chapter 7

Janet was speechless, her mouth hung low; did she just get swatted across the face like a fly? She didn't even know what to say or do, she just stared at Adebola. The girl who was still frowning at her, but she could see the mocking tilt of her lips.

She slapped me. Janet said in her mind, almost not believing it. Then it clicked to her, that good for nothing boy crazy girl had just slapped her! 

Janet didn't even know that she could attack the way she did, she didn't care if this would ruin her head girl status, she saw red. Even her mother didn't slap her on the face! With a jump, she had the shocked girl on the tiles, pinning her down with both hands, her shoulders still having a slight pain from before.

"You threw me to the ground that day, I left you. Then you call me here to slap me...me! You dey mad?" Janet emphasized, watching as the skinny girl pathetically squealed, throwing her hands in the air, she managed the get a grip on Janet's plaited fringes.

Then she gave it a pull.

"Ow! I don't fight that way." Janet groaned at her, raising her arms up as she laid a slap across her face. An eye for an eye. Adebola yelped at the impact, trying to fight back a fuming Janet.

"Help!" Adebola shrieked, her voice echoed through the bathroom. She was sure that people would hear it from outside, so with one more slap to her face, Janet untangled her arms from Adebola; gripping her bag as she took a step back.

"Pathetic." 

Janet spat, making her way out of the bathroom, only to be met with Dotun. "Great." Janet and Dotun spat when their eyes met. One of them had to back away before they could go their separate ways, but instead, they just stared at each other in annoyance.

"Move."

Again they said in unison.

"I'm not in your mood." Janet spat, trying to get out of the bathroom, but Dotun just puffed out her chest, obstructing the door. Now she really wished she knew how to land a punch like Derek, then these girls would just leave her be.

Even with the slap she had given to the sulking Adebola, her palm were still burning in pain. Not to talk of if she fisted her face instead.

"Just because Derek spoke to you, you're feeling on top of the world abi?" 

Dotun insinuated.

But like, where did that even come from?

Well, that was partly true, but he didn't just speak to her, they had a full blown conversation. "What are you saying now?" Janet groaned, denying it through her teeth as she folded her arms.

Before Dotun could say anything, sobs interrupted her, sobs coming from Adebola. When she heard it, she pushed Janet out of the way before jamming the door shut and walking towards the noise.

Janet just rolled her eyes, putting her hands on the handle as she twisted it, but it wouldn't budge. What the...

She twisted it again, a bit more vigorously, but it still didn't budge! She swore under her breath, not wanting to believe that she was stuck with two of her favorite girls in a freaking bathroom.

"You hit her? How low can you be?" Dotun spat, marching towards Janet before shoving her shoulders to the tile wall. Her shoulders began to ache at the impact, what on earth was with girls and being violent with her, today?

"She slapped me." Janet spat back.

"Yeah right. I be fool for your eye?"

Dotun spoke back, crossing her arms and titling her hips, her breath still having the smell of cigarette to it. 

"See, free me and come and unlock this door." Janet rolled her eyes as she pointed towards the door that wouldn't budge. "You think you're better than everyone." Dotun concluded, shaking her head with a chuckle.

Where on earth did that come from?

"No wonder they dislike you, even your eye candy."

Was she talking about Derek?

Who was the they?

"What are you talking about?" Janet asked genuinely, this brought a smirk to Dotun's face. "It was such a coincidence, when you came, we had just finished talking about you." Dotun stared, sashaying over to the sink with a triumphant grin on her plump lips.

"Frankly, I don't really care." Janet uttered out with sass, turning back to the door as she began to harshly pull against it. The tension in here was unbearable. Especially with Adebola's constant sniffing.

"Not even what Derek had to say about you?" 

Dammit.

She got her there.

She wanted to look nonchalant, but the fact that her hands stopped dragging on the door handle gave it away. Dotun looked back slyly. Janet didn't know if she was lying or not, were they really bad mouthing her? She knew Dotun would do it, but did Derek?

"Ahan, I thought you'd say frankly I don't really care again." Dotun mocked, her voice going high pitched when she copied her remark.

"I don't want to know."

Janet spoke out, her voice cracked. She tried to convince herself that she shouldn't care what he thought of her. That she shouldn't care if he really didn't like her and was faking the 'I like your company' act.

She felt her tummy turn at the thought.

Perhaps he was just tolerating her then making fun of her when she was out of sight. Don't think that, she might be messing with your head, Janet! She tried to convince herself.

"You don't have to lie. You stink at it." 

Dotun called out with a laugh, skipping over to Adebola. Janet just stood in her spot, not wanting to give into her stupid curiosity. So, she bit her lips and took a deep breath.

"When I asked him what he really thought of you..." 

Dotun began, teasing her with the long pauses, with a hiss, Janet turned to the door and began to pound on it, hoping someone would get her out of this situation.

"He said that you act too...what's the word?" Dotun continued, her footsteps sounding as she made her way towards Janet with Adebola not far behind.

"Prudish? And that he doesn't know why you're all up in his business, that it's annoying."

Janet's heart sunk.

"He even mention how you practically almost kissed him the day he arrived."

Janet's breathing lowered, her mouth slightly open as she let out an inaudible sigh. Although she had her back towards Dotun, the girl could tell that she was not happy about what she had just said.

Janet tried so hard not to believe her, but it hurt. The girl just knew which buttons to push.

"Then he was just saying how he didn't even know why he texted you, he even mentioned you writing your number on your note. Pretty desperate, don't you think?"

Dotun teased with a giggle.

Janet's hands formed into a fist, her heart was thumping hard and fast, her lips folded to a frown. She didn't even know what to believe anymore. She couldn't tell if it was true or not, how else would she have known about the note? Why would he expose her this way? It hurt. Janet hated to admit it, but it freaking hurt.

"Just shut up, abeg. I told you I don't care. Besides if he told you, why're you telling me? So I can cry abi what?" Janet hissed, her sadness morphing into anger in seconds. It irritated her so much, so, standing back, with all her strength, she kicked the door and it opened with a bang.

"Someone's sensitive." Dotun sang.

With a harsh grip on her bag, Janet matched out of the toilet, her eyes burning. She would dare not cry, it wasn't worth it. But it hurt. He had literally called her out on everything, making them think she was desperate.

She inhaled and exhaled through her mouth as she stumped towards her class. She hadn't even realized that break had ended and the class was practically full.

Great.

Now she was tardy to get to the bell as well.

"Janet, you of all people, why're you late?" The teacher scolded, but she couldn't talk, her throat burned for some reason, tears almost welling up in her eyes which she had trained to the ground.

People stared back at her in confusion to why she was holding her bag. "I went to change." Janet made up, cursing mentally when her voice croaked. Stumping into the class, she sat down beside Ada.

"Babe, are you okay?" Ada whispered as the teacher complained about how Adebola too was missing.

"Yeah. That crazy girl slapped me, so we fought then I got locked in the bathroom with Dotun."

When she called out her name, it was like venom to her tongue. Ada's eyes widened, but she just grinned and nodded her head proudly.

"You for blow am sef."

Ada hissed.

Janet just chuckled, taking a deep breath as she focused on the teacher, trying not to think about what Dotun had told her. Even if she was still unsure if it was a lie or not.

Daringly, she stared over to the right were Derek sat, he stared straight ahead to the teacher. His stupid perfect jaw clenching and his annoying muscles bulging out when he picked up his pen.

Stupid hot annoying handsome Derek! 

Even when she wanted to be mad at him, she couldn't. She hadn't even realized that she was literally boring holes into him with her glare, her teeth clenching. That was until Derek looked back, probably feeling her stare, their eyes meeting.

Her anger only rose. Of course he was going to look so clueless! His eyebrows knitted in confusion as he saw her tightened frown which was directed towards him.

It was so cute how he looks behind him then at her again, trying to figure out if she was glaring at him. To think she was happy because he said she was as his words put it: pretty cool.

It took all in her to go through with her frown and roll her eyes at him, his eyes just widened when he caught what she had done, with a silent hiss, she looked away.

The class ended pretty fast, Adebola had come about ten minutes after Janet had arrived, saying that she was with the nurse. Perhaps from Janet's slap or maybe it was just an excuse.

Janet and Ada were talking about what had happened in the toilet, about how Dotun came and was saying trash to Janet. But of course Janet didn't go into the detail of the apparent trash she was spilling.

"That girl is something else gon sef." Ada sighed, excusing herself as she walked towards Subomi with a grin, leaving Janet alone to meditate on her bad thoughts.

"Hey." 

She recognized that voice, the voice that gave her constant flutters in her tummy, but at the moment, that voice twisted her heart. Not looking up, Janet just put her head down, ignoring him.

Who would have thought that there would come a day that she'd intentionally ignore Derek when he spoke to her.

Derek!

"Ahan. Wetin dey occur?" The words were said silently, which made her believe that he was probably just thinking out loud. She would have giggled at what he had said because the words sounded funny to her, but she just scoffed, getting on her feet- almost gasping as she saw how close he had gotten.

"Why were you looking at me as if I killed your dog or something?" 

Derek asked, one of his eyebrows raising. Did he care? It warmed her heart that he actually walked up to her table to ask her that. No, do not be deceived. He would probably go and make fun of her when he left the class.

"You know..."

Janet started, tugging on her lips with her finger, one of the bad habits of hers when she got nervous, which in this case, she was.

"If you didn't like me prying you should have just said so." Janet's words ached her own heart. She couldn't look him in the eye, so she just stared down at her table while he looked down at her small figure.

"Ehn?"

Derek let out, confused.

"Don't act clueless, if you were just going to talk behind my back, why did you now continue to talk to me like you were okay with my company?"

The more she asked, the more confused he got, she almost believed that what Dotun said was just made up.

"Look up." Derek commanded but she just shook her head, her eyes beginning to burn again at the thought of him badmouthing her. Perhaps she was just overreacting.

"I'm sorry if it seemed that I was being annoying to you. You could have just told me to piss off. Rather than blabbing to her of all people."

"What? Who's her? What did I blab?" 

Derek asked, raising up his hands in defense, this just seemed to make Janet even angrier, the thought of him denying it if it was true.

Then she remembered how Dotun called her out for the note thing, how did she find that out?

"Can you just explain to me without coding the words?" 

By Derek's tone she could tell that he was becoming agitated with her accusations. This made her insides twist even more, but she just remained quiet.

"Janet." He called her name. 

He actually called her name.

If it was on another occasion, she would have been cheesing at how her name rolled from his tongue.

"Don't worry, I won't disturb you again." 

She said, sitting back down as she looked away from him. What he did made her awe, well in her mind of course. He crouched down towards her and pulled out a sit. 

"Just explain, abeg." Derek said once more.

But Janet just looked away from him, folding her arms. It seemed like minutes, he just stared at her, she could feel him stare at her. Looking expectantly for her to explain, his patience growing thin.

After what seemed like a long time, he snapped.

Getting up to his feet, deliberately kicking the chair back and walking away from her with a hiss.

Now he was angry.

She didn't even know if what Dotun said was a lie, but how Derek had reacted made her realize that he was probably not guilty of gossiping about her. How could she even believe that snake?

Finally, she put her head down, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, she felt her chest burn. He was officially mad at her. Just when they seemed to be getting comfortable with one another.

One step forward, two steps back.

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