√1: He's back.

Janet wasn't one to scribble on the table. No, never. She was absolutely against vandalizing school property. But she honestly couldn't help it. That was the fastest way to zone out of the conversation her friends were having on top of her head, well not literally anyways.

"Madam! Are you even listening?"

She heard one of her friends call out. Not to sound like a prude but Janet didn't really fancy listening to Yinka; the beauty on buzz cut whine on how one of the girls in the lower class was trying to snatch her man. By man, she meant the guy she sat next to, who had hardly started growing a beard, or breaking in voice.

"Huh?" Janet murmured as she looked up at Ada-or miss ebony as some people called her due to the last contest day in their school; to see a scorn on her face. Ada hissed, clicking her tongue against her teeth as she took over from Yinka. 

"My own sef, that guy was a waste of time! After running his parole. What a loser he turned out to be." Yinka laughed before excusing herself, seeing that her guy just walked into class, while Janet just chuckled at her best friend: Ada; Adaobi being the long version, but she preferred Ada, saying that it was more mature.

Every boy was deceived by her at first, with her 'innocenti' face as Janet usually called it, but honestly? Shine your eye, she be wolf in sheep clothing.

"He's a learner oh, fashi all his big boy attitude. One minute man. He's like..." Ada hummed, picking up Janet's wooden ruler as the poor girl tried to hold in her laugh, geez, one minute man? 

"Ehen! Look, like elm four...no, even three inches sef. Can you imagine?" Ada scoffed, this made Janet burst out laughing, Ada always wanted to get very precise when describing things. That was the only part of essay writing she scored higher in than Janet.

Speaking of Janet, she just loved hearing about all the adventures she had encountered with over the weekend, to her best friend, sex wasn't a big deal. From final year boys in university to the SS3 boys she called lame, she did them all. Na smalls, she would grin, before quoting her signature sentence, 'Being 18 has its perks'. 

Rich and handsome Jerry was her latest, one of the finest guys flaunting his dad's credit card. Apparently, his pipe wasn't as big as his ego. Ada was right about the fact that she had been chasing Jerry for over a month and honestly? That was a big deal for someone like the ebony queen.

"What were you expecting? He resemble horse?" Ada looked at her funny like she was trying to process it, before bursting into laughter.

"No nah! But haba." Ada whined, rolling her eyes playfully. Janet always wondered what Ada saw in guys with big parts. She could care less.

"But wetin? Until you meet one that will shift your womb." The ruler dropped from Ada's hands as she giggled uncontrollably when she heard he best friends comment. She could see Ada tear up as she held her stomach, trying to control her laughter; this just made Janet join in.

"Guy, what about Oyinbo?" Ada questioned with a Cheshire grin on her face, inching closer to Janet who just rolled her eyes. Oh! That boy, his case was another headache entirely. People in their school called him Oyinbo because he was very light skinned, curly brown hair and bright brown eyes. Apparently his dad relocated to Port Harcourt for business.

Gary, Garri or Oyinbo as people would call him was just a cute white boy in their school that arrived two weeks late and fell head over heels for the school's head girl, which just so happened to be little old Janet.

Knowing that she would always read at the library during prep, he'd go with his sashay in with his silver iPhone Xr, whispering sweet nothing her way. His way of flirting was dangerous, if she wasn't wise enough, she would have falling a long time ago.

Janet found him pesky but his company was a bit entertaining, he had made her laugh till she had water in her eyes. Sure he would try and make moves on her, like touching her laps under the table or adjusting her pick and drop base from her face, but Janet always told him off. Like she said, his way of flirting was dangerous and bold.

Turned out that his phone was a kind of storage for girl's nudes, different shades of skin, shape and size, he had it all. He literally had it all, how did she know that? Well, she may or may not have searched through his phone once. In her defense, he had told her his password to his phone!

A real pervert he was, well...is.

One day he even had the guts to ask her for nudes, saying that she should bless him with an image of 'those perky pumpkins' as he called it.

Ode.

"Do you know after his stunt, he even asked me if I could tutor him after prep in the night time before I locked the library? Because I be fool for his eyes."

Janet scoffed, playing with her earrings.

"That one, thank God he didn't come my side. I go suck him dry. That iPhone go turn to Nokia torch light. Silly guy."

Janet laughed.

"Abi oh, he wants to flaunt for me, big boy oshi. He won't even know what hit am."

Ada agreed as she jumped down from the table she sat on, adjusting her mini skirt, it reached her thighs, along with her knee length socks.

"Ah! It's even time sef. This nonsense junior will start flooding this place now." Janet hissed as she checked her watch. It was half past three, their break was already over, and hence it was time to ring the bell. 

As they walked to ring the bell, she could still see the juniors' downstairs, playing ball. They all looked so sweaty and disgusting. She was glad that her set guys weren't allowed to play ball on Tuesday's, unless she wouldn't even stay in class. It'd be a pigsty in there.

"Let's get this over with." Ada, the assistant head girl sighed as they both walked to the hallway, Ada pressed the siren as Janet called out through the microphone.

"Break is over!"

After the third chant, they went their separate ways with a quick hug. 

"Janet! Come and see oh!" Janet arched her brows at her second closest friend Shalom. She had golden brown skin just like Janet's, a small nose and baby doll eyes. Shalom was attractive, but most of all, she was endowed. Real endowed.

An F cup size and a nice round butt, but you can't have it all right? Shalom was well, dumb. Street smart but this was her second time repeating in this school. Her mates had graduated two years ago while she was still here, doing big girl for Port Harcourt. But of course Janet could never tell her that, it wasn't her life anyways.

"I just talk say I want new pair of shoes and bam! Alert."

"Ah oshey! Big girl." Janet hailed Shalom as Janet playfully pushed the beaming girl, on could already guess who sent her the money, and no; it wasn't her boyfriend.

Janet wasn't a tad bit their usual kind of company but she hung out with them, heck she called them her BFF's. This was because she really didn't want to be friends with the people who behaved like she did.

Goody two shoes.

She loved the drama, getting experience straight from the source without getting her hands dirty. But that wasn't the only reason, they were great company. It was never a boring day with them around.

"Abi! I think I'll reward him with my nudes, what do you think?"

"So he can post am for billboard abi?" Janet spat, she didn't favor the idea of sending nudes. That was a one way destiny destroyer.

"True, I'll just let him see it face to face. That one sweet pass."

"Better." Janet clicked her tongue against her teeth, something she did often, walking to the shelves as she gathered her classmates books. One work she didn't like to do as the head girl and class captain of her class. SS3A. Where all the smart people dey. 

Or people wey dub pass fire; which also meant they literally cheated their way in. After counting all the notes, they added up to 30, plus Derek's. She really didn't know why she bit her lip when her fingers brushed against his rather unkempt book, lacking a back cover. He hadn't yet come back for this term and it had already been close to midterm already.

They; Derek and Janet had only had a full blown conversation two or three times before he disappeared. That was it, since junior school! Which was her fault, since she knew that he wouldn't approach her first but silently hoped he would?

Still, he left this impression on her.

And she vowed that when he came back, they were going to talk a lot more.

If she had the guts to do so when... or if he came back.

"See how I dey sound like movie narrator for my head." She chuckled to herself as she picked up his book and walked out the door. 

If Janet could describe him in just few words, it would be tall, dark, in more ways than one, handsome and mysterious. His height was the first thing anyone would notice, he stood proudly at 6'3; which definitely wasn't a mediocre thing in their school. A set of white teeth, dark beautiful skin, muscles all in the right places; you name it, he got it.

Even Ada had her eyes on him in SS1, when puberty had hit him like hard. But when she made her moves on him, he turned her down instantly and no one really turned down Ada. 

Not only that, but there was a rumor saying that his disappearance was because he went to jail.

Yes, jail. 

Just a few weeks after he turned 18, like they were on his tail before that. No one knew the crime but believed anyway. It seemed to be a turn off to all the girls in their school, well except her that was.

Maybe it was one of her 'bad boy fantasies' that made her act this way, but in her defense, he wasn't a bad boy! He was just quiet, broody and rumors that he was a convict. He was definitely not a bad boy.

Oh please.

Who on earth was she deceiving?

-

"Gary." The woman pronounced in her accent, making his name sound like 'garri' this earned cackles from the class. "Here, but it's actually..." Mrs. Yetunde's scoff silenced him, the oyinbo should have been used to it by now, she wondered why he still bothered. Janet giggled under her breath.

"Adebola." 

"Present ma!" Ah, one of the people her mother had always advised her to hang out with, instead of the likes of Ada and Shalom.

"Ada." 

Speak of the devil.

"Here." Ada called out, smacking a gum against her teeth as it made sounds like 'tah tah'. Drawing her attention back to her latest conquest, who was already smitten by the looks of it. His name was Subomi, one of the people they called Yoruba demons in their school. With one of his hands under the table, anyone could have guessed that he was having the time of his life under there.

That was nothing Janet hadn't seen before.

"Shalom."

"I! Aunty, I!" People erupted into a fit of laughter at her reply, the way she emphasized it but stretching out her hands with a wide grin made it even funnier. Did Janet forget to mention that Shalom was the class clown? She also belonged to the group of people who cheated their way into SS3A.

"Derek."

Everyone silenced at the call of his name, whispers echoed in the classroom which earned an exasperated sigh from Janet. She stood up in objection, crossing her arm as she began to correct the teacher.

"Ma, like I've told you many times, Derek is-"

"-Present."

A deep voice called out as a six foot three dude strolled in with his hands in his pocket; this knocked out the breath in most people, especially her. Her legs gave out as she plumped down to her seat in shock. She gasped at the sight of the boy who just resumed after several weeks of disappearance.

Was he coming from Jail?

Why was he just coming after all these weeks?

Many questions circled her mind but all she knew was that for the first time in the term, Derek was present.

He was back.