FACADE

02|AGE ELEVEN J

JACEN JR.

It's our lunch hour and I'm at Paecyn's class door, waiting for her to get out. The teacher have dem in there a break down fractions pon the first day of school.

*Crazy thing*

My class must be the slow set 'cause all we did in Math was talk about our prep and primary school experiences with Math itself...

... Who found it intimidating and why versus who loved it, and everything in between.

I guess every teacher evaluates their batch differently.

"Okay good, you can go," the voice of the male teacher takes my attention from a gaze.

I look up to see that Pae handed in her booklet and I realize something I didn't before. Some of the seats are empty, which means some persons have completed their sheet before her, and left.

"Don't start," she shoves me while stepping out, before I can say what's on my mind.

"How you know me did ago say supm?" I laugh out before taking her bag. "Just cyaa believe anuh you come out first... fi some fractions bro?"

"Say weh you want enuh Jacen. My PEP score still two points higher than yours," she rolls her eyes.

I fall silent.

I was going through things...

Between my biological parents dying, Dadz getting kidnapped and Mumz getting shot, me lucky fi even score that.

Sometimes I wish they had usual problems, like him cheating and she pack up and leave with us for a while... just regular big people things– instead of one of them going missing and the other almost dying.

"Sir a you me a talk to and you zone out," P' yanks my arm, "me say why Kemp no come a school tod–" she pauses.

*Here we go*

"What's wrong?" she goes into the mode that I hate the most.

"Me good Paecyn nuh bother wid it..." I trail off.

She falls silent immediately. More immediate than all the other times she's tried to badger me about what's happening in my life. To her knowledge, my father died and every time I zone out, it's for that reason and that reason alone... but that anuh the half.

She shifts in front of me and starts walking wayyy too quickly towards the cafeteria.

We get there and I break the silence, "Weh you want?"

"Me nuh hungry," she mumbles, her body now swimming in attitude.

"Bro a vex you vex?" I glare at her.

"Everything me say bother you. All I said was my score higher than yours and you zone out. What's the point of us competing then?"

I smile.

"Young miss, what you want to eat?" I switch the topic back to our food 'cause one girl cannot be this miserable, this young.