The intro cheer dance we did got the spectators gingered for the match.
Shaking our pompoms and moving our flexible bodies to the words we chanted.
Even the Jared twins who had earlier been complaining about the cheer dance happened to perform better than many of us - to impress the fine boys in the audience of course.
They were that dramatic.
The boys in my class were good with manoeuvring the ball through the field and scoring powerful goals.
And as such, a good number of the audience were on our side.
But...
Those JSS3 boys were like mad dogs on the field. One of them who was quite skinny and tall was really fast that I could have mistaken him for Osimhen's son.
Tobi, Aaron and Michael were simply the best players on our team and all of us from SS2 had our hopes on them.
Whenever Tobi was the one who scored a goal, we did a brief cheer for the team that Kiki had made all of us practice specifically because of Tobi.
Trust Kiki, the others didn't know the reason except for me.
Truth to be told, Tobi really deserved the cheers. He was basically good at sports in school - Football, Basketball and Table tennis.
He was every teenage girl's dream - Tall, handsome and talented. Perhaps these were the reasons why Kiki liked him a lot.
Just then, I saw him wave at me from where I sat at the row for the SS2 cheerleaders. He smiled as well.
I didn't dare respond in any way since Kiki was sitting beside me.
Her eyes widened and she turned to face me.
"Tilda..." She began.
"Yes?" I raised my eyebrows, half hoping and half doubting that she didn't see what had happened.
"Tobi... just smiled and waved at me out of nowhere," She broke into a bright smile.
No Kiki, he didn't.
I wanted to tell her.
I wanted to tell her so bad that Tobi didn't like her but how would she feel?
"Yes Kiki, I can see that," I sent her a false smile of assurance.
Now, I feel like the worst friend anyone could ever ask for.
At the end of the day, our class won the match and as usual, Tobi emerged as the man of the match.
*.*.*.
I rolled over to my side for the umpteenth time on my bed. While cuddling my huge black and white teddy bear, I held a small card in my hand.
My eyes couldn't leave the card for a even a second as the phone number on it was what called for my attention.
Underneath the phone number was a short message.
Call me anytime you feel like talking to someone
- Miles
Somehow, I found out that he had slipped the card into the pocket of my trouser. Two days had passed since I found out about it, yet I couldn't bring myself to call him.
I was nervous.
No, scratch that. I was shy as hell.
I couldn't call him. What if I seem like a girl just seeking for unnecessary attention?
But then, his note said I could call him anytime.
And strangely, there was this part of me that just wanted to dial the number.
After a long while of contemplation, I finally called the number and as the phone rang, my heart raced.
"Hello," The familiar masculine voice rang out from the other end of the call.
"H-h-hi," I stuttered. "Erm... it's me, the girl you gave your number."
"I have given my number to many girls. So which of them exactly?"
Maybe I was too quick to feel bad that I failed to hear the mockery in his voice a bit earlier.
"Just never mind. I called a wrong number," I said. The upset in my tone was clear enough for me to even notice.
"I'm just playing with you. I know it's you. I never really got to ask of your name."
"It's Tilda," I quickly replied, somewhat feeling relieved. "Matilda."
"That's a nice one. So what's up?"
"It's nothing. I-I-I ju-just wanted to l-l-let you know...that I found out you gave me your n-number," I stuttered once again.
Oh God! I knew calling him was a bad idea.
"I see so how about we meet up tomorrow. I think we should get to know each other better."
"Ahh yes. We should," I replied, trying to put the right words together.
"Alright then. I'll text you the location, tomorrow 2:00pm would be perfect, right?"
"Sure," I answered.
"We're good then. See you tomorrow."
"Mm," Was all I said before I disconnected the call.
Was this a date?
I had never been on one before so I didn't know how to react.
Kiki was coming over tomorrow so she'd probably help me out.
After a few more minutes of trying to put myself to sleep all to no avail, I decided to go to the living room.
Perhaps that was an even worse decision than forcing myself to sleep so I could stop thinking of "my date" tomorrow.
Sharon was seated in the living room as if it was her father that built it. She had a leg resting on the arm of the chair while the other was properly placed against the ground.
Her friend, Nene was around for a sleepover that they both had planned.
To my disgust, they were eating snacks and talking very loudly while I was trying to watch a show.
For crying out loud, it was 8:30pm.
"Abeg if the two of you want to keep on talking, please go inside," I warned them with a stern look on my face.
"See this one o, with her loud mouth," Sharon laughed, accompanied with clapping of her hands.
My eyes turned to slits. Wasn't she the actual loud mouth?
"You always keep talking like it's your father that built this house. Get a life and stop threading useless footsteps like your dad," I eyed her and I heard Nene mutter a Nawa O.
I instantly felt like slapping the fatness out of her body.
"It is God that will punish you!" Sharon stood up from where she sat and I followed suit, fully prepared for the fight that was to come.
It was a common thing for us to always involve in fights.
"Thunder will strike you, Nene, and your parents!" I thundered in response.
There was it - my emotions that I couldn't control.
A slap went across my face and that was what broke the last straw on the Camel's back.
I wasn't much of a powerful one in fights but trust me, my long fingernails could do more harm than a punch.