The Waiting Game

chapter two

There was a new boy in Amina Khalid’s class.

If there was anything the past two years had taught any Orion member, it was wariness. The troubles of the organization had begun with the most subtle signs: the discovery of a program containing secrets, one seemingly ordinary girl and of course, Kendrick Yong – the transfer student from the University of Abuja. Amina’s lips dipped down in a slight smile.

Of course, nobody had ever been really fooled by Kendrick’s disguise, then, he’d claimed to want to be a part of The Orion Project – the same organization that had murdered his best friend, Amina had pulled the trigger herself. But Joshua had decided to keep Kendrick close, she’d done a background check on him and found out that he was the son of a Chinese billionaire based in Nigeria; he was supposed to be the gullible boy they could manipulate when it was needed. Joshua had miscalculated though, Kendrick Yong wasn’t really stupid and he’d been the one domino that sent the others crashing down.

And now there was another new boy in her class. In 400L. Transfer students were impossible at this time and the first thing that occurred to Amina was that there was foul play somewhere.

“What do you think, Mina?” Kosi asked, luring Amina back to the present. She blinked, startled that she’d zoned out. Amina smacked her lips together, trying to recall what the girls surrounding her had been talking about.

Makeup, they had started from makeup. Kosi had complimented Amina’s shade of lipstick and somebody had mentioned the new Kylie Jenner lip kit that had just been released. They’d then moved to the ridiculously expensive price of cosmetics. Bingo! Somebody had mentioned Nina St. Clair – she was a twenty one year old model, she’d been Joshua’s ex girlfriend and was now the new face for Kylie Jenner’s new lip kit.

Amina smiled slowly, the strange boy at the back of the class forgotten briefly. She usually got this a lot, most people thought she was dating Joshua Phillips and Amina tried not to shudder every time it was mentioned (it was only somebody truly insane that could date that boy) but neither Joshua nor her ever tried to debunk the rumors. It kept most girls away from Joshua and Amina didn’t particularly care if it drove boys away from her.

But still, people were nosy, they wanted an outright confession, they wanted to see Joshua holding her hand or Amina hugging him. Like now, she had a rapt audience, waiting for her to say something nasty about Nina.

“Good for her,” Amina drawled. There was an obvious air of disappointment amongst the five girls.

Amina briefly mulled over saying something subtly catty. It wasn’t that she wanted to satisfy the curiosity of these girls. As far as she was concerned, she wasn’t friends with any of them, except maybe Kosi – and even then, friendship was a stretch. The rumors could only go so far before some poor girl decided to go ahead and trouble Joshua. Maybe next time she was with him on campus, she’d press a kiss to his cheek just for fun. Also because it would be fun to see Joshua’s reaction.

Her smile broadened to a grin as she imagined the look of incredulity that would fill his face.

“What’s funny?” Kosi asked, flipping her knotless braids over to the other side of her face. Her eyes were narrow with suspicion. Amina shook her head.

“Nothing.”

The conversation carried on from there, a new topic already on Kosi’s friends’ lips.

Amina looked behind and frowned. The boy was still there, his head studiously bent, reading a textbook spread out on the brown desk. He looked up in that moment and his eyes met Amina’s. His gaze flitted away almost instantly. He was nervous, it seemed.