Chapter 8

The next day, Richard woke up feeling so happy. Before he could do anything, he discovered that he was late for lectures. He quickly got dressed and ran out of the room. Because he was late, he took a taxi to the faculty. He arrived there five minutes after the lecture had started. 

Luckily for him, the lecturer doesn't mind if students come to his class late. He entered the lecture hall and went to the last sit and sat down. Richard looked around the lecture hall but couldn't see Janet. It then brought him to the conclusion that she was still sleeping. As the lecture was taking place, Richard could not stop himself from thinking about Janet and the incidences that happened between them the previous night.

After the lecture, Richard remained behind in the hall trying to cover up for the time he missed the previous night.

"How did it go for you yesterday?" Someone asked.

When Richard turned, he noticed that it was Paul.

"Don't take me to places like that ever again, "Richard said angrily as he stood.

"Oh come on, calm down. I was just trying to entertain you," Paul responded.

"Entertain? Just hear how ridiculous you sound. If I want to entertain myself, I would have done so right here at school. Do you have an idea of what trouble I would have been into if I got arrested?" Richard asked. "Okay I am a sorry man, I should have told you," Paul said as he hit Richard on the shoulder.

Richard shook his head and continued with what he was doing. He studied for about 1 hour before the next lecture started. During the next lecture, he looked around to see if he could see Janet. But he didn’t see her even after the lectures. He then began to suspect that something had happened to her. He brought out his phone to call her, he then suddenly remembered that he had deleted her number when they misunderstanding previously. At that moment, he regrets to have deleted her number.

He later went to the cafeteria to have some food. He sat at a table waiting for the waiter. He saw their class representative sitting at the table behind him with his friends. He knew he was a good friend of Janet, so he then decided to ask him about her. He stood up and approached their table and was about to speak when he heard his friends teasing him about Janet. 

“I don’t really know what her problem is, she keeps telling me that she is not ready for a serious relationship right now,” the class representative said.

“Just keeping on trying, she wouldn’t be talking to you if she was interested in you at all,” replied one his friends. 

The moment Richard heard that he felt as if he ran out of the air to breathe. 

The pain in his chest was as if he swallowed a molten rock only that it was much worst. He turned to go back to his table when he was called by his class representative.

“Hey Richard, I thought you were coming here,” he said.

“Oh yes I am, I forgot something at that table, let me go and get it first,” Richard responded. “Alright then,” the class representative answered. 

Richard went to his table and pretended to have taken something and returned to where his class representative was.

“So how are you Richard?” his class representative asked. 

“I’m doing well, and yourself?” Richard asked as he sat down. 

“I am good too. Where is your friend?” the class representative asked.

“I don’t know where he is,” Richard responded.

“Maybe he is with girls,” the class representative suspected.

“I won’t be surprised anymore. He really annoyed me yesterday,” Richard complained.

“What did he do?” His class representative asked, 

“He took me to a club saying that I need to socialize with girls. I nearly got arrested yesterday,” Richard narrated.

“You see, you really need to advise your friend. Have you seen his result for the previous semester?” the class representative asked.

“No I haven’t, but he told me that he had a single F in his result,” Richard responded.

His class representative started laughing after Richard said that.

“And do you really believe what he told you? Are you really his friend?” the class representative asked.

“Is there anything I’m missing about his result?” Richard asked confusingly.

“You are missing everything Richard, to be honest with you, you really need to know more about your friend, where he goes to, the type of people he hangs out with and what he does in the night,” the class representative said. 

“Really? But tell me about his result right now,” Richard requested. 

“I won’t say much, just go to our result and check for the poorest result,” the class representative directed. 

“Alright, I will do that,” Richard replied. 

He went to the office of their head of the department and asked for the overall list of the names of students in their department. There, he found Paul’s identification number and headed to their bulletin board where their results were placed. He went through all the results and found Paul’s result. He was completely disappointed by the result and finally realized why he had been hiding his identification number all along. He decided to talk to him about it privately when they meet alone.

Later in the day, he couldn't forget about what he heard his class representative said about Janet. He felt so jealous whenever he remembered and wished he could stop thinking about her. In the evening around 4 o’clock, he decided to go Prof. Grace’s house to have his lesson with Rebecca. When he went to the house, he found Rebecca sitting on the bonnet of her mother’s car with her friend who happened to be her neighbour. She wore black jeans trouser with a white sweater. She wore white socks on her legs with no shoes. They were talking and laughing at the top of their voices. As Richard approached them, Rebecca was touched by her friend and then showed Richard. The moment she turned and saw Richard, she frowned immediately. He went and stood by the entrance of the house waiting for her to come. He spent about five minutes waiting for but she didn’t come. “Rebecca!” Richard called. 

She jumped down from the bonnet of the car and met him.

“What do you want from me?” she asked with a frowned face looking at the ground.

“I’m surprised you are even asking me this question, don’t you the purpose of my coming here?” Richard asked. 

“I would have known if you come yesterday as you scheduled,” she replied. 

“Sorry I got caught up in something that’s why I couldn’t come,” Richard appealed. 

“Do you think I’m some useless kid that doesn’t have anything to do? Let me tell you something, you are not going to treating me the way you want. I am busy today, you can schedule another day,” Rebecca said she looked up and looked into his eyes angrily. 

“Look here young lady; I don’t want to complicate things. Just let me do what I come here to do and be on way, I didn’t like how it ended the other day, so I don’t want anything of that nature to you again,” Richard stated. 

“I just want you to know that you can’t do whatever you like,” Rebecca answered.

They entered the house and found Professor Grace sitting in the living room watching television.

“Good evening Ma'am,” Richard greeted her. “Good evening Richard, How are you doing?” Prof. Grace asked.

“I am doing fine, " Richard answered. 

“How are your studies?” she asked again.

“Everything is fine,” Richard responded.

“Did you come for your lesson with Rebecca?” she asked.

“Yes,” Richard answered. 

“That’s good; I don’t want you to be easy on her. If she doesn’t cooperate, just report her to me,” Prof. Grace instructed.

“Okay I will as instructed,” Richard replied. Richard went to the dining table and waited for Rebecca to come out with her books. About five minutes, she came out with her Mathematics and Physics textbooks. She kept the books close to Richard and the sat on the chair next to him. The perfume on her body was so sweet that he wished he could ask her which one she was using.

“So with which subject are we going to start?” Richard asked. 

“Anyone you wish,” she responded with her face still frowned. 

“Alright, let’s start with Physics. Tell me the areas you don’t understand well,” Richard requested. 

She kept quiet for about a minute without saying a word. Richard decided to give her some test to gauge her performance. He wrote down some of the simplest problems from in the textbook and gave her to solve it.

About 20 minutes later, he requested for her answers and found out that she couldn’t solve any of them. 

“Well, that means we have to start with the basics,” Richard said as he closed the textbook.

He instructed her to bring the Mathematics textbooks of her junior years. After she brought them, he started teaching her the simplest topics. He tried his best to make her understand, but he couldn’t help it.

About an hour later, he decided to end the lesson by giving her some work as assignment despite he knew she won’t be to solve them. 

“Try your best to do them before our next lesson,” Richard said but she didn’t say a word. 

“I will see you next time,” Richard said as he stood up to leave. 

“Are you leaving?” Prof. Grace asked when Richard got to her position.

“Yes I am,” Richard replied.

“So how is her performance,” she asked.

“Well, let’s hope she will improve at the end of the day,” Richard answered.

“Rebecca!” she called out.

“Yes mummy,” Rebecca answered. 

“I heard that you are not doing so well,” the Professor complained. 

Rebecca glared at Richard angrily and he pretended not to have noticed her.

“Well, if you don’t improve by the end of this session, I will make you repeat SS 2 even if your school allows you to be promoted to the final year,” Prof. Grace cautioned. 

Rebecca was silent and couldn’t say a word. 

“I will take my leave ma'am,” Richard said after a moment of silence. 

“Alright Richard, see you next time,” the Professor responded.

When he walked out of the Professor’s house, he discovered that the place had gotten dark. He decided to go to his room and eat something. Suddenly, his phone started ringing and he noticed that it was Paul calling.

Paul: where are you?

Richard: I’m on my way to Block D, where are you?

Paul: I’m sitting on your bed right now.

Richard: Wait for me; I will be there as soon as I finish eating.

Paul: Alright, until you come

After their call, Richard went to one of his mates and collected his book after which he headed to his room.

“Hey, where have you been all day long?” Paul asked as Richard entered the room.

“I have been busy with Professor Grace’s daughter. What about you? Where have you been?” Richard asked.

“You know, hanging out as usual,” Paul responded.

“Oh, I see,” Richard replied. 

He proceeded to his locker and brought the remaining food he cooked before going to Professor Grace’s house. He sat by the edge of his bed and he ate it together with Paul.

After they were done eating, Richard proceeded to take his books and laptop for his night studies. When Paul saw him leaving the room, he ran after him. 

“Where will you studying today?” Paul asked.

“In one of the theatres over there,” he pointed the direction of some lecture theatres that were little bit further from them. 

“You go first, let me go and take care of something,” Paul said as he tried to change the direction of walking.

“You lied to me about your result,” Richard said when Paul was about to leave.

“Who was the hypocrite that told you?” Paul asked angrily. 

“It doesn’t matter who told me, what matters right now is that I was completely disheartened when I saw your actual result. Where do you think you can go with a result of 0.5 G.P.A? Imagine even Lydia having a better result than yours,” Richard said referring to the girl everyone thought was the weakest in the department.

Paul kept quiet without mentioning a word. 

“You better sit up since this is just the beginning of the second semester. I won’t force you to take my advise, but as your friend, I must tell you the truth,” Richard adviced. “

Thanks for the advice, I will try and change,” Paul answered. “I’m glad you appreciate it,” Richard replied.