Chapter 93 FINAL TREMORS
Godiva POV
All through lectures, I wasn’t focused. I kept thinking of what was possibly in the gift bag.
“Your competition finale commences next tomorrow, yea?” Slosh asked, tapping me lightly.
“Yes, it was postponed from today,” I replied with a smile.
“Since we’d be in school, I’ll be rooting for you from here,” Slosh added warmly.
For the first time, I thought Slosh’s smile wasn’t so bad after all.
After study at the library, Dina and I walked back home interacting about what could have possibly been in the gift bag. That was the first time in a long while we walked back home without the boys.
Immediately I pulled my clothes off, I went straight for my school bag. Pulling out the gift bag, I made an invisible sign of the cross before opening it.
“If you’re reading this letter now, it means you emerged victorious in the regionals, and that alone is more than an achievement. You deserve at least this because your fragile girl era will begin in a bit, so let’s start you off with these gifts.”
Those were the exact words of Jerald in the letter that was hanging on the gift bag.
I was almost tearing up as I read through the letter. I didn’t know I could find strength and encouragement in words like that.
“Now on to the main package,” I whispered to myself, emptying the gift bag on my bed.
I teared up at the contents in the gift bag. There was a petite journal in it, beautiful hair clips, a jewelry set in a petite box, a black ear pod, knuckle rings, pepper spray, and a foldable silicone water bottle.
“How on earth did he know I’ve longed for this foldable bottle?” I gasped to myself, smiling in between tears.
I quickly rushed to Dina’s house with my gift pack, eager to see hers too.
“This feels like a co-wife situation,” Dina burst out laughing, looking at my gifts because they were exactly the same as hers, the only difference being the letter and colors.
“Anyways, we have similar interests,” I chuckled, lying beside Dina, still smiling uncontrollably.
The next day at school, we couldn’t hang around the boys since we had an intense tutorial almost all through the day, and after school, the boys couldn’t accompany us to the library or back home since they also had an exam to take at the research school.
“Girl, we really need to get them gifts also for their exam, I heard it’s a promotional exam,” I suggested to Dina as we walked back home.
“Did you like read my mind or something?” Dina teased, laughing. “We’ve always been at the receiving side, it’s time to give,” she added.
Back home, we slept very early since the finale of the competition was to commence from 8:00am, and we weren’t sure when it would end since they’d have three different rounds.
Before leaving for the competition, the pastor came to pray for us again. Despite his son not making the first round, it didn’t stop him from coming to pray with us.
We were approaching the main hall where they’d address us this time around when I sighted Slosh at the entrance.
“Di, am I seeing things or is that Slosh at the entrance?” I asked Dina as we approached him.
“I wish you were seeing things, but no, that’s Slosh,” she grinned through her teeth, giving off a fake smile as we approached him.
“Sloshhhh, heyyy,” I called out, not hiding my confusion.
“Hello, girls,” he greeted, shaking our hands as usual. “I hurriedly came to wish you girls success before heading for school,” Slosh added with a smile.
“Thank you, that was very thoughtful of you,” I replied, smiling in disbelief.
“Aww, you’re the best,” Dina chimed, making the love symbol with her hands.
“Here,” Slosh said, handing us a rose flower each. The only difference was mine had a letter attached to it.
“This smells nice, I appreciate,” I said, smelling the flower.
“I love this thoughtfulness, thanks for cheering for us, we won’t disappoint,” Dina declared with a fake smile, stylishly pulling me into the hall.
“You’re not gonna read that letter now,” Dina warned.
“Hell no, I’m not,” I assured her, looking back to see if he was still there.
Handing the mothers the flowers, Dina and I paced around the hall restlessly and anxiously before Poppo came forward to address us.
He explained how the competition was going to play out. Those of us who reached the finale were twenty, and in pairs we were ten. He said the first round was going to be written like we did during the regionals, after which two pairs would be dropped. It was only then the finale would start proper, and we were to answer it like a quiz.
The sad part of everything was that after fifty questions, a pair would be dropped, after which the last two pairs would compete in an intense quiz before the audience answering a hundred questions, and unlike previous years, our results would be announced this time around days after.
“No, this isn’t fair,” I muttered, turning to Mama amidst the ongoing murmur in the hall.
“You got this girls,” Mama cheered as we walked backstage to commence the first round.
We rounded up the first round exactly at 9:30am after answering fifty questions. We were asked to take an hour break as they compiled our scores before we moved to the next round, which was a quiz before only the judges.
“This isn’t dope, I heard they’d be compiling our scores from the regionals up to this stage to determine the winner,” I discussed with Dina as we took a stroll to the restroom to get our heads clear.
“Isn’t that Lis and Leo?” Dina whispered, pointing their direction with her head as they stood just before the restroom.
“And who is that with them?” Dina pressed seriously, tilting her head to have a clearer view.
“I don’t care who is with them, I’m just glad I’ve had peace since they’ve been very busy preparing for the competition,” I shrugged nonchalantly, looking at my shoes.
“Stop playing around girl, I mean it.” Dina made a halt, her voice suddenly tense. “Why does the person they are with look like one of the judges?”
“What!” I yelped, raising my head up in panic.