A day later
Pii!
"Ok, that's a wrap for practice everyone!" Coach Sarah yelled. "Time for some announcements."
Grabbing onto the metal railing, I pulled myself out of the pool after spending hours trying to improve my speed.
Picking up a towel, I joined Coach and the others who had already assembled at the bleachers.
"Good to see everyone's form in good shape," Coach commended. "I hope you all keep it that way till next week, since we have the Penfield's Annual Swimming Competition coming up. The ones who perform exceedingly well in this three-day-event will automatically make the list for Nationals, so give it your all. Practice will start same time tomorrow, until then, bye."
With that, the regular buzz of chatter filled the air as some of us began making our way over to the locker rooms.
Today, I'd done nothing but to keep to myself, knowing that after here, I was done for the day. No other club activity.
I should be happy for the extra time but... all I felt right now was this hollow pit of pain in my chest. After devoting time and effort into the engineering club, all they did was to rudely kick me out and to top it all, Shola wouldn't even look at me.
On my way to calculus this morning, I sort of ran into her. Our eyes met briefly, then she turned and quickened her pace, as if I was deadly blood sucking mosquito and she needed to get as far away from me as possible. That action stung more than being kicked out of the club.
I'd hurt her, and in doing that, I'd hurt myself too.
Sighing, I headed over to the bathhouse to wash off the chlorine. A couple of minutes later, I returned to my locker, rummaging through it for my clothes when a figure suddenly bumped into me.
"Hey!" I quickly turned around, only to find a scowling Seth shoving past me.
Alvin and a few other guys on the swim team, hollered at him, but all Seth did was to send them a cold shoulder.
I quirked up an eyebrow. "What's up with him?"
"His plan didn't work," Nana Kwame, who was perched up on the bench closest to me, replied as he stood up to pull a pair of Filla sneakers from his open locker.
"His plan? What plan?"
He sat back down again. "Remember the envelope Ishmael brought to the after party on Friday?"
"Yeah, the one that had all those incriminating pics. What about them?"
Nana Kwame looked up. "Seth was the anonymous person who sent them to Ishmael."
"What?" My eyebrows flew up. "Why?"
"Apparently..." with a grunt, Nana Kwame got back on his feet after putting on his shoes. "Seth grew tired of being Amina's 'side guy', so he hatched up a plan to end her relationship with Ishmael. His plan worked alright, but what Seth didn't expect was Amina dumping him to go after Ishmael. Now he's paying the price for not thinking things through."
"Wow." My gaze flickered over to where the big guy sat, brooding over something on his phone. "That's messed up."
"Well if you ask me, it isn't." Nana Kwame shrugged. "Seth knew that Amina didn't really love him, she was just with him for the sex. So it's his fault for falling for her."
True, but you couldn't really blame him. The heart had a mind of its own. You don't actually plan to fall in love with someone, it just happens.
"Yo, Akwasi buddy," Ethan wandered over. He'd asked permission from Coach to skip practice today so he could attend some important meeting he had with his dad. But from the way he was dressed, like those rappers in music videos who tie their neck with several gold chains, and the faint smell of whiskey wafting around him, I could tell that his 'important meeting' had absolutely nothing to do with his dad.
"Long time no see, brother." He clasped my hand in the usual bro handshake. "Especially after the whole science fair incident."
"Oh yeah I saw it in the school newspaper the other day," Nana Kwame chipped in. "They accused you of-"
"Wrongfully accused!" I shot out in defense. "The whole thing was based off speculation rather than evidence. I was the only one in the security footage so they all started pointing fingers at me." A deep sigh left my mouth and my shoulders sagged. "They wouldn't even give me a chance to explain."
"Forget about them buddy!" Ethan drapped an arm across my shoulders. "You don't need them, you have us! And a shitload of time to do whatever you want, and speaking of that," a creepy grin crawled up his face. "There's a massive beach party happening at Labadi Beach Hotel. I'm actually on my way there right now. You can come along you know, have a couple of drinks, relax and get laid."
As tempting as that sounded, my slight phobia of parties made me shake my head. "Sorry Ethan, but I can't. I've got a bunch of assignments to catch up on," I lied.
"Aww, you need to tone down your nerdiness bro." He slapped me on the back. "What about you N.K, you coming?"
"Heck yeah, like I'd pass up the chance to spend the day with girls in bikinis."
"Awesome! C'mon, c'mon." Ethan led the way out of the locker rooms, followed closely by Nana Kwame who was now brimming with excitement.
"Catch you later, Akwasi." He yelled over his shoulder and doors clapped shut.
Once again, I was left with nagging thoughts, still trying to figure out what to do with all this free time. I didn't want to return to the hall right now because none of my friends were around. Akunna had a checkup at the clinic and Deon wasn't done with his classes until 7:30pm. Apart from them, all my other friends were members of the engineering club.
Pushing out a sigh, I decided to do the only thing that made me feel good about myself. So I grabbed my goggles, swim cap and made my way back to the pool.
Without a hint of hesitation, I dived in, allowing the crystal blue liquid to envelope me. As I zoomed through with freestyle, the comforting ripples tugged my mind into an alternate dimension, a dimension where I had never attended that stupid party and had actually made it to the Science Fair.
I could see myself, standing next to Shola, helping her with last minute test runs on the robot and giving her all the support, she needed to woo the judges over.
Maybe if I had been there, I would've noticed that the mica sensor in the robot's right arm was missing. Then that fire incident wouldn't have happened. The club would've won and no one, not even Mawuli, would have a reason to accuse me of sabotage because I helped them win. My relationship with Shola could've moved on to something else, something better than friendship. I could've asked her out to celebrate at a nice restaurant, bought her flowers and a box of those Kitkat chocolate wafers she was obsessed with and ended our date with a simple night stroll through the park.
Everything could've been perfect, but once again, I messed it all up. Classic Akwasi style.
My body came to a halt at the opposite end of the pool and I pushed my goggles up. The clock up on the wall read 5:45pm. I was probably the only one still here.
Not for long though, because the moment I climbed out of the pool, the court doors swung open and in stepped my roommate.
"Oh good, figured I'd find you here." Akunna hopped down the stairs. "I brought supper."
On cue, my stomach let out a vicious growl. "Great, cuz I'm starving."
"And you'd probably die of it too if you didn't know me," he chuckled.
In the next five minutes, we were both perched up on a bleacher, filling our tummies with mouthfuls of *waakye. This wasn't really encouraging for a swimmer's diet, but the rice tasted so good that I couldn't bring myself to stop. I mentally made plans to run it all out of my system tomorrow morning. "How was your appointment at the clinic, Akunna?"
"Meh," he shrugged. "Apart from restocking my pills, all the doctor did was to nag about my blood sugar. But I swear I'm doing everything I can to keep it low."
"Didn't she give you a meal plan?"
"Yeah, for rabbits. I can't eat something like raw arugula, that shit is too bitter."
I laughed as Akunna took a swig of water from his bottle. "So umm..." he loudly cleared his throat. "I met Shola on my way here."
That look of dismay she gave me after finding those lipstick stains on my shirt flashed before my eyes. The smile on my face soon disappeared. "She still hates my guts, doesn't she?"
"She doesn't hate you. She just...needs some space. Girls are like that, it takes a long time for them to get over stuff. But she will get over it, eventually. Shola is not the type of person to hold grudges till thy kingdom come," my roommate remarked with a chuckle.
I, on the other hand, did not find the statement funny.
"Oh lighten up, would you." Akunna gave me a light shove. "One day, she's going to get over the whole thing. So don't let it bug you, ok?"
With a tiny bud of optimism, I let out a soft "fine," hoping that day wouldn't take long in coming.
*****
*waakye ~ a wholesome Ghanaian meal of rice and black-eyed beans, mostly served with salad, spaghetti, gari, black pepper (shito) and an egg, chicken or fish.