MALE FACTOR [BxB]

Chapter 11

The four friends met at the school's garden immediately after a new Monday morning assembly, before the start of their first period. This time, Zuriel was the first to arrive, which was unusual for her. She discreetly took out her wallet and began counting her money, meticulously arranging it in ascending order.

"Zuriel I thought they told you to stop extorting from those Junior girls?" Stephanie ased.

Zuriel claimed she had stopped for now at least, that she got all the money she was with, from selling sweets.

She expressed disappointment that her own friends did not support her by purchasing any of her sweets.

"We're your besties... You're supposed to be dashing us" Jason said.

"Yes, that's true!" Timi chimed in, and there was still tension and awkwardness between him and Jason since they reconciled, it was going to take some time for their relationship to return to a state of normalcy.

Zuriel reluctantly handed out sweets to the three of them. Jason spared her and gave her 150 naira. He knew how much Zuriel valued and loved her business.

"This money is for the one you bought, Stephanie and Timi you're still owing me" Zuriel implied.

Stephanie and Timi found Zuriel's behavior to be amusingly greedy, and laughed out loud.

Zuriel and Stephanie were not aware that Jason and Timi had reconciled and were back together. Jason prefered to keep it that way, to avoid any uncomfortable interrogations. 

Timi began discussing a recent event involving his older brother, who had been suspended from his university for scaling out the campus. 

Jason knew Timi's older brother, Wale, better than anyone else present. As a result, Jason felt compelled to address the situation and join the conversation.

Jason jokingly teased Timi's brother for attending a private university, causing Zuriel and Stephanie to laugh.  Timi did not seem amused by the comment, but later joined in the laughter a few seconds after, despite his discomfort with the situation.

Behind SSS2 block, Tope was busy advertising for people to buy sweets from her, she'd sold a substantial amount but not as fast Zuriel would like her to, Zuriel was known for her effective persuasion tactics when it comes to convincing people to buy her products.

Tope quickly turned when she heard someone calling her name, hoping that the person was interested in buying her sweets. It turned out to be Chika, whom she was happy to see, as she could share her problems with. 

Tope tried to persuade Chika to join her in selling sweets, but he declined, saying that he had a lot on his mind. 

Chika was telling the truth, he was extremely bothered by what Lateef said to him the last Monday and had been avoiding Malik because of it.

Not long into their walk pass the hallway, they both heard someone whispering, which caught Chika's attention as it sounded like the person was calling his name.

"Psst", Malik quietly called out to Chika, who was visibly nervous as he felt trapped and had nowhere to run.

Chika wanted to approach Malik but sought Tope's permission first. Tope gave him the go-ahead. Before Chika left, Tope politely inquired if Malik would like to purchase some of her sweets.

"Nah! What of you Chika do you want?" Malik asked Chika.

"I don't have money" Chika fiddled with his empty pockets.

"Collect two from her...I'd pay" Malik kindly offered.

Chika began to feel infatuated with him again, he didn't want to. But Malik's charming personality made it difficult for Chika to resist.

Malik gave Chika 100 naira and Tope handed him two pin pops before they both departed.

"Why did you even call me?" Chika asked.

"I bought two plates of food for me and Olamide but I don't know where he is, and I didn't want it to waste so..." Malik said.

"What if you later see him?"

Malik shrugged.

Chika sensed that Malik was not being truthful about something, but he choose not to confront him about it, as he was getting free food.

Chika and Malik went to a secluded spot around the corner of their block, a location where many people often go to eat alone. Chika realized that first period was about to start but he willingly chose to skip class to be with Malik.

Malik pulled out two plates from his bag, one is larger than the other, and he gave the bigger plate to Chika, which further confuses Chika.

Chika had to ask "what about your brother? He said we should stop following each other"

"He's a fool, leave him alone, I'm sorry about what he called you, hope you weren't offended?" Malik asked, Chika shook his head indicating that he was not offended. Chika opened the plate of Jollof rice, spaghetti, and Chicken that Malik had brought.

Someone informed Olamide that they saw Malik and Chika talking to each other, Lateef had asked Olamide to keep an eye on Malik for him, so Olamide went looking for them at the first place he could think of. This occured before a teacher took SS2 science class first period.

"What are you two doing? You guys are fagging abi?" Olamide jumped in, assuming that they were doing something inappropriate.

Chika, disregarding Olamide's comment, offered him some food by stretching out his plate of chicken and asking "You want?"

Olamide couldn't stand Chika, he wanted to tell on Malik but he knew he couldn't actually bring himself to do it so he let it go but still warned Chika to stay away from Malik.

"Get out of here please, you're acting stupid... If you like go and tell my brother" Malik said infuriated. "please tell him I'm begging you"

Olamide, feeling disgusted, left the scene.

The teacher for SS3 Science class was absent during the first period of the day, resulting in many of the students roaming around the hallway without any supervision or instruction.

Beamer took the opportunity to approach Stephanie, who was sitting on the railings during the free period, to ask her about something.

"What did you want to ask me?" Stephanie asked.

Beamer replied confidently "I wanted to ask YOU out." Stephanie, surprised by the sudden proposal, blushed before responding that she would need to think about it before giving him an answer. She then excused herself and left the area.

Timi and Moyo were seated on the stairs of the SSS3 block ground floor, engaged in a discussion. Moyo stopped the conversation when she saw her sister Tope walking around with a bag in front of her, instead of being in class. Moyo went over to Tope to inquire about her absence from class.

"I was going to class now," Tope lied to her sister Moyo when she asked why she wasn't in class.

Moyo, suspicious of her sister's answer, asked "What's in the bag?"

Tope, attempting to avoid the question, replied "Nothing" and drew the bag closer to herself, trying to walk away.

Moyo, growing increasingly suspicious and frustrated, called out to Tope "Tope come back here! What's in that bag? I swear... If you walk away from me."

Timi, curious about the source of Moyo's anger, approaches the situation and asked Tope "What's in the bag?" in a deep and intimidating voice. Tope, feeling pressured, responded with "Sweets."

Moyo became more mad, cause she knew it wasn't her sister that owned it, it belonged to her rival; Zuriel.

Moyo, frustrated with Tope, left her and went in search of Zuriel. Timi, noticing Moyo's agitation, attempted to calm her down by saying "Forget about it, it's Zuriel, as long as she didn't force Tope...".

Moyo retorted "It's because she's your friend that's why you're supporting her... And how do you know she didn't force Tope"  This question left Timi momentarily at a loss for words, as he had not considered the possibility of Zuriel using force.