PS: Hey lovelies! Be sure to read the author's note below. It's very important you do so. Now to the story...

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Monday came so quickly. One might want to ask how the short holiday was for me. Well, aside from the fact that I had finally finished copying my civic note from the beginning of the term till date; the holiday was short, boring and tiring. Aunty Caro and her very annoying husband kept disturbing me to do one task or the other, as though Amanda and Annabelle were invisible. From what I had noticed, those two do virtually nothing, well except for going out, fiddling with their phones, watching TV and eating. I don't even think they knew how to cook. That was how spoilt they were.

About the missing money, Uncle Henry gathered everyone in the house to the living room that night and he started to advise us on the dangers of stealing, which took me by surprise. But what was even more surprising was the fact that he also apologized to everyone that he had accused wrongly of stealing the money. I don't know why he did that though, but something kept telling me that he had found the money or he had remembered how he spent it, but he just didn't want to tell us, so that he wouldn't come across as stupid.

So that's basically all about the short holiday.

Though I was presently walking to school in my newly acquired school uniform and my new all-black plait, I was very sad. First reason was that I had a short sleep because I finished copying my civic note very late in the night and I still had to wake up early to do the house chores as usual and prepare for school, which was very annoying. Another reason was that aunty Caro refused to give me pocket money again to school. Same reason—no money on her. Lies!

I walked into the school building and I noticed that the students were just marching into their classes. This means I was not too late. Sweating under my uniform, I made my way to my class on the second floor. I wanted to be in class quick before any teacher entered.

"Hey, fine girl." A male voice said behind me and a hand clasp down on my shoulder. I stopped mid track and turned to look at who that was. It was a tall, dark and lanky guy, who I had seen before in ss2A. He had full and neatly carved eyebrows which knitted together in a frown. I cocked one of my eyebrows as I eyed him from his head down to his toe. I was average height but standing in front of him made me look short. His uniform was neatly ironed and slim fitted. Wait, why was I carefully checking him out?

"Hey," He smiled at me sheepishly, touching the nape of his neck. "I'm Charles and you are?"

Does this guy realize that I have to be in class as quick as possible?

I rolled my eyes at him and looked away, completely ignoring him. I knew very well what he was doing. He was wooing me and I wasn't interested in boys. For now, my studies were more important.

"I-I know um you're a new students in this school and um, you know, I just wanted to, uh—" He stammered and scratched his head like he was searching for words to say.

"Look tallie!" I spoke up, saving him the trouble. "You're wasting my time and I really don't have time for this nonsense. I have a class to attend to now, so excuse me." I said and walked off. That came out rude and I immediately regretted talking to him that way. No matter what, I shouldn't have. The fact that I wasn't interested in boys and he was a boy doesn't make him any less of a human. Every human deserved to be respected, regardless of who they were and what they represented. As I entered the class through the back door, I made a mental note to apologize to Charles during break.

"Ah Daniella, you came to school early today, thank God o. And you've finally gotten the school uniform." Adam said, with a smile on his face as I sat down on the chair.

"Good morning to you too." My voice sounded deep and Adam gave me a worried look.

"Are you okay? You sound so... unlike you."

"Yes, I'm okay."

He narrowed his eyes at me, as though he was trying to tell from my face if I was lying to him.

"Are you sure?"

It was so cute and heartwarming to know that Adam cared if I was okay or not.

"Wait; is it that obvious that I'm not okay?"

He gave me a duh look. "Well yeah it is, so tell me why."

"Don't worry, it's nothing. Just woke up on the wrong side of the bed." I said weakly, rubbing my temple.

"You have a headache?"

"Yeah." I lied. I had no headache, but I just wanted him to believe that I had, so as to avoid telling him especially the second reason why I was moody today.

"Sorry about that. Have you taken Panadol or Paracetamol?"

"No, I haven't. I would when I get home." I said, pretending like the headache was getting extreme.

"Make sure you do so. Are you done with my civic note?"

"Yes, I'm done with it. We're having civic today right?" Immediately I asked, the civic teacher walked in, hitting his long cane on the door entrance. My chest ached. Trust me when I say this man was intimidating.

"Good morning sir! You're blessed!" We all stood up to greet him and that was when my eyes traveled to Peter, who was also standing with his back facing me. He had recently just cut his hair into an Afro and his uniform was so perfectly ironed.

"Have your seat." We did as told. "The next topic on our scheme of work is Child Abuse and I wouldn't be the one to take the topic, rather, I'd pair each of you to do a presentation of the topic."

Students started to mumble under their breath as the civic teacher said that. He hit his cane on the table loudly and shouted, "Silence!" The noise subsided immediately in the class. "Is something wrong with you guys? I said something and you all are making a noise. What's the meaning of that? Or wait; do you want me to flog the whole class six strokes of cane?"

"No sir, sorry sir," were the simultaneous responses of the students. Adam and I were silent, but that doesn't detract from the fact that I wasn't scared. I didn't know about Adam.

"Then let that never repeat itself again. Now back to what I was saying, each pair would have to do their research on Child Abuse, type and print out their research, bind it and then present their work in front of the class. Is that understood?"

"Sorry sir," The chubby girl in front of the class raised her hand and stood up at the same time. "You said we're going to present our research work in front of the class, I don't understand. Are we going to teach the topic in front of the class or what?" She sounded so nasal and might I add, bold.

"Yes, that's what I mean."

"Oh!" Some students, including Adam, whispered in realization. I understood the instant the teacher told us, so I didn't have to exclaim like they did. Now I could only wish for one thing, and that was for us to be paired with our seat partners.

"Any other reasonable question." He laid emphasis on the word 'reasonable', which for some unknown reason made me roll my eyes.

When there was no response from any of us, he spoke up. "Captain, tell me the number of boys and girls in these class."

"Because of the new student that resumed last week, we have equal number of boys and girls." The captain said and some students threw glances at me. I fought the urge to roll my eyes at them.

"Very good!" The teacher nodded, "Now write the names of boys we have in this class on a small piece of paper, fold it and then the girls would pick each paper and reveal the name of male student written on it. The student you pick automatically becomes your partner."

That said, the captain did as instructed and dropped the folded paper on the table in front of the class. The civic teacher beckoned on the female students to march forward one by one and pick a paper. After several selections, it reached my turn and I nervously made my way to the front of the papers. I was scared of picking the wrong person. No let me rephrase that, I was scared of picking Peter or any of his friends.

I picked a paper and walked back shyly to my seat, with my head bowed. The civic teacher told the female students to reveal the name on the paper we picked one at a time. We did as told, starting from the chubby girl in front. When she mentioned Adam, my heart skipped a bit. I couldn't help but wonder whose name was on the paper I selected. I just hoped it wasn't Peter. It went on like that and the female students kept mentioning names that had no 'P' in it. This was getting scary.

The last girl before me opened her paper and the two boys remaining were the captain and Peter. I kept mumbling silent prayers under my breath for her to mention Peter's name.

"Ayo." She said loudly. I didn't need to open my paper or for anyone to let me know that my partner was Peter.

Why does life have to be so hard on me?

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Yay! I updated the tenth chapter. I'm so sorry that this chapter is short, but I just hope you enjoyed reading it. Please just say yes, even though you didn't. Don't worry, the next chapter would be longer and hopefully interesting.

Before I can continue with this story, I would like for everyone of you reading this note to ask a question about this story. Any question whatsoever that you've always wanted to ask and I'd be answering them in the next part. Just ask, don't be shy or don't think your question is stupid. All I want is that it must be pertaining the story. If I can get up to five questions or more, I'd continue with the story. Thanks for the compliance!

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