Chapter Fourteen

The school grounds were quiet when the two girls arrived early the next day and there was not a single soul present aside from the gate keeper. They hurriedly made their way to the Principal's office, trying not to raise any suspicion.

River checked the digital wristwatch strapped on her arm, it was just a few minutes past six. "Mum always comes to school by seven on the dot. But just in case she leaves earlier, I told Peter to give us head's up. We have approximately an hour to find Joshua's file."

"Peter knows we're breaking in? I thought it was supposed be a secret." Kamji frowned.

"He's my twin for a reason. We shared the same uterus together, there's no way I can keep things from him," replied River. "And besides we need someone to inform us on when mother leaves the house."

"Fine, Just open the door already." She said, not wanting to waste time arguing. She already felt guilty about breaking into the office and was doing the best she could not to change her mind. River nodded and inserted the key into the lock.

The door squeaked open and both girls entered inside, closing it behind them.

"Where do we start?" Kamji asked, looking around the lavishly furnished office. She could see several awards displayed in a pristine transparent glass case and some other trophies hung on the wall.

"I will start with the shelves, you can start with the drawers." River said and the both split, going to different directions in the large office.

"How do we know exactly what were looking for?" Kamji asked as she opened a drawer that showed the students files.

"I think the files should be arranged according to the year and session each student entered the school. Joshua's file should be grouped under those from six years ago."

Kamji nodded and began searching through the six year old files. It didn't take her long to spot the one belonging to Joshua.

"I found it," she said, pulling a white folder from the rest of the pack. "Joshua Bakare?" she out loud, placing the file on a table. She had noticed that Joshua's last name was completely different from his brother, Michael's who went by Alade. She began to wonder if they were really related like she believed.

"What are you waiting for? We don't have all the time in the world." River scolded her cousin, noticing she was yet to open the file.

"Right," She came to her senses knowing that both of them could be suspended if they got caught even though they were closely related to the Principal.

The first page contained Joshua's middle school transcripts and as usual he had excellent grades. And the next paper contained his outstanding scores in the scholarship exams, everything seemed to look normal until River spoke. "Isn't that odd?"

"What is odd?" asked Kamji, still going through the file.

"He finished middle school quite early but he took the entrance exam to Westlake three years after. What do you think that happened?"

Kamji shrugged, "Maybe his mum just decided he was too young to enter highschool. He was just nine years afterall."

"Yeah, that should explain it." River agreed. "Well we didn't find anything useful but it was worth the shot."

Kamji was a little disappointed and was about to return the file back to where it was kept when a neatly folded paper had fallen off from it. She bent to pick up the paper and her eyes widened as it fell on the contents of the sheet.

River's felt a buzz on her wrist and her smart watch displayed an incoming call from her Peter.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked after clicking on the accept button.

"Mum just left the house some minutes ago, I thought I should give you guys a heads-up." Peter said eating a slice of bread smeared with butter.

"Yeah Thanks, I owe you one." replied River, grateful that she had told him about their plans.

"Remember the deal sis, You're going to do the dishes for a month," he grinned.

"Yeah, Whatever." She stuck her tongue at him and ended the call. "We have to leave now Kamji." she said to her cousin that was still looking at a piece of paper.

"What happened? Did you find anything?"

"No," Kamji lied, putting the sheet of paper back in the file before placing it in the drawers. "I didn't see anything."

"Okay, let's go then. Mum is going to be here any second." River urged and both girls put everything in order the way it was before bolting out of the office.

"That was fun wasn't it?" River said excitedly as they left the place.

"Yeah," Kamji muttered, her mind drifting back to what she had found in the files earlier. If the paper hadn't fallen down, she doubted she would have ever come across it. It was a good thing River didn't see it. She knew her cousin wouldn't keep her mouth shut and would go blabbing about it to Peter or some other person.

As they made their way to the classroom, they bumped into Aunty Ebere.

"You came quiet early to school today girls?" There's was a look of surprise on her face. "Did something happen?"

"Nothing happened Mum. We just thought we could come earlier to work on out projects." River was quick to reply with a fake smile on her face.

Aunty Ebere returned the smile, "That's wonderful. I see Kamji is a good influence on you, considering the fact that I have to drag you out of bed every morning."

"Very funny mum. We will be on our way now." She said and dragged Kamji away from the area.

"Whew, that was close," River said, wiping an imaginary sweat on her forehead with the back of her palms. "Are you okay cuz? You've been awfully quiet since we left the office."

"I'm good, I am just feeling guilty about breaking into the office that's all." Kamji was surprised at how the lie spilt freely from her lips.

"I forgot you used to be the Senior Prefect of your old school. Only if Mum knew I was the one influencing you and not the other way around," she giggled. "Anyways don't fret about it too much. Don't you admit it was kind of cool breaking in? We should try this more often..."

Kamji didn't listen to the rest of what her cousin was saying as she kept thinking about what she had seen in Joshua's file. It had been a two page document about his background. River had been right about his mother being an ex-convict. The woman had been charged with murder three years ago and was sentenced to life imprisonment. But two months into her term, she had been released on the basis of mental impairment and had been moved to a psychiatric hospital after being diagnosed with a bipolar I disorder.

The documents had revealed no data on who was killed but the information she got was enough to send shivers down her spine. She had read in an article that most mentally ill people were usually very violent and she wondered if Joshua had been a victim to the abuse. That was the only logical explanation she could come up with. And she could only imagine how traumatized Joshua had been when his mother had been hospitalized for three years. Was that the reason he had quit school during that period? Is he currently still living with his mother or someone else?

There were a lot of questions going on in Kamji's head and she felt frustrated that her curiosity wasn't satisfied. She had thought that looking through his files was going to give her answers to her questions but it had only brought up more questions and puzzles.

That afternoon as she and River had their lunch, she saw Buchi wave at her as he walked past their table with his friends.

Kamji waved back and kept on eating her lunch when she heard River squealing beside her.

"Oh My God! Since when did you and Buchi Williams start Hi—ing each other?" she asked doing the air quotes.

Kamji rolled her eyes, "Before you jump into conclusions, we only met yesterday when I was helping him with his locker that got stuck."

"Really?" River squealed even louder. So both of you are friends now. Maybe we should invite him to come sit with us?"

"No, we aren't friends." she replied. "I don't get why you're smooching all over him and acting like he is a celebrity or something." she was irritated.

"He is a celebrity," her cousin stated. "Atleast within the four walls of Westlake," she added immediately when Kamji gave her a look.

"So what if his popular?"

"You don't really get it, Do you?" River shook her head sadly. "He is cute, popular, cool, rich, athletic and he has a wonderful voice. Did I forget to mention he's cute?"

"No River, you didn't. That was like the first thing you said."

"Oh right, Plus he's every girls dream here in Westlake but he doesn't have a girlfriend yet."

Kamji could literally see her cousin's eye sparkle in longing at the thought of being the one to sit beside Buchi as his rightful queen and rule the land of Westlake.

"Snap out of it," she said to her cousin. "If you like him so bad why don't you just tell him?"

"Oh, I did," River said. "I left him a letter in his locker asking if he wanted to go to the dance together. I wonder if he got it."

"Oh," Kamji frowned remembering all the confetti and balloons and letters that had spilled from Buchi's locker that day. To think that her cousin's letter was among them, she resisted the urge to curse.

"You can always tell him straight up about your feelings. I don't think sending letters is enough," she advised.

"I don't think I have the courage to do that. What if he turns me down? That would be totally embarrassing," River sulked.

"That's a possibility." Kamji said remembering how rude Joshua had been to that poor innocent girl but then everyone was not as rude as Joshua. "If you think it's too risky to try how about I show you the tabs for not trying?"

"Please don't tell me you read that line from some from some cheesy site," She groaned.

"Maybe," replied Kamji, embarrassed at the fact she had gotten caught.

"I almost forgot, Mum lent me her credit card earlier. We should go shopping for clothes for the dance this tomorrow," River said in excitement.

"Sounds cool," Kamji said. "I have a lot of clothes though. I don't think I will be needing a new dress."

"We will still go shopping anyway. We need to make you look good now that Buchi has his sights on you." River lowered her voice till it was a whisper. "I caught him several times looking in this direction."

Kamji turned turned to look in the direction where Buchi sat and their gazes met. Crap, River was right. She gave him a small smile followed with a nod to avoid the whole situation looking awkward.

"Girl, you got to teach me some tricks on how you get all these cute guys crushing on you." her cousin whined, "First it was Joshua and now Buchi too. At this rate you're going snag all the cute guys and then there will be no one left but the likes of Peter."

Kamji laughed, "I think you're brother is cute. If we weren't related, I would be having a massive crush on him." she felt obligated to defend Peter.

"You're just saying that because he's your cousin," River said. She was done eating her lunch and stood up with her tray. The two started to leave the cafeteria and head back to their classes.

During their free periods Kamji had her usual study sessions with Joshua. After what she had seen in his files she had developed some sort of compassion towards him. To think that he went through that as a child left an ache in her chest. She had wanted to ask him what had happened to him those three years his mother had been hospitalized. The files made no mention of him having any other relatives. And she could imagine how lonely and insecure he had felt.

"Are you going to attend the dance this weekend?" she asked him, feeling the need to befriend him. Everytime she looked at him now, he reminded her of a puppy.

"Why? Have you already fallen for me?" he asked. "To think it was only yesterday we talked about it and today you're asking me out to the dance.

The sympathy she had felt earlier vanished into thin air, "I wasn't asking you out, I just wanted to know if you were going to attend." she crossed her arms before adding, "But it's okay if you're not coming. I always knew you were a chicken."

"I don't see how not coming to the dance makes me one," he drawled.

"Ofcourse it does. You're afraid of being in people's company."

His eyes narrowed at her statement,"I am not afraid. I just don't find them worthy of wasting my time."

"Chicken."

"Not."

"Are," She folded her arms and made chicken noises.

"Do you even know how ridiculous you look right now?" he asked, clearly annoyed that she thought of him as a coward and the fact that he cared about what she thought of him irked him more.

"If you're not one, then prove it by coming to the dance?" she proposed slyly.

"I don't have anything to prove to you, neither do I care about what you think." he retorted, even though he knew that was a lie.