?Brown skin girl?
?Chapter nine?
Ruby and Chloe were at Chloe’s locker during recess one day, waiting for Trisha so they could go to wherever to rehearse their dance.
“What’s taking her so long.” Ruby complained
Chloe shrugged. “Who knows! She’s probably with ‘the gang’ now.” She stated in disappointment.
Ruby looked at her. “Why do you sound like that? Don’t tell me you’re jealous of Trisha.” Ruby inquired.
Chloe turned sharply to her, closing her locker in the process.
“Jealous? No! I’m not jealous of Trisha!… Don’t you even see? I just feel bad…” She defended and looked away sadly. “Don’t you see? Trisha,.. Trisha has changed!” She said leaning on the closed locker and looking at the ceiling
Ruby didn’t get it and so she continued
“At least, that’s how I feel! Ever since she joined the gang, she’s… I dunno, she spends time more with them… Like I mean… Urrgh… Don’t you know what I mean?” She looked at Ruby, hoping that Ruby understood.
“Well, I really don’t want to see it that way.” Ruby shrugged
“You and I know that that’s the way it is! Its like she enjoys their company more than she enjoys ours.” Chloe complained, spreading her arms
“Don’t conclude, Chloe. I believe its just your interpretation” Ruby said assuringly.
Chloe sighed
“But its true. She’s been missing our practice for the Talent hunt lately and her excuse always is that she was with the gang!” Chloe whined
Ruby exhaled slowly. Chloe may be right about Trisha. But why would Trisha act like that?
“Do you think we should like… Talk to her, and know what we did wrong?” Ruby asked
“I bet we did nothing wrong! Its just that she’s gotten the reputation she wanted and now, we are no longer fit for her circle of friends! For heaven’s sake! When was the last time she sat with us for lunch? Last nine days!” Chloe said angrily.
“You’ve been counting?” Ruby said raising a brow
“Of course I’ve been counting! I dunno, I just miss her, she’s so distant now.” Chloe admitted sadly
“I know the feeling. I feel it too! I just don’t want to jump into conclusions. I want her to tell us what’s on her mind.” Ruby said patiently.
Chloe scoffed. “Ruby, I love your understanding nature.” She said sarcastically.
Ruby pouted and they laughed.
“The talent hunt is due next week and we’re not yet perfect in the dance she’s teaching us… And I…” She stopped and sighed “…I have a feeling that she may not even join us”
“No, no, Chloe… Don’t say that! She will not abandon us like that!” Ruby assured.
“YOU WANT TO ABANDON US LIKE THAT??” Ruby shouted angrily at Trisha at lunch.
“No, Ruby… Understand me… We’re doing a dance..err” Trisha tried to defend herself.
“What is up with you and those guys? Huh? Because you’re now a part of ‘the gang’ does it mean you’ll have to be a part of ‘the gang’? Chloe cut in. It took Trisha a while to understand her point.
“If you’re tired of us, you could just tell us you know.” Ruby said.
Trisha looked at their faces one by one. This was not happening. How could she explain it all to them?
“How can I be tired of you guys? You’re my friends” She said softly
“It doesn’t feel like it!” Chloe snapped. “You seem to enjoy hanging out with them more than us.”
“Well, thats because…” She stopped.
Thats because, I’m trying to protect Ryan! His life is in danger and at any point he could be attacked.
The voice in her head kept screaming at them. Only if they could hear it.
“Ok, why don’t we do the rehearsals after school, at my house” She offered
“Why not during recess as it had always been?” Ruby inquired
“Because… On recess, the gang will…”
“…And that is the problem. The gang this, the gang that… You want to spend time with the gang!” Chloe interrupted
“You don’t know that Chloe! Why don’t you stop finalizing and listen to what I have to say!” Trisha snapped angrily. Although she knew it wasn’t right to be angry at that point, but she just couldn’t help it.
“Well, we’re all ears, if you wish to explain, your majesty.” Chloe said, her voice loathing with sarcasm.
Trisha ignored the will to snap at her again, she just fundled with ideas in her mind on what to tell them is her reason for hanging out with the guys.
“Well, I just want where I will be known for dancing.” She lied in a stutter
“And, with us, that can’t be accomplished?” Ruby stated sadly
Trisha felt a lump in her throat.
“Oh please, don’t sound that way! I.. I… You know, you two mean a lot to me!” She said pleadingly.
“Listen, Tris. You mean a lot to us too. How do you think the cold shoulder you’re presenting to us makes us feel?”
Chloe said not minding she sounded angry.
“I wish you girls could understand!” Trisha said in a whisper.
“What are going to understand? What you haven’t told us? Dance gang is a team! Must you necessarily be friends with your teammates? Not just that, begin to neglect your old friends?” Chloe said not being able to contain her anger
“I’m not neglecting you!”
Trisha defended
“Trisha, if only you could tell us what we did wrong!” Ruby said softly
“You girls did nothing wrong!” Trisha replied not being able to meet their gaze
“Then what’s the problem?” Ruby asked
Dmn! She didn’t plan for such a moment. Look what the whole agent job was getting her into! And the worst part is, she couldn’t tell them! Because ‘Becky’ said so!. She groaned mentally.
If the whole stuff went out of hand and Becky still refuses to let her tell them, she’ll have to quit the whole stuff and let Becky handle it herself.
There was a long pause with Ruby and Chloe waiting patiently and impatiently respectively for Trisha to speak.
Trisha glanced at them and looked back on the table.
“I’m sorry… I can’t tell you two.” She said at last
“Come on, Trisha, what are friends for? You can tell us anything!” Ruby pressed
“Not this! Don’t push it!” Trisha snapped.
“Yup! Suspicions correct! Why do you need to hide? Nothing to be ashamed of. Ryan, Jack and Kyle are your fk buddies!” Chloe fired in annoyance.
Trisha’s gaze jerked up to her face with wide eyes… Her features gradually welcomed an angry glare.
“Yes!” She said in gritted teeth. “Yeah! You figured it out, how smart!”
She stood up abruptly
“Go ahead and tell the whole school about it! That’s the damn reason why I hang out with them!” She said in offense
“No… We’re not rumor mongers… Your secret’s save with us!” Chloe said in annoyance.
Trisha stomped off.
Rubh turned to Chloe
“Chloe? That was not right!” She scolded
“Don’t start with me! I know. That is a tecnic I use to get people to tell me something… She was supposed to deny and tell us the main reason she hangs out with them, not to explode like she just did.” Chloe said carelessly.
“You’re going to have to apologize!” Ruby said with arms crossed. Chloe just rolled her eyes.
Trisha couldn’t believe it! How could Chloe think such of her? Did she think she was a whore? It was so mean of her to say such. She felt tears coming to the corners of her eyes as she stomped out of the lunch hall.
Fk Chloe for saying that to her.!
Fk Ruby for bringing it all up.!
Fk Becky for making her agree to help her.!
Fk Ryan for being in danger!
Fk the bad guys for being bad!
Fk all those fking eyes that were looking at her as she stomped away.!
Fk all the fking minds for wondering why she was stomping away.
She groaned as she made her way outside the school to the water fountain.
She sat down by the fountain and blinked hurriedly, the tears that were tugging at her lids.
She brought out her phone from her bag and dialed Becky’s number.
At first, she didn’t pick.
She dialed again and this time she picked.
“Sup, Trisha?” Becky asked
“Look Becky, please, can I tell my friends about this? Its causing a whole lot of misunderstanding.” Trisha whimpered
“Are you crying?” Becky asked
“No I’m not!” Trisha denied
“Look, you can’t tell them about it!”
“But, its ruining our friendship.”
“Trisha, can we talk about this when we get home?” Becky asked
“No! I want to make thing right now! Let me tell them.” Trisha protested
“Trisha, we talked about this”.
“… But now, its working against me!” Trisha cried “I’m going to have to tell them!
“No!” Becky snapped. “This is not a joke, or a friendship saving power point! If they can’t understand, let them go!”
“What will they understand? What I haven’t told them? Are you even listening to yourself? I can trust them!”
“But I can’t! No telling!” Becky replied, getting impatient.
Trisha was losing it.
“Who do you even think you are to tell me what to do and what not to? These are my friends! And this is a situation I’m not even sure how real it is!” She yelled, her voice being carried away by the wind.
“What do you mean ‘how real it is’?” Becky asked in confusion.
“There is no plot whatsoever detected by me against him since all these while!” Trisha said lowering her voice a bit.
“The poison in the coffee that day” Becky reminded angrily
“We’re not even sure if it was poison!” Trisha cut in
“You’re not! I am!” Becky snapped
“With no prove, just your assumptions. And you’re saying I should let my friends go for a mission that the probability of its reality Is zero percent!”
“Listen, girl! You’re in school! Anybody could be listening to you right now, we’ll talk later.” Becky said
“No! We’ll talk now!” Trisha yelled angrily. “I can’t continue… Becky! Becky!!” She looked at the screen, she had hung up.
“Arrrrrrrrgh!” She exclaimed in annoyance.
She angrily threw her phone on the ground and it broke.
“Whoah!” Ryan exclaimed looking at the phone on the ground.
She looked away so he wouldn’t see she was crying. She rapidly cleaned the tears that managed to escape her eyes
“What are you doing here?” She asked
Ryan shrugged
“What are you doing here?” He returned
“How’s that any of your business?” She retorted
“I saw you stomp out of the lunch hall…”
“Wow, and you cared enough to check on me… So sweet.” She said, her voice heavy with sarcasm.
Although she had been on the team with Ryan, Jack and Kyle, she and Ryan never got along. They were always arguing and getting on each other’s nerves.
“I don’t bloody care why you stomped out!” Ryan snapped. “Its none of your business what I’m doing out here!”
Trisha scoffed
“Same way its none of your business what I’m doing here!” She said.
Ryan rolled his eyes and pointed at the broken phone. He opened his mouth to comment and closed it again
“Yeah, shut up! Its none of your business!” Trisha said and sat by the fountain.
Ryan sat by the other side of the fountain, still staring at the phone. He wanted so badly to comment
“If you were my daughter, you won’t get another one of those!” He said at last.
“I’m so glad I’m not your daughter!” She replied
“Do you break something like that anytime you’re angry?” He asked
“Drop it!” She snapped
“Drop it!” He mimicked
She frowned. She tilted to the side so she could catch a glimpse of him. When she did, she said.
“Look, I’m angry enough to exchange words with you, could you just leave me alone?”
Ryan scoffed
“Like I care!” He said.
Trisha stood up and faced him
“What’s your problem?.” She yelled
He adjusted on the seat and cleared his throat
“I want to tell you a story.” He said, ignoring her annoyance.
Trisha groaned. What was wrong with him? Could he get anymore annoying?
She crossed her hands
“When I was your age… I was older than you.” He said stupidly.
She rose a brow
“I was older in age, I was more sensible, I was more mature, I had more sense, I was more sensible…”
She rolled her eyes roughly as he started talking gibberish.
It was what he did anytime he felt like getting on her nerves was way forward.
It sometimes made her laugh but right then, laughing was not the best option. Not after everything on her mind, right then.
She was still very angry at Chloe and Becky. Mostly at Becky.
Who did Becky think she was anyway? She didn’t care how she felt! She just needed her to do her job and thats all.
If they can understand, let them go!
Imagine that! She spoke of her friends like they were candies. Couldn’t that lady have emotions.
While in her thoughts, she caught a glimpse of someone hiding behind a pillar at entrance of the school.
She furrowed her brows inquisitively.
The person put a funnel to her mouth and just as Trisha realised it was not a funnel, she blew out a dart at Ryan.
The dart traveled with speed towards him. (Slow mo)
Trisha’s eye widened and instincts pushed her to act.
“…and noone ever found out I was the one…” He was interrupted as he heard Trisha’s high pitched scream.
“No!”
She jumped towards him quickly and pushed him out of the way and into the water fountain… They both fell in.
The dart missed the target and got pinned on the fountain statue.
The lady that shot it went back into the shadows with a frownlike glare.
They both gasped for breath as they regained balance and came up to the surface.
“Sht, Trisha! Dmn it! What thefk do you think you are doing?” He complained, wiping the water off his face and sweeping his hair off his face.
Trisha’s gaze jerked towards the pillar. She couldn’t detect any body there any more.
She couldn’t have gone far… She thought.
She jumped out immediately and tied her wet hair up. She ran into the school, leaving Ryan wondering what was happening
“Come back here!” He yelled climbing out of the water.
He looked down at his deeply soaked body.
“Dmn!” He yelled.
????????????????????????
Trisha made her way out of the school after school that day. She was still a bit wet and her shoes, she was sure had the stink. She strolled out thinking on who did it.
It was a lady! She lost her! How could she lose her? She she got to the water fountain and began to look for the dart that was shot.
At last she found it, hanging on the statue. She climbed into the water, not minding her shoes. She circled her fingers around the slim dart and pulled it out.
There was a dark stain on the tip.
She studied it closely and when she couldn’t detect what it was, she opened her bag and brought out a lather. She wrapped the lather around it and stuffed it in her bag. She was going to show Becky.
Dmn! This was a second attempt to kill him! And if she hadn’t been around!.
She couldn’t bring herself to think of what would have happened
Students had started flooding out and she jumped out of the fountain.
They looked at her like she was insane but she didn’t seem to mind.
She went back into the school and noticed the way Chloe and Ruby completely ignored her.
She silently walked in and went to the basketball court to wait for the guys so they could rehearse their dance.
She waited for up to 30 minutes for them and they did not appear. She then brought out her phone. The screen was damaged
She sighed. And then she came to realise that unlike herself, the phone was the first stuff she had broken since her dad went on business trip.
Becky seemed to have made her stop breaking stuff. Anytime she tried to break stuff, Becky would stop her with threats she was sure she would honour.
And times came when a normal her would want to break stuff in anger but then it wouldn’t even cross her mind.
She smiled. Becky really did affect her mind… Positively.
She got back to reality. Where are these guys? She got up and strolled out of the court tiredly.
She went into the school. It was empty by then… All the students had gone home already.
She searched for them for a while and wondered if they had already gone home. Why would they go home without telling her that they wouldn’t have rehearsals that afternoon.
She got to the hallway and leaned on the wall of lockers tiredly and closed her eyes.
She sighed.
Some low whispers and chuckles reached her eyes and her eyes flung open. She furrowed her brows in concentration as she began to follow the noise.
The closer she got, the louder the noise became. Soon, she recognized the voices.
Kyle? She went closer
Jack? She furrowed her brows more.
Ryan? She detected and rounded a corner.
Then she saw them. The three of them standing by a locker doing something.
She narrowed her eyes and went closer.
She stood hands akimbo, as she noticed what they were doing.
She cleared her throat loudly, causing them to jump in shock.
They turned to see her standing. They exchanged nervous glances
“Oh, hey… Trisha.” Kyle greeted
Trisha rose her brows.
“How come are you still around?” Jack asked
“Seriously? We are supposed to be rehearsing!” She answered
“So… What do you think we’re doing? We were on our way to the court, right guys?”
Ryan covered and they nodded their head in confirmation.
Trisha rolled her eyes and walked towards the victim locker.
The boys began to protest
She stood by the side and opened the locker.
“Trisha, don’t…”
Milk gushed out the locker and wasted on the floor.
The boys groaned in disappointment.
Trisha stood with arms crossed eyeing them with disdain.
“Aww… Come on, Tris… Do you have any idea how long we’ve been working on that?” Kyle remarked tiredly
“Milk prank? You guys seriously think I will allow that?”
“You permission doesn’t count! What counts is… You just wasted such milk!” Ryan complained
“Listen guys… I’m not going to let any new kid to feel what I felt on my first day of school!” She said
They lowered their head in slight shame.
“Well,.. We haven’t really apologized for that.” Jack said, scratching his neck nervously.
“Its past now, doesn’t matter. The point is, no more of that!”
“Says who?” Ryan asked cockily
“Says me!” Trisha replied
“Yes ma’am.” Jack and Kyle chorused childishly.
“Don’t ma’am her! The new kid tomorrow is lucky because you’ve wasted our milk… So because you stopped us this time, doesn’t mean you’ll be able to stop us next time, right guys.” Ryan said expecting confirmation.
Jack and Kyle caught the expression on Trisha’s face and thought it best not to side Ryan.
“Err… We’ll talk about that later, Ry.” Kyle excused nervously.
Ryan spread his arms in exhilaration.
Trisha hid a smile.
“Now be good boys and let’s go rehearse something before they come to pick me up.” She said, sounding motherly.
They followed her sheepishly, their heads hung in shame, like they were caught stealing.
Ryan spread his arms
“This is unbelievable, guys! This is our culture! No one changes our culture… Especially not Trisha!” He said a distance away.
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