Half Step At A Time

chapter 20: A trip down memory lane.

Baptist model college was a prestigious school, one well known for its various academic and sports achievement by its students. The schools facilities were the best in that area. And as exepected, the fees were unnecessarily high. But just like students of other schools, the students of Baptist model college categorised them selves into different ranks. There were the rich, smart, popular students, The ones who had it all, including looks. Then there were the rich popular ones with looks but no brains but it didn't matter because they were rich and popular. And then there were the rich and popular students with brains but no looks. Their looks didn't even matter because their wealth and popularity made up for it. Oh, sorry, I mean their 'parent's wealth', they were ready at any time to laud it over the less privileged ones.

    And of course, there was me. The less privileged one. The one with average looks. The one who was neither rich nor popular.
The smart nerd with no friends. The only friend I had just walked out on me because of a boy. And who was the boy? One of the rich and popular kids with looks but no brains. I laughed within me, he was so not worth it.

    I wasn't surprised though. I knew she always wanted to leave me. She had always wanted to join the clique of rich and popular braniacs with no manners whatsoever since the time she transferred into our school a year ago. She was still new to the school when I became her friend. I helped her to settle down and gave her a lot of advice. And we had connected a lot since then. She became my best friend and only friend in the school. But she had turned our friendship down the drain because of her interest in one of the 'popular' guys (who already had a girlfriend BTW) and an invitation to one of the popular kids 'hangout' or whatever they called it. She had always been dreaming of this moment so she didn't think twice before leaving me behind.

   "I can't believe you haven't noticed that you are slowly becoming like them,Gloria, this isn't who you are". I said to her on one fateful day, the day things fell apart for me.
It was the day of her lousy hangout with 'the girls'. They held this so called hangout once every two weeks As usual, they would sneak out at night through the back of the school and climb over the school fence to get to the other side of the world.
Then they would probably visit a night club or go for an evening snack or most likely go to meet with their little boyfriends and girlfriends from neighbouring schools. All these while disguising and making sure no one spots them.

   "And who are you to know who I am? You  know nothing about me". She replied coldly  and turned to leave.

I held her hand.
"Please, even if you think I don't know a lot about you, you need to listen to me, don't go for that hangout, please.". I pleaded.
She pushed my hand away.
"So you are telling me that just going for one hangout will turn me into a horrible person?"

"No, that's not what I meant,i have a bad feeling about the hangout, please just try and listen to me."I tried to plead with her.
I hadn't told her the reason why I was being paranoid. What she didn't know was that I had overheard some of the 'girls' speaking to each other at the back of the class today that morning.

    They were planning something for the hangout and they sounded really shady. I couldn't help but suspect that they were up to something bad. I hadn't heard them properly because they tried so hard to be discreet so as not to be heard by anyone (more reason to be suspicious) so I wasn't a hundred percent sure of what exactly I heard. But I had to warn my friend still.

     "I think I know what this is about". She suddenly said.
My face brightened, so she had figured it out? That was definitely a relief.
"You do?".
"Yes, this is all about bayo, isnt it?". She said. Bayo was the popular guy she was interested in. She still attacked me because of him. Its funny how she thought I could like someone like him.
"What? No;-"
"You know that bayo is going to be there and you know I like him, so you don't want me to go, because you like him too!".
I sighed. When will she get it?
"Gloria, for the last time, I do not like that idiot!" I yelled.
She hissed and rolled her eyes.
" so you think insulting him will convince me? You think I haven't seen the way you look at him in class. It's like you practically drool over him".
"Hey! I don't stare at him! Let alone drool over him" I said, disgusted. By 'staring at him', she probably meant ' giving him a death glare because he was such a jerk and bully' or 'eyeing him because he just tipped over my chair'. He was such a petty loser. I don't even get why she would like someone like him. Other than his popularity amd looks, he had nothing else to offer.
"Lies!" She yelled.
"Gloria, he has a girlfriend". I said.
"So what? Just forget it! I'm leaving!". She said, walking out on me.
"Gloria!" I yelled but she  didn't look back.

**********************

"What are you doing here?" Gloria said to me, half whispering as I walked towards her and the girls. It was exactly 10:00 in the night and the girls were about to go over the school wall.
All of the students had retired back to their hostels for their night sleep except for the hangout girls who were already dressed and for their shady night hangout.

    I followed them from where they dressed up to the back of the school, where they would climb over the school fence. I still hadn't given up on trying to warn Gloria. The bad feeling I had was now more intense since the moment I saw the girls exchanging a black nylon bag between themselves, I wondered what was inside.
Then I saw Gloria, behaving like she fit in perfectly with them. The thought alone made me shiver.

"Ooh..look who's here, its the nerd" One of the girls said as she spotted me. The others laughed.
 
"I need to speak with Gloria!". I said to them, caring less about the eyes they gave me.

"There's no time for talk, we have an important business to attend to". The leader said making her way to climb over the wall.
The others followed suit. I quickly grabbed Gloria's hand before she joined them.

"Please, don't go with them, I beg you". I pleaded.
"What are you doing?" She said, trying to untighten her hand from my grip.
"Hey! Nerd! Leave her alone!". The girls shouted running back towards me and Gloria.
"Evil set of people! I know you are planning something shady and I'm not going to let Gloria to he caught in your trap!". I yelled.

"Who's there!" We heard a voice in the middle of the drama.
" it's security! One of the girls said and fled.
"Security?". I asked, baffled.
Before I could even blink, all of the girls had fled, including Gloria.
I came back to my senses and started to run.
"Stop there!" The voice said.
I continued to run but was held down by a security officer. Another officer came from nowhere and flashed a torch at my face.
"Who are you and what are you doing here at this time?" The one holding me down yelled.
"I can explain, the other girls, they are getting away-" I started to say but stopped midway when I felt like I was holding something in my hands.
"What is that?" The other officer asked
I looked down and gasped when I saw the suspicious nylon I had seen earlier with the girls in my hands.