Jazz It Up

CHAPTER 28

It was finally the day of the inter-school competition and everyone was in high hopes that the school would win. Mrs William and Mr Nwosu had given the representing students a pep talk the previous day about how they believed they could win and how important it was for them to win as it would boost the school's image. The students had glanced at each other knowingly because they knew winning the competition was not only to boost the school's image but to boost their egos and make them seem better than the other principals.

"Jazz hurry up. You don't expect them to wait for you?" Kelechi said to Jazz as she sat in front of her mirror, applying makeup and doing her hair.

"I'm an important member of the team so of course I expect them to wait for me. I know they can't leave without me, they need my brains." Jazz continued with what she was doing, unfazed by the fact that she could be keeping everyone waiting.

"It's an inter-school competition not a beauty pageant." Ronke rolled her eyes.

"Either way, I have to look my best, which I always do," Jazz stated as she touched up her makeup.

There was an impatient knock on the door before Mrs Kayode entered the room. "Jazz my dear, what is taking you so long? Everyone is waiting for you downstairs. Please, hurry up," she said indifferently, wanting more than anything to go back to her office and lounge in her chair.

"I'll be done in a minute." Jazz did her hair into a high ponytail and stared back at herself in the mirror for some time before saying, "This doesn't look good enough, I think I'll just—"

"Of course it looks good my dear," Mrs Kayode interjected. "Now please go downstairs so you all can make it in time to the competition."

"Okay okay, I'm going." Jazz bathed herself in perfume, making everyone in the room -except herself- cough.

"Do you have to spray so much perfume? The scent is already nice," Mrs Kayode managed to say between coughs.

"You can never spray too much perfume." Jazz checked herself out one last time in the mirror. "Now I'm ready," she said as she finally left the room and Mrs Kayode followed her out.

* * *

"What were you doing that made you want to spend the whole day? Do you know how long we've been waiting for you?!" Mrs William fumed when Jazz approached where they were waiting for her.

"You can scold her later, right now we need to be on our way to the competition. It's not going to wait for us before it starts," Mr Nwosu said to her and the students stared at him surprisingly. They hadn't known just how important the competition was to him, but now that he asked Mrs William to scold Jazz later instead of scolding her himself, they knew.

Miss Chinaza wanted to give the students another pep talk before they left but Mrs William stopped her, saying that there was no time for it. The students rolled their eyes at Miss Chinaza, she was always trying so hard to impress the principal by pretending to care about them.

The students boarded the Toyota coaster bus along with their teachers and soon they were on their way to the competition. Mrs William and Mr Nwosu went in her car, trailing behind the bus.

They got to the venue of the competition before time and the driver parked the bus alongside other school buses in the parking area. After they alighted the bus, Mitchel looked around and spotted his dad's car among the few private vehicles that were there.

"My dad is here," he whispered to Jazz.

"Where is he?"

"That's his car, he must be inside." Mitchel pointed to the car and Jazz ohhed.