Love passed by

Chapter 2

"I'm telling you that's what I heard". Tolu said as the three of us waited for the first class for the day to begin which was biology.

Vicky's eyes were still wild open from the shock of what she heard. "I didn't know Issac would like someone as sassy and wicked as Jemute. I mean, like her enough to even date her."

Isaac and Jemute? I was sure that was a lie.

"But everyone knows everything that goes on with Issac. How come nobody knew they were dating until last weekend?" I asked looking from one person to another.

Tolu shrugged. "I don't know. It's not like we're close friends with him or anything," She replied and sighed. "Why won't Issac notice me?" She asked groaning in frustration.

All three of us knew about her huge crush on Issac. And I couldn't help but imagine how tensed she must have been when we stood beside him and Nathan earlier.

I mean I was also.. but only because I hadn't been that close to him before and he was a bit scary but I was sure hers was definitely much more.

Immediately, the Biology teacher came into our class making everyone rush to their seats to settle down.

Tolu's seatmate Oliver, came back to sit down beside her.

He knocked lightly on her forehead making Tolu to point a ruler at him swearing to kill him while he grinned cheekily.

The two of them were like the frienemies of the class and he was almost never in his seat since his clique of friends sat at a different roll. But whenever he was beside Tolu, he made sure to drive her crazy.

I lowkey shipped them together and couldn't wait for them to marry themselves one day in the future.

Okay maybe I was getting a bit too ahead of myself.

But they actually made a good match together.

Tolu rolled his eyes at him, while I and Vicky together with the rest of the class brought out our textbooks and notebooks to learn.

The biology teacher turned to the whiteboard and scribbled something down then moved to a side for the class to see what he had written.

'TEST' was what the words read out which made our whole class become noisy. Nobody in their right mind liked a pop up quiz and certainly not on a Monday morning during the first period.

"Before the class, tear out a sheet of paper for a quick warmup." He announced smirking mischievously as he looked at us.

"Did you study?" I asked Vicky in a low tone to prevent the teacher from hearing.

"I didn't." She replied shaking her head sideways.

"We're doomed then".

--

I, Tolu and Vicky walked lazily to Mr Eze's office during the break period to know what our fate would be after what had happened during the assembly earlier in the morning. When we got there, Mr Eze was already at the corridor together with Isaac and Nathan.

"Oh, the liars are here," He announced giving us a fake smile as the three of us approached him.

Liars? It was a one time thing Mr Eze.

We greeted him trying to leave a good impression on him to know if he would reduce whatever punishment he was going to give us as we stood side by side facing him just like Isaac and Nathan had done.

My elbow brushed Isaac gently as I stood beside him making him to look at me while I apologized awkwardly in a low tone avoiding an eye contact with him.

Mr Eze folded his arms and glanced from one person to another deciding what punishment we were going to receive while we silently looked back at him hoping once again that we were going to get a light one.

After some few seconds of critical thinking... or whatever it was he was doing with one of his arms folded, while the other rested on it with an elbow and then rubbing his chin with his thumb and index finger.

He exclaimed, "Aha!" making us jerk up.

"The staffroom." He said pointing to the staffrooms which were in the building next to where we were currently at.

I hope it's just going to be for today. I thought as I interlocked my fingers together hoping Mr Eze had a tiny bit of God's goodness in his dark little heart to make us just work for a day.

But knowing how he was, I highly doubted that was going to happen.

"For a week, starting tomorrow!" He shouted again making us jerk up for a second time.

Could he stop shouting? I mean, we were just directly in front of him so what was the use.

I turned and shot a glare at Tolu and Vicky. If only they just decided to shut up for a split second during assembly.

"If I discover that the punishment isn't done well, I will personally extend it for another week," He threatened smiling at us. "Now you two, staffroom one," He said motioning to Tolu and Vicky. "And the two of you, staffroom three since staffroom two is already being done by another group." He said to me and Isaac.

Isaac?... Me and Isaac?.. Why me and Isaac?

I turned to look at him and at the same time, he shifted his weight to the second leg which he hadn't been resting on previously. He looked bored as hell and at the same time like he was secretly loading a gun in his head and firing them at Mr Eze through his eyes.

I guessed he was just as displeased as I was.

"And you Nathan, you should check after the punishment is done and inspect thoroughly. The punishment starts tommorow."

"Yes sir". Nathan answered looking amusedly at Isaac and all of our faces. He was the only person who was smiling out of us all which made Isaac even more annoyed.

And myself included. Because Nathan? Puh-lease.

Later on, we got dismissed and Isaac walked away immediately with Nathan following closely behind him teasing him and laughing loudly while Isaac ignored him.

Tolu grabbed my arm as we walked back to class. "I swear you're so lucky doing punishment together with Isaac."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Well you wouldn't have made me talk during the assembly then you would have had a chance with him.

"You'll keep on shying away from him until we all graduate and still won't tell him how crazy you are about him." Vicky told her

"As if every girl in the school even juniors don't like Isaac. Everyone wants to date him." I chipped in patting Tolu's back slightly.

"Adah, I honestly wish I were you right now." Tolu said again holding my arm tighter this time while making a puppy face at me.

"Well I wish I wasn't doing this punishment at all". I said hoping this was going to be the last dramatic event that was going to happen for the day

-

After school, I slept for the majority of the hours. That is, after I had helped Chinedu with his assignment. I made sure I slept for an extremely long time time seeing that after that day, I was going to start coming back a little later than usual.

I woke up to my mum screaming my name from the kitchen. Guessing she was back, I answered and sluggishly went downstairs to meet her.

"Adah, you're here," She said as I stood beside the door. She had just finished making dinner together with aunty Favour who was preparing to leave for the day.

"Good evening Ma, good evening aunty Favour." I greeted as I stretched lazily, yawning at the same time.

"Evening, come and carry your food and eat quickly so that we can go to the supermarket and pick a few things," She said using her head to motion to the table where everyone's food was on. "And call Chinedu to come and carry his own too."

I rubbed my eyes in an attempt to chase away the leftover sleep from them while yawning again.

"Don't swallow me o," Aunty Favour teased making the both of us laugh while she grabbed her bag to go. "Bye bye o, see all of you tommorow." She announced opening the kitchen door that led outside.

My mum and I both waved her a goodbye and then she left for the day.

I then left with the food to eat in my room, remembering to call Chinedu from his room - which was opposite mine.

After I ate, I threw on a white sleeveless top and a Jean skirt with a pair of slides to go to the supermarket. The weather was quite hot and I needed something to give way for some fresh air to get in.

The memory of how I was going to start my punishment the next day came flooding back and all I could do was sigh and wait for it to pass a bit faster. I wondered what Isaac was like and how I'd be in the same room with him for a whole week. Cause I mean, from what I had heard and seen from a distance, he seemed like he ignored everyone except Isaac and maybe.. Jemute since it was rumoured they were dating, had a piercing gaze that made him look like he was silently judging you the whole time, his hands were always in the pockets of his neat ironed uniforms and I had only heard him talk three times, the third time making it the longest words I had heard him speak.

I shook my head and sighed. Why was I thinking about him anyways? If at all there was anyone or anything to think about, it should be how I was going to kill Tolu and Vicky for putting me in this mess.

I grabbed my phone and put it in my back pocket, hurrying downstairs before my mother starts shouting my name out again.

She was waiting already for me in the living room when I got downstairs and I saw Chinedu with my father there also. I greeted him since I hadn't seen him since that morning during breakfast and then headed out with my mother.

The supermarket was a fifteen minutes drive from our house so we got there soon enough and well, it had just about the right amount of people there.

We walked into it and went for the cosmetic section. I pulled out a trolley from the side and we started shopping. As my mum picked out some things, I stepped some few feet away checking out other products they had,especially perfumes since I had an obsession with them.

Few minutes in, I heard someone walk up to my mum and they started having a chat. The voice was masculine so I guessed it was a guy she spoke to. I shook my head and didn't bother to look to know who it was since she knew a lot of people and I was sure she was going to keep on meeting people she knew. Plus socialising at the moment wasn't something I really wanted to do.

She sounded so loud and happy as they discussed and I was sure she really liked whoever she was speaking to because if she didn't, it would be filled with short words from her and fake laughter.

I brushed it off my mind and picked out two perfumes, one contained raspberry and the other red rose.

"I'm sure you haven't seen Adah yet have you?" I heard her ask.

I screamed, cursed and wailed all in three or four seconds in my head

The moment I dreaded was about to begin.

"No ma". He replied back to her. "I don't think so".

I was going to pretend I didn't hear them and quietly walk away but my mum shouting my name a few seconds later didn't help matters.

I looked in her direction, plastering a fake smile on my face hoping to just say a fake 'hello' and walk away.

But then the least expected person stood beside my mum, smiling back at me.

Nathan.

His eyebrow c****d up the same time my fake smile got harder to keep on in order to hide my surprise.

How in the wide world did my mum know Nathan?

She beckoned on me to come and greet him. And as I stepped back from the shelve to walk to where they were, my back bumped into something hard making me wonder when the shelves became this close.

The gentle rise and fall of the supposed 'shelf' made me realize that it infact wasn't a shelf but a person.

"Sorry abo-" I started as I looked up to see Isaac looking down at me.

Isaac?

Isaac???!!

I froze, holding the perfumes in my hands tightly. What was he doing here and how long had he been standing there?

He didn't say a word as he watched my eyes linger from his black curly hair which looked so soft I swear I wanted to run my fingers through them down to meet his brown eyes.

They bored into my black ones and I could feel my palms getting sweaty and the perfumes almost slipping out.

What was wrong with you Adah?

I noticed a slanting scar beside one of his eyebrows which furrowed together the same time his mouth turned downwards in a frown. "I'm not so sure your mum enjoys waiting." He said, his deep voice as calm as anything.

I glanced at my mum to see her 'not so happy' face looking back at me and Nathan still smiling. "Right, my mum."

I straightened up awkwardly tightening the grip of the perfumes in my hands. Then clumsily walked to where they were.

With Isaac following closely behind of course.

"This is my daughter, Adah," She said to Nathan. "You go to the same school, maybe you've seen her before."

"Yes I -"

"No", I replied cutting him off abruptly causing me to exchange a look with him. I wasn't going to let him tell my mum I got in trouble and was going to clean the staffroom. Knowing who she was, I wasn't going to hear the end of it for sometime.

"Actually I saw her this morning when -"

"Good evening ma", Isaac greeted cutting Nathan off this time.

I glanced at Isaac who kept a straight face all through while looking at my mum.

This time my eyes dawlded at his side profile studying it making me to notice a piercing hole on his ear lobe.

Seriously Adah? Seriously.

But then, why did he cut Nathan off?

Did he get what I was trying to do?

Was he saving me?

My mum looked at him and it was as if for the first time she was noticing him since he stood there.

"Good evening my son," She then looked at Nathan. "Nathan, you have an oyibo friend?"

Nathan chuckled replying her and telling her how they both were friends and went to the same school. She asked how he was which he replied to then she turned back to Nathan.

I was happy I wasn't the topic any longer and I was sure she wasn't bringing me up again plus my mum seemed pleased as she laughed at almost everything Nathan said.

Time went by and I was getting tired already. I found out that Nathan's mum was one of my mum's close friends who actually visited our house frequently from time to time.

Great.

Isaac just stood there beside me and I swear it was high time I started getting used to standing beside him and his cologne filling my nostrils everytime.

As my mum spoke to Nathan, each time I... well, accidentally glanced up at him(Isaac), he was already looking at me with the same expression he had plastered on his face since the assembly incident- almost unreadable and like he was studying me. I was starting to think he was like the male version of Mia from "Avatar: the last airbender".

It was frustrating I couldn't tell what was going on in his mind and I only hoped with positivity that he wasn't as cold as I thought.

Finally, my mum waved Nathan goodbye making him promise to come visit us sooner or later which he agreed to.

As he walked past me, he winked at me which made me to roll my eyes at him.

Casanova vibes I see. I was sure he did this to every girl he came across.

"Bye," he said grinning.

I nodded at him faking a smile. "Bye."

Isaac and I shared one last eye contact before he turned to follow Nathan who was walking towards another aisle.

I inhaled deeply before pushing our trolley as my mum and I continued our shopping.