Cliché Novelty

Chapter 7

I looked through my alarm clock timings to see that I hadn’t even activated them; a lecture from my English teacher is not what I needed.

9:22.

“You’re late”

Oh, I didn’t even know.

I ignored Mr Taku’s comment before walking over to the table where Tolu and Calvin were seated as everyone were in their assigned seats

“I’m so sorry, my alarm didn’t go off and then my train was delayed for seven minutes and then-” I stopped when I realised I was rambling too much

“Its fine hun” Tolu smiled at me and removed her bag from the seat placed next to her

“Okay, now BILLIE is here we can get started” Tolu said loudly looking at Calvin

Calvin stopped texting and slid his phone in his pocket before giving us his undivided attention

“So any ideas?” Tolu beamed after a while

We all stayed silent for a bit before Tolu huffed “I’ve just clocked that I don’t even understand the play so how am I supposed to even do a presentation on this?”

 “The whole class don’t even understand the play” Calvin said

His voice was nice. A mixture of a husky, baritone comforting kind of nice.

“I guess we could re-tell the play in a more modern way that way everyone would be able to understand it better” I said after a while

I looked up to see both of them staring at me, and suddenly felt really stupid

 “You smart, because that is not a bad idea at all” Tolu said wagging her finger in my direction “Are you going to contribute any ideas brainbox number two?” She stopped writing on the sheet and directed her attention to Calvin

“No and I don’t really care” He sighed heavily as if he was annoyed and sunk back in his seat where he pulled out his phone again

“Stop being annoying just because you got in a argument with your witch of a girlfriend”

 My breathing hitched as I wasn’t sure what I was so caught off guard by, the fact that he had an argument with his girlfriend or the fact that Tolu had just addressed his girlfriend as a witch.

She turned to me and grinned and these past few minutes told me we were going to get along just fine.

He looked up from his phone and looked at Tolu before letting out a little chuckle, drawing his chair back, picking up his duffel bag and making his way towards the classroom door

“Calvin” Mr Taku called out

The classroom door shut and everyone proceeded with their chatter.

“What? What did I say?” Tolu squealed

*

“These four lessons have just been a drag; don’t even get me started on English how am I supposed to work with two people who I have never even heard speak before?” Asia continued to ramble to me, Chloe and Ameeka as we made our way from the shop back to the school gate “No honestly, they just sat there and stared at me, it’s so fucking jarring I would honestly rather listen to Michael talk all day”

“Yeah you would like that wouldn’t you?” Chloe teased

“Trust me” Ameeka laughed

“What lies has Billie been feeding you lot?” She rolled her eyes