11. Chaos In College

When the gong banged in the morning, we knew it was an important assembly. We all rushed to the assembly point. There, we sang the town anthem before Mr. Cruz announced about the football tournament that was approaching. He emphasized that the team had little time for preparation to face the Rockboys of Rockline College.

On ending his briefing, he called me forward. He congratulated me for winning the writing competitions. I received a certificate and a trophy. The college had decades of winning none of the library trophies. I took the trophy and kissed it before I returned it to him so that he was going to display it in the school gallery. The other students cheered at me. All that made me to be so proud of myself. I put my name on the display board in less than a year.

Mr. Cruz then dismissed the assembly, leaving only the Skybull team with Mr. Mateo, discussing their training session. Mr. Mateo complained about the team's laziness. He was a short-tempered coach and liked responsible students. The Skybull boys complained of their captain's inconsistency. That made things worse because the captain was missing. Mr. Mateo then temporarily tasked Chris to take over as the team's captain until Marcos' return. He asked Chris to instantly take the team to the grounds. After that, he left to his office.

The police were still in the dark about Marcos' whereabouts, and the nightmare rumors were already circulating in the corridors. The journalism students published all the rumours they were hearing on the matter. They were getting uncontrollable. It is true, no matter how bad other people see you; others can see the good part of you. Marcos was a public figure known of his genius in computers despite being psycho as me and my friends knew him. Some girls who crushed him used to call him a cyber-hacker. He was also one of those coming from rich families.

However, some students said Marcos was a substance misuse. They thought he might have dropped out of the college. Some said he was in rehabilitation, and he needed repentance. The college journalism students were publishing all those ideas, and it created chaos. The last published idea shook our knees. I failed to react as I froze, holding the college newspaper. It stated that Marcos was dead, killed by Veronica for revenge. If I was alone, I was going to fall to the ground, but thanks to Triana, who suddenly balanced me and helped me to sit down. She instantly phoned our friends and alerted them to meet us at the cafeteria.

We were all in fear. The truth was slowly unveiling. Veronica was a mute by then, worried and shocked. My friends and I agreed to put our differences aside and reinforce the unity among us. Despite our unity and efforts to pressure Triana to talk with her journalism colleagues, nothing helped. There was already damage, and the police were then visiting the college. Because of chaos in the college, Mr. Cruz suspended the journalism classes. The police were making their efforts to help Mr. Cruz contains the pressure while investigating the rumors. A week passed, but Marcos wasn't back. His father used much of his riches to hire professionals to look for his son. My friends and I remained supporting each other.

One evening, I received a call from Ms. Gunday. She was asking about the clarity of the news of Marcos' disappearance. I had no answers for her except knowing that everyone talked of Veronica's name. She asked to see me but I disappointed her. I had a lot in my head. To clear my mind, I took a walk and headed to the classrooms.

Along the way, I couldn't believe it when I saw Chris and Kelvana throwing punches at each other. I ran to stop them, but I don't know how I ended up being the one fisting on Kelvana's face until he was on the ground. Chris stopped me, but Kelvana was already bleeding from his nose. At that moment, I came back to my senses and tried to help Kelvana stand up, but he ignored my help, not to mention my apology. He said Chris and I were fooling ourselves, thinking we were the lions at the college, and believing we were the first in everything, while there wasn't that system in Skyling College. He even mentioned that he loved Veronica and blamed me for making his dream impossible for the relationship to take place. The anger and defeat made him utter words at us. He concluded by blaming us for his friend's disappearance. Chris and I were out of words for him.

We watched him going away and knew he was heading to report us. To our expectation, Mr. Cruz called for an assembly after Kelvana reported. He stripped off Chris' powers and privileges that he had in the college except for him being the Skybull captain. When we were still at the assembly, the police intruded. They asked for Veronica and arrested her for being involved in the story of Marcos Mann's disappearance. They didn't explain anything. There was nothing we could've done to stop the police from cuffing my girlfriend's arms in front of everyone. They took her away from us.