Break the Rules!

Wednesday is a short day

A few minutes later, Maran closed the door behind them. The moment they entered the flat, tears stared falling down their cheeks. Emem came out of the living room, with a cheerful smile. But as soon as she saw Maran, her smile dropped.

"Why didn't you call?", she asked. Her voice was cold, but also a bit worried. She didn't believe that Maran didn't trust her but felt like it for a second.

"He broke my phone", Maran stuttered.

The kid's legs gave in, but Emem caught them before they could hit the floor.

"Maran you're telling me what fucking happened, now", she demanded. The worry in her voice grew with each word.

And so Maran did:"He said he'd kill me. But he'd first play with me." The kid's words hit the point of the last few hours directly. There was no talking around it, those were his words. And Maran knew he meant them.

"I'll come with you tonight", Emem declared as they sat in the bus on their way to school.

"No!", Maran yelled, pulling the attention of half the bus on them.

"Why not?"

"I don't want you to get in trouble!"

"I won't-"

"Yes you will! I told you what he said, and I don't want you to get stuck with that too!"

Maran didn't even notice that everyone's attention was pointed on them, or that they had stood up. The tears came up again, slowly running down their cheeks.

"I can do this alone", they whispered, then left the bus. The kid didn't care that they were going to be late if they walked the last two stops.

"Maran wait!", they heard Emem's voice behind them.

"Why are you here, you're gonna be late!", Maran said quietly.

"You too. Also, I won't let you walk around on your own if-", Emem started to claim, but Maran cut them off.

"No shut up", they yelled, then continued in a whisper:"I'm not supposed to tell you, and I never know where he is."

Emem looked at them, her face expressed worry as Maran cautiously looked around.

"Ok, I won't. Just stay close", she said and took Marans hand.

"Thank you", Maran said, as the friends started walking.

The two teenagers didn't talk for the rest of the way, Maran kept looking around whilst Emem focused on her friend. Once the school's doors closed behind them, Maran relaxed visibly.

Their jaw unclenched, their whole body language went from worried to calm. Not even the noisy hall monitor had any impact on them. Emem couldn't help but smile at that.

School had started at exactly 8 o'clock, about ten minutes before they arrived. They only had two classes on Wednesdays. One of them for an hour, the other one for three. The kids would be home for lunch.

The first two hours at school went by fine. After one hour of Physical Education, Maran went to the restrooms. Emem stayed, she couldn't just leave the class to protect her friend that was just going to the toilet.

A few minutes later, Maran ran back into the room and directly to Emem. Their breath went fast and Emem noticed a cut on their left wrist. Most of the attention was aimed at the two friends.

Maran was crying, their eyes open wide, shock written in them. They hugged Emem tightly, as if their life depended on it.

"What happened?", Emem asked quietly, the one question everyone of the twenty other people in the room seemed to have written over their faces.

Maran shook their head and breathlessly stuttered:"He.."

Emem and the teacher were the only ones who heard the kid. Emem because Maran was in her arms and the teacher because she stepped closer to find out what's wrong.

The tall girl clenched her fists and pushed Maran away a bit, not letting go of them. "Where?", she asked, her voice low and filled with worry.

Maran shook their head. "You're just gonna go look", they said.

The teacher now stepped in. "What is all of this about?", she asked.

Emem smiled at her and replied:"Nothing they just slipped and hit their arm on a corner. Maran told me they lost their bracelet, it snapped open. Do you mind if I go take a look?"

The teacher shook her head, and Emem left. As the door closed once again, the teacher looked at the rest of the class. "You all play nice, I'll take Maran to the nurse. We'll be back in ten minutes."

As soon as they left the hall, Maran started talking, a panic in their voice the teacher had never heard:"Please, I'm fine, but please, please go get Emem she's not part of this."

"What are you talking about?", the teacher asked. She had her hand on Marans back, steadily pushing them forward.

"I'm talking about-", Maran started, but froze. Their eyes were fixated on something behind the teacher. But as she turned around, she barely saw a purple shadow disappear behind a corner.

"Maran what's going on?", she asked.

"I can't tell you", Maran sobbed.

As the teacher was about to reply, Emem rushed around the corner, the shadow just had disappeared behind. Maran was relieved to see that she was fine and didn't look distressed at all.

"I couldn't find him", the girl said, without noticing the teacher. She sounded frustrated.

"You can't find whom?", Miss Brook asked.

Emem flinched, she really didn't notice that their PE teacher was here. Before she could say something, Maran jumped in:"Someone from another class played a prank on me. I couldn't see who it was, he wore a mask. But he broke the mirror in the toilet back there, that's why my wrist is cut."

Only half of that was a lie, Maran knew exactly who was playing with them, he wasn't wearing a mask but all purple and sure as anything wasn't a student. But the thing with the mirror wasn't a lie, William had jumped them when they came out of the stall, pushing the kids' hand into the mirror, which shattered.

"Is that what happened there too?", Miss Brook asked curiously whilst pointing at all the bandages Maran was wearing. The kid shook their head in reply.

"That was just me being clumsy. Like last year when I broke my arm in your class", they replied.

The teacher gave a wincing smile, then said:"You two are excused, get home. Emem, help them calm down a bit. They've been jumpy all day."

Emem nooded and gave a 'will do'. Then the kids got changed and left.

As soon as they reached the flat, Maran fell onto their bed sofa and was fast asleep.