Like Stars At Night

Ten

“I freaking hate Daniel,” I puffed to Kenny as soon as I got to where she was sitting in the physics lab.

She just eyed me and I was immediately reminded that she was angry with me.

Seeing as class was ongoing and Mr. Fadairo was ‘teaching’ in his monotonous voice I tried as quietly as possible to look for another seat since Kenny was still angry and I usually sat with her.

As I was about to pass Ramiu who was sleeping in almost plain view of the teacher I felt an arm grab mine and I turned.

“I'm never too angry to hear gist,” Kenny whispered and relinquished one of the two lab stools she was sitting on.

I shot her a grateful look and dumped my semi-heavy bag on the table with a low thud.

Ifeanyi shot me a questioning stare from across the long, white-tiled table and I mouthed “it's a long story” back to him.

I got out my pen and note and tried to focus on the equation Mr. Fadairo was writing on the board.

“He's the reason you didn't want to follow me to Arts this morning, isn't he?” Kenny whispered to me disregarding the fact that we were in the front and Mr. Fadairo was in the habit of giving tough questions to noisemakers.

My eyes widened at her accusations and my heart did a little flip.

I didn't answer but scribbled the equation.

“Why do you hate him?”

Kenny kept insisting on the one topic that I didn't want to even think about.

I had no idea why my body reacted the way it did around him. I mean, I was around boys all day up to the point that I could confidently say that I got along better with them than with members of my own gender but this particular one made my entire senses go haywire by the mere act of talking.

“Is it one of those times when you say you hate someone but you really like them?”

“Oh my God!” I whispered to Kenny. “Will you stop psychoanalyzing my words? Sometimes I hate someone means I hate someone. Nothing more.”

“Kehinde and Amarachi! I'm sorry to cut in your gossip but I have a question?”

I straightened and felt my cheeks heat up at being caught.

“Do I appear invisible to you two?” Mr. Fadairo placed his arms on his hips over the ugly yellow Ankara he wore.

The grammar Nazi in my head couldn't help but cry out at the improper use of the oxymoron.

Kenny on the other hand didn't seem to care about grammar because she sat up and flashed a blinding smile.

“Sorry, Mr. Fadairo. We'll pay attention.”

“I would ask you to come and solve something but we both know it won't be hard for either of you,” Mr. Fadairo rolled his eyes and got back to his lecture.

“We're not done with this conversation,” Kenny whispered and turned to the teacher.

I let out a sigh of relief and focused on learning, kicking everything else to the backseat of my mind.

• • •

“I haven't talked to you since we resumed, I think that's what brought my ulcer back.”

Ifeanyi had sidled up to me as the siren rang out for midday with his signature white AirPods in his ear. They weren't connected to anything, he wore them because apparently, they dampened all sounds for him. Ifeanyi was quirky like that. His AirPods were probably the only gadgets allowed in school.