Sophia The First

49

AN: So the next three chapters are throw back to Chief and Lydia's relationship. If you want to skip the throwback, present day will continue at the end of 51. This throwback was supposed to be the prologue for the book but I didn't want to spoil it for you guys. I almost deleted it at some point because i wanted to end the book at 50 parts by fire by force (lol) but i changed my mind.

***

Many years ago

Corper's Lodge, in a Secondary school somewhere in Bauchi

12:23am

Chief's POV

"Deji what are you studying for again? Do you have another interview?" Deji's roommate said groggily on returning from the bathroom.

Deji Bakare looked up at his roommate, startled, he didn't even notice when his roommate stepped out because he was completely immersed in the book he was reading; Mission to Kala.

"I am taking literature prep class tomorrow," He said and his roommate laughed wickedly then went back to sleep.

Deji has been regretting why he decided to take this class sef because he set himself up with it. He is a Civil Engineer, he hates novels, plays, and freaking poems, but he agreed to teach this literature prep class because he wanted the extra money.

He thought he could wing it; is it not just to read a couple of novels and poems then answer questions on them?, he thought it was piece of cake. Unfortunately for him, a literature fanatic that goes by the name Lydia attends the class and she keeps embarrassing him in front the whole class every session.

She is not even a current student! She graduated last year, but the girl returned this term to prepare for JAMB because she didn't take it last year. She was supposed to be married off like 99.9% of the girls her age in this part of the country. Some are even married off right after primary school, and if the husband or his family are nice enough, they'd send them to secondary to further their education, many girls in his class are married women.

However, this damn Lydia girl and her sisters escaped early marriage thanks to a northern feminist'ish group called JMA (Jam'iyyar Matan Arewa).

The group is actually the sponsor of the WAEC and JAMB prep classes. They are funding these classes in a couple of northern states to encourage parents and even husbands to allow their girls/wives further their education.

The group hires Corpers and University students as tutors and the pay is good, even better than his corper allawee. He is teaching six subjects and honestly, he should have just freed this literature class because the extra money is not worth the stress and humiliation he has been collecting from that girl.

She has read all the books in the syllabus and more. The other day she called him out (He was trying to show off) for a mistake he made on a George Orwell quote from the book Nineteen Eighty-Four, the book is not even part of the syllabus and it's not romance so he was surprised that she had even read it. That was the day he knew he had a serious problem and he couldn't half-ass the literature lessons anymore.

Which is why he started staying up late to read up these days, it is too late for him to back out, he has collected and chopped 2 months advance tutor fee for the class already.

He was a little bit nervous as he stepped into the literature class the next day. He started writing on the board and before he could finish his first paragraph, she pointed out a spelling error. He just sighed and corrected it in defeat. He was already exhausted from teaching regular school class (His primary Assignment).