||JOE||

Being in a new school sucks. Zero friends. Zero motivation. Zero familiarity. Zero nothing. Dad and Mom beat me 2-0. A round of applause for them. They gave me about two weeks to stay home to try and 'get my head in line'. Or better yet, revamp my focus on my life and studies.

I told them it wasn't going to work. That time was too short to nurse the pain, sadness and solitude agonisingly slithering inside me. What's more, as much as time is said to be the master healer, I believe you cannot nurse something without its proper medication.

V~Girl is my medication and I don't want to heal if she is not the one helping me heal. Also, I don't want the pain and sadness to fade away. I fear that if they do, my love for her will fade away with them as well. I am not and will never be ready to lose my love for her because it means losing myself.

As I had told Dad and Mom, it never worked. I couldn't think for five minutes straight without V~Girl crossing my mind. My possessive village girl. Just like the first time I met her and got the urge to know her, she kept overrunning my mind with thoughts of her.

She was making sure that all I thought of was her and the fate of our love. The uncertainty clouding the latter still scares me. I'm afraid that distance without communication might change our fate and I don't want that to ever happen. I need our love. I need her.

Dad and Mom had to accept that nothing was going to work for me then. So they proceeded to toss me into a new school hoping that it would serve as a good and helpful distraction. It is working if I care to admit it.

At least, in the two weeks that I have been at Killian Academy International, half the time I'm busy trying to adapt to the change in environment and dynamics instead of getting lost in my head. Sometimes I do drift off--even by default--and I always have to fight against my will to return to the awful reality.

Most of the time when I drift off, I find myself going to The Intake. It was such a happy place. Even better, it was such a beautiful life we lived back then. In my mind, I see The Intake as our sanctuary.

A sanctuary I keep telling myself we will return to when all these chaos of consequences end. Though it might not be for a long time. Which is why I fear things changing between me and V~Girl. But I hold on to the belief that no matter what, our love will prevail. Nothing will alter it.

To cement it and keep me going, I always picture V~Girl and I back there, having fun and living life without the worry of Stilettos and her merciless punishments. Her parents finding out that her school life is nothing close to what they think it is. Simply, I picture a life full of freedom and happiness.

I also see Kel and Sheraw in it. Together, we are always having fun and making plans for the future. Outlining everything we want to do. But then the fear of that bright future ever seeing the light of day always clouds me, bringing me back to the damned reality I am in. Although deep down I keep swearing to myself that despite it, we will live that bright future.

"But you were supposed to be on the list too!" I hear some girl angrily shrieking somewhere in the back of my mind.

Drifting from my reverie, I find myself staring through the open window at the basketball pitch which is just a few metres away from my new class, Four Jupiter. Here, classes are named after planets. Aside from Jupiter, there is Pluto, Mercury, Saturn and Venus.

Four Jupiter, despite the school being starkly different from SPB, is not so different from East Squared. It is only that the level of psychosis in this class is a notch higher. When I was admitted, I expected to be taken to the class with the best track records in both academics and behaviour to help me refocus and 'reshape my behaviour'.

But I was taken to a class I easily relate with, especially in bad behaviour conduct. Most of the time I get the nostalgic feeling of being in a diversified version of East Squared. Which is good because I would hate to be taken to the 'Holier than thou' kind of class. I wouldn't belong and the feeling of belonging is something that matters to me right now. It makes adjusting and adapting easier.

Shifting my gaze from the pitch, I search the class, trying to figure out the shrieking girl. Then my eyes land on a group that is starting to become too annoyingly familiar and somewhat nostalgic. The said group is made up of four, two guys and two ladies.

"I was but I don't know why my name is not there!" Hami, one of the ladies, say in a pissed voice that is too loud to silence the class by grabbing its attention.

The ladies, Trisha and Hami, are about the same size both in height and body size. They are petite and approximately five'six in height. Trisha's complexion is brown and Hami's is dark chocolate. Those two ladies are toxic as fuck and I've come to realize that following the recent drama I've witnessed between them this week.

Yes, I am in a mixed boarding school. Perhaps Dad thought it would be better to see new girls at my disposal to stop me from sneaking out just to see one. As if I would be interested. All I want is Tamia Wangui. My V~Girl. Baby Love. Full stop. No new chicks. Totally uninterested.

And yes, I came from drama only to land in more drama. Just this time I am not a main character. I am a side character who mostly does nothing but watch the drama unfolding. Sometimes I enjoy it but most are the times I get annoyed because it is always too much where most is nonsense.

Moving on, the dudes are Shedrah and Jadiel. Both of them are somewhat good-looking, well-built and in height, Jadiel is taller. He's probably six'three. Shedrah, who's interracial, is around five'eleven.

The four are dating among themselves. Trisha is with Jadiel and Hami is with Shedrah. I'm not sure what the drama is all about right now but the last they forced us to get engaged in their drama was because Jadiel was supposedly cheating. That was according to a rumour circulating the class.

"What's up with those this time round?" I ask my new deskmate, Lisa.

She's such a kind, supportive and accommodating person. I thought I might have a hard time getting along with her but here I am, gossiping with her. We do that a lot when the drama in class gets too much. Though we don't always talk much. At least not like I did with Kel. With him, we talked all the time about everything and nothing. Fuck, I miss that jerk.

"Apparently, they are pissed that Hami is not on the list. I don't know what list," she responds with an uninterested tone.

You may think that she is a don't care, but Lisa told me she got tired of witnessing the group's drama a long time ago. Not to mention their clowns. Another group of six whose members are also dating each other. Sometimes I think dating classmates has been normalised way too much in Four Jupiter.

"It's probably the Lake Magadi trip list. I heard there were supposed to be at least seven joyriders," I tell Lisa upon recall.

The geography students are going to Lake Magadi for a field trip to study some more about salty lakes. Going to Lake Magadi is like a requirement for geography students in almost all schools.

I remember the SPB geography students were also to supposed go on the second week after midterm. Anyway, the maximum number of students was supposed to be fifty but the number went up to forty-three. So they had to add a few joyriders to fill the bus.

"And as usual, they want to all go," Lisa says, letting out a disbelief sigh. "I bet Beddie wrote the list."

Beddie is the geography student leader in the whole school. She's the unrivalled best performer in the subject. Lisa, when she was telling me the gossip about Four Jupiter's endless couples, she mentioned that there was drama between Beddie, Shedrah and Hami.

That was the beginning of this term. Beddie was all over Shedrah even though he and Hami were together since January last year when they joined form three. Shedrah had to put her in her place before she caused more drama for him and Hami. Damn if the story didn't feel all too familiar. It reminded me of those snitch bitches, Claire and June.

"Too bad for Hami," I say, not even feeling a little bad for her.

"I could care less as long as it doesn't concern me," Lisa says making me smile.

"Makes the two of us. But I am sure they will find a way to fix her," I say.

"Shedrah and Jadiel will see to that, I'm sure," she says in agreement.

"If they manage to get her name on it, Beddie will be fuming if she was the one who did it and that too, on purpose," I state.

"Girl should just get over their relationship and move on. She's stuck like a leech and it is doing no one any good," Lisa mutters in an annoyed voice.

Three-quarters of the time, Lisa throws off grown-up vibes. Additionally, out of the thirty-six of us, she's the only one I feel is the most mature. Even more mature than most of the guys.

"Her jealousy can't allow her," I tell her.

"Fucking relationship dramas. They are so annoying," she grumbles making me laugh.

Relationship dramas are top-notch here. If not, it is about entertainment. It is never about tongue-cliquing teachers for annoying or frustrating you. The teachers here are too friendly even for my comfort. It is never about sneaking out of school to see girls. There are a load of girls at our disposal.

It is never about having a phone on school grounds. Phones are allowed but only on weekends. On weekdays, no phones. But we do use them anyway as long as you're not caught. If you're caught, you'll be grounded by having it taken away from you for the rest of the term.

It is never about stealing food from the kitchen just for the sake. These spoilt brats have decorum despite their menu looking like that of a three-star restaurant. I'm still getting it in my head that chips and chicken is on the menu.

Generally, the drama in this school is all about petty things prevailing among students. Even teachers rarely get involved unlike in SPB. Mostly because most of these dramas are pathetic and the students have too much freedom.

For instance, students can date, make out and bang and no one would care so long as there are no prevailing consequences. There are no hard punishments. I think the worst is scrubbing the pavements.

Sometimes I laugh because in SPB that was a damn minor punishment. These spoilt brats don't know about cleaning drainages or slashing the grass with blunt slashers, washing the cowsheds or carrying building stones, just to mention but a few.

Their cleaning is done for them by workers. And this scrubbing of pavements sounds like the worst hell for them. None of them wants to ever land the punishment. I'm pretty sure if any of them was in SPB, they wouldn't survive or would have a difficult time surviving.

A short while back, I told Lisa some of the reasons why I am here and not my old school. She knows about V~Girl and I'll admit, talking about her keeps me from drowning in the pain of my heartbreak and sadness from my loss of her.

From time to time, I try reaching out to her but I am never lucky. Her phone is always off. Sometimes I think that her parents took it from her because by now, she would have reached out. The fact that I cannot communicate with her makes me feel as if having a phone right now is just as useless.

Although I do use it to talk to Fel, Mom and Dad over the weekends. As for Kel, we talk nearly every day late at night. The dude has a phone in school too but a boys' boarding school. Sheraw has been tossed to a day school near her home. I recall her telling us--Kel and I--sometime back when we met in town that her mom was keeping her under her sleeve.

I'm happy for Kel that he still can reach Sheraw. He is so lucky. As for me, I'll have to wait a little longer. Meanwhile, I have to work on completing this awful high school education. Fucking eleven subjects with more than ten different topics each and also in each year of study is not a joke. Thank goodness I'm a smart ass. Then after that, I'll be somewhat free. Free to hunt down my girl. No one or nothing will stop me.

"I agree," I say to Lisa. "Since you don't have a boyfriend, do you have a crush?"

"In this class?" she asks, scrunching her face in disapproval as her eyes scan everyone in the class.

"Yes," I nod in response, trying to hide a smile because I already know her answer.

"Nope and wouldn't want to," she firmly says.

"But why?" I curiously ask, even though I feel like, once again, I know the answer already.

"Because all of them act like kids and those who don't are stupid and those who aren't stupid are not my type and those who are closer to being my type aren't qualified enough. Simple as that," she says before taking in a much-needed breath.

"What is your type? I'm very curious right now," I ask, watching her closely.

"Badass smartass guys who sometimes know that whatever they are doing is wrong but still don't frigging care. Only to start caring when the consequences hit them. Simply, guys like you," she pointedly says, taking me by surprise.

"So you have a crush on me?" I ask, playfully wiggling my brows.

Although deep down, I am hoping that she doesn't. I don't need that right now.

"Fuck no! I have a boyfriend," she says, giving me a scowl that makes me laugh in both humour and relief.

"Oh, okay! I'm relieved. I would hate to break your heart," I tell her.

"Please," she flips me off. "I wouldn't put you in such a situation knowing you are dead gone for your girl."

I appreciatively smile at her. I think I'm glad I have her as a deskmate. She makes things a little easier.

"So me and your boyfriend belong to the same WhatsApp group?" I ask and she nods in response with a smile.

"Yeah. Though he's more handsome than you," she says with an unapologetic shrug.

"Damn, it wasn't supposed to be personal, girl," I growl, restraining a smile.

"I'm just stating the facts," she argues.

"And the fact is that I am pretty handsome. It is just that you are also dead gone for your guy to even see another handsome face other than his," I defend.

"Sometimes you do have a smart mouth which I am sure Tamia might love so much," she points out.

She has a smart mouth too but yes, she loves it. At least half the time that I am not annoying her.

"A lot," I say, trying to hide a mischievous smile.

"Bro, don't overthink it. I don't want you to end up sad and in pain again," she pointedly tells me.

"Fine," I grumble.

She's trying to help me maintain a balance between staying in reality and drifting off to my mind.

"Good boy," she says. "It will all come to an end and you will have Tamia back. Always remember that."

I nod and smile. I know I will have her back. Well, I believe or maybe hope that I will have her back someday...