“Did you see the scheme of work?” Kenny asked as we exited the physics lab, our last class before break.

I nodded as I tried to balance my backpack on my shoulder with the heavy textbook I was holding.

“Waves, projectiles . . . Omo this is going to be a piece of cake,” she did a dance that resembled shaku shaku but I couldn't tell since she was mixing up the steps. She ended up looking like a headless chicken.

“We haven't even started, how do you know?”

“Oh, I didn't finish my sentence. It's going to be a piece of cake for me, and don't think I'll help you.”

“Ah,” I whined. “Why not?”

Without her help I was useless. To Kenny physics really was a piece of cake, she could solve equations in her sleep which was why I wasn't really surprised when she won best in physics at last year's award ceremony.

“Because I asked you for your chemistry assignment last term and you said no.”

“You mean last year,” I corrected.

“And so what?” She eyed me.

“I swear you hold grudges worse than Obi. Tufia,” I shook my head.

“Ehn eh, I wanted to ask before, what happened with the Principal? Did she ask about the bust?”

“Thank God no! After she waited a year before punishing Paul for breaking that table in the cafeteria I honestly expected the worst, but thankfully she only called me to show the new boy around.”

I hugged my textbook tighter to my chest. I couldn't decide what to make of Daniel Wells, he certainly didn't belong here and I was scared that he was only here to disrupt the natural order of things. I mean showing up on his first day with a hoodie as bright as my mother's entire jewellery collection, unimaginable!

“You met him? How is he? Is he fine? Talk to me woman!”

I shot her a look. Kenny's curiosity was strange.

“Speak of the devil,” I muttered as we rounded the corner to our class.

There right in front of our class was Daniel in that ridiculous yellow hoodie.

“Is that him?” Kenny grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop.

“Unfortunately,” I rolled my eyes.

“He's not that fine but I guess he's manageable.”

I turned to her. “Nawa oh. What is doing you sef?”

“What? I'm just saying what I'm seeing. But you have to admit he has that Henry Cavill jawline going on for him.”

I gasped. “Don't you ever, ever, compare Henry Cavill to a mere mortal, understood?”

I didn't wait for an answer before I left her. I could almost feel Kenny rolling her eyes behind me.

“What did I say about waiting in your class?” I huffed to Daniel.

“Yeah, I should have told you, I'm not very good at listening,” he shrugged.

Before I could decide what to say I caught a whiff of Kenny's perfume and her bright smile as she sidled up to us.

“Welcome to our school, my name is Kehinde but my friends call me Kenny.”

“Nice to meet you, Kenny, name's Daniel. Isn't Kenny, like, a boy's name?”

Kenny just shot him a confused look.

My stomach growled reminding me that I'd scarfed barely half of my corn flakes before my mother's glaring got me into the car.

“As much as I'd love for us to continue standing here looking like complete idiots, I'm starving and there's no way I'm missing welcome-back-popcorn. I don't know where the hell Sylvanus is but we're going for midday without him.”

And just like that I hefted my textbook and took charge of the situation like I usually did. Honestly, my friends would be bumbling idiots if I wasn't around.

“Is she always this bossy?” I heard Daniel whisper behind me.

“You haven't seen everything. Wait till she starts her planning,” Kenny replied with the same tone she usually used when she talked about my binder: a mixture of exhaustion and dislike.

“Hey!” I snapped at both of them. “You can continue your gossip about me later. Break is going to be over soon and did I mention I'm starving?”

The two stupid people I was talking to just looked at each other and stayed put.

“Well don't just stand there!”

“Alright,” Kenny said finally snapping to attention. “I'll go get Sylvanus. Jesus.”

She rolled her eyes and walked off to find our other idiotic friend.

“So I've been thinking,” Daniel walked up to me with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his hoodie and his ridiculous yet slightly intriguing accent. “Since you're obviously not giving up on this tour thingy, how 'bout we just do it after school when everybody's back in their rooms and it's quiet?”

“And what makes you think I'll agree with your little plan?”

Holding my textbook so close to my body caused my palms to become sweaty and it made the book slick so it slipped out of my hands and fell. I winced at the dull impact it made on the floor. I hated it when books were manhandled, it felt like a piece of my soul was torn every time I was responsible for damage to a book.

Before I could pick it back up Daniel swooped in and retrieved it.

“Because if I'm going to be forced to hear rules that I probably won't follow again, it might as well be on my terms.”

He extended my book to me and for the first time I noticed that he was a good five inches taller than me with the longest lashes I'd ever seen on a person that wasn't fake. I was a firm believer in the saying that the eyes were the window into a person's soul and looking into Daniel's I could tell that this one would be trouble.

I ran through my schedule in my mind. The stupid tour would take up a good chunk of time that I was supposed to spend resting in preparation for the marathon reading I planned to do tonight.

But I had to do it, not only because Principal Obi asked me to but because it was my chance to find out why this strange boy decided to invade my turf.

“Fine, but I have a few conditions,” I collected my textbook and swung my bag around to see if there was any space in it. Seeing as I didn't get a chance to unpack anything, it was teeming with all my books.

I blew out my cheeks and resigned myself to lugging the book around. Suddenly I couldn't wait for school to be over.

“Conditions? Come on I'm the one who has to listen, if anything I should be the one giving conditions.”

“I have a few questions you need to answer, that's all.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Why do I feel like I'm walking into a trap?”

I shrugged just as Kenny and Sylvanus appeared.

“Finally,” I groaned.

“What exactly is ‘midday’ anyways?” He put air quotes around the word.

“Midday. Noun. Sustenance so no one faints and/or dies before lunch.”

“Hey!” Sylvanus said as he reached us. “I see you've met these two.”

“Unfortunately,” Daniel answered.

“I honestly don't blame either of you,” was all I said before trotting off in the direction of the heavenly buttery smell.