Hello keeds new chapter out now, thanks for continuous reads and votes, comment and share too I'll be very grateful loves. Dedicated to my little cousin Timi who read my book without knowing I wrote it, oya go back and vote. Thanks for all the previous votes and comments I'm swoon. I declare this part OPENNNNNNN
***
AMANDA'S POV
(Amanda Aderinsola Akinde)
"Physics sixteen out of thirty, Chemistry seventeen out of thirty. Those were your lowest scores"
Toks says beaming at me
I do a celebratory 'jiggle jiggle and wiggle wiggle' around Toke's chair. She laughs at my childish display then offers a silent applause to my performance. I do a mock curtsy with my skirt
The both of us are sitting on a two seater wooden bench behind the senior school building directly facing the school fence. Toke got my tests scripts today claiming that she 'had to see the scores before I lay my eyes on them'. I have never felt this elated about my scores before, I didn't make effort to be subtle with my display of excitement. I ruminate over my scores one more time
"Wait, what about my Math?" I pause my motion shuddering at how much that subject terrified me
She looks through all the scripts then repeats her action backwards, her eyes wandering in confusion
"I don't think I ever saw it" she spreads all the scripts on the floor to count them, I get on my knees to join her "nine? how many courses do you offer?" She licks her lips impatiently
"Ten, the last one is math" I gather them up in my hands and look through again "Who did you get them from?" I gesture towards the scripts with my head
"I got it from Erling-
"Captain" an unfamiliar voice emerging from the senior block calls
A short fair-skinned boy with a bush for hair calls, he bows slightly when he gets closer to us
"Coach calls for you, he said you should come to the bleachers with your copy of the list and his clipboard" he waits for her response
She sighs loudly and groans rubbing her forehead
"Don't worry, you can go, I'll get the script from whoever has it, see you by 4:30" I offer her a tight smile while she nods and leaves the scene, handing the scripts over to me
I stand from my squat brushing my braid out of my eye, giving my scripts another lasting gaze, I smile and head towards my classroom. A wave of different perfumes hit me as different breeds of sophomore girls run past me. I am forced to stop and wait by the wall beside me so that they don't kill me with their stampede. I look ahead and notice a crowd forming right in front of the bulletin board, a crowd of snickering and whispering junior boys and girls. I notice Britney, Shannaya and Komo; the famous bad bishes of SS2, taking pictures of the board then laughing like the witches they are
I walk towards the notice board which happens to be on the way to my class and my curiosity gets the better of me making me crane my neck towards the board. What the-
Some students move back and stop laughing when they notice my presence. My heart stops beating, my throat feels so dry I could drink a barrel of water and still be thirsty. My eyes moisten as I behold the document displayed on the bulletin board. It read boldly 'Amanda A. Akinde Math Continuous assessment' written in my not so neat black ink. The teacher's red ink was the first thing I noticed though, how much it spelt failure and disappointment.
I had written my name with so much confidence that I'd impress my parents with my score, with the way Toke would marvel at how well I used her methods to answer the kinds of questions we revised. That day I looked through all the questions, that was the worst mistake I made in the tests. My mind started racing, everything I thought I had studied the night before turned into a paper plane and flew straight out of my brain. Some questions looked like I had seen them, but I couldn't remember the methods to solve any of them. Before the end of the one hour allocated for the test I could already feel my forehead sweating and my lips getting dry
The teacher gave me a mercy 3/30, out of my effort I'm sure. Our dear Mr Richards couldn't give me a complete zero without his conscience fighting with him
"Will you go to your classes, what business do you have here?" I hear Aidan's voice say as he walks closer
The juniors scamper away at the sound of the voice, they seem to really fear him to have their crowd dissolve in seconds. He shifts his gaze from the board to mine
"Isn't this-
I snatch the script off the notice board before he completes his sentence and storm off to the classroom. I know he's very stupid but I never thought he'd stoop so low
"Erling are you insane" I bang my hand on his desk startling him and the junior girl he is talking to
"Is something wrong?" he raises one eyebrow up, the same manner Nana does it
"I seriously don't know what you gain from making other people feel miserable" I scream at him and walk out on the twenty plus students staring saucers at my outburst. I can't let them see me cry, I can't let him see me cry.
"Amanda what the hell?" I block his voice out of my head
I bang shoulders with someone I don't see walking towards me, I bite my inner cheek to keep me from swearing at the person
"Cinderella you're practically running, is it twelve midnight already?" Espn says with her usual witty tone but pauses when she notices my expression. I side step her as I am not in the mood, I definitely am not in the mood for her silly jokes. She grabs my arm gently as I walk away
"Is something-
"Leave me alone Espn can you not see I am not in the mood" I snap at her as I free my arm from her hold practically running to the lavatory
I shouldn't have snapped at Espn, I shouldn't have blown up in her face like that, it wasn't fair on her; she's not the cause of my misery. But life ain't fair now is it?
I slide down to the cold floors of the convenience, my fingers tremble as I cover the sound threatening to escape from my mouth with my palms. Even if he wanted to ridicule me, why couldn't he make fun of me or call me demeaning words? Why did he have to paste it on the board for the entire senior school to see? I'm sure he did it to impress those useless SS2 girls he's always hanging around, I have never hated the existence of a human being this much
EDMOND'S POV
(Edmond Ehizojie Thompson)
The doughnuts Espn's mum made were just out of this world, sometimes I wish my mum was more into baking and cooking and all those other things mothers do instead of just being 'the Mrs Thompson' and co owner of Hex tech. Co-owner indeed, all she did was attend press conferences and put her signature down for every new project, not like she has a choice when HE's in charge. I wonder if she'd ever wake up and see through this façade of a marriage, well I can only hope
She called from Atlanta last night, hoping I was 'well and happy' since she and her husband were having a big deal the next morning. I definitely am well, physically and probably mentally too and happy, maybe I am only happy they are away from the house. I would gladly pick an empty, quiet house over a house with constant yelling and barking of orders.
I am startled by what seems to be Trip and Erling arguing, the junior girl standing beside him looks as uncomfortable as being caught in a scuffle involving two of your seniors can make you. I don't get what they are arguing about but I know he definitely crossed the line this time, why can't he just leave her the hell alone?
She storms past me without as much as a glance or anything to acknowledge that she saw me, or maybe she didn't. Amaka's loud snorts fills the air as she along with her dumber half Nkechi wheeze with laughter.
"Trouble in paradise oh see me see gbege" Amaka says as she claps her hands dramatically, obviously to rile Erling up
The latter tries to look unfazed but the whole class can see he is shaken by the outburst from the usually cool-headed Trip. He pretends to open a book even with the curious gazes of the whole class on him. He gets up and walks out of the class taking long strides with his hands tucked in his pockets casually like he didn't give a thought to what just happened, but I knew better, he was shivering
3RD PERSON'S POV
Nancy strolls into the B classroom casually throwing 'heys' and 'hellos' to the students in class. Her eyes scan the entire class in search for Amanda, she notices her cousin is also no where to be found. She walks over to Aidan's desk, the latter pretends he is so engrossed in the comic he's reading. She clears her throat to get his attention but he doesn't look up
"Hey" she calls
"I have a name" he says without looking up from his comic book
She rolls her eyes
"Aidan" she crosses her arms across her chest
He looks up at her with a smile
"what is it?"
"where's Trip and Erling"
Aidan whistles then drops the comic he's reading face down
"You just missed the show of Trip going bazooka on Erling" he chuckles lightly "men she's a feisty one"
"why did she 'go bazooka' on him?" her eyebrows knit together in curiosity
"She saw her test script on the bulletin board and juniors were gathered around it so she came straight to Erling to chop his head off, I'm guessing it's because the class teacher gave him her scripts to hold while she was away" he supports his chin with his hand on the table, stroking an invisible beard
"Did he do it?"
"I don't think he even knows why she's angry" he hoots and drums his fingers on his desk
"And you couldn't tell him? or try to explain to either of them? what kind of best friend are you?" She snaps angrily at him
"Oh God what did I do again bayi, shebi it's simple questions I am answering" he raises his hands up in frustration
Nancy hisses and throws his comic book on the floor then storms out of the classroom. He fixes his eyes on her retreating back then gives a loud annoyed groan
**********
'Trip?' Nancy calls as she hears sniffs behind the door ladies' room
She pushes the door open gently and walks over to her best friend's side. They stand in front of the mirror with an understanding silence maintained between the two girls
"I heard about what happened" She says carefully so as not to upset her mate
Trip doesn't reply, she cleans the last tear drop from her eye blowing her nose into a piece of tissue
"I don't think Erling would do something like that, he might come off as a little rude and sometimes annoying but that's beneath him" She puts an arm around Trip's shoulder
Amanda walks away from the embrace to wash her hands at the nearest sink
"It doesn't really matter" She says as she walks out of the door dumping the remnants of the tissue
************
"why do you look so gloomy child?" Mrs Akinde says as Trip steps into the passenger seat of her Lexus
She mutters a brief greeting then hands her test scripts to her mum. The older lady looks through all the scripts one by one, beaming at the unusual academic prowess shown by her daughter. She didn't have any perfect scores but the scripts still looked too good to be her daughter's
"Aderin this is so good, let me send them to your dad" she picks up her phone and starts to fumble with it in excitement
Amanda buckles her seatbelt in, slouching in her chair so much that she has to adjust the recliner
"Is something wrong?" her mother notices she is the only one jubilating about her child's achievements
"I don't want to talk about it" she says softly as she closes her eyes blocking out whatever her mum was about to say
The engine of the car revs to life as they pull out of the parking lot
"You know you'll still have to tell me at a point Aderin, I'm your mother therefore your closest ally" Mrs Akinde says as she closes the front door of their house with her daughter far ahead of her up the stairs
"I'll tell you, I promise, I just need to cool off" she says over her shoulder
"Okay but be down for dinner" Her mum calls after her
She closes her bedroom door quietly behind her and dumps her backpack beside the feet of her reading table. She shrugs off her blazer dumping it on the arm rest of the chair then falls face flat on her bed with her shoes on
ERLING'S POV
(Erling Tobechukwu Kingston)
"Even if the whole world suspects me I don't expect this kind of question from you Idara"
Aidan told me what happened with Amanda and why she went all ballistic on me. Mr Kash gave me her scripts yes and maybe I was a little careless with it at some point. I even looked through the scores many times and memorized the scores, the only one below average was math and it was TERRIBLE. I'd never paste another person's reports on the bulletin board no matter how much I hated them though, that's extremely petty. I don't even hate her sef, she just has a way of annoying me at times but I seriously thought we were becoming cool with each other
"but you had the scripts till Toke took them from you" Idara raises her voice a pitch higher
"Then maybe it was her, last time I checked SHE fancies embarrassing others not me" I lay emphasis on the 'she'
"Oh please, she's equally as pissed off, it can't be her" she rolls her eyes and shakes her head
"don't you have dance rehearsals now? Please leave me alone" I let out a frustrated groan
"you're unbelievable" she scoffs and walks out angrily
I wonder who actually pasted her script on the board, the person probably stole it one of those times I left them on my desk. I feel bad for Amanda but I'm definitely not apologizing for anything, she should blame the person that actually took it and herself for not being in school to collect the scripts and our class teacher for giving me the scripts in the first place
That's right, blame the whole world but yourself
***
End of chapter
I wonder who pasted the score hmmmm
Was it Erling who is now pretending to be innocent
Or was it Toke being Toke
Or was it someone we do not expect?
Omooo I love suspense and false predictions likeee, drop what you feel happened in the comment sections lemme know what you think
Keep voting