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TAMMY:
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The automatic bell went off about five minutes ago for the next period, Financial Accounting, but the teacher was yet to come to class and my classmates were really idle.
I, on the other hand, had my earpiece in my ears and connected to my phone as I listened and hummed to 'Soso' by Omah Lay.
Shibiri Shibiri Shibiri
They're talking shit, Shibiri
Water no get enemy
Till you fall for Oshimiri
I poto poto my eyes
Tension
I rise
Touch God
I cry
Offshore
Cut my dreadlocks
Me, I don pray
Maami
I don break commandment
I can't stay for one place
For God's sake my bae.....
I hummed to the song as the artist sang the lyrics to my ears with me momentarily enjoying myself.
"Yoo!"
My brows furrowed and I let out a low groan as I opened my eyes to see who had ruined my enjoyment.
People sef!
Ayomide stood by the white board with a marker in his hands, gazing mischievously at our classmates. Then, he turned around, facing the board and began scribbling things on it. I raised a brow at his act.
What was he doing?
I looked behind me to see my classmates in the same state of confusion as I was, except his friends of course, Aidan and Samuel, who just watched in anticipation and amusement at the whole thing.
I looked back at the board and my eyes widened in sheer horror at the sight. What Ayomide had made we'ren't scribbles or write-ups. It was a stick drawing, a heck of a stick drawing.
I covered my mouth with my palms to contain my laughter.
He took out a cane from behind him and pointed at the drawing. "Everyone, repeat after me." He said.
I giggled, my hands still over my mouth.
"This is Mr. Alex." He said, smiling cheekily and wrote the name above the drawing. Almost immediately, the class erupted in laughter and I wasn't an exception.
Mr. Alex was our Economics teacher and was quiet the grumpy fellow. He disliked children, or at least acted like he did. He was very stingy when it came to grading students and he wouldn't hesitate to give a student an F if even the slightest of mistakes were spotted.
I wasn't sure why he was always so mad, and I didn't know why the school management hadn't fired him yet for his wrong acts.
A lot of students were on his black list, and Ayomide happened to be one of the students at the top.
Staring at the drawing on the board, I looked up again to see Ayomide's cheeky smile. He drew a stick man with an afro hair just like the one Mr. Alex had on. It could've been a normal stick figure drawing, if he hadn't drawn a huge circle between the legs of the stick man and put a question mark in it.
"So." He started, trying his best to put on a serious face as he paced back and forth slowly as if actually teaching. "After many research, I and my research crew have figured the reason Mr. Alex is always angry."
He stopped immediately by the side of his drawing, and at once, pointed the thin stick at the drawing, the circle to be precise.
"His thing is missing."
My classmates erupted into another round of laughter, some clapping loudly as they did so and some, their bodies quaking as they did so.
Ayomide continued. "We suspect he uses belts to hold up his boxers cos, you know, there's nothing to contain. The man is really worked up about that stuff."
My classmates laughed incessantly, just as I did. We were laughing uncontrollably.
He smiled and glanced at the door, then back at us and leaned in as if in some kind of conspiracy. "I saw him talking to his boxers one time."
And that was all it took to drive my classmates mad. Some, the crazy students, fell onto the floor, with their seats following their actions and I hid my face on my table, laughing hard.
Just as the laughter died down, we heard the door knob click and our gazes immediately moved there. The classroom fell silently at once and I had to place my hands again firmly over my lips to stop myself from laughing.
Mr. Alex, the Economics teacher stepped into the class, staring down at his note as he flipped through pages. He didn't notice our stares, he didn't notice the students trying to hold their smiles and trying not to snicker, he didn't notice Ayomide slowly slipping away to his seat and he definitely didn't notice the drawing on the board behind him.
"Good morning, Students." He said, frowning. "Am I supposed to greet you first?!"
"Class greet." The class prefect instructed.
We all stood up at once and chorused. "Good morning, teacher."
He glared at us for a moment but I was sure most of my classmates we'ren't bothered by that. Everyone anticipated the moment he would look at the board.
"Stupid children! C'mon sit down, am I supposed to tell you to sit down?! You're aware that this is not my period, but as the Financial Accounting teacher couldn't make it today, she had lent me hers. Bring out your notes." He said, then, at last, he turned to the board, still saying. "Who can remind me of our previous topic, be fa....."
I had both hands covering my mouth now because, God! The look on the teacher's face was frame worthy. His eyes dropped to the circle Ayomide drew at the middle of his legs.
I looked behind me to find my classmates already laughing, not loudly though. Most of them had their heads on their tables to hide their laughter. Some snickered.
"Excuse me, Sir." A girl said, standing up at once, her lips in a thin line as she quickly walked out to, probably, let out the laughter.
Mr. Alex turned to us at once with his face contorted into an angry expression. "Who did this?!"
The classroom fell silent again, the laughter and amusement gone now as we stared at his angry face. He looked scary and I immediately wished I wasn't in there at the time.
A girl stood up, dressed in the complete school uniform. Neatly tucked white shirt intact, her black tie hung tightly round the collar of her shirt, the red blazer worn over it and her black skirt neatly ironed. Chloe, she was Chloe and I wondered if I'd ever seen her dress this neatly before.
"It was Ayomide, Sir." She said, quiet proudly, if I might add.
I scoffed at her act. What was she feeling like? She snitched.
The teacher turned to Ayo immediately and looked even angrier. "You, How dare you draw that nonesense on the board!"
"This is what you children waste your stupid time doing. Read your books, you wouldn't read. Put something inside your empty skulls, you wouldn't." He still had his eyes on Ayomide who looked like he was fighting the urge not to whistle and look around the place, like he wasn't the one in trouble.
"Go downstairs and kneel down by the principal's office. If he comes out and asks what you're doing there, let him know I told you to do that."
Just as Ayomide was about to step out of the classroom, Samuel stood up and Aidan did the same, they walked towards the teacher.
"Sir, that wasn't a drawing of you." Aidan said, blankly. If I wasn't too scared by the teacher's expression, I would've let out a snicker.
The teacher cocked a brow and looked back at the drawing, then, back to the two boys.
"I had difficulties understanding the reproductive system in Biology and he offered to take me through it. He was using the stick drawing to explain the reproductive system of an adult male." Samuel said.
"The name tagged on there was just an example of an adult male. He was just trying to make things easier to understand."
My classmates watched them in utter silence and surprise. They're little lie actually sounded reasonable. It was just left for the teacher to believe it.
To make them seem more believable, Samuel brought out a biology textbook and showed him the page Ayomide was explaining which even had scribbles of notes written in small parts of the page. They must've written those when the teacher was yelling at Ayomide. That was quick, actually.
The teacher looked from them to the textbook and from the textbook to Ayomide. "Why did he have to draw on the board to do that?" He asked, skeptically.
"He decided to." Samuel shrugged. "Our classmates didn't seem to have a problem with it."
The teacher glared at the three of them for a while before finally deciding to speak. "Where's the girl that said it was Ayomide that drew that?"
Chloe raised her hand, smiling which was quiet odd to me. Was she seriously enjoying this?
"The four of you, follow me. Save your explanations for the principal. After class, you should follow me to his office." He said and sent them back to their seats. Then, cleared his throat and spoke;
"So, where was I? Oh yes, someone should stand up and briefly summarize what was taught in my last class."
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
As it was the time for sports, I had no business with the school field, so, I stood up thirty minutes after the bell was rung for that and made my way to the music studio. I wasn't going to stay there long. All I wanted to do was to check out quickly, some of the songs and performances made by the club members and practice them at home.
That way, I could do what I love without anyone seeing my weakness, without people becoming judgmental towards me. Without Aidan seeing that part of me, again.
A person had sang Kill This Love by Black pink. I wondered if the person had sang the Korean part of the lyrics too, the parts that weren't English. I would've loved to watch that.
Another person sang (Sip) Alcohol by Joeboy. It shocked me when I discovered Aidan had performed that song. I had no idea the boy actually listened to Nigerian music. I rolled my eyes realizing the person he must've performed with.
Mandel.
Uh! That girl was slowly easing her way into my black list. She was just annoying, just so very annoying.
She pleased herself by ticking me off, she started bonding with my twin brother all of a sudden because she was in some state of madness and Ifeoluwa, sadly, kept moving around with her because he had feelings for her, she didn't hesitate to replace me after I came out of the music club just so she could get closer to Aidan, the guy she likes.
I was so done caring about her, worrying about the problems wrong with her. I was so done trying to meet her up to talk things out. If she could just walk out of my life, she would do me a huge favor and save myself and Ifeoluwa from the trouble she's putting us through.
I picked that song to sing at home, deciding to play a game of Karaoke during the weekend with Ifeoluwa.
I walked out of the music studio and back to my classroom but seeing as the senior block was empty, I made my way to the school field.
About a minute after I stepped into the school sports field through the door, someone pulled me behind the bleachers. I gasped at the sudden act and pushed the person's hands off of me.
"Hey, I have a message to deliver to you." The sly smirk trying to playing at the lips of the person that spoke had me annoyed immediately. Who else would it be, if not Mandel?
"Why did you have to drag me behind the bleachers to do that, or better still, pass it through my brother. I'm too good to be with you, Mandel." Mere looking at her already had me in an adrenaline rush and all I did at that point was glare at her.
She clucked her tongue and shook her head. "You and your sharp tongue. A person might think you're totally normal and strong with the way you talk."
I raised a brow at her and hissed in annoyance. "Say what you have to and end your stupid talk already."
She looked at me, amused and laughed. Mandel laughed. I furrowed my brows at her in annoyance. "I've never seen people with health issues act so bold before."
My insides stilled, the hand I put on my waist tightened and my heart skipped a beat. I felt the urge not to stammer the words I intended to let out.
I didn't want her to know I was affected by what she said. I didn't want her to realize whatever she had in mind of me was right, she could've been messing with my brain. Either ways, I wasn't going to dwell on the conversation with her anymore.
"And you must be mentally deranged, confusing boldness to health problems." I twirled around with my hands still on my waist and began to walk away.
"Joel wasn't."
I froze and my feet were glued to the spot. I couldn't turn around to face her, my heart beat got faster and I gulped.
Joel?
Health issue?
How did she know about the health issue? I was very sure mother didn't tell anyone...
Except her best friend.
My eyes widened and I gulped again. She couldn't have told Mandel, could she?
And Joel, how did she know him?
She laughed, a maniacal and contempt one. Her footsteps followed that laugh. I was supposed to move, I was supposed to lift my feet and run but my entire body felt numb and I couldn't move away from the spot I was rooted to.
I felt a hand being placed on my shoulder from behind, and I was turned around to face her. She looked happy with that wicked smirk I hated to see.
"Not so tough now, are you Tammy?" She balled her hands into fists and placed them close to her eyes."Boo hoo!"
I tried to steady my heartbeat as I gulped. "How you know Joel is your business and you've wasted enough of your time messing up your life, so fix yourself up and stop butting into my—"
"Oh, shut up Tammy. I saw a video of you having an attack at school in my mum's phone and you had never looked uglier." She shook her head and laughed. "You were so stupid, intentionally going under that dusty staircase."
Stupid?!
Dusty staircase?!!
My heart beat couldn't normalize, it still raced faster as I stared on in silence. She knew about everything. She knew who I was, really and she was going to break me until everything falls apart and she would see every bit of my true self.
The way she looked at me had me taken aback for a while. She seemed genuinely suprised at my reaction to the words she let out, and God! I hated that she was seeing this part of me, this scared and weak part of me. She dropped her triumphant expression and looked at me with pity and sadness. Her expression felt like a blow at my heart.
God no!
As much as I wanted to turn around and leave, as much as I wanted to deny everything she said, as much as I wanted to move away to avoid this conversation with her, I couldn't. My feet was rooted to the spot, and I was tongue-tied.
"People with obstructive pulmonary disorder shouldn't go about places that trigger attacks, they shouldn't go about fighting others because the person could come for them and get revenge, it could affect your health. People like you, Tammy, should be kept in a place, isolated from the environment to prolong your life seeing how reckless you are with it."
She did exactly what I never wanted. She was looking down on me. Long gone was the push to win in a glaring contest with me or to throw comebacks endlessly until someone had the last say. She looked at me and saw me for who I was.
Weak.
Unworthy to be associated with.
Freaky.
I struggled so much, not to cry, not to show more of what she was seeing. I hated this so much!
"Joel has a message for you." My eyes widened and the anger that started to build up in me at the mention of his name, had managed to keep me moving again.
I turned around and walked to the door of the school field. I paused, seeing that Aidan leaned on the wall beside it, using his phone. He looked up and immediately spotted me, then, smiled but his smile dropped and was replaced with a deep frown as he gazed at me.
I looked away from him and stormed out of the school field, but I knew that Aidan wouldn't leave me alone, seeing me in this state. I stormed towards the senior block, nonetheless.
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This author's note is gonna be short.
Good news, I'm finally on holiday so my updates would be more frequent.
I just gotta ask you guys. Y'all probably hate Mandel now 😂but any guesses as to why she changed? And why she suddenly got closer to Ifeoluwa?
The next chapter would be in Aidan's POV, just so you know.
Gotta go now. Bye.
Benzita13 ❤️