Fully clothed, I stepped out of the Sports Complex, quietly making my way back to the hall.

Dusk had begun to set in, leaving the sky in a varying shade of blue, yellow and orange. The wind picked up for a moment, whirling a number of leaves and biting into my skin.

Seeking warmth, I shoved my hands into my pockets. My right hand soon discovered my phone, and I pulled it out, eyes landing on a text message from an unknown number. I opened it in the next minute.

Hii, Akwasi. This is Shola from the engineering club😁

My heart skipped a beat as my feet came to a halt.

Shola sent me a message. Shola fricking sent me a message!

And even though it was just a simple text, my palms started getting sweaty.

I just wanted to remind you of our first meeting for the semester. It'll be at 6:30pm in LT 14 of the School of Engineering Science building.
Hope to see you there😊

"6:30?" My eyes darted up to the time on the notification bar. '06:45' stared back at me in white.

Crap! Turning on my heel, I bolted in the opposite direction of my hall, past the Sports Complex. "Great way to make a first impression, Akwasi," I mumbled under my breath.

By the time I reached the Science building, it was 6:50. Obviously, I was late and should just give it up and return to the hall, but Shola was expecting me and I didn't want to disappoint. Rushing up the stairs, I ignored my irregular beating heart and swiped the sweat beads off my forehead as I began my search for the club's venue. After wandering through a series of hallways and following numbered rooms, I finally arrived at the small box-shaped room labelled LT 14.

A well-built guy with a prominent cleft in his chin, and sick sideburns was standing in front of the room along with six other people, including Shola. Even though he was talking animatedly about something, half of his audience didn't seem to be listening because as soon as the back door creaked open, they all turn to me. "Sorry," I mumbled, quickly fixing myself in the last row at the back.

Shola's eyes flickered over to me, beaming with a smile. She sent me a small wave and I shot her one in return.

"Aahem!" The guy who was speaking earlier cleared his throat loudly, eyes darting from me to Shola. "Presdo, care to take us through the semester's programme outline?"

"Of course." Shola flitted up, unperturbed by the inquisitive look on the guy's face. As he stepped down, his eyes lingered on me for a while and I frowned, wondering, is he her boyfriend or something?

"Ok!" Shola's voice yanked my attention back to her. "It is my pleasure to present to you the amazing list of activities we have planned for the semester." She handed out a stack of papers which were distributed amongst us. I grabbed a sheet, analysing the content.

"I hope we get to go through every activity on the list, cuz we're trying to switch things up a little," Shola continued. "Instead of fixing all the club's activities on one engineering field, we're making sure that each of our activities for this semester tackle at least two fields of engineering, this way no one will feel left out. For example," she picked up her paper, "next week, we have planned a 'Save The Planet Forum', where we'll brainstorm ideas from all engineering fields to help preserve Mother Nature. The week after that, we have a scheduled trip to the Akosombo Dam-"

"And Nestle Ghana." the guy from earlier added. "Heard they have a company around that place."

Shola quirked up an eyebrow, crossing her arms. "Our patron hasn't approved of that trip, Mawuli, you know that."

"Oh but he will," Mawuli insisted. "I suggested that trip, so he'll definitely approve of it."

The statement pulled a buzz of snarky comments from the club members mixed with a couple of snickers.

"Hm! This dude is so annoying." One guy in front me said to his friend beside him.

"I know right." The friend agreed. "And he's not the president too. His attitude is going to make people leave the club.

Just like that, the gurgle of comments continued to build up. I had no idea what this Mawuli guy did before my arrival, but it obviously did not create the best impression of him.

"Ok, let's quiet down everyone. I'm sure Mawuli didn't mean to sound so cocky." Shola shot him an expression of exasperation before steering everyone's attention back to the programme outline. "Ooh, one major event we should be on the lookout for." She lifted up a flyer. "The 57th National Science Fair. All clubs under the Science department are required to come up with an exceptional project that will help improve the African society. The club that presents the best project will win a grand prize of thirty thousand Ghana cedis and the opportunity to display their project to a wider audience at this year's Commonwealth Science Conference in South Africa."

A babble of "ooos" filled the room.

"Now, I don't want to pressure you guys," Shola set the flyer down, a determined look in her eyes. "But we really, really need to win this year."

"She's right."

Despite the groans, Mawuli stood up, turning a deaf ear to the sounds of disapproval. "This fair is a huge deal, not just for us but the other clubs as well, and that's why we need to give it our all. The last time the Engineering Club won first place was in 2017...2017!" He repeated with much emphasis. "It's 2021 for crying out loud, it's time we change that. It's time we make a difference and set a new record. That's why I recommend that we take a closer look at the Wind Power Generator project. The reason why that invention didn't win the judges over last year and the two years before that, was because of the tiny flaws and petty mistakes we kept making in our test runs. But this year, I think that if we sit down and take our time to analyse the blueprints for that project, that thirty thousand cedis and the trip to South Africa will be ours for the taking."

Shola subtly rolled her eyes whilst club members voiced out their concerns, creating a cacophony of noise, and in that atmosphere, my brain managed to slot in a thought that caused my hand to shoot up, seeking permission to speak.

One club executive noticed and requested for silence. "Ssh, guys there's a hand up."

All heads turned to me and I swallowed in a gulp. "Umm uh, don't mean to rain on your parade," I started, eyes fixed on Mawuli. "But if you've already entered that project thrice in a row and didn't win, don't you think it's time to try something new?"

A cloud of murmurs followed and Mawuli put his hand up, demanding silence. "Hold on, you want us to try something new?" He remarked as if the idea was a foolish one.

"Yeah," I replied, ignoring the stink eye he was giving me. "Engineering covers a lot of fields. We could try a project in... I dunno, robotics?"

Shola perked up at the word just like I anticipated, but Mawuli's eyebrows dipped into a frown. "Robotics? No. That's too far-fetched."

"Uh, no it's not," the guy who sat in front of me countered. "I happen to think it's a great idea. It's something the judges will not be expecting, heck no one will be expecting it. Building a robot will basically highlight how ambitious and creative we are."

"Yeah, but how many of us have advanced knowledge in that area, huh?" Mawuli quizzed, trying to erase the idea out of our list of options.

"Well luckily for us, our president does," I delightedly chipped in. "She spent all of last month dabbling in robotics."

At this point, the smile on Shola's face could no doubt replace the sun. "Yes, I did and I'll be happy to guide everyone as we work on this project."

"We haven't agreed to it, Shola!" Mawuli flared up and she frowned, disliking his tone.

"Then," Shola began, a hint of bitterness laced in her voice. "I guess we should take a vote."

"What? N-"

"All in favour of a new robotics project, raise your hand."

My hand went up, along with everyone else's.

"Great." Shola pulled her hand down. "Now, all in favour of re-entering last year's Wind Power Generator project, raise your hand."

The room fell dead quiet with heads darting around, looking out for anyone who was in favour of Mawuli's plan. But after five minutes, it turned out that no one was in support of it. No hand went up, not even Mawuli's, and it made him so furious that he stormed out. A number of people giggled.

The meeting continued anyway. We went ahead to brainstorm ideas, and after an hour of sharing thoughts and cracking jokes at Mawuli's expense, we finally settled on building a robot that could help in recycling, since that was one of the biggest challenges the country was facing at the moment. Shola adjourned the meeting with a short prayer, then wished everyone a successful week.

Glancing down, the timer on my phone screamed 7:53pm, pulling a growling reminder from my stomach that I hadn't eaten since lunch.

"Hey."

The voice sounded close, so I lifted my head up to find the guy who backed me up earlier and his friend towering over me. He was tall, fair and had slender eyes almost like that of an Asian. His friend was the complete opposite; darker, shorter with a tiny tribal mark sitting on his left cheek. "Thanks for bringing up the robotics idea."

"Oh no problem." I pushed myself onto my feet. "I just thought we needed a change that's all."

"Yeah we definitely did," the fair guy added then said, "I'm Felix and this is Deladem." His dark friend gave me a small salute. "We're both level 100s, majoring in mechanical engineering."

My eyebrows flew up. "Really? That's my major too."

"Oh cool," Deladem spoke up. "It's high time we met a fellow course mate here. About half of the club members are majoring either in software or civil engineering, and it's a bit discouraging."

"Yeah." Felix nodded. "Hopefully more people from our classes will join. Speaking of classes, you ready for that quiz on Friday?"

My heart jumped. "We have a quiz on Friday?"

"Yeah." Both guys gaped at me.

"Professor Abano's TA warned us of a pop quiz this coming Friday," Deladem clarified. "And it's good we got the warning, cuz I heard from past students that the old geezer has a very annoying habit of springing tests up on students."

"Oh crap." I brushed a hand over my face, trying to hide the panic. "Is it possible to borrow any of your notes? I just reported to school yesterday, late registration. So I'm a little behind on everything and I don't want to end up failing my first quiz."

"Oh in that case, you can have mine." Deladem yanked off his backpack, pulling out a black and white hardcover notebook. "It's just two weeks worth of lecture notes, so catching up won't be a big hussle."

"Plus we have a study group with four other people from our class," Felix voiced out. "You can join us if you want. We'll be tackling everything from the beginning of the semester as well as some trial questions."

"Great," I smiled. "I'd like to join. Anything to make the work easier."

"Cool. Give me your number so I can add you to the group chat." Deladem pulled out a sleek mobile phone, and I quickly recited my phone number.

"Aand done." He hit the screen one final time before giving me a wide grin. "All the details for our next meeting will be put in there, so keep an eye out."

"Sure. Thanks a lot, guys."

"Don't mention it, bro." Felix patted my back. "We've got to look out for each other, uni life is hard."

"I know right," I chuckled. "But thanks again."

"We'll see you around, Akwasi." Deladem waved, as he and his friend stepped out.

"Look at you making friends." A silky voice said behind me.

Turning around, I found Shola pushing her glasses up her nose and giving me that dazzling smile that never ceased to melt my heart. "Ooh umm...yeah...th-they were just being nice."

Shola laughed, finding my awkwardness amusing. "C'mon. Let's go." She sauntered past me and that was when I realised I was the only one standing in the room. Everyone else had left. My feet soon moved into action, catching up with Shola as we walked out of the Science building.

In the sky sat a full moon, basking in its glory amongst the stars. Under Mother Nature's artful display, Shola and I trotted down the pavement, passing streetlight upon streetlight and a number of students.

"Soo..." I shoved my hands into my pocket, attempting to start a conversation. "Today's meeting was cool."

"Really?" My companion threw me a look of surprise. "Even with 'Mr. Everyone-must-do-what-I-say' storming out like a ten-year old child?"

"Oh yeah, that guy," I mumbled, remembering the look Mawuli gave me when I first arrived. "Is he your boyfriend?"

"What? No!" Shola recoiled at the question. "A billion times no! Mawuli is the last guy I would date on this planet, heck I wouldn't even date him. I would rather die than to date him."

"Ok." Her sudden outburst made me chuckle.

"Mawuli Dedzo is my VP," she continued. "So you can imagine how difficult it is working with him. That guy is the biggest know-it-all on the planet. He always wants everything to go his way and to top it all up, he's proud, rude and very selfish."

"Well if you dislike him this much, why did you make him your VP then?" I queried.

Shola's answer was quick enough. "I didn't make him my VP. We were both contesting for the presidential position last year and I came in first whilst Mawuli followed at second place."

"Oh so you became the president and he became VP?"

"Unfortunately." Shola shrugged. "I still wish I could change him, but our patron sees his bossiness as confidence. "

"That sucks."

"You have no idea," she mumbled before coming to a stop at a pathway that branched off to Aseda hall, the only female hall on campus. Apart from that hall and Bossman hall (the only male hall) all the other eight were mixed.

"Well this is me." Shola turned, smiling, "Thanks for coming for the meeting and what you did earlier."

"What?"

"The robotics idea," she clarified. "I know you brought it up because of me."

I sucked in a breath. "No, it didn't."

"C'mon, it was so obvious." A smirk danced at her lips. "You're the only one I've told about my robotics project. No one in the club knows."

I felt my face heat up. Does this mean she sees me as someone special? Someone worthy enough to keep close? The flutters inside me threatened to burst out and I cast my eyes to the ground.

Shola's feet suddenly moved towards me and my vision veered back up to find her straightening out my shirt collar. "You know, throughout my three years here, you're one of the nicest guys I've met," she paused. "Don't let anyone take advantage of it."

As I nodded, everything else vanished from my line of sight. Nothing else existed except Shola's soft brown eyes, her straight edged nose and those luscious pink lips that promised heaven if only I could touch them with mine. I must've stared at them too long because Shola's fingers tapped my chest, pulling me back to reality.

"Goodnight."

It took me a minute to find my voice. "G-goodnight."

With a brief smile, Shola's hands left my chest as she retreated to her hall.