TEENAGE TRAUMA

Chapter 15- A little bit of panic

After the assembly, we all went back to our various classrooms and just as I was about to take a seat, I was confronted by Amber and her two friends. They just stood in front of me, blocking me from reaching my seat. "What?" I asked them.
"Someone told me you were talking with Josh again this morning" Amber answered with a little grin on her face. "Okay, and?", I asked her. "I was told you attempted to exchange numbers", Amber added.
"Okay, and?"
"Could you say anything other than that? Why are you trying to get my boyfriend's number. It's so disrespectful!" She exclaimed in frustration.
"I did not ask Josh for his number". I answered her, as calmly as I could because it seemed like the best way to handle the situation.
Just then, the Geography teacher walked in and on seeing her, the class got settled. Except Amber of course, who kissed her teeth at me and said, "Rubbish!", and walked away majestically. I just rolled my eyes because I honestly didn't know what else to do. "It's not my fault you can't keep a man", I thought to myself.

The first two periods seemed to go by quite swiftly. Immediately the bell for break time was rung, Cristal, Kevin, Tricia and I rushed out of our classroom and went to see the counsellor. We knocked on the door and let ourselves in. We walked into the Counsellor speaking with Mr. Moon, Amber's dad and the owner of the school. He left almost immediately he sighted us and I got some reason got really nervous as he wasn't very friendly.

"Four of you all at once?" The school counsellor, Miss Ope asked. "Yes miss". Kevin answered. "Errm, actually I only wanted to escort you guys here, I don't think it'll be best for me to get involved in this. See you in class". Cristal mentioned nervously and left. I understood her point of view though, you can't know a person for no more than six weeks and expect them to be involved with a criminal because of you. She was obviously scared. Miss Ope then smiled warmly and asked us to come in and take our seat. We began to narrate what we saw to Miss Ope and we had barely said anything when she exclaimed, "You went to her house? Are you kids sane?"
"Miss, we're fine. We're sorry if it was wrong but we had to answer a lot of questions..." Kevin tried to explain when Miss Ope cut him off again. "No! You're telling me you went to Aunty's house! There's no way you'd expect me to leave it be! Why not just leave the situation for the police? They're already involved anyways. Listen, I don't know what kind of fortification you kids think you have but you need to leave this case alone. I don't know about you girls but I would never expect this kind of thing from you, Kevin. What in earth were you thinking? Leave this for the police, okay?" Miss Ope worriedly added.

"You can't actually expect me to leave this case alone, Miss. it's been so long and there's yet no evidence that this police is actually doing something". We were told Aunty has been locked up and will be in jail for six months, but that was a lie! We literally saw her in that house. This so called police needs to go back there and search it again. They'll find Aunty and so many other monstrous things. Why did they let her go in the first place and any did they lie to us? Let me remind you that I've lived there for over 5 years, I can not let this be! The police are letting this woman go and lying to us". Tricia explained in defence. She looked outraged and it was definitely justified.

Miss Ope heaved a sigh of tire and argued "You kids do not know anything about this case and I am telling you, leave it be. Whatever the police told you, just believe it..". "You want us to believe it after we saw her and a lot more with our own eyes" I cut in.
"Yes, believe whatever they tell you and keep your mouths shut, I'll definitely be calling your parents and informing them about this. Clearly you've been given too much freedom". Miss Ope continued.

"You'll tell our parents? Whatever happened to 'what  happens between you and the counsellor stays between you and the counsellor'?" I asked.
"Did you come in her for advice on what to do or to inform me of your findings? It doesn't even matter, I'm telling your parents because you kids are out there risking your lives." She concluded.
"And why isn't any form of support provided to me? Why did no one even ask me of my well being after finding out who I lived with? Why didn't you, the school counsellor even as much as have a talk with me? Why was no one bothered about where I was to live after Aunty's arrest?" Tricia asked.
"That is besides the point, Tricia. It's another topic for another day. You all just need to remember and trust me, stay out of this case. I don't have the answers to most of your questions but some questions are better unanswered. I will have to call your parents and inform them of this because you're risking your lives. Anything you'd like to add?" Miss Ope answered.

"No" Kevin replied and I shook my head in agreement. Disappointed, the three of us stood up and took our leave. Tricia and Kevin were probably worried about Aunty and how the police let her go, but I was shaking to my spine at the thought of my mum finding out about this. She reluctantly ever let me go out in the first place and the one time she let me out for the whole day, I completely lied to her face. I was going to be in so much trouble. I was beginning to have doubts about doing so much for Tricia in the first place. I don't know who I was trying to impress but I realised I had done something I thought I'd never do. And what if Miss Ope knew something we didn't know and was really trying to warn us? It couldn't just be a coincidence that Aunty was released from Jail and we were all lied to, what if she actually was that dangerous. At this point, I was literally beginning to shake. I was so scared and was at the verge of bursting into tears.

Anyway, we told Cristal and Chloe about our conversation with Miss Ope when we got to class and later, I was shocked to see Chloe and Amber together, with their friends. Apparently, Chloe's friend was also quite close to Amber, who had somehow found favouritism in Chloe.

I got home that day, expecting my mum to be really mad at me and all of that, but she seemed quite calm. For sometime after I got home, she tried her best to act like it was all okay but I could tell she knew about where I had gone that weekend. After I had a snack and was about to take a nap, she finally called me into her room.