CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
A ROSE FLOWER
It was still dawn when Michelle stirred and woke up and stretched herself. She yawns a little as she sits up. She noticed the gift bag in her hand and smiled.
"Chocolate. I'll share it with the guys" she muttered.
She stood up and turned on the lights in her room before walking back to bed. She took out the box inside the gift bag. And opened it. The next thing she saw made her scream and she covered her mouth immediately. She waited to know if she would hear any sound from outside her door. But she heard none.
Slowly, she turned her gaze to the box on the bed.
"What?!"
Inside the box was the five hundred million dollar bracelet they had gotten at the auction yesterday. She held her breath for a while. She stretched her hand to pick it up. It was beautiful and shiny. She looks inside the box again. Indeed there was a small chocolate box inside it. And wait!
A rose flower.
A white one with no thorns, just like the one he gave her before. The alarm beeped immediately. That brought her back to reality. She sprang up and put back the whole thing into the box and put it inside her school bag. She then starts preparing for school.
****
In school that morning, Michelle wasn't herself. She even managed to give her morning speech while her eyes were on Michael throughout. When she entered the class, Miss Nora was calling out their names from the student's attendance list. Michelle quietly walked to her seat. When Miss Nora was through, she called Michael and asked him to see her in her office.
Immediately she left, Michelle turned in her seat to face Michael.
"Michael" she called out. Kelvin and Sylvester also looked up. "Michael!" She called out again when he didn't reply to her the first time.
Michael looks at her.
"About the bracelet..."
He interrupts her. "You don't expect me to wear a woman's bracelet, huh!" He smiled at her. "It's yours, Michelle. You can give it to Ivy if it's not what you like. I'll get you a better one, okay?" He said it and stood up to walk out of the class. Michelle's eyes followed him until he was completely out of sight.
Kelvin tapped her, "Mich!"
She shook her head softly. She didn't say a word; she just took out her phone and showed them a picture.
"How much is it?" Sylvester asked.
"Five...hundred" Michelle replied.
"Ha!" The other two gasped loudly.
Some students even turned in their direction.
"Million?" Kelvin asked quietly. Michelle nodded.
"Man!! That's lit!" Sylvester exclaimed. "You just have to wear it"
"I have no choice, now do I?" She sighed.
****
In her office, Miss Nora offers Michael a seat at her table. After a while, she spoke up,
"The principal asked me to treat you with extra attention." She paused, looking at him. "But he didn't give me any reason. Why? What's so special about you?" She asked.
Michael didn't reply. He was just staring at her. She waited for a while and when she saw that Michael wasn't going to answer her, she spoke up again.
"Since you don't want to answer me..." She stands up from her seat and walks closer to him. "I'll move on to my next question. What about a teacher-student relationship? What do you think?"
"Why?" Michael finally said a word.
She was slowly covering the distance between them.
"Because..." She paused in front of him and bent until she was eyeball-to-eyeball with him.
****
The following week, everyone was busy. Kelvin became very serious with sports activities because he wanted his team to win the basketball games. Sylvester got a new date. He was a class older than the girl and they were hanging around a lot more often. Michelle was also busy and Michael was not always in school. Whenever he was, she noticed he was always with Miss Nora. She got jealous and wondered what was going on between them. One day, she almost asked Kim since she's always with Michael too. But she didn't. Odelia and Tilda were also busy but they made the chance to flirt around Michael anytime they got the opportunity. Especially Odelia. Tilda got another share of embarrassment from Kim one time and, since then, has steered away from directly flirting around Michael. Michelle would sometimes want to flirt around Michael just a little bit like other girls do. She even told Kelvin and Sylvester about it one day and they told her to, but she never did.
It was one of those days that Sylvester wore the bracelet Michael had given to her. When Michael saw it the next day he was in school, he was so happy and told Kelvin and Sylvester about it.
****
The principal, who had formerly received the report about the girls bullying Kim. They ran the investigations, and they found out about everything that happened, including the picture they always used to blackmail her. He filed reports to the student's board against them, and they were sent out of the school. At the assembly hall the next day, the principal tells the other students all about it, which elicits murmurs from them. When the hall became quiet, he called up Michelle to come up the stage and deliver a speech to the students concerning bullying.
She walked up to the stage and stood in front of the microphone. She didn't start talking; she scanned the faces of the whole students, and her eyes stopped at Kim. She gave her a small smile to which Kim smiled back.
"Hello, everyone. Good morning" she began. And she received replies from the students.
"The reports I got concerning the issue of intimidation and blackmail have been settled properly. Our school will henceforth ensure that all these truants are removed from this school. The students caught involved in such acts have already been expelled." She paused and breathed.
"To ensure a student-friendly environment, the school authorities would be installing new cameras at every strategic place in the school, including the teacher's offices." She looked at where the teachers stood.
Everyone was quiet as they listened to her.
"There won't be any more cases such as this in this school ever again. It has been declared that any student caught in the act or reported will be thoroughly investigated. If the report is true, that student would experience instant expulsion after undergoing a series of punishments from the disciplinary committee. So I beckon on all of us, to study and let others also study in peace. Thank you" she bowed her head.
The students all clapped and when everywhere became quiet, they all heard Michael say,
"Why is Michelle so effortlessly beautiful?" He had asked Kelvin who stood beside him. He wasn't clapping, and maybe he wasn't expecting the students and teachers to end their claps so suddenly.
The whole school heard, including the principal and the teachers. It made them turn towards where Michael stood, including Miss Nora. Michael didn't care; his eyes were totally on Michelle, who stood at the podium, transfixed and shy. Kelvin and Sylvester exchanged knowing glances; immediately, Kelvin started clapping again, and the whole school joined in the clap awkwardly. When their attention returned back to Michelle, she quickly climbed off the stage. Her cheeks were red.
They didn't stop clapping for her until the principal started to talk. He concluded her speech and dispersed the students.
****
Michael was walking to his car after school was dismissed. On getting to his car he paused when he saw who was waiting for him. It was Kim.
"Michael!" She called out and ran to hug him. He patted her back softly and not long she disengaged.
"Thank you so much, Michael," she said with tear-filled eyes.
"You should also thank Michelle," he said to her.
"Yeah!" she nods. "I already did that"
"You wanted to tell me something earlier. What is it?" Michael asked.
"Um!" She paused for a while. Then she became excited again.
"I know what it is!"
"Mmmh!"
"I'll tell you but then, can you please pretend to be my boyfriend just for today and take me out on a date? Just for today?" She gave him a puppy look also pouting her lower lip.
"Okay," Michael agreed.
She was shocked for a while.
"Michael!! For real?!" She almost screamed.
He nods and she hugs him again.
"It will be a simple outing, and I'm going to dress my best," she giggles.
"Okay," he smiles. "What time will it be?"
"6pm. How does that sound?"
"Mmmh," he nods, and they exchange goodbyes before she enters his car, and they drive off.
She squealed loudly before running off.