Over 500 reads and 270 votes thank y'all so much for the show of love and support. Transparent currently ranks number one in #teenlife praise the lord somebody. I'd have dedicated this chapter to some people by tagging their accounts but my laptop doesn't allow me tag accounts. So dedicated to my new readers who have been faithful in voting, thanks so much. Dedicated to treasure for the commentssss; the show of love motivates me. Dive in, I declare this part OPENNNNN
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AMANDA'S POV
(Amanda Aderinsola Akinde)
"Think carefully before answering any question, they are all what we were taught this term there will be nothing out of the ordinary that we have not revised" Toke says as we stand by her locker
I take a deep breath out as I stare at the page of my physics jotter we were revising. I feel a strong grip on my shoulder causing me to look up
"If you fail, don't bother showing your face here again, ever" I gulp then she releases my shoulder gently "but you won't fail when I've put this much effort in you right?" she gives a forced smile daring me to disagree
"I'll try" I lick my dry lips in nervousness
She dips her hand in her locker and brings out a small lip balm
"Take before the harmattan dries you up" she hands it over giving me a once over at the same time "You look okay, but you look terrible when you panic, don't panic unless you'll fail before you even begin" she bangs her locker shut and we both walk to our different classes
"Hey Trip" I stop in my tracks to look at her "Good luck, you can do this"
I smile as I walk into my class with a newly found confidence, suddenly feeling like I can climb up Everest and swim through the Pacific. I walk into the class ignoring the whispers coming from Amaka and sidekick, walking straight to my seat. Erling is seated on my desk with his brows furrowed intently on his notebook, he looks so focused that I don't want to disrupt his concentration but oh well. I clear my throat to catch his attention. He raises an eyebrow without looking up as if to say; 'state your business'
"You're on my desk" I say with distaste rolling off my tongue
He doesn't look up still
"Use mine" he flips to the next page of his book
"No, get up from my desk" I bang my hand on the desk beside me, instantly regretting my action because of the crack sound I hear
"Better don't break those spaghettis in place of arms" he says with a grin. He appears to be enjoying this
I drop my notebook, grab his arm with two of my hands and drag him, he doesn't budge. I try again, this time using all the strength that the God of Amanda Aderinsola Akinde gave her, this boy doesn't budge still, he laughs instead
"What do you eat?" He asks with a mock expression
By now I am so furious I feel like pulling out every annoying twist on his head.
"Erling just get up from her desk" Edmond says from his side of the class
"Mind your business Thompson" his demeanor immediately turns cold as he spits at Eddy
I watch Eddy's expression as our gazes meet, he gives a tight smile then tears his gaze away. Erling notices our exchange, scoffs and gets up from my desk to his seat. At least Eddy's technique helped get poop face off my desk, I wonder why he turned so cold though. I can bet my liver that this boy is bipolar.
The teacher walks into our class with sheets of answer scripts and question papers. Students scamper to their seats and keep their books away, each person taking a final peek at their books before they drop them. I keep my notebook in my bag, take it to the front of the class then take a deep breath on my seat. You can do this Amanda
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"Gosh I'm so exhausted, why do we have to take tests" Nana whines and stretches on her chair as if she is about to pass out
We are seated in the cafeteria and neither of us has ordered any food yet. Today's tests were actually not that hard, for the first time it felt like I was actually in school when we were taught the Physics topics. English was nothing much, we just had some multiple choice questions and an essay question. Although I don't like to hope, this might just be my best Physics test ever; I bet Toke will be so proud of me. Speaking of which, I have not seen her since this morning when we went to our separate classes before tests. I guess she's among the type of students that turn to ghosts in the time of tests and exams all in the name of 'studying'.
"How was your physics test?" Nancy asks as she beams at me
"I don't know, it was okay I guess" I scratch the back of my neck
Someone drags a chair from the other table, the noisy screeching making my head hurt. Erling plops himself on the chair facing Nancy, completely disregarding my presence, jerk.
"What was your answer in number 2b? the question on gravitation?" He says in a hurry
I lean closer to the table to hear what answer she gives, silently hoping she calls out my answers. In my former school, I always hated moments like this because I always knew my answers would be completely unrelated, but this time I had an inkling that maybe, just maybe we arrived at the same answer. She looks up into the air trying to recall for a brief second
"56 Newton" she replies
Erling smiles at her answer, obviously that was what he had too.
"I got 24 newton" I say with an almost silent voice
"Did you convert grams to kilograms?" Nancy asks gently
I shake my head and look away from both of them with a nervous sigh. Erling continues with his questions
"what about the C part" he points to the question on the sheet of paper
"300 meters per second" she says
Erling smiles and nods at her answer, she looks over to me with a smile, waiting for me to confirm her answer. I avert my eyes from both their gazes as I don't want to see the disappointed look in their eyes that I failed another question. The few people I move with in Sheffield are basically gurus. Nana is part of the top five in science, Toke is the best in her arm, Eddy is also one of the high flyers, even Erling is the overall best student in the entire set, who am I kidding, I'm probably the dumbest in the entire set
"What about-" Erling starts to say
"Why don't we forget about the tests we had today and just eat then think about tomorrow's tests, okay?" Nancy says through her teeth signaling with her eyes for her cousin to shut up
Erling nods and gets up from the chair, tucks it in then walks straight to the front of the food line. In a normal school, you'd expect the students to be angry that their senior prefect just walks to the head of the line, in front of students that have been waiting with their trays for minutes. These students seem to be swoon by Erling, the SS2 girl in front of the line even blushes when he tells her "sorry, lemme take your spot". He flashes them a smile and even the junior boys on the line are feeling blessed because he managed to remember some of their names.
He gestures for Nana to come closer to where he is and I automatically follow behind as Nana swings her arm around my neck, I am definitely not in the mood to wait for 20 students to take their food before it gets to my turn. The students have a similar reaction to Nancy's arrival, a male sophomore hurriedly gives her a tray causing her to smile and pat the smaller boy's head. He blushes lightly then notices I'm standing next to her, he quickly pulls out a second tray and passes it to me with an apologetic smile. My heart swells at how nice the boy is being, almost making me forget the sour mood I was in minutes ago. Almost
I place my order then swipe my meal card across the sensor causing it to beep twice, acknowledging my payment. Three of us walk in sync to our table
*******
Test week has been moving so slowly, this Sheffield international high no get joy at all. How will Biology first test have five questions with part A,B and C? With the social reputation of the parties and game nights students of the school throw you would think their brain power would be point zero but these students definitely match their academics up with their social standings.
I groan loudly as I roll over to the other side of my bed checking my phone for the umpteenth time today. It's 9 am on Saturday morning and I've been restless since 5 am when I woke up having a bad feeling about my tests. I wish Sheffield would just be like Bolton and send us our test scores via email but I guess they just like to stick to the old school sharing of tests scripts and prolonging students' suffering in anticipation till the next Monday. I get up from my bed and walk over to my mirror loosening the two cornrows on my head with a comb. I comb out the tangles and pack my hair in a low bun. I swipe some lip gloss across my lips and straighten out my dungarees skirt taking a final look at my appearance. I slip on my white leather sandals and grab my tote bag containing my hair essentials
"Mummy" I call as I walk down the stairs
I see her lounged on the couch watching 'Grey's Anatomy' while picking beans slowly.
"Aderin are you going already?" She cranes her neck to look at me over the couch
"Yeah my salon appointment is in fifteen minutes" I walk closer to her and sit on the armrest. I smile and lean closer to her
"So... about transportation-" I pout and muster the best puppy dog eyes I can come up with
"I'm not letting you drive to the salon, take a cab or an uber" she crushes my hope before I can even complete my request
"mummy now, I promise I won't drive fast and I'll drive on the right side not the fast lane" I pull her into a side hug hoping my bribe will work
"you don't practice how to drive on the six-lane road of Abuja and I don't want to receive a call from the police station that an unlicensed driver has my car. Believe me I'll tell them I've never met you" she says as she hugs me back
I gasp at her outrageous statement placing my palm on my heart like I've been stabbed, she squeezes my cheeks and laughs at my horrified expression. I wave her goodbye as I exit the house leaving her with her show and the beans she's picking
I walk down the streets of Trinity Gardens City (TGC) observing each house's architecture. In my two months of living in this estate I have never actually taken a walk around the area. Most times I'd just order an Uber in front of my house but I guess today I need some walking to calm my nerves. I quicken my pace when I hear a dog barking furiously from the other side of a cream colored fence. I see someone coming out of a black gate, I can't miss that face anywhere. She is dressed in a black turtle neck and high waist camouflage cargo pants with a small clutch purse swung across her upper body. She closes the gate gently obviously trying to not make any sound
"Toke" I call out
She stops her motion suddenly, looking like a deer cut in headlights. She sighs and straightens when she sees its me
"Great, she's stalking me now" she says with a bored expression
"Is this your house?" I open my eyes in astonishment of how big the compound looks from the outside
"No actually it's not, never come and look for me please" she rolls her eyes and turns around to keep walking
I walk faster to catch up the with her long legs, she completely disregards my presence beside her as we walk towards the gates of TGC. She gets into a car parked in front of the estate with the engine already running, she spares me a brief glance with a tight smile while I wave at the car as it zooms off.
I take a seat on the love bench as I wait for my ride who said he was five minutes away ten minutes ago. Toke couldn't be more odd, one moment she's talking and being supportive, the next minute she completely ignores my existence like I pissed her off. I expected her to at least ask how my tests were or tell me that I'd better do well or she'd feed me to dogs or sell me off to slave trade somewhere in Europe. We didn't see each other for the entire week and she wasn't online for the whole test week, you'd expect her to at least say hi
It's Toke though, abnormal behavior is absolutely normal
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Children of the most high, end of chapter Fifteen. There have been no emojis in my author's notes because somehow Lenovo didn't think they'd add an emoji feature to their keyboards (insert eye roll emoji)
Anyhoooo
My babies have finally done their tests, is there anyone that feels tense after any small pop quiz or test? Well don't cos you can't change your answers (insert three of my laughing emojis)
There are always people that like to discuss answers after test and there is another set of people that don't like to hear other people's answers, in high school I was the first one most times and the second one sometimes depending on how I feel I performed in the exam or test. It's better not to though because it will just spoil the vibe for the other papers (insert cat smirking emoji)
Thanks again for your show of love guys I really really love y'all (insert 20 Love and kisses emojis)
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