CHAPTER 3: FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH LOVE

"Another day of school", Daniel sighed as he dragged his feet to his locker to get some paste on his toothbrush. He had begun to feel the irrelevance of always working hard on everything he had always had to do in his life. He felt like he was no relevant to the people living around him. Even in his class he was just some smart kid who people treat like just a person. The only place that he felt he belonged was in his room, as his roommates were like his relatives. They always had their meals together and have rosters for when the room would be taken care of. And then there was Gift, the girl that had got his attention the other night. On thinking of her, he felt motivation all over him, as the energy to get going to class and meeting her was revived. It was a Monday, usually one of the most annoying days of the week, every classroom is always occupied with lectures and students have to wake up to class early in other to secure a classroom for lecture. But this time Daniel was so enthusiastic to go to class. So for the first time, he had his breakfast early, dressed in a unique way that made his roommates to feel suspicious about him having a new girlfriend, which he ignored and went to class. On getting there, he went to a chair that was close to the wall and was in the middle part of the class, expecting the arrival of Gift, but as time went by there was no sign of her, he felt despair when the lecturer enter into the class and ordered that the door be shut and no other person will be allowed, he was then the only person sitting on the table that he had reserved for him and Gift, he also felt anger, not to Gift, but to himself. That he could have called her during the weekend, just then did he hear the lecturer said, "Yes Gift my dear drop the water right there"… He was stricken by the pronunciation of her name and felt excitement within him. That was when he realized that the lecturer had sent Gift to go buy him bottled water. Then he raised his hand waving to Gift who noticed him and went directly to him with a smile. Then he gave her some of the notes that she missed while she was away to get water for the lecturer, she appreciated it and then they continued their chatting from where they stopped. Just then did the lecturer asked a question which was on the new topic they were discussing for the week, the whole class found it difficult, even to those who were known to read ahead of time. Gift, who was paying attention the whole time, tried to answer the question as she had already made some calculations on her book. As she was about to raise her hand, Daniel held her and told her not to use that answer, he gave her another answer which with hesitation, she raised her hand and answered. Then the lecturer looked at the booklet on his desk and told everyone to give her a round of applause, he then gave Gift Seven (7) points for answering the question correct amongst everyone in the class. Seeing this, Gift was short of words and so excited that she forgot she was in class and bent down to hugging Daniel. When she later noticed that she was still in the classroom, she composed herself and sat down quietly but still excited. She was then scanning through Daniel's notebook to see the solution to the question but found nothing, she asked Daniel where the solving was but then Daniel answered that he didn't write the solution, he told her that he just looked at the question and solved it in his mind. Hearing this, Gift was speechless, she just sat on her chair dumbfounded, she then begin to think that all her hardwork and studying was all a joke, that she had just been wasting time not improving, doing nothing. It was then at this moment, that she became so into Daniel for the fact that he was a cute guy, and also that he was a genius when it comes to education. She then made it mandatory to always be with him, she made him promise to always carry her along with her on his educational pursuit. Just then did the lecturer rounded up his class with the students and made for the door, so Daniel and Gift both walked their way out of the classroom to the way of the girl's hostel, which they had a little chat before getting there. Half way back to the hostel, did a heavy rain start to cloud round the school premises, and then a downpour of rain some seconds after. They were quiet as they tried to retain heat in them in other not to catch a cold, Gift felt that this was an opportunity to just talk to Daniel about her feelings towards him, but lack the audacity to do so. She was she contemplating that she didn't know when Daniel already had a handful of rain water and splashed it on her. She felt disappointed at first but decided to join in the fun, so they started playing in the rain as they were already drenched. On getting to the girl's hostel, they stood awkwardly at each other without know the right way to depart. Gift, who felt impatient of Daniel not noticing her attractiveness towards him, just gave a slight smile and made for the hostel which was not far away from where they were. She was feeling hurt by Daniel's ignorance and the fact that she could not summon the courage to speak to him about stuff like that, she was so sad that she felt like crying that she didn't know when Daniel dragged her back and gave her a kiss, at first she taught it was a dream, then Daniel explained how he had already grew feeling for her and that he would like to be her boyfriend in the campus. She was in shock that she didn't know when she ignored Daniel and went into the hostel.