PRESTON

      We wrote our exams two weeks ago, and I must say, I am impressed with myself. I wrote the exams like a pro.Like I always did.Exam papers had to be shared on the last day of classes before the Sunday results are pasted.
We were in class, on Friday, waiting for the first teacher to come with his papers. I was nervous though. I heard several of our classmates who knew Lelah, say she was always first, had never come second in her life. That was pretty much me too, and this was not going to be funny either ways. Either I came first and she completely broke down, or she came first, and I don't know. I really did not know how I would react, but I knew I couldn't like it.
       I put my head on my locker, just when I heard everyone greet "Good morning miss". I lifted my head, there was miss Paulet. She greeted and told everyone to get settled. Then she fucking winked at me, woman never backed down. She was a fucking pest, one of the reasons I could not rest, the least free period you had, she was calling you up to do something for her in the staffroom. She had even down right asked me to come visit her in the staff quarters after exams. I would be mad, to do that.
"So, the rules have changed this year. Instead of every teacher distributing papers during their periods, all papers will be distributed during this period, the first period, and classes will continue normally" she stopped talking, and ohh my, people grumbled. It was fine by me, get shit done and dusted.  " Expect all your teachers here in no time, and stop the noise. No one told you not to write well, everyone will see your marks" Ohhh! I got it, people were scared of certain people seeing their test results. What a pity. And Miss Paulet knew just how to annoy people.
I just turned towards Lelah, because yes I maintained my position and yes, I was a sucker for pain, maintaining my position beside her, everytime staring at her, fantasizing about kissing every part of her body. It was killing me. I did not change my position because I wanted to make her so uncomfortable, I wanted her to feel like I felt, and most importantly, I wanted to be by her, because I could not stay far away from her.
She looked tense, her palms were sweating, and I felt bad, not knowing why. She might have rejected, and I was still mad at her, but that did not change the fact that I still cared about her. I liked her, alot.
For the first time in one month, I spoke to her.
"Hey, are you okay" I asked her, feeling nervous. I did not know how she would reply me, so my nervousness was right, I was scared she will ignore me or give me one of those other female reactions. She answered though, taking me by suprise.
" I'm okay, thanks" she whispered back, with a weak smile.
"You don't look okay to me, your palms are sweaty" I said, indicating with the nod of my head towards her sweaty palms. She looked at them and just shrugged her shoulders, still staring at me.
"Nervous?" I asked.  A lady who was mad at you would have stopped answering by now, but she did not. I was still mad at her, but I just wanted to be fine with her. Just this small conversation was making me feel alot better, I felt relieved. So I pushed my luck on.
" How have you been" I asked, changing the topic.
"Fine, I guess" she giggled, and it was so sweet, so soft, it kept resounding in my head. But what was funny though?. I smiled.
"What's funny?" I asked, so softly, a big smile on my face. I couldn't help it.
" Nothing" she shrugged her shoulders, struggling to stop herself from smiling, but failing." I just thought you will never speak to me again, I just hate having a beef with someone or vice versa".
" You can't blame me for not wanting to talk to you, you drove me away from you, disgraced me infront of the whole school" I said, and immediately saw the hurt in her eyes.
" Atleast it fetched something positive for you, I see everyone respecting you now, even the senior prefect does not talk to you anyhow, although I must say, expect a come back". She was right, the honey bee incident fetched alot of respect for me, especially since the prefects could not tell the authorities, because they were keeping their self esteem. Everyone in the dormitory had been warned about saying the truth, the story was honeybees bit them while they were going to fetch water. Did they ever fetch water though?. But offcourse everyone already knew what happened before the night could come to an end. I even got scared I will be punished, but surprisingly enough, teachers instead called me behind, to congratulate me. Students became close with me, most of them congratulating me, it was the first of its kind in our school. Yes, I knew they won't just back down like that, but I was ready for them.
"I know" I started to say " but I'm ready for them" I said, more to myself, than her. There was a few seconds of silence.
"I'm sorry" she said, looking at me so intently, and her eyes held hurt, regret, they were sad. I had to crave.
" No Lelah, you..." I started to say, when I was cut off by a male voice.
"Lelah and Preston, maybe we should all sit and wait for you to finish your conversation" he said. Lelah turned red, and I swear I could feel the heat from her body on me. She had already faced ahead, but I was still turned sideways. I spared one more glance at her, then turned around. Offcourse, it was Mr pompous, Mr Johnson, always in people's faces. All lower sixth teachers were standing infront of the class. Shit!.
" I'm sorry sir" I said, quietly. He did not even acknowledge it.
" Because you succeeded in hurting people and went unpunished you think you're now a hero, the flying eagle? Cut off your wings boy, before I cut it off for you" he shouted. What the!. This man had a personal issue with me, I always knew although I did not know why, but what was the relationship between Lelah and I talking and the honeybee issue. I was just about to talk when Lelah held my hand that was holding my locker. It was all I needed, because her hand on mine calmed me immediately. Mr Jonhson still held a daring stare, like he was expecting me to say something, but Mr Jean Pierre held his shoulder, and spoke.
" Nous allons simplement distribue les papiers et partir" he said. He usually spoke English, becsuse like he said " I want to learn the English language". It was always funny hearing him speak English, not forgetting he was my best teacher, and like they will call it, my paddy. The french language came out when necessary.
      Through out the distribution period, you either got a loud  "yes" or an excited " shit", or someone will just close their eyes and go back to their sits. Through out, Lelah collected her papers and big a big smile on her face, just like Harry, Michael and I. I had made it extremely well in all subjects, and all the teachers were pleased.
"Young man, you never answer a question in class, but have one of the best results, if not the best" Mr John Paul commented before handing my paper. He took it back before I could go though " except you copied" he said, eyeing me questioningly. My puzzled face dropped.
"No sir, some of us just prefer to keep it on the low" I said defended. He gave my paper without a word.
      When all was done, we were left with twenty minutes to the end of Miss Paulets class.
"You guys did great, I will just give you the rest of the twenty minutes to prepare yourselves for the next class" she said, and left. Not without the obvious wink my way. Apparently, we had all made it in her section of maths, wow, I too was proud of us.
" Hey" Lelah touched my hand, on the same spot she had before. I turned towards her, "please can I see your papers?" she asked. I wondered why, before it dawned on me, she wanted to see what I had, to compare.
" What for?" I asked though.
" Or not, its fine" she quickly turned back to face the board. I gave her the papers, if she wanted to do something as childish as comparing marks, she was free.
When she was done, she looked sad while giving me my papers.
" Are you okay?" I asked, concerned.
"I've just never been second" she said, honestly.
"Who said you're second?"
"You are two marks more than me, and there are no errors" she said.
"What makes you think there's no other person with better marks?" I taunted her.
"Please don't make it worst, I just know".
"There's always a first time to everything" I said. She was so calm, I expected her to be raging over the fact.
"Yeah, there's always a first" she said, with a broad smile. I'm not sure but that smile could not be about this conversation. I just let it slide.
I looked around me as people cried, some checking for errors and going to correct them, some even saying they were cheated, others just sitting content. After paper distribution madness.
               *     *      *
      That afternoon, I arrived campus, preparing for singing practice. I was thirty minutes early, because I just wanted an alone time. I went through my locker looking for my best novel "The assistant" by Elle brace. I know, a scientist reading novels, instead of creating science, but that was me. I had read the book a thousand times, but still enjoyed it like it was the first time. I always hoped to get so lucky like Adrian.
Because I liked jotting, I looked for my pencil but could not find it. Everyone's locker was locked, so I just settled down, but saw Lelahs locker open. She never left it open. Maybe she forgot. I opened it to look for a pencil, and that was when my eyes caught on an open dairy looking book, with my name in it. I took the book and turned it over to see what it was, and on the cover, it was boldly written MY DAIRY, DO NOT TOUCH.
She was writing about me in her dairy. WOW.