Like Stars At Night

Thirteen - Part One

Prefect Week was always the second week of resumption.

It was a week whereby the students of SS2 were monitored closely to see who would be getting the prefectship posts from the SS3's who were now supposed to focus on their upcoming exams rather than leading other students.

The teachers and management never came out to say that there was such a thing as Perfect Week but we students knew.

I wasn't too particular about getting a prefectship post, but I found the idea of being able to lead enticing.

During Prefect Week everyone was supposed to be on their best behaviour and this in itself presented a huge problem for me. The problem being Daniel. There was absolutely no way that boy could be well behaved for an entire week. Ha!

Turned out I didn't know anything about Daniel because after I explained the implications of the outcome of Prefect Week — he may have left with the impression that he'd be able to boss everyone around if he got to be a prefect which I tried to correct but failed miserably — not only did he behave himself for five whole days, he was freaking Prince Charming.

No hoodies with snarky quips, no making fun of my choice of books, no annoying me, nothing. Nada! He was actually nicer to me after that whole sleeping pill episode and somehow I missed our arguments.

It was Friday evening and I was working on my still life painting for Creative Art in the Quad.

Sylvanus was teaching Daniel how to play Ludo and I would admit I found it amusing how Daniel kept tugging his earlobe in concentration.

Someone dropped beside me and shook the sketchbook on my lap.

“Wawu! Another Amarachi original,” Telemi gushed as she looked at my painting. “What is this supposed to be anyway?”

“A tree but that's not what is doing me now,” I corked my paints so they wouldn't run dry. I washed my paintbrushes in the little tub I had just for that purpose and closed the sketchbook.

“Have you noticed that Daniel has been acting strangely lately?” I asked Telemi. In the pink light from the sky, all the black moles on her face stood out.

“Daniel?” She shook her head. “No oh! Aside from when he spent half an hour scarring all of us with his disturbing analysis of Moby Dick, I think he's been normal, but then again I know nothing about his normal.” She shrugged.

It was nice to have a friend in Arts and Humanities but right now she was unhelpful.

“I don't know, there's something not right. I mean I might have threatened him to behave himself this week but I can't believe I was this effective, something's up.”

I didn't notice Telemi's questioning stare as I stowed my art equipment away.

“Wait oh,” she eyed Daniel several feet away getting his ass handed to him in Ludo. “Come to think of it, I've been seeing you two together all through this week. Babe how far? Is something going on between you two? I can't blame you oh, he is . . .”

“Abeg, just stop right there, biko. He's just my friend, nothing else.”

She gave me a disbelieving stare. “You're a horrible liar but issokay. I sha hope you're not lying to yourself.”

With that, she got up and left.

I wasn't lying to myself. That much I was sure of.

I reached into my backpack and took my binder.

Start on Creative Art project, was the last thing on my schedule for today.

Crossing it out I realized that I was free from 6 to 8. Usually, I'd take one pill and have a little rest so that I could read at night but today I opted to do something different.