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"Alone, we can do so little. Together, we achieve more."
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                     ∞BOLU∞

Two weeks had passed and I had no seatmate. I was actually getting used to it. But something kept me thinking though, why wasn’t the head boy around? And if he came, would he be my seatmate? Nope I highly doubt it. Two people were absent and there were exactly two seats left in the class so the probability of him being my seat mate was really fifty, fifty. I don’t even know why I’m making a big fuss over this issue. Well, whatever.

The bell rang and English class was over. One more period before first break! Praise the Lord o! Yes, yes, I liked food. I’m a foodie. And the best thing about being a foodie is never denying the fact. Trust me that quote was by Albert Einstein. Case closed.

“Yo, Bolu!” Called Nina from her seat, which was two seats ahead of mine and a seat ahead of Ninu’s. Despite the fact that we were assigned seats, Nina, Ninu and I happened to fall in the same column and same line.

I sat at the last seat in that column of course, because of my height. Yeah, I was 5’9, probably the tallest girl in the whole school.

“Yeah, b! Wetin sup?” I countered.
She stood up with her books in her hands and walked over to my seat.

“I’m going to the library. Wanna come?”

“Come, bawo? I have geography right now.” Nina wasn’t a geography student, she chose Economics instead. Some students chose the two. Some people even added marketing on top. Awon Shana niyen!

“I heard Mrs. Tekena isn’t around,” she said.

“Really?” My face brightened up with a smile.

She shook her head. “Lazy human being! Why are you now happy?”

“Abeg, who won’t be happy?” I said doing a little weird happy dance on my seat making her to laugh.

“Babe, better stop embarrassing yourself. You look like a deteriorating turkey.”

“Guyyyy, I learnt it from you, na.” I stated as I stopped dancing and smiled.

"God forbid bad thing!" She snapped  her fingers over her head. "I can never dance like that."

I burst out laughing and she joined in too.

“Wanna come or not? Time is going," she asked after we finished laughing.

“See, we both know that librarian woman doesn’t like my guts one bit and the feeling from my side is mutual so…nah, I ain’t coming.”

“Whatever. What will you be doing then?”

I shrugged. “Completing my incomplete Bio note which will end up being incomplete at the end of the session? Yeah, I’m gonna be doing that.”

She laughed again and so did Ninu even though she was busy doing something else. Omo mehn, that girl’s ears ehn.

“Asiinnn ehhnn. I don’t even know why I bother completing mine. The man will just ask us to be photocopying that Essential Biology textbook anyhow.”

“It’s because you are a good student na. As per, you be shana!” I whined her a little, although it was true.

“Abeg, abeg. Don’t start! Lemme comman be going before you whine my destiny. See ya later, b!” 

“Yeah, later!” I said and chuckled as she almost ran out of the class.

I relaxed in my seat as I brought out my Bio note and Essential Biology Textbook to do the assignment he gave us which was indirectly photocopying the whole textbook into our notes with pen.

So cool…not!

The bell for Break rang and I stretched my arms wide open with a wide smile on my face.

Food, the love of my life, I’m coming for you, baby, I’m going nowhere!

I searched my back pack for my wallet and I found it, I asked Ninu if she was going to the tuck shop and she said to give her a few minutes so I sat back on my chair and brought out my phone to play a racing game that I don’t know how to play. What? My brothers downloaded it. I lost the game two to three seconds after I started to play. I kept playing and just when I started to get a hang of the game, the whole class erupted into a hell of a noise and it even scared me sef.

I looked up from my phone to know what was up and then I felt so annoyed when I figured it was because Ore Jumai, the head boy. He finally arrived in school and everyone rushed to greet him. Well, everyone except me, Ninu and an unwilling Fred because Ninu clearly held him back.

I hissed and rolled my eyes at the stupid crowd already formed around him. I even got more irritated when Chidera spotted him as she entered the class and literally jumped on him and kissed him in front of the whole class. Yeah, she kissed him. She made the first move. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Chidera but when it came to times like these I just totally detested her behavior. Can’t she keep it PG 15? Some of us are still too young to view stuffs like that.

Chidera was the most popular girl at RBA. Gorgeous. Brainy. Timekeeper. Girlfriend to the most popular boy. Not exactly the richest but had it good enough. She was sweet to everyone...not the stereotype we all know. But, she could be really imposing. I guess that's an attribute every popular girl must have.

It took a while for the crowd to disperse and Ore started to make his way to the back after he exchanged greetings with his guys, sauntering as he did as if he was on a runway and his fans−girls, were screaming his name. As if, he had the world and he was above everything else. He held a smirk, his arrogant and signature smirk heading towards where? He passed the other empty seat. Then where was he coming to? My questions got answered when he stopped right in front of me with the stupid smirk on his annoyingly good-looking face.

“Uh…” I started.

“Please move, you are in my seat?” He said but it came out like a question.

“What?” I asked obviously confused.

“I was assigned to seat here, mama,” He stated with a smirk and I frowned because he called me mama. I was not even sixteen yet!

“First of all, I’m a girl and second, did your parents ever teach you to be polite?”

He rolled his eyes. “If you had heard correctly, which you did not, I said: ‘PLEASE, move, you are in my seat’.” He stated calmly stressing the ‘please’.

I crossed my arms stubbornly. “Well, no! I won’t move.”

“You want me to carry you?”

“I’d love to see you try.” I scoffed and called his bluff.

Only he wasn't bluffing.

He shrugged and in a flash, lifted me up like I was air and dropped me on my original seat which was behind Ninu. I said earlier that I got used to being without a seatmate and sat anywhere I liked.

How on earth was he so strong? I mean, I weighed over sixty nine kilograms. I thought no one could lift me up so easily.

He sat in his seat smirking and probably feeling satisfied with what he just did while I was still shocked and my eyes were wide and could have bulged out of their sockets.

Ninu and her seatmate, Jire, saw what he did and burst out laughing. Fred joined in too. Other students laughed, either didn’t see or just decided to mind their business.

After recovering from my shock, I rolled my eyes and sat back in my chair, ignoring the stupid comments that were thrown here and there.

“Still shocked huh?” He asked from beside me.

Stupid question! Ask your armpit!

“Mtcheeww.” I hissed and ignored him. He chuckled and it sounded so fresh. Why on earth…you know what?
Never mind.

"I know you missed me," he turned to me and wiggled his brows, a smirk playing on his lips.

Mississippi ni. See this one o.

Ore and I have never had a single convo and we've been in the same class since SSS1. We both were different. He was the most popular boy and was too proud for my liking. Always feeling himself...too much.

"For your mind. Who sabi you?" I replied and he laughed.

"Good to see you too, mama." He winked at me.

I grimaced and shivered in disgust at his response and tapping Ninu, I said: “Babe, are you still going to the tuck shop or not?”

“Yeah, I’m done with that stupid Data Processing assignment,” she said and I laughed.

“Hey, Ninu, afar na?” I heard Ore’s voice say as we both stood up to head to the tuck shop.

“I dey, my gee,” Ninu said back to Ore and slapped a handshake with him, leaving me surprised. Sheybi, you guys saw how Ninu pretended like he did not exist just now when he entered the class, how did he now suddenly become her ‘gee’?

After they talked for like two minutes, we finally headed to the tuck shop.

“Ninu, so you and Ore are friends? How?” I asked as we walked back up the stairs.

“We are, we talked a lot online, during the holiday and he’s got vibes, good ones. And I didn’t rush out to greet him because there was no need to rush, you kuku know I don’t famz with the crowd, so yeah.” She replied.

“Oh.”

“I saw what he did o! Wait till Nina hears, she go laugh die. As in, it was so funny, you even squeaked like a little mouse.  You were like_”

“Abeg, abeg, e don do.” I held my palm up in her face.

“No spoil show na, lemme shake your table small.” She wiggled her eyebrows and I hissed as I increased my pace.

“Bolu, wait na!” She called out chasing after me.

                       ~NINA~

I speed walked out of the class to the hallway after Bolu, my best friend, started her whining. Getting out, I realized it was just my class, SSS3 Science 1 that was really noisy, the others were quiet.

I walked swiftly down the steps humming the tune of a song that Bolu kept ringing in my ear for the past few days. I greeted students teachers and others I passed by cheerfully.

Boluwaji Jayeola was a tall girl and honestly sometimes, her height intimidated me. We became best friends in SSS1specifically after the second week of that session’s resumption.

We both joined RBA that year and we’ve been good since then.
Boluwaji was this girl I really admired. She was smart, smarter than she thought she was; had a beautiful personality, although she looked Savage and sometimes she really was. One of RBA's star athlete she was in the school's relay team, volleyball and tennis team. She was also pretty faced with a glowing dark skin. And she had a wonderful family.

I finally got to the front of the library. Raising my hand to the handle, I twisted it and walked in. As expected, it was silent, pin drop silent. I walked to where the librarian was. She was in her seat, working on her system with her glasses way below the bridge of her nose. I suppressed my laughter as I imagined what Bolu would say about it. She would have probably called her  'mother goose' .

I wonder why she and the woman just didn’t click.

“Good morning ma,” I greeted with my usual cheerfulness and smile.

Her eyes remained focused on whatever she was doing as she answered me. “Morning, what do you want?” Her voice was cold and it just killed my vibes.

“Sign in,” I said and realized I was not the only one who said it. A familiar deep voice said it too and I turned to see it was Ayo, my fellow Health Prefect; that spoke. His tall frame hovered around me, making me look real short even though I was average height.

He smiled at me. “Hi.”

“Sup, partner.” I smiled back and held my hand out to him for a slap shake. He obliged.

“Here,” the librarian woman said and almost roughly threw the book at us without her eyes leaving her desktop’s screen. I rolled my eyes. I was beginning to see why Bolu did not like her.

I mean for all we knew, she might not actually be doing anything serious other than watching all those annoying Yoruba home videos.

Old ones for that matter. Like; 'Ore meta, werey kan.'

“Thanks ma,” Ayo said after he signed in.

“Um…Nina, you might want to stop glaring at her now,” He was smiling at me. It was then I realized I was glaring.

I sighed deeply and chuckled.

“Sorry…”

“It’s no p. In fact, I helped you write your name the whole time you were glaring.”

“Thanks, Ay,” I replied feeling somehow.

He nodded and we both left the reception and headed to look for seats. I wasn’t sure if he wanted to sit with me or not and but if he did, I wouldn’t mind. After all, I needed company. River Brook Academy had an amazing library filled with every book you could ever think of.

Not only was it huge, it was also beautifully designed. Painted a warming cream and brown color. It had various shelves for books of different kinds and seats arranged in a very comfortable manner. It was also air conditioned and if one wasn’t careful, one might fall asleep.

I finally found empty seats and I looked to my side to see Ayo also looking in the same direction I was. We got there and he sat beside me but that was after he pulled out a chair for me to sit−such a gentleman.

Ayooluwade Balogun had always been like that. Quiet, reserved, shy, really nice, cool headed, calm and calculated. Although he was a commercial student, I could tell he was really intelligent. What was I even saying? He was always among the top three positions since SSS1. I didn’t really know him well though, we just became friends during GCE and we only said one or two things to each other. We exchanged numbers but we never really had long talks. He didn’t really talk much.

“So…shana ,” I started. “What are you reading today?”

He turned to look at me as I leaned closer to him. He flinched a little, looking kind of uncomfortable so I moved back. Today I was gonna make a very sensible and long conversation with him. Even if it was gonna be about books.

“Who are you whining?” He said as he placed his books carefully on the table.

“Definitely not you, sha,” I replied. 
He gave a light laugh and shook his head.

“You’re still whining.”

“No, no.” I raised my hand in mock surrender. “Trust me, I’m not.”

“You’re funny.” He laughed again. He laughed easily. “I don’t know exactly what I’m gonna read but I carried my Biology textbook.”

“You still offer Biology?” I asked clearly shocked ‘cause I know no non-science student was still offering Biology. They all dropped it except those that wanted to study psychology in the future. And now, a whole Commercial student who didn’t even need it at all still offered it? Some science students even dropped it sef.

“Yeah, don’t you ever see me in class?”             
             
“Since we resumed…nope! I’ve actually never seen you.” I actually almost never saw him in any of the classes we took together since SSS1. Due to the population of students in our school and in our set, classes were always very full. You can imagine, Science class alone, had about three arms and Arts, about two. Commercial class was the only one armed class.

But despite the large population, there were some people you couldn’t but notice. Honestly speaking, if Ayo wasn’t smart or if we hadn’t been in the same GCE centre for our exams, I might not have actually known he existed. To be honest, my guy was too quiet. I was even surprised the day I saw him talking to the three idiots of our set−Sukky and his geng. I don’t even think he was talking to them; it looked like they were arguing or something. And if they really were, I’m sure it was them who caused the trouble.

“Wow,” he breathed out. “I didn’t know I was that unnoticed,” He laughed again.

Though it was a joke it kinda made feel bad like I pointed out that he was some anti social freak.

“I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to…” I trailed.

“Nah, it’s fine. No offence taken.” He waved it off.

“Good then,” I smiled. “So…what are you gonna teach me today. At least let me tap from your anointing na.”

He rolled his eyes. “Whiner oshi.”

I giggled and said. “If you think I whine, which I don’t, what will you now say about Bolu?”

“Okay, okay Bolu is the boss. That girl can whine someone’s destiny.”

“Aswear.” I shook my head slowly while we both laughed. There was no SSS3 student that didn’t know Bolu could whine.

“So teach me na…” I drew out with my nose voice causing him to look at me weirdly and then smile.

“Which part?” He asked and I took the biology textbook, and opened it to a random page.

“This one.” I pointed to a random part on the page I opened.

He took the book from my hands and squinted his eyes a little before saying: “Okay.”

He then started talking about the topic which I recognized as fruits. We hadn’t even treated that topic at all and baba already knew it. I had read it though, I mean I literally read through the whole biology textbook for GCE, page by page. I listened carefully to what he was saying and at the same time I found myself really examining his facial features.

He had moderately sized eyeballs. They weren’t too big and didn’t look like buttons either. His eyebrows were somewhat bushy and not exactly shaped but they fit his eyeballs well. He had long eye lashes for a guy and it made him look like all those pretty boys I imagined in all those novels I’d read before.

His nose was pointed and not too big. He had a sharp jaw line, which showed he was getting mature. His beards, mustache and teddy weren’t out and I assumed he probably shaved them off due to school rules ‘cause I could see little hairs in his mustache area.

His lips were moderately full, top and bottom and they were pink. A cute kind of pink; like they were everted or something. His hair was full and curly, so curly I imagined how fresh he'd look if those curls dripped water. He was good-looking... seriously. I never noticed 'til now. I looked straight into his eyes and he couldn’t look back at me. He looked here and there but kept talking. Omo, this boy was shy gan o!

“And that’s about everything on fruits,” He said.

“Huh?”

“Yeah…did you understand all I just explained or do you want me to go again?”

I called myself back to earth and adjusted my round framed glasses.

“Uh…yeah, I mean, uh… no I’m good. I got it all. No need to go over it again. Thanks a lot Ay. It was really nice of you.”

“You’re welcome, Nina.”

“See why I said you’re a shana,” I said again winking at him and then smiling.

“What can I say? I’m seated with a whole planet of knowledge herself.”

“Awww, look at you trying to whine back, so cute. You’re doing well.” I pinched his cheek playfully and he kinda flinched again but relaxed later. Maybe he wasn’t used to physical contact?

I looked at him and he seemed kinda flushed at my compliment. Did boys blush? And if they did, since when?

"You know you're really good, Ay. I'm serious. No whines. What made you go to Commercial class?" I rested my chin on my hands which were on the table, leaning close to him. He didn't flinch this time around.

He smiled. "Well... honestly, I wanted to be a science student. But..."

"Chemistry?" I interjected.

"Nah...my parents actually. Told me I couldn't handle it. Especially chem. Till tomorrow I still read those textbooks. Though I might not even understand a thing."

I laughed. "Wow...cool. Is that why you didn't drop biology?"

"Part of the reasons." He shrugged.

"But I won't blame your parents though. They probably just wanted the best for you. And I won't lie, chemistry is..." I drew out.

"They say it's abstract."

"True." I nodded. "But I'd like to call it spiritual."

He laughed. "Spiritual? For real?"

"For real, for real." I smiled. "I'm not a big fan of chemistry. As in, I can't study it in uni to save my life, when I'm not Bolu. But I do acknowledge that it makes you see and think beyond the ordinary."

"Hmm. Word!" He raised his hands in mock acknowledgement and I slapped his arm.

"Stop jhor! Word ko."

He laughed again.

Just then, the bell for break rang and I started wondering why and how time flew so fast?

“We should do this again sometime, don’t you think?” I asked as I stood up and stretched.

“Yeah…we should.” He stood up too.

“What am I saying sef? In fact from now, you are my new reading partner,” I stated firmly.

“Won’t that be impossible? I’m a commercial student and you, a Science student.”

“Nah… don’t worry. I’m Nina Ogbeide and I’m gonna make it work!” I declared.

“Okay ma,” he said and we both laughed.

We both pushed our chairs in and signed out of the library. I had a new reading partner and I know and believe that God Almighty who created us all will help me to actually read and not focus on his face.

Can I get an amen, people?

As we got out of the library, the V.P saw us and immediately, he told us that we were needed at the school’s clinic to assist the nurse in arranging new medical equipment that were bought for the school.

Yooooo!!!!
Wassup guys???
Long time no see!
How are y'all doing?

Anyways...hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's unedited and I might decide to change a few things later. Just wanted to drop it so that we(I) can get on with this book jare.

Who else thinks chemistry is spiritual?

And is it true that most science students detest chemistry?

Okay, okay. So...

Vote...abeg!! The rankings are just too low for our liking(yes our liking) so make us happy by filling up the pretty star below.

Comment. First to comment gets a dedication in the next chapter.

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Repeat.

With whatever is happening or will happen in the world this year, I wish y'all safety. Please stay safe oohhh!!!

And um...

I love y'all!

~Ife✌️😎