FINESSE

√ SEVENTEEN √

Ike nervously swung her legs forward and backwards as she waited for Juola at the front of her class. She had called her mom and told her she would be home late and was staying at a friend's house for a project.

And of course she didn't go into details, not that her mother asked. Ike was a very unusual kid. Maybe because she was made to understand life from a very young age.

Ike didn't think she had felt nervous in her entire life. Not even when she was going to know her fate. Not when she was made to stand in front of twenty thousand guests to read a citation. Not even when she had to talk to one of biggest teen stars in Africa.

If Ike was ever nervous, she always calmed down soon but this time around; her nervousness seemed to be building at each passing second.

Ike glanced at her wristwatch and pursed her lips seeing that it was already forty minutes since the closing bell was rang. What was the problem of the Maths teacher exactly?

Ike brought out her phone from the pocket of her jacket as she scrolled through her WhatsApp messages. She clicked on the class group and read through the messages not bothering to drop a comment.

"Did you wait for too long?" Someone asked and Ike felt her heart jump into her throat as she shrank back in fear before glancing upwards at Juola.

"Don't ever do that again!" Ike exclaimed as Juola stared at her like he had seen an alien.

"I only asked you a question" Juola replied as Ike pursed her lips as she nervously adjusted her jacket.

"Well you scared the hell out of me okay?" Ike said as Juola nodded.

"I apologise" Juola replied and Ike sighed.

"Its okay. Let's go" Ike said as she started walking before froze when she suddenly realized that the her back felt empty.

She turned to see that Juola had removed her bag from her back and was carrying it ignoring the stares from the other students.

Juola didn't wait neither did he stop walking and Ike had to hurry after him till they got to the car park.

A Lamborghini was parked in the school car park and a guy in suit got down and opened the door. Ike didn't miss the look of surprise on his face when he saw her and Juola together.

Ike's parents were rich. Stinkingly rich. An Engineer that received thousands of contracts everyday and a Permanent Secretary with a side business of importing and exporting was rich to an extent right?

But Ike didn't think she had been in a Lamborghini before. The chair was soft and she felt like sprawling her legs on it and nuzzling. While she looked around the car with curious eyes, Juola just dropped the bags beside him and rsateshis back closing his eyes immediately.

Juola was probably the only student that would drive a Lamborghini to school but then he was Juola, Juola Matthews.

Ike was busy admiring the inside of the car and didn't even realize that they had driven inside the compound of the Matthews.

Ike unconsciously sucked in a breadth when she stepped down. The most magnificent house she had seen in her entire life stood in front of her. Ike looker around at the standing, scattered bodyguards in black suits, the white mansion, the flower beds that seemed to have given the compound , a fresh and warm feeling and scent.

Even the cemented, marbled floor. Ike nodded her head as she chuckled. After all, it was one or the richest man in Africa's house.

"Come with me" Juola said as he walked towards a door. The bodyguard near the door immediately opened the door as soon as they were few steps away from it and Ike looked around the place they had stepped into with wide eyes.

It was like a mini apartment with sofas in the seating room, a dining table and two different doors.

"Make yourself comfortable" Juola said as he walked towards one of the doors and pushed it open.

"He likes Messi?" Ike asked no one in particular upon seeing the engraved picture of Messi on the full wall. She sat down on the sofa as she removed her jacket exposing the white long sleeves she wore underneath.

The door Juola had stepped opened again and Ike stared at him as he walked out wearing a pair of shorts and a round neck top.

He was carrying some textbooks and Ike watched him as he dropped them on the glass table.

"I made a short briefing on what I think our project should be like" Juola said as he passed Ike some papers.

Ike smiled as she collected it and started going through them. She glanced up at Juola at small intervals clearly surprised.

If she wasn't going to under the ground in a month, if only she going to last much longer, Ike was sure that her brains would take her places. She was smart and intelligent, Ike knew just how much of that she was.

But it was useless. Seeing the short briefing Juola had given her, Ike started to doubt if she could boast of her brains at all.

"Its very nice. I think we should go with your idea. I like it" Ike said as she dropped the paper on the table.

"Okay then. These are the materials we are going to use. I have a few textbooks we could also refer to" Juola said as Ike nodded hitching closer to the table as she and Juola started working on their project.

When two intelligent people came together, the results were bound to be beautiful and it was the same thing in the case of Juola and Ike.

As they worked together, they easily solved a lot if their problems and the project progressed.

"So, what if we try to use Dalton's theory...... " Ike starter and paused in the middle as a wave of nauseous hit her.