"We're not the same. We're different in a good way.
Together's where we belong."

- High School Musical.

Hey, guys!😊 I'm back! And this chapter is dedicated to all the new readers and old ones who've stayed with me till now😊❤️ Thank you so much for over 6k reads.

God bless you!

A little heads-up before you read, though 🌚. This chapter has a lotta sport stuff. I hope you read to the end and realize why I had to write it this way.

I'm so excited to drop this update so if you see typos or errors, pardon me😂 I'll have to edit later.

That being said, y'all can read.

                                          •BOLU•

I should have seen it coming. Everything that happened on Monday. But no, I chose to believe that fairytales existed in real life. I didn't know exactly what or how to feel. All kinds of emotions came rushing to me. I couldn't describe how I felt that day. Couldn't describe how I felt the day after and the day after that day, because my emotions were mashed up and it became worse. I guess I was just so shocked that Ore would do that.

I wasn't expecting any more shockers after the fiasco with Sukky and his geng versus Ayo again. I had thought I wasn't going to witness any more drama. Not knowing that I would be in the drama, I would be the drama.

I had settled in class that morning. I figured it was still pretty early 'cause none of my friends were around and the class only had Jire Umubi in it. I remember giving him a curt wave and then I took my seat. Got lost in my thoughts for a while and smiling to myself. I was still humming that song — Girls Like You.

I was dreaming. Big time. I was so into the day dream that Ninu, Nina, Joy and Fred had to join forces to snap me out of it by clapping their hands in my face when they arrived. I had almost fallen off my chair. I thought it was worth it, honestly. I mean, it was day dream about Ore and I being together forever. So, falling off my chair meant nothing.

But now, I felt so stupid.

Anyway, I regained my balance and stared back as my friends stared at me, wondering if I was okay at all.

"Babes, what happened to you?" Ninuola asked, her palms folded on her abdomen.

"Yeah, are you fine?" Nina completed touching my shoulder. She looked really worried and I wondered why.

I shook my head. "Yeah, sure. I'm fine. Very fine." I laughed nervously. "Good morning." I grinned.

"Wonder why you're so weird this morning," Nina said and shook her head, giving me a hug. I hugged her back and whoa, it was like she had lost weight. How I didn't notice until then was quite surprising because we just saw each other on Saturday, didn't we?

"Wait oh, Nina, you've lost weight oh!" Ninuola had voiced out my thoughts, staring wide eyed at Nina. Her voice was loud so everyone else in the class turned towards our direction.

"That's true oh," Joy had said, affirming Ninuola's statement as she also stared at Nina.

"Yeahhh..." Fred agreed dropping his backpack and looking at Nina too.

"Was I talking to you people?" Ninuola asked the rest of the students who were looking in our direction when we noticed that Nina looked uncomfortable, very uncomfortable with the attention. And she was never uncomfortable with attention.

They turned their gazes away from Nina, quite alright. Some hissed, rolled their eyes. Some just shrugged. It was then I noticed that other people had actually filled the class since I came and I hadn't noticed until then.

Nina shrugged, regaining her normal composure, like the uncomfortable look she'd had not quite long had been unreal. "My aunt introduced me to one diet routine like this oh. I guess I got it all wrong or something. I mean, I don't even know. " She had laughed and given a wave of dismissal. "I'm sha gonna gain it back. Plus, I've been reading so. . ."

"Diet routine, you say?" Ninuola inched her head forward as she asked. "What diet routine?" She crossed her arms.

"Exactly, what?" Joy asked too.

Fred just stood and stared; his brows raised in curiosity.

"Like I said, I don't know. Y'all should not focus on me abeg." She smiled sweetly. "I'm okay."

I had my brows furrowed but I relaxed when she smiled at all of us and said she was okay. "Okay oh."

Ninuola didn't seem satisfied.

"You guys should chill," I said. "It's Nina, she's always strong. And she said she's fine."

"Alright," Ninuola said. She then turned to Joy. "I think I owe you an apology, Joy Anne."

I had almost forgotten what we discussed on Saturday during our girls' hangout at my house. The thoughts of my date with Ore still clouded my mind. It was when Ninuola spoke I remembered she was going to call a truce or something with Joy.

"You do?" Joy's eyes grew wide with surprise.

"Yep." Ninuola smiled. "I haven't been really nice to you. Since you joined our group, I've literally treated you like crap. I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me?"

Nina and I shared a knowing look.

Joy still wore her surprised expression. I guess I couldn't blame her. I mean, if I were her and a rising teen celebrity was apologizing to me, I think I would pee my pants in shock and excitement.

"Whoa, I forgive you. I'm not even sure you offended me before sef," Joy said.

Ninuola took her hand. "Thanks. And I was thinking," She looked at Nina and I with a smile and turned back to Joy, "maybe we could work together sometime. You're the most beautiful girl in RBA. I could speak to my manager, what'd you say?"

"Whatt?? You want me to work with you? As a teen model? Like you? Like, whattt??" Joy spat out in shock. People turned to look at us again.

"Yes, that's what I meant or mean or whatever," Ninuola said still smiling.

Joy engulfed her in a hug saying, "thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much!!"

"Awwwww," Nina said, wiping pretend tears.

I rolled my eyes and laughed but I was actually relieved that they'd settled their dispute and I would not ever be caught in the middle of both of them. Because omo, e go too choke.

"This is so cute," Fred said puppy-eyed. "But wait oh! Waittttt, sooooo, you can allow Joy to be your co model abi, Ninu? When I've been begging you since?!" He said the last part like a nagging market woman.

I giggled.

"Well, Joy is not a potato," Ninuola replied, pulling away from her hug with Joy. Patted Fred's shoulder and sashayed to her seat.

Fred just stood there. Dumbstruck for a while before saying, "So I'm the potato?"

We burst out laughing. Turned out he didn't realize what she meant before. Fred's expression was priceless.

It took all of me not to fall off my chair again.

When it was like twenty minutes to the Assembly, Fawaz and Josh entered the class with their noise and I knew the hostel boys were around. My neck shot out of its place in anticipation of Ore's arrival.

He didn't stroll in with them. I stuck out my neck more and saw he was outside with Jeremy and Ashley. A feeling of relief and warmth washed over me. I think I started blushing sef when I realized I was acting like a stalker.

I restrained myself from sticking my neck out a bit more to look at him again. I was so flushed that I started feeling like everyone could see me. I had my head down and pretended to scribble in a note book. I really hoped no one noticed.

I waited patiently for him to walk in, receive his usual cheers and then come to sit beside me but an eternity passed — yes, that was what it felt like — and Ore Jumai wasn't in his seat.

My head had shot up so fast as I looked outside. He was no longer there. Where had he gone? Jeremy and Ashley were also nowhere to be seen. I'd played with my fingers to ease my eagerness. Told myself to relax, that he would be here any moment.

Then a thought popped into my head.

Maybe he was finally gonna call things off with Chidera!

Or not.

Geez mehn

I was seriously overthinking this thing.

I continued scribbling trash in my notebook. Omo, if you saw the rubbish, you would call me weird and run away. Far, far away.

Fifteen minutes to Assembly and Ayo and MJ walked into the class, they told us we were needed somewhere.

"Where? For why?" Ninuola had asked skeptically as we gathered round Nina's seat.

MJ shrugged. "Me no sabi oh! One person just came to speak to my guy and then he said we should come tell you guys."

"Okayyyy. . ." Nina said, her face twisting into a frown.

"Well, let's go see for ourselves na, abi?" Joy had suggested

"Yeah, let's do that," Fred added. "I'm really curious to know what's up."

"Alright," I said. "We'll go."

We walked out of the class and sure enough, the informant was waiting for us outside. It was a person I had never seen before. I doubted he was a secondary school student at all. Nina had been walking in front of me with Ayo and I had noticed how she tensed up physically and held on to Ayo's elbow.

Sure enough, Ayo noticed too and he pulled her closer to him. At least I didn't have to tell him what I had noticed about her anymore. He had seen for himself.

MJ cracked jokes, made us laugh as we followed the informant to the place which I then figured was that garden —where I'd bawled my eyes out sometime ago.

What first hit me as we entered the garden fully was the position Ore and Chidera were in. They were kissing and from the way I saw them, they looked really into it. My throat went dry and my stomach twisted in knots, this time out of hurt, not disgust. As it had been before, those times I'd had nothing to do with Ore.

I turned a little and I saw Anita Makinde, staring into space as usual. I figured she had also found out about this garden too.

Perhaps I should not have gone with my friends, I should have just stayed back in class. Because what I saw broke me and I swear that I didn't even know how I'd managed to stand straight that day.

It hurt. It hurt so bad. I was so embarrassed. For the first time in my life, I understood what it meant to be a side chick. You were just a go-to-when-in-need person. And funny thing was, I couldn't leave the place. I had to support my friend and be happy for him. Just like the way Joy, Nina, Ninuola, Fred and MJ cheered them on.

I wasn't even sure I had the right to feel hurt because technically, they were still together. They'd been for three years now. I didn't know why I had believed Ore was going to drop her for me any time soon.

Like I said earlier, I couldn't explain how I felt.

Ayo had patted my shoulder a bit when we'd finally left the place to go for assembly. As if he knew what was happening. I just always felt that Ayo Balogun knew what was happening between us. Even though we told him nothing about it.

And of course, Ore had tried to talk to me. Explain himself, supposedly straighten things out but I gave him no chance.

He'd tried that same day when we were to submit the reports of the redox titration experiment, we'd carried out on Friday to our chem teacher.

He'd talked to me. I had paid deaf ears. Ignored him totally.

On Tuesday, during sports practice, he'd tried again. I saw him coming towards me, I walked away.

He'd tried on Wednesday. On Thursday. I did the same thing.

Now today was Friday. He hadn't tried to talk to me at all.

Maybe if we weren't all so occupied with the Heat preparations, he would have come. Yes, today was the Heat, the prelude to the interhouse sports competition, where we'd have field and some track events — the throws, high jump, long distance races and stuff — and other activities like basketball and the football match.

I don't know if we would be able to do all these activities today. But I guess RBA has got it all covered.

"So, what are we gonna do next?" I asked Kathy Alero, the sports prefect. She stood beside me. And so did Joy, but on my other side.

"Well, we have the one thousand, five hundred metre race coming up in twenty minutes, followed by the eight hundred metre. And I think the basketball match would be next after that," she replied.

"Jesus, we're gonna have basketball today after all of that? I think they included football and swimming too?" Joy said wide-eyed.

Kathy shrugged. "Yeah, well, I asked the sports master the same thing. He told me 'we go rough am'." She air-quoted the last part which got us laughing. "Safe to say we are really roughing it. Something I don't think the principal would agree to."

“Nawa oh. Laslas, we would have to do some of the events tomorrow, ‘cause I don’t see how we would finish basketball and swimming and not leave this place by ten in the night today,” I said.

“I’m gonna see who else is running for our house in the long-distance races. Bolu,” Kathy said and touched my shoulder, “stay jeered up for the basketball game. We really need you. I'll be with y'all soon. Blue house has to win this.”

“Yes, sports mama!” I yelled. Stomped my feet on the ground as I simultaneously raised my hands in the air. “Twale!”

Joy giggled. Kathy rolled her eyes. I grinned. It was not like I was back to my normal self, but this was sports, something I really loved. I had to keep other things out of my mind. My house had to win this!

“Make us proud, Joy Anne,” I said as she followed Kathy out of the canopy we stood under. She grinned and waved at me. She was one of the endurance racers. I admire people who run those long distances. I only tried eight hundred metre once and I was close to being comatose. I just decided to stick to my hundred, two hundred, four hundred metre and relay races. Long-distance ain’t for the weak.

I joined the rest of my basketball team mates under our canopy. Took a seat but didn’t really join their conversation. I placed one leg over the other boyishly. I was mentally preparing myself for the match ahead. There were four houses — Blue (my house obviously), Red, Purple and White.

And currently, according to what Kathy had told us earlier, Purple — Ore's house — was taking the lead with us following closely behind. We'd performed well in two of the throws: Shot-put and Javelin, I took part in this because apparently, the original representative bailed on us for the senior girls. She didn't show up today.

I was quite surprised at how well I threw the javelin, even though I never practiced with them. For the Discus, White house took the lead, followed by Purple and then, us. It was at that point that we figured we didn't have the most skilled Discus throwers.

After the throws, other activities like the High Jump and Long jump, Purple House took the lead, we followed behind as second or third. We were really hoping the Basketball team would push us forward. Ahead of everyone. We had the best players. The only problem we might have would be if we played against White House — Ayo's House. He was the best basketball player in the whole school. To be honest, that guy's skills were dope.

I was really good, no cap. But Ayo Balogun was way better, even way better than Kathy Alero. The only thing I kept telling myself was that if we ended up coming second overall for the Heat, we'd be able to cover more grounds during the interhouse sports itself.

That's if we would beat Purple House in Foot ball and Red House — Ninuola's currently lagging behind House — in swimming. Ninuola was the star swimmer for the house. And trust me, babe was good. I didn't even know the swimmers we had in Blue House or the Football players.

But I think they were good. Kinda. I guess.

My attention was piqued when I heard the whistle blow. I moved myself forward to see which event was taking place. I realized they had started the long distance races.

I knew RBA was big and all. But I wondered how they measured the field and how they would cover one thousand five hundred and eight hundred metres. Loud cheers erupted, people screamed, stood up to see better as the racers began their first lap. I stood up, I had to, because some of my Housemates already did and obstructed my view.

I didn't know when I started yelling too. It was the girls' race first. I saw Joy jogging at the back. It was a strategy. She would catch up later in the final lap when everyone would have gotten tired. I kept cheering them on and on. I looked closely and saw some of my other classmates in the race too. I even recognized Gift and Ini, my former group project members.

I caught a glimpse of Nina, who was under the canopy for health. She hated sports so she just decided to stay and perform her duties as the Health Prefect alongside Joan, who was the female labour Prefect, and Mrs. Moka, the health personnel of the school.

Funny how their male counterparts were both sporty people.

Anyway, I kept cheering and yelling as they were in the middles of the second lap. I saw two people drop out of the race and return to the canopies for their houses.

All of a sudden, I turned and saw Fred and MJ on both sides of me. I was so shocked that I jumped out of my skin.

"Bolu, chill na," MJ said smiling. "It's just us."

"Yeah," Fred said grinning at me.

I exhaled. "Weirdos. What are you doing here? You both are in different Houses na."

"Nothing oh. We're just chilling," MJ said making me to laugh. In the midst of the loudness, his voice was louder.

"That's right," Fred affirmed. Held up his phone camera and captured a part of the race.

I even forgot about my phone. We were asked to leave it in the locker room or in our school bags, somewhere safe other than bring it to the field with us. That was a normal Sports rule. RBA didn't want any phones getting lost or damaged.

So I wondered how Fred got his phone here.

I didn't even bother asking. I just shook my head and said, "okay oh. Just sha send the pictures to me when you're done snapping."

"Of course na," MJ said. Put his arms around me. I winced because the volume of his voice grew louder.

"Yeah, sure," Fred replied. Took more shots and with that, in a flash, they were gone.

My focus went back to the race. They were in the final lap. Joy was leading the race, two others from Purple and White followed closely behind. I screamed, cheered on like a mad person, yelling, "Go, go, go, Joy!!"

She made it to the finish line still as the lead and collapsed on the grass. Blue House won the one thousand five hundred metre race. We went wild with cheers, broke into a song, "Na we still carry first oh. Na we still carry first oh!"

It was funny so I laughed. Hard.

After a while, I went to meet Joy. Nina came too. In fact, Jeremy flew and hugged his girlfriend. I was pretty sure he would have kissed her if teachers and other adults weren't present. We helped Joy up and took her to the health canopy where Nina gave her glucose and water. I stole some of the glucose. We all did.

All of us dispersed and went back to our various canopies.

The eight hundred metre girls' race passed in a blur. Purple came first this time around, followed by Blue and then White coming in third.

It was now time for the boys to race. One thousand five hundred metre. I wasn't really paying attention to this race until I saw someone.

My heart skipped and I was annoyed it did.

I knew he wasn't supposed to be running long distance races so why was he in it?

I tried to sit still as the whistle was blown again. I couldn't so I stood up and crossed my arms. Watched like a hawk as people started cheering him on. The way people were screaming and chanting his name, it felt like they didn't care whose house was going to win this time around. As long as Ore Jumai won the race, they were cool with it.

Somehow, Chidera got out of her House's (Red House) canopy. Pompoms in her hands, screaming her lungs out as she cheered her 'boyfriend' on. It was a funny sight but I didn't feel like laughing.

I rolled my eyes. Hissed and sat back in my seat.

So much for that.

Nonsense.

My mind started going back to what happened on Monday. And that feeling I could not explain began to wash over me. My heart beat faster and my stomach tied in knots.

I swallowed the tears that were about to choke me, got up from my seat and headed straight for the basketball court.

Having a last minute basketball practice before the main game wasn't bad, right?

At least, that was what I used to console myself.

Yoooooo!

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God bless you!

~Ife🥰❤️