A FICKLE THING

02 | ENTER SKYE

What happened after the whole incident was a blur of frenzied teachers moving Haleemah into Mr. Luke's car and swiftly heading for the nearest hospital. Mide remained where he was, still kneeling at the spot her body had lay. Ada and I had to go over there and persuade him to get up. He refused at first, but later agreed after I reminded him that he was the Head Boy and as far as I knew Head Boys didn't cry in public (they waited till they were alone). Now that I say this, I realise that that was a stupid thing to say. But you can't blame me. I wasn't fully aware of what I was doing or saying. Like I said, it was all a blur.

The cleaners came, removed the blood and everything, and not surprisingly, school went on, as though nothing had happened. Our school is like that. Even a murder cannot disrupt their 'all work and no play' mentality.

"They should have told all of us to go home," Ada lamented.

We were walking Mide back to our class then. Everybody kept giving us weird looks, telling us sorry and don't worry she'll be okay. But I knew Haleemah was gone. What I didn't know was how she had died. And who was that white guy? Why had he been standing exactly where she she must had fell from?

Then it hit me.

Wait. He was white. Could that be—

"Skye!"

I whirled around. Ada was waving at someone. And that someone was Suspicious White Guy.

Up close, he looked a lot different. He was sort of lanky with curly light hair and strange blue eyes that reminded me of the stray cats that I had seen a few times in the bushes behind my house. He wasn't wearing the school uniform, just a teal blue T-shirt with 'Imagine Dragons' sprawled across it coupled with blue jeans and his school bag.

Ada had ran up to him and was now hugging him and pointing at Mide and I. Mide looked on, the faraway expression on his face connoting his mind was obviously not here but with Haleemah. I, on the other hand, must have had a really idiotic look on my face. You didn't get to see him but he was, okay, I think I'm taking this too far. I was probably just thrilled because I had never got to see white boys outside of television.

Ada was making a huge show of greeting him, saying loudly for all to hear and piece together that she knew him personally, "I thought you weren't coming again!"

Since almost everyone was in class, it didn't have much effect but I could just imagine this scenario at Break Time.

"Tori, this is Skye, the stepbrother I was telling you about this morning."

I beamed. Now that he was much closer, he smelt... unsettlingly familiar. I sniffed the air, and quickly stopped myself from behaving like a search dog.

"Hi," he said. He had a tender voice, soft and velvety. It brought to mind a person who can only shout or scream in lowercase.

I gulped. How would I greet him? Hello, Skye! No, too formal. Hi, Skye! Too stiff.

Pull yourself together!

"Um, hey," I croaked.

"Are you okay, Tori?" Ada asked, looking amused. "Your voice is—"

"I'm fine." I turned around. That's enough gawking for today. If he really was joining our school, I had the whole year to do that. "Let's go to class."

Ada shrugged and went on to introduce Mide who just acknowledged with a nod.

The moment the three of us stepped into our classroom, everyone went silent. Even our English teacher, Miss. Fola. Something told me it wasn't because of the hideous green socks I had chose to wear that day.