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~DABI~

He only zeroed in one one of us.

And my breathing was in a haphazard, rugged manner as I was quick to realise just who it was.

Somadina Kasarachi Best.

It was like the earth had stopped rotating for a moment and there was a drop of some weight in the air.

And no. I wasn't the only one who felt it.

The class was left with all of us. The Sisters — Chika, Soma, the Twins, and the boys who were unfortunate enough to just be dragged into this, Aaron and Casper and I could vouch with everything in me, every fibre of my being, every cell that made me up, that they all could feel the uneasiness that was in the air.

They could all feel it. It wracked them, surged through their system, utterly through them into disbalance and inward chaos. Potential madness, even.

But did they show it?

Not even in the slightest form.

Chika looked as stoic as she could look, with her face, plain and unasked, completely having all form of discomfort or tension eradicated from her face.

The twins were masters at the art of masking their emotions, so this should have been a piece to cake to them. With eyes that were slit and sharp like daggers, shiny like a two edged sword, they squared Kaniru George back with an equally heavy death glare.

Aaron looked insulted in the slightest. The tall boy looked like he wanted to reach out and slap Kaniru for even thinking he could walk in here and order us, his own classmates around like we were some Jss1 students. He looked offended. It was clear and it was obvious. He didn't look tensed, even if I knew deep down it as there. He just looked offended. Very offended.

His lighter skinned buddy had a sleek brow raised at Kaniru. He looked calculative. The blonde haired kid said nothing, but I was certain that there was a lot going on in his mind. He had a face on that made me think that he was cooking up mental calculations in his head. Like he was analyzing the situation like it were a physics equation. Quickly trying to find a solution to this problem we were in right now.

But what could Casper Bassey possibly think of as a solution to this mess right now?

And me? God knows what I looked like on the outside. I believed that I stared as Kaniru as blankly as I could, with eyes that normally held little to no emotion, staring even with more blankness at him. But what I showed outside was not even close to what I felt within.

Believe it or not, I was this close to a stroke.

And Soma...

Christ, Soma...

She just sat there, the most quiet I have ever seen her in my life.

And although she stayed silent on her seat, having the silence hovering over her completely, in even her aura and entire demeanour, a closer look at her and one could very much easily pick up in her big brow eyes that she was literally wallowing in fear and misery.

Soma was drowning.

And she stayed quiet while at it.

Looking Kaniru back as his dark vengeance filled eyes zeroed in on her, anyone could see that Soma was just seconds away from slumping from the sheer horror.

"Dabeluchi Orji told me everything!" Miranda's mouth was as sharp as razor blades as she threw an accusatory finger at me.

One that made me jump, startled.

One that also did well to take everyone else aback as they looked between Miranda Archibong's accusing finger and me.

Kaniru's eyes moved from Soma to m and I felt as though hell froze over and unfroze at that second. His eyes, directly set on me, was right about the most horrid thing that I had experienced in a long time.

I didn't know which was worse. The concentration he used to stare, the dark and very unsettling effect it gave when those darkened, red eyes fell on you, concentrated on you. Or the slashing in his left brow that gave his entire facial appearance a rugged, gothic look to it. One that was unnerving. Made you unable to stare too long at him.

That was it. I couldn't stare at him for too long. So, I looked away as Miranda continued throwing all her false accusations at me....

"She called me yesterday!" Miranda was quick to report. "Didi—I mean Dabeluchi—called me yesterday, in the morning, and she told me everything I needed to know in a few words. For some reason, she believed I was Chika Chioma, and she started to tell me about Soma and the stolen drugs from you, Kaniru!—"

.... But, damn it, the eyes that bore holes into my skin were so hard and unmerciful.

The Sisters, Aaron and Casper, Miranda, Kaniru and his boys gave me such an awful spotlight.

Above all, it was the heavy eyes of the Sisters on me that made me the most distressed.

"—I believe the Sisters know all about this, because for Dabeluchi to be thinking I was Chika, I believe that information was meant to be for Chika Chioma and I bet that ALL the sisters know about this!" Miranda was running her mouth like a damn typewriter.....

..... And she was spreading SO MUCH LIES.

NONE OF THAT EVER HAPPENED!

"Dabi, what is the meaning of what Miranda is saying?" Ebere asked me, and I was forced to look at the twin who was speaking to me and there was all form of confusion on my face.

Well, the confusion, mixed with shock on her face was unmatched anyway. Ebube stared at me shocked, but said nothing.

Chika was hard to read. There was an emotion on her face but I couldn't just pin it down.

I could not even bring myself to look at Soma.

I couldn't even dare look at her.

Yet, I had no reason to be scared of doing so, right?

"Dabeluchi." Ebere called my name, her voice harder than I had ever remembered it to be, shaking with fear and uncertainty in it. "Miranda is talking shit, right?"

I opened my mouth to speak but no sound came out. And I wondered why it was so difficult for me t stand my grounds when I believed I was innocent.

None of what Miranda claimed happened. Right?

Right?

It never happened.—

Never happened it.—

Happened it never.—

It happened never.—

Never.—

Happened.—

Bucket.—

"Eh?" I frowned when my own thoughts threw me into confusion.

"I don't even have time for this." Kaniru had muttered in a deadly tone and I watched him storm his way towards us from the hefty boys who stood as guard behind him.

It was too fast for any of us to have reacted.

It was just too damn fast.

One second, Kaniru was storming towards us and the next second, he was yanking Soma out from her seat and the tall girl was easily flying out with one drag like she was a rag doll.

"Jesus Christ!" Ebere screamed out loud, the exact same time that Chika had screamed out, "WHAT THE FUCK!" But all that was in vain because before they could even complete their scream of paralyzing shock, a shrieking Soma was flying right over her desk and flung like a toy by Kaniru into the air, and with a loud, painful thudding sound, she landed onto the hard tiles a few feet away from us.

Alarmed, we all were on our feet.

But Chika beat all of us to it all the same. Aaron was rather a close second.

Before anyone could say Jack, Chika Chioma was rising in rage and flipping her desk right over, boiling inwardly and outwardly and in one swift motion, she started to run towards Kaniru George in a blinding maddening fit of fury.

The twins were more concerned about Soma who was already crying on the group quietly, and while they rushed over to her, Aaron Godson was fast, too fast in his steps, attempting to stop Chika who clearly wasn't thinking at the moment.

Kudos to him because he was fast enough. Aaron had raced fast enough to beat Chika in reaching Kaniru, effectively blocking her from attacking the bigger boy by coming in between her and him, backing Chika and ironically, squaring Kaniru himself, eye to eye at the same time, challenging him to do his worst.

Meanwhile a flock of Kaniru's boys were starting to circle the space around Chika and Aaron......

And all I could see was red.

Red, red, and more red.

It was horrendous to watch. It was so horrifying to watch because clearly, they were outnumbered and the both of them were too angry to even realize it at that moment.

I had my whole heart in my hands the entire moment. Frozen, I was, on my feet as I watched the madness that was about to unfold before my eyes.

I jumped at the loud sound I heard and my head whipped to the door where I saw Casper Bassey pushing it open and wrestling with the boys that were blocking him from doing what he was doing.

I stood there wondering why Casper was trying to open the door to all of this, when sooooo many classmates were going to be out there, eager and hungry to see what the hell was going on inside this classroom.

"What are you doing?" One of the twins had noticed Casper too and was quick to shout at him.

"I thought this through, relax," The blonde haired kid whipped his head back to Ebube, assuring her with his eyes that he knew exactly what he was doing. "Once our classmates see what's happening, it won't take long for them to start making enough noise to attract a teacher here!"

Oh. I guess I could see the sense in that and I was quiet shocked at how quickly he could come up with the ideology. 

He didn't even join in the fight and while there was a whole war rising inside Class C, Casper Bassey was shouting out to a few boys outside and ordering them to find Charlie Ba and bring him here immediately.

And my God, there was one hell of chaos abiding here.

Inside the class.

Outside the class.

I wasn't sure which one was worse.

Here, the twins were tending to Soma who was too scared to even make a move, trying to get her up and get her out of the class — a task I knew was plain impossible with those multitude of boys who were fighting like dogs with Casper, trying to shut the door back as he tried to force it open to the view of all our classmates.

And meanwhile, the rest of the multitudes of boys were surrounding Chika and Aaron, practically swallowing them in all their numbers and I knew that they stood close to little of a chance and it was gutting to watch it all.

And then outside, I could already see flashes upon flashes. Classmates upon classmates. Noise. Jesus Christ, the noise was unbelievable. This was beyond chaos. Way beyond chaos. Everyone was shouting, screaming; there was excitement, fear, tension, every sort of emotions and feelings were in the air and everyone outside, classmates who literally fed off this drama, they stood there, nearly ripping their hairs out in anticipation, or fear, or uncertainty of whatever what was happening right now had to offer them.

In lesser words, the class block was a fiery market square.

..... And was this all my fault?

No! I did nothing wrong! I didn't do anything! I am innocent!

"You know what?" I heard Kaniru's snigger, a dark sound that raised the hairs of my body and made me gulp. "Maybe, I should take this outside and show everybody watching just how drastic the consequences of messing with us could be."

I couldn't see Chika and half of Aaron's head was barely in view so it made me realize that they were swallowed by Kaniru's boys and setting the leader of the gang in full view, I was filled with dread as I watched him walk with an aptness in his steps towards the twins who had Soma in their arms like she was their kidney, holding onto the tall girl like she was vital to their entire being.

"Get off." He ordered the twins as they glared heavily at him.

"Last warning, clones," He cracked his neck from left to right as he stepped up to the twins like a monster to a prey. "Get off that bitch."

"Well, suck my dick!—"

Ebere's livid scream back at Kaniru was caught off when Kaniru hit her.

I screamed.

I actually screamed.

Kaniru hit Ebere. Like, he raised a strongly folded fist to her and came down on her face like a hammer, literally throwing her entire body away from her twin and Soma with one mighty punch that may have killed her if care was not taken.

Kaniru wickedly moved towards the other twin and with a silent 'Ewo', a horrified Ebube stepped away. Crawled away. Literally, on her hands and knees, she crawled away from Kaniru and anyone could have seen that she was overwhelmed with terror.

And I closed my eyes. Unable to watch this. It was so painful, utterly distressing to watch.

And I couldn't even do anything.

What on earth could I have done?

Just like the twins, what could we have done in this situation?

Kaniru wasted no time. I stood there and watched. He moved towards Soma and grabbed the crying girl on the ground and she tried to resist but all to no avail. He grabbed her up and pulled her out, shoving her right out of the class through the door that Casper was trying to keep open and the blonde haired kid was wrecking like a mad man, fighting to get through to follow Kaniru and Soma out of the class but the other boys were threatening and pushing him back into the classroom.

God. What kind of mess is this?

Chika had probably gone ballistic in that circle of boys that surrounded her and Aaron, because the moment that I saw Aaron's belt flying around in the air, unleashing a series of wicked lashes helter-skelter onto the air and landed them into the boys around them in a carefree manner, Chika rather was cursing out profanities and all I heard was the shocking sounds of rock hard punches that was nearly overshadowing the noises that our classmates were making.

Punch sounds that more or less sounded like explosions.

Each one didn't miss its targets and I watched with my jaw dropped as Chika was mercilessly attacking as much as she could, unleashing KOs like she had gone bonkers, throwing the kind of punches that she used to throw on her punching bags — Hard, straight, fast — on as much people as she could reach and the other boys tried either in vain or successfully to miss her attacks while trying to hold her down.

Aaron may have been too busy to realise the magnitude of what was happening — his girl was punching the lights out of a number of boys, an uncountable number of them, at the same time.

Casper at the door had actually stopped. He and the boys at the door were shocked beyond words. They were not even fighting each other again, they were just watching as Chika was emptying out the circle of boys around them and the colour on Casper's face had actually drained out.

Meanwhile, I looked back to the twins on the ground and felt my heart snap in half when I saw Ebere covering her face with her hands and crying into it, while her sister knelt by her side and I remembered that she had taken a horrible hit from Kaniru.

I couldn't help but feel within me that all of these was all my fault.

Slowly, Ebube's eyes rose to me and I tried not t take a step back from such an impact it carried. There was so much in her eyes and all emotions were nothing compared to the disappointment in them...

I always felt like I knew nothing about Ebube, but right now, looking at her, I could write a ten paged essay, in details, on what hatred for me right now was all about.

I opened my mouth to speak but the words that had died in my throat choked me when I tried to force them out.

I tried again and only six words could leave my mouth.

"I swear, I didn't do anythi—"

I couldn't even finish the six words.

Everyone in the class was rushing out of the class with all urgency in their bones and blindly, with hands shaking at my sides and a heart beating like the church drums, I ran out with them to the hallway where all the madness had relocated to.

The entire hallway was mad with vibrancy and never ever in my life had I seen my classmates as active as they were at that very moment. Everyone was running from one place to the other, jittering, gossiping, making a whole lot of noise and exuding all forms of excitement and I was almost irritated at them all for even seeking joy in something like this. These people were literal blood sucking gossip beasts and the last thing I wanted was for them to feed off Soma's predicament.

However, Chika didn't seem to want to take a chill pill because before I knew what was happening, she was rushing towards Kaniru George like a freight truck and pulling Soma right out of his hands and throwing the taller girl away from the monster in urgency.

That, shocked Kaniru for a moment as he must have wondered how Chika was able to pull Soma out of his powerful grip and the entire hallway that seemed to be full with nearly the entire class of Ss3 was screaming and shouting in awe at the scene and I closed my ears when the noise tried to deafen me.

"Is Chika Chioma okay? Does she want to die?!"

"See mind this girl get oo! It's the audacity for me!"

"Abeg, you people should leave her! Abi, you want them to beat her friend!"

"Hah! Na wa o! See drama this early morning! If I post this one one, CH official page will carry it on their heads! I go just blow die!"

As expected, Kaniru shoved Chika, a push that I swear anyone could have lost balance from and tumbled over themselves and onto the ground, but I was shocked how Chika barely moved a step back from the assaulting shove like it had little to no effect on her. 

Shocking me, instead of going back from the push, the daring light skinned girl stood on her tip toes to size Kaniru up with a scowl on her face, standing in between him and Soma and challenging him to do his absolute worst.

"Jesus Christ!"

"What the HELL!"

"Is she mad?!!"

How was Chika Chioma so brave?

"GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY FRIEND, YOU ASSHOLE!" Chika screamed right into his face, tipping her toes to reach as high as she could to square him eyeball to eyeball, and that was enough to show everyone and even Kaniru George himself that she was not even fazed by him.

Needless to say, Kaniru was too shocked to even attack for a moment. 

He stared at Chika who was literally fuming like a hose in front of him and for a moment, the noise in the air started to drastically reduce, little by little, second by second. It was like someone had sprayed a noise repellent in the air and gradually, the noise in the air was toned down from excessive to moderate to graveyard silence.

Until everyone could have been able to hear a feather drop.

The silence in the air destroyed me.

It wrecked my system without mercy and raised my anxiety beyond comprehension. There was no whispers in the air and in all the silence, I could actually hear my thundering heart.

Chika glared at Kaniru and the latter stared back at her, quietly. Almost calculative. He stared at Chika and stared at her and stared at her and stared at her and stared at her.....

And then, a smile as sharp as a dagger spread out across his dark face.

"Chika," I heard a voice call from behind and when I looked back, I saw a cautious, worried Aaron attempting to