LIFE AFTER DEATH.

INTUITION

Still laced with a curious and perplexed state, I too entered the class and sat next to my very first friend, Suresh Chopra. I had previously checked the students' board and found out his last name. He was heavily focused on his drawing, while I battled with my thoughts.

A few minutes before the class started, Tess and her boyfriend, Curly, entered the class. She had his left hand firmly locked with hers. The moment I set my eyes on them, I took them off. Soon, the teacher, Mrs Felicia, walked into the class, rolling a table which had a white cloth covering it. My inquisitiveness kicked in as I prepped for the outcome.

Finally, the cloth was removed and what appeared to be placed on the table was a watermelon, big and green. Suresh’s focus had left his drawing book by then. Together, we waited for the teacher’s explanation.

‘’good morning, students. I trust you all had a wonderful night.’’ Mrs Felicia wore a pleasant smile. Apart from her brief height, I thought she was beautiful. She had a gape tooth which beautified her smile, her dimples only added to her pleasant appearance.

‘’today, we’re gonna deal with visual appearance and representation, meaning or signification.’’

I then understood the assignment. I didn’t need to hear further explanation. Our job was to carefully perceive the object, which was a watermelon, and retract was the state was. Be it emotional, physical or environmental.

For extra credit, I would capture all in one. Without waiting for the go ahead, I opened my book and prepped to scribble.

‘’what are you doing?’’ Suresh finally noticed me.

‘’good morning, Suresh,’’ I said on purpose.

He sighed, ‘’I wasn’t paying attention, I’m sorry.’’

‘’sure, you are...’’ I saw his brows fall, ‘’what’s on your mind?’’

He slid his book over to me, ‘’take a look,’’

I prepped for another familiar situation, hiding my notice, I flipped the book open. ‘’woah, what are these?’’ I flipped the pages and saw a series of drawings with a style likened to storms, hurricanes and waves.

‘’It’s for a contest online called, Art originality.’’

‘’Is Tyler in this contest too?’’ I asked.

‘’how did you know?’’

‘’I could tell,’’ I smiled briefly.

‘’tell me what you think,’’ he appeared anxious.

I threw a precise look at Suresh, completely blown away by his work.

‘’I call mine, The push.’’ He nodded.

‘’the push,’’ I resumed flipping until I got to the end, ‘’you can’t just call it the push, there has to be some story or thought behind it. It makes the representation better.’’

‘’there is.’’ He smiled at me.

Suresh didn’t get a chance to explain his back story to me, since we were caught short by the teacher.

‘’Amaka Kennedy, discussing in my class? What was the last thing I said? Please tell us.’’

There it was again, my heart skipped a beat and proceeded to beat heavily. My vision shook and my head became slightly weightier as I stood to answer what I had no clue about. The whole class turned to me now, I opened my mouth and said the first thing that came to mind.

‘’This is a… ‘’ I glanced around quickly, while Curly matched his lips and closed his eyes, in order not to witness me woefully disgrace myself. Tyler, laced me a keen and settled look.

‘’This is a live display of the watermelon, and we are to draw something deeper than what we see.’’

Mrs Felicia squinted,

"not the reply I wanted, continue.’’ she urged.

‘’look beyond what you see. The in-depth meaning, stance and state of the representation.’’ I thought I had concluded my reply, but the manner in which the audience glared at me begged to differ. Mrs Felicia gave me a gesture, causing me to continue.

‘’It is an inanimate object in some sense but it is sprung up by natural life. ‘’ From that moment on, I unknowingly dropped all notice and got swept away, ‘’we need to ask the right questions based on what we see, feel and perceive. How was it placed? How does it look, from all aspects and what does our heart say as we carefully observe this object? Our answer should brush past the physical, into something deeper with understanding.’’

As they say in my country, it was like a ghost swept past the glass. The silence was so pronounced, that it became loud. The class was both embedded with disbelief and thrown into confusion. I made visual contact with Mrs Felicia and her response was positive. She even added a nod to seal the deal.

‘’I hadn’t gotten to explain the work yet, but you did a clever job, miss Kennedy. Please take a seat.’’

And I sat, my light weight rested bluntly on the chair as I began to gradually relish the feeling I got. I aced it. My eyes searched for Curly’s and when I met his, he smiled at me, causing me to do the same. Before I could find Tyler’s, he’d already turned and was looking away.

Suresh thumped me lightly, ‘’that was amazing, you saved our ass.’’

I merely smiled.

I looked forward to English class, because I was expecting to see Scott. I had taken my usual position at the back of the class, so I could see all that was happening. I shared English class with virtually everyone from Art. Tyler walked into the class with a girl on blue hair. He took another short glance at me and took a seat in the front. And soon, Tess and her handbag, Curly, walked in. I waited and waited and as the class almost got to the climax, I concluded that Scott wasn’t coming.

I sat alone at lunch; Suresh skipped lunch because he had to work on his Art originality contest. I took beans, porridge and bread. It was the only African food I could find on the day's menu. It tasted average. It made me miss Frieda’s cooking, it made me remember that I needed to contact home, maybe drop a message. I took out my phone and entered w******p.

‘’Hey afro,’’

I pulled my phone away from my gaze and met Curly cushioned opposite me,

‘’where’s your girlfriend?’’ I expected to see Tess around, ‘’I don’t want any trouble.’’

‘’stop, I’m allowed to hang with whoever I want.’’ He stuffed his tacos in his mouth.

‘’are you sure?’’ I dropped my phone after successfully messaging Frieda, ‘’because in less than a week, I'd been approached by your brother and girlfriend. You sure you don’t need permission to hang?’’

‘’blew our minds in arts class,’’ Clever asshole, he was changing the topic, ‘’look beyond what you see, you watch the lion king a lot?’’

I didn’t know whether to feel proud or shy, ‘’you watched it too, since you could tell.’’

He relayed to me his usual smirk and geared his hair backwards with a head throw, ‘’has Parish disturbed you recently?’’

‘’about that… please talk to him, he cannot speak to my aunt.’’

‘’I already did, he won’t.’’ He paused his eating, ‘’do you skate?’’

I drank water, ‘’nope, too dangerous.’’ I knew there was further depth in his skating discussion, but I wasn’t interested, I was worried about not seeing Scott.

‘’hey,’’ Curly tried drawing back my attention.

‘’what’s JoJo’s affiliation with Scott? Do you know?’’ I asked him.

‘’speak English,’’ he groaned.

I scoffed, ‘’what is JoJo’s relationship with Scott? Did they date?’’

Curly dropped his soda can, folded his palms and gave me a distant look with his spear-shaped eyes, ‘’Jojo? The angry looking girl in English class? and Scott, he captains the school rugby team.’’

He answered as though he only vaguely knew them.

‘’did they date?’’ I asked again.

Curly’s gaze tightened, ‘’I don’t even talk to them in class. The hell am I supposed to know?’’

He sounded either pissed or irritated, ‘’sorry,’’ I said and looked away.

I rolled my eyes back to Curly to make another inquiry when I noticed his gaze was fixated on somewhere else. I followed it and saw Scott at a distance, conversing with a group of boys. They’d just entered the cafeteria. My face lightened and I sat up. Curly must have noticed.

While I made preparations for a possible engagement with Scott, Melanie and Jojo walked past our table and Jojo didn’t relent to give me her usual look. And once again, Curly noticed it.

‘’did you see that?’’ I didn’t know why, I whispered but I did.

He protruded his lips and said, ‘’what’d you expect? You’re hanging with the love of her life.’’

I narrowed my eyes and watched as Curly emptied his soda can,

‘’Love of her life? I thought you said you didn’t know them personally?