CHAPTER EIGHT22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW8j3iyakxK
Mercy22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKOWduxPLB9
Mercy stood beneath the jacaranda, the dappled sunlight painting shifting patterns across her arms. She was the kind of girl who always seemed to know what was happening before anyone else, but lately, even she looked unsettled. The usual easy confidence in her posture was edged with something sharper-a tension that hadn’t been there before.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTyny4WcuK8
The lunch bell had just rung, and the courtyard was alive with girls in blue skirts streaming toward the dining hall. Mercy stood beneath the jacaranda, her posture regal, her gaze sweeping the crowd. Kim and Seline approached. To anyone watching, it was just three seniors chatting about nothing at all.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxhniebYQUU
Kim offered a half-smile, glancing at the clusters of girls. “There’s a strange feeling in the air, isn’t there? Like everyone’s holding their breath.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwLjdQ8uf5t
Mercy’s lips pressed into a thin line. “It’s just exam nerves,” she said, but her eyes flickered to Seline.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxAsNTERCkd
Seline twirled her purple pen, her voice light. “Maybe. But I heard some of the prefects are worried. They think the teachers are looking for someone to blame after… you know, all the rumors. People are saying it’s safer to keep your head down for a while. Let the noise pass.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWDXKkiOjnB
Kim nodded, lowering her voice. “It’s easy to get caught up in things that aren’t your fault. Sometimes, the smart ones know when to step back. Just until things settle.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡicNw9ISJaT
Mercy didn’t answer right away. She watched the other girls drift by, laughter and whispers swirling around them like the wind. For the first time, she seemed uncertain-her fingers tapping a silent rhythm against her skirt.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKhOUrgTmA8
Seline shrugged, as if the conversation meant nothing. “Anyway, I’m just glad I’m not in charge of anything important right now. Too much attention isn’t always a good thing.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ42Yrg7ASgy
They let the words hang in the air, then melted back into the crowd, their faces unreadable.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNcOpdTxHlk
Mercy stood alone under the jacaranda, the sunlight now a little harsher, the shadows a little longer. She watched Kim and Seline disappear into the lunch line, her mind turning over their words. They hadn’t accused, hadn’t warned, hadn’t said anything at all. But Mercy felt the message settle in her chest: be careful. Don’t stand out. Not now.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm7KgOPqDn2
And for the first time, Mercy wondered if it was safer to let someone else be seen.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWYADQDKHtf
**********22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjWD9iyExRz
The wall stood silent in the dusk, its stones still holding the day’s warmth as the shadows lengthened across Kisumu Girls’. Kim lingered near the bougainvillea, feeling the weight of secrets pressing in from all sides. The events of the past weeks had left the school restless: rumors about boys crossing the wall had resurfaced, prefects prowling the dorm corridors, whispers of a new crackdown.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXFEq5VO3OG
But tonight, Kim and Seline moved with purpose. They had learned the power of suggestion, of letting a rumor slip just loud enough for the right ears to catch. It started with a note-anonymous, the handwriting disguised-slipped into the deputy principal’s suggestion box:22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaSprtCWEUD
There are girls who meet at the wall after lights out. Some prefects know. Some teachers suspect. Ask about the blue paper clip.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMmRAsahCtY
By morning, the school buzzed with tension. Prefects were summoned, teachers questioned students in hushed tones, and the Order’s lieutenants stalked the halls with narrowed eyes. The blue paper clip-a harmless trinket-suddenly became a symbol of conspiracy.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJem2hEvOCa
Seline, always observant, noticed which staff members seemed genuinely unsettled. She approached her PE teacher Mrs. Ojwang’ after class, her voice soft and careful.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpVeB57QGfH
“Madam, I think something strange is happening near the wall at night. Maybe… someone should watch. Just in case. I’m so scared”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdxQ82aeP5U
That evening, a teacher’s flashlight swept the edge of the compound, catching two figures darting away- caught out of bounds, forced to explain themselves in front of the staff.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxSgZX0DDXa
But the girls didn’t stop there. They orchestrated a study group in the old storeroom, a place known for secret meetings. Kim let slip to a known loyalist,22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2VgCWyt0Xf
“I heard someone’s going to confess everything tonight.” 22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3pXJ5sYwLw
The rumor spread, and soon, Order members lurked in the shadows, desperate to see who would betray them. But when the door creaked open, it was only Kim and a few friends, textbooks open, feigning surprise at the intrusion.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ4rCnj86sC
The Order’s paranoia grew. The next day, a prefect snapped at a junior in public, drawing the attention of teachers and students alike. The cracks in their unity widened.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrHWkDpMHcV
All the while, Kim, Seline, and Mary watched from the sidelines, quietly gathering stories, readying their next move. The wall no longer seemed so impenetrable. With every rumor, every anonymous letter, every orchestrated scene, the truth crept closer to the surface-ready to break through, golden and undeniable, for all to see.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJlXBWxgShV
And as the sun set, painting the wall in molten light, the girls knew: the Order was being forced into the open, not by confrontation, but by the slow, relentless pressure of secrets brought into the daylight.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxy0OORBzBH
Mary sat cross-legged on her bunk, the yellow glow of the emergency light flickering across her notes. Kim and Seline leaned in, their faces tense but eager. The dormitory was quiet-most girls asleep, the only sounds the distant hum of the city and the occasional creak of a bed frame.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkeBcVb1sAp
Mary’s voice was barely above a whisper. “They always react the same way when they feel threatened,” she said, flipping through her notebook. “Every time someone gets close to exposing them, the Order tries to scare them off. Rumors, isolation, sometimes even a fake warning from a teacher. It’s happened before-Achieng’, remember? She tried to go public. They made her look like a troublemaker, and she had to leave.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLHDANS2qNJ
Kim nodded, remembering the stories. “So, if we’re careful, we don’t give them a single target. No one stands out.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQsMtw2xUsS
“Exactly,” Mary replied, her eyes sharp. “We use what they expect against them. When they start looking for someone to blame, we stay quiet, keep our heads down, and let the rumors swirl. They’ll waste time chasing shadows.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5AjsBGY3Yf
Seline tapped her purple pen, her mind racing. “And when they try to set a trap-like those fake notes or sudden ‘disciplinary meetings’-we don’t take the bait. We watch; we wait. We let them show their hand first.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhHSPEhAdfH
Mary smiled, a glint of confidence in her eyes. “We’re not the first to challenge them. But we can be the first to learn from what happened before. The Order thinks the wall keeps us divided, but secrets cross it every day. If we move together, they can’t isolate us.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPJGFzj6ZZn
Outside, the wall glowed faintly gold in the moonlight-a silent witness to the old games and new strategies unfolding in its shadow.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK1u8RLnJYa
As the girls planned, they felt the power of history on their side. Each lesson from the past was a shield, each old mistake a warning. This time, they would not be caught unaware. This time, they would be ready.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡni6m1f0iqW
The wall seemed to hum with secrets that week. Kim noticed it in the way girls lingered by the bougainvillea, eyes darting, voices dropping to a hush. She noticed it in the way Seline’s purple pen tapped out nervous rhythms on her desk, and in the way even the prefects seemed to move more quickly, glancing over their shoulders as if chased by invisible shadows.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxbafeK8TbA
It started with a whisper in the dining hall-just a few words, dropped like a pebble into a pond:22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCcAITI1lue
“Someone’s planning something by the wall tonight. I heard it from a Form Three.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQeNV4SBeKJ
No one said what, or who. But by evening, the rumor had grown legs. A prefect was seen pacing the edge of the compound, pretending to check for litter, but really watching the shadows.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnvY0eKPPJO
The next day, a different rumor surfaced-this time in the queue for water.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCevXgqRIvW
“they say the boys are sending a message. Someone saw a scrap of blue cloth near the wall this morning. Maybe it’s a warning.”22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCBliTFKecZ
No one could say who’d seen it, or what it meant. But the tension was real.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgReWlqaI1G
Seline, careful as ever, let slip to a trusted teacher that she’d heard girls talking about “a secret meeting” in the old storeroom. That night, the staff swept through the halls, flashlights bouncing off stone, but found only empty benches and a forgotten sweater.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmWFH1NJLIk
On the boys’ side, the effect was the same. Musa noticed how Otieno’s friends grew jumpy, how even the bravest boys avoided the wall after dark. Whispers flew-someone had been caught, someone else had left a note, no one was sure what was true.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqWV08RLoA4
The Order-those shadowy seniors who thought they held all the strings-were suddenly tangled in them. Every time they tried to act, the ground shifted. Every time they thought they’d found the source of the trouble, it slipped away, replaced by a new rumor, a new ghost to chase.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN0yoqfj5se
Kim watched it all unfold, heart pounding. She and Seline never spoke directly about what they’d started. They didn’t need to. The wall did the work for them, carrying secrets and confusion back and forth until no one could tell what was real and what was smoke.22Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8KV1gVlKJu
And as the sun set, painting the wall in molten gold, Kim knew they had changed something fundamental. The Order, for all its power, was chasing shadows-its decisions slowed, its certainty gone. The wall still stood, but now it was the girls who controlled what crossed it, and what stayed hidden in the dark.
Penana
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