S.S.S. 3 AGAIN

Chapter Four

The bell was rung as all students were told to move into the school hall. All the students of The Empires College were to have their mid holidays. We all entered the School Hall and got seated as some visitors came to deliver an inspirational speech to us. After the speech and all, the visitors excused themselves from the hall. One of the teachers stood on the Podium and announced the commencement of the mid holidays. He told all students to stay at home except the seniors. We were to come on Thursday and Friday for lessons but not to put on the school uniform. Hearing that, I was extremely happy. Most of the juniors shouted happily as they scurried out of the hall to get their bags and go home but they were stopped due to an announcement by the Proprietor.

I was seated beside Lydia in the hall. I was calling some quotes from a journal to her which she was writing down. Sincerely, I never listened to a word said by the visitors who came earlier. Someone pinched my neck and I looked back to see if I would get hold of the person. The person has been pinching me since I got here and whenever I looked back, the person would have retreated. I looked back but the person got lucky again. I stopped stressing myself and faced front. When Mr. Makinde finished his speech, we were told to stand up as we were given directions from the Podium on which door to pass through, so as not to cause traffic in the hall.

While the man in the front was announcing, I told Lydia to help me return my chair to class when she's leaving with hers because I needed to see Mr. Makinde before going home. She agreed and I thanked her. I looked at the back to check if Jetemi was behind us. Since she's the senior girl, she had to stand somewhere to co-ordinate the juniors from making noise. As I turned back to check, I made eye contact with Demola. I hadn't noticed he was the one sitting behind Lydia. I turned my face to the front immediately, breaking the eye contact. As the students moved out, I walked to the front of the hall to see the Proprietor.

"Lydia! You won't believe he gave me 500 naira." I shouted immediately I entered the class.

"Awwn!" Lydia cooed, smiling at me. She was holding a broom. She sweeps every Wednesday according to the sweeping timetable together with Demola and Emmanuel. Since she's the only female that was assigned with those lazy two, she has always been the one that sweeps on Wednesdays while the guys arrange the class.

"Who?" Demola called out to me.

"Proprietor." I replied.

"Nice one." He said, walking towards me with Israel and Dayo, one other classmate of ours who's really funny and annoying.

Dayo, Israel and Demmie walked to my seat and surrounded my table and I. I already knew what they were about to do as they told me to be nice. I released sixty percent of the money to them, which is three hundred naira. They thanked me and they kept on talking. I laughed at some things they said. I soon packed my stuffs and went to my school bus.

After lesson the next day, Lydia, Rachel, Jetemi and I, with two other girls from our class walked side by side outside the class to meet our Biology teacher, Aunt Tilly. The two other girls with us go by the name Glory and Sarah.

Sarah was the girl that smiled at me the first time I entered the class. She's a gentle type and she's one of the most brilliant ones in our class. Glory on the other hand is a very lousy and childish girl. She's the roughest girl in that class. Even her locker was most times dirty and rough. Her books were mostly scattered in her locker and around the class. Sometimes, she comes to school without putting on socks. When she puts on one, it'd be dirty. She's friendly though.

After the lesson that day, we weren't ready to go home. We decided to branch at Aunt Tilly's house since it was nearby, just to know her house for the first time and leave for our several homes by 4:00PM. Aunt Tilly and I are now good friends. She wasn't as bad as I thought and she's also friendly. She was surprised and happy to know we wanted to visit her. She decided to send us to quickly help her buy fruits at the school junction and meet her in school so we would trek to her house together. On our way to the junction, we began to discuss.