Chapter 12 Twelve

Nathaniel closed his textbook and sighed as he dropped his pen. He raised his head only to find Semiloore standing in front of him.

"Hey"

Semiloore managed to look at him before taking her face somewhere else, "About the project... "

"We meet at my house on Saturdays"

"Your house?"

"Mn"

"What time?"

"Around 9 to 12 or sometimes 1 I think we might take longer since we have to explain everything to you"

"You could just give me the overview, I'll catch up"

"Jeez, i forgot you have practice on Saturdays now"

"Ohh" Semiloore said as she internally smacked herself. How could she even forget?

"We'll find a way"

Nathaniel nodded as he turned back to his note. Semiloore groaned;she couldn't even tease him because of the awkwardness, it would definitely swallow her.

"Do you need something?"

"No" Semiloore replied hastily as she scurried off.

Nathaniel couldn't help laugh as she scurried off. He turned back to his book before a familiar scent waffled into his nose.

"Hey Nath" Tara called

"I was looking for you"

"Why?"

"Why? I mean that doesn't make sense"

"Your question... "

Tara swallowed her saliva "You want to give me an answer?"

"Yes, i don't like you Tara, not at all even as a friend;I don't"

Tara stood up from her seat "What...are..you saying eh?"

"Joshua, you used him and I couldn't even do anything about it"

"Him? Joshua? I rejected him already, he was the one who wanted to give it try!"

"Your excuse is silly" Nathaniel said standing up

"Its not!"

"We are no longer friends Tara, you can do whatever you want, I don't care okay?"

"Nath, please"

"No Tara, this ends here"

"You can't do this to me"

"You did the same to my best friend"

"Its fine Nathaniel,am fine now, all good" Joshua said

"I know you are but she no longer has anything to do with this circle"

"You heard him right? He's totally fine! Totally fine!"

"You are out, you don't get an opinion here"

"You do this to me, you won't"

"I have but you can't do anything about it"

"You know the consequences right?"

"Of going against F right? You know what? Am so sick of this excuse? You'll challenge us and beat us up and embarrass us because your class got the best kungfu fighters or what? Am tired of using that excuse"

"You don't wanna do this"

"You go fuck yourself" Yemi said. Tara turned to her with a bored expression

"You shut up first!".

Yemi cringed at her voice

"Oh my fuddy duddy,Tara, how many times do I have to tell you that this is not a club where you yell and no one hears you huh? This is a freaking class and you are intruding our privacy"

"It was you! You!"

"What did I do?" Semiloore asked with a innocent face "Let's get this straight, he rejected you, how is that my fault? Get over it,guys get rejected everyday and they get over it, right guys?"

"Yessss" the guys chorused before everybody laughed softly

"You'll pay"

"Its not that expensive, Tara"

"Listen... "

"You should get going Tara" Jerry said as he walked inside with a volleyball. He had changed to his volleyball clothes.

"Nath, practice"

Tara swallowed her saliva and left glaring at Semiloore who kept shaking her tongue at her.

"Semiloore... " Jerry started but ended up laughing "you better start going for kungfu trainings because if they challenge us, you'll be the one fighting"

"Roger that cap" Semiloore replied with a smile and pouted at him. Jerry laughed as Nathaniel stood up. "The times you act like a girl, you look cute"

Semiloore raised her hands to face covering her blushing cheeks "Awwnn.... "

Everyone turned to him with a surprised face. That was the first time Jerry was complimenting someone. Somehow he was even more colder than Nathaniel. His tone was scary.

"Maybe he likes you" Maria whispered

"Shut up!" Semiloore whispered back.

A boy strode in frowning

"Cap" Jerry called

"You were taking too long"

"Sorry I had some class problems to take care of"

"We good now?"

"Sure"

"Snr Akin" someone called and he smiled softly "How are you,Princess?"

"Am fine"

"Okay, stay safe" he said as his eyes landed on Semiloore, he opened his mouth to say something when Tamiloore walked in and walked straight to Semiloore.

"Hey"

"What's up?"

"I joined tennis"

"That's cool"

"Well I suck at it"

"You'll be fine after few practices cmon"

Tamiloore turned to Nathaniel and Jerry not noticing the third guy standing with his hands in his pockets.

"Hi Jerry, Hi Nath" Tamiloore greeted with a smile

"Hi Tamiloore"

"How are you?"

"Am fi... " Tamiloore started to reply but the words suddenly stopped in her throat. Her breathing went shallow, the person standing in front of her was.....was.....was...she was lost for words. Still in a trance she bent slowly towards Semiloore

"Semmy"

"Huh?" Semiloore replied with a smile crawling up her face, she was sure Tamiloore was going to say something very funny.

"You remember when mom said we could use beautiful for a guy when he is very handsome"

"Yeah"

"This guy....he is pretty" Tamiloore blurted out and Semiloore burst into laughter snapping her out of her trance. Tamiloore turned around and saw everyone looking at her with wide eyes. She titled her head at Akin,"I didn't say that out right?"

Akin's mouth curved into a smile "The hell you did "

Tamiloore went tomato red as she ran out covering her face "This is so embarrassing"

Everyone started laughing, Akin shook his head "Let's go"

"Who's he?"

"Adeyeye Akin" Maria replied and Semiloore turned to her

"Tell me, whats up with you? Why is it anytime I ask who is someone you say their names?"

Peter laughed "Your name is your identity right?"

"I get that but what I don't get is the pause after it"

Maria and Peter burst into laughter

"Sorry, Volleyball team cap for both girls and boys, the girl's team have a cap but she's not a cap though. He's the cutest guy on SSS3 block but he's very icy. Jerry and Nath are his school sons. He doesn't let people get close to him, he's very very very brillant and prolly has never gotten a C before"

"Ohh"

"You could take a wild guess and guess where the fuck Jerry and Nath got their iciness from"

"Yeah, I could do that" Semiloore replied with a smile "First of all I need to find Tammy, she just ruined her reputation" she added with a small laugh.

"You guys continue practicing" Akin said as he sat down. They were going to have a match with Wells College, a school they never got along with. They never faced each other before but they always both get cut out at the first semi finals by Living Spring, the school had a very interesting volleyball team players, they were skilled and talented but never passed the second semi finals either. His thoughts slowly drifted to HICOL. He sighed heavily,Hilltop Colleges were scattered around the country almost in every state, Hicol Lag, Hicol Ak,Hicol Abj,Hicol Elk, Hicol Abia,Hicol Kaduna and so many like that but the most popular of them all was Hicol Lag. People usually said if the dumbest person in the school went to any other school he or she would crash their records and such sayings weren't lies. They had always broken records everywhere,they never lost anywhere even at the smallest things and volleyball not excluded;he had never gotten to watch them play but he had always watched them live on TV and he needed no one to tell him that they were great players especially their cap and funny enough she was a girl. They were champions for three years now. He really wished he could have a spar with them but they had to beat Wells and LSS first which was the first hurdle. He stood up and a smile crawled up his face. Probably everyone in Oxford had heard of the SSS2 twins and of course he had heard too. One was lousy and one was quiet. Such a sharp contrast he thought to himself as he smiled again

"Why is Cap smiling so much?" Someone whispered

"Am getting scared" someone added

"He never smiles this much"

"You guys just stop freaking out" Jerry replied

"What's really up with him?"

Jerry laughed "Someone said he was pretty

"Huh?"

"Pretty?"

"Yeah"

"Who?"

"He's right in front of you why don't you ask?" Jerry replied as others burst into laughter and the latter glared at Jerry.