CHAPTER 8- ENTANGLEMENT 1

   I suddenly felt my body turned to jelly as I leaned on the wall, feeling weak. Was I having feelings for the same-sex that could lead to homosexual acts? My face turned sour immediately. 

  "Oyedele, are you okay?" Rachael's voice broke me out of my misery reasoning.

    I tried to stand straight but I felt glued to the wall.

"I'm fine, I just felt a little bit weak, that is all," I replied.

  "You do not look okay to me, did you undergo any stress?" she asked again.

    I faked a smile to reassure her, even though I felt a sharp pain in my head. I moved my body slowly raising my body.

  "Enough about me, we have a debate soon. I went through your points and this last point, what does it mean?" I asked as I leaned forward a little bit.

    She collected the paper, scanning through the paper as she raised her eyebrow a little.

  "This..., my sister just came up with it. I am not sure I will include it in the debate," she said, and I abruptly find myself holding her wrist.

  "Rachael, this is a nice point, just summarize it as your final point, it makes a lot of sense," I blurted out without thinking twice.

     She looked at me and nodded before continuing her debate preparation.

  ' What is wrong with me? Was I developing an admiration or same-sex feelings? Admiration is looking up or having esteem for someone. I must have admired Kabir because he was brilliant, Daniel because of his angry look….This is so ridiculous,' I thought.

    I have always hated homosexual acts knowing fully well that the Bible condoned it. I believe sex is only meant for a man and a woman who are legally married, not for male and male, female and female. Maybe I was overthinking things about myself. I looked at Rachael who's eyes glanced at my figure, as I smiled sheepishly, drawing the line on my thoughts to avoid arousing suspicion from Rachael.

    ***********

   The debate went well the next day as we came first. Rachael's team behind us as we were leading with 10 points, Junior team 1 and 2 following behind. 

  

    The debate was not a difficult one for me, as I love it. I faced some challenges as some pupils mocked me indirectly for behaving like a girl during the debate. I just ignored it, at least they did not come to meet me personally, as I will surely know the right measure of punishment to give them.

   "Are you okay, my hero?" I heard Ethan's voice brought me out of my millions of thoughts. I am presently in the school hall waiting to think after the first round of debate.

   I smiled at him especially at the mention of 'my hero'.

  "It is nothing, just a little bit anxious," I said and he chuckled which made my heart skip a bit. He looked at me, as his gaze met mine. I find myself glancing at his shoulder as I could not make eye contact with him, as nervousness clouded me.

  "It is a good thing you agreed to bring some points, thankfully Gloria would not cut your head off," I said as he sneered looking in another direction.

    One way to break his staring competition on me.

  "You guys look like a couple," I teased even though I knew that is impossible. Gloria has a huge crush on the most handsome, bad boy fellow in the class, Khaleed.

  "Oh, please, I will pass that offer," he said.

  "Really? Are you sure about that? You are handsome and attractive, and Gloria is also beautiful," I mumbled and he smirked.

    His gaze landed on me as I suddenly felt goosebumps especially due to our closeness.

  "Should I take that as a compliment? It was a good thing you told me, you just made my day. I am flattered," he expressed as he kept his eyes on me. My face flushed, as I blushed lightly.

  "Don't get too cocky Ethan," I manage to say as I tried not to flicker as his eyes were on me.

   I must have gone a little bit overboard with the complement that I feel I should slap myself for such forwardness.

  "See, you are blushing," he said his right hand making his way to my face as I reddened, trying to block his hand. I smacked his shoulder playfully and he smiled. I must confess that he is the most handsome, no doubt about that.

   I was thinking about this when two students, Gloria and Joana entered the hall disrupting our little moment.

  "Michael, congratulations one more time. I love the way you presented your debate today," Gloria commented.

  "Thank you," I said, flashing her a smile.

  "Michael, the second round of the debate will be in two days. Who will represent our group, especially when only three of us would be participating in the debate," Gloria stated.

    That is true, I almost forgot.

  "Senior Michael, an idea crept to my mind, that is if you do not mind," Joanna acknowledged and I nodded for her to go on.

  "Senior Gloria should be the Chief speaker and I will be her assistant," she said and I found myself liking the idea.

  "I love that idea. So Gloria and Joanna, prepare for the debate," I said.

          # TWO DAYS LATER #

   

 The debate started as Gloria took her place on the platform to support the motion that 'Father is better in the upbringing of children than Mother'.

   I would not support that as I believe mothers are the best. I guess the lot that was cast was against us this time. If the points are concrete enough, I believe we can win or have a little mark gap ahead.

   The debate is meant to educate, agree to disagree so whatever position we happen to be in does not matter, "I guess. As long as the viewers were able to grasp important stuff from the debate(I later learned that). Ethan gave Gloria some points yesterday morning but it seems their little fight always gets into their head.

   It was not up to a minute into the debate, that Gloria began to stutter, and even when I tried to cheer her up to speak out, she stood dazed. What is wrong with her? She is good at giving speeches. Something must be wrong somewhere," I thought.

    The time was up for Gloria as she barely made a point. The juniors did not make the situation good as they kept shaming her indirectly to speak up. I saw Gloria's eyes, moist with tears which she managed to stop on the platform.

   The Chiefspeaker from Rachael's group happened to be an Arts student who spoke fluently as he gave the points out painstakingly. I just hope Joanna will be able to cover-up since she has only 2 minutes to deliver her points as the Assistant speaker.

    Joanna held the microphone as she gave out some important points. She could not give all the points but she was able to summarize most of them. I believe we tried our best, but I cannot help but wonder what went wrong with Gloria.

   The debate came to an end Rachael's team came first overall,

Junior Team 1 leading second, us taking the third position, and Junior Team 2 fourth.

   Gloria left the hall hurriedly after the announcement. I had to wait for a little while as the group leader.  After some minutes, I left the hall in search of Gloria.  I searched the school garden, school farm and decided to head upstairs to the classrooms, on second thought.

    I was still looking for Gloria, as I searched each classroom not until I saw Ethan leaning on a particular door frame to a classroom. I moved closer as Ethan pointed into the classroom.

   I went inside as fast as I could as I saw Gloria's head resting on the desk. Her sobs turned into cries as she tried to hold herself, her head moved as she stared at me. I moved closer to her as I tried to comfort her but it proved abortive as she kept blaming herself for making us lose first place.

    I asked her whether she crammed the points but she said no, that she was distracted.

  "Who or what distracted you?" I asked and she looked up, pointing her hand at Ethan.

 "He is the one behind it, he and his goons distracted me," Gloria spat out with tears gushing from her eyes.

    I felt a gush of anger overwhelm me when Gloria said those words. I breathe in and out trying to control the anger boiling inside of me. I turned to face Ethan, as he put on the pretending look on his face, moving toward us.

  "Cry, cry, baby, she wants to see her mummy. Why are you accusing me of your failure? You…," I cut him off with a slap before he concluded those words of his.

   He held his face as he looked intently at me.

  "You were the reason why this is happening. You should have just kept your little conflict at bay. What has gotten into you, Ethan? You view everything you do as fun. All thanks to you, Gloria was humiliated," I bellowed angrily. I have never felt this kind of anger in years.

    He suddenly removed his hands from his left cheek, as he started moving toward me. I felt my heart race.