PAST

2

Chapter 2

I woke up from deep sleep suddenly. I turned my eyes to each corner of my room, looking for the person who had woken me up; there was no one there. I locked my eyes on the ceiling, feeling a little disorganized and demented. My mind was blank at first, like it had nothing to think about; peaceful and quiet -- like a baby who had just been born. I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t know who I was, but that was just for a few second. I really shouldn’t have woken up too suddenly like that. My mind started to show me memories to help me remember who I was and whatnot. But my episode with Azriel came in rushing. I’m pretty it jumped out of line and overtook the important memories. “Stay in line you i***t!”

“Damn…! I how the hell are you going to act today in class?” I questioned myself.

Azriel and I were in the same grade, and took the exact same classes. Just previously, I thought it was cute that we were in the same neighborhood, the same grade and offered the exact same classes, but well, not anymore. I can’t see here anymore, not even her shadow. I know I’m going to literally pass by when we meet, and I wouldn’t be able to help it. “Cute? Are you kidding me?” Well Okay, maybe cute wasn’t the exact word I used. I thought it was fate. I mean, what other explanation is there if not that the universe was trying to glue us together. Not anymore… Now I’m convinced the universe was just trying to test the limits of my stupidity. And you know me, I surpass limits.

Sigh… Well, It obviously misunderstood the intentions of the universe, if it had an intention at all. I’m in the same class with Sabrina also, we offer the exact same course also, plus, she also lives in the neighborhood. So, why did I think Azriel’s was fate, and not hers? Well, because she’s…

Hmm, how do I put it nicely…?

Uh – she’s pretty ugly; and that’s to put it nicely, because ugly is actually an understatement in describing how she looked, and I kid you not!

What I hated to see were the two gigantic incisors that protruded diagonally and kept her upper and lower lip from touching. It was as if she had intentionally worn those to purposely keep people from talking to her. And as if those gigantic teeth weren’t enough, she had about four huge black moles on her face; two on each side. Her long blonde her was never touched; not even by herself. She never combed it, she never washed it – hell, I don’t even think she ever washed herself up. Anytime I saw her, I got this feeling that she was being ugly on purpose, ‘cos I mean, no parent would watch their ugly daughter go to school like that. Right?

She was usually the laughing stock of the school. Why wouldn’t she be. Every school is made up of laughing predators who are ready to pounce and mock you until you decide to jump over a bridge and die, and it’s your duty not to fall prey to such things.

Though I thought Sabrina was really ugly and all, I’d never made a mockery of her; not in front of her at least. But when I’m with my boys and her name pops up, I “sorta kinda” say a few things to make my friends burst in laughter. I was the funny one in our group after all. Apart from that, I was good to her. I’m sure I was her only friend in the entire school or so, though we weren’t really close. It was hard, but I liked walking with her to school and back. I somewhat enjoyed her company. She didn’t look it, but she was really chill, I mean, you could see it in her talks. Our conversations were amazing. She had ideas and expect opinions on almost everything, and I always admired that. I’d usually be like, “Hey Sab, have you heard about this? What do you think about it?” And of course, she’d already heard about it. She’d tell me what she thought about the thing and list a billion more things that would make the thing much better. And her comments were always on point. She talked about the world with me, but what she never talked about was the mockery she got from school. Never even complained about it, and I always wondered why.

I sighed and caressed my eyes and hair the same time. I picked up my phone to check the time.

I quickly rushed into the bathroom after that. My bath was a short one. I just over soaped my hair and let the soapy bubbles run down my entire body with the shower pouring over my head. I rinsed my armpits and lower sides, and after a minute or two of feeling the shower pressure over my face, I was done.

I got out of my house after long countless attempts to level my afro hair across my head. There was this thing about me… well, about my hair in particular. Its growth was uneven. I always had the left half of my head with more hair than the right half. So even after full combing, I’d gently hit just the left side to the level of the right, and sometimes it takes forever so do – ‘cos usually I’d over do it, and have to recomb everything again. My dad would tell me to go get a lower cut, I mean the lowest cut, so that I wouldn’t struggle with it, but I don’t like the idea. It’s like, I’m the one struggling so that’s none of your concern. You get what I mean?

I hear my name right after I shut my door.

“Blondiee…” I said when I saw her standing in our drive way.

She smiles slightly.

“How long have you been here?” I queried when I’d gotten close to her.

“Oh – I literally just got here.”

“I see – shall we?”

“We shall.”

“Hey so uh, what was up with you last night? You looked… I don’t know, sad?” Sabrina queried after a few meters of silent side by side walking.

“Huh? What are you talking about? Yesterday was Sunday, you know?” I mouthed.

Yesterday was Sunday; I thought I had to remind her of that. Maybe she’d forgotten or mistook it for another day. Here was the reason. Sabrina and I never met on the weekends. She had this thing that made her unavailable on weekends. Since I’d known her, I’d never seen her on a Saturday or a Sunday. I always found it odd, though I didn’t really care what that was all about and whatnot, but a wink of curiosity was involved.

“Ah Jeremy, of course I know yesterday was Sunday.” She answered.

“Ha – but what do you mean I looked sad?”

“Well, I mean, I saw you go to Azriel’s and returning with a blue face all across.”

My heart knocked on my chest with one hard bang. I didn’t expect it. I was very sure no one saw me go there or back. I thoroughly looked around and saw no one around. I even looked through windows and all but nothing. It felt as if the entire neighborhood had been evacuated following a zombie attack or something – but I guess that was just a facade imagination.

“What was that about?” Sabrina asked.

“Uh, nothing. And wait a minute. Why are you spying on me?” I questioned, trying to get the attention off me.

“No no no no no… I wasn’t! It was a coincidence.”

“But it wasn’t. You saw me go and back. Where you just staring the window the whole time or what?”

I knew she might have seen me through her window, because I didn’t see anyone at her door step or around her house when I looked.

Sabrina suddenly ran forward to avoid my question. I smiled slightly with proud eyes. I’d thrown her off my back. That was close. She had something to hide, if not, she would have easily figured me out.

I felt a hand grab my left shoulders from the back in the hall way. We’d only just arrived at school and heading to our lockers. I turned my head to see who it was. Gordon met my eyes with a massive grin. I smiled and signaled Sabrina to go ahead.

“I reckon it didn’t go well with Azriel?”

My eyes widened immediately. What was up with that? Everyone I’d met that morning kept talking about Azriel. EVERYONE! Well, I mean, Sab and Gordon were the only two I’d met so far but it felt like the world already knew about what had happened between Azriel and I. I rolled my eyes to the corners to check if anyone who was closed by had heard what Gordon spat out. I quickly sent my index finger to my lips and shushed him.

“So, I’m right?” He laughs hard… way too hard.

This time all eyes were on us. Gordon didn’t mind, he kept laughing, like a hyena who’d cheated his friends and gotten all the food. I kept my eyes on him, imagining how I would have smacked the s**t out of him if we weren’t surrounded by all these people. The question “how did he know” kept ringing endlessly in my head until I finally remembered. What a terrible mistake I made. I told him – them – that I was finally ready to confess my love for Azriel, and I was going to do that on the weekend.

Sigh…!

I really shouldn’t have. I should have kept it from Gordon in particular – at least until Azriel had given me a positive answer. Gordon had always been like that. He was a shy, socially awkward type of person, but when it came down to mockery, he couldn’t give two shits about his surroundings.

I hated that about him. This i***t would embarrass you anywhere, anytime.

It was funny when he did it to either Godwin or Brown, but less funny when he did it to me. I had second thoughts when I was telling them about my plans… because he was there at the time. I’d wanted to keep it between myself and the other two (Brown and Godwin), but right then I felt bad about that thought because Gordon was a part of our crew, and I didn’t want him left out. Secondly, I was somewhat confident that Azriel would go out with me after I confess to her.

I shook my head and spun around and walk away.

I could still hear him cracking from a distance.

“Idiot.”

My first period – biology – Mr. Schmeichel announces a pop quiz as soon as he walks in.

“s**t!” I say with an undertone.

“Huh?” Mr. Schmeichel queries and turns his eyes to my direction. “You said something?” He added.

“What? Me? No…”

My eyes widened and I could feel my heartbeats in my neck. I totally forgot this man had an acute hearing. He could literally hear the sound of the smallest ant fall from a five centimeters height. That’s why eighty percent of the class failed in his tests. He could hear everything, so there was no whispering out question numbers or whatever.

The pop quiz was a huge problem since I hadn’t understood a word of my homework of about four weeks or more; well, I stopped trying after a few days, maybe a week. I look at my side and there’s Michel Fishburne; probably the only person in the entire class more clueless about biology than I am.

My jaws dropped dramatically.

“I’m going to fail!” I say in my head.

I caught Sabrina waving at me and pointing an empty seat right beside her. My eyes glowed bright and a grin of happiness overcame my face. I wasn’t going to fail after all. I took my backpack hurriedly and dived out of my seat. Only for Mr. Schmeichel to stop me. He’d already started sharing the sheets from the first table.

“Get back to your seat Mr.…”

I get dizzy right away and my eyes starts blurring.

I reluctantly collapse in my seat.

I wouldn’t have minded at all if sign language was possible. I would just have to look in Sabrina’s direction, use my fingers for the question numbers, and she, use her fingers for the answers. A single finger being “A”, two fingers meaning a “B”, three a “C” and four a “D”; but it’s not. Sign language wasn’t possible. Not in Mr. Schmeichel’s class anyway. My man was a supernatural being; literally. He could hear whispers; he could hear sign language as well. “Who does that?” I could swear and prove he could hear thoughts, but that’s for another time. He once gave me a wild glare when I randomly insulted him in my head --- the details on that is for another day.

“I’m definitely going to fail this quiz.”

There were five solid questions on Mr. Schmeichel’s quiz, and I didn’t know enough to fake an answer to a single one. I’d spent the first fifteen minutes discussing with myself why I was a failure. Next to me, was Michel, you’d already doubled over her paper, with a freakish smile at the corner of her mouth. Her pose was really reassuring, especially for someone as dumb as she.

“Oh – is that it?”

I remembered Mr. Schmeichel lecturing her to do better and study harder a few weeks back. Maybe she’s been doing that. Her first answer looked pretty good, actually; her answers were neat and deliberate, not frantically scribbled like you do when you don’t know what the hell you’re writing.

I nodded my head slightly at my newest thought. I thought it was a good idea. It was.

I peeked over Michel’s work to copy a few pointers for starters – I tried – It seemed like that day Mr. Schmeichel was out to ruin my life, after Azriel had ruin almost half of it the day before. He yelled out Pens down dramatically, like he was doing a voice over for an action movie.

Sigh… “Crap!”