"I spent the last two weeks just screaming.
I spent the last two weeks just screaming.
Trying to work you out is killing.
Ever since my heart's been missing."
- Different Heaven & Eh!de (My Heart).
• • •
It was the midterm holiday, the day I had always dreaded to come. It was a cool Wednesday in The Empires and right there in my class, I saw no great holiday ahead but a boring one.
The past days I spent in The Empires were a combination of fun and drama. I got to know the reasonable ones, the brilliant ones, the funny ones, the stupid ones, and most especially the 'notice me' ones. I also got popular among the junior students especially those in S.S.S. 2, S.S.S. 1 and J.S.S. 3. I got a little distant from Lilian. She stopped speaking to me like before, probably because we weren't in the same class. Lydia and Jetemi became my closest friends. I became friends with the guys too including Demola.
Speaking of him, I noticed some things in him since we started talking. His hair was always neatly cut in Afro style. He smiles a lot and he savages a lot whenever class is on. His clothes were always ironed and he's always neatly dressed. We talk only when he wants to lend a ruler or check the time, since I was the only one with a functioning wrist watch in class. The other time we talked was when he needed to refill his bottle but was too lazy to walk to the tap. He had walked to the window and stared outside in search of any junior to send to help him fetch the water. I sit by the window side so literally, he was in front of my table.
"What are you looking for?" I had asked him.
"Looking for a junior to send to fetch me water." He replied nonchalantly, still staring outside the window.
"Can't you go yourself?"
"No, I just feel like sending a junior." He had said.
Soon, he got lucky and a junior filled the bottle for him. Almost immediately he collected the filled bottle, he gulped in all the water at once. I was really surprised.
"Did you just drink that bottle of water at once and looking for another person to refill it again?" I asked him and he shrugged.
The third time we talked was a day I stayed in Geography class so I wouldn't have to attend the Friday fellowship in the hall. Many others also attended the Geography class because of the same reason but we did not write notes since we were not actual Geography students. When others started disturbing the class, the teacher announced that he would check all our notes after the class. That meant that he was going to flog those who were not writing. That made me a bit scared because I wasn't writing.
Then, I heard Demmie's voice from the backseat shouting "Sir! Dami doesn't have a note! And Emmanuel too!"
Emmanuel is a nephew to the Proprietor. The guy is very friendly and makes friends easily. He was the first guy to talk to me in class. He even requested for my WhatsApp number which I gave him. He is the fourth guy in Demola's clique. The clique consists of Demola, Fiyin, Dami and Emmanuel. The four of them mostly walk together and it was obvious those four share everything together. Even in class, the way their seats were arranged made it obvious.
Immediately Demmie talked, I looked back and realised he had no note on his table. Trying to avoid getting into a note trouble with the teacher, I called out to Demmie. "Demmie, where's your own note?" I had said.
"You mean me?" He replied, smiling from ear to ear. "I'm not even taking Geography." That was the first time I noticed his smile and it was kind of cute.
The bell was rung as all students were told to move into the school hall. All the students of The Empires College were to have their mid holidays. We all entered the School Hall and got seated as some visitors came to deliver an inspirational speech to us. After the speech and all, the visitors excused themselves from the hall. One of the teachers stood on the Podium and announced the commencement of the mid holidays. He told all students to stay at home except the seniors. We were to come on Thursday and Friday for lessons but not to put on the school uniform. Hearing that, I was extremely happy. Most of the juniors shouted happily as they scurried out of the hall to get their bags and go home but they were stopped due to an announcement by the Proprietor.
I was seated beside Lydia in the hall. I was calling some quotes from a journal to her which she was writing down. Sincerely, I never listened to a word said by the visitors who came earlier. Someone pinched my neck and I looked back to see if I would get hold of the person. The person has been pinching me since I got here and whenever I looked back, the person would have retreated. I looked back but the person got lucky again. I stopped stressing myself and faced front. When Mr. Makinde finished his speech, we were told to stand up as we were given directions from the Podium on which door to pass through, so as not to cause traffic in the hall.
While the man in the front was announcing, I told Lydia to help me return my chair to class when she's leaving with hers because I needed to see Mr. Makinde before going home. She agreed and I thanked her. I looked at the back to check if Jetemi was behind us. Since she's the senior girl, she had to stand somewhere to co-ordinate the juniors from making noise. As I turned back to check, I made eye contact with Demola. I hadn't noticed he was the one sitting behind Lydia. I turned my face to the front immediately, breaking the eye contact. As the students moved out, I walked to the front of the hall to see the Proprietor.
"Lydia! You won't believe he gave me 500 naira." I shouted immediately I entered the class.
"Awwn!" Lydia cooed, smiling at me. She was holding a broom. She sweeps every Wednesday according to the sweeping timetable together with Demola and Emmanuel. Since she's the only female that was assigned with those lazy two, she has always been the one that sweeps on Wednesdays while the guys arrange the class.
"Who?" Demola called out to me.
"Proprietor." I replied.
"Nice one." He said, walking towards me with Israel and Dayo, one other classmate of ours who's really funny and annoying.
Dayo, Israel and Demmie walked to my seat and surrounded my table and I. I already knew what they were about to do as they told me to be nice. I released sixty percent of the money to them, which is three hundred naira. They thanked me and they kept on talking. I laughed at some things they said. I soon packed my stuffs and went to my school bus.
After lesson the next day, Lydia, Rachel, Jetemi and I, with two other girls from our class walked side by side outside the class to meet our Biology teacher, Aunt Tilly. The two other girls with us go by the name Glory and Sarah.
Sarah was the girl that smiled at me the first time I entered the class. She's a gentle type and she's one of the most brilliant ones in our class. Glory on the other hand is a very lousy and childish girl. She's the roughest girl in that class. Even her locker was most times dirty and rough. Her books were mostly scattered in her locker and around the class. Sometimes, she comes to school without putting on socks. When she puts on one, it'd be dirty. She's friendly though.
After the lesson that day, we weren't ready to go home. We decided to branch at Aunt Tilly's house since it was nearby, just to know her house for the first time and leave for our several homes by 4:00PM. Aunt Tilly and I are now good friends. She wasn't as bad as I thought and she's also friendly. She was surprised and happy to know we wanted to visit her. She decided to send us to quickly help her buy fruits at the school junction and meet her in school so we would trek to her house together. On our way to the junction, we began to discuss.
"Guys, am I the only one that pities Moyin a lot?" Rachel asked.
"Oh My God! Why do you have to pity her? That's her life." Lydia replied, looking sort of annoyed.
"Moyin in Art class?" I asked, obviously not sure who they were talking about and why they pitied her.
"Yeah. Shey you didn't notice the revealing cloth she wore today ni?" One of the girls said.
"I even heard she doesn't put on lingeries most times." One of them replied again.
"Before nko?" Lydia said.
"O ga oh." I simply said.
"As in, Demmie tried oh! I wonder how he had coped with her." Rachel said, sounding disgusted.
"Like seriously." Lydia replied her as the girls kept on talking.
Moyin is a girl from Art class. She's a close friend to Lily. She has a kind of large stomach and a huge butt. Guys' attention are mostly drawn to her because of the huge butt she has. She sometimes acts slutty with the guys in her class and those in ours. We're friends but not close ones.
I needed to clear my conscience so I asked the girls if she dated Demmie. "Demmie and Moyin, did they date?" I asked the girls and they all stopped at once to give me a 'are you really in this school?' look.
"For two years, duh! They just broke up during this last long vacation." Glory replied.
"Eew!" I simply said, a bit irritated.
Of all people? What was Demmie thinking? He might have done it because she had a nice butt. Honestly, I saw no other reason to date her, no offence. She's even one of those from B class that disturbs the class most of the time.
We got to the junction at that moment and bought Aunt Tilly's fruits as we headed back to the school gate to catch up with Aunt Tilly and walk to her house. After eating some snacks and enjoying ourselves for sometime, we rose to leave for our homes. Aunt Tilly then quickly sent Jetemi, Glory and I to help her buy a bag of sachet water before we leave.
This Aunty just turned us to her househelps like that, just because we came to visit her, I thought.
On our way, the girls discussed randomly and Jetemi seemed to be advising Glory about relationship issues. Jokingly, I replied to their conversation.
"So Jetemi, when I need advice I'll come to meet you." I teased her.
"See Demi, everyone of us needs advice oh, including Lydia, Rachel and even Sarah."
"Yeah, all of us." Glory backed Jetemi up.
"There's no how we won't have feelings for one of them, even if we ain't ready for a relationship." Jetemi said.
Oh, they were talking about crushes now.
"True though. Everyone has their different crushes and–" I tried to just say something when Jetemi cut in.
"Oh My God! You have a crush too? Tell me who it is!" Jetemi exclaimed, looking really excited.
Oh No. I never wanted anyone to know about the feelings developing for Demmie.
"Yes, tell us." Glory joined.
"No oh! I should now let you guys tease me to death abi?"
"No, we won't."
"Yeah, please." Glory added, holding me. She tried forcing me to talk.
"Alright, but you guys will also say yours ooh." I said reluctantly.
"Let's wait till all six of us are going home. We'll then talk about it." Jetemi concluded.
On our way home, the girls brought up the matter and I was forced to say who I'm drawn to first.
"So, who's he?" Jetemi asked.
"Demmie." I simply said.
"Wow!" The girls shouted, screamed and clapped at the same time. Their reactions made me smile but as I did, Lydia said something else.
"No! No! Please leave Demola oh. He's my guy." I stopped on my tracks as she said that. That caught me unaware.
"Oh, yes, that's true." The others chorused.
Wait, So why did they shout and clap at first?
"Awwn. . ." was the only reply I could give. Lydia should have let me know when I asked her in school the other day. Well, not like I didn't know but she should have actually told me. I was jerked back from my thoughts when I heard Jetemi talk.
"You guys should leave Demola for Lydia oh. She liked him first."
Lydia talked me into how he sent her a bracelet wrapped in a paper and a letter he wrote to her asking her out. She told me of how she rejected the bracelet and the offer and other stuffs. I managed to give her a smile, not because I was fully happy about the turn out of things but because they had a nice past.
"Then why did he go ahead to date Moyin?" I asked, a little confused.
"He wanted to make Lydia jealous." Glory replied for her, almost immediately.
"Awwn! That's so sweet." I said.
Jetemi said she has a crush on Fiyin like I predicted. Sarah said Emmanuel. Rachel said a guy's name in B class whom I don't know. From her talk, I can tell they dated and broke up because of something and that the guy is the Games prefect. Glory also said she has a crush on Dami. I predicted that too. Later on, we dispersed and we went to our separate homes.
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Hey guys! What do you think about this chapter?
Do you guys want Demola with Demilade or with Lydia? Will he even ever notice her since it seems he likes Lydia and Lydia likes him back?
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