Chapter 2

Zoe rolled on the bed as the alarm went off. The night was cold, which she loved, but getting of bed seemed like a Herculean task. She had no choice though. It wouldn't be great being late to school on the first day of the final year. She groaned as she simultaneously pulled the blanket from her face and turned the alarm off.

She sat up as she managed to open her eyes, blinking them as she rubbed them with her hands. Her room was a self-contained apartment, an attachment of the main building which housed the family she was living with.

She lived alone, ate alone, read alone, and played her video games all alone. She was lonely, but she never admitted that, never. Her summer holiday was spent in the library, playing games, watching movies, and listening to music. Her life was just happening, nothing special.

She finally stood up and walked around the room. She switched on the light and her pink room brightened up. The features of the small room were in full view, the bed covered with pink sheets, blankets, and her teddy bears. There was a dressing table just beside the bed with a mirror and a chair, a reading table just on the other side of the room with a bookshelf just above it, and a small couch positioned in front of the television with a small table.

She walked into the bathroom and grabbed her toothpaste and brush. She brushed her teeth and removed the nightwear she was wearing and stepped into the bath as she turned the shower on.

After a few minutes, she finished her bath and stepped out of the bathtub. She dried her wet body and creamed it. Just then her phone rang, she picked it up as she stared at the screen. Seeing the caller ID, she rolled her eyes and hissed silently as she picked the call.

"Hello,” the caller said in a whisper.

“Hello Mum,” Zoe replied.

“Hush, don't call me mum. My husband is awake; he can't hear you saying that please,” Darasimi said in a whisper.

Zoe rolled her eyes at her mother's words. “Okay.”

“So how are you doing?” she asked.

“I'm fine,” Zoe said dryly.

"Fine? Just fine?” Dara asked in wonder.

“Yes! Just fine.”

"Okay, so the reason I called you is to inform you I'll be sending you some money later today.”

“Okay,” she paused. “How is Emily?” Zoe asked.

“She's fine, she's preparing for school,” she answered. “I have to go now, talk to you later,” she said as she cut the call.

Zoe dropped the phone and started dressing for school. After a few minutes, she was all clad, she sat on her bed to put on her socks as her phone chirped. She checked the phone; it was a message from the bank. Her mom had just credited her account. One hundred thousand nairas. She sighed and dropped her phone.

She finished dressing and stood in front of the mirror. Her lips curved in a small smile as she stared at the image in her view. She wondered how her Dad would have felt about her growth if he was still alive. Zoe had grown into a big girl in the years since her father’s death. A lot had changed.

The once bubbly little girl, who loved to have fun and play around had become the opposite. With no friends and lonely, she had become cold and weird.

She looked so much like her dad and it had become a habit for her to stare at the mirror for long. She believes a Gbemiga still lived, deep inside her.

The morning was beautiful, quiet, calm, and chilly. It had rained in the early hours of the day, so the ground was wet, and the atmosphere cold, but that was the way Zoe loved it. Zoe was fond of cold days. They reminded her of the good memories she had with her Dad. It made her miss his warm embrace and how it made her feel safe. Back in the day, she would always spend the night with her parents on cold nights.

Zoe's mind traveled to these beautiful memories again as she sauntered off to school. The path she took to school was lonely and quiet. It was an estate so there were big buildings on either side of the road. She clasped her hands and rubbed them as she was really cold.

It occurred to her that it was weird to have a rainy morning on the first day of a new session. She smiled as she remembered what her dad usually said when it rained in the morning: he believed something beautiful was about to happen. He would call it 'showers of blessing.’

Zoe never believed this. She had experienced many rainy mornings, but the day only ever turned out to be clumsy with little or no activities. Zoe walked on until she got to the road leading directly to the school. The road was busier, as cars, buses, and bikes drove into the school. Students were walking to school too, grinning widely, obviously excited about the new session.

Her eye caught a particular family; two students from the school with their parents talking. They looked so alike and the thought of how beautiful they looked almost made her wish she had a family. She wished so much. She hastened her steps as she took her eyes off them.

She walked into the school gate and saw some of her classmates laughing boisterously. She smirked and shook her head in disapproval as the girls behaved childishly, laughing and making noise. The only reason that could have made them this happy was because the girls, Julia and Gracious, got promoted.

They were the dumbest students in the class, the two struggled with who would have the lowest grade every session. Their attitudes were irritable to Zoe, but probably cool with the other students, who seemed to love them a lot. Their clumsiness was the only thing that made Zoe notice them, especially Julia.

Julia and Zoe had been classmates for kindergarten. They were friends while younger, but ever since the death of Zoe's father, their relationship drowned. Zoe and Julia also became classmates in secondary school, but for the past five years, Zoe can count the number of times she had spoken to Julie. The times they did speak, Julia was the one to spark up the conversations.

Zoe was known to be on her own, with no friends and possibly no enemies, no one gets closer to her than two conversations. Julia was the fun one with many friends on the block, she was the one to get invited to parties and the one whose name was always on people’s lips. She had always strived to get Zoe's attention, looking for ways to talk to her and maybe looking for a way to mend their friendship. But then, Julia wasn't just a friend Zoe had before her father's death; she was also the dumbest girl in class and Zoe didn't want anything to do with her.

Zoe continued walking, not greeting anyone, and walked straight to the back of the class. But she stared at the desks because they looked different, they were joined together now. She winced and turned to her left. Her classmates were spotted together. She tapped one of the boys, Matthew, on the shoulder. He turned to look at her, then she asked, “Why are the desks like this?” Matthew stared at her in starstruck awe, completely carried away by the fact that Zoe was talking to him, that he forgot all about the question.

Matthew had a long time crush on Zoe, he had confessed when they were in SS1, but had been rejected in a terrible way. But he had never stopped liking her, even when Zoe said he looked stupid in his saggy glasses. Zoe would never talk to him, so her standing in front of him asking some question he had forgotten about, was an achievement for him.

"Hello?” Zoe asked, bringing him back to reality.

“Huh?” he asked. Zoe brought her hand to her face to show her frustration, the guy didn't answer the question.

“Why are the desks like this?” she asked again, her voice sending chills down the poor boy's spine.

“Oh, that's the new arrangement. You know, final year students sit together,” he finally replied, and he blinked his eye, avoiding direct eye contact with the angel that just dropped from heaven.

“Oh.” Zoe sighed as she walked to the back of the class and sat at the back seat on the middle column.

It was a tradition in the school for final year students to sit in twos. Zoe had always thought it was stupid, her cold nature buttressing this. Who would be ready to sit with a freak like her? She was not ready for anyone trying to get into her space. Throughout the morning, no one came to sit beside her because her gaze alone wasn't welcoming.

After the morning gathering, the students went back to class. Julia was sitting right in front of her, and Zoe groaned at this development. Julia was always sleeping in class, not finishing assignments—that wasn't a type of vibe she appreciated. And Julia was the type who would take the opportunity of copying homework to starting a stupid conversation. One thing that amazed Zoe was that Julia was always doing poorly, but she had never repeated a class.

The class became noisy and full of vibes as the students were all excited about the new session. Zoe was on her own as always, reading a new novel she had just gotten. She was so engrossed in the novel that she only noticed the teacher enter when the students greeted her.

"Good Morning, ma, you are welcome!” the class chorused.

Mrs. Komolafe, the class teacher, was fond of Zoe and liked her a lot. Zoe's name was always on her mind when she corrected other students. She also loved to send Zoe on lots of errands.

"Good morning class,” Mrs. Komolafe said as she walked around the class, staring at her student's robust faces.

"I see you all enjoyed your holiday, with your round cheeks and fat bodies.”

The whole class laughed at her comment. But stopped as soon as her demeanor changed.

“This is your final year in this school, students. And you have a lot of work to do, starting from today, this moment. You need to work hard! Your final exam is months away. You need to work early now, start working now! If you were not working hard before, you need to start working now! I would love you to clap your hands for Zoe Adeleke. She was the best student for SS2 again,” she said. The class clapped as Zoe watched with a straight face.

“Zoe, I wouldn't be nervous about your performance in the final exams, no. You have proven your capacity and I'm so proud of you.”

“You guys should emulate her. Especially those of you that got promoted on trial. You need to work hard like Zoe. I'm disappointed in some of you, for example, Julia, you always make me ashamed in the staff room. Your results are nothing to write home about, and if you are not careful, I'm not sure of your success in your final exams,” Mrs. Komolafe said.

Zoe watched as Julia dropped her head as soon as Mrs. Komolafe started talking about her grades. She smirked and looked out, watching the school compound from the class window.