Chapter Three

Under her mother’s instructions; Sia had to leave the hospital around 1am and make way towards their house. It was dead in the midnight and the roads were void of taxis, cars and human beings but Sia had no problem walking for almost ten kilometres on foot and without any fear.

Instead she had treated the walk like her early morning jog. Jogging to the apartment complex without losing her breath. She stopped at the apartment complex, her breadth coming out with slow wisps of air. The building was desolated with the lights in almost every room was evidence that people lived there. Not that Sia expected anyone to be roaming about the complex at few minutes past 2am in the morning.

She proceeded to walk into the apartment complex walking into the elevator and pressing down for the fourth floor. She relaxed folding her arms as the elevator moved and soon it made a ‘ding’ sound notifying her that he had arrived at its destination.

The doors slid open and she walked out walking towards one of the many rooms on the floor, stopping in front of one of the doors. She was quick to produce the key of the room out her pocket, turning the lock and stepping inside the house, she locked behind her as the lights came on.

The house was just the way she had left it, clean quiet and void of any human feelings. She immediately crashed into the long sofa and stared at the ceiling. The white coated ceiling stared back at her without any restraints. The reason why she had bought a room in an apartment complex crossed her mind and Sia sighed softly.

Despite being in the hospital, her mom still clamoured for her to live well. Although she was bed ridden, she had Sia takes pictures of the food she ate, the places she went to, where she stayed and pictures with her friends at school. Sia had previously removed to move from their one-bedroom apartment downhill. She liked the comfortability and sense of home that it gave her anytime she came home but because of her mother constant complain of how unfit it was for a student, she was forced to buy a new apartment. She had bought the apartment with the intention of bringing her mom home one day.

It was a two room apartment and Sia had decorated and made the second room exactly the way her mom liked her room to be. Simple and homely. Hers was void of everything, wallpapers, cute stuffs on the desks, Sia’s room had none. She rubbed her eyes realizing she was already sleepy.

She was supposed to report at her new school the next day and she was yet to sleep. Her mom was also the reason why she had to change schools. Under the cover that her best friend was the one giving her money; her mom had encouraged her to be shameless and take advantage of it while getting the best.

That was why she had transferred to a private high school that somehow happened to be one of the most popular high school in New York and happened to be opposite her former public school. It was an awkward situation that Sia neither took to account or was bothered about. She wasn’t even bothered about the fact that she would be resuming into a new environment when it was morning.

Fatigue crawled over her bones and Sia could feel mother nature calling out to her, letting go of all bars, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

She had no idea how much she slept but by the time she woke up, the sun rays were already scattering into the room.  A sun ray was casted on her face and Sia groaned quietly seating up and rubbing her head. Her eyes immediately flew to the digital clock on the drawer beside her and her eyes widened upon realization. She was late!

She lazily dragged herself to her feet immediately heading for the bathroom. Her hair was even in a messier state by the time she looked at herself in the mirror; and she groaned harder this time around. Brushing her teeth and pulling off her clothes didn’t take more than five minutes, she grudgingly let her hair down already stressing how she was going to tie it up back after bathing.

Ten minutes later, she was pulling a huge round neck that reached her knees over her head and a loose pair of pants over her long legs. Tying shoes laces was another thing Sia sucked at, she messily tied the laces before shoving her transfer papers into her backpack and walked out of her room. She had managed to tie her hair into a ponytail and she made a mental note to leave it like that for the next week.

Getting out of the apartment and getting into a cab was like a breeze because she was absolutely flying. She looked outside the cab window watching everyone go about their usual business. Her bag vibrated in her arms and a frown appeared on her face. She unzipped her bag and realized that she had forgotten her phone in it for a few days and worst she hadn’t even noticed the disappearance of her phone. She slid her fingerprint over it and over 48 missed calls and 20 text messages stared back at her in the face.

10 missed were from her mom’s best friend, 15 were from an unknown number, five missed calls were from another unknown number who called on different days and the remaining missed calls were from a very familiar person. She didn’t bother trying to call any of the numbers back. she opened her message app scrolling through the messages with a blank face.

Two of the messages were from her mom’s best friend telling her that she had landed safely in Hong Kong and asking her to take care of herself and had sent her some money, there was a lengthy one from her supposed new class teacher at her new high school. The latter was asking why she hadn’t resumed yet it there was any way to help her or reach out to her. The rest were from her coach asking her to pick her calls. She closed the app and shut her phone slipping it into the pocket of her pants.

The cab came to a stop at the junction of the school and Sia got down. Cabs and public vehicles weren’t allowed into the street because of the private school and Sia remembered her former school mates hating the whole idea because they had to walk from the junction to the school. Sia was never really bothered about it but considering how late she was and how tired she was to walk; she felt annoyed by the whole idea immediately.

She noticed some of the students from her former school walking towards the school and looking at her weirdly. Even though she couldn’t heart what they were saying underneath their hushed yet loud whispers, she knew that the fact she had transferred schools must have gone viral in her old school but Sia was almost unbothered.

She slid her hands into her pockets walking steadily and quietly on the road. She sighed softly seeing the gates of her new school but the very next moment, her steps were brought to a sudden halt.

“Yo! Look who we have here” someone yelled.

“It’s the mouse that thinks she can live among tigers” someone else added and a group of people burst into laughter.

Sia didn’t have to turn around to see who the people were talking were. They were people that not absolutely annoyed the fuck out of her but also irritated her to the point that she avoided them like plague. She turned around slowly raising her eyebrows in question.

“I heard you transferred schools, I almost didn’t believe but seeing you walking towards the other gate; I finally believe it” the first girl who had first spoken started.

“Let’s not ask where you got the money to transfer schools because we all know you probably picked pockets and we don’t want to start calling how many pockets to had to pick to get the fees” the second girl continued.

“So I’m just curious where you got the impression that you’ll adjust there and they would like you?” the second girl asked pointing towards the school gates. The security guards at the gate were already staring at them and there were also students from her school who were huddled beside the gates talking in loud voices.

“Let me answer your first question even though you didn’t ask” Sia started.

“The only reason why you can’t calculate the amount of pockets I picked is plainly because your brain does not have that capability” Sia added chuckling lightly.

“And who told you I said I’m going there to adjust?”