Chapter 9: A commotion

Hudhayfah lay back in his chair, watching the CCTV cameras focused on new intakes through glazed eyes. The day was only beginning, yet he already felt the stress piling up. At least he had gotten the welcome speech done with, now he just had to make sure everything was secure for another few weeks before he’d be able to relax again. He glanced up at the clock, calculating that he had about 3 more hours before he could swap out with Salih and go eat lunch. An increase in movement on the screens brought back his attention, and a frown found its way to the corners of his lips. There seemed to be a crowd forming on the sports grounds of section mb (aka the green zone), which was likely to be spelling trouble. A glance at the wall behind him showed that currently the only members on standby were Aisha and Humerah, the two he was least inclined to send into the green zone, but with the rate at which the commotion was escalating he had no choice but to dispatch the girls as soon as possible. He lowered his finger to his watch face, and a few taps later the matter was sealed.

~

Aisha felt a buzz against her wrist and glanced down at her watch. As she did so, she came to a halt, and Humerah, who was following close behind her, had to reflexively save herself from crashing into her cousin. Humerah’s gaze followed Aisha’s to the words displayed upon the watch face: “mb - sports grounds - urgent”. Aisha drew in a deep breath, pulled up her mask, and dashed off in a sprint to the specified location, all thoughts of the lost key now eradicated from her mind.

Within seconds the girls arrived at the playing field, first Aisha, and then Humerah a few paces behind, and they wasted no time in taking in the situation around them, forcing their way to the front of the crowd - which wasn’t actually too difficult with how the boys edged away at the sight of their navy uniforms, signifying that they were of The Six. In the centre of the gathering stood two boys, one whose uniform indicated he was from year 10, and the other from year 8. Each had a fair deal of cuts and bruises decorating their faces, and a look in their eyes suggesting they were prepared to deal their opponent more than just a few scrapes. As Aisha slipped out into the clearing, one of the boys from the outside lunged in with fists flying, aiming for the younger of the two. Aisha thrust out her arm just in time to intercept the blow, and made short work of restraining the vengeful child. With his wrists now held together by Aisha’s makeshift shackle, Umar soon realised that any attempt to free himself would be unsuccessful, and resorted to unleashing a torrent of insults at the young kid who’d started a fight with his brother.

Umar was a year older than his brother, and when he heard that Uthman had gotten himself into a fight he’d been livid - no brother of his would instigate fights, much less get involved in one willingly, and after hearing word spread that Uthman had been the first to swing his fist at a younger boy on the sports grounds, Umar knew he had to go stop him. Yet after arriving at the field, he instantly recognised the boy in year 8 with whom Uthman was exchanging blows, and Umar knew he wouldn’t be able to hold himself back for very long either…