It was 7 o'clock in the morning and my head hurt like a bitch.

I had spent the whole of last night watching re-runs of Friends and the effects of lack of sleep had started to catch up with me.

"Abiola Temitope Akinyemi!" I heard my full name being shouted from down the stairs. I don't know how I have offended this woman I refer to as my mother. The way she shouts my name sometimes ehn, you'd think that I'm owing her money.

"My friend come down and eat breakfast, you have school in one hour." Her voice screeched, echoing all over the house.

I could smell the delicious aroma of the eggs and sausages she was frying and that alone was enough morale for me to walk down the stairs.

It had been one week since my family and I had moved from Nigeria to the United States.

I still remember how my father broke the news to me one faithful Sunday evening.

★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★

"Ododo mi" my father gently cooed.
Immediately I knew something was up. He only called me that when he wanted something or when I was in one of my foul moods.

"Yes daddy." I replied suspiciously with my eyebrow raised.
Deep in my heart I was a daddy's girl, and the way my father looked at me melted my heart.

"Omo mi, we're moving." He said with a sad smile on his face.
My father knew how much I loved my friends and my plans to have a perfect senior year.

"Ọkan mi, we don't have a choice. I was offered a huge deal, but good things come at a cost Abiola. I have to move, and I can't leave you or your mother."

That was how I packed my life as well as my luggage and moved to the U.S.A.

★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★

I greeted my parents with a kiss on each of their cheeks and took a seat at the table.

I was so hungry that I gobbled up everything in a matter of seconds.

I rose to wash my plate in the sink, when my mother held my hand and gestured for me to drop the plate back on the table.

"Leave it Abiola, come let us pray." She said adopting her mountain on fire prayer warrior face.

Of course prayer, I was idiot thinking I could escape morning devotion.

"Iyawo mi, make it short I have to leave in two minutes". My father said winking at me.
I smiled knowing my father didn't have to go anywhere till 8:30.

The prayer was said and my father offered to take me to school.

There wasn't a need for him to take me, the school was a 7 minute walk from the house but I accepted anyways.
It was a silent drive, but a comfortable one.

Lana del Ray's 'young and beautiful' was blasting from my father's Spotify playlist. He was her biggest fan ever and often joked that if it came to it, he'd sell Mama and I for concert tickets.

"Daddy, Tame Impala is sha better than Lana del Ray."
I said out of nowhere, choosing a fight over the silence present in the car.

"God Punish Tame Impala, you did not even find someone reasonable, like maybe Girl in Red to compare my Queen to. It's that useless Tame Impala that resembles somebody that doesn't bath." My father answered, hissing like an angry fangirl.

"I thought Mama was your queen ?" I asked laughing.

"Better don't tell her I said that oo, if not she change the Wifi password again, and it's the two of us that will suffer it together." My father said bursting out in laughter.

We got to the school parking lot in no time and he reminded me to be good, remember the daughter of who I am, and placed a kiss on my forehead.

I got out of the car and walked towards the building. I had done an orientation like three days ago so I knew where to go.

As I walked towards the principal's office, I noticed there was hardly any person of colour, maybe just a sprinkle of diversity here and there but the majority I saw were blonde blue eyed teens that looked like they belonged on the front cover of Vogue.

I knocked on the principal's office door and the secretary opened up.

"You must be Abiola Akinyemi right?" She asked, completely butchering the name my parents had given me. I just smiled and asked my ancestors to forgive her, meanwhile nodding my head to answer her questions.

Once I had confirmed it, she handed over to me what I supposed was my timetable.

"Oh good, there's Lucas, Lucas will be your guide today." The secretary said, brightening up at the person she referred to as Lucas.

I swear I'm not one of those girls that melts any time a fine boy approaches them, but we need to critically asses this situation.

This boy had the looks of a Greek God and I'm not even exaggerating.

His sandy blonde hair only made his otherworldly green eyes light up, and the faint spread of freckles that were dusted across his cheeks did nothing but justice to his angled cheekbones. He looked like someone who played with hearts the way  Ronaldo played football. And he was so fucking tall.

"Hey, I'm Lucas Boyd." He said with a warm smile.

"I'm Abiola Akinyemi." I said, showing all my 32 teeth.

"That's Yoruba right?" He said with a gleam in his eyes that appeared once my name left my mouth.

Ahn ahn, I didn't expect Mr. Lothario to know how a Yoruba name sounded, this would be interesting.

"Yeah, it is. How'd you know ?" I said, the excitement of having someone to talk to who possibly knew the country Nigeria existed, clearly showing on my face.

"For AP history we had to do research work on 'The Cultures of West Africa' and my team got assigned The Yoruba's.

Even after the project, I was so fascinated with the culture that I kept on reading more and more." He said awkwardly smiling.

"That's awesome." I replied, not knowing what to say to his confession.

After the brief moment of awkwardness, he showed me the way to my fist class, Biology.

I opened the door to the class and everyone was already seated.

Eyes went to me as the teacher, Mr. Whitney told me to introduce myself to the class.

With all the highschool chick flicks I had watched, I knew exactly what I was supposed to say in this moment to guarantee myself a good start into the school year.

"Hey everyone, My name's Abiola Akinyemi, but you probably can't pronounce that so just call me Abby."  I said, making the class laugh.

"I'm 17 and your average bisexual baddie." I completed, making even the teacher laugh.

"That's great Abby, take a seat next to Lauren." He said, pointing to a red head that had blue eyes that I could have sworn were sparkling.

"Hey, my name's Lauren Miller, and that must have been the funniest introduction I've ever heard." She said giggling.

"Well thanks, I've been told I'm a pretty funny person". I said smiling back at her.

Soon we had thrown any formalities we had out the window.

Turns out she's a huge TXT stan. I knew the girl had sense the moment I set eyes on her.

The class had gone by and I couldn't remember one thing, probably because I had spent the entire period arguing with Lauren about whether Anti-romantic or Loser-lover was the better song.

Lauren and I walked to my locker which was coincidentally one locker away from hers.

We had had three classes together: Biology, Literature and History. It was lunch time so Lauren and I walked into the cafeteria, still arguing.

I waited for her to get her lunch since I had packed lunch from home.

No offence to the cook or anything, but there wasn't a way in hell I'd eat nasty cafeteria food.

Lauren had gotten her food and disregarding my protests, dragged me off to a table filled with people that could give Gigi Hadid and David Gandy a run for their money.
But there was one person who surpassed them all.

I could hear Lauren introducing me to everyone, but my mind was focused on the person sitting right in front of me.

His raven black hair falling in soft waves towards his gentle but contrastingly, at the same time hard, dark blue eyes, eyes that I could stare at forever and probably never get tired of. His smooth, tanned skin looked flawless and his broad chest was begging to be let free of the flimsy excuse of a shirt that hugged his taunt muscles.

I don't know if it was my imagination but he was staring at me just the exact same way I stared at him.

"And that's Xian Hunt." Lauren finished completely unaware of the stares being passed between us.

Vocabulary
Ododo mi ~ my flower
Ọkan mi ~ my heart
Iyawo mi ~ My wife
Yoruba ~ One of the three major languages and tribes in Nigeria
Lothario ~ it's an English word, use your dictionary. 😃

A/N

Heloooo 👋
I hope you like the first chapter of 'When Powers Collide' !
This book is my brain child 🤧 and I've worked very hard on it. It's is supernatural, like everything I've ever written 🌝 and it's going to be based heavily on West African mythology, specifically Yoruba.
My plan is to have completed this book by December, so if you're reading my other book, 'It's Blooms !' ( which you should, I've been told it's awesome) The book is going to have even slower updates till I'm done with this one.
Please don't kill me 😃🔫 .
And as usual, don't forget to Share, Vote, and Comment !

Byeeeeeee...
            ~ A slightly crazed author💜

(Update, I think it is clear to see that I did not in fact reach my deadline.)