The pressure is getting werser,
but we're all in this together.
- Ifebode. 😂
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Hey, guys. I'm back with a new update.🌚😗 It's early and I'm happy. Okay, so, this chapter is dedicated to Toluwanimi_01 Ruby babyyy!😂😂😂 And um, Dedun_Herself because she's awesome.🌚❤️
All right, let's dive right in.
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•BOLU•
By the time we returned to the main bowl, the invited schools were just finished with their relay races. Turns out Alex was actually a part of Towns High relay team. Heaven knows why he had decided to leave them and chase me. Anyway, that one is gone. I looked straight ahead and saw Joba talking with some of his schoolmates. He stood tall among most of them; why it was very easy to spot him.
Meanwhile, every one of us walked back quietly to our houses without saying a word, because we were still in shock about the whole incident earlier. I watched Nina go back to her tent with Ayo by her side. I also looked behind me to see if by chance Ore had left Chidera alone to cry by herself. No, I wasn’t a bad person, but part of me knew that she deserved what Ashley just did. And she needed to sort her stuff out on her own. She didn’t need anybody. She especially didn’t need Ore Jumai.
Joy Anne caught up with me and tucked her hand in mine. I jerked, caught in surprise when she did that, but I relaxed once I saw it was her.
“Joy…” I started. “Do you know…?”
I didn’t have to complete my statement before she sighed and shook her head. “No, I can’t even…gosh, it’s… I just followed Ninuola because we both were looking for a place to ease ourselves and the others kind of met us on the way, and then, we heard shouting, so we followed the noise.”
“Hm,” I said, and we continued the rest of our walk back to Blue House’s seats in silence.
I just hoped Ashley was okay. And I hope Chidera would be too. Ore said he was going to tell her about us today. With what just happened, I doubt he would be able to. It would be very insensitive of him, not just as her boyfriend, but as a person. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t actually do that. I would wait until she became stable. But again, the sooner she knew the truth, the better. I trusted Ore to do whatever he thought was right. He already promised me, so yeah.
Not long after we found our seats, the results of the competition were announced. The MC, who happened to be Mr. Noah, my beloved physics teacher, asked every house to come together separately. And then, he called up each two student athletes, a male and a female, for their awards as the best performing student athletes during this particular competition. And they happened to be Ore Jumai, the head boy and Kathy Alero, the female sports’ prefect.
I cheered them on and did not feel bad because they were my friends, and I was happy for them. And not gonna lie, these guys did more than all of us in this competition. I watched as Ore walked out and smiled weakly as he received the gift. He looked very tired. But Kathy, as usual, was her energetic and vibrant self, still ready to run another race if she was asked to. That was done and finally, they announced the winner of the interhouse sports competition. Shocking or not, White House won.
From where I stood, I saw Jeremy shout and run through the crowd, screaming and yelling. He did tell us they’d kick our butts and he was right. I just had to smile.
“Nawa oh,” Joy said, her hand still tucked in mine. “Now he won’t let me breathe again.”
“He won’t let us breathe, you mean,” I said and we both giggled.
White House was awarded the first-place trophy. Then, Blue House came second, Purple House, third and Red house, fourth. There was a lot of shouting and cheering once everyone received their trophies. After that, we all entered the bus and went back to school. And, of course, Jeremy did not hesitate to rub it in our faces.
Once we got back to school and down from the bus, my plans to talk to Nina were shattered because mom herself was here to pick me up. And I wondered why. Usually, Kanyin was the one who picked me up from school. I was happy to see her, though, so, without thinking twice, I smiled and hopped into the car. I’d just try and talk to Nina tomorrow at school. Hopefully, tutorial and revision classes wouldn’t choke. And hopefully, too, tomorrow wouldn’t be as weird as today.
I was totally wrong to be hopeful about anything. Because the next day at school had to be the most exhausting day of my soon-to-be-sixteen-year-old life. The teachers did not give us any breathing space or bother to consider the fact that we had just finished interhouse sports, and some of us might still be exhausted. Our timetable changed and we held a lesson for one hour instead of forty-five minutes.
The teachers gave excuses like, “We have wasted too much time during the sports competition”, and “we still have a lot to cover”, which, to be honest, just angered me. Because I didn’t understand why they couldn’t let one day slide. Just. One. Day. Plus, it was a freaking Friday: the beginning of a weekend. But sha, I saw this coming. And, it is what it is. We’ll survive.
Currently, I was trying to prevent myself from dozing in biology class. It wasn’t a practical class, so, for the first time in so long, the teacher decided to teach us in our classroom. Normally, I wouldn’t doze off, you know, since Ore kept me company by making jokes or annoying me. Which I didn’t mind anymore since we became a thing, but today was different. He hadn’t even looked at me. Not even those flirtatious winks or anything. And I was sure it wasn’t because he did not want to; it was because Chidera was seated beside him, on his other side.
I suppose it was due to what happened between her and Ashley yesterday. It actually angered me that she just decided to leech on Ore. Instead of finding what to do on her own. But on the other hand, when I saw how she walked in like an almost-dead person today, I felt bad for ever thinking bad about her, and I felt sorry. She still looked neat, but her hair wasn’t decorated with the usual colors of hair bands, she just had two plaits, woven to the back. Had no earrings on. Her eyes were swollen and rimmed black, which told us that she’d probably cried the whole night. There was no hint of make up on her face, not even brown powder.
No, she did not smell bad, but I could tell she didn’t even wear her overly-choking perfume today. She looked…ordinary. Plain. And everyone could see right through her façade. Her Queen Bee image was tarnished already. Not everyone was at the fight scene, but in a school like RBA, trust the News to have circulated faster that Usain Bolt. And, of course, there were whispers. Even as she sat down beside us in our seat, people kept turning their head to look at us— her, actually — mumbling things that I could not and did not even want to hear.
Ore, on the other hand, looked very tired. He kept sighing and smiling weakly at his girlfriend, doing his best to comfort her. I could tell that it was hard for him, especially when he’d said he would tell her the truth about us already. I understood that he did not want to hurt her any further, and I also understood that the other things he had on his mind contributed to the stress written all over him. I wanted to do something to comfort him, to tell him I understood and that he didn’t have to be under so much pressure to tell her anymore. That he could take his time with her. I wanted him to be okay.
But I really could not do anything at the moment. I’d hold his hand, but I wasn’t skilled at being sneaky like he was. So, I just focused on not sleeping off and actually trying to get what the biology teacher was saying about genetics and evolution. After a while, my mind drifted and I was staring ahead at Nina who sat in front of Ninuola. She had her head on her desk, which was very unlike her. Because apart from the fact that she loved and was the best biology student, she never slept off in a class. Never. I never understood how she did it. But now, she was sleeping?
Come hell or high water, we would have that talk today!
Immediately we finished our classes for the day, I quickly threw my stuff into my backpack so I could talk with Nina. As I zipped my bag, someone gripped my arm. I looked up. It was Ore. I noticed Chidera wasn’t there any longer. I relaxed. Thank God.
“Hey, Waji,” he said.
I smiled at him. “Hey.”
“I’m sorry, okay? I—”
“It’s fine. I get it. I trust you, remember?”
He sighed. “Yeah, I—thank you.” He squeezed my hand gently. “I’ll text you.”
I smiled again and nodded. Then, I sighted Nina walking slowly towards the door of the class. I increased my pace so I could catch up with her.
“Bolu, wait!” I heard someone call my name when I got to the door of the class. Ninuola, Joy and Fred caught up with me.
“I wonder where you and Nina are running to this early,” Ninu said as we walked down the corridor together. She shook her head. “Anyway, I was thinking we could organize another study session at my place.”
“Study session? I hope the boys will be invited this time oh,” Fred said and laughed. “So that we will ensure that true studying takes place.”
“Shut up, Ode,” Ninu snapped and rolled her eyes. “And yes, everyone will be invited. Because honestly, this period go choke. We need all the help we can get, especially from each other.”
“I agree,” Joy said nodding.
I had almost forgotten my previous quest to catch up with Nina when we saw her and Ayo standing at the door of his class. They weren’t talking or anything. It seemed like Ayo was just coming out of his class too. Thank God. MJ followed him from behind. We reached them, said our hellos and then, Ninuola started telling them about the study session. I took that as a cue to stand beside Nina and tuck my hand in hers. On a normal day, it was she who did that. And when I held her arm, God, it felt so thin. It made me wonder if she was still doing the diet thing with her aunt.
She smiled at me, the usual, but it still was forced. Kind of like she was in pain or something.
I smiled back at her and whispered, “We need to talk, okay?”
She stared at me for a couple of seconds before she sighed and said, “Okay.”
“There’s no way you wouldn’t let us boys play PES at your place when we get there,” MJ was saying when I returned my attention to them.
“Bro, we are going there to really study this time, not play games,” Ninuola argued.
“Yeah, like that’s what you girls did the last time,” he yelled again.
“Guy, would you just let it rest?” Ayo pitched in with a calm but firm voice.
“No freaking way!” MJ and Fred yelled.
“If we’re gonna keep arguing like this, maybe you should stay away from the study session,” Ninu said.
“Can I join in?”
All of us except Ayo, jumped at the sound of the voice that spoke. We turned and saw it was Ashley. There and then, the awkwardness began. We shared glances with each other, most of us probably wondering what to say to her.
“Hey, guys.” She waved as she walked closer to our circle. Then she waved at me, said, “Hey, Bolu.” Turned to MJ and said a quiet, “Hi.”
MJ acknowledged her with a nod and I smiled her, wondering why she singled both our greetings out. She faced Ninuola, who was already looking at her. Smiled sweetly at her.
“I heard you guys talking about a study session, I want in,” Ashley said. “If…it is okay with you guys, that is.”
Ninuola looked round at all of us again before she said, “Um, sure. You can. Why not?”
“Yes!” Ashley fist pumped and giggled. I couldn’t help but think; for a girl who just told her best friend off the previous day, she was very happy. And, might I add, she looked a hundred times better than Chidera did today. She was not wearing make-up or anything, but there was this glow on her face, and her eyes were lit up. She was all smiles and sunshine. The exact opposite of how her ex-best friend looked.
Maybe it was because she had decided to stand up for herself. And the freedom that came with standing up for herself was what ignited the glow that spread all over her. It was actually really nice to see her happy. But then, there was still something my mind went back to. . . I had convinced myself a thousand times that it couldn’t have been Ashley or anyone Ore and I both knew personally, that opened the door the other day.
Nonetheless, it still tugged the back of my mind.
“Thanks, guys,” she said again and we all kinda mumbled “You’re welcome”.
“Yay!” she said in excitement and tucked her hand into MJ’s since she was standing beside him. When he looked down at her in surprise, all she did was grin. I think we all chose to ignore what had just happened. Because it was still awkward, you know.
After we concluded on the study session stuff, everyone dispersed. Well, almost everyone. Nina waited for a while to talk to Ayo. I waited for her too, but I didn’t stay too close them so it wouldn’t be like I was rushing them or anything. I pressed my phone for about twenty minutes before I finally saw Nina walking towards me.
She smiled when I came out from my ‘hiding place’. “Thought you’d gone already.” She tucked her hand in mine this time as we walked down the corridor and towards the stairs.
“Nah, I already said we needed to talk. I didn’t forget,” I said.
“Of course. So what did you want to talk about?”
“You,” I said. “You’ve been… weird.”
“I have?” She chuckled. “How so?”
“Come on, guy, are you whining me? Have you seen yourself lately?”
“Yes, of course. I was hot, and I am still hot,” she said, obviously joking, but still true.
I laughed. “Nawa. But for real, though, you have changed.” I untucked my hand from hers and turned to face her. We were now standing just beside the entrance of the senior building downstairs. “Like, you’re still wearing long-sleeves and a sweater in this hot weather?” I touched her shoulders. “Nina, you don’t even smile genuinely anymore. And you’re losing weight. It doesn’t look healthy. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I’m fine, I—”
“No, you’re not. I always thought you were, but I was wrong. Nobody is ever always fine.”
She was taken aback. I could see the expression on her face. I was also shocked at my own words. I had never fully voiced them out until now. And they hit me…deep. Scolding me for how long I’d had a very wrong mentality.
Nina stared at me for a long, long time. I stared back at her. We stared at each other for what felt like hours until she broke the silence and said, "Well, I…" She sighed. "There's a…" She sighed and hung her head.
"There's a what, Nina? Please tell me."
She slowly brought her head up. "It's just…"
"Just what?"
"I—"
The sound of a phone ringing cut her short and she cussed under her breath.
"Um," she said as she checked her phone. "I have to go. I'll text you, okay?"
"Go where?" I furrowed my brows. "Wait, Nina—"
But she was gone before I could even complete my statement.
I sighed and massaged my temples, thinking of what to do. That was when I remembered what Ayo had told me sometime ago and I put two and two together.
If there was an award for the slowest best friend ever, I really, really deserved it.
Yoooooo!!!
Hope you guys enjoyed reading this chapter??😂❤️
So, what do you think will happen now? Let me in on your conspiracy theories.😗❤️
There's a lotta gbasgbos about to go down. Well, we haven't even seen the worst of it all.🌚 Pray for these kids. They're having a tough time. All of them.🥺
And yeah, how's y'all's week been? Gist meeee!
Me, I've been at home for the short break after my exams. Enjoying the peace and quiet of home. Been tryna read other stuff, listen to more songs and write too!
Also, kindness is very important. You might not have money to give to someone or anything, but little gestures like holding the door for someone, smiling at people, encouraging someone who's had a rough day...those little things go a long way.
So, be kind.
Okay, that's a wrap!!
I'll see y'all soon — hopefully.
Muchas gracias et Dios Bless you!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
~ Ife. ❤️🌹