Sixty eight

A week later.

I was in class learning with my classmates when I heard my name on the speaker at the top corner of our class.

"Julie Thompson, please report to the principal's office immediately." It announced and made everyone turn their eyes to me.

I looked at our teacher and he nodded, so I stood and left the class immediately. When I got the principal's office, I sighed and knocked before going in.

"Aunt," I muttered when I saw her. I wasn't expecting to meet her sitting and waiting there.

"Baby," she stood to meet me."I was called from my office to come here."

"I didn't do anything," I wanted to let her know because she looked worried. The last time I was summoned to the principal's office to meet my mum in my former school, it was because I hit a boy who was bullying me when I said no to him.

"No, you didn't," We both turned to the principal after she spoke."But someone did something because of you, and we want you to help us identify the person."

"What?" I couldn't be more confused.

"Come sit," the principal ushered me to the seat directly opposite her."Do you know Nathan?" She asked once I sat and faced her.

I looked back at my aunt sitting behind me, and then I looked in the other direction and saw a man and a woman that looked much like a couple. O my god, Nate's parents? Did he die? I expected he would keep bothering me since the day he met me fo say he liked me but he hasn't, and that's because he hasn't been in school.

"We're not close but I know him, he's in my class." I made it clear.

"Okay. Do you have a boyfriend that knows Nathan?" She asked again and got me more confused. I looked back at my aunt again but she nodded for me to answer the principal's question.

"No." I lied.

"No?" The principal didn't seem convinced.

"I already told you, no."

"It might not have been a boyfriend, maybe her cousin did it!" Nate's mother spoke for the first time since I entered the office. She sounded angry.

"My son will never do something like that!" My aunt replied her, getting angry herself.

"Please, I need you both to be calm here, let her tell us what she knows." The principal spoke to them both.

"Are you saying you don't have a boyfriend? Or is it that you have one, but he just doesn't know Nathan?" The principal returned to her questioning.

"Both," I lied again, starting to get nervous. I shouldn't be lying because things seemed to be serious, but I had already started with the lie. If I say yes to having a boyfriend, the whole school could know it was Uche. I not ready to face that.

"Julie, please make sure you're being very honest with us, okay." The principal smiled at me while taking out something. She placed it across her table, in front of me. It was a card with something written on it."Read it," the principal urged so I took it.

Uche's writing. Probably. I don't know, it was so neat, and looked like his but anyone else could write like that, I guess.

Stay away from Julie.

i read in my mind at first, then looked up to meet the principal's eyes on me."Go on," she pressed.

"S-stay away from Julie. S-she's taken." I read it out loud for everyone to hear. Nate's mum started to sob after I read it.

"Do you know who could have written that?" The principal smiled at me with the question. She was trying to keep me calm with her smile but I was already nervous as hell.

Did Uche do something?

"No," I lied again, even if I knew I shouldn't.

"She's lying," It was Nate's mum.

"How dare you call her a liar?" My aunt was quick to defend me.

"Ladies..." the principal tried to stop them.

"My son is in the hospital and all she can do is lie through her teeth, and I shouldn't call her a liar?!" 

"It's not her fault your Nathan is in the hospital, if she says she doesn't know anything about it, you have no right to call her a liar!" My aunt fired back at Nate's mum and i could just feel my face heating up with fear.

Maybe I should tell them. Maybe I should tell them that I had a boyfriend, Uche, and that he knew Nathan and that that was his handwriting on the card. That beautiful calligraphy on the card was his.

"Julie?" The principal called me back from my thoughts.

"Yes," I answered.

"Someone beat up Nate very badly. He's in the hospital. He has been there for some days now. Please let us know if you have an idea of who did this. It's obvious this person did it because of you, I mean, your name is on the card."

"I..." I started to shake my head.

"The card was found in Nathan's locker. So whoever did this, did it after threatening him to stay away from you." The principal stopped talking and looked at me with an expectation of me saying things different than I did before.

"Ask Nate who did it. Ask him who beat him up," I suggested. Maybe I won't have to mention Uche's name to them if they interrogated Nate instead of me.

"He's in a coma..." I gasped at the principal's reply to my suggestion."...Yes dear, you see how bad the situation is?"

I swallowed.

"Nathan's parents want to involve the police in this, but I told them not to for now, maybe you could help us with some information, and wee can find a way to go around this without involving the police but..." The principal sat back on her chair, took off her glasses and sighed.

Tears pooled in my eyes but I wiped them away before they could fall to my cheeks.