DANIELLA✔

Chapter sixteen

Dedicated to Africanliterature. Thanks for the beautiful cover.

***

The next day, I walked into the class in a neutral (neither bad nor good) mood and in my locker, I saw two boxes of chocolates and a note on top of the boxes. My eyebrows knitted in a frown as I curiously took the note and read its content.

May your day be as sweet as the chocolate in the box.
From...

From who? Who could this person be? It was hard to believe that I, the village girl was having a secret admirer. Could it be Peter? For all I know, he had been acting strange towards me lately; like he had a thing for me. And not only that, yesterday I told him to return the gala he took from me the other day as a make up for stealing my spotlight in the class presentation, so maybe this was just his way of making it up to me. Just maybe. With that thought in mind, I looked over at Peter's seat, but he wasn't present, neither were his friends.

Curiously, I asked Adam, "Uh, good morning. Do you know who dropped this chocolate box and note in my locker?"

Adam, who had his head buried in a book, turned to look at me. "Someone dropped a chocolate box and a note in your locker?" He asked, looking surprised.

"Yeah, you don't know?"

"No, I don't."

"Who could this person be?" I mumbled under my breath, but with the way Adam smiled at me, I guess he heard. "Biko, why are you smiling now, Adam?"

"So you've started having secret admirers that sends you gifts secretly." He emphasized the last word. "I never knew Nigerian teenage guys could do such anyway. I only read stuffs like this in American young adult books."

"But who do you—" I was cut off when my vision suddenly became black by two clammy palms covering my eyes. Who's this now? I touched the back of the person's palm to feel it and it was hard and crinkled. "Who's this? Gbemi?" I guessed and she laughed as she took her palms off my eyes. I turned around to see who it was and just like I guessed, it was Gbemi.

"Good morning my love!" She said cheerily.

"Good morning." We both hugged each other. "Your palms are strong."

"Really? Anyways how was your night?"

"It was fine and yours?" I said, even when my night wasn't fine. It had never been fine. Going to bed late and waking up very early wasn't close to a 'fine' night.

"Short." Her reply took me by surprise. That was exactly how my night was. "I went to bed by two o'clock yesterday night and woke up this morning by five thirty. That's just like three hours of sleep."

"Ahem!" Adam feigned a short cough to get our attention. "Hmm Daniella, I've known you for three weeks now and you've not hugged me like this before oh."

"Aw, my best friend is jealous." I cooed, touching my chest.

"So he's your best friend while I'm just your classmate right?" Gbemi said, pouting her lips as though she was offended but I knew better than to know she wasn't. She was just kidding around.

"So what if I'm her best friend?" Adam asked.

"Okay, enough guys!" I said, chuckling. "You both are my best friends—"

"That's a lie Daniella." Adam interrupted, "I'm your best friend. You're only saying we both just not to make Gbemi feel bad."

"Shut up Adam." Gbemi lunged at him, but I stood in her way laughing hysterically.