Chapter 43: Chapter 39- The decathlon

Welcome to a new chapter ‘the decathlon’, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for, hold your seatbelts very tight, this chapter is going to get very hot. Dive in sugar plums🌚

AMANDA’S POV

(Amanda Aderinsola Akinde)

I peer into the pitch-black room before stepping in, carefully shutting it to avoid waking the sleeping members of the room

“Guess who’s sneaking in” A feminine voice says at the same time she switches the light on

“Moon” I say in relief as I let my guard down and stroll in, discarding my things on my bed

“Akinde” she sits on my bed, giving little space between us

“Why didn’t you stay till the end, you used to love late parties” I unclasp my earrings, reminiscing the old days when we used to host and attend every single party

“well things don’t remain the same I guess” she grins “you for instance, you’re so different from the last time we saw”

She plays with a strand of my braids, wrapping it around her finger

“Different how?” I say with a hint of amusement

“Everything”

“how?” I ask, genuinely curious this time

She gets up from my bed, strolls around the little space in the middle of the room

“I can’t quite place my finger on what it is exactly but you just seem changed, like a whole new energy”

“Is that a good thing?” I ask unsurely

“Oh yes” she says loudly as she turns abruptly to face me “There’s confidence, there’s poise, there’s a whole new level of classiness and there’s sass” she snaps her fingers as she mentions the sass part, hyping me up

“I think you’re the only one that thinks that” I say, trying not to break into a full-blown laughter

“Definitely not, Rukevwe said the same thing when we spoke” I dart my eyes away at the mention of his name

Moon’s face almost explodes with laughter as she doubles up to laugh at something I didn’t quite find funny, clapping her hands together for extra dramatic effect

“That guy is really eyeing you oh” now sitting at a corner on her bed, she holds her pillow in her arms as her eyes become teary with laughter

“can he just rest” I hiss, not minding to hide my irritation at his stupid infatuation

Rukevwe is by far the worst person to have hot on your tail in this entire world, not that he’s not good looking- he is Chris’ friend so of course he has to be good looking. That guy is like the most perverted teenager I’ve met, always making stupid vile comments and inappropriate jokes- which could be funny if they weren’t directed at you. What’s worse is how Kelly tried to pair the both of us together so many times when we were together earlier this night. Even when we hugged- guy we literally just saw each other and said our hellos, why the extra drama in front of the crowd?

“You still like Christopher though?” Muna suddenly asks, shaking me out of my reverie back to the real world

“hmm?” I don’t completely register her question- and maybe I don’t want to answer it

“you heard me” she wears a wide grin on her face

“No I don’t” I say truthfully

“Good, cos he and Kay are together and they have been for a while now” she drops the statement casually and expressionlessly, picking grapes from a plastic tray and extending some towards me to eat

I’m not the least bit surprised that they ended up together, I mean come on they are literally Mr and Miss Bolton there’s no better combination. Both are smart, popular, great athletes, dashingly gorgeous, with parents who are prominent members of the school board- indeed there is such thing as a perfect duo. Which is why I feel so stupid anytime I remember I thought I could compete with that

Like hello I’m Amanda- like below average, third wheel tag along Amanda. People didn’t have to tell me- even though they still did- that I was Kelly’s shadow and that without them there was no me but still, I held on to my feelings right from ninth grade till junior year

“That’s good for them, they make a really cute couple” I say trying my best to sound genuinely happy for them and not choke on my grapes the same time

“But he still likes you though” this is the point I think of stuffing berries in her mouth to shut her up

It’s not really news to me, I mean- I’m not blind- but why is Muna suddenly filling me in on all this inside gist?

“Why are you telling me this?” I wipe my lip gloss off then moisturize with lip balm instead

She shrugs, unfolding her legs and stretching them across the bed to sleep, still watching me like a hawk

“Overexcitement from seeing you again after almost seven months” she covers herself up to her shoulders with the duvet, not taking her eyes off me

I do the same, choosing to rest my head on the opposite side so our feet are facing, engaging in the ongoing stare contest

“is there something you want to say?” I break the ice with my words, urging her to spill

“It’s good you left Bolton” she says simply, not bothering to smile “you would have hated it”

Just like that she turns to face the wall without saying goodnight, pulling her duvet up to her shoulders and squeezing her eyes shut. I ponder on the statement she made a little then come to the conclusion that something must have changed these past few months, everyone’s changed even if it’s a little. What’s worse is that I don’t even know if I preferred their old selves or this new version of them. Why would I have hated here if I had chosen to stay?

***

“Trip”

“Trip”

The tapping on my arm gets more furious as the hushed voice continues to call my name

“Trip” The voice says louder

“hmm” I respond, falling back asleep

“We have to assemble with the rest, it’s morning already” the voice I now realize is Toke’s states

I peer my eyes open, almost getting blinded in the process by the bright lights in the room. The room is empty asides the both of us, looks like everyone woke up before me. I sit up on the bed while rubbing my eyes with my tucked thumbs, taking a brief look at Toke who appears to have also just woken up. I nod my head to tell her I’m totally awake and won’t fall back to sleep when she turns around

The time on the Muna’s bedside alarm is 7am, I understand that I slept very late last night so I woke up quite late- what’s Toke’s excuse?

“Shoot it’s already 7, aren’t we supposed to be down by 7” I roughly search myself care kit for my toothbrush and toothpaste

“Yeah I forgot to set my alarm” She plunges into her mouth with her toothbrush

She wraps her towel around herself then pulls her clothes off from underneath while still using one of her hands to violently brush her teeth. If someone had shown me this vision of Toke before now, I wouldn’t have believed. In all the time we’ve known I’ve never seen her for once hasten or fret about anything because she was always on time with her schedule and calendar- always organized. Toke is human after all

I hurry after her with my stuff, racing into the bathroom and dumping my toiletries beside the sink away from water. I notice how she didn’t bring her skincare items to the bathroom with her

“You’re not doing your routine?” she looks at me like that’s the most ridiculous thing to say while I stifle the giggle escaping from my lips

“Haha very funny” she runs around the corner to where the bathrooms are and gets in one, screaming a few moments later probably from the hot water

“are you okay?” I manage to ask without laughing

“You better be fast” she replies sternly

I rinse my mouth noisily, gaggling and spitting out the water in my mouth before also racing into the bathroom, finishing some two minutes after- don’t blame me, I’m in a moment of crisis here

Toke and I finish almost at the same time, lay our beds and rush down the stairs to where the other students are- boys hostel front porch

Everyone is dressed in their Monday Uniforms, white shirts, skirts or trousers, navy blue blazers, dark blue ties, long white socks for the girls and black shoes. Everyone has on their corporate shoes- there’s this spirit that whispers to students when they are going to represent their schools to not pull their usual stunts of wearing Jordans and Diors to school- that spirit whispered to all of my school mates who are actually abiding the school’s rules and regulations one hundred percent. Even Amaka decided to ditch her mid-thigh school skirts for the one that stops right on her knees- hallelujah

“Good morning everyone” Eddy says simply, eyes over the crowd

“Good morning” majority of the crowd murmurs in response

“How did we sleep?” he asks

“Better than you did at least” Justin says and the crowd laughs, Eddy too

His eyes have bags and he looks quite tired, but trust Edmond to knot his tie extra tight even if he feels like a sack of potatoes on a Monday morning

“Yeah I didn’t really get much sleep” his usual gruff voice says as he rubs his eyes

“I wonder why” Justin slings his arm over Espn’s shoulder, causing the cohort of students to explode with rumbles of laughter, chipping in their own dirty comments

“guys guys” Eddy tries to tame the crowd battling with his own laughter but their noise doesn’t die down

Espn slaps Justin’s hand off as she tries not to laugh, consciously escaping Edmond’s stare

“That’s alright everybody” Erling says when he’s done laughing at the joke, causing the noise to fade gradually, Eddy awards him a tight smile and a nod in appreciation as he goes on

“Welcome to Day 1 of the six day- decathlon event hosted by the National Agency for Sports Education and Entertainment, today most of us don’t have anything to do since it’s just the runners that’ll be competing” he takes a pause to look for each member of the track team, Nkechi, Aidan, Noel then Nana

“However, we will all be there as expected of us, to cheer for our guys as they win their gold medals” he says with a proud smirk

A loud applause erupts as we cheer for them, if we have confidence in any sports at all this year it’s in our runners

“The event starts by 10 am but we are expected to be seated by 9 so everyone please do not waste time with your breakfasts, thank you” he dismisses the crowd

People start to leave in their cliques, the runners stay behind a little as they discuss- Nana with Nkechi and Aidan with Noel. I wonder how those two work together honestly- they don’t have to though, it’s two completely different races and they are both expert runners

Amaka walks away without bothering to wait for Nkechi, she doesn’t really have any engagements till volleyball day- her time to shine

Even though I will chew sand and run over Atlantic Ocean before admitting out loud that Amaka has a talent, she’s a beast on the volleyball court. That’s literally the only thing she does- asides being a bitch- and she is good!

The first time I heard she played I thought maybe she just loved having the opportunity to play a sport with very tight and skimpy uniforms but when I watched her from the side lines of the field one day, I concluded I was wrong, she loves what she does.

“Do you know the worst thing about running?” Nana says as she steps into step with me

“what’s that?”

“Everything hurts” she groans

“sorry”

“I rested for three days to relax my muscles Amanda, three days” She squeezes my arms violently

I use my fingers to loosen her fingers as she continues to lament

“But all my joints are still sore and my left leg aches” she lifts her leg up briefly to show me as we walk

“Sorry ehn, it’s all worth it in the end” I say, patting her head like a child

“How bout you? I heard the coach has almost killed you guys with training”

“Oh God that Coach Dan is something else entirely, we have suffered in that man’s hands” I reply, grimacing at our last training and how we all fell behind the timer

“I don’t think he’s as bad as Felicia though, that woman was something else entirely”

I know she’s talking about the former swim coach by how many times I’ve heard my teammates talk about her in the locker room

“Yeah I heard she left for some better job opportunity when I first resumed”

“More like she was fired”

My eyes bulge as I pay keen attention to the gist

“Seriously, how do you know?”

“Perks of being the senior prefect baby girl” she purrs, wiggling her fingers and her white polished nails

We walk to the cafeteria, people throw waves and “hi’s” as we walk by, mostly to Nana but some to me as well.

“What did Aniye want to talk about yesterday” I ask when we see the familiar stature of the young man at the dining entrance standing, his attention fully on the screen of his phone

She escapes my glance when I look at her, proceeding to increase her pace

“Hehe so you’ve started keeping things away from me abi?” I ask as I strut after her

“no no” she sighs “I’ll tell you after later”

We walk in through the open double doors of the cafeteria

Well well; let the party begin

***

“Hey” Mirabelle says as she takes the seat beside me, holding out a slushee cup for me to take

I take the cup from her reluctantly, holding it out to give it back when she’s settled on her seat fully

“No I brought it for you” she pushes it back gently with a smile, showing me the one she got for herself

“Thanks?” I say, not bothering to hide my confusion

Mirabelle and I aren’t close buddies- not even a little- and neither do we have a cool senior-junior relationship, she doesn’t even talk to me

“Don’t worry, if you’re Idara’s friend, you’re automatically mine too” she says with a grin, bringing her phone out to take snaps

I nod my head slowly, understanding what she said a bit, was that supposed to make me feel good? For the first time I don’t actually feel bad that someone is only nice to me because they like my friend, if it means getting free drinks from juniors, I’m down!

I sip from the straw, smiling to myself as I watch the officials settling in their seats before the start of the event. I got here before most people because I had to come down here with Nana as soon as she was done changing into her sports uniform. Our school didn’t get the best spot on the bleachers because Sheffield starts with an ‘S’ and apparently, we are to be seated in an alphabetical order- hmph

I watch Bolton students from where I am, Rukewve winks at me when our gazes meet, I give an irritated eye roll. Their four runners are also on the field, doing their stretches and jogs round

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 18th National Decathlon event” The announcer says, followed by a round of applause by everyone seated

He welcomes the important people to the high table then proceeds to introduce the officials of the game

“We would like the runners to check in at the starting table”

Four runners from each of the schools proceed to stand in lines at the four different corners of the field, putting their names, schools and various competitions down. I spot my classmates at the sidelines along with prefects from other schools too, I decide to join them for a better view

“Watch over our stuff, I’m going to the front” I say to Mirabelle who simply nods and continues typing on her phone

I manage to walk down the five rows of seats without tripping on the loosened lace of my doc martens

“Your shoes are untied” Chris says with his head dipped down to my height, a small smile playing on his lips

“Oh yeah, I’ll fix that now” I say, a wave of embarrassment washing over me

“Let me help” he says, noting that both my hands are busy

I don’t say anything to that as he squats to lace my shoes, I crane my head around to feel less awkward only to catch Kelly immediately avert her eyes as soon as I catch watching. Already feeling weird enough I start to pull my feet away

“Would you like for me to tighten the other one? Its not pretty great” he lets out a chuckle

I shake my head to decline the offer, aware of how much attention we’ve gathered. Chris might not mind being the center of attention all the time- he loves drawing attention- but I mind, I mind a lot

“Thanks Chris, I’ll make em tighter next time” I say with a laugh, moving away

He smirks in reply as I give a short wave more like a salute walking backwards

“Watch where you’re going” A male voice says as we collide

Knowing who it is, I turn around to say sorry without looking then move over to the other side to take pictures and videos

ERLING'S POV

(Erling Tobechukwu Kingston)

“You can do this, okay” I mouth to Idara as she shudders a bit

She nods her head, offering a tight smile in appreciation. The girls do their stretches together, saying some things to each other as they prepare. The guys on the other hand act like they are from different schools, stretching their muscles at different corners of the field

“Where’s my phone?” Aidan mouths and gestures towards me

I shrug, acting like I don’t understand what he’s talking about. His eyes expand in apprehensiveness

“I’m kidding” I pull the phone out of my pocket to show him

He visibly calms down, hissing as he walks away to stand with the other runners. I let out a chuckle from his comical way of expressing fear, inwardly grateful that we put aside the quarrel we had for now

Even Justin hasn’t gotten over the last time we spoke- when I told him to know his place

I didn’t plan for it to go that way at all, I even planned to congratulate him as I had nominated him for swim captain- if he would have just let me speak without causing a scene

I subconsciously scan through the arena, my eyes stop at the bleachers where Sheffield students are seated. A wide smile makes its way to my features as I study my classmates for a while;

There’s an entire column of seat separating them and Savannah springs, not like it’s a rule in the arrangement, just trust Sheffield students to act all high and mighty. With the kind of uniforms we wear, it isn’t really hard to look every bit of elegant and poise, consciously intimidating the other schools present. I see how students from other schools sneak glances and make obvious snide remarks about us, our nonchalance is what makes them even more jealous. I mean- we are THE Sheffield

Amanda makes her way down the rows of seats with two bottles, one is Idara’s so the other one is probably hers; trust her to be complaisant and carry extra water for her best friend anywhere she goes. She stops by her former classmates, engaging in a conversation of some sort with that Chris guy

I remember him from last year, he was on their swim team for the first time while I was representing my school for the second time. He had been so full of himself before the race, completely sure that he was going to best us. I on the other hand was also a hundred percent sure we were going to win their amateur swimmers in a relay- and we did. We won by a more than a second but that boy kept yelling till the end that he was sure we bribed the umpire. That could have put him in trouble- that should have put him in trouble

“I just spoke to the principal now” Toke’s voice calls from behind causing me to turn towards her

“She says we should go with Miss Ummy to get refreshments for all of us” she continues, reading a text from her phone

“Outside the school?” I ask to clarify

“Yeah I think so” she looks around for a brief moment “Lemme find her first, Principal should have informed her”

She walks away briskly to where Teachers and coaches are standing just at the same time someone bumps into me from behind

“Watch where you’re going” The moment I say it is when I realize who it is

“I’m sorry” she ducks her head lightly without looking up, immediately walking away

My eyes trail after her till she gets a comfortable position to stand in with some of the basketball boys, placing the plastic bottles down and bringing out two phones instead. I watch her for a while as she attempts to operate both phones at the same time, checking to see whose camera quality is better

I avert my eyes from watching her before anyone notices me staring so I don’t seem like a creep and direct my eyes back to what is going on on the field. The students aren’t done registering so the runners still have a little time before things get serious. My mind wanders on its own, back to where Amanda is, a pang of guilt nudging me to go over to where she is and apologize

My attitude towards her that day is inexcusable, no matter how angry I was I should have never yelled at her. I did feel she was prying and didn’t want her all up in my business but seeing the way she recoiled that day- I felt sick to my stomach. I hardly ever yell at anyone, so when I do it is usually because the person does something really really terrible- which she didn’t- she just came at a very unfortunate time.

I had just been lectured by Idara, just got off the phone with my elder brother Ethan who ‘didn’t know what came over me’, Aidan had just finished using his last saliva to convince me to change my mind, then she walked in. I poured out all my anger, all of it on her and she didn’t deserve it one bit

Deep breaths Kingston, you can do this

I shuffle three steps to the left, shivering every step of the way- since when did I find it difficult to talk to a girl?

That’s because it’s not just any girl, it’s Amanda and you actually care what she thinks

I swallow the lump in my throat and proceed on my journey, very slow but painful journey

Her hearty giggle fills the air as Denola says something to her, making him join her laughing. I watch how keenly she is paying attention to whatever he is telling her, tilting her head to the side like she usually did to keep her hair out of her eyes. The sight is mesmerizing to say the least- enough for me to develop cold feet and return to my initial position

I’ll do it later when no one is there. Perfect!

“The first category is the Boys 100m race” The voice of the announcer booms, immediately drawing all attention to the field “Male runners for the 100m interschool race should take their spots on the track”

Just as the announcer orders, the runners move to stand in their positions while the others move away to a different part of the track by the starting tables. Noel is the one representing for this category of the race and I have every confidence in him to beat his opponents. He takes confident strides to track lane 5, muttering something- probably a prayer- under his breath

“Runners get into position” They bend -------

“On your marks, set-

The entire arena is silent, everyone’s breaths held as we await the gunman’s shot

SHOOT!

The gun goes off and immediately the runners take off with unbelievable speeds, each one gliding on their own lanes with fierceness and agility

Everyone is on their feet yelling and cheering for their representatives, the hailing serves as sort of a fuel to the runners, making them give it their all.  My eyes follow Noel; his fleetness is unmistakable, his stride takes him past the Middleton student in the lead, leaving him behind and crossing the finish line as number one. Sheffield students go crazy with their cheers and hoots as he crosses the line, no debate and no argument needed, we have our winner. Middleton came second and Bolton came third, I don’t forget to smirk at that Idiot when we win the first competition

“Next up we have the boys 200m race, runners get in your positions”

The next set of boys emerge on the lanes, similar to Noel, Aidan also gets on track lane number 5. He signals to me to get him on camera- cocky much? He doesn’t pretend to even be a little nervous, he stands on his lane like it’s something he did every day- well he’s been practicing for this all his life

The second race goes just as the first had gone, Sheffield coming first, Middleton second and Bolton third. Are we surprised by the turn of events? No, are they surprised by the turn of events? Also no- I mean- We are THE Sheffield

The runners leave the track to stand behind the lines while some remain on the track but away from the lanes, maximizing the break they get before the girls

I watch Idara from afar and I see how she tries to calm herself down by taking in deep breaths and letting them out. She has nothing to be scared of though, she’s the fastest female runner I know, she literally has no competition. She always took 100m but this year the athletics department decided she took 200m since the one for last year had graduated and there was none better.

“You’ve got this” I mouth to her but it seems to only make her shudder more so I decide to stop with my bolstering

“Female runners for the 100m interschool race should take their positions on the field”

They do as their told, Nkechi takes the first lane

“On your marks, set

Silence

SHOOT!

The gun goes off and the runners give it their bests, our runner didn’t have the best start as she hesitated at the start for almost a second

“Goooo you can do this” I’m yelling, encouraging her to go faster than those ahead of her

She manages to run past some but still comes third, this time Bolton’s runner- Kelly- in first place and some other school’s runner in second place.

We all applaud our runner as she comes off the track, obviously not pleased with her performance

“You did great” I say to her, causing her mood to lighten just a bit

Now my focus is fully on Sheffield’s very own Track captain and Senior Prefect Girl

“She can do this, she was born for this” I say to calm my own nerves

“Runners for the 200m race should take their respective lanes”

The runners get into position on command

“Fighting” I mouth to Idara with my hands balled in fists

She nods, more confident and relaxed than she was moments ago

“On your marks, set”

Silence

SHOOT

Idara is in front, Idara is in front, that’s all that matters

“gooooooo” I yell with my hands cupped in front of my mouth

All students and teachers of Sheffield are on their feet, yelling their cheers for Idara. For people like Amaka- who is on her feet cheering and whistling for Idara- this is the point where any sort of beef is dropped, the only thing that matters is your school winning the decathlon.

Idara is in the lead of the race, way ahead of the other runners and steps away from the finish line

In what feels like a second, I watch as she misses her step on a dented part of the track- I hold a sharp breath in- oh no Idara

She falls to the ground with a speed like lightning, her chin colliding with the floor first

The crowd goes wild

In a blink of an eye, the track is ambushed by Sheffield students all running towards Idara. Three runners who were immediately behind her get to the finish line, one almost tripping over her just to cross the line. All my senses are up at the same time as I run with everything in me

“Idara”

I call without expecting a reply, my heart pounding in my chest as I crash to the floor where she is. I carry her up by her upper body, helping her stand

“Ahhhhh” she lets out a deafening shriek as she tries to move her ankle that is now bent in an awkward position, beads of tears running down her cheeks

“My leg” she groans loudly “My leg”

Her left shin is grazed from top to bottom, blood has started to drip down the injury to the synthetic rubber of the track, right in the dent where she tripped over

“Let me carry you” I say, trying to place her on my back

She cries even harder, shaking her head furiously when I try to carry her

“Let me carry her from here, you hold her there”

Amanda and Eddy materialize from the crowd, Eddy being the one who offered to help and is now helping me lift her off the ground by her legs

“Don’t they have a fucking stretcher?” I yell at no one in particular

Idara just keeps crying, covering her face with her palms as she bawls her eyes out. Part of it may be from the pain of her injuries but the race she lost probably hurt her more, she never loses

“It’s okay, it’s okay” I say, trying my best not to sound frantic as we rush her to the clinic

****

😭My Idaraaaaa

To be honest, I've been almost done this chapter for almost a week😂 I didn't write the last part for a while because I was reluctant to let Idara fail, crazy right?

The connection I feel with my characters is almost like a mother hen and her chicks🥲 so before I could conclude that I was going to go with this and not change the plot just because I felt sentiments took a few days of sleep😭😭

This trip to Bolton will be way more than a competition, so many things will be going down and going up 😂, I'll let you read and find out

I'll try not to hoard the next chapter- it's started already actually- but I've learnt not to promise readers anything because they won't forget 😂😂 so I'll see you when I see you

Welll, I'll see you guys in the next chapter, thanks for the almost 5k reads and please don't forget to vote

Muahhhh