Our Insecurities

Chapter Twelve

Cherish Onyedikachi has always been a lone wolf. One thing she seemed to have acquired a PhD on was being alone. She was the one to meet for academic help, but no one bothered to actually get closer than that. Everyone knew her as the lady that knew everyone and at the same time had no friends.

What no one knew was that Cherish has a five year old crush on Jayden. Over the past years, she had nursed such fickle feelings, not allowing reality or negative thoughts get to her.

The first time Cherish set her eyes on him, Jayden had been dropped off at school by his parents. They were just Jss1 students then but that hadn’t stopped her heart from doing flip flops at the sight of him almost in tears because he didn’t want to be at school. She had stood rooted still, gaping at him until the stroke of cain from a senior booted her right out of her admiration. Months later, she was able to match a word to the continuous state of her body at the sight of him, and the feelings seemed to blossom.

Cherish had tried her best to remain in the same class as Jayden after Jss1 but the school system was completely against her. 

Primestone Academy, unlike other schools, has a tradition of shuffling the students at every level after each section. That way, according to Mrs. Dike, the students will be able to interact more. Also, the students will be in constant competition with their new classmates and there will be no room for dilly-dally. Of course, one way to enable that the shuffling was done accordingly is to place students according to how early fees are paid.

Though Cherish had to wait until the NGO that handled her scholarship sent money for her fees, that hadn’t deterred her. She had made it a mission to convince her dad to pay the fees earlier for her and take the money back later. She had eventually succeeded in Ss1 when she decided to come clean to her parents about the reason she was so adamant.

“Fine,” her dad had agreed, seconded by a nod from her mum. The whole ordeal had been so surreal. 

Unfortunately, the end hadn’t been as promising as the process. She had ended up in Ss1D, while Jayden was assigned to Ss1C. Cherish gave up after the incident. There would have been no way her dad was ever going to help her out twice no matter how generous and easygoing the man was.

But the universe has its own way of doing things. That was proven when Jayden was abruptly transferred to her class a couple of days ago. No words would have been able to explain how ecstatic she felt when he was assigned to the desk next to hers. She had been so close to damming all consequences and doing some somersault stunts in class that day.

“So how are you enjoying our class so far?” Cherish asked Jayden as she pretended to pack some books into her backpack. It was the first time she was speaking to him after his transfer to their class.

“There is nothing to enjoy, is there? All classes involve studying, don’t they?” Jayden replied, frowning at his physics notebook as he flipped from page to page. 

It was a few minutes to the first break on a Wednesday afternoon and the students were alone in class. Corper Stacey had left the class earlier with the message that the physics teacher will explain the note she gave them in the next class if he is available.

“For starters,” Cherish offered, “the time tables are different.” 

Jayden looked up from the notebook, his frown deepening. “And I hate it more. In my previous class, it was easier to ditch physics classes because it was in the afternoon.” He raised an eyebrow, a challenge for her to make a comeback.

“Oh wow,” was all she could muster. His answer wasn’t something she had expected.

“Yeah.” Jayden’s attention returned to the notebook. On a second thought, he snapped it close and got up to head for his locker.