This part is dedicated to TypicalLola aka my baby Wendy ð for not calming down in the comment section. I love readers that flood comment sections â¤ï¸ð I declare this part OPENNNN
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AMANDA'S POV
(Amanda Aderinsola Akinde)
"Anddd stop, 15 seconds" I read from the timer in my hand
"Jesus, I have slacked!" Nana pants heavily supporting herself with her palms on her knees
Slacked ke? 15 seconds for a hundred meter race is goddess my dear
Since the decathlon is coming faster than ever, seniors take their free periods to practice. I wish school was always like this, students on the field, on the track, in the gymnasium; simply doing what they love. No stupid classes to learn facts nobody cares about, no stupid tests or exams, just talent and passion flowing through the air
Nana is the female track captain so it's 100% certain she will be representing the school this year and she is not taking a break! She legit dragged me out of my classroom the moment she learnt I had a free period so we could train, my job here is to blow the whistle and watch the timer- best job in the world by the way- while she works tirelessly trying to spend less time running
"I used to do a good 12 seconds on a steady before" she stretches her legs one by one
"Osheyyyy Usain Bolt" I hail her
She laughs at my expression then begins to walk back to the beginning of the line
"Let's take this again, I refuse to leave this place with 15 seconds on that timer"
I nod my head, restart the timer and finally blow the whistle
She takes off, as usual gliding with so much power, hardly hitting the ground as she moves
"15.28 seconds" I read from my timer
She collapses on the floor dramatically, I run over to her side pretending to do CPR
"1, 2 SHOCK!" I press down her chest with my interlocked palms
She yelps in pain as she immediately sits up
"Na me you wan kill?" She yells as she breathes heavily
I laugh then get up from the floor as I hear a familiar voice approach us
"Hey pretty girl" his voice yells
I immediately see Aidan walking towards us in sport shorts and a skin tight sleeveless top while Nana doesn't because she has her back to him but the expression on her face tells me that she recognizes the voice as well
"Hello ladies" he slightly dips his head down
Nana gets up from the floor then walks to her backpack without making any eye contact with him. She pulls out a bottle of water and unstmcrews the cap open
"Don't drink too much, I want to race you" he says casually
She takes a gulp of the water but I notice she doesn't drink more than a gulp, as if she listened to him
She finally looks his way with the most uninterested look
"Why the heck would I want to race you?" She crosses her arms
He walks forward, closing the space between them. She flinches back in response, masking her shock almost fully
"Because this is training and we are supposed to race each other to stretch our limits" he says quietly
It feels so odd being in this scene but at the same time being completely out of the scene. Here I am trying desperately to pick the words falling out of Aidan's mouth and at the same time watch their expressions and at the same time focus keenly on how close this dude is getting, ever heard of personal space?!
"Well, I don't need you to test my limits, I can race with other GIRLS on the team" she gestures to Nkechi and Amaka on the other side of the track doing stretches
I'm not on their team and I've never been here but I know there's no way on earth she will be training with those two weasels, she's the only one who seems to hate the two of them as much as I do
"You're the fastest on the female track team, there's no testing your limits there. It's only normal to TRAIN with the fastest on the male team" he says in a mocking tone, feeling fly as usual
"I'd rather train with a less egoistical male runner, thank you" she side steps him i walk away
"Are you scared maybe, that you can't beat me?" He spins around and faces her with a taunting smirk
"I'm not in the mood for your rubbish just leave me alone" she dismisses him with her hand
"Oh come on, just a race I'm not asking for anything more" he puts both of his hands up in surrender
She gives him a final look before walking to the take off point then getting in her race position. He regards her with a knee on the ground while the other is facing forward, two hands supported by two fingers and her face looking straight ahead before he finally decides to walk over to stand beside her, assuming the same position
I stare at the both of them from the end of the line trying to make out what he's telling her that is definitely making her more angry. I wave my hand in the air to call their attention as I use my fingers to signify- one, two, whistle!!!
The two of them take off with unbelievable speeds, test your limits for sure I don't know if it was the anger causing it or the fact that she doesn't want to lose to this boy but she is definitely faster than she was all through the time we were alone
I watch Aidan's lips stretch into a smile as he passes Nana effortlessly while she struggles to catch up, an angrier expression on her face. He crosses the line seconds before her without breaking a sweat while our little ball of sunshine- note the sarcasm- crosses after, her entire forehead turning a deep shade of pink with sweat trickling down her face.
I thank God for my dark skin everytime because all these light skinned people ehn; stress, their face will turn pink; anger, their ears will start turning red, mosquito bite or slap, their entire body will show change in colour...
"Should we go again?" He asks her with a smirk
"No" she snaps, storming over to her backpack angrily
Aidan's face looks a little shocked at how angry her voice came out
"She has been training since, she's tired and a little out of her game today" I say quietly in my best friend's defense
"Oh I didn't notice" Aidan's expression changes to that of confusion as he tries to watch her expression
"How will you notice? Even if something were right in your face you wouldn't see it" she yells angrily glaring saucers at him
"What-
"I don't know what makes you think you can just waltz into my life anytime you feel like and catwalk right out after" she screams at him jabbing her index finger into his chest
Ehn?
"What the hell are you talking about?" He wears his confusion more boldly on his face
She almost speaks, I see she wants to say something, but she chooses not to
"Nothing, Amanda let's go" she bends down to pick her bag without looking back
This must be serious because she has NEVER and when I say never I mean NEVER called me Amanda, even that moment I told her my name for the first time she was already calling me a short form instead
I lock gazes with Aidan and do a silent 'you're equally confused?' expression as I trudge after the angry girl
I hear a frustrated groan coming from him and I turn back to see him ruffling his hair like he usually does when Erling does when utterly confused
Nancy resumes walking to the academic block after changing back to her school uniform while she ignored my questions throughout the time we were in the locker room. She continues to walk as fast as she did during the first half of the journey that I have to pull her back by her shoulder
"What the hell is going on?!" I yell as I pull her to a halt in front of the female's lavatory
I notice unshed tears in her eyes as she looks at me dead in the eye, her lips quiver a bit causing her gaze to fall to the ground as a tear drops from her lids
"Shit" I mutter as I push open the door
I use my eyes to scan through the stalls of the restroom to make sure we are the only ones in. An 11th grader walks out of the middle stall and I immediately recognize her- Mirabel, the girl that constantly flocks around Erling
She dries her hands slowly with paper towels before sauntering towards the door extra slowly as if trying to piss us off. She gives me a dismissive look, not minding to say a greeting but her eyes pause when she sees Nana. She walks over extra quickly to stand in front of us
"Senior Idara, are you okay?" She says with faked concern
I don't know if Nana can hear it too but that statement was coated with every form of insincerity, obvious ass kissing
"I'm good, thanks" Nana flashes her a smile, cleverly wiping a tear away so she doesn't see it
The girl seems to believe it- or maybe she just made herself believe it because she doesn't actually care
"Okay then, take care love" she pulls her into a side hug
"Hey Amanda" she waves slightly
I give her a nod as Nana and I walk further into the toilet. She doesn't exactly respect me I get but could she at least try to hide it a little?
I hear the door close as she exits, my eyes travel back to Nana
"What's going on?" I ask gently
She sniffs then uses the end of her index finger to clean off her tears
"What's going on with you and Aidan" I ask again
"Nothing" she says as she turns around and props herself up to seat on the marble slab
"Did something happen before? Like history somewhere?"
She sighs deeply then stays silent for a while before she finally decides to speak
"Aidan and I have always had this crazy ass chemistry-
When I came to Sheffield he was my first friend asides my brother, because he's my brother's best friend so it was technically always us hanging at his house or him at ours, making us even closer-
In SS1 he told me he liked me and asked me to be his girlfriend, I liked him too and I was really really planning to say yes until the next week the entire class started pairing us together and it became a little uncomfortable for me-
So I said no that I wanted us to remain friends. He didn't take the news well of course, he didn't talk to me for weeks and the entire class noticed it but I thought he'd come around and we'd all go back to being cool friends-
Then when we resumed SS2 there were rumors of he and Amaka dating, I didn't want to believe it at first but seeing how sandwiched the both of them became and how they became the hottest topic in school, it definitely confirmed it. I wished students would just gossip without adding me in the matter but they started making it look like a love triangle where I was obviously the third person-
I was really crushed actually because part of me was convinced he actually liked her but the other part of me kept feeling like he was doing it just to hurt me, that really hurt-
Towards the end of SS2 things got weird because of the huge birthday present he got me and rumors started to spread again. Anyway, on Amaka's birthday which is about two weeks after mine, she posted a picture of both of them with a caption that said
'You can try but you'll never be' " she pauses, takes a deep breath then faces the ceiling but I can see she's only preventing the shower of tears from falling
"In SS3 he started acting all confusing again and being extremely nice and making weird comments about my hair looking good in a bun or my face looking like I ran out of a magazine-
IT REALLY ISN'T FAIR!"
She bursts out into tears, crying into her palms as I walk over to her to soothe her
"Hey hey it's okay" I rub her thigh in a soothing manner
She continues to cry while I say comforting words and occasionally wipe her eyes, I cut a new piece of tissue so she can blow her nose in it.
"So you don't like the fact that he's confusing you with his actions while dating another girl?" I ask
"That's not even it, he and Amaka are not dating again, everyone knows that now. I just wish he could leave me alone!" Fresh set of tears stream down her eyes as she sobs into the tissue
Oh God, this opposite gender ehn
"Does Erling know?" I ask curiously
"Nah not really, he just knows a little about the rumors he doesn't even know Aidan asked me out"
You don't know about something between your best friend and your cousin? Brother of the year
"I think you should just tell him directly, tell him everything you're telling me" I suggest
"I can't, I don't even know what he's doing. He might claim everything he said and did were completely platonic making me look like a complete fool"
I understand where she's coming from, been there those days with Chris and Kelly. I shake my head at the memory
"Don't worry, Aidan is a cow, count anything he says as a 'moo'" I say, attempting to brighten up her mood, she laughs
I guess I succeeded
She jumps down from the top of the slab then puts her uniform in order. She grabs a little piece of tissue and dips it into her blue blazer pockets. I check for any wrinkle on mine then dust away invisible dirt when I don't find any.
We ramble on about everything and nothing in particular for the next twenty minutes until the bell is rung. We fix our lipglosses and our hairs before we walk out of the lavatory side by side with expressions that would make people think we are high on a sugar rush
**
"Two scoops of white rice, chicken soup and one piece of cat fish" I point out to each serving as I place my order
"Okay, any drink or you prefer water?" The lunch lady ask as she inputs it
"Just a bottle of water would be fine"
"Okay" she types it into the monitor screen
I swipe my card across the censor and wait for a different woman to finish serving the food. I carry my tray and walk behind the familiar backs of Nancy and Erling. We settle on our chairs one after the other, somehow we were always the only ones that occupied this table even with the fact that it is a six person table
Nana pokes at her food before letting out a cry in dissatisfaction
"They gave me only six plantain pieces" her lips curve upside down
"Weren't you looking when they were serving?" Erling asks as he continues eat his food, he pops a slice of plantain into his mouth just as Nana is talking about plantains
"I was... But it looked many when they were serving the plantains so I didn't count" she puckers her bottom lip out
Erling shakes his head and continues to eat, Nana on the other hand grips her fork extra tight. She plunges into his food without warning and captures up to five of his slices just with a single jab
Erling holds her hand in place and tries to bite the plantain on her fork so he wouldn't lose them but he stops when he notices how ridiculous they look and the number of people watching from the next table, he drops her hand reluctantly and shoots her a very long angry glare while the latter giggles as she adds the stolen pieces to her plate
"Idara 1, Erling 0, just be guarding your food from now on oh make you no go starve the day I go vex" he says with a low chuckle
"You can do nothing" she retorts gingerly as she feasts on the stolen plantain slices
I hear a slight commotion so I follow the noise to find the senior basket ball team walking into the cafeteria, those guys are so loud! Almost immediately I sport Eddy walking in and as the tallest on the team it's is so easy for his curls to stand out in the crowd
He spots me and his face breaks into a smile, he sends a wave my way causing some that were paying attention to look back at me and wonder how?. I return his wave and try to go back to eating when Nancy starts coughing and sneezing at the same time. It's not a real one though, I can tell she's just being silly
"Weldone oh" she says in a mocking voice
I try to shush her that so that Erling doesn't understand but the latter on the other hand is either not interested in this kind of talk or didn't hear and see the exchange
I hope it's both
"Hey Trip, would you like to hoop with me after lunch?" he slightly leans back into my table
"I don't really play basketball" I say at short of what to say
"It'll be fun" he says with a wide grin on his face
That perfect grin makes me accept the offer without thinking twice
I smile silently as he sits up in his chair. My eyes meet Nana's teasing eyes but the second they land on Erling, my smile drops, he's staring at his plate without eating, like his plate has become the most engaging thing ever
I wonder what's making him so annoyed....
**
End of chapter, writer is sleeping she has yawned a million timesð
I can't count how many grammatical errors I made all because of sleep texting but laslas here we are ð«
You've finally gotten a background story on Aidan and Nana, you're welcome
Y'all know the drill, I'll be coming tomorrow morning to edit since I finished writing at six minutes to eleven and I didn't take a nap this afternoon
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