Chapter 44: Slytherin
Tracy
It was nightfall and I was on a video call with Chioma in my room after washing almost all the peanut paste from my locs. I use almost because every once a while, I caught a small lump of oily butter lurking somewhere in the tangled forest attached to my head.
Chioma cackled again at what I told her until she started coughing.
"What's so funny about what I just said that you have to laugh so hard?"
"What's not funny, Tee? How long has this been going on that I had to be the last to know?"
I rolled my eyes at her on my face time as she tried taking off her makeup with a baby wipe before bed.
"You're the first, don't worry."
"Wow. You mean to tell me you both pulled these outrageous pranks on each other the first two days of this almighty tutorial?" she puckered her lips in a pout. "I'm missing out."
"Again, this is not a laughing matter. Can we just talk about something else? How was your day?"
"It's just like every other day, honey." she sighed it out, "I don't even want to think about it. Although, I've given my new old life a thought and I think I'm going to have a change of career choice."
My heart sank to my stomach. "Is that what you really want?"
"Girl, when life throws me lemons, I don't have a choice but to make lemonade. There's no way I can solely sponsor myself to study law. Rethinking my choice is the only way out for me."
"So... What have you decided?"
"Theatre art."
"You want to go into acting?"
"Ugh. That look on your face is not helping matters, Tee." she said and I shook my head as if to shake away any discouraging look I had on.
"Don't mind me. I just want to be sure you really want to go down on that path."
"Yeah." she responded without hesitation, "You know my kind of person. Everyone knows I'm this talkative, fun, lively, persuasive girl which is the reason I figured Law was for me. It's pretty obvious my plan B will be acting. I was not in the drama club back in school for nothing. I'm sure I'll make it in the industry. And oh, meeting cute guys on set is going to be a plus."
*cough* Flirt!
"Seems we're both diving into the entertainment industry." I remarked and she nodded with a sad smile.
"Yeah."
Our silence was filled with uncertainty, hope and fear for both our future. In a way, Christopher was right. We were indeed gambling with our future on this one. White collar jobs were the guarantee to a stable income but we've chosen to pursue the pure crafts of art that required connection at the least, to get to the top.
Teen age was gruesome. Choosing a safe path over passion or uncertain desires over life long unhappiness... The options were too weighty for our weeny age and little experience.
"What are you going to do tomorrow?" Chioma spoke again, pulling me out of my reverie.
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah, y'know. The whole getting back at Christopher thing."
I rolled my eyes at the mention of the little devil and replied, "You'll get the update, don't worry."
"Oh my God," Chioma laughed, "your life is becoming much more interesting than mine and that's saying something. Anyway, remember to always keep me posted, okay?"
"Sure." I laughed. "Okay, time to sleep. Long day tomorrow."
"Good night." she said and we ended the call.
I heaved and shut down my PC before tucking myself into bed. After several turns and still not getting any sleep, I laid awake thinking out a plan for tomorrow. My phone dinged in the middle of my meditation and I reached for it and checked the caller ID.
My heart leapt for joy and I quickly accepted the call.
"Hey Tracy. How was your day?"
A mushy smile found it's way up my lips at the sound of his voice. "Not my favorite but I'm good. Yours?"
"Same old same old. I went to a stadium with Paul and a bunch of others for a football match against a team from a different district. All went well until I got a broken lip from an aggressive opponent." he replied.
"Yish. Are you okay?"
"Well, apart from eating a spicy dinner in tears and finding it hard to smile, I'm A-okay." he answered with enthusiasm and I laughed despite myself.
"Well, did your team win?"
"Duh? What do you think?"
"Congrats then, I guess. I just don't understand the whole point of you guys finding joy in playing football with scars and bruises as the only reward. No offense."
"None taken. It's just what is. It's for the pleasure and entertainment and we don't mind a few bruises while showing them who's boss."
"Arrogant that much?" I teased.
"Confident that much."
I chuckled and an idea suddenly occurred to me. "Charlie, do you have some prank ideas you could share with me?"
I had a few ideas of my own to set Christopher's butt on fire but I preferred fresh ideas from a prank expert.
"Oh oh. Who's the prey?"
"Doesn't matter." I replied quickly.
"I need to know who it is if I'm going to tell you anything. Pranks come in different shapes for different preys. So tell me, who offended you?"
"Um, a family friend." I quipped, hoping to evade spilling a name.
"A guy or a girl?"
"A guy. A very annoying guy."
"Okay. Now, there's a variety of pranks you can think up for him. You just need to think of something petty he cherishes the most and help him with ruining it or messing it up to your satisfaction. If you're good at getting on his nerves too, that helps."
What they cherish the most? What could Christopher probably cherish? His books? From what I've seen so far, he was a nerd and a stone cold idiot. He was annoying and he could be nice when he wants to be. Still, I haven't known him that long enough to know something petty he cherished.
Although.. I couldn't stop thinking of a particular feature of his I'd like to bomb.
I smiled to myself and told Charlie. "I've figured it out. Thanks for the help."
Charlie said his goodbye and shortly after, I was smiling devilishly to sleep.
~~~
Annabelle
"Do you want to meet the guys?" he asked.
I looked away and frowned at the mention of his friends.
"No." was my reply.
"Anne love. You know this malice you're keeping with them is not healthy, right?"
"I can't make up with them, Chris. We have an history and we said and did some pretty bad things to each other that can't be taken back."
He sighed and wrapped his arms around my waist. It was geography class a few minutes ago until the buzzer went off to indicate spare period and the class dispersed.
Christopher and I were still in class however, with a number of other students, and I was strapped against him in his seat.
"Well, one of these days you'll have to walk up to them and apologize for these mysterious things you've done and said to them and they'll do the same. Promise?"
"Fine, I promise." I replied. "Speaking of which, I wanted you to meet someone this spare period but she made up an excuse to be elsewhere. So maybe some other time."
"I thought you don't have any friends here." he quizzed.
"Well... I don't. She's more of a sister than a friend."
"Oh. Then, good thing I'm finally going to meet my sister-in-law. Baby steps, but I can't wait to meet your parents." he gestured to himself with a cocky smile, "There's no way they'll see all this and deny me of their blessing to have you."
I laughed at his easy charms.
"No, they won't."
Christopher smiled back and leaned in to kiss me on the forehead. I closed my eyes and wished he'd meet my dad some day.
__________
Tracy
I got to the mansion in cargo shorts and tank top around half past eight in the morning. I was early, yes, but only to make it in time before the tutorial began.
Things got even better when granny sat me in the living room saying he was in the mini lounge and busy with something important to attend to me right away.
Dying of curiosity, I waited until I was left alone before going to take a peek in the see-through door and found Christopher with an older man in his thirties and both were having a seemingly grave talk. I stayed there, craned up against the wall and wondering what the meeting was all about.
The man was taking down notes every once a while and Christopher was hunched over across him like a scolded kid. Just then, the man took his round rimmed glasses from the table in front of him and set it on the edge of his nose bridge as he said something, to which Christopher's expression suddenly darkened.
if only I can hear what they're saying...
Crouching a little, I pressed my ear on the edge of the door to make out their voices when out of nowhere, a deep masculine voice boomed above me causing me to break a sweat.
"What do you think you're doing?"
I got back up on my feet and looked to find Christopher's dad in joggers and sweaty tanktop with a towel hung on his neck. He must've gone for a run.
"N-nothing, Sir." I stuttered, "I have a tutorial with Chris."
"Well, he's busy at the moment. I'll tell him you're around."
no!
"How thoughtful of you." I mumbled in sarcasm and itched my butt while racing in my mind for a way out. "I'm just gonna look around." I faked a smile and quickly left his presence.
Hurrying up the stairs and ushering myself into his room, I quickly stuffed his blow-dryer and set it back in place. Then I cleaned traces of the explosive and stepped out just when I found Christopher coming up the stairs.
Sighting me, he eyed me suspiciously and asked as he took the last steps, "When did you arrive?"
"Not long." I replied easily, "I came up to check if you were in."
That seemed to clear the doubt off his mind.
wow, since when did I get so good at lying?
Christopher went past me and I sighed in relief and followed after his enticing cologne.
"So... How have you been?" he inquired as we entered his room.
"What?" I feigned ignorance and dumped my bag on the desk.
Finally, he looked at me. "Just trying to make a small talk on how you've been since we last saw."
I scoffed at his nonchalance and sat down on the chair, "Since when do you care?"
"Since now. I take it didn't go so well given your bitter attitude this beautiful morning." he smirked and took his seat on his swivel chair.
"Actually, it went great. You know, the usual." I spat, narrowing my eyes to lasers at the scumbag in front of me.
At his blatant show of self admiration, I appeased myself with the thought that I would have the last laugh.
"I see your arm is fine. Shame. I worried for nothing."
"Yeah," he raised his arm for me to see it was perfectly fine. "I happen to have a dad for a doctor."
I rolled my eyes in disgust and took out my writing materials before casually asking,
"You guys have a visitor?"
"Why?"
"I saw a car parked outside."
"Oh that," and the self absorbed narcissistic smirk was back on his face. "it's mine. I got it yesterday."
"I see."
lucky bastard.
I was hoping to get some dirt on the man I found him with actually but then it was none of my business to begin with.
"And what about Kelvin? I haven't been seeing him around."
"He went home for a few days. He should be back later today or tomorrow." Christopher switched on his PC and pushed it to me to take the cbt quiz on it, "Enough of small talks. You have ten minutes."
"For sixty questions?" I cried out but he was already timing me on his watch so I quickly set to answering them.
And for the next hour, we put aside our differences and formed a rapport on seeking after my academic progress.
♣
Christopher
Thursday morning found me in my room after taking my morning shower a little while ago. Kelvin was slouched on the armchair with his iPhone in hand. He had arrived here last night.
"So, how are things between you and Suzan?" I inquired.
"What do you mean?"
"Drop the act, fucker. You know what I mean."
Kelvin set his phone aside and sat up, "Suzan is not like every other girl and I'm not saying this to be cheesy. It's just... sometimes I think I've figured her out and the next minute she's a jigsaw puzzle."
"Oh oh. What happened?"
"Nothing." he sighed, "And that's the problem."
I plugged the hair dryer and thought it over before saying, "Just give her some time. She'll come around."
"What if she's just using me? Huh? What if I'm just a puppet in the hands of a puppeteer." he bewailed and I laughed.
"Cut the crap, okay? It's Suzan. If she was using you, you'd be the first to know. I think she's being cautious and prefers to take things slow."
"Did she tell you something?" he suddenly demanded and I gave him a questioning look.
"You're right." he muttered, "That was a dumb question."
"I knew her before you did so I have an idea or two on how she feels about seeing you after everything."
Kelvin cupped his face and groaned, "You don't have to remind me she's slept with you, Chris."
"I wasn't trying to." I told him in earnest, "I'm just saying you should put yourself in her shoes. You guys started dating and then it ended badly. You should expect that making up again would come in baby steps."
Kelvin fell silent and I took that my little advice was sinking in, so I went ahead and switched the dryer on to blow-dry my damp hair.
A burst of fume suddenly exploded in my face and I froze in shock. My vision went cloudy for a moment until the white dust slowly dissipated and I lowered the running dryer in my grasp to see that the dust truly came from it.
Kelvin began to laugh as he came up to me. "Yo. What happened?"
I shook my head of the white dust and again stirred the powdery mist which tickled my nostrils and caused me to sneeze a couple of times. Looking up, I clenched my fists in anger as Kelvin guffawed at my state and even went as far as taking pictures of me.
"Bro!" he cackled, holding on to his belly. "You look like a freaking ghost."
Boiling mad, I yanked the wire out of the socket and glared down at the dryer once again.
Tracy. That sly bitch...
I should've known. I should've known behind those creepy smiles she gave me once a while in yesterday's lesson that something was cooking in that empty head of hers. How dare that little Slytherin try this old trick on me? My hair... Oh fuck, my hair! I might as well just take a shower again. I'mma kill that bitch, I swear it.
Kelvin tried swatting the powder off my shirt but it was useless.
"That bitch...!"
"Who?" Kelvin asked.
"Tracy... that bitch." I slammed the dryer on my desk and ran a hand through my hair.
"I'm lost."
"Birthday." I spat and wiggled a finger into space. "This all started when we bumped into each other on my last birthday..."
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