Joel's POV

I have still not gotten over what Zaria did. When I even spoke to Charles and the guys about it, they were shocked. Truthfully, Zaria kept to her word. She stayed out of my way, basically acted like I didn't even exist and it was kinda annoying because I kinda missed all the attention she was giving me all in the name of a challenge. 

I'm hopeless. 

"Zaria did that?!" Charles exclaimed in awe and surprise. I was even more surprised that they were surprised.

We were seated at the bleaches of the school stadium. Tyler wasn't with us. He was probably had himself locked up in the art studio. 

"Why are y'all so surprised?" I asked them, watching their priceless facial expressions that just seemed to crack me up. 

"Why won't we be surprised? This is Zaria we are talking about. Babe never apologizes." Kelvin chipped in dramatically. 

"Not to talk of actually going through all that length to show that she's really sorry." Taju added. 

"Was she all that bad before? Mehn, I don't even know what's going on." I stated. "She actually did surprise me though but I don't have it as bad as you guys." I added, chuckling. 

"Mehn, I am beginning to like this new Zaria oo. Do you think I should shoot my shot again?" Charles stroked his scanty beard in mock thoughtfulness and everyone burst into laughter. 

"Guy, fashi that one. Zaria doesn't have time for boys. If it's not book, it's athletics." Kelvin said. I felt something shift in me as I got interested at this new revelation of Zaria. 

"She's into athletics?" I asked them. 

"Mehn, you dunno warris going on. Zaria is the fastest female athlete in this school." Taju mentioned and I felt my chest swell up in admiration. 

"She's like a cheetah when it comes to the track with an unbeaten record." Charles chipped in. 

"No wonder you have to so bad for her. She's like, perfect." I shoved Charles playfully and he scoffed in return. 

"Abeg, I'm not even disturbing myself on her case anymore. Zaria and I will forever be Gees. She basically sees me as nothing but a baby brother. Irony is, I'm older than her." He said, trying to lighten the mood but I could sense the disappointment in his tone. 

"Damn! Bro Zone is the worse kind of Zone." I stated and he nodded, laughing it off. 

"Bro zone is even still better." Taju stated and we shifted our attention to him. "Have you heard of son zone? That's the worse." He added and Kelvin sat up in interest, ready to chip in his own take.

"I swear. I was half scared Lyla would son Zone me, giving that she's like five months older than me and all but that wasn't the case thankfully." There was this way Kelvin's face always lit up when he's talking about Lyla.

"Mehn! You definitely have the cooties for that girl. Are y'all now official?" I asked him.

"Not yet, but we are working towards it sha. I know she likes me though." He smiled. Taju and Charles teased and hailed him with different slangs while I just laughed and watched them. 

It's been nice getting acquainted with these guys. They were definitely my Day ones. 

"Yo! Look who is coming." Charles whispered, nodding towards a direction. I followed his gaze and saw Ada walking towards us, a shop rite nylon bag in her hand. It wasn't a surprise that she even found me here. 

She seems to pop-up everywhere I am. 

"Hi guys." She acknowledged the guys and they waved at her. She looked at me, a familiar glint evident in her eyes. "Hey Joel." Her voice became sophisticated in a nano second. I smiled good naturedly. 

"Hi Ada. How are you doing?" I asked her. I could feel the guys looking between us, watching our exchange like it was some kind of TV show. 

"I'm good." She giggled, then stretched the nylon towards me. "I got you this on my way to school. I was going to get a snack breakfast, then I just thought of you immediately so I got an extra one for you." She said. I furrowed my brows as I took the nylon from her. I peeked in and saw that she had gotten me cheese burgers. 

I'm allergic to cheese. 

But I couldn't say that out loud. 

"Wow, cheese burgers. You shouldn't have." I smiled at her. She dismissed with a wave of her hand. 

"Oh it's nothing." She bit the side of her lips. 

"Thank you. I really appreciate this." I told her. I did appreciate the gesture. I am not an ingrate. I was just allergic to cheese. 

"It's no problem. I'll see you later." She waved at me and sashayed away, adding extra effect to the way she was walking. Immediately she was was out of ear shots, the guys burst into laughter. 

"Chai! Ada has the hots for you! It was obvious from day one." Kelvin said in between his laughter and I chuckled. 

"I actually think she's really nice." I shrugged causing them to look at me like I have grown horns. 

"Ada isn't nice to a guy except she wants something. Well, apart from her selected friends like us. She wants you." Charles stated. 

"Or she wants the 'D'." Taju cupped his crotch for emphasis and I grimaced while the others just laughed. 

Trust Taju to be vulgar. 

"Ewww, dude. No please. Who wants cheese burgers. I'm allergic." I offered and the three of them scavenged for it like wild animals. 

"Honestly though," Charles started, his mouth filled up with food. "Ada definitely wants you. If you don't want her, you should probably not take gifts from her like this..." Taju interrupted him. 

"You can collect once in a while and give us oo. I don't mind." He said teasingly, earning a knock on the head from Kelvin. 

"I didn't want to seem rude. That's why I even took the gift in the first place. I don't like her like that. I'm barely one term done. Besides, I feel she's trying to hard." I stated and they nodded in agreement. 

"You are half British. It is in your blood to be polite. But there are sometimes you need to be strict, like what you did with Zaria. Let Ada know her limit sha. You want to be friends, but that's it." Charles advised and I nodded in understanding. A light bulb when off in my head. 

"Speaking of Zaria. I think I need to speak to her." I told them. Kelvin tsked and then laughed. 

"It's like you are hungry for trouble." He teased and we laughed at his joke. 

*****

Charles had given me an in tale of where the girls were. Though I was trying to avoid Ada, there was definitely no way I'd want to find Zaria without seeing her. They were friends, they were always together. 

I saw them exactly where Charles told me I'd find them, their favourite spot in love garden. My eyes immediately found her. She had her head buried in her book as her pen scribbled down in a jotter. Ada and Lyla were in their own word, gisting. 

Just like I had expected, Ada was the first person to see me coming. She quickly beamed and tried to do this thing where girls would straighten their cloths and run their hands through their hair when they see their "dream guy" coming. 

Typical. 

"Hey girls." I greeted good-naturedly. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Zaria raise her head up briefly to look at me before going back to concentrate on what she was doing. My lips involuntarily twitched up in a lopsided grin. 

"Hey Joel." Ada replied while Lyla just waved, a smile playing on her lips. 

"Do you mind if I borrowed your friend for a few minutes?" I asked them. Ada quickly stood up. 

"Lyla won't mind. What do you need?" She said and I sighed. 

I feared this would happen. I hated stuffs like this. 

"Actually, I'm talking about Zaria." I looked at Zaria whose head shot up on hearing her name. I saw Ada's smile turn upside down to a scowl. 

"Me?" Zaria asked the same time Ada said. 

"Her?" 

I smiled at Zaria and nodded. 

"Yes, can we talk? Somewhere private perhaps?" I asked her. She looked surprise. Her expression was priceless and it even made me smile. 

"Sure, I guess so." She closed her book and stood up, following me as I led her away from her friends. 

****

We both got to the empty multipurpose hall that was always used for assembly. I gave way for her to enter then I closed the door behind us. She was looking around, having a thoughtful look on her face  and I really wanted to know what was going on in her head. 

"What's going on in your head?" I asked her and she turned around to face me. I had my back leaned again the door and I folded my hand. 

"If this is your idea of private then I'm really scared." She said, a teasing tone evident in her voice and I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face. 

"Who knows, maybe you want to murder me. The walls are sound proof." She added. I couldn't hold the laugh that escaped my lips. 

Who knew she had a sense of humour. 

"I wouldn't kill you where there are CCTV cameras at every nock and cranny." I told her and she giggled. Hearing the sound again felt elevating. 

"Touché. Why then did you call me? I promised to stay out of your way. Yet, you are coming to look for me." She said. I smiled. 

"We still need to talk." I stated and she smiled, shaking her head. 

"There is really nothing to talk about, Joel." There was a way she said my name that made my senses heighten. "I've done the best I could. I've also promised to stay out of your way." She said in a very calm voice. 

"Wow! So, you don't think we could be friends or something? I mean, few minutes ago, we were joking." I told her and the exhaled, biting her lower lips. I felt my eyes unconsciously follow the gesture. 

"Yes, but don't you think it's pretty absurd for rivals to be friends. It doesn't make sense." She replied and I couldn't help the scoff that left my lips. 

"I don't want to be rivals with you or anyone." I told her matter-of-factly and she looked at me. I sighed, stretching my hand for a shake. "I just want to get to know you, not the conceited,arrogant girl everyone talks about. The real you." I added. 

She looked from my face to my stretched hand and back to my face before she leaned in and brought her head closer to mime, her lips to my ear. 

"No one knows the real me...and you won't be the first." She whispered softly before she brushed past me and walked out of the hall. 

I dropped my hand in utter frustration and puffed out air from my mouth. I remembered the words of my mum, telling me to get to know Zaria. I scratched my brows and exhaled. 

Well, She's not making it any easy.