Reason To Stay

Chapter Nine

"Best!" Halima exclaimed, more like screamed when she spotted Zoe coming out of the room with Wilson, and then ran to hug her. "I've really missed you".

Zoe rolled her eyes. "I'm just going to pretend like I wasn't at your place all night, yesterday and you didn't force me into watching that super cheeky unrealistic movie with you."

After Zoe's mental break down yesterday, Halima had persuaded her into staying longer so they could watch a Disney movie together of which Zoe would have definitely refused if she hadn't just ran away from home. If you haven't guessed already, Zoe hated cartoons, chick flicks or anything with a happy ending because in her words, they are unrealistic and all they do is create a false fantasy in the heads of everyone.

Halima fake gasped as she placed a hand on her chest. "You hurt me Best." She feigned hurt, earning a chuckle from Williams, who was sitting on the couch and a Where did you find this girl look from Wilson who was also sitting on the couch. "But I'm going to forgive you because you asked nicely." She circled her arm around Zoe's, pulling her out of the house. "Anyways, guess the news that's circulating as of today?"

"Why should I? You are going to tell me anyway."

"Bye Wils." Zoe shouted, deliberately ignoring Williams as she followed Halima out of the room. "But then again..." She looked down at Halima who was a whole feet shorter than Zoe's six feet self. "Where did you find the time for gossip?" She quirked her eyebrow. "I left your house by midnight."

"A spy doesn't reveal their secrete, but I'll reveal mine because as you guessed I am a bad spy". She giggled. "Nosy Nora was at my door step this morning."

"Zoe rolled her eyes. "Of course it's her, why did I even ask?"

Nora or Nosy Nora as Zoe would call her was their town's go to for any gossip. If there wasn't one, she'd come up with one. Zoe was certain she was a paparazzi in her past life.

They avoided the main road of which they would have gone through if they wanted to take the bus and they turned into a narrow road that led to their school. "So what's it they are saying?" Zoe asked.

"Apparently, they caught you in bed with a married man last evening." Halima grinned, slapping Zoe's arm. "How dare you you sneak a man into my house last night?"

Zoe chuckled, shaking her head. "I hope the said married man is cute then". She replied, causing Halima to laugh. "Come on, let's walk fast. I still have to dub your maths assignment before maths class.

Zoe can count on one hand the number of times she has done her assignment by herself. She was always copying Halima's work, except from the classes they take separately, then she ended up not doing them. Yet in the performance chain of their level, Zoe was ranked fifth out of sixty students, a rank higher than Halima. How she does it was beyond the teachers comprehension and was also a source of frustration to them. How can a girl be that academically dumb and still maintain such a high position? That was the most asked question among themselves in the staff room. Except from the food and nutrition teacher, Miss Jones didn't understand why the teachers were mean to her, after all Zoe was her best student. Yet again proving Albert Einstein right with his saying that, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its life believing that it is stupid.

She had been accused of cheating on numerous occasion. Presently she is placed directly in front of the invigilator, far away from the rest of the student during a test, and that still didn't stop her. Zoe was a grade one crammer, she could cram the whole of the constitution without skipping a beat. The only loop hole to this was that she forgets everything she read as soon as she leaves the hall. Not that she cared anyway.