Rumours....Again

1985

Faith, Banji and Keisha had been at the travel club for a while. Keisha was knocked out by the soju shortly after telling her story.

"Should we wake her up?" Faith asked Banji.

"No, I don't mind staying here a little longer as long as she gives us a ride back." Olabanji replied.

"She is drunk, she can't drive stupid!" Faith said jokingly.

"Oh right! How do we get home then? The buses don't run past 10pm. Are we responsible for getting her home too?" Banji was worried.

"I guess we have to get a taxi. There is no way for us to know her address and we can't take her to our campus residence." Faith looked at Banji half expecting him to come up with a good idea.

"I don't know what to do. Don't look at me. I am about lost as you are."

Faith came to another realization of how hard it was to live in the past. "If this was the era of smart phones, we could just check her phone and dial one of her recent contacts."

"Sitting here wishing we were living in another time period is not going to help us. We need to figure this out." Banji was starting to get annoyed at the situation and the responsibility.

"I know what to do. I will summon my over watcher. I have a lighter." Faith took her lighter out of her purse, lighted it and snuffed out the flame with the intention of meeting Guy.

Soon, Guy was at their table. "Hey Faith, this better be good. I don't want to hear some school drama." Guy said pulling himself a seat.

"Oh I see you've made some friends, traveller friends! Faith! Where did you get a t-band? You're still in the dormitory system, you should not have one of those." Guy said.

"Sorry, I was the one who gave her those. If anyone should be punished for it. It should be me. Are you going to report us to the overseeing world?' Banji asked Guy.

"No, I cannot report you guys. There is a traveller- over watcher confidentiality between Faith and I except during a high risk of early death. And over watchers are not allowed to interfere in the lives of travellers that are not under their care so I cannot report you either." He replied.

Guy turned to Faith. "I just wish you do not break too many rules. Rules are put in place to protect travellers after all. Now why did you summon me?"

Faith pointed at Keisha. "She brought us out here but she is drunk now and we don't know how to get her home."

"Oh okay. Try to sit her up, I will try to contact her over watcher using her as a medium." Guy asked of the two.

Faith and Banji held onto Keisha's arms and put her in a sitting position. Guy placed his hands on her forehead and closed his eyes. Soon a tall skinny lady who looked malnourished was standing by Keisha's side.

"She is drunk again? I have told her to stop coming to the club often. Thanks for calling me, I will handle her." The lady said barely sparing Guy a glance. She carried Keisha over her shoulder and disappeared into the dancing crowd.

Guy led Faith and Banji outside the club where they saw a golden car. The car seemed futuristic. Even futuristic to those from the 2020s. The car's doors opened into wings. They were closed while the car was on the road and they were open while the car was flying. There were rods near the doors that could be locked and unlocked. The golden rods were there to prevent passengers from falling out of the car during flight.

Banji and Faith's jaws dropped at the marvellous sight of the car. They were so excited to get in the car.

"Can I call you for a ride often?" Faith asked.

"Absolutely not. Do not abuse your privilege." Guy replied as they got into the car.

"The car is invisible so we will not be visible to non-travellers. Make sure you pull the rods into the hole on the side and press the button underneath to lock it. We can leave the front passenger seat's rod open since you're both in the back. Buckle up, We're taking off soon." Guy said as he started the vehicle. No sound of an engine to warn the passengers of the immediate take off.

"Since we are invisible now, does it mean that we will just appear out of nowhere to non-travellers when we get out of the car?" Faith asked while they were in flight.

"Don't worry. Every non-traveller's memory is automatically manipulated to not think you appeared out of nowhere." Guy answered.

Guy dropped the two off at their campus and they each went to their dormitories.

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The next couple of days, rumours about Faith were circulating the school again. They were worse than the previous year. There were rumours about how Faith played Josh and JJ until she got tired of them and went for Banji. There were reports from students who had seen them on a date at a restaurant. A student who saw them both come in to the school campus at about 11pm spread rumours about how they must have gone to the hotel to do the dirty. Hate for Faith intensified. It was starting to affect her mentally because she got served some attitude from the basket ball boys as well.

The basket ball team were all aware that Josh had a thing for Faith and even JJ who used to have a motive to make Faith his was now rooting for Josh. The boys especially those in their 3rd and 4th years gave Josh some ideas on how to win Faith over. So when the boys saw how close Banji and Faith were getting, they were disappointed in Banji because even if Faith was oblivious to Josh's feelings, Banji was fully aware of them.

Josh and two other boys had an opportunity to talk to Banji alone when they were in the cafeteria one day.

"Hey Banji, are you and Faith dating?" Josh went straight to the point.

"No, of course not. We are just really good friends. I don't know why everybody has got it wrong." Banji replied.

Banji was tired of waiting in queue for his stir fry. He grabbed a seat nearby and the three boys followed him.

"Faith and I just have so much in common. We get along well. I don't know why people find the relationship we have to be so interesting that we are the subject of topic whenever two or more people meet on this campus." Banji said with a chuckle.

"We just want to be sure of your relationship. We all know how interested Josh is in Faith. You won't mind if he asks her out. Would you?" One of the boys with Josh asked.

"Of course not. Josh, you can go ahead and shoot your shot." Banji said with a reassuring smile.

"What? As in the song? I see what you did there." Josh replied.

Banji realized that the term 'shoot your shot' was not everyday lingo in the 1980s, it was fairly new and was popular due to a song released in 1982 with the same phrase as the title.

"Yeah, like the song. I mean give it a shot." Banji replied and went to check on his stir fry.

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JJ and Josh were having a talk in their shared condo apartment. The two had been close friends since childhood. They both had no siblings so they played that role for each other. JJ often played the protective big brother role. Josh convinced his parents to let him apply to Birchmount University because JJ was there. They were both from the capital. JJ's father was the president of Cher and Josh's father was in politics as well.

In their shared condo, Josh opened up to JJ about the Banji and Faith situation while they munched on some chicken they got on their way home from school.

"I really don't know what to think of the whole thing Jay. It doesn't seem like Faith is ready to be more than friends with me but she is getting too close to Banji." People close to JJ called him by his first name, Jay.

"If you ask me, I think Banji has an ulterior motive getting close to Faith. So if you really like Faith you should ask her out as soon as possible. I have a feeling she likes you too."

Josh would really like to take his friend's advice but he was too shy to make a confession to Faith. He worried about how to make the confession and he was afraid she would reject him.