"You?!" I asked in a bored tone.
"Yeah. The library is free for all students, ain't it?" She asked. I rolled my eyes. I was seriously at loss for words. I wouldn't have said anything even if I wasn't.
Just then, I heard the sound of the bell. I had no idea what the bell was for, bet me, I wasn't even interested in knowing. "I have Geography class now," I said and left her there.
****
'Rain on me' by Lady Gaga ft Ariana Grande boomed in my ears through my headphones. I kept my eyes fixed on the tinted glasses of the car trying to zero my thoughts.
I shifted my gaze to the rearview mirror and caught the driver staring at me. I raised a brow and he quickly looked away. I redirected my gaze to the glass frame while making a mental note to ask for a new driver.
The car soon halted in front of the gates of a massive mansion. The glasses of the car rolled down. I popped out my head and pulled my hoodie off a bit, at least enough to reveal my face to the camera in the front of the gate.
The gate slid open almost immediately as I took my head in and put my hoodie back on.
I stepped into the spacious living room and immediately sighted my mother with a few people I assumed to be her friends. I only recognized one of them. She was a Nollywood star, and her name began with an I or so.
The actress was modestly dressed compared to the rest. I mean the rest of them looked as if they were attending some red carpet event and not just visiting a friend.
"Excuse me? Is there a problem?" One of my mother's friend asked in a seemingly faked foreign accent.
She must have noticed I was standing there. I also saw the others turn their attention to me, my mother being the last. We made a little eye contact for a while.
She looked younger than the rest of her friends there although I couldn't tell if it was natural or not. She looked more like twenties while she was actually thirty seven.
She also had this perfect brown skin which made me assume that perhaps my dad was really fair for me to have gotten my complexion.
My mom spoke up on seeing me, "Honey, you're..."
"I'll be in my room," I said interrupting her in my most polite manner. I went up the spiral stairs not waiting to hear her reply.
I heard someone ask who I was and I faintly heard my mother's reply as, "She's my niece".
I pushed open my room door on getting upstairs and went straight for the bed. I sat on the edge pulling off my shoes. I left them at the spot I had dropped them once I had taken them off knowing that they would miraculously find their way back to my wardrobe, and even if they didn't, I wouldn't be affected in the least.
I changed my clothes, showered and finally laid on my bed.
I didn't have any assignments to do and I didn't feel like reading either. I already read enough as it was. Watching a movie would have been nice if I didn't have to get up really early the next day.
I rather decided to take a dip in the pool since I couldn't think of anything else to do. Bad choice though cause I ended up with a very bad cold the next day.
I sneezed again for like the umpteenth time since I got to school, this time almost loosing my balance.
"Be careful", came a voice. I looked up to see this tall guy in front of me who turned out to be Ifeanyi.
"Thanks," I said in a tone that suggested he should mind his business and walked past him. He didn't care when I almost died yesterday due to his incompetence, why would he care if I walked carefully or not. I was a little distance away from him when I heard him mutter something about me. I ignored him and moved on to my class.
I arrived just in time for the class. I was late to school that day so I had kept my hoodie on day to prevent Genevieve from seeing me if she was in school. I still couldn't just get myself to die the issue.
Perhaps I would if she didn't have one hell of a loud mouth. She would probably blurt out that I was Ami Tara's daughter before anybody got a chance to ask.
I took my seat and that's when I realized that Chiamaka might just end up sitting next to me for the rest of the session. She waved at me but I ignored that and looked straight at the teacher.
"Good morning class," he greeted before proceeding to ask, "I hope you didn't have a problem with the assignment I gave you..."
Assignment?! He gave us an assignment? Oh no! I totally forgot to do his assignment!
"...Alya, you must have done the assignment. Can you please bring it so I can go through it quickly and then the rest of the class can use yours to review theirs to be sure they got it right."
Those were the next words that came out from the teacher's mouth. I stood up. He was still backing the class as he basically drew the letters, G-E-O-G-R-A-P-H-Y, on the board.
He turned his attention back to me once he was done. "Where's the assignment? You did it right?" He asked and I fell dumb for a while. Well I didn't do the assignment and I could just tell him that. I mean what was the worst thing he could do to the top student in class. Send me out of his class?
"Yes she did," Chiamaka answered before I could even speak. I turned to look at her confusion written all over my face.
She gestured to my table and I saw a pink transparent file with my name printed on the first page in black ink with what I assumed was Chiamaka's handwriting. What was she up to now?
"I asked you something, did you do the assignment?" He asked again. It was either he didn't hear Chiamaka or he just chose to ignore her.
I looked at Chiamaka and she made a gesture once more suggesting that I should take the file. 'Might as well go with it' I thought as I answered, "Yes."
"Then what are you waiting for? The earth should stand still before you bring it?" The teacher asked in annoyance.
I would have rolled my eyes if I didn't have a good student reps to keep. I picked up the file praying to the heavens that Chiamaka actually knew what she did.
I handed it to the teacher silently still praying. He flipped through it and nodded in satisfaction.
"Perfect!" He commented. "The rest of the class should really learn from you. Make sure everyone gets this before this class is over. I'll collect them all at the end of the class".
He handed me the file and went back to teaching. I flipped through the file. The assignment was typed and basically faultless. Wow, Chiamaka actually did think this through. Guess she did use her brains after all.
****
What Chiamaka had done for me that day in class was great although particularly odd, odd enough that I found it almost creepy. I mean why would she just hand me her assignment like that?
Too bad I couldn't thank her. And also luckily for me, the week ran out without me seeing Genevieve. I was actually starting to think that we might not meet until I left the school. It was a Friday afternoon, around three o'clock.
I couldn't get myself to stand up from my bed as I lay gazing at the ceiling. I came back from school two hours ago and had done absolutely nothing but gazing at the ceiling. If I continued at that pace, I was getting a sure F in my WAEC.
I soon heard the sound of a bell. That wasn't my problem anyway, I'd just let the security do their job. A minute later, I got a beep on my tablet. Lazily, I picked it up.
It was a message from the security. Apparently, there was someone who wanted to see me. But I didn't normally get many visitors. The only person I knew that could give me such a random visit was currently in Canada.
'Name?' I texted back to the security.
'She has refused to disclose her identity ma'am'. I stared at the message for a while.
'Dismiss her' I typed at last and dropped my tablet.
I could have checked the cctv footage on my tablet to know who it was but then why bother if the person wasn't interested in giving out her identity. After a short nap. I decided to take a stroll. Putting on a white big hoodie and black jeans, I left my room.
Once outside the gate, I put my face down pulling my hoodie closer to cover my face. I was barely one meter from the gate when I heard a voice call out, "Alya!" I froze in my step. That familiar deep annoying voice that belonged to Chiamaka.