Chapter 18 Eighteen

The silence that engulfed Oxford was a bit scary that Thursday morning. Students were writing their Continuous Assessment Tests which served as a great component to their exams. The students took their CAs with more seriousness than exams because if you made silly mistakes in your exam or your scores dropped a little your CA scores could boost you up and raise your aggregate.

Maria found herself surprisingly calm writing the Physics test,her worst subject. She hated it with passion,Mr Abraham made matters worst since he never really explained to them,he just either rambled on or told stories nobody wanted to hear but during yesterday's prep;instead of Semiloore to take her nap as usual since her brain shuts down;she offered to briefly explain what they had been taught and she had taught her and funny enough everything she taught her;similar questions were asked.

"10 minutes more" the teacher supervising the class said as she turned her back to the class and Semiloore almost couldn't hide her laughter as papers started flying. She had finished her test and was cross checking,some of the students had began to submit their answer leaflets and were leaving the class already. Joshua walked past her as he submitted her leaflet. Her eyes darted to Maria who had also stood up,she stood up and Peter stood up also and they submitted their leaflets.

The student were arguing about answers outside and as soon as Nathaniel stepped outside,other students crowded him asking him what he got in number this and number that. Oxford class were numbered with OXFORD, O1,X,F were science classes while O2 and R were arts classes while D was commercial class.

"Semiloore thank you" Maria squealed as Semiloore nodded

"How was your test?"

"Cool"

Semiloore felt a tap on her shoulder as she turned and came to face with Nathaniel

"Hey.." She stuttered out

"How was your test?"

"Cool"

"Number 8,what was your answer?"

"Hmmm......60m"

"I got 59.9m"

"I got 60"

"59.7m"

"Its sorta like the same thing" Semiloore said

"Did you approximate?"

Semiloore shook her head "I didn't even use a calculator"

Nathaniel turned swiftly to her

"You didn't? "

"Calculators weren't allowed in Hicol Lag,all Hicols"

"Ohh"

"But this isn't Hicol Lag?"

"Am used to doing my calculations without a calculator okay?"

Nathaniel raised his hands up in surrender "I meant no offence,you didn't have to use that tone on me" he said as he walked away.

"Na....... " Semiloore tried to call him back but he was crowded once again

Peter and Maria exchanged glances.

"What's was with the change of the tone?"

"I don't know guys"

"Is it because he tried comparing Oxford to Hicol Lag?"

"That shithole can't stand beside this beautiful place"

"Ohh"

They entered for the next test;English Language. The students groaned the moment they saw transcrision. Semiloore did other exercises before she came to settle on it. She was way too good with sounds so it didn't pose a problem to her. Suddenly a paper was passed to her. She unfolded the paper

Transcribe omelette for me,  its driving me nuts

Semiloore turned to glance at Joshua who stretched his hand at her. She laughed a little as she scrubbed on it and flinged the paper to him. They soon finished their teats for the day.

"So we close 2?"

"Yeah"

"That's too early" Semiloore whined

"How was your test?" Christian asked

"Pretty fine"

"None was hard for you?"

"Chemistry was slightly confusing"

"Which subject do you think you'll score the highest?"

Semiloore shrugged "I don't know the teachers mark here, the teachers at my former school mark very differently"

Nathaniel flipped his book page without joining the conversation.

"How?"

"Our test's we do two CAs, first and second and both are over 100,they add and divide and divide and bla bla"

"Tests are over 30 here"

"I know"

"Exams,70,pretty straight forward"

"I know right"

"Your former school marking style is quite scary"

"One won't even know his or her fate"

"Everyone knows how its calculated so... "

"What percentage does your A start from?"

"Hicol has a very unique style of grading,we don't use A1,B2,B3 and the likes what we use is A+,A-,A,B+ and so on"

"Whoa!"

"What percentage does A+ start from?"

"85%"

Joshua and John gave a horrified expression

"That's very scary mehnn"

Semiloore shrugged "Tamiloore never had a B before"

"Whoa!"

"What about you?"

Semiloore grinned widely without replying,t probably wouldn't believe her if she told them.

Joshua glanced at Nathaniel whose attention appeared to be inside the book. He wasn't even paying attention to whatever they were saying. He glanced at Semiloore and noticed she had been glancing at him through her lashes.

"Did you two have an argument?" Joshua blurted out

"Who and who?"

"Nath and Semiloore"

"No we are good" Semiloore replied with a smile

"The way you are smiling is betraying your answer"

"We didn't have an argument, I just sort of snapped at him"

"Why?"

"Nothing"

Nathaniel stood up and grabbed his bottle and walked away.

"He seems pretty pissed"

"That's unusual of him"

"He doesn't get pissed by such silly things"

"He got pissed because of the pisser" Joshua said causing the boys to laugh. Semiloore stood up "I'll go and apologize"

"Hmmmmm"

Semiloore checked the long corridors but saw no sign of Nathaniel. She sighed,she hadn't meant to snap at him earlier and even she herself was surprised at the change of her tone. She walked down the corridors and saw him standing beside the water dispenser. He was filling his bottle with cold water;just staring at his lean figure standing there,she felt more guilty and briskly walked towards him. Suddenly she felt a force push her forward;she yelped as she ran into Nathaniel who had seen her coming;he subconsciously wrapped his hand round her waist to stop her and him from falling. Semiloore had also wrapped her hands round his waist.

"You okay?" He asked softly as Semiloore slowly pulled away from him;she raised her eyes to him and her breadth hitched. He looked forward as he frowned

"Tara?"

Tara glared murderously at Semiloore.

"Are you nuts?"

"No am not! Just look at me! Can you see how humiliated I am? None glances at me anymore,even my friends have abandoned me no thanks to her"

"You challenged her remember? Look Tara,now that I look at you I wonder how I put up with you all those while. Whatever has happened has happened,what you should be doing is trying to correct your bad behaviours,if you change you won't be loser forever"

"Nath.......you are actually supporting her? I thought we.......i thought we were friends?"

"Who should ask that question Tara? You or me?"

Tara swallowed her saliva quietly.

"Just let us be okay?"

Tara shook her head as she glared daggers at Semiloore "You are going down,its a promise" she said before walking away.

Nathaniel watched her retreating figure as he turned back to Semiloore

"What were you doing outside anyways?"

"I wanted to apologize"

"For what?"

"I snapped suddenly at you,I really didn't mean it"

Nathaniel drank some water out of his bottle and Semiloore couldn't but help but stare as he gulped the water down his throat.

"Its okay" he replied as he wiped the water droplets on his mouth. He wore an amused smile as he looked down at Semiloore

"Or perhaps do you want to lick the water droplets off?"