Inside the staff room, Father Chibuike could barely make out what the Dean was saying. His voice was too deep in sorrow concerning the Sister's demise, and the room was too quiet.
It was boring. Father IK kept repeating his statements, kept shaking his head, kept flickering his lashes and Father Chibuike wanted the meeting to end quickly or something exciting to happen.
Beside him, Father Ekene leaned to whisper. "Avoid Agatha as much as possible, she'd kill you at the slightest opportunity."
"I thought her only interest was in killing you?" Father Chibuike whispered back.
"That's before you cat made a grand appearance and now threatens to expose you and send you and maybe us, packing. She's pissed by it, muttering over again how insensible you are."
"Did she really say that or you added it?"
"Mm-mmh," the Dean cleared his throat looking over to their seat. "I suppose what you're whispering about is more important than what we are doing here?"
"Yes," Father Chibuike replied briskly. "So I'd appreciate you to be fast and spare us that Sister Omo's favourite colour is purple. I mean, what would I do with such useless information?"
The Dean eyed him, embarrassed, the disrespect glaringly obvious.
From where she sat, Sister Agatha shut her eyes for a while, God be praised if Father Chibuike didn't get himself on the Dean's black list.
After the Dean continued his speech, Father Chibuike whispered again to his colleague, "If you're not too busy with Agatha, spare an eye out for Ivie on my behalf."
"Our little friend?"
"Our little friend."
"What is it about her? She looks like she can handle herself."
"And that's why she needs someone checking her back. There's more to this school than the eye can see."
"You won't tell me anything, would you?"
He shook his head. "Just watch out for her." He didn't want to get directly involved with her. Okay, he already had, but he didn't want to go deeper, he didn't want to be distracted.
Despite his complain, the meeting stretched for some more minutes and he would have walked out if it didn't end when it did.
He left first, avoiding any confrontation with Sister Agatha.
Odion was leaning on the wall, and when she saw him, she hurried to him. "I've been waiting for you."
"For whatever reason?"
"You won't believe what I saw?"
"Bet me?" He saw the mirth dancing in her eyes and he didn't need a special angel to tell him it was about Ivie.
"I saw Ivie and her friends going into your office and from the way they sneaked in, looking around, I am sure they knew you were not there."
It had him pausing. "How long was this?" He asked.
"Some minutes. I came to report to you as quick as possible."
"Why, aren't you a little angel?" He left her and made his way to his office, but she trailed behind him.
——
After minutes of fruitless search, Ivie exhaled. "There's no cat here."
"Search deeper." Itohan was by the desk, the drawers flung open and she was going through some documents.
"Somebody should please tell Itohan that cats do not hide in between pages of documents," Ivie said.
Gaga obliged. "IT, Ivie said to tell you that cats do not hide between pages of a document, you should stop waisting time and search other potential spots. I added the last bit."
"I think Ivie is right," JohnMary said, "there's no way we would not have caught it if it was here. I mean, this is a small office, we are five, a cat can't hide for this long without any of us seeing it. Look, we've scattered everywhere already."
"Let's leave before the meeting ends and Father Chibuike decides to come back."
"You're scared, Ivie," Itohan mentioned. "So unlike you."
"Wait till you have an expulsion waiting for you and tell me if you won't be scared. I'm out." But she barely made it to the door when it opened on its own and Father Chibuike stepped inside. It felt like the first time he caught her, except this time was in his office. She froze. Before the door closed, she saw Odion making faces at her. Of course, she was the devil.
"Oh hello," Father Chibuike greeted, his eyes racking through his office before landing on Ivie who look too shocked to speak. "Do what do I owe this visit?"
She searched her brain for something to say. "I…we….um…"
"It's a wonder how quick one can turn into a stammerer, someone God gave the ability to speak. What happened to your ability to speak, Ivie?"
She looked everywhere but him. Then her eyes landed on the window. "It flew out from the window."
"Indeed words have power, only that yours has the power to fly." He smiled, but Ivie saw that the smile didn't reach his eyes.
She cleared her throat, scratched it and then turned around to go and stand at the back. She wasn't the master-minder of the act, why should she bear the fall?
"She's going to look for her ability to speak," Father Chibuike tutted. "That leaves me with Itohan, whatever were you people doing here?"
Her hands fidgeted at her side. "Ummm… we..I …"
"You too? This is no fun."
"A snake!" She pointed the window. "We saw a snake."
Father Chibuike nodded understandingly. "Ah, a snake."
"Anaconda," she added.
Internally, Ivie groaned. Did Itohan not know what kind of snake Anaconda was? She was going to blow their cover with her unreasonable lie.
"Is that true, Gaga?"
"I did not actually see the snake but If Itohan said it then it has to be true."
"Right. Aisosa, what about you?" He rose a brow at her.
"I saw something slipping out, I don't know if it was the snake she saw."
"Ivie, are you still searching for your ability to speak?"
"Yes."
"Then what about JohnMary?"
"We were just so worried that something would happen to you, so we decided to check."
Father Chibuike placed a hand on his chest. "How lucky I am to have people care about me. First, an Anaconda decided I was special enough to pay a visit to and then you all decided to fight on my behalf." He walked away from them, observing the room.
It really did look like they were looking for the snake, if he didn't know better, he'd have believed them. The drawers were almost pulled out from its hinges, papers were strewn over the desk and on the floor as if miraculously the anaconda would appear from between the pages.
He didn't know what they were looking for, but he could guess and it left an unsettling in him, especially because he knew the cat was not there. Where was she? He didn't want her wandering around the school when a bounty was placed on her head.
He walked to where Ivie was hiding at the back. "I feel so honoured to have you all here fighting this snake on my behalf, you've proven once again that you love me."
Ivie wished he would keep his distance, she didn't want to touch him again, even though by mistake, and feel that void. She didn't know what it was, but it felt too empty, too hollow. Every other person she had touched showed her something of theirs, did Father Chibuike not have a past?
"Father, umm..I…"
Itohan cut her short, her voice shaking. "I'll say the truth, Father, it was Ivie who said the cat Sister Gabriel saw belongs to you, we came here to check."
It felt like a bomb exploded in Ivie's ears, it reverberated again and again and even after she looked at Itohan, she couldn't understand what just happened.
Father Chibuike turned to her immediately. "Is that so? And here I was thinking you genuinely care about me, such a betrayal," he tsked.
"What did you say?" Ivie asked in a calm voice hoping she had heard wrong, giving Itohan the choice to take back her words and pretend it was a slip of tongue.
But Itohan didn't. "It was you who told us about the cat."
Ivie didn't know when she leaped at her, but she knew the hit would have been heavy if Father Chibuike didn't hold her back.
"Woah!" He said, his arm securing firmly around her waist. "No fights in my office."
"I just want to slap her, maybe punch her face, or pull her hair, anything that would hurt but wouldn't cause her to cry." She tried to wiggle free from his hold.
Father Chibuike laughed. "What kind of logic is that?"
"But you said Father Chibuike had a cat!" Itohan defended.
"I never told you that, bitch!"
"What did I say about curse words?" Father Chibuike pushed her to the back and stood in front of her, blocking her.
"You told Gaga you saw him with a cat," Itohan said.
"Me?" Gaga pointed at herself in disbelief. "Ivie never told me that, I made it up. It was your idea to come here and go through Father Chibuike's stuff."
"Ivie tried to have an out, you insisted on this," JohnMary added, not believing the turn of event.
Itohan's face flushed. "How would I know Gaga was lying? She shouldn't have lied against the priest in the first place, she's the reason of the misunderstanding."
"You bloody—"
"Shhh," Father Chibuike mouthed as he placed a finger to his lips, hushing Ivie. "I have this." Then he turned around to face the others. "You know what the worse of evil is, Itohan?" He took a step forward and stood in front of her. "Betrayal. I thought you really cared about me to want to fight an anaconda for my sake, it was fake. You took advantage of my trust, misled me and broke my heart, how do you think I can ever forgive you?"
Itohan bowed. "I'm sorry, Father, but I'm not entirely at fault here. We can take this to the Dean if you don't believe me."
Ivie's heart drummed loudly. What was Itohan thinking? If they indeed went to the Dean, that would be Ivie's last day in St. Stephen.
Father Chibuike studied her for a while. "It's either you don't know about the Ivie's issue with the Dean and you're saying this from a place of innocence, or you know and just want to get Ivie into trouble, which one is it?"
"I just thought the Dean would have a better judgment."
He shrugged. "I believe so too—"
Ivie's eyes shone at the back.
"—but before we make that trip to the Dean, you should clean up this mess, don't you think? After all, the Dean can't tell me what to do with the delinquents who invaded my space to cause such nuisance. And of course, you'd get a detention, I won't let this slide. And don't think you can escape it Ivie, telling your friends I have a cat, leading them here, I don't know what to think about you anymore."
Did he actually believe it? She locked his secret in her room for goodness sake! So much for looking out for him.
"Chop chop," he clapped. "Don't just stand there like mannequins, get a broom and a rag. You should have done this earlier when this office was smeared with dust, too bad I've had it clean."
As they cleaned, Ivie's heart bled with thoughts on how best to kill Itohan without getting caught. Maybe she was going to be responsible for the next fall on the staircase. Itohan had better prepared herself, she was definitely not getting away with this.
Father Chibuike stood by the side, watching, monitoring, and when they finished, he sat behind his desk.
"I feel betrayed," he said, "I can't explain enough. I thought we all had something, like a kinship."
They all bowed their heads, but he knew they were far from being remorseful.
"As a punishment, you shall all right a letter containing five hundred words and it must end with 'Oh how I love Father Chibuike'. Don't forget you have detention to serve, and that visit to the Dean. Itohan, why don't you wait for me outside?
She looked askance at first, but obliged.
"Look at her, in all her innocence, she wanted to find this cat of mine and turn me into the school authorities and all this time I thought she loved me. I thought we were friends, Ivie."
Still burning with anger, she had no time for the priest's tantrums. "Unfortunately, it's a group of five."
"Now that one has been removed, I can take her place, right? Aisosa, go and sympathize with your friend, she must be crying her eyes out now having been kicked out of the group and replaced by me."
Aisosa left without a blink.
"Students are quite the dare devils, don't you think, JohnMary?"
"I don't know, Father."
"By the way, have you done the gentlemanly thing you should have done?" He looked from him to Gaga.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Father."
"Why don't you go outside and think about it." He nodded to the door, urging him out.
JohnMary left and after a minute, he joked Gaga out too, and now just with Ivie, the smile left his face.
"I'm serious about feeling betrayed. Coming here and see you involve with them after everything we've been through together."
If Ivie wasn't at his mercy, she'd have rolled her eyes at his never ending complaints. "Itohan is lying, I didn't tell her about your cat, I can't believe you believed her."
"I don't and I know you didn't tell her about my cat."
Ivie frowned. "Then why did you…." She shook her head as she let her voice trail off, why would she ever forget the priest was a sneaky man?
"But she's not here, is she? This is a critical moment, I can't have her walking around."
"Because of that thing with Sister Gabriel?" Ivie asked. "Did she really see it?"
He shrugged. "How would I know what the Sister has seen." Then he inhaled deeply. "Ah, the smell of cleanliness. You should have informed me of your little antics so I can keep the place dirtier."
"We didn't plan it! We were on the way to the lunchroom when Itohan brought the topic up, and I couldn't say no without being suspicious as this is what I usually do. I still can't believe Itohan did that to me," she murmured the last part to herself.
"The same way one of them told the Dean this," he waved his hand around. "Is what you normally do."
Ivie paused. "You think one of my friends told him."
"I and them alone know how well this is your forte, it has to be one of us and since it's not me, then it has to be one of them."
Ivie thought about it, the different instances were she found Itohan suspicious, but she shook her head. "You're trying to come between us."
He nodded, agreeing. "And I hope I am successful. Didn't you see how she mentioned the Dean despite that you must have told her about him wanting to expel you, don't be so gullible."
"What does that matter to you?" She shot him a defensive look.
"You are a good student, I don't want to lose you."
"You didn't even come back to check on me at the infirmary," she whispered.
He heard, but didn't reply. "How about we forget about you and discuss the most important thing? Me. Now, have any idea where my cat would be? She would usually come around when I come back."
Now, Ivie rolled her eyes. "She's in my room."
A smile broke on Father Chibuike's face. "Aren't you the efficient one? I was hurt about the whole anaconda thing, but it's good hear that you'd look over my property for me."
"It was— forget it."
"How do you feel?" He motioned to small cut now visible on her head.
She touched it. "Fine. Sister Agatha rubs an ointment on it so it wouldn't leave a scar. You didn't come back after that day," she said again.
"No, I didn't." Their gaze locked for a while before he smiled. "I need to go see the Dean, let her remain in your room."
"Wait!" Ivie stopped him from standing. "You're really going? If you do, I'd be expelled."
"I won't let you leave here under my watch. Itohan begged, rolled on the floor for me to take her to the Dean, I can't break her heart now, can I?"
"Father—"
"Trust me." He rose up and smiled.
"Father wait, do I really have to write that letter with five hundred words?"
"My my, of course not. I'm sorry, don't let me limit you, you're free to go over a thousand if you so desire."
Ivie tried to keep her voice controlled when she said, "That's not what I meant. And why would it end with 'Oh how I love Father Chibuike?', that's too cheesy for a priest."
"Having complaints, are we? You loved me even before seeing me, remember?"
She didn't try to control her voice again. "I told you the placard was not mine!"