I raised my head up to confirm if the teacher was actually referring to me and yes he was. He was staring directly at me. My heart was beating so fast in my chest as I got up hesitantly, tucking my white shirt in my black skirt. At this point, all the students turned their heads to look at me and I felt so shy.

"Sir, I'm a new student." I said lowly but my voice sounded so loud because the class was as silent as a tomb.

"I know." The teacher gave me a duh look. "You're not putting on the school uniform, so it obviously means you're new to the school. But notwithstanding, you should know the meaning of the word drug. I mean, you hear about it every day and I'm sure the school you're coming from must have taught you about it before, or are you going to say the word drug is completely new to you?"

I had heard the word drug before. In fact, I had been taught about it in my village school a couple of times but I just couldn't remember its definition at the moment.

"Uh, drug is..." I trailed off not knowing what to say. I gave off the impression that I was thinking of the meaning when in fact, my mind was completely blank. "Err... Drug is a substance..." I stopped there. I couldn't go any further and embarrass myself.

Why was this happening to me on my first day of resumption? Now everyone thought I was dumb.

"A substance? Go on, I'm listening." The teacher said, gesturing for me to continue. His gesture made me more scared.

I wanted to tell him straight away that I didn't know the answer to the question, but telling a teacher that could just come across as rude, so I didn't.

"Does anyone want to help her out? You," He pointed at my seat partner. What was his name again? "Adam, help her out."

Adams got up and the student's heads snapped back at him. For some reason, that made me so uncomfortable. Perhaps because I was standing beside Adam and instead of them looking at him, they could be looking at me. With that thought in my mind, I bowed my head down.

"Verbatim to how it's in our note," Adam started and the sound of his voice made me snap my head at him. It sounded so, what's the word? Feminine and sexy. A quiet murmur ensued in the classroom and I had no idea why. To my surprise, that didn't stop him from talking. "A drug is a chemical substance that changes a person's mood or behavior when smoked, injected, inhaled or swallowed in a pilled form."

His voice, the way he pronounced each words and his answer to the question blew me away. I was impressed. At least, I had a quite brilliant seat partner.

"Clap for him." The teacher said and everyone did as told, but their clap wasn't too loud. It seemed as though they did it reluctantly.

Adam took his seat.

"I'm sure you heard what he said?" The teacher asked me and my heart skipped a beat. Honestly, I didn't listen to what he said. I was too captivated by his voice.

I remained silent. I didn't know if I should say yes or no.

"So now tell me, what is drug?" He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Err... Drug is a chemical substance that..." what did Adams say again?

"This one is an olodo o." The teacher said looking at some students at the front and pointing at me, which resulted in a fit of laughter in the class. "Someone just defined drug explicitly to the class and you still don't know it. You know what; remain standing till the class is over." He said, his tone was laced with anger.

I felt so embarrassed. Though I was an Igbo girl, I knew that olodo meant a dullard. I was referred to as a dullard on my first day of resumption. How embarrassing! Tears welled up in my vision but I refused to cry. I couldn't cry. Crying would only draw attention to myself and everyone would use that against me. I didn't want that. I didn't want anyone to think of me as a weakling.

Hours had gone by and the civic teacher had left our class already without even telling me to sit. Maybe because another teacher walked in immediately the civic period was over, so he forgot to release me from the standing punishment. He didn't have to though. His exact words were 'remain standing till the class is over' so it means I could sit since his class was over.

The other teachers that came after the civic teacher were a lot better. They didn't notice me, not to talk of embarrassing me in front of the whole class.

At the moment, it was time for break and most of the students in the class had gone out to grab some lunch, but Adam was still in the class reading a book. I looked around the scanty class and I noticed that he was the only boy in class. Adam and I had not spoken to each other since I started sitting beside him. I had not even seen him speak to anyone. He was so gentle and all to himself.

"Um, what book is that?" I decided to initiate a conversation with him since he wouldn't.

He looked at me dryly and returned to facing the book. Was he going to snub me? "Black knight." He mumbled and I didn't hear him clearly.

"Eh?" I tried to bring my ear closer to him.

He remained silent. He kept on looking at his book. Okay, I didn't like him. He was too quiet for my liking. I needed someone I could talk to freely without being snubbed.

I was a bit hungry and I needed to go outside to buy some snacks but I felt too shy to get up from the chair and find my way to the school cafeteria. I mean, I was the only student with a mufti. If I started walking around the school, all eyes would be on me and I didn't want that.

I thought about Amanda and Annabelle. I wondered how they were doing and where their class was. I knew they could never come to my class to see me because they would be so ashamed to call me, the local girl, their relative, especially Amanda. The thought of that made me so sad. It was so sad to know that my own relative didn't like me. I fought the urge to cry.

I glanced at Adam and he appeared to be so engrossed in the book he was reading. For a fact, he was different— so different. In the village, boys could never be found reading a book like this. Seeing him do this fascinated me.

Some boys bounced into the class, exuding this bad boy aura. There were three of them. One of them was the cute light skinned boy that called me shy earlier today.

I looked at them as they walked up to our desk.

"What are you reading, fag?!" The fair boy said, forcefully taking the book Adam was reading from him.

Fag? Why did he call him that? Was that his surname?

Adam raised his head slowly and looked at the trio like he wasn't in the mood for them at that moment.

"Peter, give me back my book." He said coldly. I swear I loved his voice. Okay this wasn't the right time to start loving his voice. He was moody.

"Or else what? You're going to beat me up, sissy?" The light skinned boy, who I had just learned his name was Peter, jeered at Adam and the two other boys he came with laughed.

Wait are they bullying Adam or what?

"I don't have your time, just hand me my book." Adam said more seriously this time around.

"No!" Peter said firmly.

I was too pissed off by the scene unfolding before me that I didn't know when my mouth opened to speak. "Just give him back his book."

When I said that, they looked at me with surprise.

"Who's this one?" Peter sneered at me.

"So now she get mouth." One of the guys butted in. He was the shortest of the three guys. "When civic teacher was asking her the definition of drug, she was dumb then."

I felt so embarrassed and at the same time angry by what he said, but I couldn't say anything in my defense.

"See girl, this is not your business." Peter said to me, raising one of his eyebrows. "This is guys issue here, so stay out and mind your freaking business, if you don't want your nose broken."

I kept quiet. His words got me scared. I didn't want to get into trouble with anyone in the school, let alone some bad guys.

"Peter, I just borrowed that book from a friend and you're squeezing the life out of it." Adam said with a frown on his face. How about if you just get up and take your book back instead of watching him squeeze the book. I thought to myself.

"Nobody cares if you borrowed it from a friend or not. You know, I could tear the book if I wanted to." Peter said nonchalantly.

"You wouldn't do that, would you?" Adam asked, worry and concern becoming more prominent on his face.

"You think I'm ready to see a grown ass boy cry like a three year old girl." Peter said mockingly and the three boys laughed.

"We don't want you crying like a baby." The tallest and darkest guy of the trio said in between laughter. He had been silent since they came here.

"Okay, you guys have embarrassed me enough. Now just give me back my book." Adam said, stretching his hand to collect the book.

"If you really want it back, go outside and get it." Peter said as he flung the book outside the opened window and it hit the teacher that was passing by on the shoulder. I gasped as I saw that it wasn't a teacher, but the principal of the school.

"Who threw this book?" He asked.

_____________________________________________

I enjoyed writing this chapter. If you enjoyed reading it as well, please kindly vote, vote vote. I love comments too. 😊

So tell me, what do you think of Adam and Peter? Who's excited to know what would happen next?

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