Silently Falling | √

•Chapter 9•

THE WIND WAS blowing my hair in every direction and the adrenaline that was pumping in blood was amazing. I don't remember the last time that James took me riding because it almost feels like a life time ago. But now, as I sat behind Jake tightly clutching onto his torso-I felt like the whole world was moving too fast like nanobots and before I knew it, we were pulling up into the very familiar driveway.

I hopped off and took the helmet off, making sure to give it back to Jake as I slung my rucksack over my left shoulder.

Kai and Nick pulled up besides us and took off their helmets before placing them on their motorcycles and finally walking up to Jake and I.

"Come on let's go," I said before turning around and walking to the front door and pulling my keys out of my jean pocket and unlocking it.

"Dad are you home?" I shouted as I passed over the threshold.

"In the kitchen pumpkin," dad shouted back.

I looked back at the three guys standing behind me and ushered them in, "I'll meet you guys in the kitchen," I said as I pointed them in the right direction. "I just need to grab something from my room real quick."

I quickly ran up the stairs, taking two at a time because God only knows what questions my dad is going to ask them. I reached my room in record time, tossed my bag to the floor and grabbed my notebook from my desk before running back downstairs.

Dad was seated at the kitchen island with a mug of coffee placed in front of him and a newspaper in his hands. He had a straight face on as he looked and analysed the three boys sitting in front of him. "And how is it that you know my daughter?" I heard him ask.

"We met her in Civic Education class sir," Nick said in a respectful tone.

I walked in before dad could further interrogate the poor guys. "Stop interrogating my school partners dad," I said with a slight shake of the head and a small smile as I hugged him.

"What?" he asked defensively, "can't a father want to know a little bit about the people his only daughter is spending time with?" he said with a smile on his face.

"Yeah but you don't have to interrogate them like you are on a trial defending one of your clients."

Dad laughed, "I am a lawyer and it is my job after all."

I took a seat next to my dad and opened my notebook where I had written the assignment on. "Speaking of trials, that's the assignment that we have to do," I said looking over my notes.

"All right then," dad began as he folded his paper and took a sip from his mug. "What do you want to know?" he asked.

"The processes found in a trial."

Dad took another sip from his mug before placing it back on the table and clasping his hands together, "there are precisely three stages that are involved in a trial and each stage has its own steps or semi process called rights that should be followed by the legal force. You could say it's like a tree with branches sprouting from it," he said.

All four of us were attentive and scribbing down what he was saying.

"The first stage is the pre-trial stage, then the trial stage and finally the post-trial stage," he stopped as he looked over the four of us before continuing. "At each of these three stages, the suspect has certain rights that should be respected by the police and the suspect him/herself." "At the pre-trial stage the suspect has the following rights; arrest- this can either be with or without a warrant. When arrest is granted with a warrant it means that the court has given the police the permission to arrest the suspect as he or she may have committed a very heinous crime known in legal terms as a felony. Arrest without warrant occurs when a police officer witnesses a crime and has the mandate to arrest the suspect."