CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

ENERGY...

"Before you milk a cow, you should at least try to make it your friend", Timmy told Cleo and me the following morning at a livestock farm.

" No. You go on with that. I don't think I'm good at being friends with animals", Fear gripped me as the cow mooed.

"But you have a dog at home", He brought me closer to the cow."You can start by feeding it".

"Hope it won't bite?", I fed the cow slowly.

"Nah. "She's not a bitch like you", Hawau laughed.

"Why did you just say?" Miss Bimbo who was talking to the farm owner earlier turned to her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way", She apologized immediately.

"That's not enough. You're going to sweep the cow's poop before we leave this place", Miss Bimbo told her.

" What!",Hawau replied with disgust in her eyes, and everyone made fun of her.

"Oh my God! I'm enjoying this!" I say, feeling excited as I make use of Cleo's lesson in milking the cow.

"Okay, guys. Come over", My homeroom teacher(Mr. Bassey) called our attention, and we form a circle round him."Can we have a milking competition?"

"Yes, sir", We chorused.

After receiving orders from Mr. Bassey, the competitors started extracting milk from the milkers, using every strength they've got. Shola and I stayed with the other girls under a shade, shouting as much as we could to encourage our bestie(Timmy) who emerged winner, having the highest amount of milk before the estimated time for milking elapses. With excitement, he lifted Shola up and the villagers sang his praises with their local music instruments and rewarded him with a pure white chicken.

"Thanking for earning us tonight's source of protein", Miss Bimbo smiled broadly at Timmy in our kitchen in the evening, as he assisted us in killing the fowl he won earlier.

"Sorry but this is for me and my husband alone", Shola joked.

"Eh Pele oo, ruth abokoku(A woman that builds her world around a man)", Miss Bimbo responded and we laughed."Hey, are you okay?" She asked Ayo who looked unhappy.

"How can she be happy when her husband is not here?" Shola prevented herself from laughing for Miss Bimbo's sake.

"Oh. I see. Even Cleo left Nifemi for Fulani girls", Miss Bimbo teased me.

"That's not true", I replied shyly.

"It's okay, dear", Miss Bimbo forced her to smile."As you can see, Nifemi's enjoying her life even though Cleo's not here so do the same".

"I'm so lucky I've got the best husband in the whole world", Shola made fun of us as she removed the chicken feathers with Timmy, having a bowl of hot water nearby.

"Good evening, people", A young lad with a thick Hausa Accent came looking for Ayo who received him warmly. For a couple of minutes, they sat and chatted outside after seeking permission from Miss Bimbo.

More also, Hawau came to tell Shola that Mr.  Bassey wants to see her at the palm wine joint where they were having fun, so I to fry the chicken alone. It didn't turn out bad anyway. It was tender and crispy too. Everyone loved it. In fact, all we did was eat it with gulps of palm wine and go to bed. No matter how much Miss Bimbo begged, Mr. Bassey didn't allow her to save any for cooking any soup.

Instead of having our bath in our Palm frond bathroom the next day, we went to the river. On our way, we came across a few monkeys hopping from trees to trees and rabbits being careful not to fall victim to traps. Within the walkway, extensions of weeds tried to prevent us from moving forward but Cleo used a cutlass to cut them off. At the riverside, the girls wore their different designs and patterns of bikini to show off their body shapes, while I sat at the river edge to watch their swimming techniques.

"Why aren't you swimming anymore", I asked Shola who suddenly lost interest in swimming and sat next to me with her dripping body.

"I feel extremely uncomfortable because Loveboy can't take his eyes off me", She sighed."Can you believe he was the one who sent Hawau to call me yesterday? "

"What!" I exclaimed.

"The same incident as the last one was about to happen but I fought it with all the strength left in me", She hugged me.

"I'm so happy for you", I smiled, and we separated ourselves.

"Is it something I need to know?" Cleo came to check on us.

"No", We zipped our lips because our minds were determined not to tell him anything this time since he kind of neglected us. He went to the palm wine joint with the villains yesterday and he's been swimming and taking a couple of pictures with them in the river. He didn't even care that we weren't in those pictures.

" Don't tell me you're jealous", He laughed.

"Of course not", We chorused.

"I'm sorry if you guys felt neglected", He apologized."I'm a man of the people".

"Man of the people, my foot", Shola returned to her position near Timmy in the river where they splashed water on each other's face, and also throw a beach ball at each other.

"And why aren't you getting into the water, Aerial?", he teased me.

"You've said it all", I laughed. "I don't want to scare you guys off.

" Well, I know something else you'd be more interested in", He took me back into the woods and we walk for a couple of minutes till we got to the bottom of an Iroko tree which was used to host a swing.

"Wow! This is lovely!", I exclaimed." How did you come about this?"

"Well...", He smiled."I'm glad you love it. Now, it's time to get on".

More than anything else, I'd love to get on this beautiful thing Cleo made on my behalf but I couldn't. I was too much of a boring person. As far as I could remember, the last time I got on a swing was in nursery school. Back then, inferiority complex pushed me into doing it and I ended up paying for it.

When one of my favorite classmates was pushing me then, I started forcing myself to enjoy it but a teacher called her to carry out an errand urgently, and she left without looking back. Since my voice was too low, no one could hear my cry for help and while trying to get down, I got hurt because fear didn't let me do things right.

"What's wrong", Cleo saw my sad countenance.

"Nothing", I summoned the courage to get on the swing but each time I tried, I ended up not being able to climb up so he supported me in the end.

"It's okay, trust me", He smiled, then pushed me forward and increased the rate at which he does that at intervals.

"Hey, don't be too fast", I felt uneasy, yet wanted him to keep on swinging me.

"Just go with the flow. You'll be alright", He pushed me till I loosen up completely.

"This is so fun", I laughed hysterically.

"That's the spirit!"He smiled.

Every now and then, I got to know more about him. Each time I looked at him, I couldn't enough of his contagious smile. I became more selfish because of him. When he talked to people, I wish they would be me. I didn't want this to be our last trip. I wished we could have more crazy adventures together, I wished things wouldn't have to change between us. Yet, I kept asking myself over and over again if I'm really worthy of him. More also, I was scared of getting hurt, I feel ashamed of myself for developing feelings for him when I was only supposed to be his friend.

"Your mind seems far away", He noticed that I was thinking copiously.

" I'm fine", I didn't want him to worry about me.

"Hey, guys", Tony walked towards us.

"What's sup, niccur?",Cleo responded him and I said an inaudible hello to him.

" Have you seen Ayo?" He acted like a troubled person.

"No", We said at the same time.

" She was at the river with us", Cleo mentioned. "How come she left and you guys didn't know?"

"I thought she was with you guys", He panicked." I've been trying to call her, but the network here is poor. "What if she's been attacked?"

"Calm down", Cleo patted his shoulders."She must have gone back to the hut".

"You're right. Silly me! I didn't think of that", He gave himself a knock on his head.

"We still have to make sure she's there. Let's go back", Cleo held me like a child and led the way back to the hut. There, we found Ayo making fura de nunu with the Hausa boy.

"Welcome guys", She sounded very happy. "Faryan taught me how to make fura, and it's very sweet. You'll definitely like it when you try it".

"I ain't tasting that nonsense", Tony laughed and left for the guys' room.

"Do you care for some?",Ayo inquired from us, undiscouraged by Tony's hurtful remark.

"Of course", We sat with them to have several sips of the delicious milky substance, and chat about the bad state of Zuma rock village, and what the government can do to improve it.

Later, the rest returned from the river then miss Bimbo took the junior female students to the market since they were the ones on kitchen duty that day. After returning, they made a pot of Tuwo Sinkafa which we had for dinner, under a full bloom moon. Coincidentally, Ayo and I finish eating our food at the same time so we went into the kitchen together to wash our hands.

" Did you enjoy the food", She began a discussion with me.

"Yh", I was honest with her." The girls really tried. I never thought they could do something like this".

"You're right", She affirmed." But Faryan's cooking skills can't be compared to this anyways".

"Well, it's his indigenous food", I replied politely.

"I'm sorry for how I treated you at Tony's place", She digressed.

" I understand..",I planned to make my response longer, but Tony's presence shortened it.

"Hey, babe", He moved closer to her.

"Leave me alone!"She pushed him away, while I moved out of the kitchen but stayed close enough to hear their conversation.

"Why are you avoiding me lately?"Tony's voice was similar to that of a wounded lion.

"Do you care if I do?" She laughed. "You have numerous lovers, and they seem enough to keep you happy".

" Oh my Goodness!",He also laughed"I don't remember complaining about you being with that Hausa boy that smells like poop.."

"Hold it right there", Ayo's tone changed to a harsh one." You have no right to disrespect Faryan because he doesn't use a perfume as expensive as yours. At least, he doesn't make you feel as terrible as you do".

"Oh, that's great", He said sarcastically."If you think he's better than me, then you should spend the rest of your life in this shithole"

"Hey, eavesdropper", Tony caught me off guard.

" I know that was wrong. I'm sorry", I apologized.

"It's okay. You don't have to be the perfect lady all the time", We went outside to sit near the bonfire with the rest.

Close to Bedtime, I had the chance to talk with Bola. She was with DJ Freaky when he was having a video chat with Loveboy and begged to see me. I was extremely happy to know that she could work well with Rose and She was also happy that I was enjoying my trip more than she imagined.

I was excited to go climb the Zuma mountain with Cleo and other members of our crew, so I woke up very early the following morning to prepare my helmet, hand protection gloves, and hiking shoes. Even though our destination was not too far, Mr. Bassey made one of the school buses available to convey us there because he doesn't want us to exhaust our energy.

" I honestly don't know if I'll be able to climb the mountain, but I'll take great pictures", Shola turned on her camera the moment we got there.

"Which is harder? Being in love with me or mountaineering?" Loveboy asked a question that Shola ignored.

Cleo and I got ready to climb the mountain as planned, while the rest told the world their present location on Snapchat.

The feeling of being a mission impossible is unavoidable when mountaineering. At some point, my body started relenting because it didn't understand why I should be going through hell with hardcore Cleo who saw me only as an adventure partner, and highschool junior to look after. But my heart kept pushing, she wanted to go to the ends of the earth with him even if it might hurt her. She wanted to keep going even if the soles of her boots are not enough to keep her feet from getting hurt, and it felt like she was going to faint anytime soon, after being under the hot sun for a couple of minutes.

In conclusion, mountaineering is an experience every person on earth should go through because it's applicable to our struggles in life. As mountaineers aim to reach the peak of a mountain despite several obstacles, we should reach for our goals even if circumstances around us are not so cool with it. Mountaineers gain strength and encouragement from their partners, and gadgets and people in the real world also do so from their loved ones as well as the burning desire to reach their goals no matter what happens.

"Yes! We did it", Cleo was filled with excitement when we got to the peak of the rock.

"This is so cool", I admired the astonishing sight of the landmarks and natural forces sounding the rock.

"If you want to keep being a naturalist, at least have a sit, ma'am", Cleo supported me in sitting on the mat he placed on the floor because my legs were aching me.

"Can't we just stay here forever?"I was enjoying the scenery and cool air.

" You're right. It's great being here with you... ", His last word hits me like thunder does to a banana tree, but I managed to control myself.

"Do you have a gourd of water with you? "I said instead of making a comment regarding his last statement, but I still needed what I asked for to save myself from dehydration.

" Yh", He brought it out of his backpack quickly.

"Thanks", I blushed.

A/N;

I know it's been a while, guys! Thanks for not giving up on Marie's high and don't you ever think of doing so cause we're dedicated to keeping you happy and entertained with the best of teen fiction characters and events.

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Apologizes for any grammatical error you came in contact within this chapter since it's not been checked by a professional editor.

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Eniola Oluwamuyiwa.