My Vindication Was In The Secret Camera | Hive Learners Weekly Prompt #W108E1

Kaique Rocha

In life, you sometimes just allow some wind to blow past you without a fight to stop it. Such was what I had in my university days. During one of our semester exams, I lost everything I had to fire inferno except my life. Thankfully, all necessary documents, I mean, the original documents have been returned home. The inferno burnt my room to ashes. I could not save a pin.
My neighbour had lit a candlestick and went to the school area to study for exams, I left much later only to return and found the whole building razed. There was nothing I could do. I just needed a place to stay to conclude the semester exam. Dammy, my neighbour from whose room the fire had started, was so shattered. The old landlady held her responsible and that poor Dammy should build the house. It was a thug of war, a story for another day.

The news of the fire outbreak soon spread around campus. My coursemates sympathised with me but none of them could take me in except Chris, a guy I met at a joint Easterners Association on campus. He was such a considerate guy.

Common Room Saga

I joined other undergraduates who were mostly in the French department in the common room hostel. This hostel is so populated and is usually for fresh students who were unable to get the regular hostels. Life here was like a ghetto but I got used to it since I had no other choice at the moment.
Every evening, I would move to the school area to study for my next exam. This was my daily routine.
One morning, a guy in the common room shouted at the top of his voice that he has noticed that since I joined the other folks in the hostel, their personal belongings have been missing. He was so direct and fearless. In my head, I was just saying:

There is more to this guy's action.

It felt so embarrassing because I didn't know where all that was coming from. He confronted me without any evidence or a mention of what was missing. I wanted to speak but I had to withdraw my statement. I left the hostel and went to write my exam. I had the lowest score in that course because of my state of mind. When I returned in the evening, I met Chris and narrated everything that happened. He was so furious. He started speaking in French, something I could not understand but from his intonation, he was fuming fire and brimstone in my fence.
After Chris apologised to me, I let it pass.

The Secret Camera

Five days to the end of my semester exam, with only three courses left for me to write, another stolen item was. Someone had prepared beans in the morning and kept it in his cupboard hoping to buy bread after his morning exams to eat it with but the whole pot of beans had gone without the cupboard broken.

I met them in a fierce argument when I got to the hostel. Everyone was saying his perspective on the incident. While that was going on, Tobi, one of the occupants of the common room, climbed to the upper bunk and brought out a hidden camera. I was taken aback at such a move but felt it was wise of him.

When the recording was played, you wouldn't believe what we saw.

The very guy who accused me of stealing a few weeks ago was the culprit. He was evicted from the hostel immediately. The shame he faced didn't just end there, he couldn't look up to anyone until he graduated.

My confidence level increased almost immediately. All the while, I had started battling with low self-esteem. Exams soon ended and I returned home, promising myself never to be in such a situation again where I would have to live in the midst of so many people where trust issues will be a thing to deal with.