Stealing Savannah

People always say it's better you 'marry your best friend', well they are right....... well in my case "Date your best friend". There are a lot of Pros to dating your best friend, your best friend knows you better than anyone, even your parents sometimes, you can easily be yourself around them, you share the same values, want the same things and communication is great, you never run out of things to say, there are no awkward pauses. Everything just comes naturally and easily. At least that's how it is between David and me. And then there's the gossip. You see David and I have been friends since Jss1 and I think everyone in school always expected it of us, you know to date and sometimes I wonder if that pressure had anything to do with us getting together but I love him and I know he loves me too. "Does anyone want anything from the canteen?" my long time friend Binta asked getting up from our spot under the tree. I don't know why she bothers though, she hates it when people especially a lot of people take advantage of the fact that she's going out to send her on errands like they're doing now. Only God knows what runs through that girl's mind sometimes. "Savvy.....what about you?" "no," I answered smiling at her. I turned toward David, 'my boyfriend' I thought with his brown hair on a neat low cut, his white shirt, black pants, and black tie, and his badge on the left pocket of his shirt to indicate he was a prefect at our school, Harmony high school. I was the envy of most girls in our year and some of the senior girls too, we weren't seniors yet but next year we will be and he will be the head boy, I'm sure of it he had the grades and he was smart. But one thing that always bothered me about our relationship was the lack of PDA. At Harmony's high school one sign that two people were dating was the holding of hands, two people in a relationship always held hands, they tried to be subtle in the presence of the teachers but it was a known fact that if you had a boyfriend or a girlfriend and you wanted people to know, you hold the person's hand. But David hardly ever held my hands or did anything in public to show people that we were in a relationship. If you didn't know we were dating it's not something you'd automatically assume. We hardly even spent anytime together in school, this was disappointing. But he made it up to me when we were out of school, the time we spent in the hostels and out of campus during the weekends, and on some public holidays were great. Harmony High was a strict boarding school in the heart of Lagos island, it is one of the most prestigious high schools in Lagos that offers international courses. It also awards students a lot of opportunities. But the school had strict rules. No using of phones, laptops, or any gadgets during school hours, once your gadget is confiscated you won't get them back until the end of the semester, and no going out of the school premises unless it's a weekend or a public holiday, no disrespecting the prefects they're the teacher's right-hand men and the most important rule, no male student must be caught in the female hostels and vice versa. This rule is not only the most important but also the most broken. The male student's reason that since the rule states that no student must be 'Caught ' it doesn't mean they cannot go over to the girl's hostel it just means they mustn't get caught. I guess that makes sense...in a way. "What are you doing here alone?" Jess a good friend of mine stood over me blocking me from the sun's harsh glare. I looked around me and noticed that everyone had migrated toward some attraction in the middle of the school compound. "Binta just stepped out to get some things...and the rest are over there" I replied pointing my finger to the place students gathered. "oh, I think that's Damz dropping some of his rap songs again," Jess said leaning against the tree with me. " that boy is really talented" she continued, "he might be the next olamide of our time". I agree with her. Damz was the nickname given to one of our seniors, his stage name to be precise. He was a musician and he had a very nice voice. His real name was Dami hence the nickname Damz. "So, have you gotten sufficient points for the debate?" I turned to face Jess, crossing my legs under me. "I'm getting there...but I'm still not really convinced, I feel that's what's holding me back you know...I mean how do I support a notion that I do not even agree with? Do you think I'm wicked because I feel the death penalty should not be abolished?" "Everyone is entitled to their opinion dear and just like the death penalty has its pros it also has its cons. I just don't like killing" "but a lot of crimes are being committed by wicked people in the world today and some of these people are repeat offenders, when they come out of prison they commit that same crime again sometimes even worse," Jess said passionately Trust Jessica not to let a case go or an opportunity to argue slip through her fingers.... this girl was going to be a great lawyer someday. Jess and I are a part of the Literary and debate society and we are really good. we've won so many awards for the school. Some of our juniors even say we are supposed to be leading the group but the senior girls will never allow it, if not for the principal they probably would've kicked us out because they were jealous, we were always beating them in debates. Senior Amaka cannot debate to save her life that's why I don't understand how every Wednesday when we have an in house short debate on simple topics like why boarding schools are better than day schools or why punishment should be abolished in schools she and her partners always win, probably because they pick their fellow seniors as judges, corruption!!!! uhn.....it starts from the grassroots For the next few minutes, until the break was over Jess and I had a mock debate on the abolishment of the death penalty, Jess believed the penalty shouldn't be removed because it put criminals in check while I believed the opposite but as fate would have it she was arguing what I believed while our competitors, Graceland high would be doing the opposite. After the lunch break Binta, Jess and I walked to class together when we got to the front of our classes we stood in front of them for a while still chatting. Binta was in science class while Jess and I were in Art. As Tobi was ascending the staircase Binta left us to meet him, when he saw her approach he smiled and hugged her and they stood at the top of the stairs holding hands and talking. Looking at them you'd see that Toby cared about her, he looked at her like she was the only one there like no one else mattered. Toby and Binta have been dating for a while now, they were the school's golden couple..... you know those ones now, the ones that will date each other through University and will surely get married and have beautiful babies, yes, they were 'that' couple. Looking at them Toby was smoothing Binta's hair to the back repeatedly, if it wasn't too cute it would have been sickening. But I always wondered how they did it, Binta and Toby were in the same class, the same level, she was the class captain of Ss2 science, he was the assistant, I never understood how 2 people in the same class could date each other, Binta always argued that it was the same with David and I but David was also in science so I didn't see him all the time we had different classes. Afternoon classes went by slowly not sure why every Monday was like this but we had English so my mind wasn't really there instead I was thinking about David and I's meeting over the weekend, we didn't really spend much time together during school hours but he sometimes made up for it after school. We might not be able to leave the school premises at will, at least some of us can't, some still sneak out but I don't, not because I'm a goody two-shoes or anything but I just do see the point, our school premises is so large it might as well be a small town and we have descent stalls if anyone ever wants to shop and we also have a sports center and other forms of recreation so I don't think it makes sense to risk punishment because I want to enjoy the outside world for a few hours. My favorite joint was a place called the common area, this place had a little of everything, you could shop, buy food or snacks, and there was a sitting area where students male and female alike could sit and eat or have conversations while watching TV. And the man that ran the place was also very nice, I heard he even graduated from our school. Maybe that's where David was going to take me, or if we wanted to be alone he might sneak into the girl's hostel and we'd go to the shed, where he'd hold my hand and we would talk about the future, our future together, he listened to me and at that moment I never doubted his love for me because I could see it in his eyes. "Savannah would you like to share with us your thoughts on the book?" my teacher asked giving me a look that shows she noticed I was distracted What am I going to say now?........