Covered in what smells like the dirty water used when mopping the floor, Sarah and I ran up to whoever tried to harass her. When we got up, we heard the sound of rustling branches. We headed towards the tree and saw the figure of someone jumping outside of the school fence.

At this point, I was out of breath and ready to give up. Sarah, on the other hand, immediately sprinted to the other end of the hallway and jumped from the second floor. IS SHE CRAZY?!?!?!?!

Startled, I ran after her, not following that stunt because god knows I’ll break my legs from the fall damage but holy heck, this woman doesn’t intend to give up. She intercepts the person at the parking lot outside of school with the guard following her.

“What are you doing Ms. Bravura!?!?!?!” The man sounded so mad.

I finally catch up to them. Sarah was running around the maze of cars, trying to find whoever did this. Rationalizing the situation, I try to assess who in our class would have the physical capability to do this. I was hoping to rule out their gender as well, but it's impossible. They had to pick the day when everyone wears the same outfit. One thing is sure though, this person has a slim build. Based on what I know about the class, there are quite a bit of us who are nimble… but I don’t know anyone who can pull a stunt like that as well.

The cold starts to sink in and I sneeze. I walk around and try to get to Sarah. “Let’s go back inside…” I say calmly.

She looks at me exhausted. “... Right.”

We proceed to go back to the campus drenched in stinky water. I want to take a shower, but at this time, the lockers would be locked. Looking at Sarah, she herself was trying to assess the situation. Her lips quivered from the cold. I look at her shirt and notice that she was wearing a pink laced bra. My cheeks went pink from embarrassment as I walked even faster. I went to my bag and took out a black shirt and handed it to Sarah. She was not bothered by the fact that the white parts of her uniform are showing a risky amount of skin.

“What?” She looked up at me. I don't make eye contact. Her eyes went down to her chest and she lets out a chuckle. “Silly boy.” She takes my shirt and went inside the classroom to change into it.

Good thing I have two spare shirts, so I changed outside. After drying up a bit, I rest my back on the wall and look to the ceiling.

I have to call Keith and Jason about this tonight and ask for their opinion. My instinct tells me this is is far from over.

Sarah walks out of the room in my shirt. The area around her chest seemed damp. Her bra is probably still wet. She looked up to me in deep thought.

“Let’s go home.” I tell her tiredly.

“No.” Her voice sounded firm. “You want to know if I see you as a friend, or if I’m using you for my benefit, right?” Her eyes look sharply at me.

I look away. “You’re a great liar Sarah. You’ll be able to lie to my face and get away with it.”

She glares at me and I step back uneasily. “So you won’t listen to me and try to determine the truth by other means?”

“What evidence do I have that you won’t lie to me?”

She looks down gloomily. “Because you’re my last ally.”

I did not expect that response coming from her. “What makes you say that?” The denial in my tone seemed obvious. “You still have your other friends.”

“I have problems, Deon.” She looks up at me. “I solve them all on my own. This… problem is beyond me. I can’t trust my own friends because without realizing it, I’ve been pushing them away and never letting them in on my decisions. With how things are, I don’t trust their loyalty. I can’t trust anyone’s loyalty at this point… except yours.”

“So I’m a lackey to you?” I frown, disliking her response. Though… this takes me back to my conversation with Keith. He was right. If I kept on the same way Sarah did, I would have also pushed them away.

“No.” She shakes her head. “Look, it was my decision to put you there because I… know you’ll do a good job at it. Yes I could have picked being a student council president and our class president, but I have too much on my plate. Even if everyone thinks I’m the girl who can do everything, I’ve got my limitations too.”

“Alright, since we’re talking honestly now. Why did you do that to Vivian?” I don’t completely accept her reason, but it makes sense.

She gave me a dissatisfied frown. “Why are you so interested in what happened between me and Vivian?”

Answering a question with another question. Great. I groaned and pick up my bag, slinging it over my shoulder. “This fuckery started right after you did that shit to her.”

She rolled her eyes and I respond by giving her an annoyed stare. “This started at the end of third year. Only reason why you don’t see this is because you never stayed this late in school.”

So this has been going on for months now. “Why haven’t you reported it?” I asked her calmly, trying to hide my shock.

“It was petty. Who would give attention to some loser who can’t even do shit to my face. If they want my retaliation, they better do it to my face.” Her voice sounded cocky, yet I can tell she’s starting to feel cold by the way her fingers tremble.

“You thought Vivian was the culprit, that’s why you terrorized her.” I try to give my speculation.

She laughed at me, crossing her arms. “No, she’s got too much of that moral high ground for her to do shit to me.”

I shake my head at her, disagreeing to her remark. “You’ll be surprised what lengths people are willing to go to just to get back at someone.”

She picked up her bag and rolled her eyes at me. “Look, enough of Vivian. She’s nothing.” She said with spite in her voice. There is something more between them that meets the eyes.

She started walking ahead of me. “Okay, who do you think did this to you?”

“I’ve got my guesses.”

“Like?”

Sarah turned back looking at me with a brow raised. “Why are you interested, Sherlock?”

I gesture towards my damp clothes and give her the ‘isn’t it obvious’ look.

I receive a scoff from her. “You wouldn’t have gotten wet if you didn’t dive in.”

This woman can't even appreciate the effort I put in trying to protect her. Well, the day is ending anyways.

She let out a sigh. “Deon…” Her voice sounded soft, she was in front of me so I couldn’t see her expression. “Thanks… for putting up with me and trying to help me.”

Okay, I thought too soon. “It’s okay… At least you’re not in any real harm. I’ll walk you home today too.”

“Thank you…”

We continued on our walk home silently, her place wasn’t too far from school. Our school was located just by the residential area of the city and the start of the business district. Commuting here isn’t that hard, but I prefer to walk home, and somehow Sarah does too. I try to piece together the information that I gathered from Sarah.

“Hey…” I try to start a new conversation with her. “I’m… going to put more effort into investigating the situation. The guys, Keith and Jason, agreed to help me out.”

“So you’re starting a detective squad?” Her tone seemed doubtful of us.

“Look here, any help is great help.” I cross my arms at her, annoyed.

She laughed. “Keith is my top suspect.”

I stop and looked at her. “What?”

She looks at me seriously. “Keith is my top suspect. I’m sure you heard me.”

No, he couldn’t be. “Come on, Keith is an ass sometimes but he wouldn’t do that to you…”

“He’s the fastest guy in class, he’s been caught by the principal jumping out of the school the same way the criminal just did. Keith doesn’t go home the moment the doorbell rings because he’s got basketball practice. In fact, he stays pretty late. Although circumstantial evidence. It’s still an interesting case against him, Deon.”

“So that’s why you didn’t pick him to be the class president.” I frown at her.

“Yes, that was one of my reasons for not having him as class president.”

“Well, I trust him. I know him well, even if he’d laugh at Vivian’s misery or do anything that is genuinely shitty, he would NEVER do anything like that to you. He’s got the biggest crush on you, Sarah. That’s why he was willing to take the fall for when you were bullying Vivian. Or why he even agreed to helping me find out the truth.”

She looked at me with surprise. “And if it really was him, wouldn’t you be feeding him the information that could help him hide evidence?”

“Tsk.” I glared at her. “I’ll prove to you it’s not him.”

“Right, and if it really isn’t him, I’ll apologize to him face to face.” She gave me a confident look. How sure can she be based on circumstantial evidence.

“You better.” I stop at her gate and is greeted by one of the guards at her home.

“Sarah, Mr. Graystone… you’re both drenched!”

An older woman heard the guard and walked towards us. If cloning was a thing, then Sarah would be the perfect clone of this woman. Well, except for the part that the older one has luscious wavy hair of the same color as Sarah’s. Helen Bravura, the first lady of our city and Sarah’s mother.

“Oh my, and both of you stink too.” She walked over to Sarah and held both her cheeks in her hands. “What happened?”

“Deon and I were at cleaning duty, and we were playing around.” She smiled at her mother. “I swished the mop at him and he wasn’t having it so we had a bit of a water fight.” She said letting out a soft chuckle.

This story coming from Sarah Bravura, of all people, was the most unbelievable thing ever. Yet the way she said it, showing her childish and playful side made it look so believable. I couldn’t help but groan.

“Oh poor, Deon” She looked at me. “Come inside and take a shower.”

I look startled. “What--no I’m okay, Mrs. Bravura! I’ll be heading home now.”

“I insist, Deon. Come in” She said, almost dragging me by the arm. It’s hard to say no to this family. I never come in here unless it’s for school related things or one of Sarah’s weekend parties. That girl doesn’t even celebrate her birthday in her own house. She celebrates it in some fancy hotel with all of her friends.