Post Malone Circles
Chapter dedicated to all my friends.
" I have never pulled off something like that before but it sounds exciting so I'll do it." Healenore grins.
" So which seniors do we have on our list for today?" Efua asks.
" Ivy, Beullah and Jade." Veronica says.
" Great, at least we don't have many upsetting people on our list." Mae blows out an exhausted sigh.
" Faye and Ciarra will be going this time, I and Kweiba will go tomorrow and we'll delegate others for the day after." Ashanti says.
" Why Faye and Ciarra ?" Healenore asks.
" No offense but we need at least one level headed person in every pair. Or do you want me to pair Kweiba with Faye?..." Ashanti asks.
" You're right." Healenore agrees.
" Why do you need coffee anyway, I mean Ciarra is the only one who probably needs it with all her midnight rendezvous." Mae asks everyone and Ciarra gives her the look.
" Oh come on." Mae chuckles and Ciarra couldn't help but smile.
" It's got something to do with my game yesterday. I kinda need this after twenty sit-ups, ten laps around the field, suicide bags and fifty kickbacks. It just reminded me of how tough soccer can be and man I love a challenge." Faye complains before taking a sip of her coffee, " My body hurts like hell and I feel like drifting off every ten seconds. That reminds me.... Freddie, can I please get another cup to go?"
" Actually Freddie, she doesn't need another." Veronica calls to him before turning to Faye, " It's already a chore babysitting a sober Faye, it's gonna be worse if you have caffeine dripping into your bloodstream!"
" My skin is starting to feel like it's burning." Efua starts without looking down.
" Actually it is burning,you've got Sarah's coffee all over your hand." Ciarra points out and her eyes widen in horror as Sarah quickly picked up her tilted mug.
" I'm so sorry." She apologizes and rips several tissue papers from the roll on the table and dabbed at her hand.
As they spoke about burns, Ashanti's mind is taken back to Zaron in the empty classroom the previous day. She had noticed the reason why he always had so much clothes on. The sleeves, but she hadn't asked him about it since he obviously wasn't feeling too good to talk. He had scalding scars all over the upper part of his left torso all the way to the wrist of his left hand.
From afar, they'd look like three dimensional tattoos carved out of his skin but up close, though they were fully healed, the burns just marred his skin. She wondered what happened for him to get it because he wasn't the clumsy type though slightly autistic.
" Can we talk about something else like how we've heard nothing about Faye's junior high life" Sarah says dipping a piece of her bun in her coffee.
" You know you're the only teenage girl I've ever met who still does that. Only old people do that." Faye points out, " And for your information, I've been to boarding schools all my life. I started from fourth grade. That was a mixed school until when I was a tween and begun to have an interest in everything boys. I was sent to an all girls boarding school after and now my Dad believes I am more matured and capable of controlling my actions so he allowed me to attend Nelson."
" But have you really changed?" Kweiba jokes.
" It depends, I don't let guys teach me stuff anymore, I pick what I want to learn on my own." Faye answers before sipping her coffee.
They really didn't get her point.
" What's your mom like, you rarely talk about her." Efua asks.
Faye was very silent after that. She was in deep thought, not that she didn't trust them but she found it painful to talk about her to others, just when Ciarra decided to say something to elude the awkward silence, Faye speaks up running her fingers through her thick curls.
" She's not dead if that's what you guys are thinking, she's very much alive but... I hate myself for being like this. My mom had some sort of polio when I was in second grade and it ruined her lungs. She's been using an iron lung ever since and I just couldn't stand seeing her all immobile and sick. I'd have panic attacks whenever I saw her in it....so my mom suggested she be put in a permanent facility so I get to see less of her. I only see her twice in a year though I really wished I saw more of her." Faye's voice drops a notch, " I have a little sister too, she was adopted when I was eight, she never really got to know my mom well until recently. That was why I told my Dad I'd like to go to boarding school, my mom wasn't finding things easy at the facility, she wanted to be home and since I made coming home become painful for her, I decided to leave. My Dad is rarely home, he's usually at his base in Pakistan so she's all alone with Jael and her hired nanny at home. She loves it.
She loves all the attention and the fact that she gets to raise another daughter but I ruin it everytime I get home. She tries to let me know that I am special but I don't think I am and that is probably why I have little self-respect." She rants as her friends look at her with worried and confused expressions.
" You're not alone, we all hate ourselves sometimes or don't we?" Ashanti asks the rest and they all nod in reckoning.
" You are not the only one who is disappointed in yourself, I am always disappointed in myself because I can't stand up to my own sister." Healenore tries to assure her.
" We all have something we are disappointed in about ourselves but look at us, we don't give up, we're still going strong. You have all this going on and yet you manage to carry yourself around so well that guys easily hit on you and secondly, you're still one intelligent girl." Ciarra tells her.
" Tell that to Mr Djietror." Faye mutters under her breath and Veronica chuckled.
" That man always thinks Faye cheats on her Economics tests." Veronica explains.
" But I don't."
" Of course you don't, why do you think you were accepted into Manhattan house.., duuuh, it's because we are all geniuses." Efua points out and gives Faye a high five.
" I've lost my appetite." Faye leans back in her seat and grumbles.
" Look here sweetheart, I know you're really pulling off this Kendall Jenner physique but I think it's time you ate enough to get something on your front side and your backside." Sarah suggests getting the others to giggle.
" Eeeeew, it's okay for my mom to say that but not you guys. And FYI, I am really trying to upgrade my boobs so I stuff my bra when I'm going ou...!" She paused at the sound of Kweiba spitting her coffee back into her cup in an attempt to laugh at her, she coughed briefly and let out a laugh.
Faye glares at her.
" Haaaa!, I should've known you stuffed your bra because your bra size doesn't match your chest size. Even Heather has more boobs than you do and she's thirteen." She laughs.
" Fourteen in December... Actually." Heather tries to correct.
" You're not gonna drink that, are you?" Nesrina asks and Kweiba defiantly picks up the mug and downs everything in one gulp.
" Gross Kweiba, where are your manners?" Mae asks.
" My manners are for showoffs but not when I am with you guys alone." She states.
" Yeah, you need those to attract boys." Ashanti points out.
" Exactly, but manners are useless lately when all boys just want to get in your pants." Mae reminds them.
" Tell me about it." Sarah says with an eye roll.
" But that is why we raise the bar, or what do you say?" Heather asks.
" Virgins till marriage!!" Efua calls out and they slap hands with each other.
" Actually, I'm gonna have to take a raincheck on that because I plan on getting laid at the party... Fayanna!!!!" Faye announces abruptly and her friends caution her instantly.
Faye begins to laugh, " I love it when you guys go all protective over me."
" It's already hard being with you and having seriously crude conversations about your dating life but it is gonna be even worse after you've had a guy inside of you!" Healenore states.
" What makes you think you're ready for that?" Heather asks after a sip of her coffee.
" Come on guys, stop ganging up on me, it's not anything, it's just an experience."
" We're your sisters and as far as that is concerned, we'd advise you not to get yourself into any of that. Who do you want to be doing that with?... L??" Ciarra asks using the pet name they had devised for Ladi, " I mean he's a nice guy and an average boy who would easily want to do that, but I've met the guy and he doesn't want that now. Think about his life in the school. It will all crumble just like Sylvester's because of a fleeting moment so please don't give him the go ahead. He's a guy and trust me, if you lead him on, he will do it."
" Wise words coming from the girl who's IDying her beau." Faye says and Ciarra scoffs glaring at her.
" Really Faye?" Ciarra asks, " Yes, I might have started something with him but that doesn't mean I'm ready to have the mating dance with him."
" She's making a point there Faye. You might not see it now but in ten years, you're probably going to regret ever starting off like this." Efua reminds her.
" Chastity is not a choice, it's a must in every girls life. I mean it helps us establish female Independence and respect for the female gender!!" Heather says slapping hands with Mae who agreed with her.
" But just in case you still want to do it. Let me know, I'll get you the box of contraceptives my mom gave me as a present when I first got my period." Veronica offers. Healenore and Sarah snorted a laugh.
" What?...it's not like my mom didn't trust me. She just wanted to...to...you know...make sure I didn't come home with a baby." Veronica tries to explain herself as the others laughed.
" Contraceptives, really??" Ciarra asks.
" Yup, we've got the entire deal, condoms, plan B pills, you name it, she renews each one after they expire And as I speak, I am on birth control."
" Wait what?" Heather asks in shock.
" I have an IUD up my arm. She's taking all the precaution measures, because she has experienced the pain, stress and anxiety of pregnancy and motherhood. She doesn't want the same for me so after that serious sex talk, which she repeats to me every year, she had me armoured when the time came. She said the birth control was for and I quote, ' Just in case you lose all senses and decide to go ahead and sleep with someone.' " Veronica says downing the last of her coffee,
" Why do you think she's going to lengths to make sure I am safe?.…It's because she cares about me and wants the best for me. No offense but you talk to us more than to your mom so she might not know you well but we do and we care about you. That is why we don't want you to do anything that will make you lose your self-respect, get in trouble or start something you are not ready for. Trust me, we know what we're talking about. "
" Your friends are right Fayanna, I mean I speak from experience. There's just little judgement in the spur of the moment that you lose your ability to make wise choices, why do you think I am in a school all the way in Ghana with so many miles between me and my family?"
" Wait, has that got to do with why you are not allowed to participate in any fun activities in the school?" Ciarra asks and Nesrina nods in response.
" What happened?" Efua asked curiously when they heard the shrill of the bell across the school.
" We've gotta go before anyone noticed we took a detour." Sarah rants and downs the last of her coffee.
They paid up as arranged and left for the durbar grounds where everyone was gathered.
" We'll meet during recess." Efua says before everyone disperses.
Everyone scattered to join the queues.
Someone threw a hand over Ciarra's shoulders and she immediately recognized the ever so mild alluring fragrance of Lancôme's La Vie est Belle that made her instantly know her best friend was around.
" There you are, I thought someone kidnapped you or something." Rufidatu whispers into her ears.
" Why would you think that?" Ciarra asks embracing her as everyone organized themselves properly into queues.
" What happened to visiting Kobby together, I came to your house and you weren't there, you weren't even at your usual prep room and when I came to the clinic after dining, it was locked." She narrates and begins to panic, " Is it so bad that he had to be sent to the general hospital?"
" What makes you think he's not here, I had to send the pantry bowls away after dining so I locked him up and left."
" Really, but why??" Rufidat asks as the senior girls prefect, Helen steps up the podium to address the student body.
Ciarra dropped her voice to a whisper and filled her best friend in as Ekow, the senior boy's prefect tested out the microphones amidst the hubbub.
" You did what?!" Rufidat exclaims drawing the attention of some other girls in conversation, " Sorry." She apologizes and shoots her friend an appalled look.
" Who are you and what have you done to my mademoiselle goody two shoed Ciarra?"
" Oh come on, It was the only option I had in that dire strait. It's not like you wouldn't do the same for Samed."
" Oh I would, but that's just me and Samed, but you and Kobby... I can't even imagine what would be going through that corroded mind of his after this. He'd probably start seeing you very differently..." Rufidat rants and Ciarra puts up a hand to pause her.
" I am very much aware of that, that is why he can never know I was in there with him at that odd hour in the first place."
" Wait, wait, he doesn't know it was you?"
" He had too much melatonin running through his vein to even know if it was real or not. I just hope the dosage was high enough to make him not recall the anything at all." Ciarra sighs.
" I hope so." Rufidat also says before turning to look at her with a quizzical look, " Wait, did you shower there?"
" How do you know?" Ciarra asks knowing very well how intuitive her best friend was and she nodded in agreement, " It explains a lot. Don't get me wrong but you smell like Kobby."
" What?" Ciarra wonders as she sniffs her cardigan.
" You've got the whole intoxicating blueberry fragrance he uses in attracting the bees in this school... like that Leila girl." Rufidat adds while she looks up the podium.
" I'm guessing you've already heard about it."
" Samed and the boys know about it and you know Samed tells me everything, right?"
" I wish Kobby tells me everything. And not bits and pieces when he feels like it." Ciarra mumbles running a hand across her face in frustration,
" At least I have up until tomorrow morning to fabricate the perfect story to tell him if he brings something of that sort up."
That was her last words before Ekow greeted the entire student body with the microphone giving off one of it's irritating feedbacks.
Everyone responds and the tune for a hymn is given. Some sung heartily, others kept silent whiles others mumbled the chorus or just some incoherent words. It was over soon though, and everyone heads to their classroom either in groups or alone.
Rufidat walked to class with Ciarra and they chatted about their plans for the midterm break up to their classroom. Ciarra stopped in her tracks when she got to the doorway of the classroom as others walked in.
" What ?"Rufidat asked her and she quickly turned and buried her face in the crook of Rufidat's neck.
" Look again." She says, her voice coming out as muffled from the lapel of Rufidat's jacket.
Rufidat cranes her neck slightly to get a glimpse as everyone walked in.
Uh-oh.
" What is he doing here, I thought he'd be discharged later this evening and show up in class tomorrow." Ciarra rambles.
There Kobby was in his seat. He was
In a white turtleneck with the school's blazer he'd shown to her on Saturday over it. He was in it's matching slacks and had his head resting on his hand with his elbow propped up the table as if he were thinking. The weird part was that he was staring intently at the board in absentmindedly and he looked pale.
" You can't stand here forever babygirl, come on we've gotta move, people are starting to look." Rufidat slowly pushes her away from herself.
" What do I do?" Ciarra shifts from foot to foot, nervousness written all over her face.
" Go with the flow, act natural. You always do this when you find out he has been with another girl, so why are you finding it so hard?" Rufidat asks taking her bottle of Eau de parfum from her backpack and spraying Ciarra with it to obscure Kobby's signature smell.
" Because this time it wasn't another girl, it was me and I haven't had to lie to him before."
" You have to now, if it helps, there are somethings I also don't tell Samed. Boys will always be boys you don't have to tell them everything." Rufidat assures her with a grin and Ciarra turns back towards the crowded doorway.
" You've got this. Just act normal. " Rufidat assures her again before leaving her.
Ciarra hikes her backpack properly on her shoulders and boldly walks in towards her table. He still hadn't noticed her, well until Lester steps into her line of vision.
" Hey Ciarra. Just wanted to talk to you about the Science and Math Club." That definitely drew Kobby's full attention and he looked irritated.
" Okay, what's up?" Ciarra asks trying hard not to sound as if she was trying to blow him off.
" We're having a meeting on Friday and they're gonna test us so they can give out the executive positions to the deserving ones."
" Oh really?"
" Yh, so I was wondering if we could prep together." He suggests and Ciarra hesitates briefly before responding.
" I d... don't know about that..." She drawls glancing in Kobby's direction.
" Oh no, it wouldn't be just the two of us, Berry and Heather will be joining too as well as some other kids from New York and New Orleans." He corrects.
" Alright, I'll check my schedule and get back to you." She says with a polite grin and he nods before leaving for his seat.
Ashanti was also beyond impressed by Zaron's artistic sense. He had managed to write a thank you on her desk with turquoise blue artificial petals. She felt pretty honored and turned to acknowledge his thoughtfulness. Heather and Mae noticed and walked to her as she arranged the petals into her pencil case before any teacher could walk in on it . Heather shot her a ridiculous look.
" What?" Ashanti interjects.
" Nothing, it's just that you two have very dorky ways of communicating. Go talk to him." Mae suggests.
" No, come on guys, we don't need to have a conversation. He gets me even if I haven't spoken to him and I also understand his gesture, we don't need to talk."
" Ooh... so this is how nerd romance is like. Never thought I'd see one right infront of me." Heather nods pretentiously.
" Okay, you're really into my issues today huh, how about you go rain all these assumptions on Lejandro." Ashanti teases.
" Please don't put me there, he's still not talking to me. I'm trying to find a way to say sorry to him without inflating his ego." Heather sighs.
" I think I just saw Mr Agbeko through the window." Heather rants and pulls Mae back to their seating places.
Mr Agbeko walks in and all those who weren't sitting scrambled for their seats before standing up in unison to call out the morning greeting.
" Good morning, Mr Agbeko."
" A fine morning to all my creative minds today, you may take your seats." He responds as he dumps his books on the teacher's desk.
" Thank you." Everyone choruses.
" Hi." Ciarra whispers to Kobby taking his hand from under the table, he dithered before holding her hand and she noticed, " How are you feeling, I thought you'd be out tonight."
" I'm fine actually, I just need to finish the medicine course and I'll be great again." He answers without making eye contact with her. He seemed to have taken an interest in what Mr Agbeko was inscribing on the board which was unusual because he always looked at her when she spoke to him even if it was in a class.
" Is everything alright, are you in pain or something?" Ciarra asks concern laced in her tone.
" Relax, I'm fine." He assures her, " Yes I'm in some amount of pain but that's all."
Ciarra nods and unzips her backpack to retrieve her English notebook. Fifteen minutes through Lexis and Structure, Kobby speaks up, still not looking at her.
" When did you leave yesterday?" He asks her in a solemn tone.
Ciarra quickly thought of an answer,
" Before prep." That got him to turn and he stared at her for a few seconds. Neither of them dropping their gazes at each other.
He broke eye contact first and ran both hands across his face in frustration.
" Why, ....is something wrong?" Ciarra asks and he remains silent for the next five minutes.
" We need to talk." He says, Ciarra was practically hyperventilating on the inside. She knew it!!
He remembers the whole night and he knew she was lying to him, how had they swapped roles so easily.
" You have Rufidat's scent." He points out with a playful grin.
" Yeah, we were kinda doing this thing earlier this morning where you get to use the perfume of the other person." She lies again and this time she begins to panic inside of her head.
What was she doing, lying to cover up lies? Why couldn't she stop? Was this how lying felt like?
" Cool." He states as Mr Agbeko turns back to the class to talk about phrases.
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