Dedicated to cute_oyin and ChizzyAneke💕💕

WAEC started off with a bang, more students than usual trooped into the mini hall which was the exam centre to write the first paper which was animal husbandry. Those who were not offering it could relax till the next day which was physics practicals. Students had resumed fully, even those that didn't have exams that day, study sessions were on, books were open, and even their further maths teacher was giving extra lessons for the exam that was two days away.

Ifechi made her way to the new lab.

The doors to the lab were surprisingly open, but as it was out of bounds, metal protectors were closed and heavily padlocked, one could only see the foreign equipment from the bars. She kept staring when someone walked into the lab, she recognised the person, he was a student in the C class, the tall dark pretty boy that had a reputation for being a playguy, the one known to have a fake American accent, the same one in the video that had done the dirty in the bathroom..Gerald abi...

Gabriel

She felt herself cringe.

Deciding to swallow her pride, she called out to him.

"Gabriel"

He seemed startled at first, and later shocked as he turned to see a student in front of the new lab, it was strictly prohibited, didn't whoever was calling him get it. But when he recognised it was the 'new girl' from class A, the one Damien was fooling himself over recently, and most of her class guys talked about, including himself, his frown dissolved into a mischievous smirk.

"Didn't you hear, this place is out of bounds, AML is strictly prohibited for students, for now." he said approaching her slowly, his sonorous accent faintly echoing in spacious room.

"...I can make an exception for you though, just because you're pretty and that ass is..." He said winking

Ifechi felt goosebumps crawl her skin as he came closer, only breathing in relief when she recalled the metal bars were padlocked thus separating them some good distance away, except if he of course had a key, what was he even doing there? how did he even get there?

"...AML..." she said cutting him off. Gabriel looked at her weirdly, then realisation washed over him.

"Oh, it stands for addictive manufacturing lab"

"...addictive manufacturing laboratory" they said together and he looked at her stupefied, a new found sense of respect for the 'new girl' taking over him.

"You know about these things?" He asked interested.

"Oh yes, 3d printing is my latest obsession, I've been reading a lot about it,  found out about the technology a few months ago while searching best courses to study abroad, I always wanted to do computer engineering, but this has made me consider much cooler options, like robotics, or material Engineering." She rushed at once, only shutting up shyly after realising that she'd revealed that much to a stranger.

Gabriel on the other hand was heavily impressed. "You want to do Engineering? Wow! Like wowwwww"

"Why are you so surprised?" She asked giggling.

"I mean asides the fact that you're a girl, which don't get me wrong, I'm totally feminist, you also didn't come of as someone who was into tech or Engineering or any of that stuff. I always thought you wanted to study medicine or nursing or something"

"Me medicine Ke? Me that can't even stand in the same room with blood" she laughed.

They spoke for a while, both revealing their common love for tech. Apparently Gabriel was more than the arrogant, perverse person she thought him to be. The dude was deep into tech and robotics, his dad enrolled him in tech camp when he was 6, he built his first website when he was 8, his favourite programming language was PHP, he had successfully mastered 3d design and built gadgets as his hobby, his dad was sending him to canada to study robotics after his WAEC, and he hoped to own his own consumer tech company one day.

"Wow!" Ifechi was even more impressed.

After a few extra minutes of exchanging interests, she pulled up the important question.

"I mean I can see why you'd be interested in this stuff like me, but how did you get inside, like you said this place is strictly out of bounds, where's the lab instructor anyway?"

"We don't have one yet, the school's yet to employ. For your first question, this isn't meant to be public but..." He lowered his mouth to her ear.

"My dad donated most of these stuff to the school"

No wonder.

"Oh wow...well your dad must really like tech" she said pretending not to be blown away by the information. Of course, she knew her classmates were rich, but stunts like this would never become normal to her, at least not soon.

"Ah yeah, dude's heavy on investing in innovation and tech, says this industry gonna boom in the next decade, and he wants in on the start...cost him some stacks though, one of these bad boys is like half a million and he got a couple of them"

"Wow...that's crazy"

"Yeah..."

There was a short silence while Ifechi braced herself unsure of what to say next, or how to make the request to come in, luckily he beat her to it.

"You busy now?"

"Erm...well not really"

"Wanna come in then?"

She felt her heart explode. "Yes...o my yes!" She said and gripped the protector, he chuckled at her mini outburt and walked towards the back of the room disappearing into a corner. He emerged from a very small corridor and brought out his hand. "Shall we?"

HE led her through the back door into the lab, it was the only way in as the school had locked the main entrance. Only very few people knew the back entrance with Ifechi now being one of them.

"You know you are very privileged, not a lot of people get to..."

"Wow..." All sense of security and caution had left her when she entered the lab, it looked much better when they were no metal bars in front of her.

She spent the next hour looking at anything everything. Gabriel showed her how to use design a product from scratch and setup the 3d printer. He printed a custom keyhole with her initial on it and gave it to her, in his words, it was a souvenir.

Choosing to be transparent, she told him about her college application and Britney's suggestion about the whole process, leaving out the scholarship part.

"I guess we could work on a project together...if you want"

Ifechi's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah, it'd be cool, I got a major project I'd like to work on and some help won't be bad, plus we could document the entire process for your college application"

"Wow, that'll be...wow, I don't know what to say, thank you so much"

"Sure thing..." he winked. "...for a small price to pay though"

She paused suddenly feeling suspicious. "what?"

"C'mon now, you know what I mean..." He moved closer wriggling his eyebrows.

She stepped back cautiously until she was almost at the wall. "Gabriel what's all this..stop it"

He came closer

"If this is a joke, it's not funny"

Closer...

"What were you thinking entering here alone with me in the first place...Hmm, and to think I'd let you just come in here for free...nah, I thought you're smarter than that..."

"Okay fine I'll leave, just stop coming close to me"

He finally obliged and stopped moving and locked eyes with her for some seconds. Ifechi felt her heart thumping hard against her chest.

Shey it's because of MIT that she has entered this mess.

But he was right, what was she thinking..

What was he going to do next?

If he came any closer, she would kick his lower section and run, she heard that distabilized them, it usually worked in the movies.

She pushed her hands in front of her as if it would automatically make him go farther. He stared at her hands, back to her straight but cautious face, to her hands again. And then he did something she didn't expect.

He started laughing. A loud horrendous laughter. "You should have...you should have seen your face...haha..." He said in between laughter.

She found it very digusting, anger rising within her. Her scared face morphed into a deep scowl. Letting out a long hiss, she moved away from the wall and towards the door.

"Wait...where are you going?" He said trying hard to stiffle the next chuckle.

"Away from you Moron!" she said without turning back.

"Wait what...well what about the project...C'mon baby girl, I was just joking" he said finally getting a grip of his bellowing. She looked at his face which still had traces of amusement in them and looked away quickly feeling stupid.

"Well I didn't find it funny?"

"Oh C'mon sunshine don't be such a bore...I was only fooling around, guys gotta get some fun too yunno..."

She stared at him in disdain. "Thanks for letting me come in, but I'm not interested again. You've killed my entire mood"

He faked a gasp. "But we were having so much fun cupcake.."

"Can you stop with the disgusting nicknames?!"

He finally kept shut, flexed his shoulders and said. "Okay then, well you could leave if you want. Wish you the best on your college application, perhaps you could just get your pops man to buy you a 3d printer when you get home..yunno, to work on projects and stuff..."

Ifechi stared at the overprivileged teenager in front of her. His carefree attitude disgusted her, or maybe was it envy that he could have what she wanted on a platter of gold, while she was there, nearly losing half of her dignity because of a stupid machine.

Apparently the rest of the school still didn't know she was there on scholarship, asides her close friends, Grace, and few of her classmates that were present on the day of their fight, and she was grateful for that. But assumptions like this when made easily did something to tick her already insecure self off.

"...or I could just steal one from you" she blurted, glaring at him from behind while he rummaged through some things in a drawer.

He paused and turned around, a smirk on his face. "...Ouuu is that a threat?"

She shrugged. "..what do you think?"

He scoffed. "No way anyone could pull that off, especially not here at this school. But nice joke by the way" he said and turned to his desk.

"The greatest disasters are often the ones you underestimate" she said in a sing-song manner.

He paused again and turned. "Yunno..." He started, thinking for a while on what to say, before deciding it wasn't what his time. "...never mind, shut the door on your way out"

"Huh?" Ifechi was taken aback at his sudden off attitude.

"You heard me" he said without turning back.

She felt humiliated. What a nice way to start her week. Deciding that moment not to ever have anything to do with the lab again, she walked out angrily.

She would find something else to do that could boost her application, maybe volunteer at an NGO or something, there was one group at her street that did estate cleanups at the end of every month, perhaps she could join them by month end and take a picture, it would count right? Or perhaps she could join the school's volleyball team proper, she heard they went on a competition every third term and the term had just begun. She could make it work without his stupid help, she just had to think, she could do this...

"Hey!" His voice called out from the inside of the lab. She paused and looked to her side, he moved from the table to the main entrance where the metal bars were once more demarcating the both of them.

"What?!" She spat angrily.

"One more thing...if I were you, I'd be careful with what I say, the walls have ears" he said in a warning tone. Ifechi almost flinched, the sudden tension making her regret her earlier statement.

She moved back a bit and muttered a "whatever" before he turned walked back, wondering why was he taking it so serious when it was obvious that she couldn't do it anyways.

But boyyyy did she know....

A/n

My people!!!! 😂😂😂
How una dey??
Happy new year o...who is team new year, new me?😂

Remember as you dey make your goals, no forget your Creator o (Make active choices to grow your relationship with Jesus Christ this year. He is the ONLY way, Truth and Life (John 14:6) and the source of eternal joy and happiness. And I promise you that you'll not regret making him as Lord of your life💕♥️)

Well, even if some of us are still not sure of our goals this year, one thing is certain...Some serious mystery is coming up in this novel

What do you guys think of the chapter?

What's Gabriel's role?

How do you think their encounter could possibly lead to any trouble? I want to hear your conspiracies

Also, thank you so much guys for your love and support on my novel, we are past 4k now and I'm very grateful to both God and man.

Pls keep more and more of them coming- votes, comments, shares, tags... everything

I'm grateful to y'all and...

God bless you ❣️❣️