Yoo!! I'm backkkkkk🤗❤️❤️❤️
Sorry for the wait, enjoy this chap, loves!!❤️❤️
Song for this chapter is "Stand up" by Cynthia Erivo. Why? Because, even if it has no correlation to the chapter, I love the voice of the lady who sang it.
Shocker; I stalked her and found out that she was Nigerian. An Igbo woman for that matter. I was so proud!!!!! (Well, cause I'm igbo oo, soooo🤗❤️)
Media to the song above, listen if you want to be blown away by a nigerian lady's voice🤗❤️
~GIWA~
I just couldn't think straight after what Miranda told me. All through out my classes that day, I was not myself at all.
To be honest, I felt angry and humiliated, and all I thought about was how to get revenge on Kaniru and those idiots who wanted to murder me.
But then...
After all my days of councilling with Mrs. Tibi, one thing from our sessions kept ringing in my head over and over again.
"Never let your anger bring out the worst of you. Never."
"Learn to always manipulate your emotions. Control them, don't let them control you."
"The most powerful people are those ones that have absolute power over their emotions. In the real sense of things, they control their situations and also, sometimes, even indirectly even control other people."
I stayed calm.
I stayed calm.
I stayed calm.
Control, Giwa. Control.
"When it seems hard to fight anger, breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Count from one to ten, then start all over again."
I fought myself involuntarily counting from one to infinity through out the last period before break that day. Eyes were ahut all the way and for a moment, I had shut myself out of reality.
Right until_
The class got rowdy and noisey as hell as the loud bell for Break was rang, adruptly snapping me out of my realm and back to this sick earth.
I immediately began putting all my text books and notebooks in my back pack, only to get distracted when someone nudged my arm.
"You okay?" Nova asked beside me, brown eyes full of genuine concern as he looked at me.
I even forgot he was sitting there by me at the moment...well, since Shade wasn't in school.
"I'm fine." I told him, sounding more dismissive than I intended to.
He only laughed a little, clearly not buying it.
"Well, I don't mean to not mind my business right now, but you were talking to yourself through out the last period." He said.
"I was counting." I said.
His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. I just sighed.
"Forget it." I told him.
He only smiled weakly.
"Umm..okay. If you say so...but, hope you're doing good? Feeling better. Sorry about what happened to you." He said this softly.
"Thanks." I couldn't help but smile.
"And with everything that had happened lately..." he was saying and immediately, my stomach churned.
Recalling everything I had been through this period was always suffocating. And truthfully, even though I try to make myself to believe that everything is good and fine with me, there's just this part of me that still feels empty. It still felt like I shouldn't be a 100% relaxed yet. I didn't understand why.
Was it my friends? They may have come through for me, but didn't they just do that because it was the human thing to do?
I couldn't help but think the same about Ivandor? What if he had even already made up his mind that we were through? What if he only was there for me because he had to..because it was just the right thing to do?
I stopped thinking about it. I didn't want to think too much on anything.
According to Mrs. Tibi's councelling sesson;
"Do not always focus your thinking on the part of your life that has gone wrong. Try to stay positive. Think about the good parts. The parts that still make you smile."
"I don't want to think or talk about it, Nova." I told him, politely, calmly.
He understood, nodding. "Sure. I understand that you must be stressed and all, but just hold on, okay? Believe me when I tell you, you'll be fine, okay?" He continued.
Hopefully...
"Giwa, you know you'll be fine in the end, right?" He wished to confirm, craning his head towards me to look at my face even as my focus was on the my desk as I took my time arranging my things in my locker.
"I know I'll be." I said.
I wasn't looking at him, but somehow, I knew he was smiling.
"That's the spirit." His reply came afterwards, as he fist bumped my shoulder lightly.
I didn't understand why Nova was this nice a person. I hurt one of his beat friends. I would hate me if I were him.
"I know you don't want to talk about it, but believe me, Ivan will come around." He assured me.
Hopefully...
"Oh and congrats on Jamb though.." he said. "I heard."
"How does everyone know?" I just had to ask him. Like, I just wrote jamb like yesterday or something. Yeah, I heard the school had posted it online, but last I checked, I didn't see anything.
Nova just laughed. "Some people in this set just have a way of finding out what they want."
"I heard the Jamb Hall of Fame board isn't out yet. Somehow, people have been digging out other people's jamb scores. After Break time, the top ten best scores would be posted on the school's bulletin board for everyone to see." He told me.
Hmm..I only wondered. Asides me, who were the others on that board?
"I doubt I'd be in the Hall of Fame board though.." Nova told me, smiling wistfully.
"Aww, why?" I asked.
"Wasn't satisfied with my score. I don't know..it could have been better." He told me.
I suddenly felt bad for him. Hoping his score wasn't that bad.
"What was your score?" I asked him.
"275." He answered.
I actually raised an unbelieving brow, completely and utterly shocked by this boy.
Are you kidding me right now, Nova? 275? 275 is what he was sulking about? Hell, a lot of people would kill to score that high! Why was he not satisfied by it?
He may have read my mind from my face. He sort of laughed again.
"No, like, I was aiming for a 300 and above." He told me. "And besides, you know how competitive our class is. Lots of people are going to be competing to get to that board. You'd be surprised that the best 10 may all be above 300.."
It's true what he was saying though.
Our class was competitive. Class A has always been known to be the class for geniuses and academic scholars. In fact, as good as Nova's jamb score may be, it may actually just end up being one of the lowests in this particular class.
"But 275 is okay, I guess. At least, I can still get into Med School. All that's left is to attack them in WAEC, na." He said, smirking confidently, and making me smile as well.
Before we could say more, we both got distracted by a shy junior student who literally just appeared in front of all of us.
"G-Good afternoon, Seniors." She greeted us both quietly. Me and Nova.
Nova was quick to put a smile on his face.
"What brings you here, you little muffin?" He asked the little girl playfully.
Of course, she couldn't help, but laugh a little with Nova, as he seemed to be the only one easing the tension she was feeling as she stood in our fronts.
"I-I was sent to call you, Senior Giwa...the Principal wants you in his office.." she told me, calmly, hesitantly.
I frowned. "Me? For what?"
Nova beside me, just came in saying, "Just go and find out. You may never know."
Oh well..
I ended up bading him goodbye and leaving the class, heading towards the Principal's office in the School's main building.
As I walked down the hallway, I silently wondered it always had to be this noisy. The bell for Break went barely a minute ago and the whole place was already so filled up with classmates running around, gisting at the top of their voices and doing whatever.
I was relieved when I finally got outside of the block, taking my time to walk down the stairs that led first to the narrow pavements and then the main road. Indeed, I was thanking the heavens I was out of that noisy atmosphere.
I don't know why my classmates just had to be that noisy all the time. It made me wonder if they even knew that our exams were around the corner.
No, seriously, did they?
"Ohhh, is that the Queen we see?"
I stopped walking, my feet, temporarily stuck on the narrow path that still filled up with my classmates, as I heard a painfully familiar voice that came from the group of long-legged boys that I just passed a second ago, sitting on the red and white pavements.
Kaniru..
I gruffed, quickly continuing on my tracks, blatantly ignoring the fool.
Before I knew it, he, and those useless boys that followed him around, suddenly sprinted, rushing forward, and getting in my front before I could even take two complete steps forward.
Soon, the giant sized boys, creating one hell of a scene as they surrounded me, causing on-lookers - classmates around, and some that inside the hallway to start coming up slowly, to watch the drama unfolding.
"Ah, ah, what is it naw?"
"You guys should leave the girl alone, naw?"
"Na wa oo!"
I heard some unfamiliar female voices shouting at the boys surrounding me, all of them, having irritating grins on their faces.
I noticed that the block close by ours, the Ss2 block, their protectors were getting packed and full. That alone, meaning that some Ss2s' were already watching from their blocks as well.
God in heaven knows that, at this point, I wasn't even scared anymore. Not one bit. I was just plain angry. Furious, even.
How could human beings be so wicked!?
After everything they did to me already, they weren't satisfied?? Really!? So what did they want now? What were they doing now?
"You look beautiful by the way!" That sick JJ commented, a painful sarcastic tone coming out with his words as he looked me over, particularly admiring the bandage wrapped around my head.
The other boys laughed hysterically, nearly falling off and unto the ground with brain shattering laughter.
"Yeah, no shit. You should have just died there at once, instead of showing up this way. You look like a freak show!" Kaniru had added, causing the boys to crack up even more.
My blood boiled over, making my head hot as hell.
"Fuck you all." Left my mouth before I could stop myself and immediately, the smiles on their faces had deteorated. Kaniru, for one, turned from grin to death glare.
I didn't even move. I matched his glare with an equally dangerous one. Almost challenging him to do his worst. I don't even know what had gotten into me, but at this point, I didn't even give a damn about the consequences of what I was doing now. I had had it up to here and that was enough!
I overheard some boy's voices screaming at Kaniru to leave me alone, but the boy paid them no mind to any. None of them even walked up here to try and get physical with him, all was just audio audio everywhere.
"Where did you suddenly get all this morale from?" Kaniru barked at me, getting all up in my face.
"I should be asking you the same question." I had said right back into that dark face of his' that was barely inches away from mine.
He frowned, confused and annoyed at the same time, the same face clouding all his guy's faces, as murmurs filled the place.
Everyone was probably wondering what the hell up to. Well, I knew exactly what I was doing.
Recap to one of Mrs. Tibi's councelling sessions;
"You don't necessarily need to let people walk all over you. Defend yourself. But, do it rationally. Without losing control."
I got even closer to Kaniru's face and he didn't even budge. He looked me dead in the eyes, the same way I did him.
"It's funny. I didn't expect you to have so much guts to come back here and do this, after you must have now realised the hard consequences following what you guys did to me." I said to his face.
His face almost read, "What consequences?" And I fought the sick urge to laugh in his face.
He took the chance. He laughed.
"Giwa, you can't do anything to me. You're wasting your bloody time! You have no idea the people I fuck with." Kaniru was barking at me.
I simply shrugged. "It would be lovely if you'd involve them, maybe they'd also join you and for in prison too."
"Bullshit!" He spat, annoyed. That's when a corner of my lips slowly lifted into a tiny smirk.
"I know what gives you all these courage and bravery - those underground dogs that have your back, right?" I said to him.
Of course, I was right. As much as I knew about this Kaniru guy, he so also happened to be a drug dealer. It was a rumour anyways, something that not everyone was exactly sure if it was true or not, but he sure did live up to the 'name' with that dark, twisted attitude of his'.
Funny enough, it it were really true, it's shameful how this seventeen year old boy really thinks he has those people- those other drug lords he works for - by his side. Sad.
"Kaniru, they don't care about you, trust me." I told him the hard painful truth.
I watched something flash in his eyes. Anger? Insecurity? I don't know. What I did know, is that I had surely hit a nerve. A sensitive nerve in him.
I smiled, satisfied, happy I was on the right track, and continued;
"Those underground 'friends' of yours." I air-quoted the 'friends', bluntly continuing, "Believe me when I say everyone is fighting for their own selves down there. No one really gives a shit about you."
"Oh shut up! What do you know!?" He snapped at me, his voice, having a tensed tone to it like he was hiding an almost battered self-esteem within.
"Kaniru, what I know is that you're just a kid." I answered promptly.
"A child." I further went on, spelling it out audibly to his face, not minding the murmurs, wide eyes, and whispers from the crowd that gathered, spectating us.
"What really makes you think those your goon friends take a fucking todler like you seriously. Don't be stupid. Those guys are probably even using you." I said to his face.
For the first time ever, Kaniru's facial expression actually deteorated. Slowly, breaking down ever so slowly, every second. It was ever so subtle. If I hadn't been this close to his face, I may not have even noticed it.
One thing was for sure - I was hitting a serious nerve in this boy. I was successfully manipulating him into thinking that what he always felt was his strength was his weakness. I was successfully pulling off that shell of protection that hovered around him like invisible wings, leaving him vulnerable. Useless. Weak.
Good. Good, Giwa. You're doing just great.
"Yes, Kaniru. You're their boy toy, right?" I tilted my head to look at him, his eye contact slowly was trying to falter. His blinking, becoming more steady.
"Of course, you are." I continued, laughing a little. Laughing at him. "And believe me, princess, when shit hits the fan, you're going to be the first person they'd toss out as a scape goat. Stop the self deciet. They surely don't care about you as much as you think they do. Wise up, bro."
He wasn't saying anything. Just looking at me, with an expression on his face that made it clear to me that I had finished him.
Good. I didn't need him talking. It was my turn to do the talking.
"So, you see?" I smirked for the next part of what I had to say. "..In reality, you actually really have no back up whatsoever."
Kaniru actually stepped back, moving his face back away from mine. He wasn't hiding it this time. The poor boy was afraid. Shaking. Good.
I went on, stepping up even closer, making sure, indirectly forcing him to get back eye contact with me.
"You, Ajiro, your sister and her friends, as well as your dirty boys.." I stopped there, eyeing down the useless bastards behind him. "..You all made the biggest mistakes of your lives when you attacked me that night."
"Ajiro _"
I put a hand to halt whatever one of his boys' was about to say. I didn't want to hear it.
"You all crossed the line that day and you're all going to pay." I said to them, before stepping up to face Kaniru particularly.
"You're going to pay." I said to him.
"Giwa_"
"Quiet." I calmly stopped him.
"Now, Kaniru.." I continued. "I don't mean to sound like a rich spoilt brat, but my daddy knows some people that can easily fuck you guys up with no stress. I have the power over all of you right now and your verdict is in my damn hands. Whatever I say on this case stands and believe me when I say my father is able to go an extra mile for me, you can't even imagine."
"N-no_"
I actually laughed next, cutting him off, as a thought came into my head. "Don't even think of doing anything stupid to stop your punishment. If a hair on my head is touched, it will all be on you."
"But..but that's-that's not fair. W-What if I have nothing to do with it?" He pathetically stammered.
"I don't care." I retorted calmly, that smile never leaving my face. "If anything happens to me from this moment onward, we're putting it all on you. Period."
I looked at Kaniru, holding the full blown laugh that his horrified facial expression was trying to bring out of me.
With a calm, collected voice, I said to him. "Move."
"No, Giwa please.." his hands held mine strongly, involuntarily, I guess. Even he, looked shocked by his action.
With a sleek eyebrow going up, I narrowed my look sternly from his hands gripped unto my arm and up to his pathetic sorry face.
My eyes said it all. He could read the 'get your filthy hands off them' and he quickly obliged, leaving my arm, his face melting, breaking from that tough guy demeanor he put on to a scared, little kid. I almost felt bad for him. But hell, he nearly killed me and he wasn't even giving a damn about that fact.
I walked off, eyes straight and nose in the air, as the boys literally parted a way for me to walk through. All the way, eyes never left me, right until I was far long gone from the class block.
I almost thought I'd slump walking such a distance to the principal's office because it was there, in the school's main building, which may I say was quite a distance from my block.
I reached the principal's office soon enough and as I walked in, I nearly gasped at the unexpectancy of what I saw in there.
Asides the principal who sat there in his usual seat that was positioned behind a giant desk that had books, trophies and all sorts of things decorated all over it, I also saw, sitting beside him on a neatly reserved seat, a dark skinned, bulky man who had a black tuxedo on. I could also note, count rather, about three, sorry four police officers in uniforms, standing like guards on both sides of the desk.
The principal, a cool middle aged man in his thirties, just sort of laughed at my reaction, shaking his head slightly.
"No need to be scared, Miss Falade." He assured me and I nodded very, very slowly.
"First of, your parents had already informed me about what happened to you. I'm so sorry about that. Hope you feel better?" He asked me subtly.
I nodded. "Yes, sir, I do."
"Good." He responded, before gesturing to the man in tuxedo by his left. "This is officer Jeffrey."
"Um..okay?" I replied slowly.
The principal chuckled, explaining further. "He is the private investigator that your parents had hired."
Oh...okay, okay, makes sense..
"Good day, Giwa Falade." Officer Jeffery greeted me with a charming smile.
"Good afternoon, sir." I firmly greeted, an equal smile on my face.
"Yes, we would like to ask you a few questions please? I hope you have time." He was saying.
"The School Government Election is in half an hour." The principal told Officer Jeffery.
He nodded, understanding. "30 minutes should be fine then."
So, I sat for about half an hour answering all thr questions he asked me. He inquired for the time I was at the councelling centre, the time I had left for network, where I felt I was during the attack and all of that, just questions for them to probably look out for when properly investigating.
One question got me all up in my feelings quite quickly.
"Is there anyone you're not on good terms with?"
That question thregtened to break me down infront of them.
"Is there anyone you're not on good terms with?"
Officer, is it okay if I say 'everyone'? Is it?
"I know the people who attacked me." I ended up saying.
The officer's eyes lit up. "Who?"
I ended up telling the man exactly what Miranda had told me. Every single thing. Didn't leave out a single detail.
After the interview, I walked out in the office, feeling slightly down and sad. I had been trying to avoid thinking about how everything had gone wrong, with my friends...Ivandor...
Like Mrs. Tibi had said, "Think about the good parts of your life instead."
What if the best parts of your life have gone wrong...what do you do then?
Breathe, Giwa, breathe....
I took in deep breaths.
Manipulate your emotions...don't let it control you, instead, control it..
I started counting slowly to ten as I walked, heading to the big hall in the building where the Student Government Election for the head prefects was holding.
It didn't take much long to locate it. It was the biggest hall in the main school building - the very one where the last meeting had been held on my name. Yes, that one. That same one that was about twice the school hall, with the white coloured walls and sound proof covered doors and windows. That one.
Well, I walked into a full hall. It seemed like everyone except me were all ready and prepared, all of them having their seats. The atmosphere, quiet, almost like they were waiting for someone to come in..
Me..?
A few respected teachers, the members of the school authority, and well..Yure Adediji, surrounded the large round table that occupied over a quarter of a space of the middle of the hall where it occupied.
I could see a high seat, just right by Yure, that was probably reserved for me.
Wow, this school really found me a very significant personnel.
This was something I may have abused in the past. But right now.. I wanted to use this opportunity differently.. in the best way possible.
"Miss Falade, you can have a seat." Charlie Ba, one of the teachers on the loud round table said to me.
I smiled at him, making my way to the table.
"Senior Giwa!" A tiny, whisper-toned inaudible voice I almost didn't even catch called out to me.
For a moment, I actually stopped. Finally noticing the part of the hall I had failed to notice as I had stepped in.
A few steps after the large round table where the seats that were carefully arranged in the same semi-circle pattern of the seats in our hall. They were actually surrounding the round table, but not completely. Still, in that semi-circle pattern around the large table, leaving some space that was actually reasonable and spacey enough to walk through and get to the round table if you were walking in.
At both sides - left and right- of the first rows of the seats, I saw some Ss2 students. I figured they were the ones contending to be the new head prefects'.
The boys and girls say differently, opposite each other. God knows, I couldn't even count the number of girls that sat there, all running for Head girl. They couldn't be less than ten.
"Senior Giwa!" That same voice that whisper-called my name came again.
My eyes darted to the Ss2 girl who sat among her contenders - Aminah.
The dark girl had the broadest smile ever, white set of teeth shining at me as she waved excitedly, vigorously, with so much enthusiasm to me.
Umm...okay?
About two girls away sat Stella, Chika's sister, who my eyes moved to almost immediately afterward.
Her face lit up softly on softly on seeing me and a small cute smile appeared on those baby pink lips of hers.
I smiled back at Stella, unintentionally disregarding Aminah. It was only but when I reached my reserved seat by Yure, on the round table, that I realised that I didn't actually wave back to Aminah.
After a few speeches made by a few teachers and of course, Yure and I , the first stage of the elections - the campaign- began.
Aminah was the first girl amongst her contenders to give her campaign speech. Apparently, the girl shocked me when she got to the spotlight, looking the most proper and decent I had ever seen her look. EVER.
School uniform was so..decent. Her usual tight-fitted shirt was more free and her thigh-lenght usual skirt was now humbly falling well below her knee.
I could confidently say that she was not dressed like this, in the morning, when she had come to me to sign her form. So, now, she has to face the school authority, she suddenly has new school uniforms?
I actually fought the urge to laugh. I nearly even cracked up in the middle of her speech when I actually looked down to her feet and realised that she was even wearing a blinding shade of white socks.
A whole Aminah? I couldn't tell the number of times I punished this girl for wearing black socks to school. So where did she come and get black socks now, abeg?
Well, this - this, right here, was hilarious. In a way, the entire campaign was actually funny.
Anyway, the girls' campaigns had been rounded up in about an an hour afterward. Stella, undoubtedly, was my favorite. Her campaign was real, proffessional and straight to the point, stunning me with the boldness and confidence that she had that contradicted her baby-like facial features.
The boys were another set of clowns on their own.
Ss2 Boys who Yure used to run after to wear their ties and tuck in their shirts..most of them were almost choking themselves with their ties and some of their trousers were threatning to reach up there to their chests.
Giwa, Giwa, don't laugh...
Manipulate your emotions..Count to ten..
Damn, it was hard. I actually let out a small chuckle and Yure beside me had quietly looked at me, wondering what was wrong with me.
Funny though, we actually did shit like this back when we were like these Ss2s', running for posts.
Michael, a cocky af Ss2 boy, stepped up first confidently as hell, amongst his mates contending for Head boy the moment it was announced that the boys' campaigns were to begin.
The tall light skinned who actually irritated my bones slightly, bounced to our presence, with a sheepish smile on his face, confidently introducing his new name and adding a little bit of wits to it that cracked the audience up.
I didn't even know what even pulled me to smile, but I did. Apparently, Michael also got all the teachers amd school authority smiling too, all of them, quickly relating with him.
That proud smile never left his face. Of course Ss2s' royal highness, Michael, already knew that he had won the damn post. He already knew he was the next Head boy after Yure Adediji.
My eyes moved to the miserable looking boys who like, Michael, were already contending for the same post. I felt slightly bad for them, because they looked hopeless. Like they too also know that Michael had won this one.
Soon after the campaign was completely rounded up, Ballot papers were passed round to all of us - Me, Yure, and the teachers and members of the school authority.
I went through the long list of names all listed. The Ss2 contenders of the students election for Head boy and Girl.
I looked to Aminah, amongst the crowd, whose face looked slightly hopeless and somewhat sad and insecure. As her eyes made contact with mine, that look was history, quickly and talently replaced by that broad smile that scared me.
I looked to Yure, who was narrow-eyed on his ballot form, going through it silently.
"Who are you voting?" I asked him.
He diverted his attention from the paper and looked at me. "Michael and Stella."
I nodded, comparing his opinions with mine.
"What about you?" He asked me.
"Same." I replied, ticking both names on my ballot form and dropping my pen down.
Yure and I left the hall together after the election for the head prefects was concluded.
As soon as we got to the reception of the building, I noticed his steps falter a bit, like he actually missed one for a split second.
"Yure, are you okay?" I asked him, confused and worried at the same time.
He didn't even have to answer. As soon as my eyes moved to the reception seats, I understood.
Krisdana sat there, on one of the seats, sort of leaning back on the seats, cross-legged, and a diva-face on.
She noticed us immediately we both started looking at her and when her eyes moved to me...or.. wait..Yure..Yes, her eyes moved to Yure, not me.
Immediately after holding eye contact with him for about a second, she looked away from him calmly, almost effortlessly. The only thing that made me actually know that she was ..would I say pained? ..was the short, silent, slightly shaky breath that left her as she looked away. Like she was breathing away all the pain she was feeling out through her mouth, silently, so we couldn't know anything was wrong with her.
"Giwa, can I talk to you?" She asked, shocking me, her eyes, still looking away from both of us. Her voice, soft, hesitant, slightly shaking. Arms tightly folded, adamant on looking my way..me and Yure's way.
"I'll see you later, Giwa." Yure said to me quietly.
That's when I turned to him.
He had this sad, broken face as he watched Krisdana. A soft, sad look on his face that made him look like a little hurt child. One that looked like he was bottling up a thousand and one feelings inside. He actually looked like he was trying not to ...cry?
Was he? Was that what was happening?
"Are you okay?" I whispered softly to him.
He nodded, a sad little smile grazing the corner of his lips as he turned his attention to me. His eyes were slightly watering, but the tears I thought I was seeing in them never actually dropped. Made me wonder if I was even seeing things.
"I'm fine, Giwa." Was all he said before turning around and walking away...alone. His shoulders, falling, his hands, stuffed in his school pockets, entire posture, slouching, his demeanor, broken, beaten up...dead.
He was alone..
Atleast, I may still have my family around as my support system, but with Yure as the only child and parents, almost inexistent....
...who did he have?
No one..
I watched him till he was out of sight, silently wondering if there was anything I could do to help him. I felt horrible for him.
"Giwa." Krisdana's voice had diverted my attention, turning me away from Yure to the half-caste girl, sitting on the benches.
"Can I talk to you?" She asked again.
I nodded, joining her on the bench.
"What on earth happened to you?" She asked me first off, reminding me of the bandage around my head and the busted lip.
"I thought everyone in the set knew by now," I replied, chuckling softly.
"Which set? You mean the one me and you are in or another one?" She actually joked with me, laughing a cute laugh, surprising me with how she just suddenly switched up from the straight face version of her when Yure was here to a brighter side of her.. now he wasn't
Strange, this was the Krisdana I recognised..
The one that laughed a lot..
As much as it used to irritate me in the past, I couldn't understand why I was suddenly happy she was back. She was happy to an extent...even if, without Yure.
Good for her...
"But seriously, what happened?" She asked again, getting all serious again as she looked at the visible proofs of my assaults.
To be honest, I thought the whole set knew by now. I thought those idiots were bragging about it. Well asides that, I could see Ivandor didn't tell her anything. Well...he wasn't supposed to tell anyone anyways.
Anyways, I told Kris what happened.
"Jesus Christ!" I heard her mutter in shock.
Yeah..
"I'm so sorry about what happened. People are so cruel. Jesus!" She kept exclaiming, at the same time, sympathizing with me.
I smiled, not really understanding why she was being so nice to me. I mean, I hurt her cousin..
"I know it's not my business.." she was telling me. "..but, I know you had been texting Ivandor for a while now.."
Hearing his name made my heart skip a painful beat, immediately bringing that gut wrenching feeling again.
"I stopped." I told her, after talking in a deep breath. "He wasn't responding."
"I see." She said, looking at me with a soft look on her face, looking like she wanted to say something, but she didn't.
"Giwa, I just wanted to tell you that I'm rooting for you." She told me, immediately making my face light up hopeful.
"Really?" I asked and she nodded quickly, smiling at me.
"I felt you should know." She told me.
Wow.
"My cousin loves you, Giwa. You hurt him, yes, but he loves you. If there's one thing I'm grateful for you for is the fact that you actually showed him what it felt like to be in love. He's been through so much in his life, he needed that peace and calm, yunno?" She nudged me at the last part, chuckling a little.
Didn't I just make it worse for him in the end?
"I don't know, Kris. I appreciate your efforts, but its been quite a while he hasn't reached out. I don't expect him to after everything that happened. He probably even hates me now anyways." I told her.
Krisdana actually laughed. Like, she really really laughed. I only watched this girl, wondering what on earth I said that was so funny.
"Hate?" She exclaimed after sucj hysteric laughter, humor rising in her eyes as she raised her brows at me.
She shook her head at the idea. "Oh hell no."
"Look." She told me. "Ivan has the heart of a fucking three year old. He can't hate anyone... atleast not up to 80%. He's too soft for that. I'm serious oo. Forget all that hard guy gra gra he's always putting on!"
I don't know if that was supposed to be comforting. Okay so..what if he hated me about an 80%, there's actually no difference.
"He doesn't hate you, Giwa." She assured me.
"Are you sure?" I asked her.
"I know Ivan more than he knows himself. He definitely doesn't." She assured me.
"Why would he still love me after everything?" I asked her.
"Well...Giwa, when you love someone...no matter how much you try to suppress the feeling...you never truly ever stop..even if you may want to hate them sometimes..it doesn't just work.." she said this with a mellow tone...like it also applied to her.
..Was she also talking about Yure?
Her mellowness sprung into a light hearted, smiley demeanor all over again.
"So, you see, Ivan still loves you." She said to me.
"He told me he wasn't going to leave me." I muttered softly.
She shrugged. "So..if he does..then that simply means he broke his promise. Ivan doesn't promise and fail."
Okay..
So, there's hope..
Thanks to Krisdana, I actually felt hopeful again.
Although, I couldn't still understand it.. Why she wasn't against me..
"W-Why?" I just had to ask her.
Why, really? Why was she doing that? She shouldn't be. I wouldn't do that for me.
She smiled at me, shrugging a little.
"I won't lie to you b, when the whole thing first happened, I actually wanted Ivandor to have nothing to do with you ever again.." she was saying to me.
So, what changed your mind?
I asked that in my head. Not out loud.
"But, I had a change of heart. I don't know..in some strange ways I don't like to admit a lot of times, you awfully remind me of myself." She admitted.
True.. So true.
Krisdana also reminded me of myself a lot of times...
That was something I refused to admit for myself once upon a time...
"So, Giwa, I don't know...maybe that's why I somehow developed a soft spot for you that I can't explain..." She told me.
"And plus.. you're really sorry. Everyone deserves a second chance, right?" She said to me.
Everyone deserves a second chance..
"Even Yure?" I asked against my will.
I watched her deteorate with the speed of light. Her face fell instantly at the mention of his name, breaking down into a sad expression that made me instantly regret asking.
"Giwa..Yure..he..you understand what he did to me." That was all she said to me. That was it.
"Ivandor is currently out for an intra-school sports competition. Some of them came back today, and due to some issues, the others would be back tommorow. Ivan is among the group that would be here tommorow evening." Kris told me.
My heart skipped yet another beat.
"You have tommorrow to talk to him in person and make things right again, Giwa. After tommorrow, he isn't showing in school till it's time for WAEC." Krisdana informed me.
I nodded, making up my mind that that was what I was going to do. My heart, already increasing it's tempo all of a sudden.
Krisdana and I walked together in the end.
I was actually walking with Krisdana Moe and neither of us was trying to start a fire.
Wow..
She playfully chunked her arm under mine as we walked, laughing softly. I laughed too, looking at the girl and racking my brain, wondering why I never liked her in the first place.
We got to the class block to see that a crowd of people were gatherimg all around the school's bulletin board, noise everywhere, as they crowded the arena, all of them, trying to look in for something.
"I see the Jamb Hall of Fame is out, lol." Krisdana said beside me.
"Everyone there wants to see the people who made it to Top 10." She added.
I don't know why, but I wanted to know too.
I waited with Kris, until the crowd had settled a little, before going in to have a look at the list of star students.
JAMB HALL OF FAME
1) Falade, Giwa Oluwadabira 327
2) Acha, Marcus Bruno 314
3) Uwa, Kelechi Alice 309
4) Fejaun, Ivandor Jonathan 308
5) Ihenna, Chidozie Daniel 303
6) Moe, Krisdana Soniqua 300
7) Bassey, Casper Otobong 294
8) Alfa, Hassana Anjaele 291
9) Adediji, Yure Ayomide-Junior 288
10) Onam, Shade Serena 288
My heart actually dropped on seeing Hassana's name there.
Hassana...
She actually wrote jamb?
But...Where was she?
A part of me was worried. Unsettled. She hadn't been around in forever.
As much as I had made up my mind not to care, I couldn't not care.
"Everyone deserves a second chance.."
Including Hassana..
But where??
Where exactly was Hassana Alfa?
You guys have been asking the same question too, ba? Well, good news, we'll finally see her in the chapter after the next chapter🤗❤️
Who else has their heart beating for Giwa? 😪How do you think her talk with Ivan will go? Tbh, Ivan scares me a little and even if I have planned their fate and all...I actually don't know how tommorow will go for Giwa ooo😪😪💔
#pray for Giwa
And lolll, how many people did we recognize from their Hall of Fame?????? If you were in CH, would you be in that hall of fame, tell me the truth😂❤️Well, I wouldn't sha, but we moveeee😂😂❤️
See you on the next update. We have 8 chapters to go (sips acid through a straw😂❤️❤️)