Chase, he was looking at me right now, as if he knew the situation I was in. As if he was familiar with the acts of the teacher, he came close to me and stood by my side as the other boys went to sit.
"Can I help you? I recall I was having a conversation with the young lady beside you." The teacher asked, clearly dumbfounded.
Chase, looking at him and giving him what seemed to be a glare, humbled him, because he quickly looked at me and asked, "Do you know him?"
"Y-yes, I know him...I think "I quickly answered while stressing the word think. I turned to look at the class, everyone was staring at us, some in the back were even murmuring. I turned back to the teacher and continued, "H-he d-directed me here, I'm n-new h-here... I.."
"Her knowing me has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you're being unnecessarily difficult... sir." Chase's voice sternly cut me off.
Immediately I heard him talk to the teacher in that manner, I became even more scared. I feared he'd be penalized for being disrespectful. Or even worse, I'd be punished as a result of the teacher's transfer of aggression, because I was the reason for Chase's actions. But funny enough, the teacher made no response, in fact, he looked down apologetically. That was definitely weird. I turned to look at the class, but they had no particular expression on their faces, as if being rude to a teacher was a norm in class, or maybe in the school.
"Ahem" The teacher cleared his throat. "I see there was a big misunderstanding, why don't you introduce yourself to the class. What do we call you?" What???! I composed myself, looked at the class and slowly moved forward.
"M-my name is Lisa Ugwuanyi" I said with feigned confidence.
"Okay, why don't you go to your sit now, there are free seats in the back" He looked at me with an awkward smile.
I walked to the back, heading for one of the seats I was directed to. As I walked to my seat, all eyes were on me. With head bent, I reached the sit, removed my backpack, hung it on my chair and sat. Brought out a note and pen, and started scribbling nonsense, while the teacher continued what he was saying or maybe began teaching. My mind was distorted, wasn't even listening. What a beautiful first day of resumption; this was definitely not the plan.
Then, not up to a second, I heard noises beside me. I turned and saw Chase fumbling with the seat. He finally sat in and looked at me, giving me his warm smile. I smiled back, mouthing a 'thank you' immediately after to him.
It seemed like he understood and blinked slowly while mouthing a 'you're welcome' as he faced forward to listen.
"As you all know my name..." The teacher began, grabbing the class' attention at the same time. "...except for the newbies, that is, my name is Mr Justin Ayigbe, but you can just call me Mr Justin."
"Or Mr Dustbin." I heard Chase whisper. Surely he didn't expect me to hear, because he was looking at the teacher with a shadowed annoyed face, but I did. I looked at him and giggled silently, making it audible for only him to hear. He looked at me somewhat shocked, then he warmed up and gave an embarrassing smile.
For the rest of the class, I jotted and listened to whatever Mr Justin taught. He was mainly talking about matrices which wasn't so much of a hassle, so I didn't have any further troubles in his class.
After math class was over, the girls at the corner faced themselves and started gisting and giggling, some groups of two and three did the same, while waiting for the geography teacher to arrive. Chase came to my desk.
"Lisa" I looked at him.
"Nice name." Something about him seemed so familiar, like I'd known him for a long time, so I naturally could not be so shy when I was with him.
"Thank you" I smiled.
At the end of my words, a plum woman walked in. She had a default angry look, very intimidating.
As soon as she entered, everyone adjusted and comported themselves, sitting in their proper seats and maintaining decorum.
She had a low cut and was wearing a very baggy black shirt and an orange skirt, on her feet were green sneakers, looking as though she wasn't prepared to come to school. But that made her even more unapproachable, and her rigid face made her even more scary. She carried a big grey bag, which she eventually let down, opened and brought out a flash drive. Connecting the drive to the smart board, she projected her slides which read, Longitudes and Latitudes. She began.
"Good morning class, my name is Mrs Sylvester as almost all of you know..." Just when she began speaking, the girls in the corner started giggling. It was because Mrs Sylvester's voice was very tiny, almost squeaky. It made her seem so cute and not to be taken seriously. A huge contrast to her look and aura.
She ignored the girls as they giggled, continuing her teaching, but it still dragged on. Then suddenly, she turned her look from the board to the direction of the sounds.
"Aisha, Omolola and Kenechi, get out." She pointed to the door. The three girls were shocked, but being sent out of the class on the first day of resumption didn't seem to faze them. Guess they were used to it.
They stood and walked out of the class, having continued their laughter silently, with faces that looked like they could no longer suppress it. After they were gone, Mrs Sylvester continued.
Like math class, I jotted a number of important notes until the bell rang. "That's it for today class, see you next week." She strolled out.
As I packed my stuff in my bag, getting ready to go to the Laboratory for biology class, a girl in front of me practically whined aloud. "Now I have to climb stairs, I so hate biology!" The others looked at her and laughed.
Judging by the happenings that occurred so far, It was quite obvious that the students and teachers were well acquainted with eachother, guess it's because of the small population of this rather peculiar school.
Another girl replied her, "Amaka, we all know you're very lazy, who except you can't climb a number of stairs?" Then the others laughed again.
Seems biology is upstairs...
Suddenly, I heard a song playing while my bag vibrated. I was shocked and frightened at the same time, and opened my bag. Oh, It was my phone. I keep forgetting that I now have a phone. Luckily, the ringtone didn't get anyone's attention for it was too low.
Exiting the classroom and finding my way to the staircase, having reached the second floor, I picked it out of my bag and 'Mom calling...' was revealed on the screen as I looked at it. That's only what I should expect, because it's only my mom's contact I have on my phone. I picked the call.
"Lisa, just called to ask how school was, good or bad?" What? "Wait, I know that I can't call during school hours but I just miss you hon"
While whispering, I replied.
"Mom it's okay, school is fine" I said as I scaled my eyes around the halls looking for my biology class. "I miss you too." I began to climb up the stairs.
"I'm so happy you can now go to school baby"
"Mom, I have a class right now so I'll have to hang up" I answered after I found the word I was looking for on a door. Laboratory.
"Okay then, bye" she sounded sad. Mom has few friends and she has gotten used to me being around, so I wasn't surprised she was sad.
"Don't worry mom, I'll be back in a few hours" I reassured her. "Bye" I said and hung up.
I was about turning the doorknob open when I heard an electrifying voice behind me, causing me to jilt.
"Not tryin' to get late this time are ya?" I turned and saw one of Chase's friend, the one who stood in the middle, who caught me staring at him.
"I guess" I replied.
"Ugwuanyi, that's a unique name. Mine's Joshua"
"Oh...hi jo..shua. I'm Lisa" He smirked at me and walked into the class after holding my hand to the doorknob as he turned it open.
I just stood there doing nothing, looking absentmindedly at the hand he touched. Few seconds later, I got my senses back, held the door and walked in. Different people, different minds, different understandings and different actions.
The class still looked like it had the same set of students in the maths class but a different teacher.
No, there was something different. Chase was not here. I felt a little lonely sitting down there alone. I scribbled things down while the teacher in the front started introduction. Soon, a girl sat beside me, at my left side. She dressed like a hippie and at the same time looked too adorable. I didn't see her in math class.
"Hi" she smiled at me.
"Oh, hi" I replied, also very confused as to why a strange girl would smile so bright at me.
"Carly...that's my name. It's very obvious you are new here." I looked at her with a confused look. "Seeing a pretty girl that doesn't wear make-up is scarce in this school."
Though I knew she was wooing me, I shamelessly blushed. "My name's Lisa" we talked for some time before we decided to listen to the teacher.
Our first forty minutes, which was the first period for the class, was over, remaining the second. Then the door opened and I looked up, Chase.
"Why is he so late?" I muttered under my breath.
"Questions like that are not to be asked, knowing that he is one of the three most important boys in the school. He is Chase, the other two are Joshua and Mohammed." Carly answered me. Woah, I should really work on my whisper. "The school's flower boys." She added.
"Wow, is he really that important? What makes him so?" I was so curious, who the hell is Chase?
"His father is the owner of the Nnamdi oil company which is a multinational company. Rumors say that he's invested in real estates, assets, businesses and even some government related sorts, and receives huge revenues from them."
Once I heard the Nnamdi oil company, I jolted. That company was the company my dad died working for, because of the gases he was exposed to. I heard the CEO, who I now know is Chase's dad, personally made sure we were properly compensated with a huge sum of money. They were truly sorry for being too careless. The money was so big that we doubted the man had any more for himself.
I can remember when dad rushed home one evening, very happy he signed a contract with a multi billionaire. He took us out for dinner and assured us that we'd be very rich.
Yes, we started affording better things because the pay was good, but in a matter of five years, dad died. He was an electrical engineer. His assigned work happened to be close to pipes that unnoticeably leaked poisonous gases. Dad worked diligently everyday, not knowing all of that was soon going to be in vain.
It's a pity all that money was spent trying to cure dad's leukaemia, and most of the money Nnamdi oil company compensated us with were spent on the therapist's services on mom and I. We did consult them a whole lot, mainly for mum.
"His mom on the other hand..." Carly's words disrupted my thoughts. "...is a famous singer, she is also known for her good dancing moves. Anna Nnamdi, you know her?" I nodded yes. Oh my, I never knew the famous Anna Nnamdi had a child. She is a woman blessed with a beautiful body, an amazing voice and remarkable dance moves. Now that I think about it, Chase took after his mum's looks.
"Chase's is the the richest out of the three ..." Carly continued "...but it usually is not noticed, at least he has a sense of humility compared to the remaining two. But there are rare cases where he abuses his power too. That's when trouble comes looking for him, but, trouble rarely looks for him. He scares me the most because he doesn't smile."
"The remaining two, their dads are close assistants to Chase's dad, in his company. But, Joshua's dad, Clint Osagie, who is the owner of this school and other known companies, seems richer than Mohammed's dad, Ishmael Galadima, who is the owner of the most popular hospital with the best services around the globe, 'Galadima's'. Its branches are spread within the country and abroad."
"They rule this school. The principal, teachers and students all bow to them. You dare not question their actions."
"In fact, power rules this school. Once it's noticed that one possesses power, or knows one who has power, they're respected. Also, when one knows he possesses power, he begins to misbehave, allowing power be the only thing he sees. In this school, power is directly related to wealth."
I looked up and found Chase near the door looking around with a confused look. I looked at him and we made eye contact. Immediately, I turned my eyes away from his.
I was already starting to feel very small, all this information was so overwhelming.
I looked up again slowly, but did not see him there, I was confused. He was there a second ago, now he is not. Until I heard movements of a sit beside me, at my right side. I looked towards the direction. It was Chase.