Chapter 12

We soon reached the school gate before the bell rang indicating the closing of the main gates. We made our way towards the locker and then to our class. We still had sufficient time left before the first lecture. By now Hope and her followers were also in the class. They chose to ignore us today. Luckily! Today we had History as our first lecture. And I couldn't wait for it to begin. Prof. Price is great with the subject. V turned around and asked, “We have history right?”

“Yes” I replied

“You remember our encounter with Price yesterday?” she asked. And I suddenly remembered.

“Oh yes. I almost forgot.” I replied

“Well I am starting to get a feeling that he is creepy.” said v

“Maybe he had also heard about the news and was just trying to warn us,” I said.

“He could have warned us less creepily,” said V.

“Well yes. But maybe he was having a rough day and lost all his energy to be less creepy,” I said.

“Rough day on day one? Wonder how his second day would be and what mood he would be in?” said V

“That we will have to find out when he comes,” I replied.

“Did your partner decided this place is not for him?” asked V and I laughed

“Maybe, but there is still some time left,” I replied and just then the bell rang.

“Well, the time is up. Looks like he figured this place is not normal and he decided to go to a normal place. Said v while laughing.

Just then we saw Balfer and Shawn running inside the class.

“I guess he decided that he is also not normal and is sticking around,” I replied to V, to which she smiled. Shawn made his way towards our desk panting and slumped down on his seat beside me and threw his bag over the desk.

“Do you need water?” I asked.

“Yes please,” he replied. So I got the water bottle out of my bag and handed it to him. He took two sips out of the bottle and handed me back my bottle and said “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome” I replied. I was looking at him, he was soaked in sweat. Like he came running here all the way from his house and he was breathing very heavily. He saw me looking at him so he smiled at me and explained “Balfer came over yesterday and that idiot turned off the alarm. My mom woke us up when she didn't see us coming downstairs for breakfast. We hardly had any time to get ready but I thought we could take Balfer’s car to get here on time. But then we found out that his car broke down yesterday and that lazy bum could not get it repaired.” By now V and Zenith had also turned around to listen to what Shawn was saying.

“So you guys ran from your place to school?” I asked to which he nodded.

“Explains why Nao is looking at Balfer with disgust and pinching her nose. Possibly to avoid the sweat stink,” said Zenith to which all three of us turned to look at our right to see Balfer fanning himself with a book and Nao covering her nose and looking at Balfer with disgust. V and I looked at each other and started laughing at that sight. Balfer looked at us and then chose to ignore and continued fanning himself with his book.

“She is your friend Nao right?” asked Shawn looking at me and I nodded.

“Does she hate Balfer?” asked Shawn. Both V and I frowned at that question and then we both replied together “No she doesn't.” To which Shawn replied with “OK”

“It is just that they sit together and all girls come fawning at him and he doesn't seem to hesitate or stop them. Instead, he just fuels the fire even more for these girls to encourage them to continue doing that. Nao on the other hand is someone who is quite reserved and thinks mostly of studies, especially in school. So she gets pissed off at that. Because those girls and Balfer be very loud during those interactions and kind of invades her personal space.” explained V

“Yeah! And most of the time those girls are so over Balfer that they sometimes throw her out of her seat. So that just aggravates her anger.” I said

“I see. Then that explains her behavior towards him. I thought they might be enemies or that Nao despises him a lot.” said Shawn.

“She is not someone to hate, despise or hold grudges against someone. But she hates when anyone disturbs her while she is reading or studying,” said V

“Exactly. All this while I have been their classmate, I have learned that never disturb Nao when she is occupied with a book or else you cannot escape her wrath. Only Balfer has been able to do that so far.” said Zenith. V looked like she was deep into thinking something.

“OK. I will never disturb her when she is with a book,” said Shawn and I smiled at him to which even he returned a smile. Liz came walking towards us and asked “Whose house are we going to today? Ray’s or V’s?”

“We were at hers yesterday so let us go to mine today,” said V.

“OK. Sounds good. But first I will go home to get my clothes.” said Liz.

“Yeah me too,” I said.

“Sounds good to me. I will prepare all the snacks and my room for you three,” said V

“You girls do that every day?” asked Shawn.

“Nope. My dad is a Sheriff. So he is out at night most of the time. But this week Nao’s mom also has night shifts at the hospital. She is a nurse you see. And due to the current situation, they didn't want us to be alone at home. So our parents decided we be together at Ray’s or else V’s house for the week.” explained Liz. By now Nao had also joined us. I moved a little inside for making some space for Nao. Shawn and I were sitting really close by. And I could feel my heartbeat increase and a fluttering feeling in my stomach. One that I normally only got around Wyatt.

“This reminds me, anybody heard anything new about Aria? Did they find her? Is she back?” asked Nao.

“I heard my mom say that they won't find her alive,” said Zenith which earned him a smack at the back of his head by V.

“Hey don't say like that. Let's hope she comes back safe,” said Liz.

“How long has all this been happening? Was it always like this?” asked Shawn.

“No, it started just last week. If it was happening before that, nobody has any clue of it then,” said Nao.

“They were telling in the news that some girls had been continuously assaulted from past many days, which means it started happening before last week,” said Zenith.

“Yeah, I heard that too,” I said.

“Can't believe we have such a monster here in our town and maybe he is someone who is living normally amongst us and doing such a horrendous crime behind our back,” said Liz.

“Who do you think would be this guy?” asked V.

“Well out of everyone we know, which is almost everyone from this town, I don't think it would be someone from us. But then, come to think of it, by the way, this guy is not getting caught, I feel it is someone who everyone knows and so no one is suspecting this person,” explained Liz.

“She has got a point. Though I know no one here other than you guys. But I guess it is someone who knows everyone and every place in this town.” stated Shawn and we all agreed. And I was admiring his side profile the whole time. We all were so engrossed in this conversation that we did not hear someone entering the class and the rest of the class going silent until that person came near us and cleared his throat. We all looked at him at once to find out it was Mr. Price.

“is an important discussion going on over here?” he asked.

“No Mr. Price,” said V

“Then everyone please go back to your places,” said Mr. Price.

Everyone went back to their usual positions and by now Balfer was also back to being non-sweaty and had applied some deodorant so Nao could sit properly without pinching her nose. Mr. Price started with our roll call and then our first lecture began.