Ughh hope you guys don’t hate me. I am still very committed to this book, but I have been overwhelmed lately. I am just starting to get my head around everything which is why I finally finished this chapter. Hope you love it. If you need a refresher, just go back to the first chapter and re-read. The link is in the menu.  Feel free to also comment your favorite character so far in the comment section below. ANYWAY, ENJOY!

Chapter 14: I have no title

Ayo parked his car under the shade of huge tree beside his departmental building and alighted from the vehicle, grateful to be back to some sense of normalcy. It felt like an entire decade had passed since he had been in school when it had only been an eventful weekend. He casually strutted down the campus, greeting a couple of people on the way. He had about an hour before his class started, so he had no worries. Luckily, unlike his undergraduate days when he had to get to class at least three hours early just to get a good seat, his Masters’ program had less students and more free time for his personal life. After some minutes of chilling around, he finally got to his class and took a seat on a bench at the far right corner. He was determined to put all Sophia drama behind him and focus on this class especially since his teacher was stricter than any teacher he had ever met in his life including his business teacher in his fourth year.

Pulling out a book from his bag, he subconsciously cringes as he perceives a familiar smell of perfume beside him.

“Hey Ayo. How are you?” Lara purred, flashing her brilliant smile at him and taking a seat beside him

“Fine fine. Cool cool.” He murmured, not even bothering to face her.

“Ah ah you can’t even ask how I am doing. It’s not fair o. You have not even seen me since Friday.”

Ayo restrained himself from sighing and turned to face her with a plastered smile on his face.

“I’m sorry jare. My mind no dey here at all. This school dey stress me.”

“You could have called me now. We could have gone to some place to hang out and chill” she replied with a smirk on her place.

Ayo didn’t even want to think about what she was implying. He knows that Lara is one of the hottest babes in his campus and he should be proud of her even talking to him, but even when she approached him in the past, he always felt like he was faking it and trying to force feelings for this girl who now seemed completely unattractive to him after he had seen Sophia again.

“I was very busy this weekend ehn. No time to even check time gan.”

“Hmm are you sure? Or were you with Joyce? Amanda? Tinuke? Or one of your many baes this weekend?” she taunted.

His forehead crinkled as he thought about how he would have to deal with all these girls he had led on. Lara, Joyce, Amanda, Tinuke, Arike, and many others no longer mattered to him anymore. He had never slept or touched any one of them, but he had certainly drawn and maintained their attention with some of his comments and actions. From the corner of his eye, he could see Joyce eyeing him from the other side of the classroom. He could even also see Amanda occasionally glancing back at him and Lara.

“What kind of mess have I gotten myself into?” he wondered

Luckily, just as Joyce was about to get up from her seat and head over to him, the lecturer walked in and Ayo had never been happier to see his face. Lara went back to her seat and peace was restored for the meantime.

Meanwhile, back at the dance studio where the girls were rehearsing, trouble was brewing.

“What is the matter with all of you? Can’t you get one step right?!” Patricia screamed

The other members shivered from her words. They were trying their best to keep up with the steps, but the techniques were much too advanced for them.

“Patricia, we are trying our best” Mary squeaked.

Everyone’s mouth hung open as they stared in shock at Mary. “

She actually had the courage to speak up!” they thought.

Mary’s shoulders hunched in fear as when she saw Patricia squint her eyes at her.

“Listen here! I get that you are new to the team and all, so you probably don’t understand what is at risk here. One of the FEW popular dancing competitions in Nigeria is being held in just a couple of weeks, and here you all are SLACKING! This is our chance, my chance! And I’m not going to let you guys mess it up because of your incompetence!”

Some girls clenched their fists in anger while others tried to control the tears that were about to fall. Tireni, who had just been observing the exchange, decided to interject.

“You guys, let’s take a quick five minute break. Pattie, we need to talk.”

Patricia scoffed and headed off to the corner of the room with Tireni following her while everyone dispersed in small gossip groups.

“Patricia, you need to chill!”

“No! You need to tighten up! Come on, you know that we don’t get many opportunities like this especially in this country. We have to make this awesome.”

“Not by degrading everyone.” She noted

“Okay fine. I was a bit too harsh, but they needed it. They have been slacking off recently. I’m sure that our performance that day would have ended badly if not for Ayo crashing it.”

Tireni laughed as she thought about the event.

“What’s funny?”  Patricia murmured

“I can’t believe the dude just legit jumped on stage screaming.”

Patricia rolled her eyes at her.

“Oh come on, don’t be a vibe killer. It was funny, guy. “SOPHIA!”” Tireni giggled, waving her fist in the air like a enraged warrior.

Finally, Patricia cracked a smile at her antics.

“Ha! I knew it! You find it funny.”

“I’m just smiling at your stupidity, dear” Patricia joked

“Either way, you are smiling” Tireni beamed.

After a moment of silence, Patricia sighed and pointed out

“We still don’t know what we will do about this technique.”

“I got an idea!” Tireni quipped and walked over to where the other girls were already assembled

“Okay so you guys, I know you probably hate Patricia right now and hate me too because I’m the only one she isn’t so harsh to. But you have to understand that she just wants the best for all of us. To win!”

“We understand, Tire, but we simply can’t do this technique without breaking our ankles” Layo lamented

“I get that. I really do. Even though I can do it, my ankles are starting to hurt. So how about this? I saw this lit tutorial where they showed a sort of simplified but still cool version of this technique.”

By this time, Patricia had walked over to where they were standing.

“Really?” Opeyemi asked

“Yup. It’s still hard, but at least your ankles will live.”

A couple of laughs came from her comment and the mood was a bit lighter.

“Okay so you go like this and bring your right leg to the back of your left knee. Then….” Tireni went on to explain the technique and after a couple of trials, most of the girls could do it without making any mistakes.

Patricia had just been observing all this while, but when she saw how, after rehearsals, the girls were smiling and even practicing the technique among themselves with the same elegance and grace as she would have carried, she went up to Tireni and gave her a long, tight hug.

“Thank you, Tireni” she whispered in her ear

“At least this time you aren’t trying to kill me.” Tireni joked.

They both ended up laughing with their arms wrapped around each other.

In an office not too far from the studio, Tiwa pushed back one of the bookshelves to reveal a door to an underground gym below. The gym was nothing fancy, just a wide space with a large mat at the centre where she had bled many times and had also caused a lot of people to bleed. Walking down the stairs, she thought about the last time she had been here and how much she had missed the place. Arriving at the final step, she was shocked to see the central lights in the bare gym already lit up and she glanced around the wide arena to see if anyone else was around. One by one, they all came out of the shadows, but her eyes zeroed in on Ejò (snake in Yoruba), the man with the snake tattooed on his face.

With the creepiest smile she had ever seen, he said

“Welcome back, love.”