Chapter 4 Lola Coker

TThe rest of the P.E section confirmed Tessa's question. Frieda and Lola treated her like a next door girl and Tessa realized that she had squeezed into the bunch of the school cheerleaders and more frightening in between Lola Coker and Frieda Tyrell.

As much as Frieda Tyrell name was called, Lola Coker's name followed. Lola had joined their school in their second year of high school and was a transfer international student. Everyone was shocked when she and Frieda had hugged in the hallway, the ever cold and unapproachable Frieda Tyrell hugged a new student? A black international new student?

That wasn't just new, it had never happened before.

It wasn't long before people found out that Lola and Frieda were friends online and it was Frieda who told Lola to register in Macpherson. It was surprising but it was further confirmed when Lola and Frieda got really close quite fast and became inseparable. Lola was more like Frieda, she also had the momentum had Frieda carried but she was more quiet and reserved.

Looking at her, Tessa herself admitted that blacks were really beautiful. Lola was black and her rich dark skin tone was a plus to her. She dressed really good and got a lot of attention but like Frieda too, the both of them although the most popular girls in school didn't date anybody which never failed to surprise the whole student population.

"What are you thinking about?" Lola asked and Tessa turned to realize that they were now doing seat-ups. She quickly joined them while Frieda shook her head.

"You'll get detention if you keep up this way" Frieda muttered and some of the girls burst into laughter while Tessa shivered from the thought.

She hated detention.

It was a disaster.

Although very much still curious as to why Lola and Frieda treated her nicely; Tessa decided to focus on the P.E Class because like Frieda had said, she would get detention before she knew it. Their P.E teacher was a disgruntled man who almost never smiled. He was always in a bad mood and as for that, nobody knew nor did anyone bother to know.

And with that everyone tried to avoid getting on his nerves because the very moment you got on his nerves, the next words would be

"Detention!"

"Five laps everyone" the P.E teacher said and everyone started complaining but they all walked towards the track. No matter the kinds of complains they had, no one dared to voice out, they just all started jogging.

Jogs like this; Tessa was more than used to it, she used to jog around the street with her elder brother when he was still around and even at that, Tessa sometimes jogged around the streets alone and someone jogged to Blaine's house in the morning and dragged him with her. In any case, she was good at everything.

So while everyone including the boys had started complaining by the second lap, Tessa wasn't saying anything and was jogging far ahead with her breadth still even without any problem.

"How are you jogging so fast?" Lola asked and Tessa almost stumbled realizing that she now had company.

"Are we that scary?" Frieda asked and Tessa was quick to shake her head.

"That's not it. I didn't see you guys" Tessa replied and Lola snorted.

"We had to run to catch up with you" Lola added and Tessa wore a helpless smile.

"I apologize for that" Tessa replied and Frieda nodded her head.

"I'm tired" she muttered coughing lightly.

"How do you still have strength?" Lola asked with a weird face while Tessa chuckled.

"I'm always like this" Tessa replied while both girls looked at her weirdly.

"You are always like this?" Frieda asked with an incredulous look on her face and Tessa laughed quietly.

"Blaine always looks at me like that whenever I drag him to jog with me too" Tessa replied while Frieda and Lola exchanged a look of understanding.

"Oh. That's cool" Frieda replied quietly and Tessa smiled without another word.

"Ha, I can't continue" Frieda said as she stopped jogging. Tessa laughed as she looked backwards to realize that Lola has also stopped. She and Frieda along with many others had fallen down on the tracks trying to catch their breath.

She shook her head laughing internally at everyone's poor stamina. She was sure that Frieda and Lola had only gotten to the third lap because they were talking to her. Tessa gathered up her strength and ended up running through the fourth and fifth lap. And even at that she was still able to stand on her two feet and walked towards where bottled water was placed. She tore one of the packets open and grabbed one of the bottles, opening it and emptying the contents in her stomach.

"How is she still able to stand after all that?"

"She's a monster"

"I can't believe it"

"Jeez... I'm jealous"

"It's so unfair"

Tessa laughed quietly about the comments her classmates were making as she walked towards the girl's locker room. She wasn't tired but at least was sweaty. She opened her restroom locker and grabbed her own towel as she walked into the bathroom.

By the time she was done, the locker room was noisy and a lot of girls were chattering about God's knows what. As she changed into her clothes, she realized that it was about a party that one of the basketballers Reynold Prince was holding.

"Are you going?" someone asked and Tessa sighed.

"When are you going to stop showing up around me like that?" Tessa asked and Lola raised one of her eyebrows.

"Oh" she replied as Tessa closed her locker and put in the combination while turning to Lola and shaking her head.

"I'm not going. Never attended any parties before" Tessa replied and Lola's eyes widened.

"You haven't?" Lola asked and Tessa suddenly felt uncomfortable to the fact that she hadn't gone to any parties before. She didn't even know why she was telling Lola Coker that.

"Can you not raise your voice?" Tessa asked and Lola swallowed her saliva.

"I'm sorry" she quickly apologized and Tessa smiled.

"It's no big deal" Tessa replied.

"Why though?" Lola asked and Tessa chuckled.

"You are talking like you don't know why" Tessa replied and Lola went mute as Tessa chuckled again.

"I'm an outcast with no friends well except stupid Blaine and besides parties aren't really my thing" Tessa added.

"Thank you for today" she said as she walked out of the locker room leaving Lola staring at her back.

Lola chuckled lightly as she walked back towards her locker and brought out her clothes.

"What were you talking to her about?" Frieda asked.

"I asked her if she was going to Rey's party" Lola replied as Frieda raised her eyebrow.

"Why would you ask her that? Have you seen her at any party before now?" Frieda asked and Lola shook her head.

"Remembering her reply, I wished I didn't ask as well" Lola reply.

"Are we incorporating Tessa as a cheerleader?" one of the girls asked and Frieda turned to the girl wearing a straight face.

"What do you think?" she asked and the girl shrugged her shoulders.

"Not bad. Tessa O'Bailey is good at everything she does" she replied while Lola sat down to tie her boot laces.

"How do you know that?" Lola asked and the girl chuckled.

"Who doesn't know that Tessa always does great at whatever she does?" the girl asked shaking her head.

"The last time, we got paired for a photography project, it was her first time handling the camera but the professor told her to try taking Photography as a career and then it was then again, it was the chess thing and you don't want to know how many times our grumpy P.E teacher has asked her to join the marathon team" the girl added sighing softly.

"I even heard the basketball female team had asked her to join before but she felt it was too much exposure for her and a hassle so she didn't join" she added.

"How comes no one ever notices these?' another girl asked.

"Well that's because you've never paid her attention before" the girl replied.

"Tessa O'Bailey is a recipient of a total of fourteen scholarships since middle school" the girl added.

"What the hell!'

"That's crazy!"

"She's an outcast though"

"Yes. She used to be bullied by Stephie and the rest a lot before"

"Only Goodness knows why they stopped"

"So is she joining?" the girl asked again and Lola stood up stretching to her full length.

"I think she would turn us down even if we asked" Lola replied as she grabbed her bag and turned to Frieda.

"Let's go" she said and the two girls walked out of the locker room.

"I didn't know she was that good" Lola said chuckling lightly as she glanced at her boot laces.

"That's Tessa O'Bailey sweetie"