RBR Chapter 20 Friendship

Leah felt her cheeks burning, not caring which direction her feet were carrying her as she was too overwhelmed by her embarrassment to care.

How could she have made such a blunder? The first time she had spoken with him had been better than this!

She dragged up those memories only to realise that at the time, she had been feeling something else, the fear for her life. So, she hadn't cared about social problems like 'how to start a conversation!'

The answer appeared the moment she thought about that. But why did she blunder this time? She had rehearsed the scenario within her mind a million times, and yet, her tongue had had to fail at that moment! Surely, they were all laughing at her. How was she going to keep a straight face upon returning to class?!

The bell signalling the beginning of morning period rang at this time, causing her to finally look up, only to see that she was at the second floor. It seemed she had gone up instead of down, and was going to be late for class. The hallway was empty, the upperclassmen already inside their classes no doubt. Just like her own classmates.

'Shit!' She cursed within, a thing she rarely did, and scrambled to run back, exposing some of her speed in the process. Everything whooshed by, with her eyes very easily following everything going on, even at this high speed.

'Leah, you need to keep a cool head. Show them that you weren't fazed...besides, it was just a tiny mistake.'

She tried to raise up her mood, and by the time she got to the door, she was back to normal, only for her inner self to crumble the moment she locked eyes with those dark blue eyes. There was puzzlement and curiosity, but to her, it seemed more like mockery.

She offered an apology to the teacher for being late, and hurriedly shifted towards her seat.

'I won't look back!' She tried to concentrate on the lesson, which was of maths, a hard subject. This was the one class that failed to garner her undivided attention. The reason was mostly because of its boring nature and the fact that some core tenets had been embedded within her memories before she had even gone on to hatch.

She flinched as she felt his glance her way. The senses honed in the wilderness were now working in overdrive, causing her heart to pound, spurred on with whatever emotion she didn't know herself.

'What does he think of me? Can I become friends with him? I must rectify this during lunch time.' She ultimately came up with another plan. There was break time, but that was too soon for her bundled up nerves. She was going to first calm down and straighten herself up.

-----

Lunch period arrived, the time that she dreaded the most. Don't get her wrong, the food was to die for, but the task she was about to undertake was the cause of the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Her steps unconsciously slowed down as she neared the lunch hall. Since she had been caught within her thoughts, it had taken longer for her to get out of her seat, making it so that Eric and the other three were already having their meals inside the hall.

She walked through the doors, picked up a tray, picked out her most favourite foods, most of them heavily meaty, and proceeded to make her way to their table. The hall was huge, capable of holding every student within the school with more space to spare.

Each table was sandwiched between two desks, each capable of holding three. That made it that each table had six spots, and since they were mostly the class outcasts, theirs still had two available spaces, one next to the thin lanky teen, while the other was next to the chubby teen, both of which she wasn't even remotely interested in getting close with.

"Can you make some space?" 

She gave a small cry of victory within her mind when her words came out the way she had intended this time. She had directed the question to her target, Eric. There was no way she was going to sit in between him and the chubby boy.

"Sure. Mathew, move!" His casual answer made her feel some relief. That meant that he was open to conversation.

"Hohohoho...are you here to confess your feelings?" The question caused her to give a withering stare to the lanky boy, causing him to look away and awkwardly emit a nervous laugh. That's right! He ought to know that she wasn't someone to mess with! She hoped the message had been received.

"Miss Leah, you seem to be awfully interested in my...twin? Why?" The boy with the light blue eyes across from her, Elec, heir to the Masanyalaze clan asked. His voice appeared calm, but with her observation skills, she knew it was feigned. His eyes were darting around everywhere, trying to avoid hers, and for some reason he was breathing heavily, with a blush on his face.

"Does it matter to you?" She asked bluntly. Honestly, she would have rather liked to be with Eric alone, but since these three annoyances couldn't be drawn away, she was stuck like this. It was really frustrating.

"...matter...of course it does! We four were enjoying our time here and you just decided to barge in unannounced!" The chubby boy spoke after looking at the speechless Elec. He had decided to take the other's side.

A faint heat rose up her cheeks. They were right. She was in the wrong.

"Sorry about that, but I need to talk to him." She apologised as sincerely as she could, though her expression was as cold as it could be. She didn't want to give the impression that she was easy.

"What do you need from me?" 

The person she most wanted to speak to, asked a crucial question.

"Let's be friends." There was no point in beating around the bush. But as she looked around, various expressions of astonishment entered her eyes, from the chubby boy's frozen hand, short of placing the cassava piece in his mouth, to Elec's wan expression.

"Is it wrong to ask this?" She became puzzled.

"Friends, eh!" The lanky boy had an unreadable smile, his eyes moving from her to Eric intermittently as if he was trying to suss out something.

"With him? Why not me?" Elec blew his top. The good thing was that he had the mind not to shout too loud, but still, he attracted the attention of those on the nearby tables, if they hadn't already been attracted by her seating choice today.

Leah chose to keep quiet. It was not that she wanted this voluntarily. An order from the matriarch had to be obeyed.

"Why not me?" Elec asked again, this time staring directly at her, his watery eyes causing her to squirm in the seat.

"Don't take it personally. Even I don't like the current circumstances, but I have to become his friend." She answered with that.

"Ah! So its an order from someone...probably your clan leader?" The chubby boy was surprisingly clever, earning her curiosity.

"I see...sorry for overreacting then." Elec seemed to lose steam at that, a great source of relief to her.

"What a shame!" The lanky boy clicked his tongue in loss.

"Friendship doesn't start like this, does it? You are essentially, a spy. How can I trust you?" Eric asked in suspicion and skepticism.

"...do you know how we could be friends?" Leah failed to come up with something even when she searched the dusty cabinets in her mind.

"Start by introducing yourself." The chubby boy said, looking at her as if she were an exotic animal. It was off-putting, but she had to bear through it as she was one who had encroached on them.

"I am Leah Musota-Butwa." She didn't hesitate. Her eyes were looking directly at the side profile of the teen stuffing his face.

"Eric Masanyalaze...you can do away with the last name though." He said through a full mouth. He didn't even turn towards her! How rude!

She fumed in her mind, but her outer visage was calm.

"So...what do you want to know?" He asked, this time looking directly at her with those dark blue eyes showing a serious glint, tinged with some curiosity.

"Honestly, I have nothing to ask. I am terrified just sitting here with you, but it has to be done. Can I eat in silence now?" Leah turned to her food tray and devoured the food after saying that, without even waiting for his answer or next words.

The hunger had gotten to her, and the aroma wafting from her tray had proved too much to ignore.

"You, are one weird girl." The comment came from her side.

"Everyone's personality is just different." Elec tried to defend her, his eyes glaring at Eric with murder within.

"Okay, now that we have managed to score the belle of the class as our friend, what are our next plans?" With a clap of his hands, the thin lanky boy asked.

Leah flared at him but didn't verbally say anything as she wanted to know the answer to his question.

"What next? Nothing! We will always go through the day like we always have." In between bites, Eric answered with a nonchalance that got on her nerves.

"We can't possibly take her to the VRMMORPG center, right? I don't think that would be a good place to take a girl." Elec disapproved.

"There are many girls there. Why can't she go?" Eric asked with genuine curiosity.

'What are they talking about?' Leah wondered within even as she took small bites from her food. After school, she always went home.

"I want to go to this place with you." She decided to take the initiative. If they changed their plans because of her, counting herself as their friend might become hard.