Girl Next Door

Groaning into her pillow, Tifa reached out to the nightstand and switched off the alarm. This was the second time the alarm was going off. She had switched it off the first time it rang and had gone back to sleep. Turning and laying on her back, her eyes darted to the clock which was fitted in the wall. The time read 06:25am. It immediately dawned on her that she had only thirty five minutes to get ready for school and she couldn't be late on her very first day. Pulling the comforter off her body, she sprang out of the bed and dashed into the shower. The next ten minutes saw her at her vanity table drying her hair and applying lotion. Darting her eyes back and forth on the numerous clothes in her closet, she settled for a pair of blue Mom jeans and an oversized white hoodie. After donning them, she slipped her feet into a pair of sneakers and moved back to the vanity table. There, she fixed her hair, braiding them into pigtails, afterwards she tied both braids into two separate buns. Using a hair brush to brush in some stubborn strands, she took a final look at herself in the mirror. She looked just okay. Grabbing her backpack and phone alongside her airpods, she dashed out of her room and descended the stairs. On getting to the dining, she saw a note on the table. It read: “I'm off to work, Honey. Breakfast's already been fixed; you just have to help yourself. I'm sorry I can't be here with you on your first day, but I'll make up for my absence, pinky swear. Be a good girl at school and tell me about your day when I'm back. Love you loads. Mom”. Folding the note up, she tossed it into the nearest bin. Somehow, she knew that her Mom saying that she was going to make up for her absence was something that was never going to happen. She let out a smirk as her mind traveled back to where her Mom mentioned that she tell her about her day at school when the former was going to be home: another thing that wasn't likely to happen as Doyinsola was going to be home late, most likely when Tifa had already gone to bed. Moving into the kitchen, she grabbed some plates and served herself breakfast. Not bothering to eat at the dining, she sat on one of the stools in the kitchen at the breakfast bar and devoured the sausage and egg sandwich her Mom had prepared. Pulling her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans where she had stuck it, she checked the time. It read 07:02am. She knew she had to hasten up so as not to miss the bus. Slipping her airpods into her ears, she tapped on one of her favorite songs before grabbing her backpack which she had dropped on the dining table and stepping out of the house. It didn't take long before she arrived at the bus stop. It was a coincidence because the school bus arrived the exact time she arrived at the bus stop. Drowned in the beats of the song she was listening to, she boarded the bus and paid no attention to the other kids who were inside. Courtesy of the music that was blasting in her ears, Tifa didn't realize when the bus had arrived at the school. Taking out her airpods and fixing them back in their case, she alighted as other students did. Enjoying the breeze that blew some strands of her hair in her face, she allowed her eyes rest on the name of the school, REGIS HIGHSCHOOL which was engraved in block letters at the top of the school logo which was situated at the center of the school and the very first thing one's eyes would notice effortlessly. 'Another day to introduce myself, another day to receive taunting remarks, another day to be laughed at', Tifa thought, heaving a sad sigh as she assumed entry into the school proper. Not sure of where exactly she was going, Tifa walked on till she found herself in a hallway. Her eyes darting around, something in red block letters in the wall caught her attention and the next minute saw her at the wall. 'RULES AND REGULATIONS' in red block letters stared right back at her. From the top to the bottom, Tifa read these instructions, allowing them to sink inside her head. She made a mental note to try to abide by the rules all through her stay in the school. Adjusting her glasses on her nose bridge, she whirled around in one swift move and it didn't take a millisecond for her body to come in contact with something which seemed somewhat hard. Her eyes fluttered open as she tried to balance her stance. Raising her head, she realized that she had bumped into someone: a teal blue eyed boy with chiseled features. Her shoulder and his chest had been their point of contact. "The f**k is wrong with you?!" He yelled, causing her to shudder and move a few inches backwards. "Weren't you watching where you were going?" He yelled louder, attracting the attention of other students as a few had stopped by to stare. "I…I'm…I'm sorry" She stuttered an apology, trying not to look at his face. "Sorry?? Really? Just sorry? Would sorry wipe this, huh?" He expounded and Tifa wondered what he was talking about. Raising her head, she noticed that part of his sweat shirt was drenched and clung onto his chest like a second skin. Puzzled and trying to understand where the liquid came from, her eyes trailed down his form till they eventually met the floor where she noticed a plastic cup of coffee lying a few inches away from its straw. As she stared at the cup which lay in a small puddle of its coffee, immediately it clicked. When she had bumped into him, she had made the cup of coffee he was drinking topple over, hence spilling the slightly hot liquid on his sweatshirt. "I'm really really sorry. That wasn't intentional. I'm so sorry" She offered another apology, wearing her best pair of puppy dog eyes. When she realized that he didn't seem to be affected by the look in her eyes, she mustered courage and attempted doing something she thought would alleviate his annoyance. Something she would never really have the guts to do. Moving a few inches closer to him, she took out her handkerchief from the back pocket of her jeans and tried wiping the liquid off his shirt. Her delicate fingers scrubbed on the wet area of his shirt, unhappy that the coffee was already beginning to form a brown stain on the shirt, courtesy of her clumsiness. After watching her scrub for a while, she grabbed her hand and flung it away from his chest. "You know what?" He began. She was grateful that his tempo wasn't high like before but she couldn't ignore the fact that he was still irked as his facial expression spoke volumes. His voice was slightly edgy too. "That's futile because the stain won't go away. Just watch where you're going next time, 'cause who knows who you might bump into next? I might not be so nice if it happens to be me". "Clumsy weasel!" He added, shoving her to the side with so much force, her back collided with the wall. "And you better take care of that mess!" He paused in his tracks, not sparing her a glance. "But I said sorry" She muttered as she watched him stomp away in high dudgeon. As she wiped her eyes which were already tearing up and pulled away from the wall, she realized that her glasses were no longer on her eyes. They had fallen off when she had bumped into him. Eyes darting around, she saw the pair of glasses lying a few meters away from her. Moving towards it, she realized that one of the glasses had fallen out of its frame. She cussed silently as she picked it up and tried to fix it. "I wish we never had to move" She muttered under her breath as she regretting having moved from Kansas to Manhattan, courtesy of her parent's divorce and her mother's decision to move. Tifa's Mom had prepared divorce papers the moment she found out Tifa's Dad was having an extra marital affair and made the latter sign it. Afterwards, she moved with Tifa from Kansas to Manhattan to start life afresh. Tifa had not only hated the fact that her parents were no longer going to be together, she hated the fact that she was going to start a new school. And starting a new school meant introducing herself and dealing with the taunting remarks that were sure to follow: something she disliked with every fiber in her. She heaved a sigh of relief when the glass successfully fit into the frame. Walking out of the hallway, she wondered how she was going to find her way around the school as she had forgotten her map at home, in a bid to be early to school.