The Black Book Read online

  * * *

  After school, Nora left with Linda closely behind her. She wasn’t bad in History, but she hated the subject. To her, most of the stories she heard in the class were just that. Stories. And how she detested them.

  “Hi. The name’s Peter and I am an immigrant, too.”

  “Hi. Enjoyed the class?” the Nigerian asked.

  “Yeah, sure. From where I came, we’ve got loads of history wrapped around us.”

  “Cool, man,” Ikechukwu said, loosening up a bit. “Africa’s like that as well, so that goes for me, too. Where’re you from?”

  They shook hands.

  “Israel?” his new friend replied. “I’m a Jew?”

  “And who’s the blonde that just left? She seems . . . famous around here.”

  “That’s Nora Quentin, the richest and most beautiful kid around and – and my crush,” Peter said, beaming. “Come; let me buy you a hot dog.”

  Meanwhile, Nora and Linda had met Leonard with his friends outside. As was customary for the two friends, Linda waited for Nora to finish with her quarterback boyfriend, foolishly giggling and smiling.

  A tall handsome sophomore with a bashful presence and god-like stature, the very pompous Leonard had a popular notoriety only his friends knew about. Some said he used to change girlfriends like he changed his toothbrush, but that had never bothered Nora, because she was up to it. After all, he was a very young and talented sportsman and besides, he had sworn to her that he had no other girl but her.

  “Hi, Leonard,” she sang as she walked up to him.

  “Hi, Leonard,” Linda repeated enthusiastically.

  “Nora . . . Linda, hi,” Leonard directed at the two of them, and the second girl waved wildly from where she stood, grinning from ear to ear. The football star turned to his girlfriend and smiled at her. “What’s up? School over?”

  “Yes.”

  They hugged each other.

  “Guess what happened to me today,” Nora began.

  “Peter?”

  The blonde girl nodded. “Came up to me again. Same question.”

  “Loser,” Leonard chuckled. “He’ll never stop trying, huh?”

  “And he’ll never stop losing,” Nora joked.

  Miss Ashley came out and they quickly disentangled from each other. “Hi, Leonard, Nora,” she quipped as she passed. “Nice tango, eh?”

  “Hi, Miss Ash,” Leonard greeted, smiling angrily. “You bet,” he whispered.

  Next, Peter and the new boy came out from the building and started coming towards them.

  “Talk of the devil,” Linda giggled.

  “Quick,” Nora said, facing Leonard. “Kiss me.”

  He did.

  “Some crush, eh?” Ikechukwu asked a forlorn Peter.

  “Yes,” the Jewish boy agreed. “Some crush.”

  “Hi, Peter,” Linda called out, waving to make sure that he knew she saw his embarrassment.

  “Hi, stooge,” a new voice intruded behind Linda. She spun round to see Leonard’s ex-girlfriend, Patricia, and her gang of Goth girls standing directly next to her. “Waiting on her majesty again?”

  “Tricia! You almost killed me,” Linda feigned with annoyance. She’d been caught off guard by this group’s presence, and for good reason, too, since they were the enemy.

  “Good,” Patricia said. “You’re totally grateful.”

  The three groups convened before the school building, Leonard holding Nora close to him. The quarterback knew that Patricia’s presence meant trouble and wanted to show his support for his new girlfriend. To him, Patricia was history since he now had Nora. Or was she?

  “Hi, everyone,” Ikechukwu greeted, standing next to Peter. “What’s up?”

  “And who invited you?” Nora asked him, not liking his intrusion, but expressing her displeasure due to the annoyance her archenemy’s presence was causing her.

  “Yeah, dude, who invited you to this party? Can’t be me, last time I checked,” a tense Leonard put in.

  This irked the Nigerian, but he kept his cool. The atmosphere appeared too strained for his liking, so he started small talk with Peter beside the larger group. Who was fighting who?

  “Hi, Leonard, dear,” Patricia greeted her ex-boyfriend, playing the good girl part with cunning accuracy as she drew nearer while looking down at her feet now and then.

  This black-haired girl evoked a gloomy but sensual Goth look in her dressing and makeup, which Leonard still thought was hot, although he’d broken up with her sometime in the past. The quarterback knew his ex-girlfriend still had a hold on him, but feared showing it for fear of what Nora and his friends might think.

  Nora eyed Patricia with disdain and frowned conspicuously when the other girl suddenly placed her hand on Leonard’s shirt to run it down its front despite the fact that he had an arm around another’s feminine waist – a brazen behavior none of the gathered students could ignore.

  “What is it, Pat?” Leonard asked uncomfortably, trying to appear immune to the biological current running down his spine from the skilful hands of his ex-girlfriend. “What do you want?”

  “Forgive me, dear, but God I want you back,” Patricia said. Her friends chuckled. “I really can’t imagine being without you right now, or ever again.” She smoothly wrapped her arms around Leonard’s neck as she seductively rolled out these words and Nora angrily pushed her away.

  “Leave him alone, Tricia,” the blonde girl snapped. “Don’t you get it? He’s totally through with you.” Patricia was her major rival for Leonard, although she only had nice legs . . . and acted dumb.

  Linda came forward with concern, hoping that a fight would not ensue.

  “Leonard has me now, Goth girl,” Nora continued. “So, leave him alone, okay?”

  “Oh, yeah?” Patricia said, fuming. “We’ll see about that, won’t we, Leonard, dear?” And she spun round and stumped off with her soldiers directly behind her.

  Nora angrily left with Linda, too.

  “Em, Leonard,” Peter started awkwardly, “that sure was embarrassing.”

  “You stay out of this, fat face,” the quarterback stressed and walked out on the Jewish boy with his friends, calling on Nora to wait for him.

  “Man, what was that all about?” Ikechukwu asked Peter when they were left alone.

  “Girl War,” his new friend replied. “I’m trying to get Nora out of that.”

  “And are you . . . succeeding?”

  The other boy sadly shook his head. Then he brightened up. “Tell you what, why don’t you come to dinner at my place tonight?”

  “Oh, yeah? I’ll have to call my mother.”

  “You’ll get to see my parents and siblings. The dinner will be a special one.”