CHAPTER NINE155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt52vUCbnpF
The wall’s shadow stretched long across the grass as evening settled over Kisumu Girls’. Kim and Seline sat on the edge of the netball court, their backs to the dormitory lights, their voices low. The air was thick with the scent of wet earth and bougainvillea, and the school felt unusually quiet-like the pause before a storm.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB9f6CO9rkA
The evening air was thick with the scent of jacaranda and the hush of secrets. Kim and Seline waited near the edge of the compound, where the wall’s shadow stretched long and the bougainvillea hid more than blossoms. The sky was bruised purple, the school grounds nearly empty except for the distant echo of laughter from the dorms.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡubpCRkCrPv
Mercy found them there, her steps careful, her face unreadable. She didn’t look like the powerful senior everyone whispered about-tonight, she looked tired, wary, and very much alone. She didn’t speak at first, just stood in the half-light, arms folded, as if weighing whether to trust them at all.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWaOFWdQakp
Kim broke the silence. “You’re out late.”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3XlmOhstmk
Mercy gave a small, humorless smile. “So are you.”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhfj9YPdAo6
Seline’s purple pen twirled between her fingers. “Did you want something?”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL6DP9gIx2n
Mercy hesitated, glancing over her shoulder. “Things are… changing. People are asking questions. Some girls are saying things I never thought they’d dare say out loud.” Her voice dropped. “If someone were to… help set things straight, would that count for anything?”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0FWnkN0p5
Kim’s heart quickened. She kept her face neutral. “Depends what you mean by ‘help.’”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFmrEBlv9ut
Mercy looked away; her jaw tight. “I know things. I know who’s been passing messages, who’s been meeting after lights out. I know which prefects have been covering for the Order-and which teachers look the other way. If I gave you names, dates, proof… I want your word I won’t be the one everyone blames when this comes out. I want protection. Or at least… not to be the face of the scandal.”?”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡigEAuIg1Ko
Seline’s voice was gentle, but her words were sharp. “You want to trade your silence for safety?”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡng4J6G8Dw5
“I want to trade what I know for a fair deal,” Mercy replied. “There are others more involved. Some of them-” her voice dropped, “-some of them deserve to answer for this more than I do.”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBgs2S8t9TG
Kim kept her expression neutral. “You’d give us a scapegoat. Someone else to take the fall.”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE3QXLwUcAA
Mercy hesitated, then nodded. “If that’s what it takes.”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1rwKNnWz8E
A long silence stretched between them, broken only by the distant call of a night bird.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQFy6C2hJRV
Seline finally spoke. “We can’t promise you’ll walk away untouched. But if you give us real evidence-letters, names, places, dates-and if you’re willing to testify if it comes to that, we can make sure your part is… minimized. You’ll step back from leadership. You’ll stay out of the spotlight. But you have to give us everything, Mercy. Not just what’s convenient.”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYY67bIcRMJ
Mercy’s shoulders sagged, relief and resignation mingling in her eyes. “I’ll bring you what you need. Tomorrow. By the wall.”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrBrj8lsjgm
Kim nodded. “If you try to trick us, or hold back, you’ll be on your own.”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnruHVRGPiy
Mercy met her gaze, steady now. “I know.”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW7pkTEstT0
She slipped away into the shadows, leaving Kim and Seline alone with the weight of the bargain.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmAYA9MaObJ
Seline exhaled, her breath misting in the cool air. “Do you trust her?”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr3hir50JAd
Kim shook her head. “No. But I trust what she wants. And that’s enough.”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiQE3pw7eJF
As Mercy slipped away from the wall, her footsteps quiet on the damp grass, she let the night swallow her. The air was cool, heavy with the scent of jacaranda and the distant promise of rain. She kept her head down, but her mind was racing.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRzY8o9ekSw
It wasn’t the bargain itself that told her. It was everything around it-the way Kim’s voice never quite lost its edge, the way Seline’s fingers never stopped moving, twirling that purple pen as if it were a charm against bad luck. The way both girls kept their words careful, never naming names, never letting the conversation stray too close to anything that could be used against them.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS6w29TvqEn
Mercy had always been good at reading silence. Tonight, it was deafening.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpCw5It9UM6
She replayed the scene in her mind as she walked:155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2TpwZXbHFc
The hush at the edge of the compound.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7LIicEObVB
The way Kim and Seline had been waiting, not surprised to see her.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡicbdSO82A0
How quickly they had shifted from caution to negotiation, as if they had been expecting her to come.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDQQLKge9rb
How Seline’s eyes had flicked to Kim, just once, when Mercy offered her deal.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3iwBHsQjOG
That was all she needed.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1lynEhbetc
These were the girls who had been behind the whispers, the sudden questions, the shifting loyalties in the dorms. They were the ones who had been stirring the pot, feeding the rumors, making the Order look over its shoulder. The ones who had forced her hand.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSorQduJ5dz
Mercy almost laughed. It was so obvious now-how had she missed it? The little incident by the wall, the way they’d spoken to her, not as victims or bystanders, but as players. They were the reason she was here, offering names and secrets in exchange for a measure of safety.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSq8V0SyjPZ
She paused beneath the jacaranda, letting the shadows wrap around her. She didn’t feel angry, not yet. She felt… impressed. And wary. She would give them a chance, for now. But she would also watch them, just as carefully as they had watched her.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVliizkpiYt
Because in Kisumu Girls’, secrets never stayed buried for long. And now Mercy knew exactly who to watch.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVPWCknXtCy
**********155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiHOeIO25Xn
Mary had always been the quiet one in the dorms, the girl with the sharp eyes and the habit of scribbling in the margins of her textbooks long after lights out. Most girls thought she was just shy, or maybe a little odd. But Kim and Seline knew better. Mary saw everything.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlhB6F7voRP
It was Mary who first noticed the prefects gathering in the staffroom after prep, their faces tight with worry. It was Mary who heard the new code word-“sunflower”-whispered in the corridors, and Mary who slipped a folded note under Kim’s pillow when the rest of the dorm was asleep.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX9j3H95KBA
The Order is meeting tonight. Mercy’s not with them. Watch the eastern block after second bell.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBG0kNm3woG
-M155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGrSFseneDC
Sometimes it was just a glance across the dining hall, Mary’s eyes flickering toward a cluster of prefects, her lips pressed into a thin line. Other times, it was a scrap of paper tucked into a library book, or a warning murmured in passing as she handed Seline a pen in class.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVIcDyTTBqv
“Don’t use the water tank tonight,” she whispered once, her voice barely louder than the scrape of a chair. “They’re waiting for someone.”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmx4XQl20CB
Because Mary listened. She lingered at the edge of conversations, blending into the background, piecing together fragments of gossip and stray complaints. She noticed when a teacher’s routine changed, when the Order’s loyalists started sitting together at meals, when a new rumor began to spread before assembly.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5vn8ea1iHD
She never asked for thanks. She never demanded to be included in the plans. She just watched, and listened, and passed on what she learned-always careful, always quiet, always a step ahead of suspicion.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgYN9CiaCQh
Thanks to Mary, the girls avoided the Order’s traps. They knew when to stay away from the wall, when to keep their heads down, when to hide the evidence. When Mercy’s inner circle started searching bags after lights out, it was Mary who warned Kim to move the letters. When a prefect tried to corner Seline with questions about the blue paper clip, it was Mary who intercepted her in the corridor, steering her away with a whispered joke.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDtrgaCrtHz
In a world where secrets were currency and trust were dangerous, Mary was their invisible shield-the watcher in the shadows, the silent alarm. And as the tension in the school thickened, as the Order grew more desperate and the wall seemed to close in, it was Mary’s steady flow of updates that kept hope alive.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjsGvlzdVRk
Because sometimes, the most powerful rebel was the one nobody saw coming.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVcqoUDayWq
June155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAQ3xyDcDFL
June had learned long ago that true power didn’t always come from standing at the front of the assembly or wearing a prefect’s badge. Sometimes, it came from knowing which doors to knock on, which silences to fill, and which to leave undisturbed.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo64Hn0GIN1
She still walked the halls of Kisumu Girls’ with a certain ease, her presence neither loud nor invisible-just familiar. Teachers greeted her with a nod, administrators paused to ask about her university applications, and even the new prefects, some of whom had once whispered about her behind her back, now watched her with a mixture of respect and wariness.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQE7E5mhpRa
It was June who lingered in the staffroom after evening prep, offering to help sort out the mess of club rosters and exam timetables. She listened as the teachers grumbled about missing textbooks and late-night noise, and tucked away every stray comment about “unusual activity near the wall.” When Mrs. Atieno mentioned, almost offhand, that she’d seen a group of girls sneaking toward the bougainvillea after lights out, June simply nodded, storing the detail for later.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRbuhFHWmWB
She was careful, always. She never asked direct questions, never pressed too hard. Instead, she let people talk, let them believe she was just another senior trying to keep her record clean before term ends.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDPPDQoyCna
But June’s true influence was quieter still. She knew which Order members were growing uneasy-who had started sitting further from Mercy at meals, who hesitated before following a command, who lingered in the library a little longer than usual, as if searching for a way out. Sometimes, she’d find them alone in the corridor, and she’d offer a wordless gesture of understanding-a brief touch on the arm, a sympathetic smile.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw0tZYHdASh
“You know,” she’d murmur, “things are changing. You don’t have to go down with the ship.”155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0z7zBlTPvD
Some listened. Some didn’t. But word spread that June was someone you could talk to-someone who wouldn’t judge, who might even help you find a way through the storm.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0jqMG8j2n0
When Kim and Seline needed a message delivered to a sympathetic teacher, it was June who made sure it reached the right hands. When Mary needed to know which staff, member was on duty near the wall, June found out without anyone suspecting. And when a wavering Order member finally decided to slip a note of confession under the deputy principal’s door, it was June who made sure it was written in a way that would be believed.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPCSGPHFec9
She never took credit. She never needed to. June understood that sometimes, the most powerful moves were the ones no one saw.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgr8qrpEcAI
And as the wall continued to cast its long shadow over Kisumu Girls’, June moved quietly through the twilight-her influence subtle, her alliances shifting, her loyalty always to the truth that waited, silent and patient, just beyond the stone.
Penana
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