Getting home, Nicole turned on her reading lamp and placed a candle on a stand. The candle's dim light brightened up the remaining part of the room that that her lamp's dim rays could not get to.
She then went to her fridge to get a beer. Her usually chilled lager beer had started to melt due to lack of electricity to power her fridge. The droplets of water decorating the sides of the bottle were an indicator. She opened it nevertheless and plummeted on her couch as she made a mental note to go pay her electricity bill after school, on Monday.
Memories of her meetup with Alexander began coming back to her. It was a big shock and she still could not get over it.
The boy she once knew had turned out to be one hell of a man. She couldn't say she wasn't impressed by what she saw. His charisma was that of a man who knew what he was doing. His smile, lips, the way he talked, his body under that fine suit...he was everything she wanted in a man and more.
She probably would have considered him as a proper suitor if they didn't have such a rocky beginning. Alexander Roth made her life a living hell and she was not ready to let that go for anything, not even because of his sexiness.
While being lost in thoughts, her phone's notification went off.
Thinking it was Georgia about to nag her for the details of her blind date, she opened her phone to reply but saw it was a strange number.
*I hope you got home safe?* the message read.
*How did you get my number?*
She found herself staring at the three dots, waiting patiently for his reply.
*Tinder.*
She rolled her eyes - Georgia's handwork.
*Great. How is your kid?*
*She is asleep. What you doing?*
She was almost quick to tell him that she was drinking beer while she sat lazily on her couch still wearing her date clothes but then she had a rethink. This was still Alexander Roth and this could all be a game to him - everything was a game to Roth. And he had told her he just wanted to see her reaction which is why he proposed a date to Georgia - if that didn't spell unserious, she didn't know what did.
*Going to bed.*
Nicole sent her reply and waited. For a second, his reply did not come and she was about to drop her phone when it went off again.
*Goodnight.* the message read.
She chose not to reply and dropped the phone as she drank the last drop of beer in the bottle. Time to go to bed.
On Monday morning, Nicole dressed up in a moderately tight pencil skirt, long sleeved stripped shirt, put her hair into a ponytail and took the subway to school.
She met Keith in her class like she did every morning.
"Huzzah Nicole!"
"Hi, Keith. You look like you slept on the right side of the bed last night."
He gave her a wide grin that made her cringe, "It would have been nicer if you were there..." He attempted to flirt.
The horrid image popped up in her head - her tangled in the sheets with Keith.
"No, thank you." She quickly said with a forced smile.
She looked around her class and noticed that only few kids have arrived. Most kids whose parents needed to leave the house very early usually came to school earlier than she did but the time read 8am and those kids were not around yet. And why did she see few teachers at the corridor a while ago?
"Is something going on? Why is the school scanty? I saw very few kids and parents outside..." She told Keith.
"I was a bit taken aback too but I decided to be patient and see." Keith said.
She almost rolled her eyes at his choice of words again. He could have just said he was surprised instead of taken aback.
"I am coming." She left him to go look for someone more efficient.
Nicole found Rose in her office. Rose was the secretary to Mr. Carriewood, the headmaster of the school. She was a funny, easy-going African-American woman who knew much about everything that went on at the school - she was the right person to ask and not old-fashioned Keith.
"Hey, Rose." She greeted as she entered into her office.
"Damn you looking so good, I'mma just introduce you to ma lil bro, Nicole."
She laughed heartily and gave her a quick turnaround, "Thank you, Rose."
Rose smiled in response, "Please sit. How may I help you?"
She took the seat opposite her, "Just noticed some teachers and kids are absent. Is everything okay?"
Rose's smile cleand off her face in a second, "Shit has happened, gal."
Nicole looked at her curiously, "What happened?"
"I ain't gonna say nothing but know that we 'bout to lose all our fucking jobs soon."
"What? Why?"
She sighed, "Your shithead of an headmaster is a fucking paedophile and we all about to pay for his sin."
Like a movie, in the next few hours, the police arrived at the school and started to evacuate everyone. They started to decorate everywhere with their yellow tape while the staff of the school that were present stood some meters from the crime scene.
Nicole got to find out that Mr. Carriewood sexually assaulted female kids and usually gave them gifts to cover up his crime. He would also form a close relationship with their parents so in the case of a child opening up, said parents would never believe he could do something like that.
But unfortunately for Mr. Carriewood, a parent finally believed their child and hired a private investigator. The private investigator monitored him and ended up finding a lot of implicating evidences, including his love for child pornography. They ended up submitting those evidences to the police and viola! Here we are!
Images of him groping those poor kids filled her head and refused to go away. She suddenly could not stand being around the school environment.
"Are you okay? You are as pale as a ghost." Keith looked at her with worry.
"I am fine" or not...
She remembered Vicky and how she was always scared to go to the headmaster's office for anything. She always hid anytime she saw Mr. Carriewood and Nicole thought all those while that Vicky was just being shy. She never knew the Boogeyman was present right in their midst.
Tears started to gather in her eyes as she thought about how she failed Vicky. She should have paid closer attention as her teacher, what was she thinking?
"I hope he rots in jail." She muttered with hatred.
"Me too, honey...me too." Rose added while shaking her head in pity.