CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

WHEN IN ROME

"Hmm hmm", Shola announced her presence in our midst.

"The crybaby is back", Cleo mimicked her style of crying.

" Please stop that!"She laughed.

"It's time to eat dinner. Let's all gather", Grandpa Majekodumi said, and we all positioned ourselves around him. He was the first to be served in a special earthen bowl, followed by the boys whose food was merged, then we girls, and finally the mothers. Seeing that the meal's gone round, grandpa Majekodumi read a verse of the Holy Quran and we started eating.

I was so used to my slow way of eating at home that I only got to eat three morsels out of the mountain of fofo Aminat's mum placed before us. Meanwhile, Shola and Aminat who was the fastest of all fought over the last morsel of fofo.

"I took it before you did", Shola said.

"No, you're lying", Aminat shouted." Drop it!".

"What if I don't?" Shola insisted, activating her angry mode.

"What's your problem? Eyin agbaya meji yi!(Shameless children)"Aminat's mom scolded them." Aren't you ashamed of yourself? You of all people Shola! How can you be fighting with your sibling because of that small fofo?"

"Is not because of fofo oo", Shola told her politely." See how she was talking to me now, am I her mate?"

"Ma binu omo mi(Don't be annoyed, my child)", One of Grandpa Majekodunmi's old wives begged Shola to let Aminat have the food for peace's sake, and she agreed but it lasted few seconds. Aminat still complained that the meat Shola gave her was too small.

Cleo had no issues relating with the boys, especially because he's the eldest of all. He allowed them to eat as much as they wanted and didn't cheat them in the course of sharing meat. More also, he stopped the habit of boys leaving plates for girls to wash. The boys murmured about it, yet obeyed him. At last, they derived fun playing with bubbles from soap leathers, and sprinkling water on themselves.

After the eating and washing of plates routine, we cleaned and rearranged the local mats(which we used to eat) opposite Grandpa Majekodumi's wooden recliner, then he told us the story behind the birth of Prophet Mohammed SAW. Though it appeared they've all heard the story a countless number of times, they still showed keen interest in it as they watched him speak. When he forgot a part, the little one argue among themselves as to who should remind him, and at the end of the story, he threw a general question to us and asked me to answer!

Since I wasn't paying enough attention to his story because I wasn't Muslim, I wasn't unable to answer his question. It saddens him yet he allows me to sit. Just then, Cleo offered to answer the question and that won him Grandpa Majekodumi's most valued grey Kaftan and cap.

Even after the story, we remained outside. I enjoy listening to the sound of the crickets, watching the moonlit, and feeling the cool breeze on all sides. It would have been nice to have Cleo here with me, but he had gone to bed though the boys wanted him to play, "after round one" with them. Shola on the other hand was playing "ten ten" with Aminat and others.

"How can you not know how to play any game and you grew up in this Nigeria faa", Shola ditched the girls to lie beside me and positioned her eyes to face the moon like I've been doing.

Instead of saying something to make the conversation continue, I smiled.

"Being yourself must be a good thing", she continues." Most times I wish I were you. If I were you, I wouldn't have to deal with this nonsense that I'm dealing with", Her tears returned.

"Why do you think being me is so easy? Do you think I don't want to play games with you and your siblings? Do you think I'm not bothered by what you're going through? I want to help you get over it, but..."The words came out of nowhere.

"Thank you so much", She hugged me for a while."I really appreciate your concern. I just...."

"I'm feeling a bit sleepy Goodnight", Feeling a bit shy, I pretended not to have heard her last words and ran to the girls' hut to force myself to sleep. I still wasn't ready to become someone's bestie.

The next morning, Aminat greeted me with an angry face because I went in too early to the girl's hut when no one was looking, so she was not able to protect the house against mosquitoes with burning orange peels and her precious skin which survived claimed was going to earn grandpa an oil rig was affected. While I apologized and even promised to send her a mosquito net when I return home, Shola worsened the situation by laughing at her but they didn't fight and Aminat soon stopped being mad at me.

"Uncle give me, I can massage your back very well for you", A kiddo talking outside the boy's but distracted me.

" No. It's me you should give. I'm an orthopedist", Another made me laugh because of the way he pronounced the last word. Despite Cleo's correction, he made the same mistake.

"Good morning, Cleo", I waved to him.

" Good morning, Nifemi", He came over to my side with the kids behind him."How did your night go?"

"Fine and yours?"I replied.

" Fine though my body aches. These boys made my body a pillow overnight ", He complained.

" Oh, sorry. Have you used any medicine?"I ask feeling concerned about him.

"There's no close pharmacy to get a medicine around here besides I hate taking drugs".

"Well. I would have forced you to use if there was a close one", I scared him.

"Uncle, let us do it for you!" The boys raised their voices.

"That's enough! I'll not let you people break my back with your village bone biko. I'm a city boy", He laughed with them.

"I'll do it for him so can you guys step back", I said to stop the boys from fighting each other.

" Here's the ointment ", He opened the lid, and allowed me to take from it. Then, I started massaging his neck gently down to the shoulder, and back."Do you feel better?"

"Yes. Thanks, ma'am", He smiled and wore his shirt." You're really fit to be orthopedist".

"Yh", I was too embarrassed to look at him.

"Farida is back from the river", Shola announced," If you need anything for your bath, let me know".

"No, thanks. My clothes and toiletries are in Cleo's car", I replied her.

" You didn't ask if I need anything. I'm hurt", Cleo joked.

"Is it possible for you to wear my clothes, or use my toiletries?"Shola laughed.

"I hope Farida got your bath water too", Cleo asked her.

" Why?"Shola had a curious look on her face.

"Like it or not you're coming with us", he made his intention known to her.

The air hostess advised us to fasten our seat belts as the plane taking us to Abuja prepared to take off. Cleo had to hold my hand tightly because I was terrified. Shola acted normal since she was already used to plane flights and reminisced on the days when Loveboy used to do what Cleo was doing for me. He accused of missing him but she disagreed.

"You were going to tell me something yesterday", I got the courage to tell her, though I wasn't sure if I'm supposed to mention it while Cleo's around. But at the same time, this might be my only chance to have a conversation with her.

"So you guys have been gossiping behind my back", Cleo gave me a look that made me blush. It showed that he was proud of me for mending my relationship with her.

" Yh, so you better grab your earphones and go to the bedroom", Shola informed him.

"Ok, ma'am", He reached for the earphones Shola already took.

"I was only kidding", She showed off her attractive dimples through a smile.

" Yes, ma'am", He returned to his seat beside me."So what's this all about?"

"I...." She stuttered.

"Nifemi and I are not carnivores so say whatever it is you need to say. We're not gonna eat you for breakfast though we're starving", Cleo said to make her loosen up and she did.

"After Nifemi broke Loveboy's heart, he wasn't his usual self anymore because he's never been refused by a girl", She exhaled." I was delighted because I thought he would be able to finally understand me but I was wrong".

"I've been through the same ordeal so I understand what you're going through", I try to pacify her.

" So you fell for Loveboy too!" He mocked us.

"No. I once crushed on someone in my previous school, but I never told him", I tried not to feel awkward for telling them.

"Uh Oh", Shola blushed." But you should have told him. You're probably regretting it now".

"Nope", I replied her." As a matter of fact, I've gotten over him".

"Are you kidding me?", She opened her mouth widely.

" Nope", Cleo high-fived, and called me his girl.

"Honestly, I don't know what's going on either", She was pissed off" I couldn't stop myself from visiting him in that depressed state, and we almost kissed together".

"It's alright", I patted her back and Cleo pours her a glass of chilled water to cool down but she refused to take it."At least nothing happened, don't feel too bad".

"No. I feel like a tramp. I couldn't bear to face my parents, especially my mom so I had to run away", She sniffled.

" At least you know now what Loveboy can do to you, but running away will only make things worse. What if you fall for another guy, and you get caught up in a similar situation? Will you run away again?"

"What're you insinuating?"She asked.

" That you learn to face your fears. If staying alone with Loveboy your number one weaknesses, then you need to overcome it."

"It's like the two of you were made to amuse me", Sha laughed.

Our vacation house which was supposed to be luxurious turned out to be a couple of huts with thatched roofs. Well, I wasn't too bothered because I already lived in that kind of setting. My homeroom teacher who was also the trip coordinator gave Cleo and me handshakes for finding Shola and promised her fifty strokes of koboko.

Loveboy who I would have preferred to be on a Dubai Cruise with a fleet of girls like Bola once said chose to come for the trip too. He stood beside Tony who was clutching the press girl's hand as if it was going to fall off the moment he stopped doing that. The three girls in Loveboy's class (Hawau, Jumai, and Tito) enjoyed humiliating me in the Cafeteria were also chatting with Timmy.
Though these three junior girls claimed to be allergic to dust, Miss Bimbo(Cleo's homeroom teacher) instructed them to clean up the huts we were goanna stay, and they comply after much resistance because she reminded them of the penalty attached to disobeying a teacher's order in Marie's high.

The guys on the other hand wore boots and farm hats to weed. Timmy and Cleo used their bare hands to forcefully pull the unwanted plants around since the farm implements available are not sufficient. Loveboy struggled with using the cutlass, but Tony was nothing to write home about. After helping the guys to park the weed at a spot where hopefully, the fierce Abuja sun will dry them up, I, Shola, Ayo(the press girl) went to the Suleja central market, with miss Bimbo to get food items for dinner.

Before setting out, we decided to make semovita with oghono soup for lunch. As miss Bimbo moved from one stall to another to buy the food items, we learned a bit of how to converse with the Hausa traders which we're going to be dealing with for some time to get lower prices, and high returns. Shola was able to buy cow meat needed for the soup without Miss Bimbo's interference and she saved us the cash we used to buy chilled kunu to refresh ourselves.

As soon as we got home, Miss Bimbo ordered Ayo to rinse the cow meat for boiling but before doing so, she wore on her rubber gloves, nose cover, hair bonnet, and apron. Seeing her appearance, Shola and I were forced to laugh but Miss Bimbo cautioned us against that because she was our senior. Besides that, she didn't see anything wrong with her mode of dressing. Despite the paparazzi, Ayo was unable to wash the cow meat properly so Shola was asked to wash it again while she learned from her. The girls also mocked me for not being able to season the meat well enough.

"I can't eat this nonsense", Jumai told Miss Bimbo as she serves our meal together."I'd rather eat cornflakes till eternity than this ill-looking soup".

"See this small girl oo", Miss Bimbo laughed."I made you a nourishing soup yet you prefer to eat a bowl of stale cereal and milk".

"It's my belly so I can eat whatever I want", She protested.

" You should have said that before I started making dinner", Miss Bimbo went into our room to confiscate all the hidden food items.

"Oh my God! You're so cruel! You want me to starve cause I'm prettier than you are", Hawau cried."I'm going to call my dad and tell him about this! He's going to send you to jail".

"I'll advise you against that because it'll only be a waste of time but if you still want to, please go ahead", Miss Bimbo replied her.

"I'll manage it", Tito decided not to stick with her friend's decision anymore.

" Oh, I'm so sorry, dear", Miss Bimbo laughed. "The Boys already added your portion to theirs. But they haven't finished eating, you can join them.

" What!"Tito yells."This isn't fair!"

"Life isn't fair darling", Miss Bimbo caressed her cheek.

After dinner, Hawau and Tito still washed the earthen bowls and small calabash(which we use to take water and palm wine), since they were the youngest of all.

" Honestly, this is the best toothbrush I've ever had", Cleo said the next morning, while chewing a piece of stick.

"Seriously?", Shola rinsed her mouth hastily." I've never tasted anything this bitter.

"Well, you all have no option than to use it", Miss Bimbo told everyone." When you're in Rome, you behave like a Roman".

When Cleo told me we were heading to the palace of the Zuma rock village. I expected something gigantic since it's a significant place in our country, but what I saw was quite sad. The hut was just like everyone else's though it was protected by few guards in their local attires and local guns in their hands. But despite the unwelcoming state of this decades abode, the king received us with sounds of excitement and entertaining drum beats from his villagers. Afterward, his maids served us gingered pap with honey and peppered kuli kuli. During this process, he tells us the story of Abuja as a whole, stressing the importance of Zuma rock in the tourism development of the city.

"Oh my God! Nifemi, look at this!" Shola showed me a shot of the king's tassel in mid-air.

"This is so cool", I commended her.

"If only I can get a better camera", she complained.

" I could get you one if you give me your breakfast share", Tito said to Shola. She really enjoyed the meal.

"No, thanks", Shola didn't want to be associated with her.

" Hey, sweetie", Loveboy held Tito's hand, making Shola feel a bit uncomfortable."I've got some fans round here. They can fix you something to fill up your little tummy".

"Uh Oh. Thank you, babe", They left.

" Hey, girls. I've been looking for you", Timmy joined us.

"What's up, Timmy?", Shola smiled.

" I found some interesting stuff in the palace you'd love to caption", He told her happily.

"Thanks, bestie", He led her to the spot where the ancestral objects were arranged.

A/N:

Nothing will make me happier than to get lots of comments as feedback from you guys, and recommendations as well cause it's proof that you really enjoyed the book. Happy new year in Advance, guys😍😀

Yours teenfictionly,

Eniola Oluwamuyiwa