1 THE MEETING

The serene nature of the blue sky shows that the atmosphere was friendly to watch, the murmuration of starlings flying in the sky as I watched, my camera almost got the better part of me when I saw a dare behind the sun setting down and the orange illumination it brought out, I was moved to take a picture of the view.

"Hmmm, this will be lovely," I said to myself, angled a good spot to take a shot when I noticed a damsel in the background looking lost in thought, I never wanted to lose such a view, it was a bonus for me as she was there, quickly I took the shot and felt relieved over my doings, it was worth the wait I said, who could that be, seating all alone in a thick forest filled with different shades of wild animals, especially wolves, and lions around. My dad has always told me the stories of wolves in the past but I was too ignorant to believe such stories, filled with figments of my imagination of life around me and school.

Becoming a good photographer was my ambition in life and a good husband I suppose was what I've always thought about, how my wife and I will explore the world together, take pictures of different views around the world, and see new things in life and what it has to offer."Who could that be" my phone buzzed out, I quickly brought it out from my side pocket to view the caller.

"Oh, my Dad, always checking up on me like a toddler"

I turned to see if she was still there, she was standing up at this point and possibly going home or something, my mind raced out to call on her as she was ten long steps away from me, but I couldn't"Should I call her? But I don't know her name? what is she doing here?"My mind played a better game on me figuring out what to do at that moment made her walk out on me or should I say left the scene, I felt so stupid but yet less worried, so I left my spot and off my bike to leave.

It was the final week of the summer season my friends and I had already planned how we were going to spend our last days before school resumptions. As a student planning to go to college, we never wanted our teenage exuberance to while away without making good use of it and so Derrick made a Bucket list in which we all had to participate as a coronation for adulthood. It was a weird list but understandable as a teenager.

"What do you mean by getting laid"? I panicked at the fourth number on the list, I wasn't expecting it seeing that we all don't have a girlfriend let alone getting laid before graduation isn't something we knew would be possible

"What?"

Richard exclaimed snatching the list from me and stumbling onto the bed.

"And how are we going to do that Derrick"

he looked at him with so much curiosity as to know what will come out of his mouth next. Derrick sighed for a moment then took the sheet of paper from Richard, glancing through with much thought.

" Zucha, please get me a pen so I can delete it from the list"

"But why," I asked seeing his rejected face out loud

"You came up with that number am sure you have a way out for us."

I wanted to know how we can scale that part of it through, seeing that we have been tagged geeks at Emarid High School, we are sure we won't stand a chance with any teenage girl in school but Derrick sure does have a plan.

"I was just thinking out loud to see if it would be possible," Derrick said as he tried deleting it. At that point I felt a flicker on my right hand, not knowing when the push of dragging the sheet of paper from Derrick and with the boldness I stood tall.

"We can do it, that's why it is a bucket list after all". Richard was dumbfounded at my resilience, he looked at me in awe, for a second everywhere was silence while I spoke, at some point, Richard laughed out loud maybe he thought I was just making gest about the whole thing, but I was serious.

"What could go wrong" there I asked both of them.

" I mean we are geeks? Dah!" Richard murmured,

"Yes, we are, but geeks do get laid? And so, we can"?

I became more courageous than before

"Okay, so how do we go about it"

Richard came clean on that,

"I mean, I was just writing and never thought about it, at least now we can edit it and remove those we know it is impossible".

I felt like giving up on it but my flickers kept dwindling harder on me."Okay, let's say having a girlfriend before the end of Senior year" there I said it loud to both of them believing they will accept it.

"Okay, that sounds reasonable" Derrick propose as he lay down on the bed with his thought while Richard stood mute without accepting or rejecting them."So, I guess is sealed?" I was so sure of it, but the agreement was all I wanted."Yes, I accepted" Richard sluggishly concurred. It was a done deal by writing and now we need to perfect it. My friends and I have always been close right from first grade, our parents were close friends and they made it compulsory for us to be, we had no choice in that. Derrick's parents separated when he turned six which made him more devastated about getting married, he made books with his friends as he gets to leave with his dad who has no time in discussing with him, he was always traveling from one survey work from another as an architect while Richard's parents are just one big family that sometimes they forget the names of some children. I can't explain how Richard ended up with twelve siblings but all I know is that he is part of a family of twelve and his dad and mum are always on the clock at the restaurant just to ensure that there is food on the table.