HIDDEN

Chapter 19

Mia looked around the school for Chimamanda but she had already gone home by then so she decided to do the same.

~■~
Mia opened the door of her house.

"Sorry honey. I may come back late again today. Eat dinner without me", Mia read the note in the kitchen counter left by her mum. "She could just send me a message on my phone", Mia thought, "But this is kind of comforting."

She then went to the living room, slumped on the couch and gave out a loud sigh.

She was distraught and let out a grunt of frustration.

She then heard a soft meow coming from the floor, close to her leg.

She wasn't even surprised to see Princess in front of her. She stared at the cat as it stared back at her.

Princess then leapt forward, landing on the couch, just beside Mia. Mia was startled but didn't get up.

Princess sat on the couch and rubbed her body on Mia while purring.

Mia sighed. "Whatever. I'll allow it since I'm distressed", she said while petting Princess on the head.

As Mia pet the cat, she noticed Princess golden collar. "This is the first time I'm actually taking a good look at your collar.... It's pretty".

She then looked at the pendant in front of the collar as she held it. It had a symbol on it. "Where have I seen this before", Mia tried to recall but as soon as she held the pendant, Princess hissed at her then pulled back, leapt on the floor and walked away.

Mia was surprised. "If you were going to do that, why come close to me in the first place", she yelled at the cat.

~■~
The next day, Mia intentionally came late to school... well later than usual by her standards. She tried to avoid contact with people so that they wouldn't get the chance to ask her about what happened between her and The Three yesterday.

She arrived seconds before class had started, that way, nobody could bother her.

She dreaded the fact that she had a free period that day.

"How am I going to deal with this", Mia thought as classes went on, "Maybe I'm just over exaggerating", she tried to calm herself.

~■~
The free period had come and nobody dared to come close to her locker. Chimamanda had stepped out to use the restroom since the class was unusually quiet despite the fact that there was no teacher.

"What's going on?" Mia thought as she looked around expecting to be swarmed by questions.

She then looked behind her and saw that Dale was still on his seat, surprisingly, but shortly after, he stepped out.

As soon as he closed the door and walked some paces down the hall, her table was swarmed with some of her classmates.

"Hey, what happened yesterday?"
"I heard from someone that Roxanne talked to you on the hallway?"
"How did you get to sit on The Three's table?"
"I heard that you're Roxanne's distant cousin?"
"What were they talking to you about on the table?"
"Did Nathan mention my name?"

So many questions were flying around at the same time. Mia instantly became nervous. She couldn't respond with coherent replies.

Just then Chimamanda came back from using the restroom. She was surprised to see a lot of people surrounding Mia's seat.

"Hey! Hey! Break it up. Let the girl breathe", Chimamanda exclaimed in an attempt to separate them.

"What's it to you? We're just asking her a few questions", said a rude girl on behalf of the crowd, atleast that's what she thought.