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Chapter 2- TWO LOST PUPPIESHaley
"I told dad not to come because you said you'd drop me back," I remind Odette.
It's past nine and my dad has a strict ten o'clock curfew, which I don't mind, to be honest. I like being indoors during the night as it prevents me from doing anything stupid under peer pressure.
"Why don't you call your dad and tell him you'll spend the night here?"
I don't answer. Odette, Nancy, Juniper, and Bella watch me as I pace anxiously around Odette's elaborate living room. I know they understand my point of view, but they have nothing to do that would help me.
"Do you want me to call mom?" Odette asks uncertainly.
I sigh. "No, it's okay. I'll just walk."
"It's raining out," Nancy reminds me. "Can't you just stay?"
I pull on my coat and stuff my feet into my sneakers, thinking about it.
"It's okay," I shake it off. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."
"Take the umbrella." Odette hurries after me as I make my way towards the exit. She hands me a big black umbrella.
"Hope I don't get hit by lightning with this on me," I joke, taking the umbrella.
"Keep your phone active and call me right away if something happens," Odette says to me with a nervous expression. "And Haley ... I'm sorry."
Yeah, you should be!
"See you tomorrow at school."
With a fleeting hug, I exit into the dark and chilly night. Opening the umbrella, I hold it on top of me. It's huge, and I'm lucky that it protects me from the rain.
As I hurry onto the main street, I stiffen my shoulders and grip the umbrella tighter, my other hand closing instinctively around the phone in my pocket. My eyes dart around the empty surroundings as I walk at a brisk pace through the sheet of downpour, taking the shortcut from Odette's home to mine. The dirty neighborhood is deserted, and even the stray dogs seemed to have retired to a dry spot somewhere out of sight.
I keep my eyes on the sidewalk, trying to avoid the open gutters, scattered garbage bags and rotting food leftovers, looking up only when I reach the spot I recognize from earlier in the day. My gaze passes over the buildings I pass, a few windows lit and most of them dark. I can hear multiple conversations going on within those cracked walls, but most of the sound is drowned out by the roaring wind.
The familiar metal stairway comes into my view and I naturally look up towards the first landing. To my surprise, I see a black-clad figure sitting there, back against the door and huddled upon itself.
No, that can't be him ... can it?
Licking my freezing lower lip, I notice Xavier is still wearing the simple full-sleeved black shirt he was wearing at school. His raven hair falls on his face, which is bowed low over his hands resting limp in his lap. His legs are spread out straight in front of him and though his body is relatively dry -- being under the shade -- the ground around his feet is soaking wet.
Before I can figure out what I'm doing, I'm climbing the rickety staircase, my hand coming out of my pocket and gripping the wet railing to secure myself. Xavier's head snaps up when I'm halfway up the stairs, and I freeze, one foot on the upper stair, one lower. I open my mouth, but the widening of his eyes makes me nervous. He looks kind of scary, with one side of his face bruised and dark hair flopping over his forehead, ghostly grey eyes staring at me. I close and open my mouth again, before clearing my throat.

Sorry for the late updates
Chapter 2
Ugoma attacked me as soon as I entered the classroom.
"Tiwa, have you heard?" She said ready to gist me but I was already sure that it was about Funke.
I pitied that girl, the news about her wasn't go down anytime soon, I couldn't imagine the embarrassment.
"About Funke, right? I heard already" I said as I cut Ugoma off and went to sit on my chair.
As much as I would have loved to tell you that I was the center of attention in my school, the oh so beautiful princess that every student liked and wanted to be friends with, the most brilliant student, blah blah blah!
Oh please! I was non of that.
I was not even near any center of attention, not so beautiful and not even that brilliant, I was just average of it all.
"Look, my mum and I went shopping on Saturday for my hostel supplies and we spent over two hundred thousand Naira!" I heard a voice brag as my head snapped to the direction of the voice and just like I had expected, it was Toyin, the wannabe of my class, that girl can lie!
Her lie could wake a dead man up!
I am not exaggerating. There was a time that she told us that her mum is an oyinbo {white} woman based in New York, she even buttressed her point by showing us a picture, some of them believed that bullshit but I didn't.
The fact that she was very light doesn't mean her mum had to be white.
The cat was let out of the bag when her mum came to school one day to harass her for stealing her money.
Toyin was a typical representative of Alakada (fake girls).
"Hun! Toyin the rich girl! You that I saw sitting in your mom's small kiosk on Saturday! Must you always lie? The thing no dey tire you ni (don't you get tired)?" The shortest boy in our class attacked her.
Dolapo was the shortest boy in the whole senior school, you could even mistake him for a dwarf.
He had his own special chair due to his height.
He coupled his shortness with been troublesome and mean, I guess he didn't want to be cheated on or something.
Funny enough, most students didn't even know his real name, they called him by his nickname, 'Boiling ring.'
Let me tell you how he got that name;
When we were in J.S.S 1, all newbies and naive, Mrs Sobowale, one of our subject teachers cared enough to give us time to introduce ourselves during her class.
It got to Dolapo's turn and just because he wanted to act cool, he said, "My name is Soyinka Adedolapo but my friends call me Dolly ray".
The way he pronounced Dolly ray that day sounded like boiling ring and that was what we all started to call him ever since.
Queen and her friends cat-walked into the classroom in all their elegance and poise.
Now, this girl was the definition of beauty. She's dark in complexion, tall and curvy plus she was even brilliant.
She practically had it all.
But all this gets into her head sometimes thus making her act like an idiot, no offence but I didn't like her.
How could one person have all that qualities? Say I'm envious or jealous but am I not human?
Had it been she was nice now, I would have even tried to like her but she just had to choose to be mean.
She walked towards Ore who was sitting somewhere at the back of the class.
"Ore, is it true that you got a love letter from Funke Anikulapo?!" She whispered even though everybody in the class could hear what she said.
"Ehen! What's your business?!" Ore snapped at her while the whole class laughed.
Despite Queen's qualities, she still fought for Ore's attention like the rest of us, that boy acted as if he wasn't interested in girls, I couldn't help but wonder if he had a problem.
Before queen could think of a comeback, our civic teacher came in.
Miss Bamijo was a short robust womanwith three tribal marks on her face, students call her 'okola' (okola means someone with tribal marks) behind her back.
Some of the boys even joke by saying, 'you fight lion?'
Miss Bamijo who was surely in her thirties but yet to get married used to act like she was strict but actually wasn't.
We all had those teachers in our schools that liked holding cane to scare students and would be frowning face up and down but couldn't actually beat, Miss Bamijo was one of those teachers.
"Toyin, why can't you do without talking, ehn?, sho sho sho like a parrot. And if I flog you now, you will start crying like a baby!" She snapped Toyin who just stared at her.
You dare not talk back at your teachers in my school.
"It's like you people don't know what you are into! Your GCE exam is knocking and you are now in S.S 2, You had better be serious" She said trying to scare us with our external exams like most typical Nigerian teachers do.
Funny enough, this GCE exam was still the following year and they did not let us rest.
Only our school was making the exam compulsory as if it was their business.
Typical private school.
"So, what was our last topic?

"The same Funke that lives in hostel, that girl that used to wet her bed when she was in J.S.S 2, the one that is fat like this, teachers like calling her Omo Fela Kuti. Don't you know Funke Anikulapo?!", Seun said describing the girl in the most ridiculous ways she could even though she could have said the girl's surname and I would have known who she was talking about.
But knowing Seun, she had to put drama in everything.
Funny enough, she dare not call the girl's name in her presence without adding senior.
"Wonders shall never end! So they are already giving that girl liver too?, How could she even think of having a chance with Ore?!"
I was bewildered, here I was thinking of one fine Funke not knowing that it was orobo (fat) and smelly funke, I was not trying to body shame her or anything, I just love to call a spade a spade and not sugarcoat it.
Aside from been fat, that girl smelled like poultry, if you sit next to her for a long time, I promise you that you would faint due to her body odour.
She was this short fat dark girl whose uniform was always worn out, dirty and untidy. Her hair was nothing to write home about.
Some people just need to learn how to stay in their own lane.
"Let me go to my class and hear the remaining gist, our civic teacher will soon be here." I said as Seun and I went our separate ways.