I Did Not Want To Fall For You

Chapter 12: Dejection

Kamsi walked along the grassy path to the hall for her first-ever Waec paper. Truthfully, she was nervous. Yes, she did study hard but then Waec questions were not set by her school teachers but by a general body. She heard stories about how hard it was to get an A in Waec, especially in core science subjects, and that how well students' scripts were marked depended on the mood of the markers. She already prayed. No lazy marker would spoil her Waec result.
Kaito was somewhere behind. She didn't feel so inclined to wait for him since he had been talking with some of his friends.
"Hey," CJ fell into step with her.
Seeing him so close to her startled her a bit. Since he confessed his feelings for her, they kind of drifted apart and she had gotten used to not talking with him. She thought since she already liked someone else, it would hurt him if she kept being close to him. He must have heard about her relationship with Kaito already.
"Watsup?" She beamed at him. It was nice to talk with him again though.
"I'm cool," He smiled at her, "And you definitely look cool too. I'm guessing you are going to ace this Waec like all your other exams. You don't look nervous at all."
She laughed, "Well, that's only on the outside. I am actually nervous."
"Me too," He said and blew out a breath, "It's like our entire journey of senior school boils down to this point. I feel like if I fail this Waec, my mum will think she wasted money paying my school fees."
"Are you kidding?" She asked, looking at him, "Are you planning to fail or you are just imagining?"
"Imagining," He answered with a smile, "It's best I just write this once and for all so I focus on Jamb after school."
"Yeah."
They walked into the hall together. The previous day, all the SS3 students moved their lockers and chairs to the hall and arranged them according to their Waec numbers. Her surname began with A so she was among the first set.
"I'm somewhere in the middle," CJ spoke as they stared at the vast array of lined lockers.
"I'm on the second row," She said and turned to him, "Good luck. I want to catch my breath on my seat."
"Oh... Good luck."
She waved and left for her locker, stopping for a moment to see if Kaito was already present. He wasn't so she went on to her locker.
Minutes later, she watched him walk to his locker somewhere around Caleb. She smiled to herself, admiring his bearing. She liked the way he walked with confidence and yet with charm. Watching him alone was enough for him to earn her respect. She wanted to wave but he wasn't looking in her direction. She waited for him to look around but when he did, it was so flitting that he didn't see her.
She rolled her eyes. If Muhammed would not go to the mountain, the mountain would go to Muhammed. She got up and went to him.
"You don't know that you are supposed to look for me first thing when you enter, eh?" She said with a pout.
He looked up at her, a smile already on his face.
"I saw you, I just thought I should give you some space," He said.
She rolled her eyes and wiped off a speck of whatever that was on his face. Staring at him, her eyes narrowed; his smile looked fake and withdrawn.
"You are not still nervous about this, are you?" She asked, "Well, it's okay to be nervous but..."
"I'm fine." His fake smile fell off.
"Okay," She shrugged, not wanting to seem pestering, "just know you'll pass very well. You can do it."
He nodded and began tapping his fingers on his locker. A nervous habit of his, she had noticed.
"Are you sure you are cool?" She asked again. She remembered they hadn't been saying their morning Rosary together again. They stopped since their first break. She should have insisted they continued.
He forced a smile, "Yeah."
"Oh... Okay," She said and looked around, beginning to feel weird, "Is Nonso not here yet?"
"He's coming."
"Oh..." She looked back at him and forced a smile herself, "Bye then. Good luck."
She left for her seat. Was it just her or was Kaito acting weird?
Before the exam, she had been nervous but after, she was quite the opposite; she was numb. Not like the Physics paper was so difficult, she answered a good number of questions but she also met several questions that she was sure she had never come across before. She didn't feel so confident about an A again.
She looked in Kaito's direction, ready to meet him and complain, but he was already walking out of the hall with some of his friends.
She blinked, dejection watching over her at once. Was he still giving her space?