Half life

The Group Project

"Well done Aunt Mena" I half yelled as we walked over to the parking lot after we were done eating.

"Hey Amanda, Thank you" she replied with a smirk as she looked up with the hose still in her hands. I guess she still had some more flowers left to water.

"You are welcome Aunt" I replied walking towards the garden

"Hope you are fine?" She asked wiping off the rivulets of sweat on get forehead when I inched closer

"Yes Aunt Mena. Good morning" I said, tucking the strands of hair that have fallen on my face behind my ears.

"Morning my princess" Aunt Mena said and walked over to my direction then began to arrange my hair all over

"Here you go" She added, flashing me a smile when she was done then walked back to continue with what she was doing

"Hope you slept well?" She asked as I stood there silently

"Yes I did Aunt Mena" I replied

" That's great" she said stealthily

"How about you? Did you sleep well last night?" I asked giving her a quizzical look

"Yeah I did" she said

"Amanda get into the car let's get going we are running late already" Dad chipped in, irked by our lateness today

"Amanda please get into the car so you guys can start going when you come back from school later during the day we'll then talk as much as you want" Aunt Mena said softly with a smile plastered on her face.

"Umm… ok bye" I said after much ado then started for the car

"Yeah dear. Do have a nice day at school and be a good girl ok?" Aunt Mena half yelled as I walked towards the car

" I will Aunt Mena" I blurted out and got into the car then Dad set the car engine running, reversed and we both drove out of the house after honking at Aunt Mena though.

"You took so long talking to your Aunt Mena now look how late we are" Dad reprimanded as we drove into the almost deserted street leading to my school.

"Well I'm so sorry Dad" I replied solemnly

"It's fine just hurry up next time ok?" Dad said while I nodded in assertion.

Then the drive continued in silence till we got to school.

When we got to the school gate, Dad pulled up beside the pavement then I came out of the car and baded him goodbye before joining the other students trudging in groups to the school building.

Reaching my class, I was lucky enough to have come when there was no teacher in class so I walked in quietly and headed for my seat.

After sitting awkwardly for some minutes and not seeing any sign of Tamara's presence, I began to scan through the whole class with my eyes in search of Tamara.

And I noticed she was no one where in class but just as I was about giving up my fruitless search, I looked up and saw her walking into the class with a charming smile plastered on her face.

"You are late today" I said as she sat down her locker beside mine.

"Yeah. That was because I woke with a severe migraine" Tamara replied

"Oh I see! I'm so sorry about that" I said

" It's fine. I'm ok now" she replied rubbing her left arm with her palm.

"Amanda will you two shut your traps up and stop talking! I'm teaching for crying out loud" A voice thundered from the front while we both stood up abruptly on recognizing that a teacher was in class and everyone else in class were standing except Tamara and I

"We are both sorry Sir Gilbert" we both chorused

"Sorry for yourselves" Mr Gilbert sneered not willing to take our apologies

"Now you all can sit down except these two" He added pointing towards our direction while the others sat down

"Now you guys will stand till you learn your lessons so that you will always be able to remember to acknowledge the presence of a teacher in your class" Mr Gilbert said and looked away then continued teaching.

And through to his words, We stood till he left the class after he was done teaching.

"Ouch… my legs hurt" I said, wincing in pain as I sat back on my locker

"Even mine too" Tamara said, caressing her left foot

"Sorry dear. It was all my fault and I'm sorry" I said remorsefully

" Naa… its ok. You don't have to blame yourself, we are both at fault" She replied softly

" But maybe if I had not asked you about your reason for coming late to school then perhaps wouldn't have been punished by Mr. Gilbert" I said

" No its okay but it still wasn't totally your fault" Tamara cooed with a glint in her eyes

"Thank you so much Tamara " I said with a tonne of gratitude in my voice.

" Huh for what exactly?"

"For everything, the love, your support and care I cherish it all " I said clasping my hands together

"Hey Amanda, common stop it… I mean come to think of it I haven't done anything for you." Tamara said with a weary smile then we both stood up and hugged ourselves tightly not minding the awkward stares we were getting from other students in the class

"It's ok Amanda" Tamara consoled holding tightly while she patted my back as a tear dropped off from my eyes and fell on her top rendering it wet.

"Oh I'm sorry" I said, quickly breaking off from the hug as I wipped off the tears on my face with the back of my palm then exhaled deeply.

"It's alright just calm down" Tamara said then sat down while I looked on into space

"Won't you sit down again?" Tamara asked, after noticing I was though physically present but many miles away lost in my thoughts

"Oh I'm sorry" I said, breaking out of my thoughts as I quickly sat down on my seat.

"I guess I got carried away with my thoughts again" I added slowly turning sideways to look at her

" It's perfectly okay" Tamara said with a reassuring smile

" So what do we do next?" I asked all clueless about the course of events in school

"According to our school planner, the next lecture will be from the Biology teacher Mrs. Edin. I guess she'll soon be here" Tamara said

" Ok that's nice. I never knew we had her today" I remarked after a long sigh

"Yeah. We have her and she is actually going to be giving us a term paper group project as well" she said

" Project? What project?" I asked all confused

"Hey chill ok? It's just a term paper project nothing else" Tamara said with a smirk

" I guess I never knew about all of these" I said coldly

" Yeah. You weren't in school the last time we had a class with her" she said

"Oh I get it now" I said

Just as we were still discussing further, Mrs Edin plodded into the class with her heels making clicking sounds as she walked to the front of the class.

"Good day Ma" We all chorused, standing up

"How are you all doing today?" She asked striding over the tiled floor to the right corner of the class

"We are all fine ma'am" we replied in unison

"That is good. You may all sit down now" she said softly then walked back to the front of the class.

"So back to business, ladies and gentlemen who can tell us the last thing we talked about in our last class" Mrs Edin asked, with her eyes peering from one end of the class to another as they darted left, right in their sockets while the whole class fell silent as eager eyes waited anxiously to see who would be confident enough to answer the question.

After a few more minutes have passed and everyone was already getting tired from waiting, a hand popped up from the left side of the class, then another from the front row and yet another.

Now they were three hands altogether in the air with each of them hoping to be selected to answer the question.

"Hey, you over there go ahead and tell us. We are waiting" Mrs Edin said pointing towards Jeff's direction while the others dropped their hands in dejection

"Ma'am we learnt about reproduction in flowering plants" Jeff said confidently nipping at the top of his locker with the tip of his fingers

"Excellent! Give him a round of applause class" Mrs Edin commanded while we quickly set our hands to work and started clapping

" Now that was beautiful. Is there anyone else who wants to try or say anything?" Mrs Edin asked, squinting her eyes while we sat in silence.

" I guess there is none so let's continue" She said dismissively after waiting for some minutes and didn't see a hand up in the air

"Jeff right?" She asked looking towards Jeff's direction while Jeff nodded his head in assertion

"Jeff here, told us that we learnt about reproduction in plants true?" She asked with hands partly spaced in the air to seek approval from the class

"Yes ma'am" we chorused in unison

"Good so let's proceed shall we? But before that, I told you guys during the last class that I'll be giving you all a group project and so we'll be doing that right away before I commence teaching" Mrs Edin said

" I'll group you guys in two(s) each of the group must choose a specific flowering plant of their choice and tell us all that there is to know about that plant using species of the plants, illustrations and diagrams where necessary. Is that clear enough?" She asked, standing gallantly in front of the class like a commander dishing out instructions to his troops in a war zone.

"Yes ma" we yelled

"Good..so let's call out the groups and their members now" She said pulling out a sheet of paper from her left hand

"So for Group A we have--- Barlakes Tiller and Fisher Pedro

Group B---- Stella Crows and Maina Tony

Group C---- C. Barns And Jackie Paulla" She kept calling out the names till it got to group G

" For Group G we have Amanda Edwards and Tamara Whitson and that would be all for now.

Is there anyone else who didn't get to hear his or her name?" Mrs Edin asked peering intently at the class

"Yes ma" Came a tiny voice, followed by a hard in the air from the middle row of the class

Out of curiosity I tilted my head towards the direction of the vioce to get a view of the person talking but couldn't until he stood up

"Are you the only one?" Mrs Edin asked looking up at him

The face was totally unfamiliar perhaps he was a new student

"Yes ma" he replied softly as he hung his head low in shame

"Fine. What's your name?" Mrs Edin asked walking towards his direction

"I'm Tim James" he cooed

"Ok James, why can't I find your name on my list?" Mrs Edin asked scanning through the list in her hands

"I don't know ma" he replied calmly

"Well when did you resume?" Mrs Edin asked further

"Actually about two days ago ma" he replied with his gaze still glued to the floor

"Two days ago? I guess that's just the reason because I compiled this list here about a week ago" Mrs Edin said

"Nevertheless you can join any of the group if you wish to" Mrs Edin said while he nodded then she walked back to the front of the class to continue teaching

"So today we will be talking about classification of living things" she said then walked stealthily to the board to scribble down the topic before returning back.

Classes then continued as she taught us the ways and approaches used by scientists use to classify living things.