Most of the students were leaving school like Abigail and Rosetta. Some in groups. Some in pairs. Others alone.

All had left the classroom except for Ruth and Syndesi. They were the earliest to arrive but the latest to leave. The noise in the corridors slowly dying down to a standstill silence.

Ruth never liked crowds so she always waited until everyone had left. As she was packing her bag, pretending to find a reasonable excuse to stay in class, Syndesi tried to strike a conversation. As always.

“Hey Ruth, are you going home? Shall we go together?”

“No.” A downward-inflecting tone. There was no room for questions. It was a statement. The end. Ruth simply continued keeping the rest of her files and textbooks in her bag.

Ruth was back to her usual self. She didn’t want to get involved any further. She learnt her lesson. She’s not going to let that happen again. Nothing good comes out of being emotionally invested in people who don’t matter.

Ruth stood up with her bag and pushed in her chair. She walked behind Syndesi who was still on her chair, without another word.

“You know Ruth. Sometimes I really don’t get you.”

Ruth came to a halt.

“This morning, you felt so warm and easy to talk to. But other times, you are cold and distant. It’s as though you have an invisible wall around you. And I can only peek through the tiny cracks in the bricks to see what’s within. But every time I get closer to those bricks, a cold wind pushes me miles away. And it becomes tougher to get to the walls each time I’m pushed away.”

“I want to get to know you better Ruth. If you would just give me a ...”

Before Syndesi could finish her sentence, Ruth walked out of the classroom.

“...chance.”

Syndesi didn’t understand the intention of Ruth’s actions.

“Why did she help me then?” Syndesi swallowed her tears and stormed out of the classroom in the opposite direction. By then, Ruth was already gone. Nowhere to be seen.

A string sought to pierce through the adamantine wall.

Crack!

A consequential crack surfaced on the bricks of the invisible wall.