PrimRose

08. The Emperor's Speech

I laughed a bit, “Irony of life”

We both walked to our seats.
“There was one time I wanted to be a banker another time an astronaut”

“What? How many things were you planning to be?” I laughed.

“A lot. But my point is, the fact you don't know what you want yet should not let you feel any less about yourself. Just give yourself time and explore as many options as you can until you find what suits you”

“Jefferson!” before I could reply I heard Gold call loudly and stroll from the entrance of the class to Abel's desk.

“Where have you been in the last two decades?”

“Jefferson? Is that your last name? But I thought it was _”

“It's not” Abel gritted his teeth.
He looked around found a few pairs of eyes on him and others trying hard to hide their amusement.

At that moment he looked like he was going to die of shame.
He glared at Gold and muttered some words between the lines of 'brat, fool, idiot... and the list goes on.'

Gold snickered and turned to me, “That's Estoria's surname. She's the girl who sits in front of me”

Jake turned around and faced me, his desk was just in front of mine, “He had a huge crush on her one time. So that's how he earned the name”

I glanced over at Estoria's seat but she wasn't in class yet.

“He still does” Gold said a little loudly.

Jake laughed and faced his front.

“I don't. That was long ago” his upper lip twitched again.

Awwn. Abel has a crush on darling Estoria!!!!!

“Seriously, why weren't you in school? You had us all worried” Gold asked.

“I told you. I was sick. And I'm sorry for making you guys worry”

Gold stared at him like she was trying to figure him out.

“Gold! Show face!” Yinka who was at the entrance of the class beckoned to Gold.

“Later, Jefferson” Gold said on her way out of the class rushed.

I glanced at Abel. It was written all over him that he was hiding something.

“Hey” I called him quietly.

He slowly turned to face me.

“If you ever want to talk about what's wrong, I'm here”

“I’m perfectly fine now” he insisted.

After our little conversation we hardly spoke since we didn't have any free period till lunch break.

During lunch everything was fine. We went to the cafeteria and left together a little earlier than we usually did.

We went back to class and surprisingly everyone, except us was already seated in class.

“What's going on?” I whispered to Abel.

“It’s our class Friday ritual”

I shrugged and we both sat on our sits.

The guy who sits at my far left stood up from his seat and strolled to the front of the class.

“Go Bishop. Go Bishop. Go Bishop” the class chanted quietly.

Unlike everyone else, his shirt was not tucked into his trouser. I noticed that it was a habit of his. It was my habit as well.

His skin was dark, almost soot black. He was quite tall, with square shoulders and a broad chest. Not the kind of broad as a result of working out.

The top of his head was crowned with very short dreads while the sides were relatively low. He was not exactly the handsome type but he was not ugly either.

There was a goofy smile on his face. He looked like the class clown sort of guy.
He gave his imaginary fans a sign to stop cheering. He cleared his throat and loosened his tie.

“Good day everyone. Well today we will be doing something a little different from what we usually do on Friday afternoons. Since we have a new classmate in our midst, let's show her how things are done in our Empire.

“I know your first week here has been pretty rough because of those useless SS2 witches, Brenda and Regina. But, no worries because as a powerful empire that we are, we assure you that we all gotcha back

“So on behalf of my humble self Bishop a.k.a Emperor of Art Class SS1 Chapter and the rest of the class, I officially welcome you to Graham High. Have fun here because that's all it is to life” he bowed.

I smiled at how dramatic he was making everything. My heart warmed because of the thoughtfulness of my new classmates, “Thanks everyone. That's really sweet of you guys to do this for me, especially you, Bishop”

“You’re welcome” the guy who sits just in front of Bishop said loudly in faux and very unpolished British accent.

I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing at how terrible that sounded coming out from his mouth.

Bishop threw him a bored look, “Comrade, try dey rest”

As if on cue, the bell rang for the end of lunch break.

“What class are we supposed to have right now?” Bishop asked.

“Data Processing but Mr Akin is not around” Abel replied.

“Thank God” a lot of people sighed in relief.

The class started to buzz with excitement while Bishop’s face brightened.

Ok what's happening?

I was utterly confused but I decided to just watch in silence.

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‘Show face’ as used by Yinka in this chapter is in Pidgin English as used in Nigeria to mean ‘come here or your presence is needed.’

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