after her she's my godmother. She lived in LA where everyone spoke English so I had to pick up eventually. That made up 10 languages by the time I was fourteen. "
" Wow, that's awesome."
" I think being able to hold my breath for eleven minutes underwater is my most awesome achievement. I did so much aerobics to be capable of that."
" Damn! I was raised by the beach but even I can't do more than 60 seconds." Heather chuckled.
" It takes practice." Ashanti informs her.
" I'm sure, come on, let's go study for the next paper." Heather threw an arm around Ashanti's shoulder practically dragging her down the stairs.
Efua met up with the girls after their papers that day behind the assembly hall.
" Well girls, I've also been doing my own digging. I figured who the missing girls are. You recall we have a Wall of Fame, right?"
" Yeah what about it?" Mae asked.
" The wall had more photos on it than we came to meet. This is because behind the portraits is a different color of paint."
" So they changed the color of the wall and put up frames they wanted us to see." Ashanti keeps up
" Exactly, so I wondered what the missing portrait is and noticed a part of the wall not as thickly coated as the rest."
" It once held a portrait." Heather nods.
" A very recent one at that.But where is it?" Efua asked.
" I guess the saying is true. Whatever happens in Manhattan, stays in Manhattan. And those walls do hold a lot of things. Somethings preferred to be hidden and I found this." She stealthily pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket slowly unfolding it. It seemed to have been the actual paper in a portrait and it read in bold print.
FOR SORAYA MUMUNI, DECATHLON SCHOLAR. MANHATTAN HOUSE HONORS YOU.
Unfortunately the photo part of it had been ripped off.
" Soraya? That's the name of one of the missing girls." Ciarra states.
" Exactly, I did a little research in the school's archives but there wasn't a single mention of this girl. It was as if she didn't even exist."
" But how is that possible if she won a decathlon and was practically on Manhattan house's wall of Fame?" Veronica asked.
" Exactly my question. You can wipe out evidence in books but you cannot wipeout what is on the internet. I searched for the last decathlon Nelson had participated in and she popped up as the winner. There was a little excerpt about her. Exchange student wins first ever National Decathlon for De Nelson's Senior High School. Soraya MUMUNI is our very own genius chemist of all time."
" Exchange student? From where?" Faye asked.
" There's only one other photo of her out there after that of her winning the decathlon and it's the photograph of her in her previous school's uniform and it has the headline, Missing!!" Efua continues,
" I traced out the school and found it to be located in a slum somewhere in the suburbs of Accra."
" Why would she go missing?" Mae asked.
" The reason according to the news bulletin, She probably run away with her boyfriend who most of her school mates claim visited her constantly. Guess who these school mates are?"
" Manhattan house girls." Kweiba sighs not surprised.
" The boy came out to deny it but no one believes him, they say he probably used her for a ritual or trafficked her someplace. He's a bit older."
" What did Manhattan girls do?"
" What they did about Flora, they sat back and did nothing, if you ask me, I think they planned out the entire disappearance of Soraya."
" What if they killed her?" Ciarra wondered putting everyone on the high alert.
" It's Manhattan house, everything is possible." The bell shrills to end recess and they all rushed back to class.
It was revision week, the next week was going to be the End of Semester Exams. Two days after that exam, Ciarra had to represent the junior Science and Maths team in a quiz being held at the All Angels Senior High School in the Akyem district so she was studying twice as hard as everyone. Ashanti was supposed to represent but on the day of writing their selection test, her contacts had gone missing mysteriously.
Classes were over, all the students were doing each day were group studies, personal studies and quick naps whiles others just fooled around like nothing was at stake.
Faye's test results arrives with traces of hydrocodone in her blood stream alerting the entire administration of the school a letter was sent to her father to give him a heads up on her internal suspension. She had also been expelled from the girls soccer team, after her last game which was on Saturday, she wouldn't be playing De Nelson's Tigers again. The game was played on Owusu Sakyi Senior High School's turf and it was a match to reckon.
They were tough but Nelson's came with an impenetrable game plan and a powerful attack, Fayanna Quansah as well as two impressive defense, Alma and Beullah. Yes they shoved her a lot but with a cheerleading squad like De Nelson's Morale Jama squad with their trumpets, drums, rattles and what have you, she was practically a free spirit on the field. The songs and incantations they chanted was beyond Owusu Sakyi's imagination because Nelson's only brought thirty supporters and they were very conspicuous and loud. She won that game anyway, fare and square this time but she just couldn't jubilate. A man on the bleachers turned to Heather who was a member of the cheer squad and asked who she was.
" That's Fayanna Quansah, captain of Nelson's Junior female soccer team but she was called to the main team for this match." Heather called over the noise.
" Can you give this to her after the match?" He handed her a card, he owned a female league.
Faye couldn't imagine her father's emotions upon the news of her use of drugs so she had Beullah intercept the letter. The school still required her father's signature and an email notifying the school that he was going to handle it during the school break. Beullah forged the signature and knowing her father's email and password, they made up the letter.
But the big question at the emergency board meeting held that morning was where the drugs came from and if any of their students were on them? But why a freshman?
The blood tests would give the answers. At least Twenty percent of the students had traces of various variations of the drugs.
Mrs Asare found it imperative to conduct a surprise search in the house to get hold of all the vagabonds. On Thursday morning while they prepared for school, she along with Ms Bella, Mrs Annan from Pennsylvania house and Ms Nabila from Albuquerque house, Ava Menyansa the Sanctions prefect everyone so feared, and barged into each dorm in the house unexpectedly.
The girls hadn't expected the sudden intervention and were so surprised when Mrs Asare barged into Dorm 1. Efua quickly slipped her cellphone into her bra.
" Everyone out to the balcony!" She shrilled and they all quickly scurried out of the dorm, some had barely buttoned up their uniforms.
She walked in with two prefects and emptied everyone's suitcase, backpack, going through their mattresses. She was glad she included their fellow students in the search because those girls knew exactly where everyone hid their phones. Some had zipped it up into the macintosh covering their mattresses while others had it fixed into a deep cutting in notebooks and textbooks.
Mrs Asare was surprised at how smart the girls had become.
Others had managed to tie up their cellphones in plastic bags sticking them into their jar of pepper sauce and closed it up.
Lartifa and Joy had been smart that morning not knowing what was incoming. They had gone to the bathroom, closed the water inlet taps , flushed out the water in the water closet tank and stuck their iPads in the empty tank closing it up.
Candace had quickly placed her phone in her shoes after Asare walked in. Mrs Asare and her girls were too busy rummaging through people's stuff to realize she was dragging her feet out of the room.
Faye turned to Ciarra, " Did you take out all the wrappers in my suitcase?" She asked referring to the Titanium bars and Ciarra nodded.
Within twenty minutes of the search Mrs Asare and her entourage had confiscated thirty gadgets and thirteen variations of drugs. Ms Bella was so surprised at how smart the girls had become. Every single morning there was inspection and a search yet they had never found anything on anyone until this surprise search.
Mrs Asare walked onto the balcony and for the first time she let the shield she had on down. They could all tell she was immensely ashamed of them.
" Girls, what is this?" She asked in a tone of disappointment, " I thought I could trust this house but I guess I can't. Of all the houses on campus, I never expected this of my own house, the house I preside over."
" How well you have gotten at hiding things is what baffles me. What do you think you're doing? We are trying to protect you but it seems you still want to mess up your lives." Ms Bella continues glaring at the ziplock in her hands carrying white pills with a snowflake on each white pill.
" We are here to help you become better versions of yourselves and frankly I think I have wasted my time because not only have you distracted us but you've marred the house' name." Mrs Asare almost yelled, " So I want you all to turn in whoever is trading these drugs on campus or so help me God..."
They all looked at her, as if to stare her down.
" Manhattan house is a family but you girls are turning it into a cult, a revolution, especially you seniors. What are you teaching these freshmen?, within a few months some of them have evolved into various creatures I can't comprehend. Who is selling them drugs?.... Silence huh?" She asked with a humorless laugh, " You all will be on a strict chore duty from today onwards, from house prefect down to whoever and I swear you won't stop until whoever is engaging in this owns up. First years are excluded, I can only imagine what these innocent girls are going through being in the same dorms with such despicable seniors. You will be cleaning every house on campus!"
Everyone's eyes widen a fraction. What? Every house?
" Yes you heard me right, every single house including the boys' houses. From dorm rooms to bathhouses to gutters, the dining hall, Assembly Hall, Administration block. Manhattan house second and third year girls are going to clean the whole school until the culprit owns up, until your misplaced loyalty dissolves. If you want to prove stubborn, I'll show you how stubborn I can be."
" Ava get the list of names and assign each person to a place." Ms Bella tells the sanctions prefect.
" I am really disappointed in you girls, to think girls in my house wish to be here. These phones and machines are going to be liquidated and the funds will be donated to the local orphanage. I hope you've learnt your lesson. Bring out the culprit or you work till you graduate, we don't care about your mock exams and upcoming finals. If this is taken up to principal Yankee you know you'd be expelled with immediate effect, so this is a little tap on the wrist." Ms Nabila says.
The freshmen were so excited they'd been excused of their duties but some felt bad about the innocent ones involved. Ashanti wondered how Anita was going to study with so many chores.
Many of them wanted to point out the culprits but majority had a lot they'd done wrong in the house and feared being exposed if they exposed anyone. Anita and Praise really wanted to point Velar out but if they did, Velar would spill everything about Praise, everything. Probably including a lot of things others were engaging in. As a result, everyone had their lips sealed. There was too much to lose the moment anyone spoke up.
" And vibrators?" Mrs Annan begins holding on to the disgusting sex toys, " How many lesbians are in this house, do you do this in front of the freshmen?"
It was an appalling morning.
On Wednesday after their third paper which Faye was sure she'd failed, they sat at the quad, each one with her notebook studying. She couldn't think straight as she read the same line several times in her Business Management notebook, she was starting to have that itch again, the craving for something to force her to pay attention to only one thing at a time because she had a million thoughts running through her mind.
" Faye...." Veronica called noticing she was distracted, " Look at me."
Faye grudgingly does so.
" What are you thinking about?"
" Seriously I don't think any of this matters. Maybe I'm not cutout for school." She flips her book close in frustration.
" What do you want to do with your life then?" Veronica asked.
" Would you like to join the military. At least your Dad doesn't threaten to dump you in a training barracks the moment you misbehave." Michael informed her.
" Hey guys, I found something behind one of the portraits on the wall of Fame, I wanted to show it to you after the paper but I guess I should now." Efua says picking out an old crampled sheet from her backpack.
Ashanti was the first to read it.
" I am scared they're going to find out. Tell her to give it back." Ashanti read it out loud.
" Who's portrait was it behind.
" Mrs Oparebea Addo, former Chief Justice. 27th class of Nelson's." Efua answers.
" I still don't get the connection." Ciarra adds.
" How did you find it?"
" That is my assigned workplace in the house, I have been cleaning the place the entire semester but it was only when I decided to be keen that I noticed something stuck in the brown paper behind the portrait." Efua says.
" Are there any behind the other portraits?" Nesrina asked.
" Surprisingly, no."
" This must mean something." Ciarra studies it.
" I think we will need some of our seniors on board, this seems complex." Veronica suggests.
" I don't trust any of them." Heather voices out.
" I think there are some good ones in there. Sister Myria
actually cares. I think she can help." Veronica suggests.
" I think Anita is too." Ashanti sighs and they all turn to Faye so she'd talk about her school mom.
" What? Yeah Beullah helped me forge a signature. That alone doesn't make her the best judge of character. She's into a lot of strange things, I can't tell if she's right or not."
" Come on Faye. She did it for you." Sara reminds her.
A boy approaches their table looking all timid and shy.
" Oh boy. Three o'clock." Efua sighs in frustration and they carefully turned.
" It's Kelvin. What's he coming here for?" Veronica asked and Faye shrugged.
" Hello everyone." He greets when he got there and they sparsely answered.
" Fayanna can I please talk to you?" He asked and Faye looked really surprised and curious. He was literally the most reserved kid in class
" Ummm, sure." Faye closed her textbook and they walked towards the lawn.
" What did Faye do this time?" Mae snickered.
Ciarra observed the conversation from afar and saw him extend a card to her, the invitation card for Ignite.
" He wants Faye to be his date." Ciarra discloses.
" Doesn't he know she's with Nylander?" Efua asked.
" Come on, no one knows about it except for us, they literally behave as if they are siblings." Michael scoffed.
" Seriously why do so many guys like Faye?" Sara wonders.
" They're probably digging the pretty soccer player thing she's got going on ." Michael replied.
" Faye is very good with people if you haven't noticed. She's nice without even knowing it and I'm pretty sure she helped him out with something and he suddenly thinks he liked her." Veronica tells them.
Faye walks back to the table leaving a distraught looking boy standing timidly on the lawn. After a few seconds he walked away.
" What's up?" Ciarra asked.
" It's like the drama in my life never ends. Now Kelvin thinks he likes me, I honestly don't know where that came from."
" So what did you tell him?" Nesrina asked.
" That I was dating Ladi and that he'd probably ask me to Ignite. I don't know if our relationship involves going out with other people." Faye flips open her text book to the topic, Gross Domestic Product.
" Some people have that relationship. Ciarra accepted an invitation from Fede." Mae says.
" Only because Kobby accepted one from Trendy." Ciarra says from her calculator without looking up as she punched the quadratic equation values in.
" Touché I guess." Michael laughed, "What's that saying again? Treat me like a Queen and I'll treat you like a King, treat me like a game and I'll show you how it's played."
They had a good laugh at that one before they continued seriously studying, helping each other out at intervals.
Veronica and Faye delved deeper into Business Management before recess which she had to spend scrubbing the gutters around the dining hall as part of her suspension, including helping Beullah out with her share of the chores. Beullah was in charge of the incinerator and after a few hours working together, she'd come to know Beullah better, maybe she shouldn't have judged her harshly.
After she went back to the quad for a good study session, then she walks over to the dining hall only to find everything cleaned. She saw her savior packing up the spades and rakes to the supply room at the back of the pantry adjacent the dining hall.
She couldn't recognize him so she approached him.
" I'm Malcolm from 2 New York." He replied.
A senior, she thought.
" Please why are you working here?"
" I kinda did something a couple of weeks ago and my punishment was postponed so today I was called to do it."
Exactly where she had to work? There was only one person who came to mind...Ladi Nylander.
She stormed back to the quad and practically dragged him out of his table giving Moro a good laugh.
" Why?" She asked when they were out of earshot.
" Why what?" He asked laughing, fixing his shirt.
" Why will you let someone be doing my chores for me?"
" He did something wrong and the Sanctions prefect asked me to give him a punishment, I couldn't think of anything so I held it up until now.
" But he doesn't deserve that. That is my work."
" I know that Faye, but that work is honestly too much for you. You have exams and a lot on your mind in addition to these chores. I want you to concentrate on studying because that's the only convincing results your father would want ."
" That's very thoughtful of you but... Don't think about it Faye, now you have all the time to study so I want you to do just that. Can you do that for me?" He cuts in and asked genuinely.
She sighed in frustration staring up at him. He didn't look like he would budge so she had to oblige.
" Fine."
" But remember, you owe me so make sure you ace the exams, this is your first paper in Nelson's and if you don't justify your inclusion, you're going to be sent to the second business class. " He reminds her, " I know you're really smart,so how about we put that Faye I know in motion. I don't think you'll like to be in Chille next year so nail this so you stay in Creta. Hmm?"
He raises a hand at her. She didn't slap his hands, she hugged him.
" Thank you." She mumbled.
She joined her friends and with the encouraging words fresh in her memory set herself to study. Even Veronica was surprised at the new Faye. She was so brilliant yet she herself could mask it all out with unnecessary thoughts.
When everyone was ordering food in order to escape the lunch at the dining hall which they had finally had enough of, rice and gas, Faye opens her lunch bag and brought out a bowl, her last bottle of water and some gari, sugar and nuts all in one plastic bag.
" Wow, I thought I was broke but turns out you're worse." Heather laughed.
" You're going to eat gasoak?" Efua snickered using the slung.
" Yes, and for the rest of the days till school breaks." Faye sighs emptying the content of the plastic bag into the bowl.
" Ei!!" Kweiba exclaimed,
" Oh how the mighty have fallen, Fayanna Quansah, the girl who buys the most pricey beverages on campus."
" Shhhh." Efua silences her," I thought you have a boyfriend."
" Ladi Nylander is not her atm machine." Veronica informs them.
" True, I am not telling him I am broke, he literally cancelled my suspension with one cunning move without me asking, I can't stress him even more. What kind of relationship is that?"
" Hmmmm. Didn't you get anything from your Dad during visiting?" Mae asked.
" He didn't get time to go grocery shopping so he gave me two hundred cedis which I owed Ashanti and had promised to pay so I paid her."
" So that was all you had? Dude. I can't watch you starve, I'm giving it back to you." Ashanti said.
" Keep it Ashanti, who said Faye's going to starve. If you give it to her she might be tempted to go down that lane again. Don't give it to her, we all have to experience the consequences of our actions don't we?" Efua reasons and they couldn't help but agree.
The papers followed as well as some supposed free days when some particular courses didn't have exams.
Ashanti showed the piece of paper Efua found to Anita. Anita asked to meet those who didn't have a paper at the Morning Café.
After ordering macchiatos they sat down to analyze it. Nesrina, Faye, Veronica and Michael were not around.
" Hmmm, I can't tell who wrote this." Anita says sipping from her cup.
" Let's start with who worked there previously." Efua begins.
" A lot of people have worked there. Jamie, Nana Ama, Soraya... Soraya." Ashanti cut her off.
Faye and Veronica had a paper and therefore weren't included at this setting.
" Where is she?" Sarah asked.
" She run away with a guy sometime ago. " Myria states.
" But the guy is in prison now but she still hasn't been found."
" Maybe she got used for a ritual or something." Praise shrugged.
" Did you guys bother to go into it? Because I don't think Soraya's disappearance is related to her boyfriend." Ciarra hints." If this was written by Soraya then she must have been in trouble."
" How do we know it's hers?" Praise asked.
" I think we'll need to include Beullah on this, she literally knows everyone's handwriting in the house and under which situation you wrote something." Anita looks into the letter again and says.
" Really?" Ashanti asked.
" Yeah. She's a genius. She can tell if you were under pressure, you were bored, stressed or excited when you wrote something down. I know it's strange." Myria smiles.
" But can we trust her?" Efua asked.
" I get with what Velar did to Faye it is normal to walk on eggshells around the sisters but not all of them are that crazy some really care and will help if you asked them to." Anita smiled.
" Tell us more about Soraya." Ciarra grins drinking from her mug.
" So she was an exchange student from a local school in Accra. You guys are in Nelson's so you should know the trend with these girls." Praise begins.
" You hated her." Ashanti concludes.
" Not all of us, only the self entitled drama queens who felt as if Manhattan house was a kingdom they ruled." Anita chuckled at the memory.
" Oh come on, couldn't you guys tell them off?" Kweiba asked.
" Tell who off? Those girls? Remember some of us were freshmen, we had to tread lightly. And they were many and powerful. Way more than the girls you're seeing in the house today." Praise cmsays..
" I mean it was an entire sorority. No group name but everyone just new them." Anita said, " There was Harley, Asiedua, Princess, Gabriella, Victoria, Pamela, Ophelia, Rainey, Kelly, Rakiya...so many from very prominent homes. Soraya just fell into the wrong crowd."
" What makes them seem scary?" Efua asked.
" They introduced us to the tunnel beneath the house. We didn't even know about it, they'd take us partying. That was when I begun to lose my moral values, my sense of judgement. I'm pretty sure you guys already know my Dad presides over one of the biggest churches in the country." Praise asked.
" Yeah, heard you got a car on campus too." Heather hints.
" You must be wondering where I got the car from. They taught me how to live lavishly and at my own jurisdiction and after my second night out with them I threw everything my parents taught me out the window. You needed money to be able to live such a life and we weren't old enough to work and our parents wouldn't give us such money, so at the clubs we met up with very wealthy men and you know money isn't for free. Nothing is for free in this world."
" Weren't you scared?" Mae asked.
" Well at first but everyone was doing it so I followed. I got even better than they were, when I got the car they were all impressed but I gained enemies as well and when you get enemies in that gang you literally have a target at your back. I recall Lartifa always asking me to exit but I was so hooked to the game."
" You see, the other girls who still leave the house for partying didn't really experience the dangers because they had their school mom's in that gang and they were shielded. Vera, Joy and Kathy. Soraya joined them sometime later mainly because she wanted to be accepted." Anita informs them, " You only need approval from yourself. No need to seek for approval from others."
" What about Melanie?" Ciarra asked out of the blue.
They stared at her in surprise.
" How do you know her, occasionally she went by the name Melissa." Anita asked setting her mug down.
"I don't but I know she's missing." Ciarra replied.
" You guys are smarter than we thought." Anita smiled,
" Melanie was a member of the gang, she was our senior a very irksome one at that. How do you feel when we play tricks on you guys?"
" Like when Lartifa poured us alcoholic chardonnay during Truth or Darw while you guys took the non-alcoholic one so we'd ramble about all our misdeeds?" Kweiba asked, " We disliked you guys for that!"
" If you had been in the same dorm as Melanie, you'd be even more aggravated, you'd really really hate her." Myria speaks, " I haven't met someone so repulsive."
" You could have reported them." Ashanti reminds them and they shared a look trying hard not to laugh.
" Girls, that gang wasn't any ordinary girl gang. It was more of a sorority." Praise states.
" Like a cult?" Heather asked and they nodded.
" You guys have one way
or the other dreamt of the Tigress haven't you, possibly chasing after you?" Anita whispered.
The girls were suddenly cautious glancing at each other with uncertainty.
" How do we know, am I right?" Myria asks the question on their minds,
" The Tigress is the symbol for whatever they do and that dominates anyone present in the dorms of Manhattan until their initiation. Why do you think we did that initiation ceremony? You thought it was a rite of passage?"
The girls were honestly slightly petrified by this information.
" After the ceremony have you had any more of those nightmares?" Anita asked and they all realized it.
" We introduced you to the Tigress and let it know you didn't want to get involved. That's the only way to free you else it's going to torment you until you suddenly join in on whatever they are up to." Praise says.
" Do you mean the cult is still in the house?" Efua asked and they nodded.
" As a matter of fact they transitioned their positions to some of their school daughters."
" In our dorms?" Ciarra asked and they laughed.
" Of course, there's practically a member in every dorm. You know Wathoni right?"
The girls were even more scared.
" But she doesn't ...she might as well be gay and you wouldn't know about it." Praise cut in as Ashanti spoke.
" Remember some time ago we told you everything isn't what it seems here?" Anita asked.
" She's gay? That is not fair, I've literally changed infront of her before." Sarah gasped.
" Who do you think all those vibrators and sex toys in the closet belong to?" Praise asked, " I hate it too but it's her decision."
" And She's not into you if she were you'd know." Myria assures Sarah.
" Know how?" Sarah asked
" Getting you presents, doing stuff for you, getting you out of situations...wait Beullah does that for Faye, is she??..." Heather asked cutting Anita off.
" Yup, Beullah has taken a liking to Faye but couldn't tell her because the moment she wanted to, Faye comes with so much bliss telling her about this new guy she was into."
" Ladi Nylander." Efua affirms.
" Haven't you noticed she has taken a step back from Faye ever since?" The girls looked confused, " Oh come on, you guys aren't that daft to not notice. She rarely has long ridiculous conversations with Faye, fixing her clothes for her and stuff."
" Why are you telling us all this?" Efua asked.
" I don't know but we've also been searching for answers in this house but to no avail but you guys seem to be onto something so why hold back anything. No secrets remember?" Anita reminds them.
" Let me tell you what I know about Melanie. She was a hothead, even Mimi couldn't manage her. She went missing on the last day of school. People say they saw her leave in a taxi to the bus station but it seems she never got there. Soraya went missing during Midsem break the following semester. All seem staged because everyone keeps saying they went to their boyfriend's. Soraya was a new member of the gang, had just been instated a week before she went missing."
" This sheet of paper, I'll find Soraya or Melanie's old book and compare the handwriting to see who's it is." Anita assures them folding up the paper.
" Thank you." Ciarra says.
" Be careful girls. And if you need anything, you can get in touch." Praise checks her wristwatch and says, " Got a dirty bathroom in Albuquerque to scrub."
" We've got to go. See ya." Anita also says before they got up to leave.
" Beullah is gay. Faye must know this." Heather tells them.
Veronica and Faye got out of the exams hall with their question papers in hand.
" I couldn't calculate the compound interest perfectly. I forgot the value of the exponent." Faye complains.
" Oh no! That means the entire subsequent questions you solved were wrong, it was a preamble." Veronica deadpans.
" No." Faye begins to throw a tantrum tossing her paper to the curb, " My Dad is going to be so mad ...he's probably going to end my relationship with Ladi."
Veronica picked up the paper and went through that question.
" Dude you included the value on the calculation you did on your question paper."
" Really?" Faye paused rushing over to read.
" You included exponent 3."
" I did?... I did!!!"
" Of course you did, you're stressing yourself over nothing." Veronica laughed.
" I guess I am. I've got a lot going on I'm practically paranoid every now and then."
" Relax okay, why don't you go take a nap."
" I will, right after I go see Beullah. She wants to see me after this."
" Beullah? Now you're on first name bases."
" She says Sister Beullah makes her sound old. I guess I have to take the girls advice to trust her a bit more." Faye sighs, " Go ahead, I'll catch up with you later."
She proceeds towards the stadium. There wasn't any training going on. They had qualified to the superzonals interschool games. Practice would begin the third week of the next semester.
Only one person could be spotted on the bleachers sipping a bottle of fanta. Faye waved at her and climbed up.
" How'd it go?" Beullah asked.
" I actually trust this one." Faye grinned sitting next to her.
" Go Fayanna!! You know if you were great at studying as you are at soccer, you'd probably be my role model."
" I'll keep that in mind." Faye snickered.
" Here." She hands her a bottle of fanta from her bag.
Faye knew she wasn't supposed to be taking sodas especially from strangers, but Beullah wasn't a stranger, or was she?? Still she needed to be healthy, she had promised her Dad.
" No thanks, I'm trying to kick the addiction." Faye informs her, " When's your exam?"
Veronica walked into the Morning Café to meet her friends studying.
" Hey Einsteins." They all looked up.
" How did the paper go?" Kweiba asked her.
" Pretty exhausting, my cranium hurts but I've got to prepare for Costing tomorrow else Mr Djetror will bury me alive.I also have to do some laundry...a lot of clothes!" Veronica complains taking a seat with them in their favorite booth, " How did the meeting with the sisters go?"
" Very informative, we'll fill you up on it, hey, where's Calvin, I rarely see him lately." Heather wonders.
" He's at the hospital for the first phase of his treatment. He'll be back on Wednesday." Veronica answers.
" But where's Faye?" Efua asked.
" She said something about Beullah having to see her- No way!!" " Kweiba exclaimed as Veronica spoke, drawing attention from other tables.
Noticing it she dropped her voice to a whisper, " Beullah is gay and she likes Faye. Are they alone? Where exactly are they meeting?"
" Wait what?!" Veronica is shocked, " I didn't think to ask the location."
" Guys let's think, where could Beullah possibly meet Faye?" Ashanti asked.
" It could be anywhere!" Mae points out.
" But definitely not a place with too many people."
" Scratch that, a place with no people at this time. I mean she's lesbian and that is an abomination in this country and in this school so she wouldn't want anyone to see her." Efua reasons.
" Good thought, a place where they have something in common maybe where no one will be at."
" The stadium!!" Veronica says and Kweiba, Veronica and Efua got up to leave.
The rest stayed back because they had papers in a few minutes.
" When's your next paper anyway?" Beullah asked leaning into the bleachers.
" Costing, it's tomorrow but I've got Veronica to help me."
" That's nice."
" Listen Beullah, I know I am sometimes a handful but I am grateful for all the assistance I've been receiving from you both what I'm aware of and what I am not aware of." Faye smiled.
Beullah returned the smile hesitating a bit before taking Faye's hand next to her.
Faye looked at their hands together.
" Faye, you're a really beautiful girl and a very wonderful person. You rarely see that and I'm fine helping you out... though it's for illegal stuff most of the time." She says the last part humorously getting Faye to laugh.
" Hey, I don't do illegal stuff. I just fall into messes." Faye retorts still smiling.
Beullah stares at her pretty hazel eyes light up and her heart skipped a beat. She couldn't help it, she leaned in and kissed her.
It took a good five seconds for Faye to wrap her mind around what was happening, Beullah was kissing her!!!
The girls arrived right on the scene.
Faye pushed her back in utter surprise, disgust and disappointment.
She was beyond words as she quickly descended the bleachers with mixed emotions of anger, irritation, and a whole lot she couldn't decipher.
" Faye!" Beullah called at her as she pursued her.
" Leave me alone !" Faye practically screams running across the field towards the exit where her friends stood .
" What are you guys doing here?" She asked.
" Beullah is gay." Efua discloses.
" I know I just found out." Faye says dragging Kweiba out as the others followed.
" Faye." Kweiba called realising how furious Faye was.
" What?!" Faye yells,
" Everyone just wants to ruin my life, first Velar then Kwamena then Beullah, why?" She asked to no one in particular.
It was so hard to study that day but she made it to the next day with adequate knowledge in Costing for the exams.
The board wondered how at least Twenty students had traces of narcotics in their bloodstream. Faye was going to be the answer but before she could blurt anything out, Velar crosses her after her paper threatening to make sure she disappears if she ever points anything at her.
With the girls on high alert digging, it wasn't going to be long till they found substantial evidence.
At least they had Saturday to relax a bit after a week of continuous studying and exams, it was Movie night and as usual Ciarra and Kobby decided to watch from up the assembly hall where no one could notice them, tonight the seniors were going to spice up the night, even if Mr Bonsu had been assigned to keep an eye on them.
As the scenes from After finally begun taking a very steamy turn, Mr Bonsu wakes up from his slumber from where he sat towards the east of the auditorium and shrieks, " Good heavens!! What are you children watching?!!"
Everyone erupted into a chatter as the entertainment prefects try to pause slash stop the movie midway through an enamored sensual moment.
" Would you turn that thing off!!" He screams, " Children of the twenty first century are so spoiled. Do you know the chaste movies we watched back in the day? Throw that thing out and put in something from the 20th century!"
Everyone groans at that suggestion. They didn't come to movie night to watch Charlie Chaplin or the Three Stooges.
Naana shot them a sly grin as she pulled out another CD and walked over to Mr Bonsu to approve of it. He checked the year it was shot and approved of it as Naana slipped the CD into the DVD player, she tried not to laugh.
The title of the movie got everyone even more excited as it was projected unto the white screen the entire auditorium carrying three thousand students went dim as it commenced.
" Oh my gosh, she moved from After to Risky Business??" Kobby chuckled from where he sat with Ciarra up on the wall.
" I don't know but I think Tom Cruise was really cute, all the badboy behavior aside." Ciarra comments stifling a yawn.
" Really? What makes him so cute that stupid haircut or his gait?"
" Chillax don't take this too seriously." She mocks him.
" I actually hate movies like these."
" So do I but I'd like to know your reason Kobby Johnson."
" I don't know but these movies give the perception that we are all a bunch of sex crazed teenagers ready to have all forms carnal experiences, but not all of us are." He rants and Ciarra nods in agreement.
" That's a very awful perception of teenagers. The truth is we all hide behind this thinking that the more adult experiences we have the wiser and tougher we become but that's really stupid. " She shakes her head in disbelief then turned to him, " Hey Kobby, you're good looking, girls like you, literally everyone likes you and you are great academically, so why will you not compromise for any girl who willingly throws herself at you?" She asked.
" I don't know maybe it's because of how I was raised. My mom raised me to respect women and to help them see what they're capable of and neither will be possible if I go around sleeping with them. Secondly with the oddly shameful sex life of my Dad, I do not feel confident in replicating his nasty lifestyle by having sex with anyone, in a sense he's put sex in my list of Things I Despise."
" That's deep." Ciarra thought about it and said,
" But you're an average teenager, don't you get urges in that regard?"
" Of course, I am human but it's like the urge to eat meat, if I get into a country where no one eats meat of course I'm not going to die, I'll just have to learn to live without it and trust me it is not impossible."
" Great logic." Ciarra observes and then grinned wickedly at her next question, " So are you saying you won't have sex with me if I wanted you to?"
Kobby turned to look Ciarra in the eye.
" First off, you'll never ask me for sex, secondly I won't because I respect you way too much to do that. One truth my mom taught me is that it is very possible to deaden your body members. Very possible, trust me."
" What about the girl you get married to?"
" It might take a while, probably longer but that will be up for discussion before we get married. You see if I'm married to her then there's nothing wrong but now if I try that with any girl, it will be disrespectful and as a feminist, I can't do that."
" Awwww, you sound like a priest." She teased and he scoffed shooting her an incredulous look, that was when the scenes on the screen change dramatically.
Kobby quickly put a hand to Ciarra's eyes as Tom Cruise opens the door to some lady.
After a few minutes, Mr Bonsu was at it again. And since it seemed there was nothing decent to watch he called it a night as everyone groans at the early close of movie night.
Fortunately, Naana manages to convince him to allow them watch an animation instead, UglyDolls which turned out to be encouraging and successful.
In the subsequent days every point the girls turned seemed to have gone bleak. Whomever was helping Velar was really fast and prudent.
**********