Birthright: A Phoenix is Born

STRANGER DANGER

Hello peps, feel free to critique. Like and appraisal comments appreciated.

Catch you in my stories,
GaisceKid.

Taiwo and I bolted to our next class. One wacky teacher was bad enough, being late for another never boded well. Racing through the school's corridors, my running mate boasted that this was the last straw concerning his enrolment in this *kip of a school. I doubted it. If his parents stuck with Doyle Park after false advertisement of a working cafeteria and rat infestation, they were here for the long run.

As we entered the dimly lit changing room, tired red tiles made up the floor while murky spots paved the beige walls. Three walls of the room were lined with knee-high benches where each boy fought to find a space to change. Of course, the shower area at the back of the room laid vacant, we collectively refused to use it after the Great Towel Whippings of 2018. The offensive aroma of Lynx spray wheezed at my lungs. I waited till the rest of my class left with their poison. Fortunately *mandem didn't leave brothers behind.

Mandem composed itself of five people, Benjamin Broy, our dreads wearing president, Marcus Okiki the fresh high-top, resident four eyes of the group, Taiwo Ogundipe the pretty boy and myself, Damian Brightflame, the dark horse. Our only non-black member Chris Sanchez. Though Filipino, his sense of style and taste in music were above deserving in our exclusive club.

"Hurry up Damian. If those boys convince Ms Darcy to play football again. I'll scream. Plus Chris is already out there." Announced Ben.

"He's right." Cut in Marcus. "Also I wanna see Taiwo flop when he moves to Aoife."

"Failure is not in my vocabulary." Taiwo reverberated.

"Relax boys." I said "Almost finished."

I pulled down the white polo t-shirt over my head, its coarse material scratched my skin twinging my now strangely sensitive forearm. But the trash bag tracksuit bottoms were the worst part. Each step swallowed large swaths of air in between the fabric and my legs. I resembled a malformed *Teletubby.

"Also they're announcing the winners of the Mercer Tex competition today." Ben mentioned as we sauntered out of the changing room.

"No one from this broke joke of a school will get picked." Retorted Taiwo.

"Still..." Marcus picked up. "A new computing room and a doss day visiting their plant ain't bad."

"Don't forget your entire college tuition paid for." I pitched.

"Doesn't your mom go full WhatsApp conspiracy theorist when it comes to sharing of personal data?" Laughed Ben. "Plus who's thinking about college at our young ages?"

"You'll only ever catch me doing medicine, engineering or science at *UCD." Ben stated.

"Shock you when he gets three hundred points and has to do a *P.L.C." Taiwo sniggered.

"Your dad will be doing a P.L.C."

They laughed taking turns giving digs, yet I lacked in their enthusiasm.

Who is thinking about college right now?

The cramped corridor only allowed for three people to walk at a time. Marcus, Benjamin, and Taiwo got heated about who got to be Quavo if they were the Migos. I tagged behind catching snippets of each's rendition of "Walk It Talk It".

"Shit." I sighed. "I need to go back to the changing room. I forgot the permission slip for the Dublin Zoo trip next week."

"Damian, why are you always so unserious?" Moaned Ben.