TEENAGE TRAUMA

Chapter 11- Aunty's appearance

     The next three days had been very pleasing. Though Tricia was still not completely at ease, she seemed to really enjoy living with Kevin. I felt like I had never seen her so happy. I felt accomplished, a bit. It felt like nothing could alter the situation, but nothing lasts forever.
    Things took a 'not so unexpected' turn. During one of our classes one day, Aunty stormed into our classroom. "This is SSS 1A. Right?", she asked generally scanning the room. There was a sudden build up of mutter in the classroom and Tricia hurriedly hid under her desk in tears and fear. "Excuse me ma'am, how can I help you? You can't just storm into this classroom. If you could please wait in the reception and make you needs known to the available staff over there"-. The teacher in class tried debating. Aunty who clearly wasn't even attentive grumbled, "Abeg carry your oyinbo go one side-(Please get out of here with your grammer). Rita!", she started shouting out for Tricia. As she walked deeper into the classroom, she touched Amber's table and of course, Amber just had to give an immediate reaction. "Ugh, does someone have a rag I could borrow" Amber reacted in disgust as she moved away from the spot Aunty had touched.
Aunty, immediately recognising and getting pissed off by such disrespect, hit Amber on the shoulder and was scolding her in rage. "Is this girl talking to me like that? Do I resemble your mate?" She ranted and took Amber's hand as she squeezed  it tight and hurled so many possible insults in her native language. She was hurting her! Amber helplessly screamed and in no time, other teachers, together with some security staff had come to the scene and pulled off Aunty. All students hurriedly evacuated the room and stood at the window to see what was going on. I pushed through the crowd to find Tricia and take her somewhere safe but before I could, Aunty had sighted her and started screaming her name as she marched towards her.
Tricia held onto a member of the security and yelled out for someone to call the police. The teachers, probably not understanding the gravity of the situation, didn't call the police as they believed the security could handle it. While some fled, other staff members gathered round Tricia to protect her.
"She's here for me! I don't know her, call the police please! She'll kill me! Help!", Tricia screamed on the top of her lungs. All students dispersed in fear while some arrogantly stood around to see what was happening. Some teachers tried their best to get all students out of there but some of us remained.
Aunty pulled out a gun and aimed around. She stood upright and ordered everyone to stay still as she pointed the gun at the group of people who stood around Tricia. Thankfully, one of the security men shot at Aunty's leg and she fell almost immediately, maintaining custody of her gun. Tricia was removed from the whole scene and taken to safety. Aunty saw Tricia leaving so she hurriedly aimed her gun at her and pulled the trigger but missed her shot. Soon enough, the police arrived at the scene and took aunty away. I knew there was no way we'd get rid of her that easily, she basically got herself arrested. She showed no sign of fear at all but just had a faint, dreadful smile on her face the whole time.
"At least she can be accused of attempted murder", Kevin said in my ear, startling me. I couldn't believe what had just happened. The school contacted all parents to let them know of what happened but obviously, left out some parts of the story. My mum came to school as soon as she got the call for an urgent meeting and when it was over, she took me home and told me to tell her everything that happened. "You're probably still scared", she said, initiating a conversation
"I'm not scared, I'm worried", I answered looking out the window.
"The girl. Was she your friend or something? Cause you should be rather shocked or something right now.", she asked.
"She was my friend, yes and I just..." I was saying when my mum interrupted. "Did you know about this? Did you know about a big scary woman abusing your friend all along?" My mum asked me with mixed emotions. She was both angry and worried  the same time.
"Mum, I had no idea about all of this. She never told me about it, I'm just as lost as you." I said, trying to end the discussion.
My mum sighed and I could see she was rather frustrated. But I had other things to worry about.
When I got home that day, I spent most of my time talking with Cristal and Kevin on the phone. We had found out that the police, for unknown reasons said they had no evidence against Aunty. They claimed she couldn't be charged of any actual crime but she would be detained in a cell for 6 months for assault and attempted murder in the school. Proper investigations didn't even take place, they just obviously just wanted to dismiss the situation as soon as they could. My friends and I were then determined to find some kind of evidence and make sure Aunty was locked up behind bars as soon as possible! I was finally able to tell Chloe, my best friend about everything. I tried my best not to leave out any detail about Tricia but I wasn't able to tell her about our plans to find evidence against Aunty as I knows she would definitely tell my mum in order to 'protect me'. She's just one year older than me.

I told my mum that I just wanted to go out with my friends and I had to cheer Tricia up. She was quite reluctant at first but after a whole session of long lectures, pointless arguments, seeking sympathy and convincing, she finally let me go. But of course there were conditions; I had to keep my phone on at all times, call frequently and so many things. Typical!
My friends and I decided to meet up at Kevin's place and discuss a plan or something on the coming Sunday.

It was Thursday now and I could not wait for the next week Sunday-I was too eager as I was feeling like some agent. Cristal informed us that she wouldn't be coming with us due to some 'reasons'. She didn't tell us why but I was sure she just didn't want to come.