Drama and Secrets lie here

Mustering up courage, Anna ventured into the chilly night in search is of her friend. She had no idea where she was going to find her, but her small feet kept moving even as her heart pounded slightly at the thought of meeting the wrong set of people. From where she stood, just a small distance away from the reading hall, she looked towards the boys' hostel and the cafeteria, wondering which way her friend had gone.

The memory of the night Pablo and his guys accosted her suddenly rushed through her mind and she tried her best to block it off so she wouldn't lose her courage. Those boys gave her the creeps. Everyone knew how vicious they were. And she hoped silently that her friend hadn't fallen into their trap.

Anna kept on moving despite the fear of the unknown that was still hanging somewhere in her brain like an unwanted ad that kept popping up. Walking along the edge of the wall to avoid being seen by anyone, she chose to go through the cafeteria first, since she was afraid of going directly to the back of the boys' hostel.

Anna was almost at the back of the cafeteria when she heard sobs… someone was crying. Her heart somersaulted into the pit of her stomach at the thought of Sylvia being wounded, making her rush blindly toward the sobbing sound. To her shock, she saw a female figure huddled in a corner, weeping silently. She touched the crying girl's shoulder, and she raised her head and it was Sylvia.

"Sylvia, what happened to you? Why are you here? Why… Are you okay?" Anna asked in a concerned voice as she watched her friend's eyes dripping with uncontrollable tears. Her uniform was messed up, and she looked like she had beaten up.

"Anna, you can't be here. They may find you and do what they did to me to you. Go! run please. They are going around school look for who to abuse. Please go!" Sylvia pleaded with her friend.

"What did they do to you? Sylvia? Who did this?" Anna asked, but there was no response, only more and more tears from her friend,

"I can't leave you here. We have to get you to the hostel." Anna whispered, as she looked around, suddenly afraid Pablo and his gang will suddenly appear from nowhere. She tried pulling her friend up but Sylvia didn't want to move.

"I can't go! I don't want anyone to see me like this. I can't explain the terrible things they did to my body. And then everyone will start asking me what I was doing in the dark with a boy. Everyone will blame me! And I will get expelled after being abused by those brutes!" Sylvia lamented.

With that statement, Anna suddenly understood what had happened to her friend, and she felt so sorry for her that tears were almost threatening to pour down her cheek. She held them back as she squatted beside her friend.

"Hey… Sylvia… I promise no one will know. They are all at the night class and if we hurry now to the T-end nobody will see us. And we can wait there till the hostel is opened up later when Mrs. Gracious comes back. Please let's go, I can't leave you here." Anna pleaded with her friend as she patted her gently.

On shaky feet, Sylvia stood up to walk with her friend. She wiped her tears and adjusted her scattered school top and skirt, dusted her body and put on a fake smile in case someone saw them. Anna watched her poor friend, promising herself that whoever did this to her must suffer, though she had no idea how to go about it. 

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The next morning, Clinton wasn't himself… he couldn't concentrate in class or joke around with his friends. He could still remember Sylvia's eyes and how she had cried into his hands while he covered her mouth and how they took turns violating her. He clenched his fists as he wished he hadn't gone along with Gloria's revenge scheme and Pablo's evil deed.

He watched Pablo as he joked around the class,bullying some of his classmates like nothing had happened the night before. "What sort of devil was Pablo?" He mused.

Pablo walked to him them as if he could hear Clinton's thoughts and whispered to him. "Remember, we were in the night class. If there's any investigation and they ask you, just say you have no idea what they are talking about. Besides, she can't rat us out because she will get expelled for secretly meeting a boy at night. Just stay chill, boy" He patted Clinton before walking away.

Clinton wished he could be okay with last night's evil deed, but he just couldn't. He may be a bad boy, but he had done nothing as terrible as what he did last night. Still stuck in his regretful thoughts, he saw Gloria heading outside the class and he followed her.

"Gloria, wait up!" He called out to her as she walked down the stairs.

"What? Clinton, it's school hours, no one can see us talking. My mum…" Gloria complained before Clinton cut her short.

"Gloria, listen to me… I have messed up big time. I need to tell someone about what we did last night. It was terrible." He lamented as he paced around the stairway. His brows drew together in a frown.

"What terrible thing? What are you lamenting about? Is this about Sylvia? You finally dealt with her… well, what did you do?" Gloria asked happily, a smile slowly forming on her plump face that Anna's friend had been dealt with.

"Are you crying because you had to deal with your little girlfriend? Whatever you did to her serves her right… next time she would not…"

"Shut up Gloria, we brutalized that poor girl! It was not fun, it was bad!" Clinton said in a painful voice.

"What did you do to her?" Gloria asked in an alarming voice as she watched an agitated Clinton.

Clinton looked nervously around the somewhat quiet stairway before asking Gloria to come closer as he whispered what they had done into her ear.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! Clinton, how could you guys? When I asked you to punish her, I never meant something so horrible. This will land all of us in big trouble." Gloria said, shaking in fear. Her hands clasped together, her eyes widened in fear as she judged Clinton in her head.

"Stop it! If Pablo finds out I told you, he will deal with both of us. I didn't mean for everything to get out of hand. I messed up by involving Pablo." He grunted as he rubbed his sweaty hands over his face.

"Clinton, if that girl reports, do not mention my name. I have no hand in this!" Gloria warned as she made a move to leave. Clinton blocked her.

"What did you say? You have no hand in what? You are to be blamed just as much as I am. And do you think I am scared? Do you know who my father is?" He asked, staring viciously into her eyes.

"You are a Bernard. Then why are you scared of a little girl? So scared that you came running to me!" Gloria snarled at him. Clinton pinned her to the wall as he battled with the powerful urge to hit her.

And that was how Edith met them and thought they were about to kiss. And she was furious.

"Gloria, what a slut you are! Even during school hours, you can't control your loose self." Edith snarled at Gloria, who was still shaken up from her encounter with Clinton.

"You have always wanted him for yourself! That was why you made that St. Monica girl beat me up! Now everything makes sense to me. You are evil!" Edith screamed at her friend. 

Clinton wasn't ready for their stupid girls' fight. He just left them both as he walked back to class, free of his guilt. Talking to Gloria had somehow made him feel confident… like a man. He was a Bernard and Bernards are never afraid!

Edith watched Clinton walk past her without even sparing her a glance and she became even more bitter.

"Deaconess's daughter, but you keep sleeping around with both teachers and students. You are shameless!" She hissed at Gloria. "So shameless!"

"I know it hurts that he didn't choose you, even though you believe you are hotter. Too bad for you, he chose me over your silly, empty brain! Deal with it, Edith!" Gloria barked at her.

"If you know how much I hate you, you will surely avoid me. Like mother, like daughter!" Edith snarled at her.

"Hey! How dare you? How dare you talk about my mum like that?" Gloria asked as she sped up the stairs to face Edith. As she came closer, Edith pushed her, and she almost fell down the stairs. Her only savior was her tight grip on the stair rails that stopped her from falling. Fuming with anger, she got back on her feet and was just about to slap Edith when Goodness stepped in between them.

"What is wrong with the two of you? I see you both want to get expelled for fighting." She scolded the two girls, who were busy breathing hard and glaring at each other.

"Remember, you are friends… Good friends don't fight!" Goodness reasoned with them.

Edith simply hissed as she walked away. Gloria watched her walk away, feeling a powerful urge to draw her back and thrash her. She was fatter and stronger, while Edith was slim and tall. She had a better chance of defeating her; Gloria told herself. But she didn't want to fight in school. That would ruin her reputation.

"What is going on between you two? Is this about Clinton?" Goodness asked.

"Did Edith tell you about me and him? Did she tell you she saw us together?" Gloria asked.

Goodness couldn't answer, because she knew that would mean she knew about Edith's midnight adventures. And the last person she wanted to know about their runs with the Deaconess was Gloria, her daughter.

"Look, you both can't be fighting over a boy. Your friendship should mean more…"Gloria had barely finished when Gloria hissed and walked away, too.

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Anna sat in the sick bay watching her poor friend weep silently. Sylvia had been there since morning, after they lied to the matron that Sylvia was terribly sick. The nurse in charge had allowed Anna to stay and watch over her sick friend since it was break time. Scrutinizing her friend's bruised body, Anna itched to know more about what had happened last night, but Sylvia just wouldn't say anything more than it was Clinton and his friends that violated her.

Anna was alarmed when Stanley suddenly rushed into the sick bay, fuming with rage. When Sylvia opened her eyes and saw his angry face, she knew Anna had told him what had happened to her.

"You told him? Why?" Sylvia asked in a voice Anna could hardly recognize.

"Sylvia, I needed to tell him. He already knows you went to see senior Clinton last night. I just had to tell him. Besides, someone needs to know about what those devils did to you. The school authority needs to know! Something has to be done!" Anna retorted.

"No! please… I don't want to get expelled!" Sylvia pleaded.

"The school authority can't help her, but someone needs to do something about this! We can't keep letting those monsters get away with everything!" Stanley fumed, his face darkening in anger.

"I just hope you are not planning to do anything. Stanley,those boys are evil! Don't play with them! They won't hesitate to deal with you if you dare them." Anna said to Stanley.

"We have to do something. We must think of another way to make them pay if the school authority can't do anything. They must pay!" Stanley repeated as he watched his poor Sylvia. Why hadn't she listened to him? Why? He wondered as he stared at her pale face.

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Stanley had silently watched Pablo and his gang moving around the hostel, making fun of Sylvia while his heart filled up with bitterness. What they did to Sylvia was like an open secret. Almost all the boys knew about it, but no one could dare say anything about it. Pablo, Clinton and his other boys had no shame about what they had done. They described boldly how Sylvia had been crying and begging them to stop, calling her names like "cry cry youngie" "Weakling" "Loose girl". And the more Stanley listened to their unkind words about the girl he liked, the angrier he got.

Throughout the day and all over the boys' hostel, school compound, cafeteria, wherever he met them, they were discussing poor Sylvia. They were still bragging about what they did to Sylvia as they walked past him during the evening recess time, bouncing and laughing while they walked down the boys' hostel. Stanley had no idea what pushed him to stand from his bed and shove Senior Clinton from behind.

"Stop talking about her like that! How dare you? How can you be so inhuman? What did she do to deserve what you did to her?" Stanley barked at them, ready to fight for Sylvia.

 Stanley knew he couldn't take on the boys, but he just couldn't continue to listen to them mock Sylvia after they had abused her . The boys turned towards him and Pablo stepped closer to him, his gigantic eyes squinting in fury. And Stanley knew he had made the worst move.