Asking Daniel to follow me to the Lab turned out to be a bad idea because the boy wouldn't stop asking me questions about art.

Normally I could discuss art from morning to night because I loved it but Daniel's questions were incessant and the only thing he was doing was making all my freaking nerves hum because apparently my body reacted to the sound of his voice of its own accord.

“Ok, would you please shut up? I take God beg you,” I stopped so abruptly on the stairs that he almost bumped into me.

“You did say that I have been quiet today so I'm trying to make up for that.”

“Is it really necessary?” I breathed, rapidly getting exasperated.

He shrugged. “Yes.”

I rolled my eyes and realized that this was my life now and getting angry would get me nowhere with him.

“Fine, go ahead and fill up on my anger because obviously you have nothing better to do with your life.”

I took the last few stairs up and took a right.

It was quiet as we walked down the hall to get to the Computer Lab until he asked, “did you really have a crush on Ifeanyi?”.

With his accent, it took me a while to figure out what he meant. When I did I shot him an unimpressed look.

“Why do you ask? Are you jealous?” I asked playfully.

“Oh no,” he replied too quickly. “It's just, I've seen the guy and you have great taste.”

I paused at the door to the Lab and placed my hand on my hip. “I have no desire to talk about this. You're only getting what I told Sylvanus and Kenny, nothing more.”

I wished that my friends would stop pushing this whole Ifeanyi issue because they had no idea how hard it was to kill my feelings and bury them and talking about them brought back the hurt of realizing that having feelings for an eccentric boy was the worst possible thing to happen.

I pushed open the wooden double doors and stepped into a bright, airy room that smelt like the inside of a new car.

There were two long rows of tables where desktops sat facing the front of the Lab where a whiteboard had been mounted. The heavy black curtains of the three louvered windows on either side of the room were raised causing the natural air to enter easily.

The air conditioning here — unlike the rest of the school — was erratic and seemed to have a mind of its own because on especially hot days we were left sweating and panting while during the rainy days when it was cold, the air conditioner was hell-bent on freezing us all.

At the back, his attention on the screen of the laptop in front of him was the form of Mr. Bakare, the Computer and Data Processing teacher.

“What did you say you wanted to do here again?” Daniel whispered to me but I ignored him.

Walking over the dirt brown carpet that adorned most of the floors in this school I reached Mr. Bakare and gave a chirpy hello.

“No, you can't have it,” Mr. Bakare's gruff voice replied.

I whined and hated the fact that impenetrable Mr. Bakare had to be the one to keep all our notebooks.

Since we needed something to carry out our Computer practicals, the school got the parents of all Senior students to buy notebooks while the Juniors used the desktops. They were like mini-laptops and their use was strictly restricted to class.

I was having a slight technology withdrawal and I decided that seeing my notebook would make me feel better.

“Please, just five minutes Mister B. I promise I'll give it back as soon as the siren rings.”

Instead of answering me, Mr. Bakare leaned back on his chair and looked behind me.

“Who's your friend?” He asked, referring to Daniel.

I turned and saw that Daniel was without his backpack and was standing sketching.

“Oh, that's just Daniel, he's nobody. Can I please have my notebook? Five minutes, please.”

“Hey!” exclaimed Daniel.

After eyeing me Mr. Bakare waved his hand in agreement and I squealed.

Rushing to the back wall where a huge gray metal cabinet stood, I scanned the labels on top for my class. When I got it I drew the drawer to myself and went through the mostly black gadgets until I spotted my slick red notebook with the Tinker Bell sticker that Augustine stuck on it last year.

I got it out and caressed the cool, smooth surface on my cheek.

“God, I missed you,” I crooned to it.

I opened the lid, pressed the power button, and closed the drawer.

I turned and waited for the system to boot.

“Oh, can I see?” Daniel asked and reached for it.

“Where's yours?” I asked as I balanced my notebook on my forearm.

Daniel shrugged. “I skimmed through the requirements.”

“You didn't bother reading the requirements for your new school?” I was baffled.

“New? Wait,” Mr. Bakare spoke up. “Your surname wouldn't happen to be Wells, would it?”

“Yeah, why do you ask?” Daniel replied.

Even as he was talking Mr. Bakare reached down and produced a small square notebook bag.

“Because this was delivered yesterday. For a certain Daniel Wells.”

Daniel chuckled. “Good old Father. Always one step ahead. Part of the reason I love him so much.”

It was hard to know if Daniel was being sarcastic and I could see my confusion mirrored on Mr. Bakare's face.

Daniel tried reaching for it but Mr. Bakare held it further out of reach.

“You only get this during class,” he replaced it beside him and focused on his laptop.

By this time my notebook had loaded and I chose a seat on the long middle table of the right row.

Setting my notebook gently in front of the white desktop and my bag at my feet, I typed in my password.

I was fairly aware of Daniel taking a seat on the wooden stool beside me.

“Hello,” he said and peered closer at the screen of my notebook.

“Oh shit,” I let out after I saw what got Daniel's attention.

It turned out that the Tinker Bell sticker wasn't the only thing that my cousin messed with on my notebook. She'd also changed my wallpaper from that of a shelf of books to a selfie she'd taken of us last year at Grandma's birthday party.

I remembered protesting against the mint dress I was wearing and how Augustine had cackled and said I looked like the Virgin Mary — right before Grandma smacked her over the head for desecrating the name of the Virgin Mary.

In the picture, I tucked my left arm under my chin while Augustine shot a huge smile and a thumbs up in the strapless brown top she wore. I spotted my former black glasses, the elaborate henna my mother had drawn on my right hand, and half of Uncle Claudius' agbada in the background.

“Who is that?” Daniel asked, snapping me out of one of my trances.

“Oh, that's just my stupid cousin.”

“You're related?” He peered so close to the screen his nose was almost touching. “No way! How is that? You're like really light-skinned.”

I nodded. “We're one-quarter English, I guess I just show it more.”

I shrugged and proceeded to return my wallpaper to the status quo while trying to ignore the slight burn in my cheeks.

I clicked my videos and internally released a sigh of relief at the fact that Augustine hadn't touched any of them.

“You know research shows that you can tell a lot about a person by their movie collection,” Daniel said with a smirk.

“Research also shows you can tell a lot about a person through their vocabulary, the type of books they read and my favourite, their song preferences. Like how can you know anything about me because I like John Legend and Lady Gaga?”

“You like John Legend and Lady Gaga?” He asked with furrowed eyebrows. He'd already drawn my notebook to himself.

A snort was my only answer.

“Titanic? Barf!” He made vomit sounds. “I find that it's a staple for all girls, did it make you bawl like a baby too?” He teased.

“Well, yes . . .”

He groaned at my answer and rolled his eyes so hard I thought they'd be stuck in his head.

“Yes, but I didn't cry at the fact that Jack died. God no!” He stopped his theatrics and looked intently at me. “It was sad, I admit and I did have trouble controlling the tears. I did get them under control after all until that Celine Dion song at the end broke my hold.”

I watched Daniel's face do this weird thing where it slowly broke into this big smile.

“And here I was thinking that you were like every other girl! I really should get to work knowing you. You know what?” He turned off my notebook. “Let's play twenty questions?”

“What?”

“It'll be fun, trust me.”

“No, as in, what is twenty questions?”

He looked at me like I'd finally lost my mind. “It's a game where I ask you twenty questions then you ask me twenty questions. It's supposed to be deep and revealing,” he shrugged.

“How is that fun? You do realize that is how interrogations work right?”

“Ok, I'll go first,” he rubbed his hands together and thought for a while. “What's your favourite flower?”

“Are we really doing this? I never agreed to this.”

“Just humour me, please,” he shot me a pleading look.

I sighed and took a surreptitious glance at my watch. I noted that we had just ten minutes before class resumed.

“Fine, lavender.”

He nodded at this new piece of information.

“What's your favourite color?”

“Lavender.”

One of his eyebrows shot up. “Favourite food? And if you say lavender I'll have to jump off a roof.”

I giggled. “No, dumbass, my favourite food is food.”

“What?” He chortled.

“All the best to all those people who can pick a favourite food. As long as it is edible, it's my favourite.”

He laughed and I caught Mr. Bakare's glare from over his laptop.

“Shh!” I pressed my finger to my lips.

“Sorry,” he whispered. “Next question. Facebook or Twitter?”

“Facebook.”

“Are you joking?”

I shrugged and watched curiously as his feet started bouncing. He didn't seem to notice and I found that quite strange. “Call me weird but I don't know how to use Twitter and I won't even try.”

“Fine, favourite book?”

I sat there doing nothing but blinking at him.

I hated it when people asked that question.

“What?” He asked. “You don't have one? You know for someone who is the unofficial protector of all books, I kinda thought you'd have a favourite.”

I glared at him, mostly because of what he said but partly because of how he made my cheeks heat up.

“I didn't answer because that question is incomplete. I read a lot so you need to be specific. Favourite book in what genre? By what author? In what format? What year? Those things need to be supplied before I can answer and even then I might not even be able to produce an answer because I think different books make you feel different things and it's not fair to pick one over the others.”

If I didn't know better I'd say Daniel looked impressed.

“Well, you're not normal.”

“Oh, really. What's your favourite book?” I folded my arms.

“The Book Thief, hands down. That's called being normal, being decisive.”

Now it was my turn to be impressed. I didn't think that Daniel even opened a book given his apparent disregard for them.

His words sunk in and I smacked him at the back of the head.

“Ow!” He exclaimed and put his hand to his head.

When he raised his hand I noticed something red on it and I brought his hand down to take a better look.

His skin was cool and the red thing I saw turned out to be the drawing of a small rose.

“You have . . .” I lowered my voice. “You have a tattoo?”

He nodded happily. “Yeah, pretty cool huh?”

My eyes almost bulged out of my skull. “What are you? Fifteen? I thought you had to be eighteen before you could get a tattoo?”

“Sixteen and I know a guy,” Daniel smiled like it was no big deal.

Thankfully, the siren rang before I could get lost in his eyes.

“Well,” I released his hand. “It's been real, but, I am out of here.”

I grabbed my backpack and my notebook and after patting him on the head, I returned my notebook.

“Meet me at the Quad by 8 to take your book, please,” I said as I reached the door to proceed to my class.

Daniel remained seated but he shot me a farewell salute and one of his annoying smirks. I rolled my eyes and left.

The rest of my classes went by in a blur and I was glad none of my teachers asked me a question because I barely remembered what my last class was all about as I plopped on my bed in the hostel.

“I missed you old buddy,” I murmured to the bed.

I was the only one in the room and I decided that I wanted to celebrate the peace with one of my Twix.

Dragging myself off the bed, I went to the closet. Kenny had hung all her clothes and left her empty box at the bottom.

Kneeling, I dragged the box out and opened it. Inside was a pink makeup box with a number lock.

Mrs. Lawal the housemistress was known to do random room searches when we were in school and Kenny was smart enough to purchase a box with a number lock. It looked like an unsuspecting makeup box so we got away with our sugary loot.

I input the code and opened it. It was piled high with all sorts of goodies and I carefully reached for the compartment on the lid that had ‘For Amara!!!! Touch at your own risk!’ written on paper tape.

Extracting one of my prized chocolate bars, I quickly shut the box and stowed it away in case someone who wasn't in our room walked in.

Clambering onto my bed, I wasted no time in prying open the gold wrapping and devouring the two chocolate-covered biscuits.

I was busy using my tongue to clean off the chocolate that'd stuck on my front teeth when Grace entered with a puff.

“Mehn!” was all she said before flopping onto her bed still in her uniform.

“Rough day, abi?” I asked.

“I'm just going to sleep small, please wake me up before dinner.”

I didn't even get a chance to respond before her light snores filled the air. I honestly didn't know how Grace managed to fall asleep on cue.

The sky was getting progressively darker and my anxiety was getting progressively stronger.

I dreaded the thought of having to sleep and as soon as it was 7:45 I decided that it was time to head for the Quad where I would spend tonight.

I didn't like it but it was better than staying on my bed and risking revisiting that night.

I gathered my books into my bag and left my room. Kenny had gone to see someone in another room, Telemi was probably in the reading room and Grace was still asleep.

It was cool as I walked to the Quad and I tugged my purple boyfriend jacket closer to me. I was grateful for the thick yellow socks I wore.

It was empty — as I expected — and I set up in the most inconspicuous corner.

It was eight when I had all the books I'd need laying out in front of me but I didn't touch any of them. Instead, I laid back and watched the stars.

I didn't know how long I lay there thinking about how I was the only one I knew who was afraid of sleep until the door opened and Daniel walked in happy as a clam.

“Hey!” He greeted.

I wiped a stray tear and sat up. I blinked up at Daniel wondering why he was here, then it clicked. I was supposed to give him his books.

I looked at my watch and it said 10:20. My eyes bulged. When did it get so late?

“Hey, buddy, you ok?”

“You're late,” I shot at him. “I said 8, this is 10.”

“Yeah, about that. All I heard was meet me at the Quad to take your books,” he shrugged.

I glared at him and handed him his books. “Make sure you mark this day because it is the last day that I'd do something nice for you.”

Of course, I was kidding but he didn't know that.

“Oh don't be such a sourpuss, I am grateful though,” he winked.

I rolled my eyes and turned on a nearby zebra-print table lamp.

“Want me to walk you out?” Daniel asked, hugging his books. He was nearly invisible in his all-black attire.

“What?”

“Well, you're not staying here, are you?”

“Yes, I am,” I adjusted my glasses and picked a random textbook from my pile. I hated the turn this conversation was headed.

I was quiet for so long I thought he'd left but when I looked up Daniel was still there.

“I can't leave,” I offered by way of explanation.

“Why not?”

“Because if I leave that'll mean going to my room. I can't read there because Telemi can't sleep with a light on, I can't go to the reading room because that place is uncomfortable as hell and I can't sleep.”

“Why can't you sleep?”

I couldn't believe this guy was still pushing this. My face clearly showed I'd talk about literally anything else but this.

We were in this stare-down for a while, his eyes boring into my soul and laying me bare.

“I have nightmares,” I finally whispered. “But please, I really don't want to go into it right now.” Or at all.

He nodded and I thought for once that he wasn't going to be a jackass.

“Fine, but I don't think it should stop you from sleeping. You just have to remind yourself that they aren't real. Night.” And he left just as quickly as he came.

If only he knew.