Nesrina Ramses up there. Thanks everyone for all your votes.
When she stepped out in her underwear, he was still asleep. She tested out his body lotion, his cologne and other stuff before walking into the main ward to grab her Housedress from the rails. As soon as she was done struggling to zip herself up, she heard an almost inaudible knock on the main door. She peeped from where she was standing in the middle of some of the beds at the glass doors. She saw Nurse Sandra and quickly walked to the door and unlocked it.
She slipped in and shut the door behind her. She looked tired with bags under her eyes, she probably barely slept thinking about her ailing patient with an inexperienced freshman science student.
" Good morning." Ciarra greeted.
" Morning, how's he doing?"
" Good... I think?" She states, " You're the professional, maybe you should check up on him."
" You're right...it's freezing in here." The nurse notices hugging herself as she headed towards his door, " I hope his room isn't this cold."
Ciarra followed and went packing her books from the couch into her backpack before retrieving her flashlight whiles the nurse checked his vitals.
" I was scared I would have to send him to the general hospital because it is the school's policy here that a student should not be kept in here for more than three days."
" So how would you have sent him to the hospital with all the issues on the way there?" Ciarra wonders as she buckles up her sandals.
" That has been the question on my mind as I was being driven here. But he's improved. Just that I have to monitor him for a few hours, after all the day hasn't ended yet so it's not fully three days." She shrugs and then the light suddenly came back on.
" Screw these electrical engineers and their poor services." The nurse curses as she changed his tubes, " You better get going before anyone notices you slept here. Thanks so much again."
" You're welcome." Ciarra answers with a genuine grin as she pulls her damp hair into a ponytail and hikes her backpack over her shoulders,
" Bye."
She walks out of the room after taking one last look at him. She stepped out of the infirmary into the chill outside and soon regretted not bringing a sweater. It was colder than Monday and she could still see some icy dewdrops on the leaves of several trees as she passed buildings to her house.
The school was now awake as some boys dragged bins towards the incinerator, and others went about their morning chores. You could hear the sound of brooms making contact with the ground, scrubbing brushes scraping floors and you could see others dusting windows and doors and raking gardens and yards.
She made it to the house just in time. Everyone was busy so no one even noticed her, let me rephrase that- none of her seniors noticed her- Nesrina dropped her broom and walked over to her in the dorm after seeing her sneak into the back of the house and into the hallway.
" Hey, where have you been?" She whispers.
" I got caught up somewhere last night, I'll explain when it's just us." Ciarra whispered back to her.
" Good, because I really had to go at lengths so none of the seniors will notice you were not in the dorm."
" Thanks a lot." Ciarra says as she throws her backpack on her bed and grabs a broom behind the doors of the dorm.
" Let's get to work."
The seniors were mostly the ones done showering first and left the house without really inspecting anyone's beds. All they did was to delegate trustworthy juniors amongst them to do the job. So as usual, by 6:00am, none of them were in the house. The keys were with Tenge. She was supposed to lock up when they were done and give the keys to Mrs Annan.
Ciarra met three of her former dorm mates when she was done sweeping the hallway she had been assigned and they all dramatically stopped in their tracks. Faye, Kweiba and Veronica. The wrong combo of people who had noticed her absence. They looked like they were just done showering because Faye was in her signature fucshia robe with her name embroidered in pink cursive letters on it and Veronica was a shadow of her usual jaunty self.
Faye's hands flew to her chest as if she was trying not to get a heart attack.
" I swear to God, this kid wasn't in the house last night." Kweiba spoke up first getting Ciarra to smile.
" Oh my goodness, she's smiling." Faye squeals.
" And she's glowing too, where the hell were you last night. Your egyptian friend was worried sick." Kweiba states as more people begin to walk out of the bathhouses and into the hallway.
" Can we do this later." Ciarra says glancing around at the people now pouring in and they got the message.
" How about we skip breakfast at the dining hall and meet at the Morning Café?" Faye suggests and Veronica seemed to not like the idea.
" Chillax Vee, I promise I will not be obvious." Faye tries to assure her, " It's morning breakfast, the teachers will be so sleepy and they wouldn't even notice. I mean Mr Djietror is the one in charge. That man doesn't even notice it if you leave the dinning hall before dining is over."
" I don't think that's the problem, anyway we'll talk about this on the way there." Kweiba suggests.
" See ya, I'll go tell the others you showed up." Faye says and saunters down the hall towards her dorm.
The others also leave and Ciarra turns back towards her dorm but not until yet another person notices her.
" Were you in the house last night because even if the seniors didn't notice, I definitely did!" It was Temitokpe or Temi as everyone else called her in the school, a very fair and tall nigerian with big adorable eyes. She used to scrub the bathhouses with Ciarra back in Manhattan. She was from dorm 4 Cortess. Temi stood wrapped in her towel running an afro comb through her now overgrown thick natural hair. She was the third nigerian in the house, second was Amaka and then there was Yemisi who had a twin brother Yemi in Leviticus house and one of Ciarra's classmates.
Ciarra never knew people noticed her in the house much less notice her absence.
" I did come back but it was pretty late. I had a huge test to prepare for." She lied. Lies, how had she suddenly gotten so good at lying? But she couldn't possibly lie to her friends, that would be out of the books.
" Well, if you say so, see ya." She says and begins to walk away.
" Temi, wait!" Ciarra called her back and she turned, " Don't tell anyone, okay?"
The last thing she wanted was for this lie to begin to spread.
" Of course I won't, with all these gossips in this house. I don't want any wahala o." She says using one of her typical nigerian slangs and Ciarra chuckles.
" Thanks."
" Bye." She said and continued on to her dorm.
After changing into her uniforms and switching some of the books she had in her backpack, she sat on her neatly laid bed and stared into empty space as images of the previous night flew back into her mind. The bell shrilled for dinning, snapping her out of it.
She watched Ramses grab her backpack and lunch bag. She was still packing her books into her backpack as the others rushed out of the room. Tenge had begun locking the doors and she was almost at theirs. Ciarra got up and begun picking up her books for her.
" Thanks." She says with an appreciative smile as she zipped the last book up and grabbed her Balenciaga backpack and lunch bag by their straps and headed for the door right behind Ciarra.
Tenge got to their dorm by then and greeted them with a smile before closing the door behind them and begining to lock it. They joined the throngs of students in the hallway all heading for the gate.
" Hey Ramses, we're having breakfast at the Morning Café, I want you to join us." Ciarra offers.
" Really?...but that would mean being absent for dining." She answers.
" Oh come on, no one's gonna notice. And since everyone is at dinning, we'll have the whole place to ourselves. Come on." Ciarra tries to sound convincing.
" Breaking school rules." Ramses said deep in thought.
" Don't tell me you haven't broken rules before?" Ciarra says and she scoffs, " Of course I have just that it's going to be my first time in this school ."
" So you're in?"
" Yup, but how do we walk in the opposite direction without anyone noticing?"
" I bet the one who brought the idea has a plan." Ciarra says with a sly grin and as if on cue, Healenore falls in step with them.
" So Faye says to drop our bags in Sarah's class which is downstairs of the arts block, the closest classroom block to this house. That way, it'd be hard for anyone to notice us." Healenore says and they both nod.
The walkway was rowdy as students clad in their sweaters and trenchcoats, conversed about anything in the frigidly cold air.
Slipping out of the crowd was not that easy but they managed to pull it off by leaving in two's into Sarah's classroom.
As soon as the sound of students died down on the walkway, they stepped out and huddled together on the sidewalk.
" I can't believe we just did that." Heather gasps.
" The school is so quiet and empty." Efua observes as they look around at the empty sidewalk and walkways.
" I love adventures, we should try stuff like this even more." Mae thrills.
" Take it easy, Indiana Jones because as at now, we are still at the stage of Dora the Explorer." Faye jokes and Kweiba catches the stupid look she had on and they both cry out in unison like some deranged idiots,
" Swiper no swiping, Swiper no swiping, Swiper no swiping!!"
Then Sarah picks up after them, " Oh men!!"
" Are you guys usually like this?" Nesrina asks Ciarra referring to them.
" No, it's only these two who do that and I sometimes think they behave very alike." Ashanti replies.
" Vee, what's up with you today, you're so quiet." Mae asks being the ever so observant best friend.
" It started after she came back from getting Sister Lartifa's signature." Healenore reports.
" Oh right, I should have thought about that. That mean girl, why did you go there alone, what did she say to you?" Faye asks as they took a turn down a walkway.
" I think everyone is right, I should really end things with Calvin...Hell no!!" Faye, Kweiba and Efua all yell in unison and look at each other in suspicion wondering how they all came up with the same answer at the same time.
" What did he do?" Ciarra asks.
" He hasn't done anything wrong and everyone keeps pointing to that fact. She said when they were all freshemen they all had a crush on him too, back then he used to work here part time. But according to her he can't be so perfect without anything going on." Veronica sniffs back a tear.
" That's your issue?... having a perfect guy?" Faye asks ridiculously, " Oh lord, some girls have it so good, they don't even notice it."
" Come on Faye." Efua tries to reprimand her.
" No, no, let's face a fact here. You and I both know that every guy we ever meet either just wants to play with our emotions or get in our pants and here she is, with some one who actually understands what being in a relationship entails and doesn't want any of those things from her and she thinks he's too perfect? Come on." Faye rationalizes.
" I'm sure it took more than just that to get Ronnie thinking in that direction." Ashanti also says, " That mean witch!"
" What else did she say?" Efua probes.
" She said he wasn't in college down here for nothing. He actually got a scholarship to an Ivy league earlier this year- Dartmouth. He doesn't want to go for some weird reasons and now that he's met me, he really doesn't want to go anymore. I am tying him down. I mean I didn't know that, if I did I wouldn't have approached him."
" Dartmouth. That's the school Lester wishes to get into." Ciarra recollects,
" But why didn't he want to go?"
" It's a mystery." Sarah responds,
" Ronnie, you seriously need to have a talk with him. Because the fact that you're on the verge of tears means that you two have something really serious going on with each other. You like him a lot, don't you?"
" She doesn't like him, she's in love with him." Mae answers for her and all her friends stopped in their tracks.
" What?... when did that happen, I rarely see you two together." Heather perks up.
" Oh I am not surprised. I have seen enough of those two to have my eyes plucked out." Faye says with an eye roll, " Last week, I had a chemistry test so I asked Ronnie if I could join them for their study period and yeah, they really do study. I learnt a lot until the last fifteen minutes before prep for freshemen would be over. I had never felt so jealous in my life. Like why can't half the boys I meet be this romantic? "
" That's because you pick them from off the side of the road." Kweiba answered earning a slap upside the head from Faye.
" Ouch!!, What was that for?" Kweiba held her head and asked.
Faye ignores her and continued,
" Guys, have you seen Calvin kiss Ronnie before...you should! He kisses her like the slightest thing could break her... like, like she's so precious. Ever watched Twilight?"
" Duuuh. I have a spiritistic brother who thinks he's a werewolf." Efua says.
" Like Edward Cullen and human Bella style."
" Okay, I get the picture. Sounds like it's fun to fall in love, so why are you sad?" Heather asks.
" You guys make falling in love sound like fun. I have a crush on this guy in class and he doesn't even notice me. I lent him my only pen I was using to write that day when he asked if I had an extra. I had to write with a pencil through out that day and I'm pretty sure he still doesn't know my name." Sarah begins to bloviate.
" Baby, you have to do more than lend him your pen. Sometimes you have to speak to win your man, how do you think Ronnie landed herself a college guy?" Kweiba asks.
" Look who's talking, where is your man?" Sarah chuckles.
" Oh I'm not into boys."
" So you're gay?" Efua asks.
" Trust me if I were gay, you'd be the first girl I'll be hitting on." Kweiba jokes, " Actually, I am aromantic. "
" Huh?" Heather wonders.
" She naturally doesn't have romantic feelings towards anyone. She's probably going to end up as a celibate. My mom is a celibate and aromantic but that doesn't mean she doesn't love other people. She does, but in an aromantic way." Veronica explains as they walked up the last walkway leading to the café.
" So, little red riding hood, where were you last night?" Ashanti changes the subject.
Ciarra had no choice but to tell them what had ensued. She was done by the time they got to the entrance of the café and Sarah pushed the glass doors open, unlike other days, they were hit by the full blast of warm air from the air conditioner. It was so comforting as they took of their sweaters and cardigans and hung them on the coat rack. The place was empty as predicted. The bells had chimmed when they walked in so the barrister had popped up behind the counter.
" Isn't it supposed to be dining?" The guy asks.
" Oh come on Freddie, you want us to go and eat that salty mess they call oatmeal?" Veronica asks as they occupied their favorite booth. He had to add one more chair for Nesrina.
" Okay, what can I get you guys?" He asks towering them at their table.
" Coffee." Everyone sighed, even Ciarra who usually went for a decaf.
" Wow, you guys must be exhausted." He observed. Freddie looked slightly older than Calvin and had a trimmed mustache as if he was trying to look older.
" Calvin's at the back, I should get him...no!" She interjects, " I don't really wanna see him right now. I'll come back after school."
" Oooooh, what did he do wrong?" Freddie asks as he turns towards the coffee machines.
" Nothing, I'm not really in a good mood right now and I don't want him to see me like this." She explains.
" Don't worry, I get it." He says then turned to the others, " Anyway, since today was trying to be a depressing day, we decided to add freshly baked hot cross buns and croissants to our menu to spice up the morning. "
" I like the sound of that." Kweiba grins, and Faye false herself not to start complaining about her excessive eating habits, " You guys want any?"
They were all in, even Heather.
" I want to pay for everyone." Nesrina says out of the blue.
" But why?, you're my guest." Ciarra asks.
" Because I want to, please don't say no. I want to be a part of you guys."
" Awwww, we have a new Efua on our hands, someone to pay up." Healenore teases.
" Shut up." Efua says. After several minutes of arguing, Ciarra decided to bring it to an end.
" Okay then let's do it this way, we share the half amongst ourselves and you pay the other half." Ciarra suggests.
" Fine." She agrees.
" Great, so Ciarra, are you really going to go all ID on the guy?" Sarah asks bringing back the main topic of discussion.
" Since when did you start speaking April?" Ashanti asks and they all begin to laugh at the memory of the sultry sister from their dorm in Manhattan. Nesrina was slightly confused.
" I hear she's had the most guys amongst all the sisters." Mae chips in as Freddie brings their ordered in batches.
" Why wouldn't she, she's practically a wreck and a drunk. Do you know that the water bottle she usually has handy, doesn't contain water?" Healenore asks.
" You're right. I realized she's always slightly tipsy every day, once she asked me why I had a blue cardigan on, meanwhile I was in the school's prescribed grey cardigan. That's not good. She's a really, really pretty girl. Sometimes I even feel jealous and look what she's doing to herself?"
" Pretty hurts." Nesrina says, her first contribution to their conversation.
" Exactly." Faye agrees, sipping from her cup and turns to Ciarra, " Being in denial is one of the things that hurts a guy the most."
" I know, I don't wanna hurt him, neither do I want to start something I am not ready for. So I'll have to do this, at least I have the whole day to formulate something before he shows up in class tomorrow." Ciarra explains then asks, " Did you guys all really notice my absence?"
" Not really, well until your best friend came looking for you. She came around during personal time and then after prep but you were still not in. That's how we all knew you were not in the house." Efua informs her, breaking her warm croissant in two.
" Oh my goodness guys, I think I have more coffee running through my body than blood." Healenore suddenly panics and raises her hands so they could see. Her fingers were twitching involuntarily and they all burst out laughing.
" Don't do that guys, that's what my sister does when stuff don't work out for me." She cries.
" I didn't know you had a sister." Kweiba observes.
" I'm a twin." She discloses and they all look at her with serious expressions.
" And you never thought to tell us?" Faye asks.
" What if we are not even talking to the real Healenore right now and rather her twin called...." Ashanti trails.
" Eleanora. It's spelt very differently from mine and yeah, she is very capable of impersonating me. Thinking of going home right now has started to give me the chills. That plus the coffee is enough to get me all anxious."
" What do you mean by going home?" Sarah asks.
" She's talking about midterms, that's next week Thursday, we'll all be going home." Mae tells her.
" Oh come on, you're not the only one who's gonna have a sappy break. Even Ashanti over here will be very depressed." Efua points out.
" At least she's gonna be stuck somewhere watching movies."
" Who said watching movies is fun, I watch movies with my stuffed animals and bet you, it's very depressing when you talk to them or even cry when you watch a sad movie and they all don't respond to you and still have permanent smiles on their faces. That's when you realize you're really going crazy and need to see a psychiatrist. " Ashanti begins to rant and gulps down her coffee to keep herself sane.
" You don't get it guys, she's...she's insane. She enjoys turning our parents against me and making me look like a bad person all the time." Healenore says balancing her head on her hand with her elbow on the table.
" Oh come on, it's common sibling rivalry. I do it to my sisters all the time." Heather pipes in.
" Do you point daggers at your sisters to do stuff for you?" Healenore asks and that drew everyone at the table's attention.
" Hell no, she's a psychopath!" Ashanti declares.
" Does she do that to you?" Veronica whispers to her, holding her hand from across the table.
" She's practically a replica of myself, not just in our looks but she threatens me to write tests in her name, do her homework, show up for her exams as her and a whole lot. While she keeps sabotaging me to my parents, they practically think she's better than I am."
" Does she hurt you?" Ciarra asks and Healenore threw her left arm unto the table were they noticed a faded dark scar.
" She did this to me the first time I refused to write her exams for her, broken glass...she cut me with it and actually convinced my parents that she found me cutting myself up."
" Tell them she's the crazy one." Mae protests.
" It's pointless, they won't believe me. She wanted us to end up in the same high school. I think that's the smartest thing I had done. I forged my parents signatures and filled up a new application before submitting it to my school. I ended up in Nelesco and she's far off in St Joseph's Senior High in the Ahafo region. You can't imagine how excited I was to be free for once in my life."
" That's it, you're coming to stay with me instead for the midterms. Tell your parents you have to catch up with some studying so you won't be coming home for midterms." Ashanti offers.
" Really?... I don't want to impose."
" Who said anything about imposing. I live alone. The only thing you'll be invading will be my bubble of silence."
**********
Still on. Vote