K A I R A

1 4

"Um, I think I saw you like thirty minutes ago or so."–when you left unexpectedly–"I understand though. Why did you do this?" I pointed at his arm.

He pulled it away immediately, like his arm being there never should have happened, and rubbed his neck. "Oh, sorry. I didn't—it wasn't..."

Our pace reduced as Nathan trailed off, the atmosphere going a full fifty degree higher. I added some distance between us as I didn't entertain the idea of walking and talking with little space between us.

"It's fine, I guess," I said. "I just want to know if you have a reason."

"Teachers were, er, punishing students who hung around, so I just did whatever popped up in my head," Nathan paused, "Also, earlier today, I'm sorry for what I did."

"What was that?"

I sensed the hesitation in his voice, but I wanted to hear it. "Um, when I walked out of the class without giving a good reason."

"Oh. It's fine. I wasn't offended, and thanks for helping me avoid punishment." I nodded while the gears in my head worked, turning and turning, trying to get me to actually understand everything.

"Yeah. Sure." His smile made me feel like there should be more. "Um, you're welcome."

And as I walked towards the girls' line, I realized something quizzical, or maybe I was just overthinking. But if teachers were punishing students, he could have just told us quickly so we would get moving.

Yeah, I was definitely overthinking.

⇔

After the sporting activities, we were dismissed. Although my fellow mates went to class, I stayed back, sitting on a bench under the shade next to our four storey block. I disliked the tightness of the air in crowded places, so I usually remained downstairs till the stairway was clear enough.

In a few minutes, I noticed a figure of an Amara-looking person. I squinted my eyes. It was indeed my best friend with my other best friend. They walked towards me; however, a teacher called Daniel. Amara left them, walking alone towards me.

"Hey." Amara dusted the bench and sat. "The stairway is almost cleared."

I glanced at the staircase to see few students heading upstairs.

"Yeah, but I don't feel like going just yet. I'm feeling lazy right now," I said, swinging my legs. "The breeze here is really good."

"What do you mean? There's AC in our class. You can even sleep there if you want."

"Are you comparing the original to the fake?"

"Meh." Amara stuck out her tongue.

"But you know the AC uses the air from our class to make it cool, right?"

"Yes na."

"That's why I want natural, cold air. I don't want processed air."

"This girl, you're not normal at all. Las las the air becomes cool." She laughed, getting up and pulling me with her. "Processed air kor, manufactured air ni. Let's go to class jare."

"Fine, fine." I sighed. "It's because you're dragging me with you sha."

We had to walk good eight flights of stairs which meant we had to take a break at some point. Like right now. I leaned against the wall while Amara rested on the railing.

"So, shall...we talk about this morning's incident?" Amara asked, still panting a bit.

I recalled the short conversation I had with Nathan during the so-called Morning Incident; I didn't want to talk about it.

"No, I'm afraid we shan't. There are many more important things to talk about."

"Like what?"

"Like how class starts in five minutes, and we're still downstairs talking nonsense." I deadpanned.

"Nah, it's normal, not important. Come on, tell me the situation."

"There's no situation. Amara I think you need to stop reading those romance novels and watching those romcoms since you don't seem to tell the difference between reality and fiction."

"I need to continue, actually. They're good for lowering blood pressure—"

"Ah ahn, who told you that one?"

She had the nerves to smile while pointing at herself. "Future doctor Amarachukwu right here."

"God, I pray I don't get treated by any Amara in the future." I said under my breath, but she heard me.

Damn those sharp ears of hers.

"So you're giving up on me already?"

I shook my head. "Non, mon ami. I was just—"

"No, you won't get me carried away, Kaira. Come on, tell me now."

Why are you so stubborn?

"It's nothing, and I'm serious. He just wanted to prevent the teachers from punishing us for hanging around." I felt like I lied. "That's all."

Amara stroked her chin. "But I don't remember seeing teachers like that. Well...I guess there was that bald Physics teacher standing by the basketball field, scolding those junior school students, but he's an old man na."

"Really?"

"If I'm remembering right, then I guess so."

"Eh...okay." I started climbing the stairs once more, only for Amara to shout my name suddenly. I held both the wall and the railing to avoid slipping. "What? Guy, do you want me to fall off the stairs?"

"Oh, sorry. Sorry, I didn't know my voice was that loud." She joined me on the step. "I just put two and two together."

"Wow, bravo."

"Hey, I'm not that dumb. And, I just thought of something. Maybe he's set his eyes on you, girl. So he put his hand around you to mark yo—"

"It's better you shut up right now. Christ! What if someone heard you saying this rubbish?" I clasped my hand over her mouth.

She removed my hand, saying, "But no one will know we're talking about Nathan—oops!"

"Right now, you sound like a drunk. Geez, let's just keep going to class."

"Fine, but let me do just one thing." She held my hand. "Or two?"

I folded my arms across my chest, brows arched. "Oya, what?"

"Allow me to ship you guys. And let me root for Nathan all the way."

"In your dreams." I rolled my eyes. "Don't ask me any more questions, because I'll just ignore you!"

"At least hear the ship name?"

"La, la, la!"

"Hear the ship name na!"

"See you in class, ultimate pain in my ass." I saluted, going further up the stairs so that she wasn't within view again.

Ship name, eh? There's no ship to begin with.

I wouldn't let myself into something like that.

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So, Nathan's been acting strange lately... Amara has a ship name already but Kaira doesn't want to hear anything of it👀

Let's just see where this takes us🌚

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