Esther was shocked at how long she'd slept. She woke up at almost three o'clock in the afternoon. By the time she woke up, Alice was back and studying at her study desk.
"What's the time?" Esther asked Alice.
Alice looked at her wrist watch, "Two fifty-two. Are you sure you're alright? You've been sleeping since morning. You even missed lunch."
Esther yawned, "I'm good. I was just tired but I feel great now. I'm well rested."
Esther stretched with a smile on her face. She was most definitely feeling better and her throat was no longer sore. She still felt ill though. She rose up from the bed and climbed down using the ladder.
Esther remembered that she had not yet washed her clothes but she could do that the following day.
"Did the teachers carry out inspection?" Esther asked.
Alice shook her head with her eyes still focused on her book, "Nope. The principal confiscated everyone's electronics and cancelled the Sunday lunch. He was upset that no one admitted to locking him and William in the restroom. A teacher came over to collect our phones but I told him you didn't have one."
"He confiscated the electronics?" Esther asked in disbelief. "He must really be upset."
"I brought you some lunch," Alice said and pointed at a styrofoam plate on her desk.
Esther took the styrofoam plate and opened it. It was a meal of fried rice with a deep fried chicken wing. "Thank you."
"No biggie," Alice said and closed her book. She looked up at her roommate with curiosity written across her face. "By the way, Lisa was here looking for you... again. Since when were the two of you friends? I didn't even know that you two spoke to each other until yesterday."
Alice's curiosity was justified. Esther's friends circle was a really small one, comprising only Korah and Alice – at rare times.
"We became friends on Tuesday, after our weekly meetings with Dexter," Esther replied. "We kind of agreed to disagree with his point of view and formed a bond."
"That's an interesting way to make new friends," Alice said.
Esther nodded her head, "It is. Anyway, I have to go meet up with her. Thanks for the food again."
"Mhm," Alice simply murmured and reopened her book.
Esther left her room with her styrofoam plate in search of Lisa. Esther had trouble finding Lisa. She first went to her dorm room, knocked on the door for about five minutes before going down the stairs. She was on her way to the cafeteria when she met Dalphon.
"Hi, Esther," Dalphon said.
"Hey, Dalphon," Esther greeted. "By the way, have you perhaps seen Lisa White?"
"The cheerleader girl?" Dalphon asked and Esther nodded. "She went to the library with Andrew."
"Thanks a lot, Dalphon," Esther said and proceeded to walk away but Dalphon held her hand. She turned back to look at Dalphon. "Yes?"
"I just wanted to know if you're feeling better. Asides from the cold weather, you fell down yesterday," Dalphon said and let go of her hand.
Esther had completely forgotten that she fell twice the previous night. When she woke up she did not feel any pain and had forgotten about ever falling down.
"Ah, yes, my legs. T-they're fine. I took pain killers and I immediately felt better," Esther lied. "Now if you don't mind me, I have to go."
Dalphon nodded and gave a small smile, "See you later."
Dalphon walked away and it was then that Esther noticed that the eyes of everyone else that were in the school hall were on her. They would look at her and murmur between themselves. They were probably wondering what the Prime Minister's son had to do with her. She may have been the Vice Student President but she was just a normal girl, if anything, below a normal girl according to their standards.
Esther ignored them and made her way to the library. Miss Briggs was not in the library and Esther was not surprised. She always went home early on Saturdays.
She found Andrew and Lisa in the same place where they usually discussed. However, she was shocked to find Korah with them. They seemed to be having a serious conversation. Andrew and Lisa were sitting with their backs to her while Korah was seated facing her. Hence, he was the first to see her.
"Ah, there you are, Esther."
His sudden diversion from whatsoever topic that they were discussing caused the other two to turn their heads.
"Hey, Esther. You're finally up. I went to call you but Alice told me that you were resting," Lisa said.
"Yeah, I was and I feel very well rested," Esther said and walked over to sit on the empty chair beside Korah. She placed the styrofoam on the desk in front of her. "So, what are you talking about?"
Korah grabbed the documents that were on the table they surrounded and handed it over to her, "Read these."
Esther went through the two documents, "What's this? Is this a birth certificate, and a teacher's application letter and Curriculum Vitae?"
Lisa nodded, "Mhm, it is. These are the documents that we didn't go through. We would find this normal but look at the date of birth on the birth certificate."
Esther read the birth certificate, "1937? Principal Winter was born in 1937?"
"Now look at the date of birth on the Curriculum Vitae," Lisa said.
"1973," Esther read. "So what? This could just be a simple typing error."
"We could consider it as a simple typing error if it occurred on the Curriculum Vitae, but it did not," Korah said. "It occurred on the birth certificate which is an official document. Such mistakes must not be made on birth certificates."
"So what do you assume?" Esther asked.
"That the birth certificate is a fake," Lisa replied.
Esther dropped the documents back on the table and opened the styrofoam plate. She took a hold of the plastic spoon inside the plate and began to eat her lunch after saying a short prayer.
The news was interesting but she was also hungry.
"We think that Principal Winter is a fraud and that's probably why he confiscated our electronics. He figured out that his files are missing and he doesn't want whoever has the files to release their findings to the media," Andrew concluded.
Esther swallowed her food before speaking, "So what steps are we to take next?"
"We have to research further," Andrew leaned forward as he spoke. "We need to have solid proof if what we think about these documents is in fact true."
"What about the missing students? They are our main reason for starting our investigation. Do you think he has a link or any form of connection with them?" Esther asked.
All of them were silent in thought for a while. Lisa was the first one to speak up. She shook her head, "I doubt it. If Principal Winter was clumsy or careless enough to leave all his documents like that in his office, then I feel that he would have left a clue about the missing student as well."
"That is true," Esther said, "but remember that he wasn't careless at all with his documents. He locked his office and we broke into it to steal his files."
"Yes but I still feel that he would have left some sort of evidence if he were involved," Lisa shrugged.
They were all quiet once again but Korah broke the silence with a loud bark of laughter. Korah had the type of laughter that caused people around him to laugh as well and the other three were confused as to why he was laughing, but they joined in the laughter nonetheless.
"Why exactly are we laughing?" Andrew said as he laughed awkwardly.
"I just can't believe how foolish you guys were," Korah said after he stopped laughing. He still had a wide smile on his face. "You wanted to get the files of the missing students and you chose to break into the headmaster's office of all places. You know how reserved our headmaster is. It's obvious he doesn't have the files, maybe not in hard copy. You should have tried the Administration Office. Everyone in the school knows that's where the school files and records are kept."
"What did you expect from us?" Andrew asked in defense. "It's our first time doing such things and we didn't think everything through. It's not our fault. Anyway, if it wasn't for our wrong judgment would we have found out that Principal Winter is a fraud and extracting money from our parents?"
"Okay, that's true," Korah said.
"Now on a more serious note," Lisa started, "what do we do from here?"
"We'll go back to being the students of Preston Prep Academy," Korah said. "We will continue our investigations on Monday. I have to ask the teachers some questions regarding the newsletters and they won't be here 'till Monday. We will just go back to being our ordinary selves and try not to draw unwanted attention to ourselves."
The other three nodded. At least they were getting somewhere. They could not wait to find the missing students and the reasons for their absence.
"Are you going to eat that?" Andrew asked Esther whilst pointing at her styrofoam plate that was still full of food.
Esther looked him straight in the eye with a stoic expression on her face, "Yes."