I was about to push my chair back and head over to Nina – she was waiting by the classroom door, scrolling through her phone. But then Jake pulled up right next to my desk.
"Hey, man, got a sec?" he said, and I almost groaned.
’Not now,’ I thought. I was actually looking forward to lunch today, to just chilling with Nina and not thinking about friend missions or secret identities or any of that crap. ’Just for an hour, please.’
I looked up at Jake. He seed pretty chill, actually, which made it even harder to blow him off. But I couldn’t just leave Nina hanging, she has already had to deal with so shit due to .
"Hey, I’m kind of in a hurry," I said, trying to sound nice about it. "But we can talk later, okay?"
His face fell a little. "Oh, right, it’s lunch," he said, looking down at the ground. "Yeah, no worries."
’Great,’ I thought. ’Now I feel like a jerk.’ He was my ’friend,’ he is my friend, I guess, and I made a promise to help.
But this was kind of important. I glanced over at Nina, trying not to make it too obvious. She was looking the other way, out the window, but I knew she was listening.
"I’ll catch you after class," I added, trying to make it up to him. "We’ll figure out that plan, I promise. It’s just... kinda gotta go now."
He nodded, looking a little brighter. "Yeah, yeah, totally. You go do your thing, bro. We’ll strategize later."
He gave this little fist-bump, then turned and walked off. I watched him go for a second, feeling that pang of guilt again.
’Okay, that’s enough guilt,’ I told myself. ’Gotta focus. It’s lunch after all.’
I pushed my chair back and walked over to Nina.
"More boy missions?" she asked, glancing up with a small smile.
I rolled my eyes. "Nah, that was it. Just... you know, had to de-fuse a situation."
"Uh-huh, suuuuure," she said, punching my shoulder lightly. It didn’t really hurt, but I made a show of stumbling a little bit anyway.
"Hey, watch the ribs," I said, rubbing my side.
"Oh, sorry," she said, but she was grinning, already moving out into the hallway. "So what was this super-important boy chat about? World domination? Secret handshake club? A new sword?"
I laughed, shaking my head. "If only. It was just... Jake being Jake, you know?"
We walked side-by-side, falling into that easy rhythm we had.
The quiet chatter of the hallway faded a little, which was weird. Usually, it was like a constant background hum, like the low rumble of an engine. But now, it was like soone was slowly turning the volu down. That felt weird.
And then I started hearing it. Whispering.
It was coming from up ahead, near the stairs. A bunch of voices, hushed and frantic. Sothing was going down.
Nina heard it too. She stopped walking and tilted her head, listening.
"What’s going on?" she asked, her brow furrowing.
I shrugged. "Probably just so drama. You know how it is." I an school isn’t supposed to have a single boring day right?
But sothing about the tone was wrong. This wasn’t the usual gossiping, an-girl whisper-fest. This was... sothing else.
We kept walking, slowly, the whispering getting louder and more intense as we got closer. I could see a crowd of students gathered at the bottom of the stairwell, blocking the hallway. It looked like those fire scenes from the action movies, everyone was just so focused.
’What now?’ I thought, feeling that familiar knot of anxiety tighten in my chest.
We got closer to the crowd, and the whispers turned into distinct words. Angry words. Scared words. A few gasps. This wasn’t just a conversation anymore.
Then I saw it, a break in the circle of bodies, and my stomach dropped. It was a girl, crumpled on the floor near the bottom of the stairs. A few other girls were standing over her, yelling. I couldn’t make out the words, but there was violence in their tone, malice in their posture.
’Oh, shit,’ I thought. This was bad. This was really bad.
More of the scene entered my sight, the girls around her, the blood, soone was crying, the girl on the floor has a bruised face. This wasn’t so argunt. This was a straight-up beating.
A couple of voices from the crowd were saying sothing about getting a teacher, calling security, but no one was actually doing anything. They were just standing there, watching.
Rage shot through , so hot and sharp it almost made dizzy. My hands clenched into fists.
But before I could even take a step, before I could even process what I was going to do, Nina surged forward.
"Hey! Stop it! What the hell are you doing?" she yelled, her voice cutting through the noise. She started pushing her way through the crowd, toward the girl on the floor.
I grabbed her arm.
"Nina, wait," I said, my voice low but firm.
She whipped around, her eyes flashing with anger, or... sothing else. Fear? Frustration?
"What? Kofi, we have to do sothing! They’re hurting her!" She was trying to pull away from , to get past.
My gut was telling no, telling now was the worst possible mont to step in. For her, for the girl on the floor, for everyone. I had this vision of a powder keg, just waiting for a spark. Right now, Nina was the match.
"Not like this," I said, my grip tightening on her arm. "Not yet."
"What are you talking about?" She stared at , confused, her face a mix of fury and disbelief. "We can’t just stand here! They need help!"
"I know," I said, trying to keep my voice calm, even though my own heart was racing like crazy. "But rushing in... that’s not going to help, not now."
"But—" Her voice was shaking, her eyes darting back to the scene playing out near the stairs. The shouting hadn’t stopped, and a couple of guys in the crowd were starting to film it on their phones.
’Fucking ghouls,’ I thought.
"It’s not going to help HER," I cut across her words, my head gesturing at the girl on the floor. Rushing this would just ss her up more. Right now, if we ran in, we’d be targets too, another distraction. We’d get trampled, and that girl still wouldn’t be safe. "We need a plan,"
Nina stared at , her breath coming in short, ragged gasps. "A plan? Kofi, there’s no ti for a plan! Look at her!" She gestured again, more frantically, at the girl on the ground. A sob escaped her lips.
"I am looking," I said, my voice firm. Maybe too firm. I could see the confusion and hurt swirling in her eyes, but I couldn’t back down. "And I’m telling you, right now, if we just charge in, it’s going to make it worse." It felt so shitty to say. It felt so shitty to do nothing. But a plan is better than a rush of blood.
I knew I wasn’t explaining it well. I just had this feeling, this cold certainty in my gut. It was the sa feeling I’d had before, the feeling that always ant I needed to think five steps ahead. But to tell her what I was truly thinking, I’d have to reveal a part of that I have been keeping a secret.
And maybe now wasn’t the perfect mont for that reveal. Not exactly conducive to making my point, you know?
"This is shitty, Kofi," she said, her voice trembling. "This is so fucking shitty. How can you just stand here and do nothing?" There was a pain in her eyes, a kind of disappointnt that made my stomach churn.
’I’m not doing nothing,’ I wanted to say. ’I’m trying to help. I just need a second.’ But the words wouldn’t co. I was failing to explain, and I was losing her. The world was spinning.
"Trust ," I finally said, and the words felt weak and hollow even to my own ears. "Please, just trust . There will be a mont to co in."
What are we, Power Rangers? This is not a season finale of so series, it’s fucking reality. People are getting hurt.
But I’m not saying that, because now is not the ti. Now is the ti to focus on the goal: that girl down there has gotta be safe. And my own moral integrity, while important, is not as important as making the situation work.
This all was so bad that it was making all parts of my body hurt.
The crowd had shifted a bit, more and more ghoulish eyes were showing up, and I could see the girl on the floor more clearly now. One of the other girls was kneeling over her, grabbing her hair and yelling sothing in her face.
Another was standing back, filming it all with her phone held high. A third just watched, her expression bored, but with an evil spark showing on her eyes.
We need to break that circle, break it cleanly.
’Goddammit.’
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