Chapter 2 The internet’s a fraud

Sweet mother of Jesus I'm tired.

I dropped and sprawled myself on the super soft couch in the living room and took a swing of water from the water bottle in my hand. We were finally done, after three days of unpacking and organizing and picking rooms, we were finally well settled in our new house in California.

"Dani," I heard someone call "Can you please help me with my shoes?" my little brother Othniel came to me stretching out his foot with an undone lace.

"Oh sure." I got down on one knee and did his shoe lace for him in a bunny knot "there" I said and got up. "Wait, where are you going anyway?" I asked him and sat back down.

"There's a boy my age at the next house and he's invited me to come over for a playdate, Mom says it's okay and he is so into reptiles too, he has a pet lizard he wants to show me." He blurted out with his eyes excited.

Wow, only three days and he's made a friend, I envy that boy's extroversion.

He was already at the door bouncing like a rubber ball, he's probably ecstatic, it's not everyday you move to a new house and find a friend that likes disgusting things as reptiles as you.

"Dani?" I turned and saw Brianna at the door that led to our kitchen, leaning against it with her eyes glued to her phone.

"What?" I asked her.

"Mom says we are going to central peach high school.”

"I know, we talked about it at dinner yesterday." I told her, recalling Mom finalized which school we would be going to here in California at dinner the day before.

"That's not what I meant." she said looking up from her phone, "We're going there now, like in a few minutes or so sha.” She answered her Nigerian slangs slipping in.

"What? why now?"

"I don't know," she said and ran a hand through her braids. "Mom said something about getting everything over with quickly."

"Huh? I want to sleep." I complained.

"Stand up jor, lazy bones. I want to go and see the school, it seems cool, check out their website." she came and sat beside me on the couch handing me her phone.

"They've won this national interschool basketball game four years in a row." she said.

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah check it." I clicked on the site and scrolled through their posts. Pictures of their hallways, a huge cafeteria, their theater, a basketball court, were all on display.

"Wow, it's looking fancy" I commented.

"You bet." she said giggling

I scrolled a bit more and saw a video "This is a play on Hamilton?" I asked pressing play.

"Yup" she told me

"I'm guessing you'd be joining the school's drama department" I asked her as the video started to play, it showed the stage, the costumes and a part of the musical.

"Heck yeah I am". Brie wants to study theater art and she was an art student at our old school, even though their plays there were wack though.

"I thought I told you two to get ready", I look up from the phone and saw my Mom coming down the stairs. "Why are you still sitting here talking?"

"We're ready, we were just checking out the school site" I told her and stood up

"Wait, isn't Othniel going with us?" Brie asked  doing the same.

"We'll pick him on the way" mom replied her. Oh, no playdate for lil bro then.

"Let's hurry, we're taking the bus" she added

"When's your car arriving anyway, I thought uncle Michael said Saturday" I asked her as we walked towards our new neighbor's house.

"In a couple more hours"

***

We missed the bus and later took a cab, I was in the backseat beatboxing while Brie rapped beside me.

"I'm broken, no I’m joking, I'm choking, cause you poked me" What the_

"Brie what in God's name are you rapping?" I stopped beatboxing and faced her laughing.

"Shut up, the real points are the rhymes not the meaning and this was your idea." she defended.

"We're here, wake your brother up" Mom said as she made to open the door.

"Othniel", I tapped my little brother that was asleep beside me, he stirred a little and finally opened his eyes, "we're here." I told him.    "We're at your school?" he asked, yawning.

"Yeah, let's go." I got down from the cab and waited for him to follow.

***

"Alright, so by Monday you two can come get your schedules and your locker combinations," principal Cloud said rounding up our admissions.

He was surprisingly young, I was expecting an old man in his sixties, but this guy's probably in his late thirties or early forties and he was fine looking too.

"Alright, thank you so much principal Claude," my Mom said as she made to stand up. Wait it's Claude.

"Oh please call me Matthew," he told my Mom, whoa wasn't expecting that.

"I'm so glad we got to resume as seniors," Brie said when we got outside the principal's office.

Turned out the school don't allow students in at senior year and Brie and I were at our last year before we left Virginia

"Yeah, thanks to Mom working her charm on the principal," I said

"What?! I didn't work any charm on anyone, it's called negotiation" she told us.

"Hmm hmm, it was definitely negotiation alright," I continued as we walked towards the exit of the school.

Turned out again, their hallways weren't as fancy as they were in the pictures, therefore concluded, the internet's a fraud.

"Yeah, he definitely didn't have you calling him by his first name at the end of our visit," Brie joined in.

"That doesn't mean anything," she defended not looking back at us.   "Hmm, hmm," we chorused,

She just shook her head and stopped a cab, she knew we'd continue if she said anymore.

"Let's just go," Othniel, who had been surprisingly quiet all the while, spoke up.   We got into the cab and went home.