The Lost Ones

Chapter Fourty |♠ Pressure ♠|

                        ♪Gracious♪

“Hey," Gracious ignored the brown skinned boy before her, she was in a panic mode,and she was trying to revise. Panic mode, because Gracious had decided that what she had read for the past three months, was suddenly not enough.

“Are you not going to talk to me?" He asked her, Gracious winced when he pulled out a chair beside her, the sound of anything scraping against the ground irritated her.

“I can make you shudder as well," his moist lips grazed her ear, as he whispered and sat down. “Why did you leave?" She asked, she had promised herself that she wouldn't ask James why he had been hooking up with her without telling her that he and Denzel had been in an open relationship. She was supposed to be over that.

James shrugged, and she noticed how much weight he had lost. Her heart began to falter, she was pitying him. Gracious shook her head to clear her thoughts, he no longer mattered, he wasn't supposed to.

A frown contorted James' features when she took off his hand that he had placed on her lap, he looked at her, stunned for a minute and then, he threw back his head and laughed.

“What are you trying to form? Be doing like you don't need my affirmation or something, meet me at the AV Studio after our second paper." His words lingered long after he had left, Gracious sighed.

A tiny part of her still wanted to go after him, still wanted that affirmation. Her eyebrows furrowed, Gracious had watched countless videos of people talking about body positivity and self confidence, how people's opinions weren't supposed to matter on this journey, and how you were doing it for yourself.

But why did James' words still matter? “It's called a journey for a reason, I guess.". She drew in a shaky breath and continued revising.

Fifteen minutes later, Gracious knew because her reading timer was supposed to go off in twenty minutes time, and there were still five minutes left, Chetachi walked in with the head girl and the principal to address them before their exams.

                    ♠ Chikamsi ♠
“Five," the voice boomed, and students started rushing. Each person frantic to get their belongings out of the examination hall before they were thrown out.

Chikamsi took a deep breath, and allowed herself to relax. The school didn't want them to see their jamb scores until they had all written WAEC, Chikamsi didn't mind, because she wasn't too eager to see it as well.

She put the black inked pen in the pocket of her skirt, and gave an uneasy smile to the invigilator who placed the question paper on her desk and ordered Chikamsi not to turn it over.

Chetachi sat at the back, confident and assured of what he was doing. She had wanted to ask Tobiloba to pray with her in a last minute panic, but decided against it.
She and Tobi didn't really talk anymore.

“You may begin," she gulped and turned the answer sheet over.