1 New Beginnings - Part 1

Hey there!

My name is Matt Adekoya and I want to tell you a story.

You might think you're about to read a typical teenage thrilling horror story but you're not.

Well,I don't care. It is from my view anyway but whatever…

Here it goes...

My pretty messed up boring life started turning to a story worth telling on the 27th of April, 2018. It was my first day of school since my mum and I moved from Illorin to Lagos after my dad died.

I know, sad story but hey, new city new beginnings right?

At least that's what my mum said anyways.

So here I was in my room, lying on my bed lazing and thinking about all the ways the day was gonna go bad when I heard a light tap on the door.

Definitely my mum.

"Come in ma" I replied sighing.

She walked in and did her routine eye check of my room to ensure everything was at least partly in order before she sat beside me. She looked at me for a moment and smiled, her weary eyes already stirring up guilt inside me.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine,mom"

"I called for breakfast 45 minutes ago... Its 8:30 and you haven't left your room all morning"

Mum knows me too well. And she knows that I know what she's gonna do next.

"Okay, I'm ready. Let's go."

No sooner had I said that and sprung up to my feet did my mum drag me by my arm back to the bed.

Here we go, another pep talk.

"Look, I know you are scared okay? You are going to a new school with new faces but hey, I promised us new beginnings. A chance to forget all about the past and focus on our lives and I've got a feeling things are about to change for our good. So it doesn't matter if there are new faces and it doesn't matter either if you are the new guy." She placed her hand on my cheek, her eyes already getting watery.

"It's okay to be scared but I know you can do this."

Well if you ask me, I've never really liked pep talks, especially ones like this, they've never helped me at all but it's okay if it helps mum cheer up by thinking I'm alright.

"Thanks mom" I said, forcing a smile across my face.

As soon as I smiled, Mom hugged me briefly but tightly like as if she was never going to let go. It seemed as though that smile I forced triggered all her pent up emotions.

"Okay, let's go. You're late for school"

We both got on our feet and as mum headed out, I started packing up my schooling materials.

"I'll be down in a moment"

After I had double checked to ensure I had packed everything I needed - books and all - I grabbed the two most important tools of the day, my headphone and my mp3 player consisting of mash ups and mixes of my favorite songs compiled by yours truly -and yes, I am a DJ.

Not that I do it professionally though.

Its just that music has always been an escape out of my dark shitty life since I knew what music was.

I quickly placed my headphone over my head, grabbed my backpack and joined mum in the car.

And in no time, we were at Glory Hills

"Nice abi?" Mum said, seeing that my face lit up immediately we got out of the car.

Glory Hills is really big and spacious, plus it had a lot of art in its surroundings.

Most of which had a conspicouous tag under that read that it was made by a particular set when they were in their final year.

In short, the school features were and still is amazing, with all the right colours and everything else.

I smiled. "You're winning mom, but let's see how the students and teachers are"

Next, we went in to the Principal's office to get myself officially registered.

"Good morning ma" My mum and I said to the scary looking pudgy woman smiling back at us as we entered her office. I don't even know if I could consider that as a smile. More like a death stare from a serial killer who was trying to make you 'comfortable' around his knife.

"Good morning Mrs Adekoya... And this must be Matt" She said, her yoruba accent clearly noticeable as she glanced at him.

"Have your seats" she offered, gesturing with her hands.

After we took our seats, the principal introduced herself as Mrs Rasheedat Abayomi then gave me a form of sorts to fill while she told me a bunch of the school rules and regulations.

Most of the rules were the normal basic ones except for those ones that give exceptions to extra curricular activities, sports and the student committee, none of which concerned me in particular.

I was going to be a loner anyway. What concerned me was what she said after.

"If you break any of these rules and I find out you are actually a rebel, I'm going to make your life here miserable. Do you understand?" She said to me, with narrowed eyes.

With that, I eyed mom and mouthed the words now you are losing before I nodded in reply to Mrs Abayomi's threat then continued filing my form.

"Matt is a good boy, you'll hardly know he is in your school, really. He won't do any those things you just said." Mom said, trying to protect me somehow.

"Good." Mrs Abayomi said observing me for what seemed like hours before shooting my mum a i-hope-so look while straightening her specs

"Just be a good boy, focus on your books and stay out of trouble and we will have no problem."

Stay out of trouble?? That was only a minute part of my target.

Staying out of everything was the goal.

After I finished filling my form and all the administrative procedures whilst enduring unsolicited advices from staff even from those who I had not business with, I handed the finished forms back to Mrs Abayomi and then, it was time for her to take me to my class.

I still wonder why she did so herself.

Afterall, she was the principal and she could call just any staff to do that or even given me directions to the class.

To be honest, walking beside her gave me was really an unpleasant exercise for me.

She walked so fast, despite her size plus a very uncomfortable gaze she had whenever she looked back and saw me lagging behind.

Mrs Abayomi didn't say anything but her gaze…

Well, I should probably record that as my worst experience ever.

And Mum, being emotional as she always was, hugged me tight for another brief moment.

"Take care."

"Don't worry mom, it's not like you are shipping me off to a boarding school or something. I'll be back in about 6 hours from now"

She soon released me and went off to the car but turned for one last wave which I returned before she got in the car and drove off

"Finally, she's gone" I muttered to myself "Now that that is all over, Let's do this shit."

On getting to my class, I could see from their faces that this was a bad idea.

They were 28 in total and their sitting arrangements clearly gave out which clique was which.

The bad boys at the back, teasing the nerds at the front.

While the big girls sitting===???== who didn't even care that a young man who appeared to be the class teacher was in their midst, as they were busy talking about whatever slay queens talk about . Heck, even the quiet ones had a clique

And, I knew I wasn't going to fit in any of them.

"Good morning, students" Mrs Abayomi yelled.

"Good morning, Mrs Abayomi" the rest of my class replied in unison, almost reluctantly.

"Good morning madam" Our Teacher said.

"Morning, Mr Calvin. This is Matt Adekoya, the newest student in your class" The principal said, gesturing to me.

To my surprise, Mr Calvin's face lit up almost immediately.

"Oh, the Matt Adekoya, I've been expecting you all morning" He said, reaching towards me to shake my hands.

"Mr Calvin Didi, your class teacher..."

This was nice.

Mr Calvin looked like a kind of teacher who had an idiomatic approach of dealing with things.

"Okay, go have your sit beside Martha" he said and pointed to the only empty sit in the room beside the window.

I slowly walked to my seat, trying not to think too much about all the faces staring at me and the thoughts flowing through their head.

After taking my seat, Mrs Abayomi, felt like it was her time to leave.

"Okay, I'm going leave you to get him settled"

"Alright then" He said before seeing the principal off.

Mr Calvin was different.

Unlike the other teachers I saw while Mrs Abayomi was taking me to my class, he wasn't alarmed or frightened by her presence.

Mrs Abayomi, who was slightly provoked by the response, muttered something to herself before leaving.

Shortly after, I remembered my Calvin saying something about me sitting beside Martha.

I turned to my left to see a frosty face in glasses staring at me.

She was obviously studying me but couldn't get anything off so she shrugged then adjusted her seat slightly away from me.

Everyone noticed what she did but just talked among themselves.

Only one person spoke.

"Martha come on, he's a new student. Stop this your holy holy attitude and be nice"

So, Martha was the holy one.

But who was the girl who just spoke. She was sitting in front of me all this while but I didn't notice.

Something about her was visibly different from all the rest combined.

"He's quiet, too quiet... The quiet ones are always deadly" Martha sneered back at her.

The girl in front of me rolled her eyes then turned to me.

"Don't mind her. Welcome Matt" She said, then beamed a smile which I returned.

"It's nice to see that one of you have made a connection with Matt" Mr Calvin said, announcing his return. "And yes I heard everything that happened. Martha, we'll talk later"

As soon as Mr Calvin said that, she eyed me coldly.

What was her freaking problem?

"But Alex, since you were the one who made the connection, I'm giving you the honour of showing Matt around during break"

"Uh, okay" the girl in front of me replied then faced me once again."Hi Matt, I'm Alex"

"Hi Alex" I replied.

"But Alex, we had plans for this break na" The boy sitting beside her yelled in disappointment.

"Then you won't mind joining her" Mr Calvin added.

"Aw, come on" The boy yelled once again.

"Don't worry Rex, it'll be fun" Alex assured.

Rex then faced me.

"Hey Matt, I waved at you while you were heading to your seat but I guess you didn't see me"

"Oh sorry, I didn't notice" I Chuckled.

"Well, well, , you all can continue your introductions later" Mr Calvin said, calling the class back to order.

"Open your literature text to page 95"

*      *      *     *    *      *      *      *     *

As soon as it was break, Alex and Rex began touring me around Glory Hills.

First, they took me round the school hall then next. to the library and the labs and so on. As they showed me around, Alex told me a little bit of the school's history.

Glory hills first started as a public school project that was abandoned by the government while it was still in its building phase but was later adopted by Mr Badmus Rotimi, the father of one of our classmates, Aaron who happens to be the current senior prefect.

That was about twenty five years ago and since then the school has grown in all the ways it should - you know the rest.

Finally, to end the tour, we decided to make our final stop at the school cafeteria. At the counter, I noticed a flier clipped on a board that read "Senior Prom Night".

I turned to Alex.

"You guys are organizing a prom night?" I asked not knowing why I sounded surprised.

"Uh yeah, for our class only." She answered.

"Organized by us for us." Rex added peering over her shoulder.

I nodded then forced a smile.

"Well you can come with us if you want to" Alex said as just as I turned back to face the counter.

To be honest, I was kinda stunned for a moment.

"I mean, you're new and probably have no date to the prom so you can come with us."

I faced her once again

."You two?" I asked looking skeptical.

"Yeah us.." Alex nodded in agreement, absentmindedly.

"Hmm… " I tilted my head as I looked at her oddly for a brief moment, folding my hands across my chest.

"Oh, No, " Alex Gasped with widened eyes as realization caught her. Her mouth hung open for some seconds as she raised her two hands up.

"We're not going as a date oh" She added sharply.

"Rex couldn't get any date to the prom and as his best friend, we made a pact to both go solo" Hastily she mouthed out these words as if trying to impress me or encourage me to woo her a my prom.

So they were just besties. And I had been wondering all morning.

"So will you go wi- -"

"I can see that you've quickly initiated the newbie into your dorky gang" Someone said, breaking in before Alex could finish her question. Behind her, were three other girls, all of them posing as young supermodels.

They looked like soooo hot and sensual with their streamlined bodies even with the school uniform. So hot it took great effort to tear my eyes away from feasting on their bodies.

Obviously, they were the big girls both in my class and the entire school and as always, were about stalk on a particular prey of their choosing.

Alex sighed "What do you want Kendra?"

"Don't you dare imagine me coming to you for anything, ever!"

This was clearly the top bitch in the gang. "I came to give the newbie an advice."

I raised my brows in confusion

"Me?"

'Oh God! Why me?'

She placed her hand on my shoulder. "Look eh, Matt, you seem like a nice guy and plus you've got the looks. I don't want you wasting your time with captain goofy and her faithful sidekick dorky, you'll be better off with one of the Kittens" She said and gestured to the girls behind her.

With that, I remembered a major factor, that my looks could bring unwanted attention, resulting to what was happening now.

"And what exactly is wrong with that?" I sounded horrible, but those were the only words that could come out of my mouth.

Kendra frowned in disgust

"Whatever, you guys are perfect for each other anyway." Maybe she didn't want to push it, or maybe she thought I was going to come back begging her but at least she stopped.

You possibly can't imagine the relief I felt when she stopped.

She walked back to her seat with the rest of the kittens but turned to threaten Alex that she'll have her head if she screws up the prom.

"Wow, is that how she acts all the time?" I asked shortly after Kendra and the Kittens left.

"Well on a good day yes. This could have gone a lot worse" Rex replied as the lunch lady served our lunch.

"I am so sorry for putting you guys through that. I wonder why she's out to get me though."

"She didn't do that to get to you, she did it to get to me." Alex said reluctantly as we headed for our seats.

"What, why?" I asked surprised.

"Alex, please let me tell this one" Rex pleaded with his mouth half filled with rice.

Alex agreed with a shrug of shoulders and then Rex began the story.

"So in our first year in senior secondary school, Kate, popularly known as Kendra formed a girl group - The Kittens - with her best friend Kate, now known as Kayla. So they wanted to recruit some of the top girls in our class which Alex was part of and still is by the way.

So Kendra recruited Alex which Alex gladly refused and Kendra has been against anything  Alex since then. The two remaining Kittens are Kimani and Kristin, also not their real names."

Alex just stared at me, giggling throughout the time Rex spoke.

I could hardly take my eyes off her too. Her dark glassy eyes and her complete smile always gave me this rush of joy.

Well, I have to admit. She may not have that type of bodies the kittens possessed but I could swear that her looks were killing.

I believed Rex now when he said she was still among the top girls as I stared silently at Alex.

"So Matt about the question I asked" Alex said

"Will you come with us?"

I groaned at the realization that I hadn't thought of an answer yet.

Prom night was in two weeks and I was sure I wasn't ready but Alex's persistence was compelling me to say yes.

"I-I uh... Okay. Maybe. I'm not sure"

"We'll take it as a yes."She giggled again

As we were eating, we noticed that everyone's attention was drawn to an argument that had started at the fifth row.

From my seat, I could see Kendra yelling hysterically at a guy. Couldn't say I was surprised.

"Who's the guy?"

"That's Aaron, Kendra's boyfriend" Alex replied.

I was shocked "The Aaron Rotimi is dating Kendra?"

"He is living the life, ain't he? But it seems there is trouble in paradise" Rex said trying to hide his smirk.

"I'm tired of all this. I'm sick of you. You can't keep letting your issues define our relationship" Kendra continued yelling.

Aaron got to his feet and tried to calm her down. "Babe please calm do- -"

"Don't call me babe. You're so pathetic. It's over between us."

That was all Kendra said before she stormed off the room, leaving the remaining Kittens and a couple of Aaron's friend to console him. 

There was something in his eye that I was all too familiar with.

RAGE.

I could tell he was boiling in anger from where he stood but he seemed to be in control.

"I'm okay. i'm okay" He said as he warded off the hands trying to pat his shoulder as well as the concerned faces as he walked out of the room.