Advice.

After the exam yesterday, people in my set were still talking about what happened in my class, A class. I messed up and drew unnecessary attention to myself, all because someone is jealous. Even remembering it now is making me pissed off.

"Emma!" Favour calls, drawing out the pronunciation. "What are you thinking about so seriously like this? I've been calling your name since."

I sigh, "Nothing important, just what happened yesterday."

"Please forget that thing," she says dismissively. "There are other better things to think about."

"Like exams ending today! No one is even reading, because it's not a serious subject." I say, glancing around the glass.

"Maybe all of them have already finished reading at home or something." She replies absent mindedly.

"What's wrong with you?" I'm not really interested though, cause knowing her, it's probably about a boy but I've got to be a good friend and listen, but low-key, its feels good that she trusts me enough with something she doesn't tell her close friends.

"Don't tell anybody though….." Interesting start, "…..so yesterday after the last exam, Chidera. . ."

Chidera was a guy from SS1B, the second science class, that I've noticed hung around favour a lot. It's pretty obvious that he has a crush on her and I think they dated for a while in junior class. He's not a bad guy overall, but he hangs around girls a lot, and is loose with money when it comes to them.

". . .Emmanuella!!! Are you listening?" I laugh a little. "Yes ma'am. So what happened next?"

"Ahem, so chidera called me, and said he wanted to talk in his class. The class was empty cause most people had already gone home, and me I thought he wanted to ask me out, so I went. After talking I was now like leaving the class, then he held my hand and dragged me back, then pinned me to the wall and was trying to do some type of things, you get?"

Wait, what type of cliché stuffs is this? I was laughing so hard in my mind right now, because if I did out loud, she'd probably be angry. I still try to put in a little joke though.

"I don't know what you mean by 'some type of things, oh." We both laugh.

"Be serious now!" she whines, dragging out the 'now' then she finishes. "Well, I managed to push him away and run."

Getting past how clichéd it seems, I'm a little surprised. He didn't look like the type to do something like this. I'm still sceptical but it's not like I could just ask the guy. Speaking of the devil, he waltzes into our class, and comes straight to Favour to borrow a note. I watched their exchange quietly, whilst thinking that she wouldn't follow the advice I have for her. After a while, he says hi to me and leaves. I turn to Favour, one eyebrow raised in question. She laughs.

"What?"

"Don't 'what' me. It doesn't seem like anything happened, and you aren't even acting like anything happened."

"Toh, what do you want me to do?" My eyes widen. She's seriously asking me that?

"What I think is that you're too free with the guy," i say bluntly. "That's why he could do that. Do the opposite of that. Just be like me," I grin.

"Noooooo, I don't want to be like you." She jokes, "Speaking of, my friends, the ones in the other classes are always asking me why I'm friends with you. They said that you're always with me, and that they don't like you."

I look up at her and narrow my eyes. I hope she knows that it's the other way around, that she's the one who's always with me most of the time.

"And?"

"I told them to try talking to you and see for themselves, so if they come to talk to you, just play along."

I sigh. I'm really sighing a lot today. "I'll try my best."

I've been glancing at my French note while talking, and revising what I can before the exam, but it's still two hours away and I'm tired. "If you're looking for me, I'll be in the art room."

I say to Favour while standing up with my note, just in case I feel like studying again. Whenever I want to be alone, I go to the art room. It's quiet, peaceful, and not a lot of people are allowed to go in, except you're in the art club, or if there is an art class going on. Sadly, only the junior students can take art classes. On my way there, I run into my brother, it looks like he's on his way there too. I'm walking behind him, so he hasn't seen me yet. I tap him on the shoulder.

"So you're following me now, huh?"

He gives me a look. "Idiot, how can I be following somebody that's walking behind me, use your sense."

I laugh, "Well, I'm using more sense than you. Fact."

"I'll let you believe that."

"You're going to the art room right? So you used to go there too. I go there when I want to run away."

He smiles like he knows what I'm talking about. "I just go there when I feel like drawing."

Mr Richard glances up as we walk in and a smile spreads across his face. Aside from him the room is empty.

"Well if it isn't my favourite twins. First time you're both walking in together." He seems to have gotten used to the both of us, probably because we're here more than most people.

"We're the only twins you know though." I say with a laugh.

"Sure." He says. His eyes follow us as we make our way to the back. "Aren't you two forgetting something?"

Oh, right. After the first few times, when I started coming here, he said that as payment, I have to teach him one phrase or word in my language, Igbo, every time I come. I guess he made my brother do it too. I and my brother laugh, then head back to his desk.

"We forgot." Ebube says.

"The last person to come here was Emmanuella, so Emmanuel, you teach me something."

I really don't get why he's so interested in this, but I always get a good laugh out of it every time, because his pronunciation of the words a really off. Luckily, he's a chill teacher, unlike all of the strict ones here, so I can laugh as I want without fear of punishment.

"Okay this one is simple, I think. So 'I'm hungry' in Igbo is 'agụụ na-agụ m." He says, and repeats it a few times so that Mr Richard could get it.

Hearing my brother speak, if a stranger heard him now, they would think that he was fluent in it, but he actually isn't, and neither am i. My mother keeps threatening to package all four of us and send us to our hometown until we all learn to speak well. I'm trying to hold back my laughter at Mr Richard's pronunciation, with his accent and everything, but I can't, so I burst out laughing. He blows out afrustrated breath and runs a hand through his hair. After a lot of bad pronunciations, he lets us go.

"Please shut up. I don't know what that man's problem is." My brother says with a sort of shy and embarrassed smile when I keep laughing.

I pick up a sketchpad and a pencil, still deciding what I feel like doing, he does the same. He's good at drawing from example, like cartoons and animated characters, while I'm better at drawing from imagination, real life and landscape. I sit on a stool in the far back, and he sits a few steps away from me by the window.

The door opens, and David walks in, greets Mr Richard at his table and walks straight to us. Despite being a laid back teacher, he's pretty strict about people coming here. I shouldn't be surprised that he let David in. Teachers just seem to like the guy. He smiles and takes a seat in the space between me and my brother.

"Stalker." I say as soon as he's seated and he laughs.