VISITORS: THE LOVERS TALES

re really hungry devoured their food greedily, while some engage in their chit chat and gossips even with their mouth full. The cafeteria isn't just any lunch place in Winstonville; it ha

him gone in the whole school. He hadn't known Finn then, or else he would have raised an alarm and he would have been searched for. The van doors opened and two men in white overalls with Williams Art Gallery and Cultural Nexus Museum printed on the back in block letters. The men jumped out of the van, strolled out to the back of the van and opened the door, soldiers were beside the men in overall now, and he watched as they brought something out of the van. He couldn't see what it was, it was covered with a black cover and they carefully took it to the principal building, he tried seeing if he could see what it was, but the soldiers were now blocking it from view. He looked up and somehow was staring in one of the soldier's eyes, he swallowed hard and gave a forced smile, getting no response from the soldier and he hastened his steps and took off in the direction of his hostel. Barclay Hostel is one of the finest hostels, and he was lucky to have gotten in, it was one of the hostels that have a common room. The common room is a room where everyone in the hostel get to sit together, to play games, chit chat, and sometimes gamble that is without the consent of the teachers or house mistress of course.Babatunde had once written a letter to get transferred to Barclay hostel and have been declined many times by the Hostel mistress Mrs. Adeyemi. There are four more male hostels in the school: Oitaro Hostel, Bamidele Hostel, Eko Hostel (The hostel master was once a manager at the popular Eko Hotel), and Jihad Hostel (A notorious hostel for Muslims) He walked into the hostel and into the common room, some of the students were there, and he recognized Muhammed. He was one of the junior students that were admitted to the school through a scholarship program, the boy was a genius, and he took a great liking for him apart from the fact that he was bearing his surname. He was black skinned, so he was able to identify him easily in the midst of the light skinned juniors he was talking to. He seems to be explaining something out of a book to them, because he was gesturing wildly with his hands. Jamal smiled and walked into the rooms that housed the beds. There were a few twin bunk beds in the hostel, and they are for people who couldn't bring their own bed from home. Some of the other students prefer sleeping on a bed alone. Well, obviously the school is for the rich and he was lucky to have got in, and met Finn, or he would still be sleeping in one of the bunk beds, which he could recall well enough, was discomforting. He sat on his bed and opened a cabinet in his drawer, it was empty."They have started again" he muttered under his breath. He remembered putting his chocolate into the drawer. He walked over to Finn's bed, looked around, making sure no one was looking at his direction, he ran his hand underneath Finn's mattress and found the key to his drawer, he unlocked it and took a bar of chocolate, he locked it and shoved the key back to its rightful place. He walked back to his bed; he sat and kicked off his shoes before lying on the bed. He opened the chocolate and took a bite. He wasn't having class until later.Finn sat through the Biology class with an air of unrest and apathy, the mere forty minutes practical was boring and uninteresting. Maybe Linsin Michael was right after all; maybe it was because the students' sits so long and the teachers talk too much, he thought. The practical wasn't going well for him, not with Faidat sniffing his hair from behind him and giggling. He touched his hand to his own hair and sniffed it, there was nothing wrong with his hair or was there? He questioned himself, and when he couldn't take it anymore, he turned his face backwards to her and spoke with a painstaking slowness."Would you please stop sniffing my hair?" he asked with a dull face and he got really mad, when all he got was a giggle and the battling of her lashes at him. She was really getting on his nerves; he looked at Misha, who was drawing a butterfly on her biology notebook and was going to label it later because she drew horizontal and vertical lines on its antennae, and it wings. He edged closer to her"Misha?" he said quietly as he could manage because the biology teacher was in a foul mood"Yeah?" she replied without looking at him"Can you please sniff my hair and tell if it smells?"She dropped her pencil and looked at him with a look of skepticism and a little disgust"Why would I want to sniff your hair?" she picked up her pencil and resumed her drawing. She stopped a moment to survey her drawing, turned to look at him, looked at her drawing and then continued."Never mind" he looked towards the window and saw a white van driving into the compound, was there a need for a Convoy? He asked himself when he saw the military trunks. He knew for sure it was the ark the Vice principal was talking about. He sat through the remaining excruciating and agonizing minutes while trying to act like he understood everything the Biology teacher was saying. He was grateful when the bell rang, he packed his books into his bag and on a second thought, he threw them into his chair locker, he wasn't going to read them anytime soon from now. He slung his bag over his shoulder and made to leave the class when someone block his way, seeing the top of whomever it was made him groan. He looked down on her. It was Faidat and she stood firmly in front of him. She was a few inches shorter than him, with hairs long enough to strangle herself and she wore glasses bigger than her eyes: it was because her contacts itches her eyes and her dad brought a wire rimmed spectacles that cost the school fee of a student here at Winstonville. Of course, he never asked her about herself, but she had all the same blabbed it out to him. He made to move past her, and she blocked his way, he put his hands on her shoulder and tried moving her to a side, but she did something he didn't even anticipate, she slumped against him. He held her against him, fearing she would hit the floor and God forbid if he was there when she dies or be the cause of her death. He heard her moan in his arms, and sensing what she was doing, he let go of her and as if in slow motion in one of those soap operas dropped her on the floor, the remaining students that were lingering in the class burst into laughter.She hit the floor with a soft thud and when she looked up at him; her eyes were filled with hot tears. She covered her eyes with her hair, stood up so fast and dashed out of the room. Finn didn't know what to do, run after her or just stay put. He didn't mean to have dropped her like that, but he felt sexually harassed? Misha walked past him and muttered as she stormed off"That wasn't cool" He turned around at the class, and they were all still laughing, some of the guys looked at him with a look of absolute disbelieve but the girls were all still laughing. He stormed out of the class into the corridor, he pumped into someone and didn't even bothering know who it was. He saw Misha's yellow sweatshirt and ran after her. He got to her before she opened the door leading outside."Misha" she didn't wait for him. She opened the door and ran down the flight of stairs so fast that he was breathing hard by the time he caught up with her. He held a hand to her shoulder but she shrugged it off angrily."Misha, I am sorry, I didn't know what to do, I felt harassed""Sorry about that" her voice was thick with a sob."You are not even the girl I dropped to the floor. Is there something to this, that you aren't telling." he was still following her, they were crossing the lawn now towards the girls hostel"There is nothing" she was almost sobbing now, her back was turned to him so he walked right in front of her now, walking backwards while she walks towards him. Her face was turned down, he saw a tear fell down on her hand; she was holding her textbook to her chest. They were getting closer to the hostel and the security man was doubting if he was going to enter with her. He knew he had to go back now or he was going to be reported to his house mistress or worse still the Vice principle. He stopped as she walked around him towards her hostel; the security man sat down back but didn't take his eyes off him."Misha!" he yelled after her throwing his hands in the air in frustration and when he got no reply as she entered her hostel, he kicked at the grass and walked back to his hostel. As he passed by the ICT laboratory, he could hear everyone sitting there laughing, and something tells him it was about what happened at the biology class. He walked with a confused air around him into his hostel, he sat on his bed. Jamal was walking towards him dressed for class."Hey, what's up?" he sat beside Finn as he wore his shoes. He took his time to reply as he dropped his bag beside his bed and start unlacing his shoe."It is Misha" he had barely finished his sentence before Jamal head snapped upwards, his voice was full of concern"What is it? What happened to her? He was up now"It is noting to be alarm of, well-maybe not for you, but she made a pretty big something out of nothing?""What happened?" Jamal asked again and sat downFinn stood up and pulls his shirt over his head; he was bare to the chest now"You know Faidat right?"Your avowed crush?""What?" he looked at Jamal with his brows furrowed "No, she isn't my, whatever, just forget it... She made a scene right there in front of the class and.....""She tried to smooch you?""Do you want me to finish?""Yes my lord""Well, she did somewhat tried to smooch me" Jamal eyeball widen, but Finn ignored him altogether"She kind of tried to smooch me and I might have dropped her to the ground, because she was in my arms""What was she doing in your arms?""That a pretty long story, anyways, I dropped her to the floor and the whole class burst into laughter and Misha, she just stormed past me on the way out and said 'That wasn't cool" he threw his hand in the air letting it fall beside him"It wasn't....""Will you just shut up and let me finish?""Absolutely""I took off after her...""Hold on, Misha or Faidat?" Jamal asked getting confused"Misha of course, and she wouldn't wait up for me and the next thing I knew was that she was crying"Jamal face became tensed"Crying... Like really crying?""Yeah""And you didn't say anything to her that might have ....." he trailed off"Of course not, everyone knows you are the smart mouth""Yeah, yeah" he said looking at Finn doubtfullyThey both stayed silent for a little while and the light in the hostels came on, everywhere was flooded with the halogen light bulbs."What do you think is up with her?" Jamal asked"I honestly don't know""We should meet up at dinner and talk to her""Yeah, sure" Finn saidJamal stood up and walk out of the room, some of the students were trooping in now and the room was getting crowded. Finn watched him walk out and somehow he hung his head down and seems to have lost the little bounce in his steps. He stood up, grabbed his towel, a change of cloth and head towards the shower.Babatunde helped Deborah up and handed her his handkerchief, she wiped her face and smiled at him, and he felt something squirmed in his stomach; he forced himself to smile back. He handed her, her bag and slung his over his shoulder. They both walked outside of the basketball court in silence, they were on the field now. He could see Jamal making his way towards his hostel."I have a class to attend" she said and stopped when they got off the field"Oh... Ok" he said and swallowed hard, he couldn't figure out why he was always nervous wherever she is."I wanted to thank you... for you know, everything you said back there""It noting" he replied as coolly as he could manageShe gave him a look"No, I actually meant, no qualms, you know...." he trailed off and stared at his shoes"Tunde? He looked up at her, she was smiling now, and this time he felt happy, happy he have it in him to make someone smile while behaving like a sheep, he almost laughed out loud at the thought.'I....." she seemed to think over what she wanted to say, but instead she grabbed his hand and squeezed it. She looked at him and walked away. He stood there and watched her walked away, and when he got back to his senses"Ode" he cursed himself and smack his head "Idiot"He waited for her to walk out his sight and he head towards the A.V lab. The only place he would pretend to be figuring out sound waves when he knew absolutely nothing about sound waves, but only to listen to some of the Phil Collins tapes that were lying around in the lab. He walked in and found Mr. Jaiyeola, the A.V lab keeper. He was with someone and there were talking about stereos and speakers, he must have heard his footstep because he looked up."Ha! Mr. Bankole" Babatunde was used to being addressed by his Surname by the lab keeper"You will have to come back tomorrow, we are making some changes in the lab, you know.... turning a few bolts and nuts" he made a show of turning a bolt with a spanner and he chuckled"Ok sir, thanks sir" he walked out of the lab and head towards his hostel. He replayed the whole thing he had with Deborah in his mind till he fell asleep when he got to the hostel and flop down on his bed. He woke up with a start and looked at his wristwatch, it was 6:43PM, it was seventeen minutes to dinner. He sat up and touched his feet to the ground, hoping for the cold floor to welcome his hot feet, and when they touched the floor, he realized he still had his shoes on. He kicked them off as if they were his enemies, and the bell for dinner ranged."What the hell?" he groaned; he was supposed to have sixteen more minutes. He knew the consequence of not going to dinner on time; you get served w