Chapter thirteen - Friend or foe

The next day at school, Anne kept a close watch on Josephine, trying so hard to act normal herself.

She deliberately kept her meeting with Michael from Josephine and expertly diverted conversations that may lead to either Michael or Daniel.

Currently, they were seated in the cafeteria, eating lunch.

From her secret observations, she noticed Josephine's absentmindedness and harshness in her tone whenever she referred to her. She had tried to stop her by being harsh too but stopped when it seemed to escalate.

Even with that Josephine wouldn't stop as she seemed to be enjoying it.

"I might attend the dinner party for a change". Anne announced, in a bid to turn the conversation around.

"Who cares?" Came Josephine's reply.

"If you have a problem, Josephine, why not spill it?" Anne retorted.

Josephine only hissed and that managed to make Anne more angry. Not caring whose feelings she hurt this time, she turned to Naomi and spoke in a very calm voice.

"Michael asked me to be his partner at the dinner party and I agreed".

Then turning towards Josephine, she smiled rather sarcastically before announcing her intention to get her assignment done in the library.

Naomi who, all these while had taken notice of the silent war between them was surprised.

At first, she thought they were only joking as usual. She had decided against stepping in to arbitrate since she had no clue why they were at war, plus they deemed it okay to leave her in the dark.

"Are you coming? " Anne asked, facing Josephine but when she got no response, she turned to Naomi and raised her brows slightly, as a way of repeating the question to her.

Naomi agreed and tickled Josephine, who only managed to smile a little, till she agreed to go with them.

"What is going on with you two?" Naomi asked as they both made their way to the library with Josephine trailing far behind them.

"Honestly I'm as surprised as you are right now, I only noticed her being cold towards me today and I honestly don't know why but I guess it has something to do with Michael". Anne explained.

Since she couldn't make sense of the whole issue, she decided to let it slide and hoped they settled whatever differences they were having at the moment.

On getting to the library, they realized their cards were not with them and lingered on, disappointed.

Josephine, who arrived a few minutes after them, went inside without a word, since she had her card with her.

As she stepped in, she took one last glance at her friends and smiled. Then she came back and handed their cards to him.

"How come you have our library cards?" They both chorused.

She answered by winking at them, and together, all three of them went inside, locating a seat far from the other people inside.

They knew they wouldn't be totally quiet in here and were graceful enough to avoid disturbing others. Their choice of seat lies also in their aim to get as far away from the librarian as possible to avoid being asked out of the library.

The seat they settled for was at the far end of the library, with no other user in sight. Here, they could speak with some amount of audibility without fear and they couldn't have asked for more.

They completed the assignment in no time and studied for some time. When Naomi went instead for an entertainment book, minutes later, it served as a model for the others as they soon discarded whatever books they were reading and selected books on entertainment instead, pointing every funny detail they came across to each other.

Sometimes they giggled, other times they smiled. On rare occasions they laughed hard, covering their mouths with their palms to keep the sounds they were making muffled.

Josephine had shown them a comic photo from her book and they were having a feat of laughter when all of a sudden, Anne stopped on her track with an alarming look on her face.

The others, fearing the librarian had finally caught them, took fearful looks in the direction of Anne's gaze and when they found no one, they directed their gaze back to Anne who was now laughing uncontrollably.

The others charged at her the next minute, playfully fighting her while she screamed hard, forgetting her current environment.

The sounds of clapping brought back order to the room. Slowly, they turned toward the direction of the sound and were wide-eyed with shock to see the librarian watching them.

In haste, they arranged their things but were stopped by her. Their breathing slowed down a little when they noticed the smile dancing at the corner of her lips and soon they realized why - the page where the comic photos were displayed was spread open on Josephine's desk. It was a funny piece.

Although they were asked out of the library, it wasn't with the bashfulness that usually follows being asked out for breaking a rule.

The librarian, Mrs. Adams, was more impressed with the trio, for being sensitive enough to go out of earshot so as not to disturb others; and for being studious since she had spied on them earlier without their notice and had met them studying.

They walked gingerly out of the library, trying so hard to look composed so as not to give themselves away to the other students.

They managed to get a farewell greeting from the librarian to the surprise of other library users.

Once they were outside, they gave up the act of being composed and laughed at each other, highlighting their luck.

From there, Naomi went back to the hostel while Anne and Josephine journeyed back to the main gate.

On their way, Anne brought up the issue that had happened earlier and after much persuasion, Josephine admitted having feelings for Michael and that she had been overwhelmed with jealousy when Michael had called Anne instead.

Anne also admitted she lied about accepting to attend the dinner party with Michael.

Although he had asked her the previous day, on their way home, she declined with the excuse that she wouldn't be attending the party. She had only used that to get to Josephine in her angry state.

Josephine was grateful for the news she just heard but she was skeptical about getting him to ask her to the party.

"I just got to know him, I can't vouch for him, so whatever you do, just be careful". Anne advised.

"I know that already and I am smart". Josephine

defended.

They were all good again, with no unfinished business or conversation between them.

"Will you tell Naomi or should I?" Josephine asked before they could go their go separate ways.

"You tell her". Anne answered and they bade each other goodbyes.

Anne smiled as she sat on the bus while they waited for other passengers. It was funny how Josephine could be having feelings for a guy she barely knew.

It was a good thing she didn't see Michael that way. Not like she would be seeing anyone that way anytime soon. Not after Collins shut out on her for reasons she will never know.

She sometimes feels he neglected her because she wasn't good enough. And she fears she will not give herself another chance until she knows what had happened with Collins. What if she wasn't good enough? Will she be good enough for another? All these thoughts couldn't stop taunting her, all thanks to Collins.

Soon the bus was filled up and the music playing from the radio filled the air while the bus moved towards home, bringing her closer to the comfort only home can provide.