COLOUR BLIND

CHAPTER 13

The first person I saw at the principal's office was the curly-haired boy from meadow high school.
I heard he was the one who saw Rotimi in the act on the day of the football match and offered to come to testify against him today during the investigation that was supported by both schools.
My parents and Rotimi's parents were present at the meeting that lasted over an hour in the principal's office.
At the end of the busy school day, the verdict was decided by our school's disciplinary committee after listening carefully to both parties and carefully thinking through Rotimi's past wrongdoings.

   He was no longer allowed to be part of the school club or any extracurricular activities until IGCSE when he'll write the important exams before completely leaving the school. I bet he got pardoned to participate in the forthcoming exams because of his parent's relationship with the school proprietor.
I got a little bit excited upon hearing the news of Rotimi's exit probation but on the other hand, worried about the way my classmates were looking at me. It felt like I'd become the villain overnight.
I'd gotten mixed reactions from the suspension with Ian early this term and also lost the trust of my teachers after lagging at the yearly trial mocks. It worried me that I was no longer living up to the expectations of the people around me but then there was always Ian who didn't seem like any of these things mattered to him.
It'll be nice if people could see how much I was struggling, how much I'd always been struggling to be the perfect high schooler of their dreams. But this was my reality, and in this reality, I got to understand that things weren't always going to work the way I planned, and it was nice to just exist without feeling the need to sparkle.

Ian offered to drop me off today after school but I refused. Jamie didn't come to pick him up, I would be inconsiderate to let him go with me to Bloomfield before going back home so I just told him to go home while I did the same.
I reached home just in time to go with my parents to the church.
I was supposed to help run some errands at the church during Bible study but ended up playing the bass for our church choir.

Something else had been going on since I and Ian kissed at his place a few weeks back.
I stopped being comfortable in the church and even around my mom.
You could call it guilt but once I climbed the podium to assist in any church activities, I'd have these very horrible thoughts, that I was scum, that I didn't deserve to be here and no matter what I did to get rid of the effect of this voice in my head, it never completely wore off.
I'd been avoiding the church for a few weeks too and I think maybe my Dad noticed it.

I sat in the front seat with my mom, watching him read from the Bible, it was a sermon about the implications of sin and I felt like it was directed at me because it made me anxious.
I stood up from the chair and rushed into the bathroom to wash my face and relax for a bit before going back but after I calmed down, I didn't want to go back in there.
I noticed the clouds were dark when I got outside. A slow gentle wind spurred on my face.
It was about to pour, the last rain of that season.

As I walked out of the bathroom and headed to the main road, I tried to imagine what my Dad's reaction would be like. Coupled with the issues I created at school lately, I'm sure he'd be as gloomy as the rainy clouds in Bloomfield but I didn't go back to church or go home.
I brought out my cell phone and went straight to the dial pad to Call Ian. His line said 'not reachable', so I sent him a voicemail hoping he'd get it before my phone went off.
I took a long walk to that one new restaurant we once ate at but it seemed to be locked down, I had nowhere to go and stood there in the rain, looking into the air and wondering if the heavens had abandoned me while I got drenched from the now heavy pour.

I hated to think that I wished to see Ian but I did want to see him.
That was why I thought I was hallucinating when Ian appeared in front of me. He held my hand and we ran off together to look for a shade to hide from the raging storm.
We eventually came across a warehouse where we entered and shut the door behind us.
It was a distillery, a whisky brewing company property.
There were no security cameras or anything so I just assumed It was no longer in use.
Ian reached his hand into his pocket and removed his cell phone to put on the flashlight. Mine had already gone off.