FIVE days and FOREVER
Copyright 2017/2018
-Anya Amarachi Jacinth
Day Five
A.K.A, The D Day.
The Day Of The Basketball Game.
Day 5
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I was a little held back on going to school.
Firstly, the stares.
I've been MIA since Thursday.
And the questions from the people I usually spoke to.
"You never replied to your chats or even read them."
"You never picked your calls."
"Your phone never went."
"Why weren't you at school?"
And my answer was usually. "Sorry," "Sorry," "Sorry," "I needed to work on my play."
Then... the epinephrine of bumping into Dennis.
I knew it'd be awkward.
But even if I saw him, I was going to act like I never knew him.
But what made today extra irritating for me was the fact that Gemma ignored me and I saw her posts on Instagram and Twitter which people have been retweeting and reposting.
She wrote about how she joined the drama club just to support me because she knew I sucked at playwriting.
She also claimed how awesome she was to tolerate the embarrassment and stupid script I had written.
I honestly didn't have her time.
I had bigger problems.
I kept staring at the time. It was already after school and the teacher held us back in class so that she would complete her scheme for the term.
It was English class and I searched around.
Not once did I see Dennis in class.
Why was I looking for him? I honestly didn't know.
Maybe he's practising for basketball. I thought as I looked around the class and searched if I saw any person in the basketball team I knew.
I didn't see any... Until someone rose their hand.
"I'm sorry, Mrs Norman but I have basketball practice right now. We have a game soon." He said.
"I'm sorry, Ian. I'll be rounding up soon." She apologized and went on.
I decided to try my own luck as well.
I raised my hand.
She looked at me.
"I'm sorry but I also have a play to present like... Right now." I explained to her.
She glared at me. "You, stay. You missed Friday's class and the pop quiz."
There was a pop quiz?
Dang, it.
And Dennis came to school that day.
I hate him for that.
I was so not prepared for this.
She ended the class because I spoke and made me wait back to do a makeup test.
I rushed and handed her my sheet but she told me to sit back down and go through it.
"Mr Drew is waiting for me," I whined.
"Sit down," She said without any emotions, as she scrolled through the laptop on her desk.
I just obeyed to prevent trouble.
If I hadn't met Dennis, none of this would have happened.
Gosh, I hate him.
But I knew that was a lie. It was just an excuse to try and get on with my life.
With anger in my heart, I went through what I had written and thought of possible excuses to leave there ASAP.
Period.
"Can I at least use the bathroom?" I asked.
"You still have 24 more minutes."
"But it's serious," I said.
"You can hold a pee for 24 minutes... 23." She said with her eyes still focused on her laptop.
"It's worse than a pee," I said then lowered my voice. "I was a bit shy to say so."
She looked at me. "And?"
Bitch got a heart of stone.
"I need to change. I'm stained!" I lied.
Her eyebrows raised. "How bad?"
"It's not so bad for now but if I keep sitting, it'll be really bad and visible." The lie just kept flowing.
"I'm a lady and I know those tricks." She said flatly, making all my hopes to crash. "I'll cut your time to 10. So go through your work."
I sighed and rested my head on the desk.
"Heads up." She commanded.
I raised my head in frustration.
------------------------- ^.^ -------------------------
"I'm sorry, I'm late!" I barged into the theatre room and was suddenly silenced by Mr Drew's death glare and every other person's stare.
I interrupted a presentation.
Was I already kicked off?
My heart crashed into pieces.
Mr Drew faced the people. "From the scratch."
I walked up to him slowly, so as not to interrupt like before.
"Can I speak with you, Mr Drew?"
"What for?" He questioned back.
I cleared my throat. "I want to quit the play." I started.
His face squeezed in confusion.
"I tried to rewrite it but I realized maybe writing isn't for me."
"But you had already submitted a play this morning." He said.
My face fell into confusion as well.
"Didn't you ask someone to drop off your script this morning?"
After much thought, I asked. "Can I see the script?"
"Nina, hand it over." He said to the girl who was now speaking.
She stopped and came over to give him the script.
I collected it and went through it.
It was the same enormous book I had written but in a summarized version.
My heart started beating as I realized who would be in charge of doing it.
Just to confirm, I asked. "Who brought it?"
"Didn't you write the script, Miss Nickerson?" Mr Drew asked, annoyed.
"I did." I rushed, not knowing if that was the truth or a lie. It was my idea. My plot. My storyline. "I did but I can't remember who I gave it to."
"It was Dennis that dropped it this morning before classes." One of the guys said. "I was in the theatre room with Mr Drew then."
At that point, I didn't know whether to be happy or neutral.
Dennis actually did this? For me?
"Could you... Excuse me for a minute?"
I didn't allow Mr Drew to reply before I took off.
I left the theatre room and went to the basketball court where the basketball game was already taking place in.
I took a seat by the bleachers beside one of my friends as I searched the players for one particular person but I didn't see him.
I even scanned the stool where the subs sat but I didn't see him.
I tapped the boy next to me on the bleachers. "I'm sorry, have you seen Dennis on the court?"
"Don't know who that is." He shrugged.
I didn't want to start passing it on so I stood up and just then, it was time up.
I went to where the players were and dragged one of my friends from the cycle.
He looked at me. "We were having a discussion."
I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry. I just want to know where Dennis is."
"Dennis?" He questioned, rubbing his neck.
I nodded. "Tall, brown hair..."
"I know him." He rolled his eyes, too. "Since when did you have business with Dennis?"
"Oh, we have an unfinished one," I said. "So, where is he?"
He shrugged. "He came for practice on Friday but he wasn't even doing so well. That was the last time I saw him."
"Oh," I said then looked at Dennis' dad as he called my friend, Peter.
"Yes, coach." Peter replied.
"But he came to school this morning." I quickly rushed.
He shrugged as he ran to meet the coach.
The coach's voice was loud as he ranted on the absence of his son.
Everyone I asked after said they hadn't seen him in any class.
I even went as far as to ask Frank when I saw him.
"Hey, Fred!" I stopped him.
He looked at me with irritation for calling his name wrong, which I purposely did.
"What do you want, Beatrice?" He questioned.
"Do you know where Dennis is?" I asked.
Fred- I mean Frank raised one of his eyebrows, "Just because he stayed over at my house one night, doesn't mean we're that close. I think the motherfucker is even mad at me."
I looked at him then stated, "You're cousins."
"And that's all we have in common. He always gets mad at me for reasons I don't know," Then he shrugged, "But I've gotten used to it. He's still going to come around."
"Right," I said, not even understanding the kind of relationship they had. "Can I have his number?"
"I don't have his number," Frank said.
"What?"
Now, that was impossible.
"He's your freaking cousin," I said. "How can't you have something as basic as his phone number?"
"Social media?" He shrugged. "No one texts or calls anymore."
I rolled my eyes because I still did.
And I knew tons of people who still did.
So, where he got his stupid theory... I would never know.
"Okay, can I have his Twitter?" I asked blankly.
"He doesn't have."
I glared at him, "Instagram?"
"Who posts pictures?"
I rolled my eyes, "Snapchat?"
"Streaks are lame."
Remind me never to meet Frank for anything in my life... Ever.
I wasn't going to argue with him about his opinions concerning social media.
I didn't want to ask this, but I just had to ask.
I took a deep breath then asked, "Facebook?"
"Dennis the menace." He smiled at me.
What?! You don't have Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat but you have Facebook?
Goodness.
I brought out my phone and searched for Dennis the menace then it clicked.
"Hey!" I looked up at Frank.
Dennis the menace was a freaking movie.
He shrugged.
"Why don't you want to give me his contact?" I asked.
"If a boy fucked you once and didn't give you further information about himself, you're a side hoe, bitch. Just stay in your lane."
I raised one of my eyebrows up at him, "Excuse me?"
"I can give you his house address." He smirked.
I rolled my eyes, "I'll pass."
Then I left him to be.
Frank was irritating.
I can see why Dennis would be mad at him if he was.
The kind of shit that came out of his mouth was undeniably disgusting.
But I still wanted to get to Dennis and thank him.
He saved my college career and the drama club.
Ugh.
What was I doing?
I still liked this boy.