Chapter 3: Chapter 3

"Just look in the mirror!"

"No!"

"Why?"

"Because I look terrible in this ugly uniform."

"Bee!"

"Wha―okay, I'm not a bee but WHAT?"

"Fine, I promise you won't see yourself in the mirror so just turn around."

"Wow, Nes, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard so no thanks."

So, this is our morning routine. Be the cocks that crow in the house. We have managed to not wake up the entire household for the first month in this house but I guess old habits die hard.

Back in Texas, mum and dad regretted having both of us share a room close to theirs. We never argue without the whole household knowing. So, it's either Agnes sleeps till 7:30 or we're arguing.

Right now, we are both fully dressed for school but Nes won't let me pass until I look in the mirror. I don't want to because I don't think I can ever look good in the uniform. The one I had to manage through last week was horrible enough. That's why that Boss girl had the nerve to talk to me like that.

Wait, is it Boss or Bose? Whatever.

Mum sewed me a new one and slim fitted the first one but I still don't want to know.

Nes doesn't care about all that, though. Even though we no longer share the same room, she will never quit stalking me. Me neither.

"Agnes, stop yelling. Bella, look in the mirror!" mum calls from downstairs.

"Listen to your mum," dad chips in from their room. They made sure their room is at the other end of the hallway, away from mine and Agnes'.

"Fine, but if it's no-" I stop, looking at my reflection. "Sweet cheese, it's superb. Look how shapely it is," I say, twirling.

"Did someone say shapely?"

"Um, no mum. I meant nicely decent," I draw out. Mum made it clear that if the uniform is very shapely, she would open it up. Mothers...

"Ooh, I see where this is going," Nes whispers, wiggling her brows.

"Babe, it's going nowhere," I reply, mimicking her voice.

"All them boys are gonna be drooling their eyes out at that a-"

"Agnes!" I smack her arm.

"Ow! Yes mum?" she says with a gruff voice. We both laugh.

"You really should mind your language", I admonish in my goody-two-shoes tone.

"Yeah, thanks role model," she replies. I sigh.

"Seriously, I mean it. Thanks," she states in surrender.

***

"Have you seen our next door neighbours?" Nes asks as we settle down to eat breakfast.

"No. Why?" I ask.

"You should see their sons," she says, excitedly. I furrow my brows at her.

"What? I'm fifteen. I have the right to start liking boys," she defends.

"Nes, you've been liking boys since forever."

"Whatever girl, they're cute."

"I don't care. Just shut up and eat."

"Killjoy," she mumbles, facing her food. Once we're done, we clear the table and make our way out of the house.

"Girls, come say hi to our neighbour," dad says, gesturing for us to come over to the neighbours' front yard.

Agh! Dad's so friendly, it's annoying.

"Mr. Lawrence, these are my daughters. Agnes..." he points at Nes and she greets. "... and Isabella." He points at me and I mutter 'good morning'.

A ginormous dog suddenly bursts out of the neighbour’s house, running towards us. It stops right in front of me, panting.

Okay, I may love dogs, but I get really scared of big ones. Like this one.

I try not to let my fear show by bending to rub its fur. Bad move. The stupid thing sends me flying away from it with its thunderous bark.

Note to self: Never play brave with dogs again!

"Milo!" Mr. Lawrence scolds the dog.

Milo? This dog is supposed to be named BARBARIAN!

"Sorry, he's usually not like this to people."

But he's like this to me!

He tries to send the dog back inside but it grips my skirt with its teeth and begins to pull me toward the house.

What?! Is this some sort of demonic activity? I need a priest!

"Whoa, whoa!" I exclaim, almost yelling. Thank God my skirt has been slim fitted. I would be packing my shame from the ground by now.

"Milo, stop it!" Mr. Lawrence scolds again. How can you own a dog that doesn't listen to you?!

Just then, someone in West's high’s black and white uniform steps out and snaps his finger at the dog who's supposed to be named Barbarian. It lets go of my skirt and prances over to the boy.

"Good boy," he praises, rubbing the dog's head roughly.

Wait, he sent this werewolf to me? This guy must be insane.

I hear Nes giggling beside dad. And dad? Dad's laughing too.

Ha! Mr. Smith is watching his daughter get abused by a dog and he's amused.

Dipping his hands into his pant pockets, the boy strides towards us, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips. Observing the black strands of hair falling over his eyes and his other features, I wonder if he's adopted because he definitely isn't Nigerian. And definitely not this man's son.

Nes clears her throat and I know she's thinking something crazy. He slowly and comfortably gives me a once-over. OBVIOUSLY INSANE!

"Neighbours, this is my son, Jasper. Jasper, these are our new neighbours. This is Mr. Smith and his daughters, Agnes and Isabella," he introduces, pointing toward each of us.

"Really? He's your son?" dad asks in puzzlement, voicing my thoughts.

Mr. Lawrence chuckles, obviously used to such questions. "Yes. His mum is white," he explains and we nod.

"Hey." His hand is stretched toward me for a handshake.

"Hi," I reply, taking his hand and not really smiling. His palm is soft on mine; masculine though. He inches closer to me and I realize my head just goes above his shoulder slightly.

Yeah, I'm not really into all that 6 feet 2 stuff. So call me brainless.

I glance at his neatly ironed white shirt which is slightly transparent because of the material and notice how his white inner is hugging him.

Gee, I think this boy frequents the gym. Hot.

How come I'm staring at his INNER? Nothing! Just taking in my environment, that's all. Yeesh.

Looking up into his eyes, I espy how grey they are and quickly avert my gaze. He chuckles and when I look at him, he winks.

Somebody stab me with a rake!

Okay, stop. Pervert. This guy is totally a dog, just like Alpha Barbarian.

"Bee! Let's go," Nes says a little too loudly, making me grimace. I hurriedly follow them to the car to get away from the neighbours.

***

"Oh my gosh! You live next to Jasper?" Alice tries to open her eyes wider than they can get.

"Um, Alice?"

"What?"

"I think you should calm down. I'm not sure your eyes can go wider than that."

"Oh yeah."

"So, one question, have you been LISTENING to me?" I ask, gesturing with my hand for more effect.

"Yeah, you said you live next to Jasper," she says, shrugging.

"Yes, I said that but I also said that he sent alpha Milo to attack me!" I utter in one breath.

"What's an alpha Milo?" she asks, confused.

"He has a Wolf-like dog named Milo."

She chuckles, saying, "So, you're practically calling a dog an alpha wolf?"

Somebody jab a pencil in this girl's ear!

"Could you just avoid the irrelevant parts if this discussion and focus for once?"

"You just wait till the girls hear this. Ooh, here comes the fascinator. That's what we call her sometimes," she says the last part in a whisper so that Lima does not hear as she joins us.

"What?" I ask, throwing my hands in the air. "People are weird!"

"What people?" Lima asks as she sits on Alice's desk. When we became friends, I moved to an empty seat next to Alice’s. Lima and Melody sit next to each other, about two seats to the right.

"We were just talking about your fascination," Alice tells her. She stares silently at her, waiting for her to continue. "Jasper," she completes.

Lima's head perks up. "Yeah, he's in school but we haven't even talked yet. He's still busy talking with his friends about their trip," Lima states.

Wait, is he her boyfriend? I thought it was that guy named Iron or something. No, it was Ayo!

"Belle has met him," Alice announces. Geez, she still didn't get the message.

"What?" A shocked question leaves Lima's mouth. Yeah, big deal.

"Yeah. She lives next door." Halima's eyes flit to me. I sigh. People can really be weird. Just then, a phone beeps. I frown while Alice's face drops.

"Shit, I didn't put it on silent," Lima says, dipping her hand in her pocket, bringing out an iPhone and looking through the message.

"You're never gonna change, are you?" Alice asks.

She simply giggles and adjusts on the desk, typing away. Alice stands up with a laugh and I follow suit. "Better not get caught," she advises.

"No freaking teacher can catch me. Jasper is equally guilty. So, if he reports me, I'll tell them that their head prefect is the king of all the lawbreakers," Lima replies with a wicked smile, obviously pleased with herself.

Jasper's head prefect? Oh well, I wasn’t listening on assembly on the first day.

At that point, however, I conclude that Lima has a razor-sharp mouth. Me and Alice just laugh and walk out, towards the auditorium.

The first period of the day is food and nutrition, so most science students are free. The timetable was modified last Friday for reasons I don't know. It feels like the school is having a hard time deciding if they even want to be a school. On Thursday, they flipped the juniors’ timetable.

"So, you still haven't told me if you had a boyfriend back in Texas," Alice says as we approach a turn in the hallway.

"I didn't. Plus I thought I told you that."

"Nope. We've only talked about your squad. And I met Dame and Lee on Facebook," she informs me happily.

"Really? You searched for-" I crash into a wall. Ouch. I thought I'd stop bumping into everything when I came to Nigeria.

"Shit!"

Um, did the wall just talk? I look up to see that the wall is Jasper.

Crap, no wonder the wall was strangely warm. What does this guy eat, anyway? Is it even my business?

"Uh-" I start to say but he cuts me off.

"You know, judging from the way I saw you earlier today, I could swear you had clear eyesight," he mocks, earning a chuckle from both his friend and Alice. What?

"Are you being serious right now? I'm the one whose books are on the floor!" Okay, now I'm upset. Who does he think he is? Oh right, the DOG next door.

"Well, at least that'll teach you to make actual use your backpack."

"Jasper!" Alice warns. "Belle, this is Kevin, this troublemaker's friend, and Kevin, this is Isabella," she introduces. I reluctantly exchange pleasantries with him.

"Hey, Al, could you lend me a few notes from last week?" Jasper asks Alice.

"Yeah, sure."

"You're a sweetheart." She chuckles as Kevin passes by, shaking his head. Jasper looks at me and I scowl.

"Don't look at me. I don't like your face." I bit out.

"Nice to meet you too, Audrey," he states, passing by me. My head jerks back in surprise.

Did he just call me Audrey? Who's Audrey?

"Who's Audrey?" I ask, a bit shocked at how the idiot could forget my name so fast.

Alice clears her throat awkwardly. "Dunno."

My eyes narrow a bit but I drop the topic. I don't care why she's acting like that, anyway.

"I really can't stand that boy. He's lucky he's not in the same class as me," I complain, fuming.

"Um, Belle? Look at him."

"Why?" I ask, turning around to see him walking into a class.

What am I looking at? Wait. It looks so much like the class we just left. Shit. That's my class! My eyes widen as I turn to look at Alice.

She snickers and says, "I guess it's you who's unlucky"

"No, he's not-"

"If he wasn't, he wouldn't be having a free period right now. You just haven't seen him because of the trip, remember?" she explains.

I keep my mouth shut until we reach the auditorium where we sit and discuss random stuff till the bell for second period is rung.

***

A few minutes after we settle down, Mrs. Bratshaw walks in, carrying a pile of textbooks; something that appears to be habit. She places them on the teacher's desk and writes out the topic for the day. Writing Articles.

"So, I'll need you kids to bring out your notebooks and pens..." We know that, "...and write..." she trails off, suddenly glaring at the door.

Hmm, maybe she hates doors. Awkward.

She then looks at her wristwatch and says, "You're eight minutes late."

She talks to them too? Then the so-called 'door' walks in and I realize that I had earlier called that door a 'wall'. Jasper.

"Morning, Mrs. Bradshaw. Sorry I'm late but I was kinda busy with-".

"Get to your seat, Jasper", she cuts him off.

"I love English," he chips in before heading in―wait, my direction. Where is he going? He walks past me and I sigh in relief.

But... turn around. I stupidly turn around and am met with those grey eyes.

Crap, he's staring at me.

With the way I whip my head back into place, one could have neck ache.

Fudge, I'm sure he's smirking right now. If I could slap it off his face.

Five minutes into the class, he starts tapping his fingers on the table. Ignore him.

Singing. He's singing! Is there any way this could get worse? He sings a little louder. Oh, that way.

I quickly tear a piece of paper and scribble a letter to Alice, asking why this is happening to me and why on earth she would pick a seat close to the musician behind me. All she writes back is 'Meh, just go with it. No one's enjoying the class anyway'.

So annoying.

***

I manage to endure the torture till the end of the class and I'm happy we're having chemistry. At least we won't be sitting close to each other. By the time we're settled in the lab, I glance around and observe that he's not in class yet.

Is it some sort of obligation to be late to class?

Mr. Raymond walks in and writes the topic, chemical equilibrium and the class begins.

A few minutes later, Jasper walks in. Oh, hey there, just in time.

"Jasper, don't ever come late to my class again", Mr. Raymond warns. The boy simply nods, walks to an empty seat by the window and the class continues.

***

"Hi, mum. Hm, what's cooking?" I sniff the air as I walk into the kitchen. As usual, mum's back from her office and is cooking lunch. It's 3:15pm and we just got back from school.

"Hey, where's Agnes?" mum asks.

I sigh. "In her room."

Mum stares at me for a few seconds and sighs, "Did anything happen?"

I begin to trace random letters on the counter. I'm thinking of a way to tell her that Nes got into a fight with a senior few minutes after I left her to get something. Mum is usually bothered about Agnes' aggressiveness. I think it's from a time she fell and hit her head badly. She was a baby at that time and though she had gone through series of treatments, she still gets really aggressive at intervals.

"She got into a fight with a senior. I left her to get something from the class for a few minutes only to return and meet a fight. She was lucky no teacher intervened."

"A prefect?"

"No. Some annoying girl. Diana, the one I told you about the other day. Nes bumped into her mistakenly, she got furious and trampled on her book that fell. If I hadn't been there before she could react, she would have pulled out her eyes. Plus, she's a little upset at me for dragging her out of the place."

"When did this happen?"

"After school. I left Agnes at the parking lot." Mum has a worried look playing on her face. She walks past me toward the stairs, telling me to change and finish the cooking while she goes and talks to her.

One hour later...

An uncomfortable silence has lingered in the house ever since mine and mum's conversation. I ate lunch alone in my room. After that, I went to sit in the shade behind the house and watch a few butterflies fly around and perch on the yellow marigolds.

Gazing quietly at natural sceneries sometimes gives me comfort when I'm worried. I tried to take my mind off the incident by telling myself it was nothing but all my effort was futile. This is another likeness I share with mum; worry. We tend to worry too much over small things. Although I don't think Nes' violent anger resurfacing is a small thing.

Right now, I'm replying a text from Melody about her. She was with me when the whole thing happened.

"Your sister's kinda scary," she had said in a whisper. It was obvious she wanted to know more but I did not explain. There was really nothing to explain.

After a few more minutes of texting, I decide it's time to do homework. Problem is that I can't concentrate. I try reading biology; not working. I pick up a novel and after repeating the same line five times, I give up. I fling it on the bed and choose to go for a walk instead.

On my way down the stairs, there is a knock on the door. I rush to it, hoping it's dad who decided to come home super early. All excitement is knocked out and anger settles in as I stand face to face with my horrible and disrespectful neighbour. His black hair is messy with some strands falling over his left brow.

Geez, was I expecting dad to knock before entering his own house? That's stupid.

"Haven't I had enough of you for one day?" I bit out with a scowl.

"Trust me, I'm tired as well. You don't wanna know," he replies in mock tiredness. I let out an exasperated sigh.

"Get to the point," I deadpan.

That sickening smirk never leaves his face as he replies, "gee, what's the rush? Anyway, my mum's inviting you guys over for dinner tonight."

"And she chose to send you of all people," I complain.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Everything."

"Oh, Audrey, you know I can piss you off all day but there's somewhere I need to be right now. So, how about you go get me your mum's reply?"

Audrey again?

"Where?" I ask, unconsciously.

He arches a brow, causing realisation to hit me. Fudge! I clear my throat, awkwardly.

"Not that I care." He laughs, earning a glare from me. "Plus, my name is Isabella." I know that he can see through this façade and I hate it.

Before turning to leave, I catch sight of a glint of pleasure and satisfaction in his eyes. But it's failing.

Is there something he's thinking about?

"Mum?" I call as I push open the door to Agnes' room. She is lying on the bed, backing the door. I take it she's sleeping from the slow and steady breathing movements her body is making.

"She refused to eat. I'm scared. It's been a while since it happened. What if it's coming back? You know what happened the other time." Oh, mum.

She's scared what happened in Texas will repeat itself. About a year ago, Nes had a fight with a bully and the kid ended up in the hospital with a stab wound close to his chest. And one would think a pencil was just a harmless object!

The boy's parents almost pressed charges but somehow, everything was sorted.

"Mum, you really should calm down. I'm sure it's not coming back. You need rest, too. She'll come around," I say, trying to calm her down. "By the way, the Lawrence's are inviting us over for dinner tonight. Are we gonna go?"

She smiles a little and replies, "yeah, sure."

"Okay. You know you can leave the room, right? It's not like she's going to commit suicide when she wakes." Mum's face drops and I quickly walk out so she won't complain about my choice of words.

When I get back to the door, I see Jasper frowning at his phone, impatience etched on his face. I clear my throat, gaining his attention.

"Yes," I say.

"Yes, you're coming or yes, I look hot in black?" he asks. I frown in confusion and he laughs.

"Yes, you're a horrible boy," I fire. The laughter deepens, his upper and lower teeth parting. The action highlights his eyes and makes me gulp. He walks leisurely out of the compound toward his own. I avert my gaze from him and call out to mum, "mum, I'm going out for a walk. Be right back."

I plug in my headset and begin my walk, letting the music sweep away all my thoughts.