Why?

The much awaited elections had finally come and gone after a week of school.

The results turned out almost as expected and many of the students were full of joy knowing who their new leaders were.

There was no need to seek an Oracle to know that Tobi had emerged as the head boy. Luckily for me, I became the head girl and Kiki got her long-term aspiration of becoming a social prefect fulfilled.

Anita from SS3B turned out as the assembly prefect due to the fact that Eric and Temi were responsibility run-froms like Abike.

Aisha from SS3C became the sanitary prefect. It was already known that Aaron and Emeka were neither a perfect fit for that position - Aaron was simply too quiet and Emeka had too much Agbero blood in him.

However, we were just satisfied with the decisions made by every other student from JSS1 classes down to the SS3 classes.

Since the results of the election were released during the assembly on a Friday, the after-election party would hold the next day which was a Saturday.

As I walked into the class that morning, two girls rushed to stand at either of my sides while shouts of, "All hail our head girl!" filled the air.

To be honest, I couldn't hold my laughter in at how dramatic my classmates could be. "You guys are making me blush," I buried my face in my palms as they continued with the hails and chants.

Just then, I heard Eric and chinedu's loud voice.

"And here comes our head boy!"

"Oshey, baddest!" Kiki and some other girls chanted in response.

I looked at the classroom door to see Tobi walk in, full of smiles.

"Two of you should stand here coma " Chinedu jumped out to put Tobi and I side by side, in front of the whole class.

"All hail the King and Queen of Nexus High!" He shouted.

"Ge ge!" The class thundered except for two persons of course. Aaron and Miles.

Aaron was his usual quiet self comma listening to music from his headphones while Miles watched on quietly, still in his "new boy" shell.

Tobi did not fail to use the moment to place his hands over my shoulder while he jubilated with the others.

All I could do was send nervous smiles around.

Thankfully, the whole celebration was short-lived when the mathematics teacher walked in.

Mr. Igwe was his name, and he was a strict maths teacher that refused to abide by the saying, 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.'

"What nonsense is going on here?" he thundered, upon seeing the celebration we put up. "Are you market men and women?" he asked. "Almost all of you here come from rich and classy homes, yet you act so uncivilized! My goodness!"

As soon as we all scurried back to our various seats, we stared blankly at him, almost as if he was speaking some kind of language none of us understood.

"You guys play too much!" he continued blabbing. "Everything, play! What stopped you people from reading 14 hours in a day?and use the remaining 10 hours to do something other than play!"

Whenever this man spoke on matters like this, his words would go into our right ears and leave through the left ears - It was that meaningless to us. However, he soon dived into teaching. Yes, Mr. Igwe was a great teacher but a horrible mentor.

After his class, we had a few other classes in biology, chemistry and geography. Later on, we had our greatest period of every school day—free period!

There was one thing I had my mind on for the free period, and that was to read a novel, as usual. But before that, I needed to get my notes back from Miles. A week had passed, and he was yet to return even a page of one book. Even though I had managed to succeed in avoiding him the whole week, I knew getting my notes back were inevitable.

Although, if you ask why I avoided him, I was just as clueless.

He wasn't in class but I still went out in search of him anyways.

Unable to find him for the first few minutes of my search, I met Eric, who I inquired his whereabouts from since Miles had been coined into their group by Eric himself and Chinedu.

"He's in the library, I think," Eric shrugged in response.

"Alright, thanks," I immediately headed for the library.

The library was quiet as usual. And empty too. Miles didn't seem to be moving anywhere along the first row of shelves, but luckily for me, I found him in front of a shelf in the second row. He appeared to be skimming through a book when I caught sight of him.

"Um... Hey," I greeted from a short distance behind him.

He turned in my direction, a bit startled.

"Oh...it's you," were the words he uttered. "I'm sorry a-a-about the other day. I-I-I was j-just not in the right senses," I rushed over my words, causing me to stutter.

"I see," His eyes remained fixed on me, waiting for me to say what I had come for.

"Are you done with my notes? I need them back," I tried to sound the most polite I could.

"Oh... they're back in class," He sighed as he closed the book in his hand.

Just as he was about to place it back onto the shelf, I rushed over to his side to see the book he was about to return.

"The sands of time?!" I exclaimed. "You read it too?"

"I started reading it two days back," He handed the book over to me. "It's a good one."

"Oh my goodness! I love this book too!" I continued with the exclaims.

I lifted my gaze to meet his. "I didn't know you read books too. I mean, you were good at teasing me and watching Lilies on Bridges and..."

My eyes widened in realization and i consciously stepped away from him.

"I mean...we should get back to class for my notes," I could already feel the tension rising between us.

He remained in the spot. Was he confused at the words that had just flown out of my mouth or what?

"I say things weird things all the time. Don't mind me," I quickly spoke, laughing more than necessary.

I was the only one who was talking while he seemed startled at how weird the things I said were.

Tilda, you!

I couldn't just tell someone I barely know in real life that he was in my dream during my coma. How would I expect him to feel then? "Why are you always so inquisitive about me or what to know certain things about me?" He took the book from me and returned it to the shelf, his sole focus on me.

"I-I It's not that...I just..." Again, I couldn't find the right words to use in front of him.

As If sent by an angel, Tobi walked in on us.

"What's going on?" He asked, his eyes moving back and forth between us.

"We were just reading a book and discussing," I quickly replied much to Miles' surprise.

"Ah I see. It must be a good book," Tobi nodded. He then gave Miles a pat on his shoulder and said to him,"Be careful around this girl o. She will use novels to finish you."

He laughed and went on to another shelf.

"Let's go get my notes, please," I said in a low voice to Miles and led the way to class immediately.

*.*.*.

Feasting my eyes on the beautiful night scenery through the car glass all through the drive, was enough to get me lost in thoughts.

Miles was on my mind once again.

I couldn't understand what was going on any longer. Just when I decided to forget about the mysteries of my dream, he showed up in real life.

Why?

Even though I knew it was all a dream, it strangely didn't feel like just a dream.

Perhaps I was just overthinking things like I always did.

"We're almost there, ma'am," Mr. Samuel, my driver announced.

"Ok," I simply replied. At least, I was hoping for the drive to be over soon, otherwise, my head would explode from the thousand thoughts that raced my mind.

A few more minutes passed and we arrived at my destination - The Adeola mansion.

Mr. Samuel was about to get down from the front seat of the car and open the back door for me to step out when I stopped him, saying,

"Don't worry, Mr. Samuel," I chuckled. "I have hands, you know."

"Ah sorry madam," He laughed. I got out of the car with my sleepover bag over my left shoulder.

"Take care, Mr. Samuel," I waved at him.

"Take care dear and have fun!" He replied with the same energy.

I nodded and immediately walked through the mansion gate which was opened by the gateman.

The doorbell rang and the huge front doors were opened by two women dressed in uniforms meant for the Adeola housemaids.

"Good evening, miss Matilda," They chorused a greeting.

"Good evening," I smiled brightly before walking past them and into the spacious living room where Kiki's parent sat, watching a soap opera.

"Ah! Tilda is that you?" came her dad's voice. He was always in and out of the country so we saw each other like last month.

"Eku irole sir," I went on my knees in greetings. "Eku irole ma."

"How are you, my dear? Bawo ni," They asked in unison as I moved to take a seat.

"I'm fine. You?" I flashes smiles at them.

"We're fine o," Kiki's mum smiled. "It's today that your father returned sef and he's just stressing me."

"Ah ah! Daddy why nau?" I laughed, referring to Kiki's dad.

"Don't mind this woman jor," He hissed. "Tilda, you're now bigger than last time o. Children of nowadays, you're just growing anyhow. See your friend Kiki too, she's just getting fatter on top her shortness."

"Which kind fat?" We heard Kiki's voice from the staircase as she rushed downstairs. "Me that is trying to maintain my slim body."

We laughed.

To be honest, Kiki's house was always so warm and welcoming everytime I came visiting.

"My baby welcome. Don't mind daddy," Kiki hugged me and took my bag from me.

Just then, we heard footsteps from the stairs.

"So my Titi is here and none of you chose to inform me abi?" Joyce asked as she took dainty steps in a pair of shorts and shirt.