Painful Smiles

Next academic year, New class, New style.

Claudia decided to surprise Wright by coming at his house that morning. She low key regretted it.

Last night’s rain had left Wright’s street decorated with mud and they we’re now hugging on her new white sneakers.

She trotted past it either ways, she didn’t know why but she didn’t feel like going to school alone. And since their driver couldn’t take them, maybe she should just… bother him a little.

‘Coming!’ a boy’s voice echoed from the house after she kicked the door.

‘Hello, Wr… sir’ Claudia stammered when the door was opened. It wasn’t Wright but looked a lot like him. Also didn’t seem old enough to be his father.

‘Um… looking for Mark?’ he asked.

She shook her head.

‘Micah? Dani? Josh or John?’ he asked again.

She shook her head and said ‘Wright’.

The guy’s eyes flicked with excitement. It reminded Claudia of how Wright’s eyes reacted to her smiling at him. Of course she noticed. And she enjoyed doing it.

Another guy popped out the door. ‘Looking for Mark?’ he asked too.

Claudia looked at them confused, she smiled and shook her head.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

The two guys liked alike, they’d probably be a twin. She found it really nice to know Wright had two older brothers, twin brothers.

Or wait, he could have more. The first guy had mentioned a bunch of boys earlier. Just how many brothers did he have?

‘She’s looking for Wright’ the first guy said to his brother.

He turned back to her. ‘I’m Doni. Donald exactly. I’m Wright’s older brother. This..’ he placed his hands on his twin, ‘Is, obviously, my twin. He’s Dani. Daniel exactly. And Wright’s second older brother’.

Dani waved finger before retreating back into the house.

‘You won’t mind coming in, would you?’ Doni asked her. He was immediately polite. Not like he wasn’t earlier but had more friendliness in his tone.

She shook her head slowly and walked into the door he opened for her. She sat calmly and brought out her phone.

It was 6:09, not bad.

Lots of feet were running down the stairs opposite her. There were two boys. Her mouth nearly dropped.

They were a twin too.

‘Looking for Mark?’ one asked her. She shook her head, why was everyone talking about this Mark.

‘Who then? His twin?’ the other one asked.

Claudia twisted her face. There was another set of twins. Blessed home.

There should be the Mark and Micah.

‘She’s here for Wright, guys. He’d be down any minute. He’s speed bathing now’ Doni said, the last part was in a snicker.

The other twin looked at Claudia carefully. ‘Are you his classmate? Wright doesn’t have female guests, right?’ one asked.

‘Or even male guests. I wondered if he had friends at school’ the other added.

Claudia simply explained that they’re school friends. She just wanted to drop by because she didn’t want to go to school. She even added he was good company. Just for effects.

‘Hmm. But he could be more than good company. Just saying’ Doni smiled.

The other twins, who she later found out where the Josh and John Doni asked about earlier, just sniffled some laughter and headed out the door.

‘Have fun’ one of them shouted, she didn’t know who, they’re identical. Even Doni and Dani. Just some slight voice difference.

She sat there for a while. Her phone said 6:41.

She glanced at Doni and saw him playing some games on his phone. She took the chance to look around the house.

It was simply arranged, not too sophisticated like her own house. Sofas, a center table, few chairs, a large TV and a mini fridge. They could be more at the hallway but at least the sitting room wasn’t congested.

She exhaled when Wright finally came downstairs.

‘Have fun. Bye. You guys would be late’ Dani said standing upstairs. Another boy came downstairs but he went back up. Could be Mark or Micah. Who knows.

‘That’s a full home’ Claudia started when they finally left.

‘Yeah, with only me in there who’s a single’ Wright added, he was smiling non stop.

‘Three set of twins right?’

‘Yeah, Doni and Dani. Mark and Micah. Josh and John. They’re very chaotic’.

Claudia nodded, they should be.

Despite the delay, they got to school before 7:10. Wright had said that time had stopped, he looked so serious on it.

Well, getting to the hallway, they met a crowd of girls at the hallway pounding at the bursar’s office. ‘Is him? Is him?’ one girl yelled.

Wright looked at her and she looked back at him. It should look normal to meet students swarming the bursar’s office.

Perhaps complaining about increase in school fees. But its abnormal when its at the beginning of school?

He went to the girls and asked one, who looked less likely to yell in his ears, who exactly was the ‘him’.

‘An executive director of Bleu Cristal is at the bursar’s office getting a receipt. He’s been there for a while. He’s coming to our class’ she flashed her ID to show that she was in Grade 11.

‘Just some rich guy getting to grade 11. I’ve seen him on TV. That popular car. Strike something. He’s their executive director’ Wright explained to Claudia with a shrug.

‘Hell no!’ the girl who had explained to Wright suddenly screamed, ‘He is not a grade 11 student. He’s a grade 12!’.

More murmurings and screamed erupted.

Claudia bent her head and ran across the crowd to her new class. Wright did the same.

‘Could be the French guy Frenchie talked about’ she said absentmindedly.

‘Frenchie?’ Wright cocked his eyebrows.

‘Yeah, Paul my Lil bro. I call him that. He said Clara was talking about some French guy coming to our class’ Claudia said.

She slammed the class door opened. There was a student inside. ‘Oh, I didn’t know someone was here’ she closed the door back slowly.

The student bent his head on a desk.

His hair was dyed silver. Not many students dyed their hair at her school.

He raised his head up and Wright let out a gasp. ‘It’s the Executive director, Claudia’ he whispered. Claudia was already staring.