THE CHAPTER WITH THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

I brought out a piece of paper out of my missal. I cleaned the dust off of half of the pew. My roommate sat next to me— at the edge. Before long, two other guys and a girl sat on the pew. It was full by now. The girl sat right next to me. Somehow she kept on a hyperactive temperament.
"So you too, don't know how to speak Igbo, abi", she said.
I turned to see if I was the one being questioned.
"Hey, I'm getting better. You should have seen me way before now. You don't seem like an expert yourself."
"Don't mind me. I like teasing people."
"I'll report you to the priest."
"You're making me talk at mass", I chipped in.
"My mistake."
As usual, at the sign of the cross, I packed my things and started leaving.
I even forgot I came with a friend. Half way trekking alone with a favorite song in my ear, I realized something or someone was missing.
On getting to the hostel, he kept asking whether I got her number.
Then I realized he thought I ditched him for the girl.
It was useless trying to correct what seemed like the obvious scenario.
"So na where you take know am?"
"Na today be the first time wey I take eye see am. Wetin make you think say I know her before?"
"From una conversation."
"I don't know her. I just met her as you did today."
"That seems unlikely. With this your bone bone and wosky face. How she take gather mind follow you talk?"
"Guy, as you see me so, na how to chop dey my mind. You seem overly interested in her", I said giving him a suspicious countenance.
" I no fit talk about girl again?"
"No worry. I go track her down and get her number for you. Make you for rest."
"Guy I no send you oh. Besides, how you wan take track am down sef."
"Google it", I replied.
" You know, 'Google it' is not the answer to every question oh."
"Guy na wa for una oh. Una go church go dey chase girl", said another of my roommate.
" Guy, you no go church. We better pass you."
"The day wey I go ready to go church no be girl I go go chase."
"Guy na John chase the girl oh", I replied.
" Mr. Holier than thou, no be you the girl follow talk, wey you still come escort am?"
"He he he. Fowl nyansh don dey open oh, smirked the guy that didn't go to church.
" I no escort anybody. I come house straight. I no get strength for this talk. Believe anything wey you like. And you, no go church next Sunday. Dey here dey accuse the brethren", I slammed.
"I think I hit a nerve", said the guy that didn't go to church.

Let's call the guy that didn't go to church Ben. And the friend that went with me John.

Later that evening.

I was strolling to the ATM. I checked my card into the ATM and...
" You again. We met again. "
"Hey!"
"You seemed to have vanished after the mass ended."
"Ya. I think I do that subconsciously.
I don't really walk with people because I've got my music to listen to, I explained.
"A loner I see."
"What about you. You're a strong sanguine."
"How did you know that", she said with some level of surprise.
"Because you reek of it. But in a good way, of course."
We talked and talked.
Two sanguine meet. What do you expect.
Somehow, everything she said seem to make perfect sense to me. Even the weird ones. We were like mirror images of each other. By the time I checked my phone, I had spent four hours discussing with a stranger that really didn't seem strange.
But she would be the one that got away because one thing. Two like characters would tear up each other in time. It's one of the laws of nature.

THE CHAPTER WHERE I MET MY TIME PIECE.

'Twas 7:30am on a Monday morning. I had left home to trek for approximately thirty minutes to school.
I was Midway when I met a face, new at the time, but of noteworthy beauty.
It was Tuesday. I had left late for school. She would intercept paths with me really close to home.
I saw her whisking off, hoping she wasn't late. I had no time piece on me. I peered sternly at a clock in a shop and the time was 7:50am. I was really late. I hastened my footsteps and tried to walk faster than everyone in front of me.
A week later, it was Tuesday, I hadn't trek to school the days preceding today because I don't want to get flogged.
It was 7:20am. I was walking at my normal pace. I had walked past Midway the way to school when I met a face. Her face immediately registered as the girl I use as my time piece. I have her a smile but she didn't seem to quite notice. She was right not to notice. It wasn't for her.
I was satisfied by my earliness. I smirked all the way. I met a dusty class on my arrival. I hid myself in the wardrobe to avoid the assembly. When they were all downstairs, I came out. My coming early wasn't so I'll attend an assembly of students. It was to avoid the whips.
The next day I was to cross paths with her midway and this time she stopped me.
"You look familiar. Do I know you," she said.
"I don't know you, though each time I see you, it's either in late to school, or I'm early."
"Oh. And now?"
"I'm neither late nor early."
"And why do you say that?"
"I met you half way, you met me half way."
I never asked for a name. I never did need a name.

THE CHAPTER WHERE IT WAS INSOLUBLE.

'Twas evening on a Thursday. It was the penultimate day before my extra moral classes would seize. The mathematics teacher had just entered the class and then concocted a mathematics question— I think it was off measuration.
He was solving his example and as one well above what he was teaching, I realised it couldn't be solved. So I wanted to see what his answers would be.
Well, you could say I wanted to learn how he could prove me wrong.
He solved and solved. At that point I just watched carefully to see how he would escape the mess.
I wasn't one to let it go easily.
Alas, he would use a word I had only heard once before and it evoked uncontainable humour.
Two awkward intervals of silence later, he voiced out, "it is 'insoluble'".
" Hahaha!"
I literally laughed on top of my voice.
The term 'insoluble' reminded me mostly of a substance that can't dissolve.
I never really cared that it had a second meaning.
"Get out of my class, and I don't want to see you in my extra moral classes ever again. You lack etiquette!"
"Well, Sir, I think you mean 'social etiquette'. The word..."
I was still trying to finish when he charged towards me. I could be seen running towards the main road.
It was only a day before the end of the month, so it didn't matter that he drove me then.
Though I did apologize later, I can't understand why I was arrogant, with the fiendish display of knowledge.