For someone who wanted things to be ordinary, resuming school on a Wednesday wasn't what one would exactly call normal.
It was very early in the morning when Samuel woke Amarachi from sleep. She decided that it would be her normal routine since her uncle had to drop her off in school before heading to the hospital for work.
She ate breakfast in her room, leaving her uncle in the dining room alone.
After she was done eating, she wore a pink jacket and matching skirt with a white blouse. She took out her self-made braids and combed her soft hair into an afro.
Nervously, she went downstairs and dropped her plate by the sink and waited for her uncle in the parlour. He must have gone upstairs to get ready. When he came down and saw her hair, his eyes widened. "That's huge."
"Yes, it's seven years old. It should be huge."
He stood and stared at her, giving her the are-you-sure-you-want-to-take-that-on-your-first-day-of-school look.
Amarachi didn't get the look so Samuel beckoned her to go out. "Alright, let's go."
She left for the garage as he locked the door. In a minute, he was there with her. They got into the car and Samuel drove her silently to school.
It was a forty-five minutes drive from the house to the school. Her uncle arrived and parked at the kerb opposite the school.
Queen's International School.
The big sign read in gold on the wide, black gate.
Amarachi's heart did a flip.
This is it, she thought. This is finally it. Her new life had begun. Samuel stared at her. "Do you want me to come with you?"
She wanted him to but she decided to ease him of the stress. "No, I'm okay," she smiled. "I'll do it myself."
"Alright. Don't forget to meet your principal first. Get a map and your class timetable."
She blinked. "Alright."
"Stay away from trouble."
"I will," she got out of the car and shut the door.
She inhaled deeply and looked around, getting a great view of the school.
It was huge, which wasn't a surprise seeing that it was an international school. One of the biggest in Portsmouth and also one its people held with high prestige.
Amarachi walked in. There were trees of different kinds, students still littered the front yard and there was an incredulous waterfall at the centre of the school compound.
It was beautiful and very airy.
Without asking any questions or having to bother anyone, Amarachi found her way to the principal's office without ease.
They had a quick chat. The woman introduced herself as Julia West. She was blonde, nice, strong-willed and her accent was very English.
Amarachi thought and felt like she was in a movie. An English movie. She was already smitten by the people's appearances.
She had Chemistry class first on Wednesdays.
She loved Chemistry.
After their meeting, she was excused to start her morning exercise. She was given a map, a few textbooks, a locker number and code and a timetable. She walked out of the office and began the journey of finding her locker and after, her class.
As she walked into the school building, heads turned. Literally. It must have been what she wore or maybe it was her hair.
She swallowed loudly and walked with a straight face. Her armpits were already sweaty. She was grateful she wore a jacket. She hugged her books closer to her chest and continued on her stride of false confidence.
She turned towards the right-wing of the school where her locker was placed. Her head was bowed. She almost immediately found her locker. She drew a deep breath out of her lungs and screwed the code.
The locker clicked open.
When she turned to her side, three boys were working towards her. They were huge and vaguely threatening.
She gulped.
"Yo punk!" the middle guy called out. They all looked the same. They wore the same colour of blue jeans and they had the same design and colour of jacket on.
Amarachi froze.
Punk?
"Hey, Jack," a girl waved, as the boys bounced along the aisle.
Okay, so one of the scary guys' names was Jack.
He nodded to the girl and kept his eyes straight up.
Amarachi followed his eyes.
Up ahead, a dark-haired boy who looked not less than fourteen years walked up to them. He was really cute even though he seemed pretty nervous and shaken. He wore black jean trousers and a grey coloured T-shirt of Princess Diana. He hung his school bag in one arm and walked right into the three guys.
"Sup, boy?" Jack whispered venomously.
The boy shook his head slowly, his eyes glued to the ground.
"Maybe he's dumb," one of the other guys said.
Jack chuckled. "What happened, Wyatt? Sucked too many dicks you can't talk?"
The whole hall was full of laughter, snorts and wails. Jack turned to the crowd and nodded, impressed with himself.
Amarachi's lips turned up as she watched.
What was all this?
Wyatt looked up but he still didn't utter a word.
This only angered the big guy. He held Wyatt by his T-shirt and slammed him into a locker in one swift move.
Wyatt gasped as his body collided with the metal. He shut his eyes and swallowed hard. Jack looked down at him with a devilish smirk. "Nice shirt you have here," he commented, tugging at the T-shirt. "Where'd you get it from? Queers'R'us?"
Again, the whole school burst out laughing.
Amarachi shook her head. It wasn't right and it wasn't even funny.
What was Queers'R'us?
Everyone was seriously laughing at the boy like it was a normal thing to do. Like being bullied was ordinary.
Wow.
Before the big boys could go on with their bashing and mental insults, the school bell went off.
Gradually, everyone cleared off. Amarachi made eye contact with the Wyatt boy. She frowned and pressed her lips together.
Wyatt gave her a small smile before leaving.
The classes she had sat for were great so far. She learnt a lot of things. And though she had questions to ask, she just couldn't. She was too shy. It would take a lot of time for her to get used to being in a foreign school.
It was lunch break. She tried to take in everything as she walked through the busy hallway of the school to the cafeteria. It was huge and terrific.
Arriving there, she had one healthy sandwich and a huge cup of smoothie. She held her tray in her hands and searched the room full of students.
There was a faction of the school sitting by the far end of the room, each one of them wearing bright dresses. They seemed cool but not her type. Others appeared to be too invested in their conversations to give room for environmental attention.
There was no group she could sit with. Everyone was already paired up with someone else. She hadn't even spoken to anyone since her arrival, so it was hard to fit in now.
Life sucked and being in a new school sucked even more.
As she scanned the room, her eyes locked with the boy she had indirectly met in the morning. He waved for her to join him and his friends.
Amarachi walked briskly to them.
"Hello," she greeted when she reached the table.
"Hi," the boy replied. "I'm Wyatt Waugh. Have a seat."
She put her tray down and grabbed a seat. "I'm Amarachi Oluebube."
The seat kind of went silent with surprise.
"You can call me Amara for short," she added. "Until you can learn the full one."
They all smiled, five of them even though they were six people circling the table. The last boy didn't seem interested to see her.
There was Wyatt Waugh; the black boy with green eyes. His hair made him look like a cartoon character. There was just so much frost and glow to him.
Jada Abbott, was the girl with a head full of red-coloured dreads and brown coloured eyes that didn't look brown but didn't look black either.
Blessica Ray had a small face to her with black hair that curled at the bottom which she played with from time to time.
Wolfgang Beau held an oblong face with long, brown hair that made him look like a rockstar or an avid Metalhead.
Darius Demetrius, the quiet, uninterested one sat in the corner with his clean, crew-cut and sharp jawline.
"So, I guess we should introduce ourselves," Jada fumbled, twirling one lock of hair, then flipping it to the side.
"Don't forget the nicknames," Wyatt threw.
It was funny because everyone laughed.
"I'm Jada Abbot, the noodlehead."
Amarachi nodded.
Weird one.
"I'm Wyatt Waugh," Wyatt said with all amount of confidence. "And I don't have any nicknames, which is funny. I should bag them all."
Amarachi snickered.
"I'm Blessica Ray and I don't have a nickname either," the other girl said. Her voice precisely matched her face; small and cute. And though she had a distinct accent, she sounded a lot more English.
It was left with the two guys. "I'm Wolfgang Beau," Wolfgang murmured. "They call me Jesus pet. Don't tell people you know me."
Amarachi's eyes widened. "What? Why?"
"He was very religious at the beginning of his adolescent years," Wyatt explained with humour in his voice. "The first time he came to school, he prayed before eating his food," he drank his water. "Knees down, hands together, eyes closed."
Wolfgang put his head down. "It was so embarrassing. And it still is."
"What? Don't tell me everyone hasn't forgotten all about it."
He raised his head, his thick, brown locs fell to one side of his face, covering an eye. "No, it's pretty fresh in their memories."
Wyatt reached out and tucked the locs of hair behind his friend's ear.
Amarachi's eyes flickered. "So," she turned to the quiet boy by her side. He reminded her so much of Nnenna; calm and always brooding. "You haven't said anything. I'm Amarachi, what's your name?"
He didn't answer.
Embarrassed, she chuckled. She pressed her lips together and then she sipped her smoothie. She wasn't used to being snubbed.
Jada rolled her eyes. "Darius!" she rubbed her fingers together. "Yo!"
Darius brought his head up and Amarachi's lungs shut. The sudden jerk of her heart made her almost drop her smoothie. It was the first time she had been close to someone so attractive.
"What?" he murmured. His voice was low, round and dead sexy.
"We have someone new," Blessica said in her usual small voice. "In case you haven't noticed."
"So?" he leered slightly to Amarachi's side and they exchanged looks. He let his eyes rest on her for a while, then he looked away. Amarachi licked her lips as she watched him. He was so perfect with his long lashes and sharp jaw.
Her heart kicked fast, then very, very slow. And for that very second that seemed no longer than an hour, she felt air floating in her lungs.
Her breathing was compromised. She feared she might need another heart surgery.
He looked immaculate- everything dark and frozen around him apart from the diamond stud in his right ear, his brown skin and his bright eyes.
She didn't know how to speak so everyone else spoke for her.
"Hey, no one needs you to be a prick right now. Be nice," Wolfgang scolded.
"For what?" Darius asked flippantly. He bit into his sandwich and chewed. Then he swallowed. "Do I get another shot at life if I act like I care?"
And with that, he stood and he left.
Amarachi was stunned. Usually, she was the sassy one.
"Sorry," Wyatt bit his lips. "He takes things seriously. His problems are quite obvious and personal. I truly apologize on his behalf."
"No problem. What's the first day of school without someone to make you feel like a total fool?"
Amarachi wondered what his nickname was and what might have pushed him to become so rude.
"So, welcome to TLC; The Losers' Circle. You're free to opt-out at any moment."
Amarachi smiled.
She knew she wasn't going anywhere.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Heeeey!
I know the names sound messed up. I don't even know where I got them from but they sounded cool at that time.
So, how do you feel about the characters? Too much or just right?
Did you have any nicknames in school? What was it?
This chapter is an introduction of the characters. We'll go into the horror soon. Maybe sooner.
Thanks for reading.
Shine!