THIS THEN THAT

I was laughing at a racist joke Kene made when I noticed her.

She was definitely new, but the way she walked towards her seat and sat, it felt like she owned this place. I was intrigued by her, by the way she was so unbothered by the announcement the principal was giving while everyone else paid absolute attention to him, by the way she kept her legs crossed, even after Mrs. Ajanlekoko asked her to drop them, by how her skin glowed, as if she applied oil all over her skin, by how her back stood straight throughout the assembly without her slouching, like everyone else, including me.

Who was she? I had to know her, I had to talk to her.

Later that day, during lunch, I planned to talk to her, but that plan failed without having the chance to be executed. I searched everywhere people hung around during lunch, but she wasn't there.

I tried the next day, and the day after that, I tried for a week but couldn't find her anywhere. I swear I never got this interested in looking for a strange girl around school, but this girl? This girl was different, strangely interesting, and I loved a good challenge.

I came up with a new plan, followher once assembly was over to her class so I'd know what class she was in.

I found out she was in my class, but not in the same department. She was in the humanities department, and I was in the sciences. In my school, each department had its own separate building, which explained why we never crossed paths.
I made another plan again, this time, I was going to stay outside her class a few minutes before lunch and once lunch was over, while she made her way outside the class, I was going to talk to her and work my magic, maybe she'd even walk with me to lunch.

Trust me, if she said yes to me walking her to lunch, I had just scored big time, and I was definitely going to be the biggest talk of the week.