Chapter 8

• Christina's POV
• I felt weird today. Though I had already talked to my Father and he had already sent me some cash but I had not told him what had happened early this morning. Cause I knew how over protective he always becomes and he would have come to school to talk to the teachers about it and cause chaos so I did not tell him to prevent such from happening.
• Whenever a parent came to school and ended up causing chaos or insulting the teachers, that particular student whose parent caused such would pay for it. The teachers would ill treat the student or punish her for the whole term, and I did not want such to happen. I hated punishments and I always tried my level best to stay away from situations whose consequences would end up with a punishment.. I was safe that way.
• I noticed a few senior girls from form three and form four coming to our class frequently to talk to Jackie and Trizah about something which specifically made them whisper amongst themselves a lot.
• I was sure that they were onto something. Could they be planning about the strike?.
• I was curious to know what they were talking about but Jackie and I weren't that social to each other and I was pretty sure she wouldn't tell me more about the assumed strike.
• I watched them talk in their hushed tones, the only audible thing was the chuckles they gave out in a few intervals. Other girls were also in groups, whispering to themselves obviously about the morning incident.
• I didn't want to join any of those groups (Though my desk mate was also conversing about it with her dorm mate.) because I could see the class representative busy looking at those who were talking and writing something something down. I assumed she was writing down their names on the naughty list so I suppressed down the urge of talking that I was having for later so as to avoid my name being written on that list.
• As I said, I tried my level best to stay away from such situations which had one punished in the end.
• I knew the punishment for noise making now would be heavier because the teachers were stressed out because of the morning's incident and they would obviously leash out their anger on anyone who went on the wrong side.
• "Hmm Chris?. What if the strike takes place tonight?. Where will you go?". Trizah asked aloud, she obviously wanted me to talk. She obviously knew that her name was in the naughty list already and wanted mine to be there as well for us to be punished together. At times, I wonder what I saw in her that I liked so much to try and make her my best friend.
• I just turned and looked at her. I did not want to argue with her. I still considered her as my friend though she did not. It's not like i was weak... or lacked courage, i just did not want to talk back at her and end up getting my name on that list.
• Through my peripherals, I could see that the class representative was staring at me. I knew she just wanted to pounce on that chance when I spoke out even a single word so that she could finalize her list with my name.
• I was a naive girl but not stupid.
• I chose to be quiet and disappoint her. I know being a class representative wasn't easy but that was not my problem in the mean time.
• "Haha since she is not social especially with the boys, if the boys come again, she wouldn't allow them to touch her so she will ask for Jesus Christ to come down and help her instead!". Jackline exclaimed mid her laughter.
• Yes, I was a Christian but that didn't give her a right to judge me. Or did it?. I wasn't social with the opposite sex because it was my choice, not theirs. We were in a girl's school anyway, how could they tell that I wasn't social with the opposite sex if they saw me talking with one?.
• Their jokes weren't pleasing at all. They were mocking me and still, I didn't want to talk back all in the name of avoiding punishment.
• I would be lying if I said that I did not want to stand up from my seat, go to where they sat and strangle them all together.
• But I couldn't.
• "Ohoo I forgot, she wants to be the next Christian Union (CU) leader since she takes herself as the virgin Mary!". Trizah snapped back.
• The form four girls who were there with them burst with laughter. They were making fun of me... It hurt but still, what was I to do?.
• I just stared at her then back at the class representative. I was kind of begging with my eyes to stop them from talking more and she stared back as if she was asking "Whats wrong?".
• I gestured to Trizah and her group using my eyes and she nodded slightly. She had understood my plea for help.
• "Oh yeah for sure Jesus will help her out but it will be too late, we will all be gone already". Jackie responded. She stared at me with those mischievous eyes of hers which I never liked. I never liked any of her eyes expressions anyways.
• "Jackie and Trizah please stop teasing my desk mate, your jokes aren't funny!". Alice shouted at them as she turned to face them.
• I hadn't even noticed that she had been looking at me and had seen my sad features flash by.
• "Aren't funny?. But I can clearly hear some girls laughing which means it is funny and THEY are enjoying it!". Jackline shouted back at her.
• "Stop teasing her!". Alice repeated.
• "There, her defender has spoken, I'm so scared!". Trizah said teasingly before she and her group burst out laughing again.
• "You are hurting her feelings, she is human, can't you see that? I'm sure if it were you, you would have started beating her up and puling her hair!". Alice piped in.
• That was true. Jackline could never allow someone to tease her. She would end up fighting with them to get even.
• I turned to face my books which I hadn't even understood the sentences written since the first period when I opened the book.
• Why wasn't the class representative talking up?. She would easily shut Trizah and Jackline up.
• "Oh she is hurt?. Then lets keep quiet, she may start crying then Jesus Christ might come to punish us!". Jackie said before they continued laughing.
• At this particular time, I could feel the tears at the edge of my eyes threatening to fall but I managed to blink them away.
• "Let her cry, we are already used to seeing her tears". Trizah said.
• "Wwooooiye!" The girls in her group said in unison thus teasing me all the more.
• I was totally not comfortable here, I wished I could go out to relieve myself off of this tension but I felt weak and my face felt hot with the unshed tears and frustration. I did not also want to run into the teachers on my way out most especially the Dean of students and the Discipline master.
• The two were the most dangerous when it came to flogging or giving out punishments.
• So I had to bare up with all these mocking. If that strike would take place, then, these mocking will be over, at least for a few days or weeks.
• "Jackline and Trizah, shut up!... There is no strike that is going to happen so stop scaring the girls!" The class representative finally remarked. "Most of them are trying to recover from the morning's incident and here you are trying to kill them with more shock!". She added.
• "Okay I will shut up, but don't say I did not warn you!" Jackline warned.
• I was now sure, a strike was going to emerge from within the school.
• The form four girls present in class were obviously here to update Trizah and Jackline about the strike plans or else, they wouldn't be so confident of themselves if nothing was going to happen.
• No wonder they were not afraid of punishment, because they knew that they wouldn't be able to even perform it because at that particular moment, the strike would have already taken place.
• I wished to know what was going on in their minds. I wished to know if the teachers knew of what was happening. I wished to know if there had been measures set up to stop the strike or prevent damages caused by the strike.
• In all honesty, I didn't want to die. Were the form four girls planning on beating us the juniors up?. Were they planning on setting the classes or dorms on fire?. I really wanted to know but the only source of information present was Trizah and Jackline, whom I didn't want to talk to.. Well, at least not yet.
• Their words still caused me pain in my heart.
• I looked up from the class representative, she was busy reading her own books now.
• I tore a small piece of paper and wrote something before handing it to Alice who read it silently before looking up at me and smiling.
• "Thank you Alice".