The broken ones

chapter twenty three

Breathe in.....

Breathe out.....

Breathe in....

Breathe out....

I kept chanting those words to myself over and over again as Mr Shola's dark gaze swept over my classmates and i.

''Is somebody going to tell me who drew that rubbish on the board.'' His gruff voice demanded as he folded his thick arms over his chest in an intimidating posture.

Nobody spoke.

I mean if I had dropped a pin right onto the floor you would probably hear it.

Ten torturous seconds had passed and still no one dared speak.

There was kind of a 'snitch and get beat' code in my class . So if anyone snitched right now he or she would be digging their own grave.

We all knew if someone opened their big mouth and spoke out now, pointed the people who broke the rules, we would all serve the punishment either way, so what was the fucking point.

When Medina first told me about the code. I was surprised that they had such cooperation in dire situations like this. I told her I was ok with it. I was no snitch. But the getting whipped part was what terrified me. I wasn't a fan of the scars thing. If you haven't noticed already.

''OLA!''. His voice thundered through the silent class making most of the girls in the class squeak in fear.

Our class rep rose to his feet slowly to identify himself among the sea of heads. 

I watched as he nervously snatched the ends of his shirt with his hands and tugged them lower on his shorts before crossing them in front of him in a respectful pose.

''Sir.'' He answered steadily but i'm sure internally he was shitting his pants.

''Who drew it.'' The huge man asked again. Walking to sit on the desk in front of the board which was situated in the middle. He lazily placed his shoe clad feet on the chair attached to the desk. So now he could see all of us from were he was sitting .

Just great.....

Ola gulped visibly, tugging on his shirt again which immediately caught the beefy man's eyes.

You see, Mr shola was what's the nicest way to say it.....A sadist and a manipulator. He kind of like derived pleasure in seeing other people in pain. He even laughed most of the time while giving gruesome punishments or whipping the hell out of students. One more disturbing detail about him was that he could tell when a person was lying by either instilling fear in them or asking weird questions to confuse you. The man was psychotic.

''Sir I don't know.......I don't know who drew it..'' Ola trailed off. Mr Shola's lips fell into a flat line. clearly not believing a word our class rep had just said. And am sure he didn't miss the stutter.

He turned his head away from Ola, his eyes sweeping the class again for his next victim.

His eyes fell on a certain group of people, narrowing slightly.

Oh no...

Hell to the no..

Those girls were stupid they would surely give us away.

We were all doomed.

"Khadija". He called, earning a squeak from the trembling girl. Well here goes my hopes of not getting lashed.

"Yes... Sir?". She answered once she got her trembling legs to stand.

"Go ahead tell me, am listening". He smiled with all his teeth, terrifying her more. Oh Lord she looked like she was about to pass out any second.