Hell Mary

Chapter Thirteen

The bright mornings first started with a cold moist at the early hours and with students reluctantly getting out of bed, showering with the ice cold water in their buckets from overnight, rushing for morning prayers before rushing again to class for morning prep. They would return after an hour of reading, to take breakfast, finish up their chores and then prepare again for classes.

Martins had walked up to Mary after an embarrassing reoccurrence of eye contacts. He had a steady aim, shooting his stares to the target in the most subtle yet steady way.

"Hi," he had started.

"Hi," she replied. She had been busy fiddling with the pages of a textbook that had formed dog ears by the edges.

"Can I borrow your Biology note?" He asked.

She reached into her bag and using her slender fingers to scan some books, she made to draw out a note book when she said instead after a short stare with Ashley at the front seat, "I don't have it with me. You can ask Ashley for hers."

He smiled and asked again, "What about your Civic note?" His gait, unchanged. The rowdiness in the class was distilled by Ashley's repeated banging on her wooden desk and instructing they all kept quiet. Her voice wasn't faint like most other girls', it was thick, but not too thick.

Her fingers reached again but she stopped halfway remembering where it had been, "It's with Deborah at the other class," she said, standing up to go for it. He had locked his hands on her chair at the last seat and another desk beside which was Stella's. He moved away, detaching his firm grip from her seat and creating a small space for her to pass through. Her arm brushed through his shirt that had few buttons popped open and the extra thickness on the hem of his singlet came into display.

She walked out of the class to step into the next that was just situated right in front of it- the both classes shared a wall, such that if you leaned close enough to the space left on the wall where the white board with marker stains was hung, you could hear whatever happened in the other class. Kelvin had been watching Martins' move. He noticed the smile he had on whenever he spoke in a way aimed to attract, the unwavering style girls had grown to love. His eyes met with Stella's, when he deviated it down her way and the latter quickly pushed her eyes into the book laid open in front of her which she pretended to be interested in.

Stella seemed keen and observant to very little details. She could perceive the rapid eye exchange Martins always had with Ashley and the many times Mary and Kelvin exchanged long stares when they hung out. She could tell who liked whom and always knew all the birthed gists even though she didn't waste time talking about it.

The Civic teacher walked in with an elegant demeanor and the class stood up to greet after Ashley tapped her desk with a rhythmical bang. The lady smiled on entrance, but you could easily tell it was forced and not as freely released like Miss Evelyn's. She wiped the board scarcely filled with a Math solving and wrote Civic on the board while drawing a thin line underneath. Her skirt tucked her fat thighs and then poured into floral folds below her thighs. Her dressing seemed crude yet somehow professional.

Turning to the class of settled students, she continued, "Umm... So Kings college boys," a grunt in response followed, "I was hoping you guys would move back into your school before the assignment I wanted to give, but since you're still here, you'd join in the group presentation. Ashley," she called and Ashley stood up immediately. "I told you about the group presentation right?" Ashley nodded. "How many are you in this class?"

Ashley rolled her eyes to each occupant of every seat, nodding slightly as her lips whispered numbers, "Thirty-five ma!"

"Good! You would share yourselves into five groups. That is seven people in each. We are going to be treating the whole five subtopics under Peace and Conflicts in the next class, OK?"