In the days following the prank, the schools awoke to an uneasy silence beneath the usual buzz. The spectacle had faded, but its echoes clung to every corner—whispers in dormitories, furtive glances in classrooms, a subtle tension in the air like static before a storm.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Ss5tpoCcT
But neither Naomi nor Jabari knew the full picture.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEsUVAhb9b2
Both schools harbored spies—students loyal to their respective Orders—working within their own schools, reporting on suspicious activities and even on their fellow students. Each side believed only they had such internal networks, a unique advantage in this silent war.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWMt3YypEdw
Naomi’s agents moved like ghosts through Kisumu Girls. They shadowed friends and rivals alike, questioning with smiles that didn’t reach their eyes, watching for the slightest sign of weakness or guilt. Reports trickled back in coded messages hidden in routine notes, scraps of conversation overheard in the dining hall, and subtle shifts in behavior observed under the watchful eyes of their handlers.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRWxS3TgdOA
But something was wrong. The usual smooth flow of intelligence had stuttered; several trusted operatives had disappeared into sudden “investigations” by the prefects. Fear whispered through the ranks — loyalty was no shield now. The crackdown was indiscriminate, and paranoia was bleeding into every corner.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP17wFDD9mG
Across the wall, Jabari’s network was under similar strain. Couriers once swift and invisible were being stopped and searched. Trusted informers had gone silent, either scared or silenced. The usual channels of communication—secret knocks, hidden notes, coded gestures—felt exposed, brittle, vulnerable.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkkSh8j6ku0
Jabari stood at the edge of his usual meeting place, a quiet courtyard where orders were once given in shadows. Now, even here, eyes seemed to linger too long. He gave terse instructions to his closest circle, urging caution and patience. The prize was still out there—the small battered tin, the relic slipped through the chaos—but the path to it was growing tangled.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiD8e1Z7IZC
Neither leader knew the full extent of the other’s reach, but their actions had begun to bleed into each other’s shadows. Girls loyal to Jabari found themselves under scrutiny in their own dorms, questioned by Naomi’s agents. Boys faithful to Naomi were hunted down in classrooms and corridors by Jabari’s watchers. Each crackdown threatened to expose the entire fragile web of alliances.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmXDOczmnzk
Despite the growing pressure, neither side dared to pull back. The risk of revealing their networks was too great. Instead, the hunt intensified—silent, relentless, and blind to friend or foe.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGXjNEWmwq6
And somewhere between the walls of Kisumu Girls and Kisumu Boys, the game had shifted. It was no longer just about the prank, or even the tin. It was about control, about survival in a world where every shadow might hide an enemy—or a traitor.
**********57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNBkSX2obvU
Amina moved through the corridors of Kisumu Girls High with practiced ease, her steps light but purposeful. To most, she was just another diligent student, her notebooks filled with neat diagrams and formulas, her laughter rare but genuine. But beneath the surface, Amina carried a secret heavier than any textbook.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlPw7QOp9X3
Months ago, in the quiet aftermath of a tense interschool debate, a subtle approach had changed everything. A senior boy from Kisumu Boys — never named, always careful — had found her in the library, slipped a folded note into her hand, and vanished before anyone noticed. The note was simple: “We need someone like you. Trust no one.”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtty1BnF1x5
It wasn’t just curiosity that pulled Amina in; it was the promise of something bigger — a way to look beyond the wall, to bridge the invisible gaps, even if it meant walking a dangerous line. She joined the boys’ Order, becoming one of their eyes and ears inside the girls’ school.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgwsmtJvoPl
Now, as the lanterns from the recent prank still flickered in memory, Amina’s role had never felt more critical. She moved silently among her peers, listening, watching for cracks, for whispers that might hint at the other side’s moves. Every smile she gave, every word she spoke, was carefully measured.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhVNBgB52NL
In this clandestine dance, trust was a currency rarer than gold — and Amina had learned to spend it sparingly. The risk was immense. If the girls’ Order ever discovered her allegiance, it would mean exile, or worse.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBXOTRLPMQS
Yet she pressed on, driven by a stubborn hope that maybe, just maybe, these walls weren’t meant to divide forever. And for now, she was their silent shadow inside the fortress of Kisumu Girls.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn6eSzliaoE
The corridor was quieter now. After the prank, after the scramble of prefects and the tightening of patrols, the school had recoiled into a tense stillness. But to her, this silence was an invitation.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6yMM4jidG2
She walked with purpose but not urgency, her expression composed, her posture corrects. Everything about her radiated normalcy. A model student. Invisible in her perfection.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5O3kX40rzc
But Amina was watching.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNZO8B7SQMj
She always watched.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlkExQBkjlS
In her blazer pocket, folded between the pages of a Chemistry handout, was a note. The paper was watermarked with an unfamiliar sigil, and though she had burned the original copy—as protocol demanded—she’d copied its contents by hand. The message had arrived two days before the prank, smuggled through a borrowed Literature anthology returned late to the library.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7iYxCgW6kT
"When the lights rise, do not look up. Look left. We will pass through the still ones."57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBUrvrOcC8j
She didn’t need to know what “it” was. She didn’t need to ask who “we” were. Her job was not to know, only to observe. And to report. To the boys.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXR7iHiPYHE
Not to Naomi. Not to her House Captain, not to the prefects, not even to the senior girls who had begun tightening their own networks in the aftermath.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgoBzk2NULh
Amina’s loyalty lay across the wall.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQwyPLq6aGg
She paused by the science block, adjusting her bag just enough to catch the reflection in a window. Two girls, one of them always five seconds too early to morning assembly, the other constantly retying her braids. Watching her. Watching everyone. They weren’t Order, not hers anyway. But they were someone’s.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZYNXdbNIQi
She adjusted her path accordingly.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4opC0FMgzw
The tin had passed through. She was almost certain. She’d seen it change hands near the staffroom side entrance, disguised as part of a snack’s delivery. A risk, but a clever one. The prank had pulled too many eyes toward the wall. But not hers. She had obeyed the message. She had looked left.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg0FOnGvmoW
Still, the fallout was brutal.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUuGjTj7fQt
Naomi’s crackdown, while calm on the surface, had sent tremors through the entire school. Bag checks. Room sweeps. Silent interrogations disguised as routine prefect sessions. Everyone was a suspect. And now even she—one of the Order’s oldest field shadows—had begun to feel exposed.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkorbkdefl3
Amina knew she had to be careful. The girls on her side were getting smarter. Naomi’s network was beginning to spot the patterns—the subtle path deviations, the library entries logged twice in different hands, the missing pages in the sign-out sheets.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡurXmiShAhV
But she couldn’t stop.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM6pWOEYWaH
If anything, this was the moment she had been trained for. A moment when everything tightened, when trust folded in on itself. That’s when the real agents moved.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6CNiJGFdTc
And when they moved, she would move too. For Jabari. For the Order.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnvqZgj0LCE
Even if it meant losing everything on her side of the wall.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfdvvcj2QEx
Even if it meant becoming a ghost for good.
**********57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGy52LmjxPv
Months had passed since the events that tangled their lives — the secret messages, the near encounters, and the shadowed help that saved her more than once. Yet Kim still had no answers.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTQ1sqCAfGX
Sitting in the quiet corner of the library, she absentmindedly traced the faded crease of a folded note — one that had somehow found its way to her during the most chaotic days. The words weren’t signed, but she knew who had sent it.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4pi0hVaBDP
Her mind churned, replaying everything she’d pieced together — the strange help from the shadows, the moments when it seemed Juma was near but never quite close enough to reach, and the puzzling silence that followed each attempt to connect.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCXojAxrrA9
Why did he help me? she wondered, voice barely a whisper. How did he know everything — the dangers, the secrets? And why did he pull away when she most needed him?57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX3FMmfWZie
Her heart ached with unanswered questions, tangled with a reluctant hope that maybe, just maybe, he felt the same.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5dox6CTxFF
But the walls between them — both physical and invisible — still held their secrets tight.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJzdmwr6O6C
Kim closed the book she had been pretending to read, her fingers tightening around the worn cover. The library around her buzzed with the usual quiet chatter and shuffling footsteps, but her world felt suspended in a fragile bubble of doubt and longing.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGKmmZKS76h
The past months had been a maze of half-truths and silent messages. Every time she thought she understood Juma’s reasons, new questions twisted tighter around her heart. She remembered the way he smiled at her that day on Sports Day — a smile that had seemed to hold a promise. But after that, he had vanished into the shadows, his help subtle and distant, leaving her to wonder if it had been real at all.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoDHRJWMDpY
Now, a fresh rumor was drifting through the school — whispers that the Order was cracking down harder, and that anyone connected to secret dealings risked exposure. For Kim, this was more than a threat. It was a signal.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpXgurljXO9
If she wanted answers, if she wanted to understand Juma — she couldn’t wait for fate to pull them together. She had to take the risk herself.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqrydO7kdNk
She remembered Seline’s sharp gaze the day after Sports Day, the silent tension whenever Juma’s name came up, and the strange calm in Juma’s eyes when they briefly locked.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyDf0VrnspH
But no answers.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9fAG88wB8j
Kim clenched her fists. The wall between their schools was more than concrete. It was silence, secrets, and distance.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ugIevbOTs
Yet, somewhere deep inside, a stubborn voice whispered that Juma wasn’t just part of the Order or the game. That maybe he cared. Maybe he wanted her to find him.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiFuCujeMsx
Her next steps were uncertain — but one thing was clear: she could no longer let the silence define their story.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡumzraQ6KLZ
Kim stood back by the edge of the school grounds, out of earshot and sight of the boys’ side. The music festival team from her school was preparing to cross over for practice—a rare chance for the mixed group to rehearse together. Kim stood a little distance away, clutching a folded sheet of paper. The crowd of girls preparing to cross over for their session buzzed around her, laughing and adjusting their instruments.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡta9JyLnIe9
She handed her folded letter to Mary before she stepped through the gate, she thrust the letter into the other girl’s hand. “Please, if you get the chance… give this to the prefect. The one in charge of discipline. I don’t know his full name or class, but he’s a prefect.”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWYLcHr8IBe
Mary’s eyebrows rose. “That’s mysterious. Why don’t you just say Juma?”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjiSys7lFQQ
Kim shook her head. “I don’t know if he’d want me to. Just… be careful.”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg1D4l8vsL0
Mary nodded; her face serious. “I’ll make sure he gets it.”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPB5FcuJEAz
As the girls disappeared beyond the boundary, Kim felt a quiet hope — but also the sting of distance. Once they were on the other side, everything was lost to her—the voices, the sounds, even the possibility of a reply.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVnj1AyBsNa
She folded her arms, staring at the empty space where they had just vanished, wondering if her words would reach him at all.
**********57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvkaUncj8y3
The late afternoon sun cast long shadows over the courtyard where Kim sat alone, scribbling notes for her upcoming school assignments. The air was thick with the scent of rain yet to fall, and the hum of distant chatter from the other students blended with the rustling leaves.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfn4vCNbe94
Suddenly, a scrap of folded paper slid quietly across the stone bench beside her. She looked up, startled. No one seemed close enough to have dropped it.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuGZ5yS1wBf
Kim’s fingers trembled as she unfolded the note. The handwriting was unfamiliar—neat, careful, yet with a hint of urgency.
Kim,57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAwXQnrbFqG
Your message reached me through the usual silence — thank you for trusting the shadows.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLcFEmmvUMl
You ask why I watch from afar, why I help without revealing myself. The truth is this: the wall keeps us apart, but it also keeps us safe. If I showed myself, we would both risk everything.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡefBlWmPBiX
I am only a prefect, but not just any prefect. I carry burdens you cannot see — duties that bind me tighter than chains.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIQc7udaiwR
The Order watches. Trust is scarce, and words are weapons. That is why I must be cautious, why I send my help wrapped in riddles and folded papers.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7gCLKHxJR5
If you want answers, patience is your ally. For now, keep your questions close, and your heart closer.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKmR3DtG4kz
Juma.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVrv7dPDywx
Kim spun around to see Seline standing there, eyes sharp and unreadable.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0xSMTWYwY
Seline took a step closer and glanced at the letter in Kim’s hand.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlig76jGeFu
“Let me see it,” she said quietly.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlJ8EzoxMRr
Kim hesitated but then handed over the note.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTIyKegNcbl
Seline’s eyes scanned the lines, her expression unreadable.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKJNcd8H5pj
When she looked up, she said, “This isn’t just from any prefect, is it?”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgdZj9z8x3C
Kim shook her head.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRBz2Z27WLr
“How do you know?” she whispered.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoVohJfB2xz
Seline smiled, a little sadly.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvr5IuRhFki
“Let’s just say I’ve heard whispers. Juma’s no stranger to me.”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC0nDDTgAb7
Kim’s mind raced—why was Seline here? Why did she care?57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCHkJks3Ea9
Seline folded the letter carefully and handed it back.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡurybDM0fCv
“Be careful, Kim. There’s more at play here than you realize.”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBRee0g3nZh
Kim nodded, clutching the letter tightly.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk2Gme9jN3t
The mystery of Juma deepened.
**********57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡywkzPVeEoH
It was a slow Thursday. The kind that dragged itself across the compound like an unwanted chore. Juma sat on the old stone ledge behind the dining hall, a cracked red prefects' ledger balanced on his knee. The sun was slipping behind the Jacaranda trees, dust floating through the shafts of gold.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0SzMOuhw6
His fingers ran down the page — detention rosters, noise makers, dorm checks — until he heard a voice.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfiK6ndhDiA
"Oi, prefect Juma!"57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm1dZygEmnO
He looked up. A Form Two boy — lanky, eyes darting — jogged toward him holding out a folded paper.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDYaDirSkkT
“Someone from the girls’ side told my cousin to give this to a prefect. Said it was urgent but... weird. No names, just ‘give to a prefect, maybe he’ll know.’ I thought you might—”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd41DXG1MTu
Juma’s heart jolted. He took the paper with steady hands. “You sure it’s from across?”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWPoxcBct6y
The boy shrugged. “Girls came for that music thing, right? She passed it just before they left.”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjoeeTTo3Jn
Juma almost dismissed it — he got things like that often. Requests. Club lists. Messy signatures from juniors hoping to gain favor. Unfolding it felt... dangerous. Sacred. 57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKdoCsedHrK
The handwriting stopped him.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGWHeIfqmwj
It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t desperate.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Gm09BTsZd
It was her.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKzhldRxtTr
Kim.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmVXPTcVzp5
He read the first line. Stopped. Then read it again. Slower.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyvvn5LJIm7
“I know you’re a prefect. I know your name — only the first — but somehow, that was enough to notice the patterns...”57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjp0HE5EnJ5
His pulse shifted.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzwHiAXsUYq
As he kept reading, his jaw tightened — not with anger, but something heavier. He stood still in the narrow corridor, one hand bracing the wall as if the truth written in ink had tilted his balance.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡttYFe4FqyC
She knew. Or at least, she had guessed.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1vYqDxFuyn
And now she was asking.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9aEQ9S07Um
Why did you help me?57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfort5MtUGu
Did you ever mean for me to know?57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ42YhqM41HG
He folded the letter back, slowly, carefully. Like it was something sacred.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOLOg4YcKnF
Then he sat down — on the stone ledge by the wall outside the chapel block — where no one would ask why a prefect looked like he’d just had the wind knocked out of him.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIWnYAKDyGk
For months, he’d lived with the guilt. Watching her maneuver battles he’d softened from behind the curtain.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi9fGJHV6r5
He’d convinced himself silence was safer — for both of them.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiazHqGUVjP
And yet, her words had made him ache.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrkg6y7lu2s
Not just from guilt. But from the hope he’d buried.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ81vMAIV0NC
She remembered.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHPki9dzRn0
Not just the signs — but him.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1mhhySmOqQ
He read the letter again.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnBInJ0O0b2
And again.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNFlRrBV0gi
Then, for the first time since he joined the Order, Juma felt something stir that no doctrine could quiet.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqwlZU6gwAH
Something terrifying and honest.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCLuwYJOEuw
He had a choice now.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcUMcUwqyxP
To write back — and unravel everything.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWavoCHDt6X
Or to stay silent — and lose the only girl who ever saw through him.57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYbdafHk4X5
57Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2D2hJIepvq
