PRESENTATION.

My plan to make him jealous didn't exactly play out as it had in my head. "See this loser", he laughs, "Now that you have your own phone, I don't have to share this one with you", he says while waving a small Nokia phone in the air.

"That's not the point! The point is that my own is android. You're supposed to be all jealous and stuff", I say with a huff. "Why would I be jealous? When I don't have to share something with you", he says with a nonchalant tone. Sometimes I can't decide if this boy hates me or not.

He hasn't even taken his bath yet and it's already afternoon. "Won't you go and take your bath?" I ask, "And how is it affecting you?" he counters, I mutter under my breath, "Piggy."

After that I head back to Nora's room to play games on my 'new' phone. After a while I'm already bored, I remember that I have a pending French assignment to complete so I ask Nora for her phone. My plan is to cheat using google translate because using a French dictionary to look up every word is tiring.

"Don't you have a phone now, use it to do the assignment", was her smug reply. "You know that I can't browse on it. The Wi-Fi I was stealing before is off now", I say with a wide, innocent smile, making sure to show off all my teeth. She rolls her eyes, sighs and reluctantly hands me her phone. "Thanks!"

I get up and rush to my room to start. I have already resolved to make my essay as short as possible so that I don't have to speak longer that I need to. By the time I'm done, I'm already hungry. Afterreturning my sisters phone to her and notifying them that there's food in the kitchen, I head downstairs to help myself.

*****************************************

It has been two calm weeks since my drama with Ruth and my ugly dream/memory. Mom threw a fit when she noticed the phone I got form Nora but after a while she let it go. I and Favour have gotten a lot closer in those two weeks and I honestly don't know how it happened.

I've also gotten some "recognition" in the past days, thanks to my awesome display of magnificence in the badminton game on the official sports day. I get shy 'HI's' from some juniors whenever I'm on my way to the shop or simply just walking around the school.

I didn't know that that many people were actually watching, if I did I definitely would not have won the game because of anxiety, or maybe the news spread through talks. Either way, it's kind of nice. The seniors don't say anything to me.

They just stare and move on, but the only person that doesn't move on is that one ape from that day that gave me an angry look. Whenever our eyes meet anywhere at all, I get the same look, as though my presence is painful.

Ruth still gives me ugly looks and it really doesn't bother me. I've come to the conclusion that she likes David and hates me because my seat is much closer to his than hers and I talk to him a lot more than she does, [Petty.]

Speaking on likes, I also found out that Favour has a boyfriend in SS2, a year above us. Honestly to me he's not much to look at, but then a lot of guys aren't much to look at to me. Favour loves to use that to catch some fun, mad girl.

His character is also…..off, but who am I to judge. Character is also in the eyes of the beholder. As though her boyfriend, George, was summoned by my thoughts, he appears at the door of the class and calls Favour out. I turn to her, "Test is next week oh, if you like, don't leave boyfriend and focus on reading", I joke, a smile graces her face, "Emma, leave me alone please", she says while shaking her head and walks away.

Its Wednesday so we have French today, i tap David on the shoulder. He has his nose in a book, as usual,

"Have you done your assignment, French I mean",

"Why?, do you want to copy it?",

I chuckle, "Use sense biko. How would I copy it?"

"Yeah, I've done it",

"You ready to present it?" just saying the word present makes my stomach do a flip. He laughs but doesn't reply, Favour comes back into the class with a teacher's lesson note followed immediately by Mr. Akin for

chemistry.

He doesn't say anything, he just stares at the class, and then he starts asking questions about the last lesson we had. [Maybe I jinxed the day by calling the last 2 weeks calm]. I'm just settling into a more comfortable position to observe, because I have no intention of answering anything when he says,

"I'm going to choose who gets to answer the questions from now. There are people whose voices I haven't heard since I started teaching this class", he smiles cunningly, at least that's the way I see it because my heart is already pounding. I know I'm guilty, and he knows it too because he's staring at me now.

He points at me and I stand up. "What is your name?" "E- Emmanuella", my voice comes out small, "Your surname?", "Eze".

"I haven't heard your voice before so I'll start with you", he smiles cunningly again.

"what is isotopy?" [Oh! An easy one!] I almost visible breathe out a sigh of relief. I answer in a shaky but loud voice, hoping nobody notices and then take my seat, then he moves on to the next victim.

"Your voice was shaking", "Shuttup", I murmur. I can always trust Favour to not

let things like this slide. It's just one period of chemistry so the rest of the class went by with questions, answers and revisions in preparation for the test next week.

"It's true, Emma!, I need advice oh", Favour says to me. Right now were on the second break, which is shorter than the first so no teacher is in the class right now.

"It's time for me to bring out my wise inner self", I shimmy my shoulders with a smirk. She whines,

"Be serious na!",

"Okay, okay. What is it?."

"So…" she begins, drawing the 'o', "….I want to break up with George."

"Why?."

She makes a face, "He doesn't allow me to concentrate, He's always calling me out of the class and I can't say no because he's my senior…." at this point I'm trying my hardest not to laugh, "…..and I'm just tired abeg", she finishes quietly.

That pushes me over the edge and I burst out laughing, only after a minute when I had calmed down did I speak, "So why did you accept to date him?"

"I don't even know anymore." I laugh again because I can't relate. I wouldn't have made the mistake of accepting at all.

"I'll just allow you to finish laughing. When you finish, tell me how I should do it because he won't accept a stupid reason", she says it with a straight face so I sober up.

"Okay fine. I think telling him that it's because you want to concentrate is the best way. Then add a small lie like you are not doing too well, yunno, stuff like that."

"Ooohh!" she pauses, "That could work!" she gives me a full smile, pearly whites and all that makes me laugh too. The bell rings for selective subjects and it reminds me of my presentation in French.

I groan out loud, Favour just laughs because she knows it's time for French and I might have a presentation. "Now it's my turn to laugh", she sticks her tongue out at me, gathers her things and leaves the class to her selective subject, Spanish.

Miss Stephanie walks in as soon as Favour is out the door and my stomach does a very large flip. Now the only students left in the class are those that offer French, we all stand to greet and wait for her to notify us to sit down.

She doesn't say anything for a few minutes, she just stares at us all in turn. Her eyes lands on me, and her smile widens.

My heart starts beating drums so loud that David could hear it if he tried. She points at me, "You! Come and introduce yourself to the class in French." That was all it took for my heart to go into overdrive.