ANDREW'S POV
After writing down every theory we had about Fitball, I realized something.
We had plenty of theories and I know so well that we had no facts.
Although, the most reasonable conclusion we had managed to reach was that Fitball was somehow connected to the cult group and, if I was being honest, that conclusion might have been slightly biased.
I hated cult groups, so naturally, I suspected them.
We spent most of the afternoon trying to come up with a plan.
A plan that could actually help us identify who Fitball was and how he chooses his victims.
The first idea of plan was to give fake letters to people like that of fitball like Vivian suggested maybe we would give a fitball a letter too. But here is the issue with that idea, there were a lot of fake letters like that of fitball.
Another idea was to monitor everybody in the school so see who looks suspicious…..
Well, yeah you guessed right, Jane brought the idea.
So unrealistic. We are just five and we are to watch over a thousand people when we are not a god.
The third which I suggested but failed was to study the victims and look for similarities. The harder we looked the more complicated and undefined it looked.
Unfortunately...
We got nowhere.
The Founders Week activities continued as though nothing had happened.
Students laughed.
Teachers smiled.
Guests walked around the compound taking pictures and the little aspirant celebrated their entrance to hell.
Meanwhile, a girl had died less than twenty-four hours ago.
Sometimes I wondered if the school itself was sick.
That evening, the group met again at the roof of Dormain's hall.
Jane.
Vivian.
Arnold.
Jason.
And me.
"Tomorrow is the last day," I said quietly. "The closing ceremony."
Nobody replied.
"After that, all the guests leave."
Still silence.
Then Jason suddenly stretched.
"How about we relax and play a game?" He said in a lively and playful mood.
He pulled out a deck of cards.
I stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because if we keep thinking like this, we'll all lose our minds."
Nobody argued, surprisingly, not even Jane.
Jason shuffled the cards and began sharing them.
One by one, everybody joined.
Eventually...
I did too, reluctantly.
The game turned out to be more fun than I expected.
Arnold, who barely spoke most of the time, somehow became one of the loudest people at the table.
Vivian laughed so much I was beginning to suspect she drank alcohol instead of water.
For a while, nobody talked about the cults and other related problems.
It was nice till Vivian ruined it.
"So..." she said casually. "How's the guy you think might be your father?"
I nearly dropped my cards.
"Seriously, Vivi?"Jane said rolling her eyes.
Jason looked interested immediately.
"Wait. What?"
"You met your father?"
"No," Jane replied disappointedly. "We just have the same surname."
"Maybe he's Fitball." Vivian said.
Jane smacked Vivian lightly on the arm.
Vivian laughed.
"Do you guys remember life before this school?"
Everybody became quiet.
"Yeah," Vivian replied. "My parents brought me here."
"Same," I said.
"This school had always been my dream." Vivian added blushing.
"Why this school?" Arnold asked irritated.
"I heard it had good gossip." She said then played a queen card.
"How about you Jason?"
Jason nodded.
"My parents are on the Board of Governors."
Well I did know that. I said to my self silently.
We continued with our game silently.
"Jane, you don't remember anything before this school?" I asked.
"NO." She replied sadly. "I just know I woke up one morning here, I was pretty little and I don't know what the outside world feels like."
"Try going on a competition with Andrew. It will help." Jason suggested.
"Yeah, pretty smart an idea." Vivian agreed looked at me then winked.
She then won the game for the third round in a row.
"How do you keep wining?" Arnold said frustrated.
Arnold groaned dramatically.
"How do you keep winning?"
"Because I'm smart."
"No."
"Because I am the Information Goddess."
"Definitely no."
Everybody laughed.
"I know how it work." Vivian said grinning while I re-shuffle the cards.
Then Arnold pointed at her cards. "You never make mistakes." He said.
Vivian shrugged.
"Of course I do."
She tossed down another card.
"I made one recently." Then she paused. "And I hated it but you guys didn't notice." She said then laughed weirdly.
The smile disappeared from my face.
Something about those words stuck in my head.
Mistakes.
Nobody liked making mistakes.
Neither teachers, students or anyone.
Including;
Fitball.
For weeks we had been treating him like some kind of monster.
Something unstoppable.
Something perfect.
But what if he wasn't?
What if he was simply a person?
A very dangerous person.
But still a person.
A person could make mistakes, choose the wrong victim or lets say the victim escaped.
A person could leave clues behind without noticing.
Everything clicked.
I sat up straight.
"Guys."
The conversation stopped.
"Guys."
Everybody looked at me.
"Vivian is right."
Her eyes widened.
"I am?"
"Fitball is human."
Jason blinked.
"Fitball is human."
"Fitball as in the culprit?" Vivian asked.
"Yea gossip queen." Jason said
"It is information goddess." Vivian replied accompanied by a side eye.
"You know her too?" Jane asked Jason.
"Guys focus."
"What?"
"The culprit," I said. "We've been acting like he's some genius who plans everything perfectly."
Nobody spoke.
"But maybe he's not."
I looked around the table.
"He is human too right, so he would have made a mistake, at least once."
The realization slowly spread across their faces.
Jane leaned forward.
"With the victims?"
I swallowed.
"yhh"
The room became silent.
"He chooses people for a reason and if we find the person he made a mistake on and escaped, maybe..."
"We will be able to find how he chooses his victims." Arnold completed.
"So how do we find this person?" Jane asked.
"Maybe Nafi?" Vivian suggested.
"I doubt that, but the victim would be someone who for some reason went missing and.….." I paused, looked at Jason and from the look on his face I knew who it was.
"Yeah. Let watch Nafisat." I said with my gaze still on Jason.
"I will ask Nafi about the letter and then I will let you know whatever she says through Vivi." Jane suggested.