Magnus Kwabena Pais, a dark skinned fairly built teenager, sat in his desk, in the classroom, observing a routine which took up most to all of his time. With his very short neatly-cut afro, plump pink lips and attractive eyes, he wore a blue necktie on a golden yellow suit with a black inner dress shirt, which looked elegant along with a pair of neatly ironed royal blue trousers fastened to him on the waist with the aid of a black leather belt. A pair of black shoes embraced his feet and a black analogue watch clenched comfortably on his left wrist. The uniform he was in was that of the school's. The females wore the same but in a bit of a different manner. They wore a blue skirt, a golden yellow dress shirt with a black strip placed closed to the end of the short sleeves, and a blue necktie as well as a pair of black shoes. The name of the school was, 'The Golden Dew'.
Magnus nervously uses his middle and index fingers to tap dance on the desk's table which was white in colour and bites his pink lower lip inwardly, tightening his chin which in turn gives his mouth an inverted 'u' shape. He writes something down as his head rests in his other palm, his gaze fixed on a brown skinned girl, two columns away from him. He observes her stealthily. Much like him, the person he was observing, Anthemon Yaa Tane, a relatively tall girl with afro puff, also happened to be writing some stuff down and she looked really concentrated. Upright she sat, frozen with focus on whatever it was she was jotting down on a white sheet of paper placed firmly on a pink notebook. The classroom was dead to her and her imagination had come alive, erupting in her mind. Anthemon loved to write and so did Magnus but whatever they had been writing in particular, no one knew. Most students in the classroom seemed to care less about people who wrote. They were more into gossips, trends and the juice of the day. Magnus and Anthemon are deeply focused on their own tasks when a familiar voice shouts in the classroom.
"Juice of the dayyy!"
Magnus and Anthemon look at Margot Winters, a curvaceous makeup-obsessed blonde, standing in front of the whole class with her long layered hair, golden yellow dress shirt and blue tie, giggling. Her significantly short skin-clinging blue skirt, matching her blue peep toe heels, nearly merged with her hips. That was what she wanted. Everyone looked interested in what Margot was going to say. Other boys in the classroom were interested for their own lustful reasons. Magnus and Anthemon seemed uninterested but still cared to listen to what the juice of the day was. Magnus closes his brown book.
"So guys…" Margot begins and pauses, smiling at the whole class, twirling her hair. Her eyes seductively moved across the classroom as her head tilted side to side slowly. Her gaze fell on Favour Okechukwu Dola, the snobby nerd of the class. He steupses at her and shifts uncomfortably in his seat which he always struggled with due to his size. Margot laughs softly and looks back to the whole class. She knew what she was going to say wasn't juice for all but juice for interested girls. Obviously, she also knew that boys especially would have absolutely no strand of interest in what she would say. The whole class went dead silent, waiting for Margot to continue. She slaps her hair backwards with her hand, whirling her head slightly. She inhales.
"I met this really cute guy"
The class groans in disappointment, including the hungry lustful boys. Margot gasps. "No no wait", she continues, "He's a bad boy type of guy and he has been around. Ladies?" she says, looking into the now lighted up eyes of girls who squealed with excitement, eager to meet this bad boy. Magnus sighed, his eyebrows drawing back with a what-else-did-I-expect look and his head tilting slightly circularly to the left along with his eyes. Anthemon laughs at the girls who were so eager throw themselves at a random stranger. She shakes her head gently and gets back to writing. Soon, Magnus hears her humming faintly, her head tilting back and forth every now and then. He sees her light skinned lips moving as well, almost as though she was muttering something. He thought to himself, "she is definitely writing a song"
That thought perks up his interest in her. There were times when Magnus felt out of place in the classroom. This was because, he as a writer had no one to relate with in terms of that field. That changed, completely the second he discovered Anthemon's little secret.
He opens up his book which looked like a personal diary and wrote.
"Kiss me.."
He wonders for a while and cancels that.
"Kiss my face with the kiss of moonlight
Warm my numbing cold with the warmth of sunlight
Bathed, you are, in a pool of chrysanthemum petals
Till the good sweet scent settles
Faint sheets of zephyr walk through the splashing waves
Weaving itself onto your skin
Your presence like rain after it touches sand so dry within
Name of flower, Name of silver
Name of power, Make me better"
Atop this piece he writes, "Dewdrop" indicating that to be the title.
Suddenly, he sees two hands slapped strongly on his table, sounding a loud thud. The class goes silent and all heads turn to face Magnus' table. Various eyes roll over not in surprise because this was nothing new to them. Anthemon watches the figure towering above Magnus and whispers "Oh poor Magnus". In front of Magnus was the guy famed for his extensive bullying skills. One whose name brought the knees of weak and fearful students wobbling and down with forced respect. Even though, he was on the same level as any other student, he commanded yet great authority on them, mainly the quiet and innocent-looking boys. Magnus was today's pick because he had noticed how Magnus would stare at Anthemon and scribble something down afterwards. He had noticed this for a very long time but decided not to interfere. In his eyes, the limit of this nonsense had reached and he had to find out whatever it was Magnus was writing. He had to find out whatever it was that took up the time of one of his bully victims. Today was that day. He was predator and Magnus was prey and he would have his answers at long last. This bully which Magnus disliked for every possible reason on this universe went by the name so basic and the name so fear exclusive, Henry Cladwell.
Anthemon is the only person now paying attention to what is happening between Magnus Kwabena Pais and Henry Cladwell. Every other person just minding their own business. Some girls still crowded around Margot, listening to her 'Mother of all Girlfriends' advice. Margot spilled out a mixture of both fake and real ways to win the heart of a guy and the interested girls paid unfiltered attention to her, not knowing there was a percentage of falseness in there. Anthemon feels a hand tap her shoulder and looks back with slight shock.
"Oh Sabine… umm" Anthemon pauses, "…hey"
"Hey.. Anthemon" Sabine says with her voice cracking. Sabine herself understands how poor the level of communication between her and Anthemon was. She, Sabine, had a devastatingly evil plan. That which could possibly end the life of Anthemon. Her eyes twinkled with a wrap of malice as her grip on Anthemon's shoulder tightened slightly. She smiles at her wryly. Anthemon sucks in her lips and creases her eyebrows. Anthemon feels uncomfortable. She takes Sabine's hand and pulls it away from her shoulder gently. Sabine looks surprised and smirks. Anthemon smiles and asks, "How are you doing?"
Sabine draws back a bit and smiles with her head tilted to one side and her right arm resting on Anthemon's table. "I just happen to have the bucket in front of you and I'm just waiting for you to stumble…" she says with a slight whisper and a hint of joy and sadism. She pauses. With her mouth slightly open and her head still tilted, she stretches out all the fingers on her right arm, tapping each finger on the table in rapid succession. She licks her teeth slowly as she closes her mouth and clicks her tongue, smiles again and locks eyes deeply with Anthemon. Anthemon's eyes widen with confusion as she didn't understand what parabolic phenomenon was taking place in Sabine's sentence. "I'm sorry, I don't quite get you" Anthemon says, trying to break herself free from the shell of discomfort Sabine had placed her in. Sabine ignores and continues with what she was saying, "…and kick the bucket"
She leaves Anthemon confused and releases her hand from the table. She waves at Anthemon before she proceeds to take her seat, a few seats away from Anthemon's.
Anthemon hears a loud rip of paper and looks over to Magnus' direction. To her surprise, Magnus was surrounded by sheets of papers, seemingly torn from some books on his table.
"Look.. fine. I'll show you what I was writing but please don't let anyone know" Magnus says to Henry. Magnus had the actual diary in which he was writing his pieces in, between his knees. Henry had threatened to harm his beloved Anthemon if he didn't show him everything he was writing. At first, Magnus tried to act smart and gave him an almost empty exercise book with mini-pools of uncompleted pieces in them. Henry, being the bully that he was, snapped and tore all the pages to pieces. But finally, Magnus gave in to Henry's desire for the sake of peace.
He handed his diary over to Henry who read with a slight chuckle. Henry begins to read softly, a piece titled 'Her Name'.
"Anthemon, name of flowers
Anthemon, name of peace
One which could bring down hearts of towers
Unchanging, for no one to please
Eyes, brightest amongst all lights
Lips, so carefully and perfectly carved
With love so eternal
Anthemon, name of gold
Anthemon, name of perfection
One which could redefine nations of old
Being that wave of change, perfection's reflection
Redoing the broken
With peace in her, forever dwelling
Anthemon, Anthemon, name of might
Anthemon, Anthemon, I love you just right"
"That's very very…" Henry doesn't complete his sentence and walks over to his seat, plopping the diary on Magnus' table. Magnus sighs and feels slightly convinced that everything was okay. Soon, school came to an end.
The next day at school, Henry steps in front of the class and announces, "Juice of the dayyy!" he pauses and sees the looks of confusion on everyone's face.
"Eh? You've also joined the Juice family?" Favour Dola says softly with his peculiar Nigerian accent but with the slight intention to be heard by Henry.
"Yeah, I know it's usually Margot who does this but she'll come with her own juice on that bad boy very soon but for now, let me give you all my juice of the day" Henry says, smiling.
Magnus is confused and doesn't understand what is going on, he notices Henry smirk at him for a few seconds. His breath begins to speed up and his eyes widen. He covers his mouth with his right hand and lets out a soft, "no". He begins to take his bag which sat carefree on his side. He opens the zip and continues to whisper a "no", repetitively. He looks through the books in his bag, his hands trembling and his breath increasing in speed every passing second. He realizes that his little diary was nowhere in his bag. He shakes his head vigorously, "Oh God", he whispers. He locks eyes with Henry, who smirks yet again at him.