The girl next house

Two

I was playing ball one sunny afternoon when I kicked the ball so hard, it flew and fell into their compound. I have never entered their compound before but because the ball was expensive( a real leather ball), I had to go in. The gate wasn't locked so I made my way in. After closing the gate, I looked around and saw what I did not want to see, I saw her looking at me. I was shocked and embarrassed. My jersey was dirty, I was sweaty. I saw disgust in her eyes. I snubbed that and asked her if she saw any ball come into their compound. She pointed at it and continued with what she was doing. I was angry at myself. I went to where the ball was, picked it and thanked her. She didn't respond. When I was almost at the gate, I heard her telling me "You are lucky the ball didn't hit or break anything in the compound". I left there and closed the gate. That was not how I planned our first meeting.

A week later, I couldn't take that disgrace away from my mind. I didn't see her after then so I thought maybe she was an introvert. One evening, we had visitors. Mum called me to open the door and when I did, I saw her and her parents. I was shocked. I thought maybe she reported me or something. I greeted her parents and they responded warmly.

When my mum asked them to sit down, my eyes could not leave Caroline. She snubbed me and I took it as a warning- "you are dead today". What made me worry was not the harsh words I would get from my mum but the disgrace in front of Caroline.

After offering them drinks, her mum started saying " Ma, we heard that your son got admission into UI". "Yes" my mum responded strangely because she was not sure how they knew."Caroline chose UI in her jamb and we were happy when we heard about your son's admission. We have a favor to ask you." Her mum added. "Okay, what favour?" My mum asked. "

After that interesting encounter, Caroline didn't show face at all. I didn't hear her voice even around the house. Deep down, I thought she was still embarrassed. I didn't bother since I won't be affected but the fact that she chose UI made me happy. An aspiring Uite and she is next door.

I was listening to music one afternoon when I heard a knock on the door. I asked who it was and there was no response. I continued with what I was doing. The knock came again. Angrily,I stood up and went to the door. I opened it and saw Caroline with books in her hand. I was surprised. We didn't discuss anything about when she was going to come. She was looking at me straight in the eye. I swallowed my saliva because we were never this close before. She motioned for me to move and she went in. I followed her in. She sat on a chair and I sat on the large cushion. The atmosphere was tense. After some minutes, she looked at me and asked "So?" . I looked at her and asked which subject we were going to talk about. She said any. I started with physics. Explaining to someone who was sitting far away from me was not easy. I told her to move closer but she didn't answer. After a while, I got tired and told her " if you want me to teach you, you have to follow my rules. I can't stand this rude behaviour" Her answer baffled me.

When I said that to her, I was expecting her to either stand up and scream at me or leave. She did nothing. She looked at me, blinked and looked down. She said I am sorry. Hearing those three words were shocking and more surprising. I looked at her baffled making her feel somehow.." Can she be as gentle as this?" I asked myself. I said okay and she moved closer. We continued with the tutoring and that lasted for hours. When she was leaving, I asked her when we would meet next and she said tomorrow. For the remaining hours of that day, I was smiling. She said sorry. She was gentle. Even my mum noticed how happy I was. I expected the next day to be great or so I thought.