Let me stop you there.
Before you think I was taking all of this lightly, of course I was not!
I was totally freaking out at the time.
But I can't put that into text now, can I?
The next two days were quite occupying.
I spent less hours on the phone and more hours reading, writing and presenting.
Being a final year science student was quite demanding.
Yeah, about my friends.
We were all in the same class but we acted like we barely knew each other.
Sally was the brightest.
Teacher's pet, highest overall grades and other accolades.
So she was often used as a good example for other senior students and other students in general.
Tochukwu and Adewale belonged to Art.
Adewale usually got average marks whike Tochukwu was flunking badly.
Jumai was a business student (or commercial) and she never failed.
She didn't get extremely high grades like Sally but she never failed like Tochukwu either.
She was the kind of student teachers would like.
Quiet in class, never owed notes like the rest of us and never failed either.
Great!
Well I was different.
I was amazingly good at some subjects and amazingly bad at others.
So, I guess that wasn't too bad.
But I had a penchant for always completing assignments.
Anyways, back to the story.
The days flew by like seagulls racing for bread on the beach.
And on the night before Thursday, I was busy binge watching YouTube shorts.
Complete with some grub.
After a while, I felt sleepy and set the phone aside.
Then I lay on my back, ruminating on the events that had taken place that day.
Hadiza and six of her hijabi friends all smiled, waved and giggled sheepishly at me when I came into the school with Chibuike.
Chibuike is just a side character I walk to school once in a while with.
We talk mostly about Freefire and food.
He has no relevance in this story.
Other things had happened.
A boy and a girl were caught, well, having 53x (if you know, you know) in the school's clinic.
Turns out she was the health prefect and had taken her boyfriend to the clinic for some "physical activity".
They were ten minutes into it when their moans attracted the attention of the security guard and well...you know the rest.
For some reason, Sally was staring at me while the story was being told.
I shot her a quizzical look.
She mechanically looked at something else.
What the hell, Sally?
I thought about other events and then what happened on Sunday night came to my mind.
This Azim's case was getting concerning.
Why did Azim look different in the dream?
Why did the guy look like Azim?
So many things seemed off.
If they were indeed serial killers as Sally as suggested, why were they so after Azim's head?
What was so special about the paper that it scared them?
So many questions, no answers.
I grew weary of asking myself questions and was glad that in twenty-four hours, I would know the next line of action.
THURSDAY
I woke up tired.
Not because I didn't sleep well but because it is freaking normal to be tired on a school morning.
I breezed through the morning and walked to school with Chibuike.
I couldn't do the same with any of my other friends because our houses were all in different streets and theytook different paths.
Chibuike was quite apprehensive because he hadn't finished his Biology note and was sure he was cooked.
Inwardly, I was glad.
All I had to do was sneak to James' class (the boy I paid to write my notes), pay him his balance and sneak back into class.
Genius!
I wasn't like Chibuike that would be writing twenty-five pages worth of notes in four days.
No way.
Everything went as planned and I only got chastised for not using a blue pen.
After that, class eased up and became quite enjoyable.
I even saw the Biology teacher, a married man with three kids playfully flirting with Sally.
She looked so embarrassed.
Plus, other guys were waiting for the old man to finish so they could deliver their pickup lines in hope of roping Sally.
But it was hopeless because she didn't want a boyfriend.
At least that's what she told me.
I playfully asked her once if she was interested in having a boyfriend.
She hesitated.
I repeated the question.
She said "no" in a voice that conveyed hope.
What was she hoping for?
Anyways, I made eye contact with her as she was returning to her seat.
That was after those guys had failed successfully at rizzing her up.
She gave me a wan smile.
I saw this as my cue to begin a conversation.
I skipped towards her seat and sat down beside her.
She blushed.
"Hey, Sally."
"Hi, Kazeem."
She looked so tired that I wanted to put my arm around her.
But I restrained myself.
"Are you alright?"
"I hope so."
"Will you take it easy on some of the boys? Most of them are dying over you."
It was meant to be a joke but she looked quite hurt.
"Maybe..."
She was interrupted by a junior student.
"Senior Sally, Mr. Alan said he wants you in his office."
What a weird way to say it!
"Alright. " I volunteered and dismissed the junior student.
After all, I was a prefect too.
The security prefect.
I don't want to go into details about my prefectship post.
It's nothing exciting.
She smiled at me and said,
"See you at Rathore's foods."