"Thompson, come so hi." It was still so surreal seeing Thompson right in front of me. What was he doing here? What sort of coincidence was this?
I was staring at Thompson dumbfoundedly and he was busy doing the same, not moving to say hi. Thompson from my class? This wasn't real. Our parents kept maneuvering their gazes from me to Thompson and then back to me again.
"Please don't tell me you guys are dating," Mother groaned, almost face-palming herself if it wasn't for her makeup. Sam, Thompson's father, let out an awkward laugh instead.
"Mum!" I exclaimed, same time Thompson shook his head to clarify by saying, "No ma."
"She's my classmate," Thompson went on, striding closer and pointing at me. "I was just surprised to see her here."
"Oh," Mother said, smiling at his Dad. "Good. Why don't we go over to the dining room?"
Mother gestured to the room she was referring to, before leading the way.
"You? Really?" Thompson chuckled as we walked side by side to the dining room, but his chuckles weren't heartfelt ones. I looked down at my sneakers, not sure of what to say.
We arrived at the dining room with Mum sitting at the edge and Sam, sitting on the chair by her left. I sat on Mother's right and Thompson sat beside me.
"Today's dinner is continental," Mother said very proudly. She raised a glass and slightly hit it with a fork and seconds after that gesture from Mother, the chef, and his assistants came rushing in with several dishes. I wasn't surprised, Mother was an interesting and sophisticated woman that loved making an appearance even for the littlest thing.
"Whoa," I heard Thompson mutter under his breath. He was watching the main dish being placed at our center.
"D-do you need water?" I wasn't sure what to ask. I was just stupid and nervous enough to think water could quench his overwhelming state. Why didn't Mother make things at a comfortable level? What was she aiming at? Overwhelming her guest to death?
Thompson on the other hand, fell quiet and refused my offer. I sighed and opened the main dish in front of us once the chef and his assistants were gone, and after we'd said the grace.
I wanted to groan and face-palmed myself after I saw what it was.
"What's this?" Thompson asked in awe, but mostly to himself.
"Oh, um..." I tried remembering the name. "Something... Something, maggot, something."
"Maggot?!" Sam asked, shocked.
"Not maggot, honey," Mother turned to me with a scolding look. "What she'd meant to say was, Escargots de Bourgogne, it's a French dish."
"Oh," Sam muttered, then poked at the meal which was in a ball shape. It looked like he was expecting it to come alive and eat his face or something.
"I can see why you said maggot," Thompson muttered. "With a name as long as that, I'd be calling it maggot too."
I pulled my glasses up my nose, smiling shyly. I guess his hard phase was melting down a bit.
"Thompson, so how do you see Greenville High?" Mother asked in-between meals. "You must be a star student 'cause you look like one."
"Thompson is really intelligent, his grades surprise me all the time," Sam said proudly.
"Nsikan's grades surprise me all the time too," Mother turned and scrunched her nose at me.
I wanted the ground to swallow me more than ever. I felt a tap on my wrist and turned to see Thompson leaning toward me. "Don't worry, my father embarrasses me all the time too."
Thompson's calm and reassuring words made it look like we'd been civil all our lives. He'd stopped acting like we had a dispute earlier today.
"Thompson," Mother continued, looking fondly at him. He obviously was the son she never wanted. Sorry, Damian. "I can see that your father's genes are strong. You look exactly like him."
"That's because my handsomeness needs to get passed down," Sam bragged, turning to my mother in a flirtatious manner while Thompson and I quietly watch our parents act like they were in their teens.
"Of course, you're so handsome. If you weren't handsome, I wouldn't have given you a second glance." Mother with her backhanded compliments. I looked at Sam to see if he was taking that as a compliment or an insult. "Unlike someone I know. I wish my genes were as strong for my daughter, but she's beautiful regardless."
Now, it was my turn to think if that was a compliment or an insult.
"Is your mother always this blunt?" Thompson asked quietly, watching our parents.
"You have no idea," My eyes still on Mother. It's no news how Mother wasn't like other Nigerian mothers and it was good Thompson was seeing that early. At least he'd prepare himself if ever our parents decide to get hitched.
"But your mum looks cooler here than on the Internet," Thompson continued while risking it all to put a spoonful full of the maggot dish in his mouth. He paused a little as his brain registered the foreign substance on his tongue.
I patiently waited for him to chew, before he let out an okay sign. "Not bad."
"Really?" I asked and he nodded. It was my time to risk it too and boy was it delicious.
Time passed and my mother suggested I give Thompson a grand tour of the house while she spends some alone time with his father. Thompson and I kept walking and having small talks as I showed him various rooms in the house. It was weird because I never knew I'd be having this encounter with Thompson a few hours after the incident in the school pool.
"Nsikan," Thompson called absent-mindedly after we arrived at the lobby leading to the back door. I wanted to show him our house pool. "How's Stella?"
"Huh?" I promptly stopped as my heart skipped a bit. I got reminded of the harsh words I'd said to her and Chuks, and I felt guilt all over again.
"How's she?" Thompson asked again, looking at me. "I felt bad after snapping at her in such a manner."
"I don't know," I said with a small shrug. "We fought."
"You..." Thompson looked like he couldn't believe the words that just came out of my mouth. "Fought."
It wasn't a question but an unbelievable statement. I nodded, "And now I feel really bad."
I hugged myself, staring at my sneakers. "Why don't you call her?"
I looked at Thompson but he shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know you guys, but I don't think I've seen either of you fight. If you sincerely explain yourself to her, she'd understand. It's advisable to go visit her instead. It's better to apologize in person than on the phone."
"You think that will work?" I was hoping for an answer, but Thompson let out another shrug. When he saw that his shrugs probably weren't helping, he took a step closer.
"You won't know if you don't try," He said in a calm voice. For some reason, I could see why Damian was friends with him. He was calm and sweet.
"Do you like Stella?" I blurted out, then covered my mouth with both my hands. Thompson found my actions funny, as he chuckled and leaned against the lobby wall.
"Let's just say I'm attracted to her," He said instead, with folded arms. "She's beautiful, smart, and brave. Anyone would be attracted to her."
"I don't know about having a crush or even liking her, most of us don't know what our feelings are." Thompson stopped to give me a skeptical look. "But you like Damian, don't you?"
I nodded without hesitation, even though I was revealing my feelings to my crush's best friend. "But I don't have a chance and I've accepted that reality. The thing is, I couldn't bag him as my tutor. How am I going to survive the upcoming mock exam?"
"Read?" Thompson shrugged and I gave him a deadpanned look. Thompson laughed at that, then placed his hands on my shoulder. "You'll be fine. Trust me, you're cutting yourself too short. You want to get a chance to talk to Damian and convince him?"
I gave a slight nod, "But I don't think he wants to see me."
"Come to the hangout tomorrow then," Thompson suggested.
Hangout? Like Muller's hangout? "Muller uninvited my friends and me, today."
Thompson's mouth tilted up as he tried so hard not to smile or laugh at the situation. "Then there's nothing I can do. Once Muller uninvites someone, not even Damian can invite them back." Thompson then paused to think. "Well, it's not like Damian cares that hard to do so."
Thompson pulled his eyes back at me. "Forgot Muller and focus on your friendship."
I felt awkward yet thankful for Thompson's advice so far.
"What about the tour?" Thompson pulled me back to reality. "Aren't you going to continue?"
"Oh," I let out a small laugh. "Sorry. Up next, the house pool."
───※ ·❆· ※───
Everything felt weird when I walked into school on Monday. Did I follow Thompson's advice? No, no I didn't. It was easier said than done.
Here I was, walking into the school's main building alone. I was walking like I didn't have friends of my own. Chuks was busy posting things on his WhatsApp status throughout the weekend like I never existed. And Stella? Stella kept talking nonstop on our class group chat. I never once chat there so it was easier to act like I never existed.
Did I miss them? Yes, yes I did. But this fight made it look like I was a liability. A person they could do without.
I walked into class and the first thing I did was to look over at my seat to see if Stella was around. I wasn't sure how to react with her around. But Stella hadn't arrived yet. My eyes slowly moved to Damian's seat next to see him reading his novel. It looked like he was aware of my staring cause the next thing he did was to turn sideways to look at me and not just to look, he held my gaze. I was the first to look away with a sigh while holding the strap of my backpack and moving to my seat.
We were back to being strangers, I guess.
Getting to my seat, Omolara was looking at me funny. No, let me rephrase that, Omolara was glaring daggers at me.
"What?" I asked tirelessly, pulling my backpack off of my shoulders and pushing myself to sit on my seat.
"Where were you, Stella and Chuks, on Saturday?" Omolara demanded with a glare while talking like a normal human. "Do you know how boring those guys were? They objected to watching a thriller documentary but instead, Muller decided to talk about girls in our class, Thompson did nothing but play video games and Damian was reading some damn book I know nothing about."
I kept quiet after Omolara's rant, pushing my backpack into my desk locker. "And where's Stella?"
I paused my actions after her name got mentioned, then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the hangout, Omolara. Something came up."
Omolara's stares lasted only for a few seconds, before muttering. "Speak of the devil."
I looked at Omolara to see she was looking at something else. I traced her gaze to see her looking at Stella who was strolling over to our seat with her backpack hung on both shoulders. She didn't look at me as she moved and occupied the seat beside me.
"You have some explaining to do," Omolara said almost immediately.
"Something came up," Was the only response Stella could give her.
Omolara looked at me, then Stella, then me again. "You both are acting like two dead step sisters that got reunited again. Are you guys fighting?"
Neither Stella nor I said anything to quench Omolara's curiosity. My eyes moved till they landed on Thompson. He had a look that read 'You didn't talk to your friends?' And I shook my head. He sighed, before turning his head back to the front.
The door busted open with Queen and Chloe, holding some papers. They began sharing the papers starting from the front while Elue, decided to move over to their seat.
"Please excuse me," I said to Stella. Since I was seated in the middle, one of them needed to give way for me to pass through.
Stella gave way and I moved out to Elue's seat. She had posted a list of students that were good at certain subjects or all subjects yesterday while reminding us to get our Geography assignment ready, which would be submitted today.
Elue was busy putting her backpack in her desk locker but paused after she'd noticed my presence.
"Yeah?" She asked looking upwards, her tone a bit impatient.
"Um..." I gulped, scratching the back of my head. "Since you are good at almost all subjects, I was thinking you could..."
"No," Elue responded dryly and I felt defeated. I couldn't have Damian as my tutor. Thompson had other persons in mind, Muller hates me and Elue rejected me.
Why did I even ask her in the first place?
I thought she was a bit better than Queen and Chloe and that was why I had a little courage to ask her for her help. But she bluntly rejected me. Why did I think she was nice? Because she'd helped me from Queen the other day in the bathroom?
"No, because I've got Chloe and probably Queen, to tutor." Elue completed in a bored tone.
"Oh," I said. She then reached for her phone and scrolled it with her thumb.
"I'd say you should ask Damian but you know... Queen." Elue gave me a knowing look and I nodded. It wasn't like Damian would want to tutor me either. "Anyways, you can gather every intelligent student to tutor you on each subject."
"You think that will work-"
"What is this?!" A loud screeching voice stopped me and I quickly turned to see Stella flapping a paper at Queen's face. "What is this?!"
Queen instead of responding, smirked at Stella and moved over to me with a knowing look. She handed me a copy of the paper she'd been sharing with everyone and I looked down to see it was the school's newspaper. What got me breathless was the headlines with the caption; Looser couldn't lose with style.
Chuks did this?
I was boiling with rage. He was the president of the press club and decided to do this because of some arguments that happened on Friday. He really did show sides? I looked up with tear-filled eyes to see most of my classmates snickering and pointing at me. Crumbling the newspaper in my hands, I got ready to storm out of the class to demand answers from Chuks.
"Nsikan!" I heard Stella call after me, but that didn't stop me. I rushed out of the class and towards the direction leading to the stairs that would take me to Chuks' class. I kept matching each step like a hippo, hoping it would help release some steam.
Nsikan.
How could Chuks do this to me? He seriously had an explanation to do. He willingly decided to embarrass me in front of the whole school because of what? It was bad enough that I lost on Friday, but wasn't this putting salt inside an opened wound?
"Nsikan!" I felt a hand on my wrist as it spun me at great speed. It was Stella, she was breathing heavily from chasing after me. "What do you think you are doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" I angrily wiped the tears from my eyes. "Answer me!"
Stella let go of my wrist with a heavy breath as she stared at me calmly. My vision was blurry, so I used the back of my hands to clean more tears.
"All Chuks and I ever wanted was for you to come out of your shell and speak your mind. Speak for yourself. But we never knew you'd do it to us instead of to the right people." Stella said softly, sighing afterward. "You yelled at me for sticking by your side yet did the bare minimum to the Trix and now this? I don't know if you've forgotten Nsikan, but that's what best friends do. We might make you crazy but we'd support you to the end irrespective of you being right or wrong. That feeling makes you feel special."
Stella took a few steps down before opening her mouth. "For your information, Chuks is no longer the president of the press club. Queen is. She stripped him off of his position probably as revenge for what Chuks said to her in class the other day."
"What?" I asked breathlessly, taking a few steps down to get closer to Stella.
Stella gazed at me, then let out a frustrated laugh. "On Friday after your competition, you remember Chuks wasn't himself, right?"
I nodded. The Chuks I knew was sassy. He would have baptized Thompson and Muller ten folds of what Stella did but he held back.
"He told me everything after you left that evening," Stella continued, hugging herself. "He didn't want to say anything at first but I forced him to spill the beans. The time Queen called Chuks before your competition, was the moment that position was stripped off of him. He really didn't go into details 'cause he was sad-mad and I didn't want to push him past his limits."
"What I'm trying to say is," Stella shrugged, "If you're looking for someone to yell at, then go yell at Queen. What Chuks needs right now isn't someone who would barge into his classroom and accuse him wrongly."
I fell quiet, guilt fueling me. I looked at the crumbled paper in my hands. I was short of words but I knew there was something I must say. "I'm sorry."
Stella looked shocked at my sudden apology. She cleared her throat, releasing her folded arms. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those mean things to Damian. I was Trixnified and I hated that."
"Trixnified," I let out a small chuckle, feeling a bit at ease. "Is that a word?"
"Made it up," Stella smiled softly, then stretched out her hands toward me. "Friends?"
I looked at her outstretched hands as she got ready for the handshake, then chuckled. "Come here."
I chuckled, pulling her outstretched hands till she landed on my chest and I found myself hugging her. "Sisters."
After a few seconds of hugging, we pulled away. "What about Chuks? Should we both meet him? I need to comfort him and I have some hot gist I've been dying to tell you both."
"You got me at hot gist, but!" Stella stretched out her index finger. "He's probably having class right now. Lunch break is just four periods away. Let's meet him then."
I nodded. Stella and I retreated to class after that, with her hands on her shoulder. We got to the chaotic classroom to see students trying to bag themselves some tutors.
"Damian!" I watched Queen sway her hips over to Damian's desk and sat on it. Damian didn't look up. He was in the same position I'd seen him earlier, quietly looking at his novel. Stella and I stood by the door, watching. I knew she said I should be outspoken with the right people, but it's Queen! She literally was the scariest and most intimidating person around.
"I was thinking," Queen's voice echoed, pulling me out of my thought. "Since you're good at all subjects, you could tutor me on the ones I'm lacking."
I felt my shoulders sag. Stella wanted to approach them but I held her in place. It wasn't like doing anything would help.
"No," Was Damian's curt response. Queen sighed, pressing her lips in frustration.
"But you don't have anyone you're tutoring." The rule Elue had kept was that a student good at something must tutor someone lacking and not make excuses if they have no one they're tutoring. "You refused everyone that came to you this morning, everyone."
"Because I have someone I'm tutoring," My shoulders slacked in defeat. I expected him to say these words. I'd braced myself for it yet it still had the same effect like I'd never prepared for it.
"You don't have to lie," Queen was sounding defeated as well. "You rejected every one."
Damian let out a sigh before closing his book halfway and looking at Queen for the first time today. "I'm not."
I bit my lower lips and got ready to lower my head and walk over to my seat. I felt that way would help cover the shame I was feeling inside. But instead, Damian dragged his gaze from Queen till it landed on me, which forced Stella to hold my hands in a tight grip.
"She's standing over there."
───※ ·❆· ※───
I'm in love with this chapter. Starting from the new spotlight on Thompson to Stella and Nsikan making up.
So I'm finally done with school and though I thought I'd have some free time, it turned out to be the opposite because I've got clearance to compete.
Anyways, I won't give long gaps like before since it's just clearance and I'll start working on the next chapter.
What do you think about this chapter?
Till next time, ❤.