Exam fever was in the air as the examination week began, teachers forced SSS3 students to stop reading in classes, so they could go for the Monday morning assembly.
At the assembly hall, some students took their books along to read but Jason and Timi stopped believing in reading the morning before exams, they just stood at the back with a bunch of 'art' students making noise, noone cared for what the Principal had to say, they just assumed it was the same rules before exam, he was going on and on about.
Timi was listening incase he said anything important, Lawal was mimicking the principal the entire time to make everyone laugh. Jason and Lawal had become somewhat close friends the past week just for the exams.
The principal never mentioned anything about their exam sitting arrangement, he wished them the best of luck for their exams and advised SSS2 students to sit up so they don't repeat the class as much as the previous set did.
The school president recited the national and school anthem concluding the assembly.
Jason and Timi carried their bags straight to art class waiting for an invigilator to walk in. Timi bursts into laughter when Lawal was no longer with them in class.
"You and Lawal ehn..... I'm sure if Lawal was a girl, you'd stay five feet apart at all times... But because he's a boy... You're just ignoring it..." Timi spoke up about the two's behavior towards each other.
"See Lawal is not gay... If he was, I would know.... Or is he?" Jason asked.
Before Timi could answer, Lawal walked right back in and sat in between them. "I think you should go and check what is happening in your class" Lawal said.
"What?"
"Everyone is looking at one paper like that"
Jason and Timi left their bags behind to go check, Jason stopped to ask Stephanie in front of their class what's going on, because she seemed upset.
"They're sharing us with SS2 students" Stephanie said.
"But they didn't do it like that with last set... I thought they'd mix us with art students." Timi recalled.
"Don't you know our school is stupid... In their mind now they've done something... " Stephanie stopped Jason from going to check the paper "You, Timi and Zuriel are writing here...me I'm writing in SS2 block, it's not in alphabetical order...they chose it randomly."
Jason and Timi went back to arts class to go take their bags, Jason wanted to tell Lawal before leaving but Lawal was to busy checking his class' sitting arrangement.
The news had gotten to SSS2 block, a lot of students were upset about this new sitting arrangement, Pascal had no idea what was going on when he was approaching his block, he asked the first person he saw "what happened?"
"They're mixing us up with seniors for the exams" Malik answered.
Pascal became scared but not for himself, he was afraid of what could happen to Chika, he wanted to go look for him but Malik stopped him when he brought Chika up.
"Please I need your help... " Malik took him aside to somewhere isolated. "I'm sure you already know what happened between me and Chika.... And I've tried apologizing but he won't listen, I don't know if you could help me talk to him."
"You know how Chika is... It's going to be hard for him to forgive you... Even if he does... He might still not talk to you... But I'd see what I can do" Pascal assured Malik before leaving.
Pascal ran to his class to look for Chika, he pushed through a lot of people to get to the back of the class, Chika was seated there conversing with Tope.
Chika told Pascal "you're writing in SS3 block with Tope... I'm staying here" before Pascal could say anything.
"I expected you to be more upset about it" Pascal said.
"Why?" Chika asked.
"I don't know...you might see Lekan and Lateef again... Last time Malik got you really upset so I thought it'd be the same"
Chika hadn't thought of any of that, he tried not to worry about it but it was eating him up. "I was not upset because of Malik..."
"Then who? Was it me? Did I say anything wrong? " Pascal worried.
"It's not you either..." Chika didn't want to admit being scared, he just lied to Pascal so he'd stop worrying.
Tope asked Pascal to follow her to SSS3 block for their exams before the invigilator gets there.
Everyone started going to their assigned classes, they were told to sit two on a seat, one SSS3 student and One SSS2 student.
Jason, Timi, Malvin and Zuriel sat on the same row with an SSS2 student beside them, Pascal was one of those students, he sat with Jason in front.
Moyo wanted to sit close to them but they took up the entire row, she started to feel left out by Timi again, they were in a good place in their relationship so she ignored it.
Beamer was pretty bummed out that Stephanie had to go to SS2 block, to make everything worse Lekan was there with her.
Chika's heart started pounding the moment he saw Lekan walk into his class, Lekan was headed towards his seat but before Lekan got there, Stephanie sat beside Chika and Lekan sat behind with another SSS2 student. The pounding stopped but he was still pretty scared.