Saint Patrick's College

Chapter Eight

It had been confirmed the girl whose body was found in the downstairs girl's bathroom of Veritas Hall belonged to Ogechi Nwafor.

According to the rumors, she was identified by her parents in the early hours of the morning at the National Hospital mortuary.

Segun was right, Adaeze thought as she made her way up the stone steps of Veritas Hall with Ayomide in tow. Adaeze was groggy and sleep deprived because she and Femi stayed up all night playing way more than twenty-questions as they walked along the campus. They didn't conclude the night with a kiss even if Adaeze wouldn't have stopped him if he had tried. She was yet to confide in Ayomide about how she spent her night. Adaeze was back and tucked into bed before Ayomide woke up.

They pushed through the wooden door and the echoes of students talking, laughing and shouting greeted them. As did the smell of deodorant and hair spray.

"I can't believe he was right." Ayomide groaned. Segun being right meant the girl just lucked out of one-thousand naira.

If she was being honest, Adaeze didn't know how Segun knew it would be Ogechi, how he was so sure that he could put money on the line, how he even knew a kid was dead before it was confirmed.

"It's not like one thousand naira is a lot of money though," Adaeze pointed out just as they reached her locker. She put in the combination.

"I know that, but I already had plans for that money, I was going to buy a doughnut from the cafeteria, now I have to use my own money."

She tried her locker door. It was jammed.

She put in her combination again. Nothing. She really didn't need this right now. For the third time, she put in her combination. Still nothing. She kicked the door and let out a groan of her own.

"Damn, who put you in a mood?" Ayomide adjusted the straps of her bag on her shoulder.

Nobody put Adaeze in a mood. She had always been like this, whenever she was tired, she was a monster. "I just..." She tried it again. This time, it opened with ease.

She reached for her bag that she kept at the top of her locker and roughly gathered her things into it. They were going to have classes from 8am to 4pm. To say she wasn't looking forward to the day would be the understatement of the century.

"You wouldn't by any chance know what Ogechi's last day here was like would you?" She knew it was an odd question. Not the kind of things new friends often talk about but when that friendship was forged on the same grounds where a girl was found dead, questions like that were bound to flutter to the surface.

"No, sorry." Ayomide shook her head as she led the way to the stairs for their morning class. They had Government and it was held at room E14. "And besides, I want nothing to do with what happened to her and you shouldn't either."

Adaeze didn't know what to say to that. She couldn't help her curiosity. She couldn't stop the way her mind worked...

The morning sun cast long shadows down the corridor as Adaeze and Ayomide walked past the trophy case. It displayed the achievements of Saint Patrick's most noteworthy students.

"Ladies," Segun said seemingly materializing out of nowhere. In actual fact, his locker was on the second floor and it explained where he was coming from. "How does it feel to lose a bet, Ayomide?" He swung his hands over their shoulders. He was heavy and made sure to put his full weight into his arms on their shoulders.

"If you want to rub it in, please leave. We're not in the mood for that today." Ayomide shrugged his arm off. She tugged on the hem of her blazer. "How did you even know it would be her? It's one thing to guess that someone was dead, it's another to know who exactly died before anyone confirmed it."