Chapter Four

BETRAYAL

CHAPTER FOUR

When morning came, joy didn't feel like going to school. On normal days she would be up by six to prepare breakfast for everyone. They all shared a kitchen and a lounge but different rooms. Vida and ivy always woke up late because of the hangovers of partying and stuff. But today was different. Joy could hear them in the launch complaining of one thing or the other. She didn't even bother with them, she just wanted to sleep some more. So, she pulled her duvet to cover herself up to the neck leaving just the head out. She always went to school early weather she had classes in the morning or not. She would go to the library to study whenever there was no class. Today nothing appealed to her yet she had to look normal. She had to show her enemies the middle finger. But…as they say the spirit was willing but the flesh was absolutely weak.

She had mastered her timetable and she knew being a Monday she had three crucial lessons to attend. She would have studied over the weekend on this week's topic but circumstances didn't allow it. So today she would be a dummy like everyone else in class. Maybe today she should sit at the last bench so that she won't be asked questions by the lectures considering that was like a norm to her. With that in mind and the hostel being quiet she threw her duvet off and stretched herself. The pain had subsided a little bit and she could move slightly well though slowly. She hadn't taken any painkillers maybe she should pass by the chemist later to purchase some.

She took a cold shower and dressed quickly. On normal occasions she would be in a dress but today she chose a trouser and a cotton top then wore a hoodie to hide her face from prying eyes. She knew somehow, she would be attracting attention from those who either witnessed the incident or from those monsters who violated her. And of course, their gang.

She took a glass of water instead of breakfast and then closed the door before heading to school. The moment she stepped out of the gate she felt so uneasy as if someone was watching her. The school was not far from the hostel so she decided to walk, maybe if she learnt how to walk properly on the road it would be easy to walk around in school without feeling any pain. And true to this by the time she arrived at school she was feeling much at ease walking around.

She didn't want attention at this time but it seemed that being the winner of the pageant gave her more attention than she desired. It came at the wrong time. She thought as the other students shouted her name while others took pictures of her. She hated this, all of it. She felt like screaming at them to leave her alone or take the crown away from her if it would help them to focus on other things other than her. But no, she was not going to do that. She had to act cool. The hoodie she had on didn't seem to help her on bit. She took a deep breath and mastered courage. She could do this. She was born ready to face the consequences and whatever else the world threw at her. So, she dropped the hoodie and boldly walked towards her class. She could see heads turn and hear others cheering her on and she assumed that was a good thing to start her day.

She was half an hour late to her lecture room and when she entered with the little noise from the door everyone turned to look at her direction and she froze. What if her violators were in this class? Looking at her and laughing at her mystery right now? She scanned the room looking from one person to the next. According to the criminology as her lecturer used to say, 'everyone is guilty until proven otherwise' so all she could see were suspects. Hundreds of them. She was still standing there when the lecturer called her out.

"joy, I can't believe you overslept today, or did your kingdom celebrate the whole weekend your being the queen of beauty?" the lecturer teased and the class roared with laughter.

Joy saw that as a form of mockery since her weekend was a nightmare. She was so furious at the lecturer that she wished she had just missed this class after all. She had never missed any of her lectures. The mind wanted to just walk out the way she just came in, but her feet moved to find a seat at the furthest corner where no one disturbed her.

She removed her notebook from her bag and something dropped from the inside. The lectures had resumed and so nobody else saw it drop. She quickly picked it up and took a glance at it.