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 "Are you all deaf? I asked who threw this book?" The principal reiterated the question, looking angrily at our class from the window. The class was as silent as a grave yard. I was so nervous to tell on Peter because I didn't want him to get into any trouble with the principal, which could in turn get me into trouble with Peter. It was in my own best interest to just keep my mouth shut.

"Adam, I saw you reading that book." A chubby looking girl, who was sitting at the front, said, breaking the deafening silence.

"Yes," Peter said immediately, pointing at Adam. "Sir he was the one who threw the book."

I gasped, looking at Peter in outrage as he told a lie against Adam. How could he? He was the offender and he had the guts to throw the blame on someone else. That hardly seemed fair.

"That's a lie sir," Adam spoke up immediately in self-defense, his voice sounding even more feminine and everyone present in the class looked at him. "I agree that I'm the owner of the book but it was Peter who threw the book through the window."

"Are you both serious at all?" The principal asked, obviously awash in rage. "I asked a simple question and you guys are both accusing each other. What nonsense! So who am I supposed to believe now?"

They were both silent and I threw a glance at Peter. He wasn't looking as feisty as he was earlier on. He looked as scared as a chicken. The other two boys that were with him had moved far away from him. They were pretending not to be part of the whole drama.

"Hey!" The principal called and Peter's gaze met mine. I immediately averted my eyes and I noticed that he wasn't the only one looking at me. Everyone in the class had their eyes on me. Wait was principal calling me? I turned to look at the principal and he was staring at me. I swallowed hard.

"Daniella or what is that your name again?" The principal asked, a frown marred on his eyebrows.

"Yes Daniella." My voice sounded a bit shaky due to my nervousness. Whenever I was nervous, I couldn't hide it because my voice always gave me away.

"Daniella, since you were in class when the book was thrown. I want you to be completely honest with me, who amongst the two students threw it outside the window?" The principal asked and my heart skipped a thousand beats.

Why? Why? Why do I have to be involved in this? Oh God!

"Peter," I answered immediately, my voice was so faint and low. My eyes suddenly became blurry and I had no idea why. I fought the urge to cry.

"Speak up, what did you say?" The principal asked.

"Peter was the one who threw the book outside the window and not Adam." I said more loudly this time around, bowing my head down.

"I knew it." The principal said, "I knew it couldn't have been Adam. Adam is too responsible to do such a thing. You Peter, for committing such offence and lying against someone else, you're going to be dealt with. Follow me to my office now!" The principal ordered and walked away, which preceded a loud murmur from the class.

I looked up at Peter and he was glaring at me as he bounced out of the class. He was definitely in trouble but I don't know, I felt I was even in a greater trouble with him. He was definitely going to get back at me. But really, it wasn't my fault. The principal asked for complete honesty and I had no other option than to tell him the truth to avoid any complications. Anybody in my shoe would have done the same. And besides, I couldn't possibly lie against Adam. He was innocent.

Speaking of Adam, he made his way outside the class to get his book. He had a way of walking that I found fascinating. It wasn't exactly like a typical boy, neither was it like a typical girl. It was just... Nice, that's the word. Wait, was I crushing on him?

He walked back to the class with the book in his hand and made his way to our chair. He sat down and looked at me with a smile on his face. He should smile often because he was cuter with the smile. "Thanks for speaking the truth. It means a lot." He said.

I smiled sheepishly as I searched for an ideal reply to say to him. "Don't mention," was all I could come up with.

"No actually, some people in this class would have lied against me just so that they wouldn't get into trouble with Peter." There was a way he rolled his eyes when he talked that made me stare at him with admiration. Everything about him was just fascinating to me. Was I really going to be able to manage staying away from boys like mama had advised?

"Wait, what's with this Peter of a guy? Why do students fear him so much?" I asked and that made Adam laugh. His laughter sounded like music to my ear. It was high pitched and sexy.

"Why are you laughing?" I asked, my brows knitting in a frown.

"The way you said it. Not everyone in the school actually fears him. I, for one, don't. But the others that do, they're just cowards and they don't like being in his blacklist because they don't want to end up being beaten up by him. For the record, he's actually one of those popular kids in school, so because of that, he thinks he can just bully every student he knows he's stronger than or should I say feels he's stronger than." He air quoted as he emphasized the word feels.

"Really?" I asked and the way he looked at me, I was sure he noticed the fear in my voice.

"You don't have to get scared. He actually doesn't bully girls, well except he finds you ugly or maybe you step on his toe. But from what I've observed, he likes girls a lot."

I wasn't ugly, if I do say so myself, but I had definitely stepped on his toe. Hope he wasn't going to bully me. I hated being bullied. I had never been bullied before in my life, but I have had friends that had been and their tales wasn't one I would like to experience.

"Hello?" Adams waved his hands in front of my face, snapping me from my reverie.

"Huh?"

"You zoned out. Are you okay?" He asked, looking at me quizzically.

"I'm fine." I said as my lips curved into a sheepish smile.

"Was it Peter liking girls a lot that surprised you or what? Wait, are you beginning to have eyes for him?" His eyes widened and his voice became a bit deeper. For someone I thought was very smart and intelligent, he was being quite insensitive now.

"Pfft no!" I scrunched my face in disgust. "Of course not! Why would I? I mean, he's a bully. How could I ever crush on such person?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if you said you were though. For all we know, he's cute. Girls in this school are actually flocking around him and worshipping the ground he walks on."

"And by that, you mean they're dying to have him as their boyfriends, right?"

He rolled his eyes and gave me a duh look. "Yeah, that's what I meant."

"Not me. I'm not one of those girls. He's not my type of person."

Adam chuckled and it felt so good seeing him that way. I never knew he was this chatty. He should show this part of himself more often. He's fun this way.

"Anyways, can we start all over again?" Adam said. I looked at him, obviously confused and clueless as to what he meant. He chuckled, "Girl, you have a lot to learn. I'm Adam Akintola." He extended his right hand to me. "Sorry please remind me your name again."

I shook his stretched hand. "Daniella Nwadinso."

He smiled at me, "I like the surname actually. Nwadinso. It sounds so Igboish, if there's a word like that. Let me guess, you're Igbo, right?"

"Yeah, I am." I said, "By the way, if your surname is Akintola, then why was Peter calling you fag?"

Adam looked at me like I had just said the dumbest thing ever and I immediately felt embarrassed. "You really thought that was my surname or you're just kidding around?"

I shrugged.

"You really have a lot to learn girl. Fag is an insulting word and not a name. Let's forget that..."

"...So can we be friends?" He requested. I was the type that was not really so comfortable around guys. But surprisingly, I was with him, so why would I ever say no to his request.

"Yes, of course. We can be friends."

*****

"What time does the school close?" I whispered to Adam as he was facing his book on the desk. Classes were over and it was reading period. A short, light skinned woman was the one supervising us as we read our books. She was quite strict and had punished a lot of students that she caught playing instead of reading. For me, I wasn't really reading. I had not copied the note for each subject from the beginning of the term, so there was nothing to read. Be that as it may, I had a book on my desk.

"Three thirty." Adam whispered back to me. We did it surreptitiously so that the supervisor wouldn't catch us.

"What's the time?"

Adam checked his wrist watch, looked up at the teacher to see if she was looking at our direction but she wasn't, and then he whispered to me. "Twenty-five minutes after three. It's close to three thirty though."

"Hey that boy sitting close to the girl on mufti, get up!" The supervisor ordered and at that instant, the bell rang.

Sweet Jesus! The class wasn't as silent as it was anymore. It became a bit noisy, but nobody stood up. Because of that, I didn't also stand up even though I was so eager to. I really wanted to go home. I was so hungry.

"You're so lucky they rang the bell. If not, you'd have also joined them to serve punishment." The supervisor said, standing up from the white plastic chair she was sitting on and walking out of the class carrying the chair along with her.

Everyone stood up from their seat and started to make a hell of noise. They looked like they were patiently waiting for her to leave the class.

"Whew! That was close." Adams said, shaking his head.

"It sure was." I smiled and then my eyes roamed the class to see if I could find Peter, but I didn't. I hadn't seen him since the principal called him to his office. Perhaps he was still serving his punishment. "Peter is still in the principal's office, right?" I asked Adam as I wore my bag on my back.

"Maybe," He shrugged, "That serves him right. He'd learn next time not to touch my stuff."

A dry smirk played on my face. "Lest I forget, before I go home, please lend me your Civic Education and math exercise book. I want to copy the note from the beginning of the term. Hope it's not much."

"No, it's not." He nodded his head, "But today, I'd borrow you only my civic note. When you're through with it, I'd then give you the math note. Is that cool with you?"

"Sure."

He took the note from his bag and handed it to me. I collected it from him and mouthed a 'thank you', which he replied 'you're welcome' to. We made our way out of the school gate and strolled silently to a juncture where we had to part ways.

"So, we'd be drawing the curtains for today." He extended his right hand to me for a handshake.

"Sorry, what do you mean?" I asked, shaking hands with him.

"Never mind. Bye, take care."

"Bye." That said, he turned around and walked away. I watched him as he walked away. He moved with so much grace and confidence. I wish I had such confidence.

As I stood and watched him with admiration, my vision suddenly became black and I felt cold palms covering my eyes. Who could this be? I took the persons hands away from my eyes and turned back, only to see Annabelle standing in front of me. She flashed me a toothy smile.

"Annabelle, how are you? Where's Amanda?" I asked, the moment I noticed she was alone.

"She's at the back with her boyfriend." Annabelle replied. So Amanda has a boyfriend? "Amanda and I went to all the ss2 classes to look for you but we didn't see you in any of the classes, so I had to run all the way to make sure that I find you and thank God I did. Did you actually want to go home all by yourself? Do you know the way back home?"

Annabelle was actually right. I didn't really know the way back home from school and I was thinking of going home all by myself. What if they hadn't found me? If they hadn't, I might have gotten missing on my way.

"Actually no, but I—"

"No?" Annabelle shouted, tapping my arm painfully and I yelped, holding my arm. "And you didn't even bother to look for us in all the ss3 classes, so that at least we can take you home for today."

"Don't mind me jare. I wasn't thinking straight." I said and at that point, we stopped standing by the roadside and started walking towards the house.

"So wait, if you had gotten missing, you'd have said that you weren't thinking straight abi?" She asked and I smiled at her as my response. She shook her head and changed the topic. "Anyways, how was school today?"

"Uh... It started off bad, but as time went on, it became better."

"Gist me."

****

As soon as the three of us got home, my stomach grumbled loudly, which means that I was hungry. I haven't had lunch and the only thing that I had eaten since morning, before leaving for school, was the small leftover rice from yesterday. That was the only thing keeping me from fainting at the moment.

I went straight to my room, tossed my bag at a corner and threw myself on the bed, face down. Such a long day! I thought.

"Daniella, better take off your clothes quickly and come and do all the chores you have to do." I heard aunty Caro holler from outside my room and I grumbled.

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