Hey keeds ð it's your gurl again. Sorry for the postponement, unplanned trip tinz. I declare this part OPENNNN
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AMANDA'S POV
(Amanda Aderinsola Akinde)
It's been two weeks since the show down I had against Erling, I feel even more embarrassed than I did when it all happened. It turns out he didn't even know what I was 'ranting' about
Two weeks ago
"Were you crying?" Toke holds my shoulder in place as she gives me a once over, taking in my appearance
I tear my gave away from hers and smoothen invisible wrinkles on my swim suit
"Is this about the test script?" She asks as she arranges her stuff into her duffel bag
I nod as I wipe my remaining tears away. I feel both her hands grab both my shoulder, firmer than she did earlier
"Stop! It's really no big deal you should be happy about the other 9 where you did brilliantly"she runs her hands up and down the length of my arm
"Why didn't the person paste those ones" I mutter under my breath
She grins at my comment
"Because the person probably didn't score up to half of your aggregates" she says as she tucks a loose strand of my hair under my swim cap
"Captain, senior Amanda, coach needs you out" a junior swimmer says with her head poked through the door gap
"Let's go" she gestures to the door with her head "and please no more crying" she calls out as she walks out of the dressing room
The first face I see when I step out of the ladies' dressing room is none other than our very own Mr Poop face. Unlike the entire male swim team he's still in his school uniform with his aipods on. Our gazes meet and he just looks elsewhere with a bored expression like he didn't just see me, am I not the one meant to be angry?!
He holds his clipboard and takes attendance for the boys while Toke does the same for the girls. I roll my eyes with extra effort as I stand in line to be marked present, I see Toke's lips move when Erling stands beside her
"Why do you still come here when you won't swim?"
An expression like anger flashes in his eyes but it is gone as soon as it came
"Because you'll miss me if I don't" he says then walks to the other part of the boys' line with his usual smirk
It's true though, I don't think I've ever seen him swim since we resumed. Is something wrong with him?
"Kingston how's your arm now?" The coach says as he pats Erling's shoulder from the back
Erling's face turns into his usual comic expression he has when he's talking to the coach
"It's getting better Coachie but a massage won't be bad you know" he grins extra wide at the coach
The coach's eyes widen in shock at his statement before he shakes his head and walks away from him muttering words under his breath. I guess even the coach doesn't understand Erling
Did Erling have an accident or something with his arm and that's why he can't swim? I could ask him but I couldn't care less about him or his arm
The coach holds a coin and places it between Toke and Erling
"Head or tail" he asks
"Definitely head" Erling says
Toke nods as the coach flips the coin
"Tail it is, girls you go first"
The boys walk over to the bleachers to take their seats while the girls stand in a group of four each
"Group one: Denaya, Shannon, Nakia, Debola
Group two: Adetoke, Risa, the second Debola and Precious
Group three: Jenny, Kolapo, Halima and Mayode
Group four: Amanda, Wendy, Favour and Peachy" Toke announces from her clipboard
I wiggle my fingers and take deep breaths as I step forward in front of my team
"So you all will pick who you want to swim for your first, second, third and fourth leg in this relay. The team that wins gets four filmhouse movie tickets to watch any blockbuster of their choice this weekend"
Girls jump and squeal in excitement as if they have already won the wager. The boys on the other hand hoot and cheer for the girls that are about to start competing
"And the team that comes fourth will be responsible for cleaning the locker rooms for the next two weeks" she rakes her eyes through the entire team with a smirk
"Sort yourselves out in 1 minute and let the first leggers stand on the diving boards"
"Okay I'm super fast with forward stroke and since it's freestyle I can take the first or last leg" I say to the three pairs of eyes I'm staring at
My group consists of one sophomore, one junior and two seniors which are Wendy and I. I remember Wendy's swimming and I can say it's really not the most impressive especially during a freestyle, I really hope this doesn't cost us movie tickets
"I can swim first, Favour next then Peachy then you can take the final lap" Wendy says with confidence
I should probably speak up, probably suggest that someone faster should swim first but who am I to correct these ones? I just pray we don't come fourth because I can't be cleaning locker room for the next two weeks
The whistle sounds signaling that all meetings come to a stop and first lap swimmers should stand ready to dive
********
"Congratulations you won, this time" I say with a snarl as I dry myself off with my blue fluffy towel with a 'sheffield swim team' inscription
"Awwww so tell us, how does it feel to lose?" Toke says as she extends her pretend mic for me to talk into it
"We didn't lose-lose we just didn't win, we came second" I roll my eyes
The competition went better than I expected, Wendy was as slow as I foresaw, she looked like she was having fun in a beach. Favour and Peachy managed to cover up some distance between us and the remaining teams but the last lap was the toughest round, Toke, Denaya and Jenny the fastest swimmers in each team chose to swim the last lap just like I did.
Toke's team had the best selection of swimmers and I would have said she made the selection on purpose if we didn't make the random selections ourselves from folded pieces of paper with numbers 1 to 4 inscribed on each of them. Her teammates gave her a nice headstart to work on while my teammates had me lagging behind the others, but even with that I came a close second after Toke and according to the coach if we switched places my team would have won. Well, there goes movie tickets to watch 'Thor; Love and Thunder'
"Don't tell me you're still thinking about the script issue with this one you're frowning your face" Toke breaks the silence as we walk towards the changing rooms
"I wasn't, but you reminded me, thanks" I reply with a sigh
"Don't you wanna know who did it?" She asks gulping down a bottle of water
"Who else? Why did the teacher even give someone like that my scripts why not Nana or you or Eddy..."
"Eddy? Hmmm" she wiggles her eyebrows at me
"Seriously Toks" I let out a laugh
***
"Hey posh monkey" Toke calls out as we approach Amaka sitting alone in the empty classroom
The girl in question has a fashion magazine in front of her with her Airpods plugged in her ears. I'm very sure she hears us, she just feels like playing deaf
Toke drags the fashion magazine out of her hands and slams it on the next desk
"Are you mad?" Amaka says as she unplugs one of her ears
"You thought we wouldn't find out that you'd be the one to do something so stupid right?" Toke scoffs
What?!
"Oh wow it finally clicked" she looks over to me and claps "congratulations Amanda, I made you popular"
My eyes widen in shock
"Oh God you are every letter of petty, are we in kindergarten?" Toke shoots her a glare in disgust
"Wh-why did you do something like th-that?" I ask in a shaky voice, still shocked at the revelation
"Oh please spare me the whole 'innocentia' drama, everyone deserved a good laugh" she checks out her nails as if she just got them done "and plus, your drama in class that day was so worth it, baba was sooo clueless"
I look down at my shoes remembering how mad I was at Erling that day, I wrongly accused omolomo in front of the entire class. My eyes well up slightly
"You're still the fool in this whole 'drama' as you call it, I'm sure you looked through the scripts and saw that she had better scores than you will ever have in Sheffield but you chose to post her weakness, how do you think that makes you look?" Toke says with a sardonic smile "check your class position, she's 6 places above you but you don't see anyone spreading your dirty linen in public"
Amaka swallows in anger with her gaze fixed on Toke's lips as she spits at her
"You know, when you do stuff like this, you make yourself look more stupid than you already are"
Toke gives her a proper innocent smile as if she has just said the nicest things to the girl. She tugs on my elbow for the both of us to leave
"How did you know it was her" I ask with a chuckle as soon as we walk into the hallways
"I didn't, I had a hunch and she simply confirmed my suspicion" she crosses her arms over her chest feeling proud of herself
I pull her into a hug as I feel a tear drop from my eye. She stiffens then straightens her arms at her sides as if she's not used to being hugged.
If someone told me four weeks ago that I'd be hugging Adetoke McAnthony in the hallways of Sheffield, I'd have said the person was probably wishing me a trip to the hospital, I mean who hugs an ice witch right? But I am not hugging the ice witch right now, I'm hugging my friend who stood up for me
She clears her throat signaling that the hug should be ending by now. I let her go and I notice how uncomfortable she looks because I embraced her, is she blushing? Wetin Musa no go see for gate
********
Since I yelled at him in front of the whole class, it's normal to apologize in front of the whole class right?
I get up from my seat and walk to the front of Erling's since he's been choosing to ignore my whispered apology
"Erling" I say with an audible voice
He doesn't look up from his textbook
"Erling please look at me" I say swallowing what's left of my pride
He looks at me with an impatient expression. I notice most of my classmates now looking at both of us, just like it was the first time except this time I'm the humble one
"I'm sorry for everything I said" I bite my inner cheeks nervously
He looks at me for another second before he looks back at his textbook like I didn't just speak. I blink my eyes quickly in surprise, I wasn't expecting that reaction from him. He didn't even react! My classmates mutter amongst themselves while some whistle, I hear the snickers of Amaka and company but at this moment, I couldn't care less. I just wasted my apology on an annoying noodle head I shouldn't care about
PRESENT DAY
"The big bang theory has been proved that is why it is called a theory in the first place" Aidan says with an eye roll
"Oh please scientists prove basically anything they think should be correct even if there's no common sense in it" Nana retorts clicking her tongue in response
"But you think the Adam and Eve creation story ha more 'common sense' in it?" Aidan says smirking at Nana's expression
"I believe it because I'm a Christian and it's my faith" she bangs her hand on her desk in anger
"Yeash calm down, I go to church too I'm just being factual" he raises his hands in mock surrender
The entire class went silent at Nana and Aidan's back and forth argument, the biology teacher obviously enjoys students yelling at each other and getting pissed off at each other's beliefs because the man is seated at the front corner of the class smiling like a possessed person. I guess that's why he even called for a joint revision class in the first place so he could witness a fight among students
"Okay guys, according to science, the world came into being as a result of cosmic inflation and quantum gravity But according to Christian Faith, it came through Adam and Eve where God made the man from sand and the woman from his ribs, I don't see why we can't have the both theories taught as correct-" Toke starts but is interrupted by Nana
"Because one of them is absolutely wrong!" She raises her voice again
The class erupts in loud bickering and disagreements between the different sides of the argument. The teacher finally speaks up
"Well well, thank you class" he gets up from the chair he's sitting and stands in front of all of us
"I usually have this same discussion with every senior set of Sheffield during this same period and I must say that no set has ever had a argument this heated" he claps his hands and nods his head slowly at the class
"I'm Christian too, and I believe 100% in the creation story" he shakes his head at Aidan who appears to be enjoying the whole situation "but as a scientist I know I shouldn't write down the creation story if I'm asked in external exams" he chuckles along with the rest of the class
Watching my classmates argue is actually very entertaining, it felt like we were in a court room and at the same time a group of professors trying to modulate a theory. Except that I was spectating as smart words flew out of their mouths, were we told to research on this topic and I did not know? I don't know shishi about big bang theory and the only evolution story I know is the one we were taught in Sunday school where God made one man and one woman to live in the garden, they ended up leaving because they ate the wrong fruit and that is why we wear clothes today!
***
"That boy just wanted to make me shout ughhh!" Nana says as we walk towards the school gate
I laugh at how her face is crunched up in annoyance and how hard she's stumping her little feet
"He succeeded" I place my hand over my mouth to stop the sound of my laughter
She sends me a death glare then increases her pace leaving me steps behind her, I quicken mine too to catch up
"Better don't kill yourself over someone that was using the whole argument to catch cruise" I say as I swing my hand over her shoulder
"I know right? He's such a waste of time, that his head injury definitely affected his brain" she hisses and crosses her arms over her chest
A familiar ring disturbs our conversation. I don't need to check to see it's reminder for my therapy session, my mum will personally pick me up from school
"Therapist shey? Maybe I should sign up too" she says with a sigh as she pulls me into a goodbye hug
"Nah you're just okay" I pat her back and release her
She waves at me as Erling signals that their driver is around, he does exactly what he's been doing for two weeks now, ignores my existence. Guess we are back to square one, I never really liked him anyway
**
Thanks for reading babiesð this chapter has a lot of drama too, I didn't really edit this chapter like that because of deadlines and stuff but I'll be back to take a look at it again just in case
Not everyone is meant to get along sha, sorry to Erling and Trip ðð
Toks the Jagaban, mama don disgrace Amaka ehn ððI feel bad for the poor girl (no I don't)
Some teachers love when we argue, I had a particular teacher that'll just smile when he sees us arguing, feeling so proud of himselfðð
Y'all can re-check the face claims too I made a little adjustments (a lot actually) the first one was kinda done in a rush to be published
See y'all next time â¤ï¸â¤ï¸