INKWORLD

CHAPTER FIVE

June 6, 2091

Two days later, I decided to visit Wunmi. She had set up a mini office to screen volunteers but all she had gotten were people coming to inquire about the journey to earth. People were curious but they were afraid. No one was crazy enough to want to go back to the same thing we had escaped. No one except me.

Wunmi looked surprised to see me. "What brings you here?"

I opened my mouth to answer but stopped when I noticed the girl hyperventilating beside her.

Wunmi saw where my attention was and introduced her. "This is Wendy, I picked her to help assist me with the volunteers. I hoped we would have a lot of them."

"You are Ivy Adekoya!" she suddenly screamed. "The president! I can't believe you are standing in front of me. You are an inspiration to young women everywhere."

Wunmi cleared her throat. "Wendy, why don't you take a break?" She sent her a glare when she tried to argue.

"Fine." I almost felt bad for her when I saw the disappointed look on her face. She turned to me. "It's nice meeting you, Miss. President. I hope we see again."

I watched her go out before I turned to Wunmi. "Thank you."

As President of Inkwell, I usually met the same reaction when people met me, but some days, I just wanted to be a normal person for a minute and be treated like one. Plus, I knew from experience that if Wunmi hadn't stopped Wendy, she would have thrown a lot of questions my way.

I had to be careful with what I said, one wrong answer and my opponents would have something to use against me. My journey to earth idea had already given them something to chew on. I doubted the press conference I had the day before was enough to quell the fears of the citizens on our journey to earth.

"So what brings you here?" Wunmi asked.

I placed a hand on my chest. "Ouch. Seems I'm not welcome here," I said, turning around.

Wunmi wrapped a hand around me from behind. "Wait! I was just joking. You know I'm always happy to see you."

I turned to see the smile on her face. I smiled back. "I'm happy to see you too. So how's it going?"

Caleb burst in suddenly. "I knew I saw you coming in here," he said, looking at me.

Wunmi put her hand on her waist and stepped in front of me. "What are you doing here, mister?"

I rolled my eyes and stepped back, knowing they were about to start teasing each other. When Caleb and I were together, Wunmi liked to tease him because in her words, 'he was stealing the attention of her best friend away from her.' Even though she had been among those who had convinced me to be his girlfriend.

And when we broke up, Wunmi's excuse was because 'he had broken her best friend's fragile heart.' which was funny, because she knew Caleb and I had parted on good terms. Caleb had his own way of getting back at her. It was a form of entertainment for me so I sat back to watch.

"Have you had any volunteers?"

"Why do you care? And for your information, we got a volunteer."

I frowned, wondering if it was true or she was just saying it for his sake. She hadn't told me anything. "Are you serious?"

She turned to me. "I was about telling you before this bighead came barging him."

Caleb smirked. "This handsome bighead, you mean."

"Whatever. At least you were wrong. We had a volunteer."

Caleb leaned on the door frame. "Was it the teenager that walked in this morning begging to be taken?"