Chapter Four

Days glided by, and finally, school had resumed. I had mixed feelings about the resumption. I wanted to either go back to school and say Happy New Year to everyone or stay home and enjoy a family reunion while playing chess with my brothers.

I got up from my bed, and then I stumbled onto my phone, checking what the time was. It said 6:30 a.m. I was surprised to see myself waking up so late. Which was unusual for me during school days. I quickly went to the bathroom to take a bath, then greeted my family in their rooms. My mum was in the kitchen making breakfast. Afterward, I put on my school uniform in my room.

Finally, my mum called me to eat my breakfast, and she also prepared the meal I would take to school. I had my breakfast. I strapped my school bag on my back before leaving the house. Then I heard my dad's voice calling my name. I stopped walking and went back to meet him in the living room.

He called me nearer to him. When I got nearer to him, he dragged my face to his chest as I felt his strands of beard pricking my face. He lifted my face up with his hands, and then his face took a bow.

"Finally, school has resumed, right?" he said, smiling at my face.

I smiled back at him.

"I know you are happy to go back to school, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, somehow," I said with a mixed feeling.

His face dripped with a smirk. "How did you say that?"

"Because I'm going to miss you and my brothers."

"Oh, I am not there," my mum said, meddling in the conversation.

"Mum? You are with me for 365 days, while my dad and my brothers are just here for weeks."

They both laughed.

My dad looked at me again, and I could hear his heart beating slowly with rhythms.

"You are going to school; give it your best this session; make sure you come out with a pretty result."

"I will, dad." I answered, looking straight at his face.

"That's my daughter," he said, bursting into laughter.

"Dad, the time is ticking. I don't want to go late to school at the beginning of a new year." I said it in a hurry.

"Okay, my daughter. I would have taken you with the car, but I am frazzled out for now," he huskily voiced out.

"Rest, dad. I would trek."

"Alright, dear," he said, pecking my forehead.

"Bye Dad," I spoke out, standing up to my feet, "Bye mum."

I saw my mum waving her hands at me as I rushed out of the sitting room.

I was surprised that I got to school by 7:30 after staring at my wrist watch. The siren echoed out, and immediately I dropped my bag on my desk, indicating it was time for assembly.

The assembly ground and the school building were a mile apart. The school was shaped like a "U" with roses arranged in a vertical line inside. The building then curved and ran up to the other end, making the school look nice. Then the space inside the U shape was filled up with interlocking stones, leaving it empty.

I walked out of the school building, which had four major roads that were constructed in a cross shape. I walked straight down to the main hall of the school. When I got inside the hall, I observed the students weren't many, like last term. Probably it was the first day of resumption. I wasn't surprise about the low turnout. But what got me shocked was when I saw Kenny, my best friend at school and a close friend of mine. He looked at me, blinked his eye repeatedly, and smiled. Then I went closer to him and shook hands with him, wishing one another a happy new year. Kenny was fair in complexion, with a small eye and a small nose. He had a good height—slightly taller than me. He was neither fat nor slim, but an average body size could perfectly describe him. We were both in the same class. I took my chair and sat down beside him. He looked at me again and smiled. I wanted to smile, but I restrained myself from smiling back at him, staring at the stage. The praises, prayers, and adoration ended. The principal stood up from his chair, which was placed at the back of the stage, and then walked up to the stage. My heartbeats increased with heightened palpitation. I hate seeing the principal on the stage. Seeing him on stage reminded me of the past few days in school, and if I did anything wrong worthy of punishment. I bowed my head down, but I could still hear his grumpy voice echoing into my ears. I wished I didn't hear any of his audible words.

Finally, the assembly came to an end. I and Kenny kicked off a conversation immediately, as we chatted all the way to our classroom. When we got to the classroom, I entered a stage of dilemma.

Should I take him straight down to my chair? Should I stop the conversation? Or should I escort him to his table and chair? I became confused. Eventually I decided to break off the conversation and go to my locker.

We were five in the classroom. Our mathematics teacher came into the classroom and went back after taking a cursory glance, without uttering a word to us. The time ticked at such a fast rate that I was surprised it was break time, and, no teacher came to teach us. I had looked up at my laptop to take down some notes on my book. The siren blared again, indicating it was time for a break. I brought out my food and was about to eat when Kenny came nearer, whispering into my ears.

"Do you mind if I chat with you?" he whispered into my ears.

"When I am done eating," I replied.

I saw him turn his back, and then he walked back to his seat. I took my food out of my lunch bag. I opened the cover and saw it was fried yam with egg sauce, which my mum had prepared for me. I was shocked because this wasn't the food I ate for breakfast. In our house, whatever I ate in the morning was always what I would take to school as lunch. But today was quite different. I started eating it. The tastes of the food were sweeter than the other ones my mum had prepared before. While still munching the food, I accidentally glanced at Kenny. Our eyes caught each other immediately. I tried rotating my face back to where it was previously, but I couldn't. It looked like his eyes and mine were like two magnets that caught up immediately. I smiled at him, and he smiled back and gestured with his hand that I should continue eating, which I did.

Eventually, after I had finished eating, I cleaned my mouth with a wipe that my mum had kept for me in my lunch pad. And then I gulped down the water in my water bottle.

Immediately, I saw Kenny standing up and walking in my direction. It was as if he had been praying in his mind that I should finish up my food very fast.

"Brianna, you are a wicked girl," said Kenny.

"Why did you say so?" I asked.

"You ate your food all alone; you never cared if I could join you," Kenny voiced out.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that," I pleaded.

"It's okay, I didn't bring any food today, but I came with cash that I could use to buy some snacks."

"Alright, just remember my share, lol." I said it shyly, with a fidgeting tone.

"I'd earlier thought of dividing the money into two." Kenny yelled out.

"That is what best friends are for," I said.

"Yeah, but you never played your part, though," he said.

I'd expected that statement from him, and I shrugged it off.

He took a chair located on the left side of where I was sitting, dragged it to my side, and sat down on it.

"How was your Christmas day like?"

"Awesome. The feeling I had that day was greater compared to the last five Christmases I had. What about you?"

"It was drab," Kenny uttered, dragging his mouth in an awful way to express his statement.

"What made it look drab?" I asked, curiously.

"I didn't hang out with my friends; I just stayed indoors, pressing my phone."

"Oh, so you didn't stay under the Christmas tree."

"I stayed, but it was drab. I decided to watch some movies in the sitting room with my parents."

"I went to Shoprite with my mum and dad, it was fun there."

"Lovely, did you hear what the president said?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Do you have any clue as to what might happen?"

"No,"

"You didn't hear when he said the weapons might be unleashed soon," he said.

"Yeah, I heard it, but my brothers said there is nothing like war."

"Your brother is trying to be optimistic." said Kenny.

"Then you are pessimistic," I said.

"I may sound like one, but I'm very sure it would happen."

"I love my life; I know you don't like yours; stop wishing the public the bad side of life."

"Most of the time, your conversation is annoying and pretty useless. I get angry with you for your stupid choice of word."

"Take it that way then," I answered carelessly.

He stood up in a frustrated mode and dropped the chair he was sitting on back to where he had taken it from. I didn't allow him to reach halfway up his chair when I ran towards him.

"Please, I'm sorry," I pleaded, looking straight at his face.

He threw his face in the opposite direction, rooted at the spot, and never spoke a word back to me. I continued pleading, but it seemed all my pleas fell on deaf ears. I knew I had hurt his feelings badly with my statement. But I would still plead for forgiveness in another way, for him to accept my apologies. I pondered. Shockingly, he looked at me in a rather tensed manner and then spoke out.

"I'd forgiven you, but I want to be alone."

"Okay," I said, taking a U-turn back to my seat. I saw my other classmates sitting in a group and just staring at our action; they were all smiling. I never knew why they were smiling, and it never bothered me. I sat down in my seat and bowed my head on my table.

Three minutes later, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and saw Kenny smiling. I felt a cloud of happiness drop into my heart. I knew he would come back to me. He was a guy who had a good forgiving spirit. Although when he's angry, you'd thought he wouldn't forgive you all through his entire life, but that wasn't the case.

"I know you would come back," I smiled.

"Of course I would. We are best friends, so we forgive and forget and then move on with the next event that life has to give us."

"I'm sorry for what I said earlier."

"It is all gone. Let's move on."

I smiled at his statement.

"I know your family are all soldiers except you and your mother."

"Yeah,"

"Didn't they tell you about war-related issues?"

"They didn't; rather, they told me that I should be rest assured that no signs of war would happen."

The siren echoed into my ears again, indicating that it was closing time.