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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW2HoxxPd2w
But neither Naomi nor Jabari knew the full picture.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXjvWmX6JW2
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw3iD1Mnve7
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3vUN215yhK
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW1iKYMPyDr
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgKQjuYA5mK
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBxiXDsklru
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgcYSw3zZpY
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3DkHmQJqYr
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.
**********32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZOCRKrrkAA
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7TZhEN3giu
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.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaMHsvE3fCp
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBZqSj2RWbG
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡExGPScDk72
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnFpTdgdcUx
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0maRnbFN0B
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmwh3a6q026
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUS2BpW7yPf
But Amina was watching.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡalzoHqLcAH
She always watched.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLgdKDCafYm
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5jNODPmPL7
"When the lights rise, do not look up. Look left. We will pass through the still ones."32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvt4SvcqPKH
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3m1m1JT094
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡej4kbGpNUe
Amina’s loyalty lay across the wall.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡokZN4eJy3K
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡygCL1I4Sa5
She adjusted her path accordingly.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5IlDpuNGJZ
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqdrcMekgPV
Still, the fallout was brutal.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0IE7VjH0Ly
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡitI8Nmhhfq
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCgy7M2jJjR
But she couldn’t stop.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0qcDxFW79Y
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiuXYOQ53FH
And when they moved, she would move too. For Jabari. For the Order.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnqe4QBSWp0
Even if it meant losing everything on her side of the wall.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoEd8D465YO
Even if it meant becoming a ghost for good.
**********32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDnoEOX25J9
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIC3vqDiAeN
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3OrsVIW0xq
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxCvkfEIhrh
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?32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDkgeGE9Rw2
Her heart ached with unanswered questions, tangled with a reluctant hope that maybe, just maybe, he felt the same.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ21qgR28Tf
But the walls between them — both physical and invisible — still held their secrets tight.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcXRA79LIbL
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSQ8koig9jR
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdx8swhGiZ0
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw6xea9Eq8Q
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAX6qeiS7YJ
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS9mOcEfFOk
But no answers.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOpxqZMBRXd
Kim clenched her fists. The wall between their schools was more than concrete. It was silence, secrets, and distance.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKA5X7ExhQe
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqpjy1XKdIf
Her next steps were uncertain — but one thing was clear: she could no longer let the silence define their story.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ19rt5BSjko
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd1jwE2707G
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.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrswE9K6HDP
Mary’s eyebrows rose. “That’s mysterious. Why don’t you just say Juma?”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKVv7rsHMFA
Kim shook her head. “I don’t know if he’d want me to. Just… be careful.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT3fAAh5wob
Mary nodded; her face serious. “I’ll make sure he gets it.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdaKjXl8Sff
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzEWl6VrGO9
She folded her arms, staring at the empty space where they had just vanished, wondering if her words would reach him at all.
**********32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoEoHNwNSvN
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡViGwRsvA1i
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5lQDDOFKCz
Kim’s fingers trembled as she unfolded the note. The handwriting was unfamiliar—neat, careful, yet with a hint of urgency.
Kim,32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgF5cJmA85a
Your message reached me through the usual silence — thank you for trusting the shadows.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEEKLteHR42
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUwKy4PM9w6
I am only a prefect, but not just any prefect. I carry burdens you cannot see — duties that bind me tighter than chains.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH57TM5GDXy
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5XqCwUkWxK
If you want answers, patience is your ally. For now, keep your questions close, and your heart closer.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsxdk9AVjSt
Juma.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOfuZfutF7K
Kim spun around to see Seline standing there, eyes sharp and unreadable.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPvIdTlqVoz
Seline took a step closer and glanced at the letter in Kim’s hand.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWlnHWjqleM
“Let me see it,” she said quietly.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMH5Wk2dOMe
Kim hesitated but then handed over the note.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQXSJmZWPm6
Seline’s eyes scanned the lines, her expression unreadable.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJRYRViO68B
When she looked up, she said, “This isn’t just from any prefect, is it?”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsYFq1Ihtfa
Kim shook her head.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡODI4AvjYPy
“How do you know?” she whispered.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeaFGVOj9Zh
Seline smiled, a little sadly.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVIw00fyvd5
“Let’s just say I’ve heard whispers. Juma’s no stranger to me.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtqCstSx6jV
Kim’s mind raced—why was Seline here? Why did she care?32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Co5dBPsQC
Seline folded the letter carefully and handed it back.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZby0rFjz8Y
“Be careful, Kim. There’s more at play here than you realize.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyqzFDCBZXH
Kim nodded, clutching the letter tightly.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7D9k0xfcRC
The mystery of Juma deepened.
**********32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpwrcRI8igB
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPpCL56nLGX
His fingers ran down the page — detention rosters, noise makers, dorm checks — until he heard a voice.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2803ZntsAm
"Oi, prefect Juma!"32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWplAgvERvk
He looked up. A Form Two boy — lanky, eyes darting — jogged toward him holding out a folded paper.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBNTjpU2pju
“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—”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJSYx2nGav6
Juma’s heart jolted. He took the paper with steady hands. “You sure it’s from across?”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡexArXMe6GV
The boy shrugged. “Girls came for that music thing, right? She passed it just before they left.”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz39L7o3GXb
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. 32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Gyz5l7QQM
The handwriting stopped him.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlXDEzkFsig
It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t desperate.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Vhy4gMV0Z
It was her.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE2R4HcWSy1
Kim.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzp93S4gngF
He read the first line. Stopped. Then read it again. Slower.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ygs6rwekJ
“I know you’re a prefect. I know your name — only the first — but somehow, that was enough to notice the patterns...”32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrBH1bVYFTf
His pulse shifted.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXH0pRU5V4h
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNUF43Q5z7U
She knew. Or at least, she had guessed.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlZuzcRYZqO
And now she was asking.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD7B8P8dqbR
Why did you help me?32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCwQvQkbmjd
Did you ever mean for me to know?32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡedp0wafNlV
He folded the letter back, slowly, carefully. Like it was something sacred.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4uwwpzkEt9
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.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi983XABdgo
For months, he’d lived with the guilt. Watching her maneuver battles he’d softened from behind the curtain.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC5Lu2ednSK
He’d convinced himself silence was safer — for both of them.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQG260Bzmr3
And yet, her words had made him ache.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ469rKJ7FEr
Not just from guilt. But from the hope he’d buried.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0K3q65CaPX
She remembered.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnUJIgmdVtm
Not just the signs — but him.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡltRT5CwnjP
He read the letter again.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw9mlyl51RJ
And again.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQpz2IrbQ2U
Then, for the first time since he joined the Order, Juma felt something stir that no doctrine could quiet.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoUbF7iuR0t
Something terrifying and honest.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhi9kyb3lTQ
He had a choice now.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDqAQ3PujT2
To write back — and unravel everything.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlTQMmHOJ16
Or to stay silent — and lose the only girl who ever saw through him.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6EPmS7zYin
32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfcn057XDPV
