He's Desperate

1- The Craziest Being

The name "LOUIS ALEXANDER HIGH SCHOOL" was boldly inscribed forming a curved shape with bright colours well coated around of it. The school compound was wide, decorated flowers all around—like purple bougainvillaea, all maintained in side of of the door leading to the hallway. It had mighty storey buildings, grassy lawns and marble looking walkways.
    There was a bit of silence; all students, busy concentrating on their teachers while some were carrying out experiments in the laboratory. According to school system, senior high has three classes; class four, five and six; and in each classes has three departments; science, Art, and commercial— diverse classrooms for each. 
     Over, in class five, the students were concentrating smartly at the teacher writing chemical equations on the board. The classroom was spacious, rows stacked upon rows of exquisitely arranged desks. One could almost taste the exuberance of the students occupying those desks. It had one projector and two television screens that created a digital triangle around the room. Across the windows were light, brought by the gleamy rays of the sun. The cents of different perfumes, combined with the robust and powerful fragrance of the flowers conserved outward and the cool composure of Icy atmosphere generated by the air conditioners.
     The man who stood in front of the class was a little over thirty years old, slim, and his tight three-piece suit emphasized this  fact. He had a brown face made happy. His lips, of the sort of one who always smiles. His nose, pointed out that one hardly see his nostrils. Mr Anderson Mark, that was his name.
    His eyeballs moved round and round as though scanning the students that sat dazzling in front him until it got fixated on one.
    "Get up Justin," he commanded. "Can you tell the whole class the name of this hydrocarbon?" The boy stood up, eyes fully concentrated on the reaction over the board. All eyes were on him now. Well, they were all confident, he would come up with the right answer, that's so very sure. They knew him to be a super-intelligent student. 
   "Ethyne,"he said smartly.
   "Correct!" Mr.Mark remarked, he was expecting that. "Now, when there is the addition of water at about sixty-degree Celsius, it forms what?"
    He took a glance at the reaction again. He had to be correct at least to make sure someone special, sitting in the same class as he, is proud of him.
   "Ethanol, vinyl alcohol sir"
   "Bravo! Give him a round of applause everyone"
    There was an uproar as almost all the students clapped him. He smiled in a charming way, in effect, to make sure the one special to him sees him.
   Alas, he was disappointed. The girl that should be staring at him by now was focusing on something under her desk.
   "Gina, " Mr. Mark called. He must have noticed too.
  She jerked up, gazing first at the board, and at the tv screens and back to him.
   "What are you busy with underneath your desk?" he inquired curiously.
   "Nothing," she responded, accompanied by a light smile on her face. She knew if it were to be Miss Adesua, she is in doom to say the least. 
  "What was Justin's answer?"
  "Ethanol," she replied. Not that she had paid attention while Justin responded to the question, but she knew the reaction on the board.
   "I know you aren't paying attention. I want to see your head up," he said. His face was still a smile that one never knows when he gets furious. 
   She said nothing as he continued teaching, kept her eyes on him only for a few times. She turned her head down underneath her desk where she was hiding something. Justin was all looking at her. He wondered what she had under there. Maybe she was pinging on her phone—she's fond of bringing phones to school.
    But now Justin worried less about what she was doing, he kept admiring her, staring on how smart she looked in her uniform, how her hair looked in plaits. Her beauty was too much that he suffers anytime he sees her less. She had blonde hair, natural long eyelashes, pink lips that glitters with lip gloss every day.
   What got him baffled about was her character. Gina was a kind of bad-mannered girl, had a nasty heart and not giving a damn. She is considered to be the top one richest student in the school, as she's often referred to as first-class money. Her father owned the biggest hotel in the States. This made her more proud.
    "Sir, " A girl called out from behind, "she is chatting on her phone!" her name was Jane. She had big delicate eyes made glowing.
    Mr Mark paid attention to Gina this time. "Gina, " he called gently, his eyebrows pulled down,  "Get me the phone," he wasn't hoarse but it seemed he was upset this time.
   Gina glared at Jane; they were best enemies, all, including the staffs, were conversant with them, their cases were always put to the table all the time.
   "Get me the phone, " he repeated.
   Gina sluggishly stood, ambled up to him and handed him the phone.
   "Go and sit. I'm seizeing it. Come for it after the class and pay undivided attention to me."
   Gina stared back at him as if she was going to eat him up. A kind of expression that combined sadness with anger.
   "Don't be that way... go and sit, come get your phone after the class," Mr Mark's facial expression was a smile to please her.
    She stood there for some seconds and what came out of her mouth was—  "I'm not  interested in today's chemistry," and gave a disdainful flick of her hair, marched out of the class. Mr Mark wasn't outraged. He knew so much of her unethical behaviour already. The class murmured until it began to create noises.
   "Silence, class," Mr Mark ordained. "Let's proceed." He dropped the phone on the desk and aimed at the board. He drew structural formulas of hydrocarbons and explained how they react with additional reactions. Justin loves chemistry, most especially organic chemistry—It's always a pleasant time when Mr Mark teaches about it. Now his mood is damned. The girl he admires so much has left. He hated those moments, moments when Gina is upset.
  
Mr Mark gave the class an assignment to work on. Naming the set of Alkanol groups and drawing the structural formulas.
   "See you all in the practical lab next tomorrow," he said and left. He didn't take the phone along. Maybe he forgot. Justin stood up from his seat, walked up to the front desk and took up the phone.
   "Are you going to take it to Mr Mark?" Dave asked. He was sitting next to the desk.
  "No I ain't," he replied coldly. "I'll keep it until she returns for English class.
  "Be careful don't let Miss Adesua spot it," Dave warned. "You know she would seize it till the end of the term and then you know you are dead, Gina would definitely kill you"
   "I wouldn't allow that to happen," he assured him and went back to his seat. 
   As soon, the students were ready for English class, they sat in order, their textbooks already set on their desks; it's miss Adesua, no one jokes with her; she's brought up in a wealthy family, one of the richest and high paid teachers in the institution.
   Ten minutes late, Gina wasn't inside yet and it made Justin worry: matching his feet continually on the ground, flicking his finger on the side of his desk, anyone who walks in made his heart sank... It's always not Gina. He held the phone tight, gave deep breaths again and again.
   The phone suddenly vibrated and gave a pop light. When the screen turned on there's a notification. He was up to click it when everything changed, all students stood up suddenly, when he looked up he saw the slim woman staring at him. He dropped the phone on the ground, stood up as fast he could.
   "Good morning ma," his voice was late, not rhyming with others. Miss Adesua kept her hot brown eyes on him which got his heart pulse run faster.
   "Get me the phone," there she goes.
   Justin thought he would faint as the words came out of her mouth.
   "Ma... The phone... " He tried his possible best to rescue the moment but Adesua was very tough.
  "Should I get the phone myself?" Her voice wasn't harsh but he knew what's behind those words. He sluggishly picked up the phone and walked to her. He was about to hand it over to her when a voice interrupted the outgoing silence.
   "Ma, Mr Mark gave it to him, he told him to deliver it to someone." 
  When Justin turned back, it was Dave who spoke. 
 "To who?" She queried Justin this time.
  "To—to—the principal, " he thought of the best answer but he had to be fast not to fuck up 
 "Why can't he go to the principal himself whereas his office is not far from him?"
  "He was done with us just now so he went to the school clinic."
  "What happened to him?"
  "I don't know." Justin's heart was beating
fast.
   She looked at him for some seconds and turned to the phone. His nervousness has reached the extreme. They must not be caught lying. Now she is deciding to take it from him. Gina's picture was right on the screen if it turned on, was an evidence it isn't for Mr Mark.
   "Take the phone to the principal now," she said.
   He walked out of the class with rapid paces. Bursting out into the locker room he checked for Gina, his head cocked forward as he searches for her.
    He walked out to the school compound, he checked if she was outside may be sitting on one of the seats as she uses to do but she wasn't sitting on any. He ran back to the hallway, making a decision, keeping it in his locker was better than taking it around. He would look for her later.
     His index finger clicked on the keys delivering his password. As it unlocked, he placed the phone on his books covering it with his basketball vest and locked it up.
    He left for class, on his way, just by the side, he saw her sitting at a corner, her head bent, eyes fully concentrated on what she held. She was reading a Romance magazine. Justin wondered where she got that from. At first, Gina didn't notice his arrival.
  He stood in front of her, becoming timid, and lacking confidence.
  "Justin," she called. It made him alarmed
  "Gina... " In front of her eyes seemed war. Pronouncing her name was sweet, it sounded beautiful off his lips.
  "What're you doing here?" She dropped the magazine on her thigh, her eyes went narrowed and biting the inside of her cheek.
  "I came over to take something from my locker," he said awkwardly, scratching his head. He wasn't feeling comfortable.
   She focused back on her magazine, there was nothing to say to him. Then he stylishly ambled back to his locker to get her phone.
  "Take." He stretched his hand to her after he came over. When she looked up her phone was right in his hand.
  "What the hell is my phone doing with you?" she said in a slight shock mixed with anger. He knew her temper was beginning to rise.
  "Mr Mark dropped it on the desk so I helped you keep it."
    She took it off his hand, turned on the screen and saw the notification. She began operation on it without any gesture of appreciation. Although Justin wasn't expecting any of it.
   He was up to leave for class but he stopped again.
  "Gina." He forged the courage. When she looked up to him, her gloomy eyes perched on him and he felt beads of sweat running down his forehead. As a matter of fact, Justin is a rich student, a second class money and second class moneys was respected in the school. But in front of Gina, he always seems like no one.
  "What?" she asked as he wasn't saying anything.
   Justin thought of revealing his feelings. Is this the best time? No, she still looked upset.
  "We are having English class, " he said.
   Gina went back to her phone. He felt no remorse, he was used to it. When he left for class, the students were busy writing on their books.
   "What took you so long?" asked Miss Adesua as he was about to take his seat.
  "The principal took my time, he was signing some documents."
   "I gave them a work to do. Look at the white board," said Miss Adesua. He looked at the board and read out the words in a whisper. Write on the craziest thing you've ever seen. He sat comfortably, held his pen smartly and focus his thought on what to write on.
   Just then Gina walked into the class and he gazed his sight temporarily on her. Yes, she is. Gina james, the craziest being I ever saw...