𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒: 𝐌𝐈𝐗 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐀𝐗 ✅

───※ ·45· ※───

───※ ·DAMIAN· ※───

Getting home, the only thing I could do was take a bath, eat, and get ready to go back to school for a last minute of practice with my teammates. I might have done swimming in the past to take my mind off of things, but these days, I've learned to really enjoy it.

I got out of my room and closed the door with my backpack hung low on my shoulders. It wasn't school books, but gym wear to help in today's intense training. I slowly moved over to my mother's room and gave it a small knock. It wasn't like I was going to stay in school all night, but I wasn't sure when the coach was going to call it a day.

I opened the door to my mother's room and stepped in. She was on her bed as usual, with papers everywhere. Beside her bed was Miss. Simbi, helping mother by holding some documents she needed for whatever documentation she was preparing. She looked up as I stepped further into her room, and her brows creased when she saw the backpack on my shoulder.

"Mum, I'm going to practice," I helped out. "We've got a competition with a neighbouring school tomorrow."

"Your school shouldn't stress you out for me. Why am I hearing this just now?" She asked. I couldn't tell her because she wasn't too well, and I was too preoccupied with concern about her health to think about mentioning a school's competition.

"Skipped my mind." I went with that instead.

Mother nodded. "So when will you be back? Have you eaten? Have you rested enough to go for practice?"

"Mum," I jumped in to stop her from asking any more questions. "I'm fine. I've eaten, and I've rested, but I don't know when I'll be back. Probably eight, probably nine, not sure."

"Maybe, I should call your coach." She started tapping the papers on her bed in search of her phone.

"Mum." I walked over and sat beside her. "I'm the captain of the team. If you act this way by calling the coach, what will the others think of me?"

"Before you became the captain, you were my son first." Mum cupped my cheek, and that got me to smile.

I inhaled and exhaled loudly before leaning away from her touch. "You should take care of yourself, Mum. Stop working too hard."

"Who's doing the scolding?"

"Me," I said, pointing at my chest, and that got her to laugh. I sighed, seeing that she'd relaxed a bit, then pointed at the door. "I need to get going."

"Alright, make sure you win not just for your school but for me to have something to brag about when announcing you to the public as the heir to your father's empire." Funny how she could change topics like this.

"Sure, Mum, why not?" I said to her, then opened the door. "Bye."

───※ ·❆· ※───

Practice was intense; no surprise there. The coach was drilling us like our lives depended on the competition happening tomorrow. Once he'd blown the whistle for a few minutes break, everyone, including myself, collapsed at the edge of the pool.

"If we keep going like this, we won't even have the strength to compete tomorrow." Hymn groaned as we all lay on the tiled ground.

"My body aches everywhere," another groaned. "I'm not sure I'll be able to walk home, not to talk of attending tomorrow's competition."

I could feel their pain, literally. I got up with a groan and clapped my hands. "Y'all heard the coach; we've got only five minutes of break; make it worthwhile."

"But...?" My glare towards Hymn made him drag his words and eventually kept them shut. I walked over to the cooler at the corner and opened it to get chilled bottles of water before tossing it to a few of my teammates. I gulped down a large amount of content before moving to the bleachers and sitting with my phone. I moved over to WhatsApp with a smile on my face as I looked at Nsikan's new profile picture. She was indeed beautiful. I knew it would look like we weren't officially dating, but that was because we weren't. I haven't officially asked her yet because it wasn't the right time yet. The word girlfriend would cause enough distraction for someone like her, and I didn't want her to get distracted during our upcoming exams.