Book One: Trunk & Chopbox Girls

Chapter Eleven

December

As soon as the girls settled in bed for their rest time, I hopped out of bed. Josie was already gone and Gifty was reading a book and didn't raise her head to even ask where I was going. Nann, as usual, wasn't in bed. The main door of the house was shut but not locked and it took all of my strength to open it as silently as possible. A couple of minutes later, I was outside. Lorraine was just sneaking out too when she saw me. To our surprise, Aku was already outside her house.

"I'm not going to miss this", she told us.

We let Aku lead the way towards the Old Market. I should have been nervous but I wasn't at all. Maybe it was because I was with the other girls. When we walked past the dining hall after hiding from some teachers heading to their bungalows, the place suddenly grew eerily silent. Aku turned to us and motioned for us to be as stealthy as possible. Lorraine stepped on a stick and upon hearing the crack we all froze. Aku turned to glare at us.

"Sorry", Lorraine whispered sheepishly.

Soon we were at the Old Market and the uncompleted block was a few feet away. Once we got there, we could hear them talking. At first it was inaudible but the closer we got they got more and more audible.

"...please", it was Nann's distressed voice.

At the sound of her voice, I felt my heart drop into my stomach. The three of us crouched beneath the wall. The Queens had their backs turned to us and what we saw next changed our lives forever. There stood Nann – unclothed – bound on either side by some members of The Queens. She was in tears and her entire body was marked in painful looking marks. It was gruesome.

"The Queens is the biggest group in this school Nann Breneman. You should be honored that you were among the chosen few to be invited to join", Rowena stood before Nann, "HOW DARE YOU REJECT OUR INVITATION?"

"She seemed to be enjoying the perks at first", one girl retorted and some of them snickered.

"You didn't join us when we were protecting Annie last week", Rowena started listing Nann's mistakes. "And now you want to reject our offer? No, you will go through initiation Nann. I want you and I always get what I want."

"You're even getting it easy. Some of us went through worse things to get here", another girl spoke up. "Form One girl."

"I...can't", Nann breathed out helplessly.

Lorraine clutched my hand tightly. When I looked at her, she was crying and she looked at me pleadingly as if she was goading me to do something. If The Queens caught us here, our lives at BAGS would be destroyed forever.

Rowena stepped forward and whispered something in Nann's ears. Nann started screaming but with where we all were not a single soul would be able to hear her. The girls held her tighter and laid her on the floor. Because she was on the floor we couldn't see her anymore. To be able to see her meant we had to stand up but that would mean that we could get caught. We saw Rowena removing her clothes also and then we heard Nann's terrified wails echo through the building. Rowena raped Nann.

Lorraine threw up as we ran back to House Street. We were all in shock about what we had witnessed but Lorraine was hysterical.

"We have to tell someone", she said repeatedly when we paused for her to gather herself.

My heart was thudding against me chest. "W-what? Who can we tell? You saw how they went unpunished last week?"

Lorraine looked bewildered. "That was rape! I don't know how another girl can rape another girl but it just happened! Did you see her body? No teacher can let that lie under the rug. Let's go to the headmistress's house. We can let them get Nann and take her to the hospital to confirm she was raped."

"Lorraine," I started to say but I realized I didn't know what to say. Besides me Aku was taking in small breaths.

"What did we just see?" she asked me.

Lorraine stood up and started walking in the opposite direction.

"Lorraine!" we raced after her.

"We need to tell someone", she kept on saying.

"Who?" Aku asked her. "Who? What if some of the moles are even teachers? How do you think The Queens get their contraband items? It has to be from the teachers. They are the only ones that can leave the school at any time. You heard the girls, they had to go through this to become who they are now. What if they know already and don't care because of Rowena's family?"

"But did you see Nann?" Lorraine cried out and then burst into tears again. "I hate this school so much. I do!"

"Sister Joan is not a mole. That we know for sure", I spoke up.

"She doesn't live on campus", Aku pointed out.

"So why don't we tell her first thing tomorrow after assembly. We can tell her", I said.

"It has to be now!" Lorraine wailed.

Aku sighed. "Lorraine, JJ is right. Let's just keep this to ourselves for now. Sister Joan is the only one we can trust. We can get her to talk to Nann. It's not like Nann wants us to talk to her."

Lorraine wiped her tears. "Okay, but that's the first thing we are doing tomorrow morning. I don't care. If you guys won't talk, I will."

"Deal", we all agreed.