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A/N: Samuel in the picture above.
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‘Jayden, wake up else we’ll be late for class!’
Jayden groaned and turned over in his bed. Noel huffed and walked over to the window. He pulled the curtains sharply open, letting in a flood of sunlight.
Jayden winced as the harsh light pierced his eyelids. He pulled the blanket over his head and snuggled deeper into the covers. He was just falling back asleep when the covers were ripped harshly from his body.
He sat up and glared at Noel who grinned sheepishly back. He sighed and got up, stretching tiredly before making his way slowly to the bathroom. Noel sighed in relief when he heard the sound of the shower running.
A few minutes later, they were making their way down the hill towards their classroom.
‘I took the liberty of downloading our schedules while you were in the bathroom. I have Biology first period and you have General Knowledge in Art. We both have Maths second period so at least we’ll meet before recess.’
He handed over Jayden’s schedule to him and continued.
‘The class venue is written beside it as well as the name of the teacher. Your class is at the old manor house and mine is at the lab complex.’
They joined a stream of students walking along the main avenue. Jayden placed his schedule in his backpack and nodded to Noel but before they could part ways, Charles and his gang accosted them.
‘What are you playing at Mills?’ he hissed.
Jayden scrunched up his face. ‘Get out of my face Mensah. If you insist on having the breath of an ape that’s no reason to make me suffer for it.’
Charles curled his hands into fists. You could almost see the steam rising from his ears.
‘You… you… you-‘
‘I… I… I what? Just because you look like a Neanderthal gives you no excuse to have the vocabulary of one.’
Charles took a threatening step forward and Noel quickly rushed between them.
‘Come on Charles, this is not necessary.’
Charles glared down at him. ‘Shut up, brat. We are not on a first-name basis so do not presume to call me by mine. A pauper like you ought to know his place.’
Jayden sneered at him. ‘And where’s that? Last I checked, humans came before animals so it’s definitely above you.’
‘Look,’ Noel cut in before the situation got out of hand. ‘How can we help you?’
Charles shoved him roughly out of the way. ‘What I want is to know why,’ he said, stepping closer to Jayden. ‘Why did you move him to your room? Are you sick homos gay or something?’
Jayden smirked. ‘Why do you ask Charles? Jealous? Or, are you just mad that you can no longer obsess over the object of your perverted desire?’
Charles looked disgusted. ‘I do not obsess over him.’
‘So you say, but you are the one throwing a tantrum because he no longer sleeps in the same dorm as you. If what you say is true, you should be happy I did you a favour by removing the filthy beggar from your hair. Yet here you are.’
Charles gritted his teeth. ‘You are going to regret this Mills. You should not have interfered. First, I’m going to make you watch as I destroy this beggar then I’m going to make the rest of your life a misery.’
Jayden shrugged nonchalantly. ‘You have to learn how to spell it first. Here’s a hint, it’s s-e, not s-i.’
Charles flipped him off before storming off, his gang following hastily after him.
‘How mature,’ Jayden commented dryly at his retreating figure. He looked down to see Noel still sprawled on the ground. He bent down and helped him to his feet, helping him to dust himself off.
‘Are you okay?’
Noel nodded shakily as he placed his glasses on his face with a trembling hand. ‘Fine if you consider the fact that someone is out to destroy me.’
Jayden dismissed his concerns with a wave of his hand. ‘You’ll be fine. I know his family and their bark is much worse than their bite.’
Noel looked unsure but he nodded all the same. ‘Alright, see you at math then.’
Jayden nodded and joined a stream of students moving to the right.
He arrived at the administration complex and this time took the right stairs leading to the west wing. He stood at the head of the stairs for a moment, wondering where to go next.
A group of first years came up the stairs behind him and walked past him into a corridor on the right. He heard the words ‘art’ as they passed and after a second thought decided to follow them.
The corridor was brightly lit by the floor to ceiling windows, which let in the sunlight. Their footsteps were muffled by the soft carpet, which lay along the length of the long corridor.
The sounds of teaching could be heard from within the closed doors on either side of the corridor. Their class was located at the end of the corridor and as soon as they were seated, the teacher walked in.
He was a bald man with an average build and a slightly below average height. He wore a pair of thick rectangular glasses with jet-black rims, which made his eyes seem slightly bigger than they actually were.
His square jaw was smooth and absent of any hair. In fact, his entire body was hairless from top to bottom. In a casual black suit with no tie, his dressing was as sharp as his features.
He began the class in his soft and gentle voice. ‘Good morning class, I am Dr. Kwame Abaka and I’ll be taking you for General Knowledge in Art. To those who will also be reading Graphics and Design, Ceramics, and Sculpture and Picture Making, I will also be taking you for that.’
He moved along the desks as he continued in his calm voice. ‘I’m also the assistant headmaster in charge of administration, head of the arts department, and the head of house for Scorpius so if you have any problems in these areas please inform me.’
He paused for a moment but no hand was raised and no voice spoke out.
‘In that case, if you do develop problems, my door is always open.’
He moved to stand in front of the class. ‘Art is an emotion. It is not a science or a subject but an expression of passion. That is something you have to understand from the very beginning. Art is a discipline of the senses, of the very soul. What we as artists do with our art is to manifest our emotions, our immortal soul into it. Yes, you can use science. You can calculate the gradient, the music score, the dance steps, the mixture of paint but if you fail to pour out your soul then you are not producing art you are just producing a work.’
The class was attentive as they drank in every drop of his words.
‘We all have different passions, different stories that brought us here. It is these stories that will determine the type of artist you will become and that is the reason we’re here. To tell our stories. But in order to tell our stories we must first discover them. So, let’s begin.’
The doctor proved himself to be an attentive and a more than capable teacher, and the class went on smoothly. When the siren rang, his students were almost reluctant to leave.
‘An important notice,’ he said before dismissing them. ‘This classroom will be used mainly for lectures and some light artwork. For practicals, the art complex will be utilised and we would have them every other week. Therefore, next week we will meet at the art complex and the following week here. You may leave.’
The students left feeling more enlightened and knowledgeable than when they had arrived, and Jayden found himself liking his head of house.
He arrived in his classroom to find Noel already sitting at their table. He waved to him when he saw him and asked excitedly as he sat down by him.
‘So?’
‘So what?’
‘How was your first class?’
Jayden shrugged nonchalantly causing Noel to pout but before he could pester him about it, the math teacher strode in.
‘Good morning. Let’s start by opening our textbooks to chapter one.’
The class was a boring one made worse by the droning voice of the teacher, a tall balding man in his mid-forties.
Jayden was doodling lazily in his notebook whiles Noel was studiously taking notes. The rest of the class was half-asleep when it happened.
It started as a small vibration, then a light buzz but very soon the shrill sound of a cell phone ringing cut through the monotonous haze that had descended on the class.
Everyone looked up, startled, wondering what was going on. The teacher’s face begun to grow apoplectic with rage as the loud ringtone of the cell phone continued to disrupt his class.
‘Who’s phone is it?’ the teacher demanded in a loud voice.
The class began to mutter as they looked about them, wondering where the noise was coming from. Jayden wondered the same and he turned to Noel only to stop in surprise at the pale look on his face.
Then it hit him. The sound of the phone was coming right from Noel’s backpack! Unfortunately, he realized it at the same time as the teacher who strode forward and seized the backpack.
He ripped the zipper open and rummaged inside for a moment before pulling his arm out with the offending phone clutched tightly in his hand.
He glared at a trembling Noel. ‘Whose bag is this?’
The question hung in the air for a minute before a feeble voice muttered, ‘Mine.’
The teacher narrowed his eyes at him. ‘Are you aware of the consequences of what you’ve done? Why would you bring a phone to class?’
‘He didn’t, I did.’
The teacher looked disbelievingly at Jayden who in response was on his feet, staring defiantly back at him.
‘He just admitted to the crime. Why are you trying to lie for him?’
‘He admitted to owning the backpack, not owning the phone. The question was whose bag was this not whose phone.’
‘You think you’re smart huh? Let’s see how smart you are when you are suspended.’
‘NO!’ Noel shouted, shooting to his feet.
Both Jayden and the teacher looked at him in surprise.
‘No?’ the teacher asked.
‘Yes, the phone is mine.’ Noel’s face was set in determination.
Jayden gritted his teeth and glared at Noel but Noel refused to meet his gaze.
‘Don’t punish him, punish me. He was just trying to protect me.’
The teacher looked frustrated. ‘Here’s an idea,’ he said, rubbing his temples. ‘How about I take you both to the Headmistress and get you both suspended.’
Whiles this was going on Jayden had been casting an eye around the classroom and his eyes narrowed when they landed on a snickering figure at the corner of the class. It was one of Charles’s friends.
‘No need.’ Jayden cut in dryly.
‘And why’s that?’ the teacher looked done at this point.
‘It’s his,’ Jayden answered, pointing at Samuel.
The teacher looked surprised.
‘It is?’
Samuel looked confused.
‘It is?’
Jayden glared intently at him.
‘Oh yeah,’ Samuel said, getting to his feet. ‘It’s mine, sorry.’ He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
The teacher looked doubtful. ‘Are you sure it’s yours? You’re not just standing up for them?’
‘Yeah, it is. I can prove it. It’s a standard Samsung Galaxy J10 smartphone with a processing power of 140Hz, a 5000mAH battery, and a 5.7 inch touchscreen which comes with a resolution display of 1080/1920 pixels.’
Of course, Samuel had absolutely no idea what he was talking about but he also knew very well that the teacher was more clueless than him.
‘Alright, alright.’ He finally gave up. ‘In that case, I’m going to let you all off with a warning and I’m confiscating the phone. This shouldn’t happen again now take your seats and let’s finish with today’s lesson.’
So saying, he continued with the class and it didn’t take long for the class to descend back to its bored semi-catatonic state.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: How is the new year treating all of you so far and how is it going with those resolutions 😉?
I have a policy of not including pictures of how the characters would look like in my book preferring to leave it to the imagination of the reader. As you can see, I’ve decided to break with tradition and try something new. What do you think, should I continue posting character pics or should I allow your imaginations to run wild?
Leave your answers and what you thought about the book in the comments. Don’t also forget to light the star below if you enjoyed the book🤗.
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