"Boss, we tried to locate Lancaster's son as you ordered, but we were continuously blocked by Mrs. Lancaster's bodyguards. They made their security tight on him…"
"If you can't reach out to him physically, proceed technologically."
"Yes Boss."
"Grandfather, you haven't slept yet?" came a sleepy voice from his office door. It was none other than his 17 year old granddaughter.
"Ah yes I will, I had some work to complete on…."
"I'll wait for you." She sat down on the couch of his office room. The grandfather continued to wrap up with his paperwork in silence.
"Did you find the person you were looking for?" she asked quietly.
"No my dear, we only found his location and in which school he studies." The grandfather sighed.
"Oh? Which school?"
"Roschend High."
"Roschend High?..." she murmured. "Oh! I know someone from Roschend High." The grandfather stopped what he was doing and looked at his granddaughter. "It's Adalicia Farsen. We go to the same cram class. She's from that school."
"Great. Sweetheart, will you do me a favor?"
Rio came to school after lunch. He did receive some looks from the students that lingered in the hallway who wondered about the identity of the seemingly new student that have transferred in the middle of senior year and full on stares from his classmates when he entered his class. He didn't feel much bothered about who looked at him and who didn't, he tried to fully concentrate on his class but he fought his urge to check his phone every minute or two to see if there's any message for which he missed his morning classes.
As Rio stood outside the blue one story building, he wondered for the umpteenth time that if this is a good idea. His rational self nodded in affirmation urging him to enter the building but his emotional self furiously shook its head. He took a deep breath and entered the building.
The man in police uniform tapped away furiously in his computer with an anxious looking Rio waiting for results. The man only hummed as he leaned back on his chair pausing his furious tapping on keyboard.
"Hmm…"
"W-what is it?" Rio asked in a raspy voice before he cleared his throat. The puking and crying had made his voice hoarse.
"As I expected, this number is untraceable. There could be several reasons about this…maybe the phone has been turned off or the sim card has been taken out of the phone….you said that this unusual phone call might be related to your past case file?"
"Yes sir." The policeman typed some more then shook his head. "There are no such case files about Rio Sanders in the system."
"O-oh no s-sir, my surname was something else at that t-time…" the police raised his eyebrows at the young man; "M-my maternal grandmother adopted me so she changed my s-surname so….."
The policeman read his case file after knowing the previous surname of Rio. "How are you so convinced that the phone call might be related to your case?"
"T-the voice...the voice o-of t-that woman is still etched in my mind sir."
They talked some more, Rio shared some more of his details before the police assured him that they'll call him if they could trace the location of that number.
And his phone has been silent since.
However, what happened the next day wasn't something that neither Rio nor Emilia was ready.
The next day as Rio was taking out his books from his designated locker, still earning looks from the other students but trying his best not to be bothered by it, the intercom buzzed and rattled but nobody paid any attention to it. He was jumped on his back by his girlfriend making his books almost fall on the floor, earning a grunt from him. "Emilia!"
Yesterday after school, the couple had sorted out their differences and Rio was somewhat left off the hook after he told her how he wasn't in shape to talk to her, much less message her. She didn't seem to but that but nevertheless nodded her head. Both of them wanted to confront each other about their recent behavioral issues but decide to bury the hatchet for now and enjoy peace, even though it seemed temporal and shaky. Emilia was surprised and elated at the same time upon seeing his new hairstyle. Previously, before he met her, he used to don a hoodie on his head and never bothered to comb his hair properly. But after meeting her, he went through a series of changes, willingly or unwillingly. The changes kinda got stuck to him and he never bothered to revert back to his previous self. Yesterday and today, he had parted his hair and wore frameless spectacles that had earned looks and stares from other students.
"You know that I like you no matter whatever the way you are, right?" Emilia had asked him cautiously. "Be it in your hoodie or with bangs on your eyes or this current style, I like in anything and everything because at the end of the day, you'll be Rio Sanders." He was glad at that point that because of the sunset, she couldn't spot his blush that he was struggling to fight.
Back to present, the intercom finally cleared up with someone clearing their throat to grab the attention of the students. Then Rio and Emilia's names were announced making them look at each other. They won't be attending their first class today it seems. Rio had been to the principal's office once, when he discussed about his scholarship program in the Roschend High. He didn't understand why he was called in today. Emilia hadn't been to the Principal's office till now; her reprimand was confined to the staff room only.
After he entered the Principal's office, he saw the pepper haired stout woman sitting at her desk looking at some papers. Upon the couple's arrival, she asked them to take a seat. She relieved the couple that they are not in serious trouble after a minute or two passed. She then turned her desktop at them.
"This morning, it was notified to me from the system of our school's website that two posts has been made that violates the community guidelines of the website." On the screen of the desktop was a post that had a picture of him coming out of his therapist's clinic with an offensive caption that was marked in red. "This caption turned out to be an offensive one, after system identified it for being re-posted rapidly online." He was wearing a cap which means it was clicked sneakily while he was exiting the clinic. "Now the next post."
None of individual students who sat in the principal's office could've ever dreamed that such a day would arrive when they'll see something so horrific that they'll have to question a certain person's mental stability.