Chapter 4: Règles de Pique

We went back straight to the dorms after class. Kylie and Victoria didn’t have the energy to show me around the school because of our classes. Every subject looked so stressful.

This day is really tiring because we did so many things since Sir Jiro’s class was for two hours and Miss Gi made us do too many activities. Some of them were also impossible to answer. I feel like my mind became too empty after that subject.

When we reached our dorm room, I placed my bag in the floor and let myself fall on the sofa. “I’m exhausted.” I said.

“You’ll get used to it.” Victoria said and laughed. I starred at the two. They were busy setting up their things on the coffee table. I guess they’ll do their research again. They haven’t even rested yet! Do they still have the energy to do their research properly?

“Can you tell me more about this school? I’m kind of intrigued.” I said. They both looked at each other before nodding. They both smiled at me too.

“I thought you’d never ask!” Kylie exclaimed. Was she waiting for me to be curious about it? Oh geez. I didn’t realize that they were waiting for me to ask questions about this school.

Well, I admit that I was really curious since I entered this school but I like to know everything by myself. I don’t usually ask for help but this school is just too hard to understand.

“Spade University is one of the most exclusive school here in our country. It is difficult to enroll in this school too, Bella. Everyone is afraid to study here because of the news that was leaked outside by the former students, which are mostly exaggerated news.” Victoria paused.

“This school is founded by Mr. Georfe Mendez, we don’t see him often since it’s really rare to see the president of this school. He only appears during meetings and he never showed up to any events of the school.” She added then looked at Kylie like she was asking for help.

“Aside from the faculty and the board members, there is another set of officials that acts like the rule establisher in this school— the Règles de Pique. We, the students can call them Dirigeants. That group is lead by Mr. Kristoff, the founder’s grandson. He’s a person that you would really like to avoid. His words are like the laws in here.” Kylie said. I looked at them woth so much curiosity. This is the first time that I am actually learning about the history of this school. I never had an opportunity to ask my brother about it before.

“You know Hiro’s sister, right? Jaira Spark. She’s a member of that group. She’s the third person to be feared of. She’s strict, objective, and classy. She’s really intimidating, I know that you know it already since you have encountered her. She usually deals with the students since she majored in English during colleged.” Victoria said.

“Then there’s the twins, Sasha and Asher Fernandez.” Kylie said. “Sasha is really scary too but it doesn’t compare to Jaira. She’s calmer than her and she works on the events. She doesn’t teach. Asher on the other hand, is the right-hand man of Kristoff. He usually does the work when Kristoff is out of the university. He’s the bestfriend of the leader, that’s why he’s really scary too.” She added and looked at Victoria.

“Sir Jiro and Sir Vincent is also part of the Dirigeants. They’re both teachers but sir Vincent recently resigned to focus more in medicine. They’re both the chillest and most outgoing members of the Règles de Pique.” She said. “And of course, Miss Gi. Although Kristoff has the upper hand over the faculty, Miss Gi can control everyone that is working for this school.” She added.

“She’s scary. We don’t really know about her connection to the president but she really can control everyone. She has the say on everything and she can stop anything in this school.” Kylie added. I just nodded and kept my silence so that they would continue telling me stuffs that I still don’t know.

But they didn’t talk anymore. “I didn’t know that they even existed. What about the gangs?” I asked.

“They exist because of the gangs, Bella. They were made to stop them from messing with the students.” Victoria said.

“So, are you saying that Hiro and Geoffrey’s gang are bad and they mess with the students here?” I asked. She immediately dismissed my assumption by shaking her head.

“To be honest there isn’t any problem with Hiro and Geoffrey’s gang along with three more. They usually help the Dirigeants to deal with the low-ranking gangs or those who harm students.” She said.

“There are more gangs?!” I said. I can’t believe how this school has so many gangs! Oh geez.

“Yup!” Kylie said. “There are five gangs that doesn’t harm the students and they were made to protect each and everyone of us from the illegal gangs that do illegal stuffs and harm to the students. Usually it’s just vandalism, destruction of some properties and illegal drugs. There’s no killing so far.”

I gasped at what she said. Killing… they could kill! Oh gosh, how can there be a school like this? That is against the code of a school!

“And we all hope that they’ll stick to that and not resort to killing.” Victoria added. I am in disbelief. Isn’t having a gang illegal and this school can be shut down because of it?

“You know that I have a feeling that there’s something more about this school. I think my brother knows about it but didn’t bother to tell me and I really want to know.” I told them. They looked at each other and shrugged at me.

“It’s better if you don’t get involved.” Victoria said and continued to do what they were doing.

“But you know, I am curious on how you enrolled here. It’s really difficult to enroll here and it’s already the middle of the semester but they still let you in. Do you, perhaps, have a big connection in this school?” Kylie asked. I stared at her for a moment. Did she just ask about it? I didn’t want to tell them about it.

“Let’s talk about it some other time.” I said and excused myself. I went inside my room to wash up because it’s already six in the afternoon and dinner will be served later. I don’t want to go to the cafeteria in my school uniform.

Dinner was as chaotic as lunch.

I didn’t know that Hiro and Geoffrey’s gang will decide to join us for dinner at the cafeteria. Kylie and Victoria told me that I will only encounter them during lunch but they decided to annoy the hell out of me during dinner. They said they usually eat dinner at their Villa but today is not that day.

I went straight to bed after dinner because I was too exhausted by all of their questions, and their nonstop teasing. I haven’t even had the chance to relax but they bombarded me with nonsense question that I answered.

The next day, I woke up pretty early again. As usual, Kylie and Victoria are already sitting at the dining table when I went out of my room. They were already having breakfast. I sat infront of them and took a bread from the table. They weren’t speaking at all. Seems like they pulled another all nighter.

“You two should hurry up, we’ll be late!” I told them. They were still not in their usual state. They really need sleep at this point but we also have classes to attend to. Who even said that they should pull an all-nighter again? They’ve been doing that for days already.

We went to our classroom when they finished getting ready. Nothing’s new, the students are still talking about me. They should be calmer now since Hiro and I aren’t bickering anymore.

Our classmates are just the same, they are all still noisy and doesn’t care for each other except for Trina, the girl who confronted me yesterday, was glaring at me when we entered the room.

It was almost time for our classes so my classmates went to their own seats and we all patiently waited for our teacher. But an hour has passed, Miss Jaira is nowhere to be seen so my classmates just went back to what they were doing earlier.

"Attention all students, please proceed to the field. Immediately."

We were all startled by the sudden announcement. Everyone stayed quiet and listened to the speaker. He kept telling everyone to proceed to the field.

“Is there something wrong?” One of my classmates asked. I was just starring outside the room because the students besides our classroom were already walking at the hallway.

Victoria went in front and asked for everyone’s attention. “Alright, let’s start our count off.” She said and pointed at Kylie to start counting. When the last number was said, Victoria told us to line up by two and start walking towards the exit.

I went to the line last, so my partner was Victoria who also stood last on the line to make sure all of our classmates will proceed to the field.

When we were already outside of the building, I noticed that there was an ambulance at the laboratory building just besides our building. What’s happening over there? Did someone cause an accident?

“Do you want to go there?” Victoria asked. I turned to her and nodded. I am really curious of what had happened. Why is there an ambulance? Something bad might have happened.

“Let’s go.” Victoria whispered at me and grabbed my arm. “Hey, Kylie! Watch over!” She yelled. Kylie just raised her hand and waved at us.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked her. This might be illegal and we’ll just end up in trouble. I don’t want to cause her trouble.

“Don’t worry, I got you.” She said and pulled me towards the laboratory building. The people there were panicking and did not even notice that we were already in the building.

“Yael!” Victoria called him. He’s from Geoffrey’s gang. When he saw us, he went to us.

“What are you doing here?” He asked. “Aish, Vicky you do know you aren’t allowed here.” He said and gestured to follow him inside. The office let us in because of Yael.

I scanned the room. “Oh my gosh!” I said and I almost fell on the floor.

Blood… dead… she’s dead. I felt Victoria’s hands on my shoulder. She was also trembling because of the terrifying scene. Some of the medics came in to take the body out of here. They covered it with cloth and put it in a stretcher.

“T-that’s Yna!” She said. Her voice was loud enough to catch the attention of the whole gang. Geoffrey and Hiro both went to us when they heard Victoria.

“What the hell are you doing here Victoria?!” Geoffrey asked. I didn’t listen to them after that because my gaze was fixed to the white board. There were letters written on it.

It is really terrifying because it was written using blood. Some are still dripping. Oh gosh, what kind of monster did this to a young child? From what I know about her uniform is that she’s from junior high school since her coat does not have a white trim on it.

“P-paper… p-pen...” I said with a shaky voice. Yael immediately handed over a pen and a paper to me.

“Do you know what is says?” He asked me as he watched how I solve the cipher that was left by the killer.

“The both of you, get out! This is a crime scene, Victoria. You even brought a rascal with you!” I heard Hiro said. I gave the paper to Yael and turned to Hiro.

“This rascal just helped you solve a cipher.” I said and dragged Victoria outside. She couldn’t do anything because the both of us are really shocked of what we just saw.

We just started walking to the field quietly and didn’t even bothered to talk about Yna anymore.

‘JLXH KHU WR XV RU EORRG ZLOO VKDWWHU LK WKLV VFKRRO.

ORYH, N.’

Those words kept on flashing inside my head. He’s after someone and it’s definitely not Yna.

I managed to crack the cipher because when I was young, dad always leave a cipher for me to solve. I mastered it very well since I get a lot of punishing if I don’t solve what he had left for me.

Kylie approached us immediately when she saw us coming to them. She got a bit weirded out by our silence but she understood that it was something that we could discuss in public. She just dragged us towards the line and stayed silent.

“We are afraid that we have to cancel our classes for today due to some circumstances but I assure each and everyone of you that we are safe.” A girl said. She might be Sasha, a member of the Dirigeants. Everyone was attentive and kept silent to listen carefully to her announcement. “For the meantime, we would like for you to stay inside the dorms until tomorrow. Your lunch and dinner would be served at your dorms. We would like to ask for your cooperation with us.” She said then she passed the microphone to Miss Jaira who was waiting besides her.

“That would be all. You may now go back quietly to your dorms. Your things at the classroom will be brought to your dorms by the staff so you don’t have to go there anymore. Please proceed to the dorms.” She said and left the stage. Everyone started to leave after that.

Kylie and Victoria held my arms and we all walked back to the dorms without a word or any complains. They didn’t give any clue about what had happen to Yna. I guess they don’t like to scare the students. But they still need to be aware of it!

When we were at our dorm, Victoria was still dazed. Kylie looked at me like she was waiting for an explanation regarding our behavior. I can see that she’s nervous because of our reaction, especially Victoria’s. I sighed before talking.

“Someone… was killed.” I carefully said. Victoria covered her face with her hands when she heard what I said.