Ivie scrambled back to her bed after seeing the back of the priest and forced herself into sleep. When she woke up the next morning, the grogginess heavy in her eyes, she decided she was ditching class that morning. She cradled herself against the sheets and dived back to sleep again.
She slept into the midday until a knock sounded on her door. It was Itohan.
"What kept you awake all night that you decided to substitute your day for night?" She asked coming inside with a tray of food.
"You don't want to know about it, I promise you." She yawned. "Thank you."
"Does it have anything to do with why JohnMary got a punishment today?"
She looked at her in surprise. "He got a punishment?"
"Father Chibuike ditched one to him, what happened?" She placed the food on her table and sat on the bed.
"Somebody sent me this prank note, he worried it would be serious. Well, it was. Do you know of the transfer student, the dwarf?" Itohan nodded. "Apparently, she was going to put rats in my room. Father Chibuike caught her, JohnMary showed up, so I'm guessing he punished them both for wandering at that time of the night."
"Maybe he doesn't like annoying you after all. Gaga was right, he just doesn't like students with a bad character," she joked. "He didn't even press the matter when Gaga told him you were sick."
"He bought that?"
"He didn't press it, but it's going to get you into trouble. You know, I wonder why what gets all of us in trouble doesn't get you, your grace is different."
She waved her hand. "Whatever. I'll quickly brush my teeth and have brunch." She hurried to the bathroom.
"I'll open the window, this room is stuffy," she said after her and walked to the window. Pulling the curtain away, she unlocked the wind pane and pushed open. Then she raise the curtain to tuck it into one of the panes, keeping it in place. Her eyes caught a note lying by the wall.
Curious, she picked it up. At the front was written the words she was familiar with and without further ado, she tore the note open. She read the content and reread it.
"What is that?" Ivie asked, stepping out of the bathroom to see her focused.
"How did you get this?" Itohan turned to face her, the note at the tip of her finger.
"What is that?" Ivie snatched it from her to read it. "OMG! What is this?" She turned the paper over to the front and she saw the word Sorry. "This is…."
"Precious's suicide note," Itohan completed.
"How…. This…. What…. How did it get in here? Christ, IT, this is not a suicide note, look, it's printed."
"Doesn't look like one to me," she agreed. "How did you get it?"
"Beats me." She had gone to look for it in Sister Gabriel's office, hadn't found it, so how did it get into her room? "Where did you see it?"
Itohan pointed to the wall. "It was behind the curtain, I saw it when I pulled it away."
"This is scary. First, that I have this note and second, look what's here! I'll quickly eat, call the others."
"JohnMary is serving his punishment," Itohan reminded, not sure why she was excited.
She rolled her eyes. "Father Chibuike would not kill him if he disappeared for a few minutes. Let's meet in the library."
Ivie pushed her out of the room to avoid any more questions and hurried to finish her food before going to join them in the library.
"Guys, I've hit the jackpot," she told them, placing the note at the center of the table.
"You'd be surprised at what Ivie calls a jackpot," Itohan warned.
"The suicide note?" Both Gaga and Aisosa chorused in unison when they saw the note.
"This isn't just a suicide note, it's a printed suicide note. Read it." She urged them.
"This…" JohnMary held his breath. "How did you get it?"
"IT found it in room this morning, I have no idea whatsoever."
"Mehn, look at her signature," Gaga pointed out. "This is one fancy way to compose a suicide note."
"But this looks to me like an agreement," JohnMary said. "Is the school playing with us, did they change the real thing?"
"But her signature is there, and this uses a second person pronoun. Listen," she read the words out,
"I go to the place that you will send,
A place where the turmoils seems not to end,
A place where I have neither enemies nor friends,
A place where I will wait until you call me again."
"That's creepy," Aisosa said. "So creepy."
"It doesn't make any sense. If Precious wrote this, then let's input her name,
Precious goes to the place that someone will send,
A place where the turmoils seems not to end,
A place where Precious have neither enemies nor friends,
A place where Precious will wait until that someone calls Precious again.
What kind of a joke is this?"
"Then there's her signature," Aisosa pointed out again.
A hush fell on them, as they lost themselves in the labyrinth of their thoughts. After a while, Ivie broke the silence. "It wasn't suicide."
She knew that much, what she lacked was evidence and now it laid at the center of the table. She knew what killed the girl but couldn't even say it for the fear that her sanity would be questioned, and now that she has seen the note, it started to make sense.
A printed suicide note? A signature? Something was definitely fishy.
"Just one thing I'm curious about, how you got this," Itohan said.
"I don't know."
"But you asked about this note."
Ivie looked at her friends, and then signed defeatedly. "Fine, I was actually searching for it, I was curious about something." But she would leave the part where she went into Siater Gabriel's office. "Then yesterday, along with my result grades was a note that says I should leave my window open that night."
"Which I told you not to," JohnMary added.
"Well, I'm a curious person." She shrugged. "So I left it open, but fell asleep while I waited. Then I was awakened by a noise, you know the rest. But I didn't see either John or the priest or the dwarf slip this inside."
"Who said you should leave your window open?" Itohan asked.
"No name, Father Chibuike said it was for me."
"You didn't even ask who it came from?"
"Well, he said maybe it could be from—" him. "I don't remember anymore." Of course, the priest was only joking when he said that, she wouldn't implicate him. They hadn't found anything when they searched in Sister Gabriel's office, there was no way he would have it.
"Did someone else knew you were looking for this note, that would be the most plausible guess."
Ivie answered almost immediately. "No, I didn't tell anyone, no one else knew—" except Father Chibuike.