3| ZOE

Dark skies: 3

3| Zoe

The bell rang for the close of the day's activities, the sound waking Zoe up from her beauty sleep. The day was only filled with noise and no actual class, so she spent most of the afternoon sleeping. The first days of school were always like that, she just hoped actual work would start the next day. Unlike other people who had friends to hang out with, Zoe had no friends so all she could do was focus on her studies. Her books, her games, and increasing her prowess in not caring.

Her classmates started trooping out, making a noise as they laughed heartily and boisterously, with their bags and cheery faces, walking together to their different destinations. Zoe lifted her head from the desk and felt a sharp pain in her neck.

Ouch!

The word left her mouth in a whisper that was filled with the pain she felt, she felt the pain in her neck and she made a twisting motion to probably ease the pain. She massaged the spot where she felt the pain with her thumb, as she blinked her eyes several times as if trying to blink the sleepiness she still felt away. 

She packed the novel and jotter laying on the desk into her bag and swung the bag on her shoulders as she motioned to stand up. Her eyes moved in swift gazes till they met Matthew and Julia talking and laughing.

She was just crying earlier.

Zoe sneered as she walked out of the confines of her desk and seat, Julia's resonating laughter hitting her eardrums causing small guilt feeling to grow. She knew she was mean to Julia, but Zoe didn't know how else to act than being mean. She was not one to be nice, sweet, and cute, mean was just alright. A noticeable fact was that Zoe was only extremely mean with Julia and Matthew, she was cool with other classmates to an extent, but not these guys.

In a bid to distract herself from the thought of the happy faces she has just seen, her mind traveled and longed for her favorite spot in the school. She decided to take a stroll to the rarely visited area of the school, the lawn in the school's garden. 

Excellence International College [EIC], was the best in the state, and its architectural designs were the best to be ever seen, no doubts that it was also the most beautiful. The school garden was one of the favorite places for Zoe, there, she was allowed to be alone like she always loved. Free from the stress people like Julia give her. This had become a place of solace and reflection for her in the past few years, she would come there to read, listen to music, and sometimes sleep. 

The lawn was her destination again this time. Zoe strolled to the school garden, when she got there, she walked further into the lawn in the garden. Sitting on one of the benches, Zoe closed her eyes as she drifted off to sleep.

Her sleep was disturbed by some movements near the lawn, the place where flowers were planted. Zoe slowly opened her eyes, as she was half awake and half asleep. She listened closely and watched, the direction the noise was coming from, what she saw made her heart jump from her skin and made her run out of the garden.

A figure was walking through the flowers planted there, which was completely normal. But the man's face was what got her scared, it was her father. Brown skin pointed nose and a mouth twisted funnily, just like her Dad. She must have seen a ghost, or what could she make of this in her school's garden.

Fear gripped her heart, placing her hands on her chest, she could feel her heart pounding, as though they would fall out any minute. The noise seemed to disappear after a while, she managed to stand from her seat and walked towards the place the noise was coming from. Brushing through the flowers, she saw from a distance, the person picking some flowers, her was bent down and humming a song, she stared at the person with fear and hoped her mind wasn't playing game tricks on her. She continued walking causing some noise as she brushed the plants, the noise catching the attention of the mystery man who raised his head to see. The two-faced eye to eye and Zoe's eye widened, the man looked exactly like her father, she got scared and yelped making a move to run and going for it.

Zoe got to the entrance of her house breathing heavily, her heart pounding against her chest. The fear she felt a few minutes ago feeling anew with every throb of her heart. Sweat beads had formed on her forehead as her throat heat up in the desperate need for hydration. She reached for her bag as she searched for her house keys. 

" Hello, Pretty". A voice said, a voice so deep and freaky, causing Zoe's heart to flutter with another wave of fear, making her drop the keys in her hands as she was about fixing them into the keyhole. 

" Oops, sorry". The voice said again, Zoe turned to her side to see who was there. It was Segun. She hissed and rolled her eyes as she bent and picked up the keys. Segun was standing on the staircase that leads to other attachments the main building had, his face was filled with a mocking smile as he had succeeded in picking on Zoe once again.

"What do you want?" Zoe queried without looking him in the face, she fixed the key in the keyhole and opened the door. 

"Nothing dear, my boss asked me to tell you that he saw the money your mother sent. And that he would appreciate it if you thanked her for him". Segun said.

Zoe winced as she turned the doorknob, making a move to enter the room. She turned to face him. " Okay, I'll call my Mum to thank her for sending money to the person taking care of me". She said as she emphasized 'taking care'. 

She stepped into her room as Segun opened his mouth to speak, cutting him off abruptly. 

Segun was a pervert and weirdo that worked with the Owolabi's, the family her mother had dumped her with while chasing greener pastures. Segun was the one always disturbing and making sexual advances at her, he was cool and friendly sometimes, but her was more of a weirdo than friendly. 

When Zoe lived with the Owolabi's in the main building, he was her makeshift friend on nights she needed someone to rant to about their boss' wickedness and inhumane behaviors. 

The Owolabi's were mean and bossy people when Zoe's mom dumped her with them. They turned her into a domestic worker just in days, ignoring the huge amount her mother used to send to them. Zoe did most of the walk in the house, while Segun did the ones her hands could not handle. She would wash, cook, and clean the house, while the Children of these people would waste away on the couch watching TV. Children she was agemates with.

She started living on her own three years ago when she had beat the youngest child to a pulp. She couldn't remember the details of the fight anymore but she knew most of the anger she felt that day as a result of transferred aggression. Mrs. Owolabi had vowed to send her back to Darasimi, but Mr. Owolabi acted otherwise. There was no way he would let the money he was getting from Darasimi disappear because of a fight.

But Zoe couldn't live there either, she had grown more bitter by the day. So they agreed to let her leave alone in one of the self-contained rooms attached to the main building. Ever since them, Zoe had lived on her own, with little or no contact with the inhabitants of the main building. She only saw them when it was important, like now, or when her mother was to visit.

Zoe entered the room and walked straight to the kitchen, collecting a glass of water from a bottle in the small fridge there, Zoe gulped down its content in minutes. Wiping her mouths smeared with water at its curves, with her hands, Zoe walked into the room and sat on the bed. She started removing her school wear, she removed her shoes first as she felt pain there. Pulling off her socks, she massaged the red spot on her left leg, she was bruised. 

She had never run in her life like she did today. Glancing at her legs and massaging the spot with her thumbs, she started making guesses and assumptions that could serve as a possible explanation of the whole thing. She would just ouch the event at the back of her mind like it never happened, she wouldn't want to subscribe to nightmares if she continued thinking about the possibilities of her seeing a ghost in her school's garden, on a bright, shining afternoon.

Zoe peeled off the clothes on her skin as she wraps the towel around her, she walked into the bathroom and climbed into the bathtub. Sitting in it, she turned on the shower and squeezed some shower gel into her sponge. She began aggressively scrubbing her body as if to watch the fear she still felt off. After half an hour of scrubbing and washing, she finally finished her bath, stepped out of the bathtub, dried her body, and wrapped the towel around her chest.

She padded out of the bathroom and into the bedroom with her bathroom slippers making a squeaky noise. She got into her loungewear and went to the kitchen, she turned her head from side to side, rummaging the room for food with her gaze.

I need to go to the market.

She said to herself as walked towards a kitchen cabinet, with drawers that contained packs of instant noodles. She took the two pieces that remained and set them on the worktop, she brought out the different ingredients she would be needing and set them on the worktop too, and then she began cooking. 

After some minutes of cooking, the food was done. She served herself and brought out a soft drink from the fridge, pouring half it contents in a cup, she took the meal to the room. She was sweating as she stepped out of the kitchen, but thankfully there was light, so she dropped the meal on the table switched on the standing fan and the TV. She took the remote and scanned for interesting programs, she got to her favorite channel and press 'ok'.

She ate her food and watched the program, when she was done she stood up and dropped on the bed drifting off to Dreamland.

Knock, knock, knock.

A knock sounded on Zoe's door as she was still deeply asleep. The knock turned into loud bangs as she started to wake up.

"Zoe, Zoe". The person knocking called. Zoe slowly opened her eyes as the noise continued, she groaned as she moved, her hands brushing the pillow on which she laid her head, it was wet with sweat. She sat up and wiped her face, slowly she stood up and walked towards the door. She unlocked it and opened gently, her eyes catching the person knocking. 

Mrs. Owolabi.

She rolled her eyes as she watched her. This was the woman that disturbed her sleep, she resisted the urge to hiss and slam the door on her face. 

"Good evening" Mrs. Owolabi greeted.

"Evening ma," Zoe said as she opened the door and stepped out, closing the door behind her.

" How are you doing". Mrs. Owolabi said politely. Zoe smirked as she knew all the niceness was a mere charade, she could already guess the reason she was here.

These guys are so predictable. Zoe thought.

" I'm fine ma'am" Zoe replied.

"Okay, I needed to talk to you". 

Sure!

Zoe sneered, she always stared with that sentence. The niceness, phrases, and sentences that seemed like a practiced conversation, with the same question the same answer, always the same way.

"Okay," Zoe said, following the process. All these happened whenever her Mom was coming to visit, while she was still living in the main house, the woman would but are gifts new clothes and give her good food, so that it would seem like she was happy. But now that she lived in another flat, the woman would come grinning and smiling, explaining how she needed to sleep and live in the house for a few days because her mom was coming. She was at it again because her mom was coming to visit.