“Mirah’s talking to the pretty new girl”

“I just knew she’ll be the first to go over”

“Mirah’s gone to talk to the new girl, what do you think she’ll say?”

“I don’t know, invite her to her girl’s gang?”

“Mirah’s got a gang?”

“Ha ha, not really actually, I mean she and her group of girls who hang around each other all the time, it might as well be a gang.”

“Oh…”

Whispers between the other classmates began to sound out softly in the classroom, the relatively noisy class became less noisy as a result as those interested in what might come looked on stealthily.

The girl called Mirah reached the table of the new girl quickly and then paused to tap on the table to get the girl’s attention. The new girl, Kira, who seemed to be focused on something she placed between herself and the table below what anyone could see, looked up from it as she noticed the girl standing before her with a smile on her face. She looked on quietly as she said nothing, as if asking with her eyes what the other girl wanted.

“Hey. I’m here to welcome you on behalf of the whole class once again. Since I already know your name, I’ll just introduce myself. My name is Ameerah and its very nice to meet you.” Ameerah said as she stretched out her hand in greeting, smiling amiably.

The hand was left out in midair as the new girl simply took out an exquisite little pen and began writing something down on a paper she got from somewhere. The time she spent writing something was received awkwardly by Ameerah and the rest of the classmates as they watched on wondering what she was doing.

The smile on Ameerah’s face froze at that point on seeing what the girl, feeling like she was just ignored. But she held the urge and decided not to pull her arm, outstretched for a handshake, back just yet. She watched on, looking at what the girl was doing, while feeling slightly awkward. She tried reading the word being written but her line of sight always happened to be blocked by a hand or the other, preventing her from reading the words being written till it was shown to her.

It was barely five or six seconds that passed as it seemed like the new girl hadn’t written much. With her dropping the pen in her hand to the side on the table, she raised the sheet of paper with both her hands holding onto one end, displaying the words written boldly on the piece of paper to Ameerah and to every other student in the class who had sharp enough eyes to discern what was written.

‘I’m sorry for seeming rude by not replying you or shaking your hand, but I have problems with speaking and I have an allergy that makes me react badly to a touch or making physical contact with other people. Sorry…’

Reading the words only took a few seconds and Ameerah was immediately taken aback when she finished reading it.

“Oh…” She immediately felt odd as her tried to process he situation and figure out what to do or what to say.

“Well, this is awkward… Uhm, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make things awkward like this, I was just here to welcome you again and ask some questions that’s all…”

Looking at the girl and waiting for a response of some kind, Ameerah saw the girl turning the paper she held in her hand to the back as she began to write something else on it. Two seconds later, she raised the paper up again as she held it to show two new words written.

“It’s okay”

“Okay… I’m sorry once again, I’ll be heading to my seat now” Ameerah felt awkward standing there now, so she was immediately longing to head back to her seat, she turned around and moved back in the direction she came, walking faster than she previously did.

She got to her seat and sat back down. On seating down. Those around her all focused on her as they all asked numerous questions related to the same thing.

“What happened?”

“Yeah, what happened back there?”

“Why did you leave so quickly after she showed something on paper?”

“Was she acting snobbish or something?”

“Although I don’t think that’s what happened even if she was though, was it too much to bear or something?”

The place where they and Ameerah sat in the class was at a relatively far distance to where the new girl had taken her seat as they were seated much closer to the front, hence they couldn’t really hear much of what was being said, neither could they see what the girl had shown Ameerah on paper. That and Ameerah returning immediately made them more curious as to what had just happened.

On receiving the barrage of questions, Ameerah only shook her head a bit as she then began to tell them all about what had been said during their conversation.

“She has problems with speaking? “? That what she said?”

“That means she’s dumb or something?”

The girls were similarly caught by surprise on hearing that the girl had problems with speaking. So pretty yet not able to say a single word?

Ameerah already began feeling slight regret on telling the girls that crowded around her. She didn’t mind hearing news like this from someone else but she didn’t like being the one supposedly spreading it. It was only because they had just been talking about the girl now and they had seen her approaching the girl to talk to her that she couldn’t shrug off their questions and had to reply, but she still felt a little bad now like she was undermining the girl or something.

“Why do I feel like she’s faking it?”

Another girl said her own thoughts out loud at this point and Ameerah immediately turned to the girl with a frown as she questioned her with a slight aggressiveness to her tone, “Why would you say that? What do you mean by that?”

“Well I don’t mean to sound like that but I mean exactly what I said. It’s just a tiny hunch anyways, treat it as a passing thought if you may…”

Ameerah couldn’t help fuming a bit on hearing her reply, “Whether a passing thought or not, it’s still not very nice. How can you tell?”

A few girls then joined in the sentiment,

“Come on, that’s a wrong thing to say”

“Yh Abigail, that’s not very nice, neither is it welcoming of you either…”

“Exactly what she said, that was rather mean”

The inclusion of the voices of several other of her classmates seemed to pressure the girl called Abigail a bit more than she expected so she immediately admitted defeat.

“Ok, ok, alright. I was wrong saying that, I’m sorry for saying it. Is that okay?”

“It shouldn’t really be us you apologize to though; the person you should say that to is sitting at the back” Ameerah grumbled silently but loud enough for the girl to hear her.

“Abeg(please), she’s so far back, she can’t even hear what I said. I don’t mean anything maliciously anyways.”

“Yeah right…”

A new person came into the class at that point, drawing all the attention and discontinuing any ongoing discussions.

“Good morning class, I should say that I’m rather happy and pleased to see you all again”

The new person that came into the class turned out to be one of their subject teachers, one rather familiar with their class since he had been teaching since the beginning of their senior years.

“It’s nice seeing all your faces again and oh… see a new face as well. Your class adviser has already introduced you to me and I presume you’ve also been introduced to the whole class. So all I’ll say to you now is welcome again to Ikeja Terra high…”

>>> 

Kyng threw his bag aside, leaving it to travel in whichever direction and land wherever fate wills it to, before free falling onto the folds layered over his bed. He felt immensely welcomed and relieved by the soft and cozy chill the bed brought to him.

Though the first day of school after resuming from a vacation wasn’t exactly tiresome or hectic, the sudden change in vibe and environment after either staying home all day or heading out and hanging at a friend’s place to having to endure the relentless noise and hubbub in a classroom while having subject teachers come in and out without pause except during the long break… the difference was very clear.

He felt like he was meant to do something at the moment but he couldn’t quite remember what that was and neither did he feel like moving at the moment. So he simply stayed motionless on his bed as he stared at the ceiling of his room designed to resemble the blue sky in daytime and the dark sky at night. It was something he always loved and appreciated about his room. It made him feel like he was always out in the open while also keeping a satisfying distance away from the hot glare of the sun. He couldn’t tell if it was just him but he could swear that he felt the sun getting hotter by the second as he walked home today, after separating from Dayo and Donald.

Thinking of those two friends of his, he couldn’t help the reflexive smile that curled up his lips.

The two of them had argued incessantly on the way from school as either of them couldn’t quite agree on the things they could do based on the idea that he had brought up earlier in the classroom in the morning. After going back and forth on ideas and seriously refusing Donald’s idea of spray painting some statues the color pink more than five times, while also failing to agree on any one idea in the end, they agreed to come over to talk about it again.

He looked over to the holographic display clock on the wall on his right side as he saw the time being just minutes past 4. In thirty minutes to an hour, the two of them would be getting. They lived pretty close to each other in the first place so the distance was even something easy to walk.

“Kyng! Have you had your bath yet?”

After seconds turned to minutes, and Kyng was about forgetting the flow of time where he laid on his bed, a loud voice passed through the com link connected from the floor downstairs to his room, pulling him out of his half drowsy, half dazed state rather abruptly. He sat up on his bed almost immediately like the bed he was lying on turned scalding hot immediately.

Despite being startled to sitting up, he found his thoughts hard to process so he couldn’t reply to the question as he simply held his forehead lightly. His mom always tended to be like this every time, he wondered why it was always at every time when he was about to sink into his inner world that she pulled him back out like that. He couldn’t imagine she was timing it though so he couldn’t quite understand.

“Kyng!”

Her voice rang through the com-link again as she called his name again after not receiving a response the first time, even if he was sleeping, she knew he would be forced to wake up.

“No mom, I haven’t, I’ll be going now…”

He spoke out knowing the receiver would pick up his voice and she would be able to hear him.

“Don’t go to sleep before you do that. And come down to eat as well. Your friends are coming over?”

Sighing lightly, he pushed himself up from the bed as he began taking off his clothes. “Yes they are.”

“What time are they coming over?”

“In about thirty minutes or so…”

“Alright then, go take a shower first, I can smell your sweat and all from over here even…”

Kyng chuckled lightly in response, “Sure”