KEEP AWAY! FROM THE REFECTORY AND HER MAN.

It had been a week since TY had "accidentally" slipped and fallen from the third floor. She had fallen on her neck. Some people assume that it was a painless death.

Naya did not believe that hypothesis. TY was still alive for a few minutes before she passed away. She had called for her sister, whispered her name, and cried because she didn't want to die. She wanted to live.

Naya was not sure of what she had seen that night, or she did not want to believe what she had seen happen. She couldn't do anything about it.

Debbie seemed to have just moved on and moved past it.

The school held a candlelight walk for Tayelolu Omojola. Everyone seemed to be crying their eyes out, like they liked her.

Naya did not wish to be misunderstood, she didn't like TY, but that didn't mean that she didn't feel sad about what had happened. It was just a weird feeling. She didn't hate her nor did she want her to die, but a part of her felt like that was what justice looked like and it would serve as a deterrent to bullies and other people.

But how much wrong could Naya get? Since Ty died her tray of food on her table started going missing. It was as though someone was specifically targeting her. Maybe, they blamed her for something, she was not aware of like TY's death.

Naya had gone three days without food and she was slowly losing it. She was surviving on petty junks and she wasn't sure how long it would last. She was going to have to beg the food thief, to let her have her meal.

So, Naya came up with a scheme. She was going to watch her table for a few minutes before the bell went off, so could she meet the person taking her food away?

She left the library a few minutes before the bell went off, she sat far away from the dining hall watching, who took her tray this time.

The first person to enter the hall as the bell rang was Matilda Gbemisola Folagbade. Matilda walked straight to Naya's table, picked up Naya's tray, and just walked away like nothing had happened.

Then, the dining rush started and everyone started walking into the dining hall. Naya could not believe it. She had nothing to do with Tilda and she knew that Tilda was not a bully. So, why would Tilda do that?

She waited outside the dining hall and as soon as Tilda walked out of the hall, she grabbed her by the arm and dragged her to a corner.

"Why?" Naya asked, "Folagbade, I asked why?" Naya yelled, she was hungry, angry, and hurt altogether. Tilda shoved her away and painfully rubbed her arm.

"Why what?" Tilda said, acting oblivious.

"You have been stealing my food tray from my table for the past few days and you dare to ask me stupid questions," Naya yelled.

"I don't know what you are talking about?" Tilda denied.

Naya grabbed her arm again, she was getting tearful fast, "What did I ever do to you that you would want to hurt me or worse starve me to death?"

"Let me go," Tilda struggled with Naya.

"What's going on here?"

Naya knew who the owner of the voice was. She wished he would just disappear off the surface of the earth.

"Let her go, Ifunaya," Wale commanded.

Naya let Tilda go and Tilda started rubbing her bruised arm.

"So what is the problem here?" Wale asked. Naya knew that if she spoke a word, she would break down in tears and she was not going to let him see that side of her.

"Senior Wale, Ifunaya attacked me, she had all these senseless accusations, I already told her that I have no idea what is talking about?"

"What do you have to say, Ifunaya?" Wale turned to her.

She knew that once she opened her mouth, she would have tears rolling down her eyes. She knew she had to be strong but she couldn't just be.

"Are you keeping me quiet?" Wale yelled at her, Naya took a deep breath and shook her head.

Wale turned to Tilda, "You can go,"

Tilda turned to Naya and gave her the stink eye and walked away. Naya was deep in her hurt, trying so much not to cry.

"I knew you were a person, but this is just worse, I thought that since you protected Senior Debbie, you would have a certain hatred for bullies, but you are just a huge bully yourself, even now that Senior TY is dead and everyone is sober and grieving, for the love of God, she has barely been gone a week, Ifunaya," He said looking down at her. She looked down trying to avoid the tears in her eyes, "don't you have anything to say for yourself,"

Naya shook her head, "I am sorry," she whispered, looking down.

She could hear him sigh in exhaustion, he wanted to say something else, she knew that whatever he wanted to say would hurt her, so she silently prayed that he would not. And he didn't, he just walked away.

She broke down and sobbed hard, it was like her heart was breaking all over again. She wiped her tears, she suddenly felt dizzy and hot from the inside. She got a seat and sat down. She tried to steady her breathing. She didn't have the energy to cry.

She tried to get up and she fell to the ground, before losing consciousness.

She had opened her eyes in the school clinic, she had an I.V. connected to her hand. She looked to her left and saw Debbie lying down on the bed next to hers.

"Lemme guess, they are trying to starve you to death," Debbie laughed, "been there, done that,"

"Senior TY, you …,"

"The world is a better place without TY in it," Debbie shook her head, "it's so sad that she fell," she raised her eyes to give Naya a sinister look.

"She didn't deserve to die," Naya whispered.

"She was going to kill me and the school would have covered it, they would have termed it death by misadventure or death by adventure, they would have dragged my name in the mud, to protect themselves, so forgive me, if I am glad that I am not six feet under," Debbie said angrily.

"But…,"

"Let's worry about the living," Debbie interrupted her, "Remove the I.V." Debbie commanded.

"What!" Naya asked terrified.

Debbie stood up from her bed pulled the I.V. out of Naya's arm, and dragged her out of the bed.

"Where are we going?" Naya protested.

"We are going to show these people what problems look like, we are going to be fighting,"

"I don't want to fight, it's against the school rules," Naya protested.

"Do you think they care about the rules?" Debbie yelled, "No one cares about the rules, the same way no one cares and that is why we must not let them get to us, we will not let them win, so follow me and be quiet,"

Naya stopped protesting and followed Debbie to her classroom, Debbie got her school bag and matches towards the dining, entered through the back door, and poured her tray into her school bag.

She headed to Naya's table and emptied Naya's tray into her bag. She stopped for a moment and looked for Tilda's table, emptied Tilda's food tray, and quietly dragged her to the back of the hostel.

Naya was still trying to comprehend what had just happened. Then, the bell rang and Debbie served dinner.

"Are you not going to eat?" Debbie asked raising her brows.

Naya rushed into the meal, she was starved and dehydrated.

"Stop eating so fast, you will choke yourself," Debbie laughed and Naya laughed too.

"Am I missing anything?"

Naya turned back and it was Mickey, she got up and hugged him.

"You are okay," Naya cried and squeezed him.

"I can't breathe," Mickey protested. She let him go.

"Mickey, food," Debbie said.

He smiled, he looked so much better now.

For the first time in a very long time, Naya felt like her worries disappeared.

"I don't want to be at the bottom ladder anymore," Mickey said straight out of the blues.

"The only way up is to be a villain, Michelangelo, and you can't be a villain," Debbie said as she continued her meal.

Mickey scoffed, "What has been good done for me?" he paused, "I don't care what I have to do to make it to the top,"

"Senior Michael!" Naya exclaimed, "We are not bad people,"

"But bad people win all the time, I shouldn't have to keep suffering and they shouldn't have to keep getting popularity on my misery," Mickey said.

"It's fine, Michael, you know the plan, right?" Debbie asked.

Mickey nodded his head, and they all just quietly sat down to continue their dinner.

It was a week since Naya and Debbie had started their food heist. Naya was starting to feel extremely sorry for Tilda.

After dinner, she was going to continue to hunt her table and chair down, it had been missing for way too long.

Bishop tapped her on the shoulder and signaled for her to follow him. Naya exhaled, she had no strength for Wale's righteous behavior, but she had no choice Wale was still a class ahead of her.

She followed Bishop, she felt pity for Bishop, he was the errand boy, just so that he could stay high up on the school ladder, they were not his friends, just a means to an end.

It was still evening, the sky was still bright. From afar, Naya could see the carpark, she knew that meant a lot of problems.

Wale was resting on a teacher's car and Tsema was resting on him. Mario was there with her boyfriend, Ola who was in the same class as Wale and Mickey. RM was there with Tim.

RM and Tim started dating immediately after, the gossip girl's last publication, it was as though they were trying to prove the gossip girl wrong. Naya didn't care, she could do whatever she wanted to do.

It was not until she saw Tilda that she realized what this was actually about.

"Senior, you sent for me," Naya said.

"Tilda says you have been stealing her food at the dining hall," RM said more a statement than a question.

"I didn't steal anything," Naya said, "my food tray has also been going missing for almost two weeks, I once suspected Tilda of doing it, but she said she wasn't the person taking it, and Senior Wale already settled that, the same way Tilda's food tray has been going missing, so has mine,"

Wale suddenly became uncomfortable, he moved slightly and he looked angry, worried, or concerned, maybe all, but she didn't care, he could go and screw himself.

"I think Tilda and I could work together to discover who is stealing our food," Naya said.

"Why did you first suspect Tilda?" Wale asked.

"I once hid to see who was stealing the food, I saw her at my table, so I foolishly just assumed, Senior Wale already told me to stop throwing baseless accusations around, she said she didn't do it, which means I was just mistaken," Naya said.

"Tilda, why do you think Ifunaya is the one taking your food?" Tim asked.

"I don't know, maybe because she accused me of taking the food, and wanted to take mine as revenge," Tilda explained.

"Well, it cannot be me because I have not been to the dining in the last week," Naya said with a straight face.

"So what have you been eating?" Wale asked, he looked concerned and worried.

"I have some provision, I just have to make due until the mid-term break," Naya smiled lightly.

Wale turned to Tilda, "Did you take her food?"

"I don't think she did, I was just purely and entirely mistaken," Naya said.

"I wasn't talking to you," Wale said never taking his eyes off Tilda.

"Arghh!" RM screamed in utter frustration, "The school already asked us to investigate and find who the Gossip Girl is, and now we are dealing with a dining hall thief, what must a girl do to have peace around here?" she said walking away, Tim followed her.

"When I saw you and Tilda in the corner the other day, why didn't you tell me what was happening?" Wale asked, this was the first time in a long time, that she had seen him act empathetic towards her since Tsema climbed that podium.

"I didn't think it was really important," Naya said

"Important!" he yelled, pushing Tsema off him, "You are starving and that's not important, do you have a death wish? Do you want to die that much?" he stormed away and Bishop followed right behind him.

Mario and Ola walked away leaving Tsema, Tilda, and Naya. Naya turned her back about to leave the party.

"Can't you just leave him for me?" Tsema asked.

"So it was you who asked your minion to do what she did," Naya realized, "what happened to me and you against the world? When did it get so bad? We used to be friends," Naya yelled.

"Friends! Oh God, Naya! Can't you see, you were pushing me to the bottom while rising to the top, and you don't need to play that game," she paused,

"I wasn't, I guess I was too busy being popular to look out for you and I am already paying for that, but Tsema you lied on the podium and when the truth comes out, you will drop so low, you'll wish you never rose to the top," Naya said.

"I'm not going to end up like you," Tsema said, "just leave him alone," Tsema brushed her as she walked past her.

"And what if I say no," Naya said, Tsema stopped.

"What!" Tsema asked.

"What if I said that I wouldn't let him go," Naya repeated.

"I liked him first, you knew I liked him and you still went after him," Tsema said.

"Tell the truth, Tsema," Naya begged

"Even if I told the truth nothing would change, especially for you, you will be at the bottom of the ladder and I will still be with him," Tsema said and walked away. Tilda followed right behind her.

Naya was pretty exhausted at this point, it was getting dark and she was feeling down. She thought that Wale's words hurt her, but she realized Tsema was just worse. She was going to beg Debbie, that they should stop taking Tilda's food because Tilda just was a minion struggling to get to the top.

Naya's phone beeped, it was a message from the Councilor's office, it was the Chronicles of Gossip Girl.

"Hey besties!

I know you all have missed me. You guessed right, I was mourning the loss of our dear TY. (Not like she was very dear indeed)

Nevertheless, we must never speak ill of the dead, even though sometimes the dead may deserve it.

But that is not the subject matter of today's discussion.

Today, we are discussing a thief, one that can shake the foundation of CGCBAB.

With the Prefect selection process about to begin, it is indeed of grave consequence that we know the truth, about everything. (Talks in a British accent)

We must know the truth about the past, in other to move forward into a bigger brighter future.

It is no coincidence that after your bestie (I) exposed RM, she suddenly started dating Timothy Uremu Agbale.

While your bestie (me) was trying to source for the juiciest pieces of gossip, RM set a trap for me. (Laughs like the devil)

RM spread false pieces of gossip everywhere, thinking that I, your best friend would take the bait.

How wrong was the great RM? Very wrong my friends, very wrong. (Shake my head)

I quickly caught onto her schemes, because as you know, I am very meticulous in my finding, and it wasn't hard to discover that I was being tricked and pranked.

Bearing in mind that we were all still mourning our not-so-dear TY.

So because she decided to pinch the snake's tail, I must tell the most scandalous story of the term.

So I am going to tell y'all my dear besties a very interesting story, there was once a little tiny thief. She was notorious for her thieving ways.

Then, as the elders would say, "Every day for the thief, one day for the owner."

So well this little thief got caught, but she was not reported or scolded. She received an offer, one she could not resist.

(Whispering) RM asked the little thief if she would go down with her. Oh, dear! (pretends the news made her weak)

Lesbianism is one disaster, lack of consent, well… (touches my forehead, to check my fever, cause it makes me sick)

I can't tell which is worse, rape (lack of consent) or thieving.

The truth is that while Esther pays for the sins of RM, we must be careful of the Stockholm syndrome, you must never fall in love with your abusers.

But in whatever we do we must always be careful because our bestie is watching.

So purple house girls, you have your thief. Now y'all can sleep safely with your properties.

XOXO Gossip Girl."

The first question that crossed Naya's mind was who was the gossip girl and how did she know everything about everything.

All the gossip, she had talked about was about popular people. Something only their close friends know.

Gossip Girl was probably someone who had access to the Councilor's office unsupervised and someone in the same clique as RM and Wale.

She had to find Gossip Girl before she decided to reveal her secrets.