The Externals- Chapter Two

Soon enough, we both realized that the man standing in front of us only looked like our old proprietor. I was more relieved than Omma was. Even though I cared about her, I was more concerned about not having my name in the school's black list before graduation. It was one of the requirements of being the best graduating student which had been my aim since my first year.

"How was school today?" Omma asked when we were a few miles away from my home.

"Fine", I sighed."Why weren't you around?"

"Can't you see?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Oh my God!" I couldn't refrain myself from laughing at her new slim figure."I'm so sorry. How did this happen?"

"I got sick when I went to my Big Aunty's place for the holiday and had to be admitted to the hospital for weeks...I'm just recuperating sef", She explained.

"Pele, dear", I gave her an apologetic look."You'll be fine".

"Yh. You need to see the way I.D has been pampering me these days!" She smiled."I know it won't take long before I weigh three times more than my usual self".

"Are you seriously going to allow that unserious guy to turn you into a size 12 again?" I spoke venomously.

"And he's a sweet guy oo. I wish you'll get to know him", She watched me unlock my gate.

"Over my dead body!"I wanted to slam it after we got in, but a male figure stopped me from doing so.

Speaking of the devil.....

"Your compound is very big oo!", I.D exclaimed.

"What do you want?"I questioned him bluntly."Strangers are not welcomed in here".

"I just came to drop this one for you", He gave me the items he bought for me earlier. I had intentionally left it there.

"You shouldn't have bothered", I rolled my eyes.

"No wahala", He blushed despite my reaction.

"Up Nepa!" Omma rejoiced when as the electricity supply was restored and dragged her boyfriend out of my compound."I'll see you later!"

"Ok. Take care!"I closed my gate since I wasn't planning to receive any other guest for the day".

The movie Omma gave me was interesting and thus made it difficult for me to prepare dinner in the kitchen, so I resolved to eat the snacks I.D bought me even if I hated doing so!

Tuesday
I got up earlier from my bed because I planned to cook about two cups of rice with egg stew and dish it to school. The universe had no right to complain about me wasting its resources with my poor cooking skills since it denied me access to a mom who would have taught me better, and gave me an Aunt who didn't have enough time to teach me. Yet, she expected me to be an expert in that field!

Interesting! Why didn't I have the guts to tell her faith without work is DEAD!

My walk to school wasn't traumatizing like yesterday's, because I didn't come in contact with Halima or any other person of her kind. I also got to school at a time that was convenient for me to finish the food in my flask and rest before assembly, as part of my morning routine. Students in my class like Kehinde Adedire whose parents were available do give them more than enough money for food allowance, so they could eat more than three times per day!

But what about people of my caliber who can't afford to do that? Does that mean we don't have the right to eat in the morning because we don't want to be accused of looking at our classmates' mouths during lunch?

Of course not!

I preferred eating my food while it's still hot, and nothing could change that! More also, eating early in the morning gives me the energy needed to accomplish the day's task.

"Eku igbadun oo", Our principal who was also served as our Physics, Further Maths, and class teacher entered my homeroom.

"Good morning sir", I struggled to greet him with my mouth filled with 'grounded molecules' of rice.

"It's okay", He prevented me from saying more words." I just wanted to let you know that I'm coming to teach you physics after assembly".

"Yes, sir!"I watched him walk out of my homeroom swiftly, and he returned, in the same manner, an hour later.

It was really really annoying that he chose to teach me even though I was the only available student of the strenuous science department but there was nothing I could do about it!

In SS1 (Senior Secondary School One), we were made to offer the subjects under each department to determine our strengths and weaknesses. Well, I didn't encounter any problem with either of them, but still preferred going to the Sciences, to uphold my mom's legacy. During lunch, I came out to get some puff puff from the snacks seller and came in contact with the most gentle boy in my class nicknamed, "Bene Repo" because his country of origin was the Republic of Benin. His real name was Azagba.

"Hey, It's good to see you again, Lily", He widened his lips as he saw me.

"Same here", I hit him a little."Why haven't you been coming to school".

"It's...nothing", He spoke slowly.

"Oh, come on", I tried to cajole with a worried look." If I had enough credit on my phone, I would have called everyone but I don't, and yet I'm dying to know what's going on with everyone".

"I don't know of others, but Jess won't be resuming with us", His eyes turned red.

Jess is short for Jessica and she was one of the classmates I was close with so not having her around meant trouble. I knew her family was having financial issues for a while, but never thought it would resolve to her dropping out of school.

"Are you sure about what you're telling me?"I doubted him.

"Of course. You know I don't joke with issues regarding her", He reminded me.

"Yet you've not admitted to having feelings for her", I teased him.

"You have to believe me, Lily", He still blushed."She's just a friend".

"Everything's going to be fine", I assured him." All you need to do is meet me home by 4 pm so we can go over to her house".

"Sure", He waved to me and turned to the exit after handing his sibling's lunchboxes to them. "Bye".

"Take care", I replied.

One thing I knew for sure was Jessica wasn't the only one staying away from school due to financial crisis. Many others in our class had been finding it difficult to pay their school fees since the economic recession started, even though my school remained the cheapest in our area. Still, I didn't see that as enough reason for them to drop out since most of my classmates were individuals whose nuclear family members relied on to change their status and being able to do that required education.

As soon as I dropped my school bag on the faulty plastic chair in my bedroom after school hour, I brought out one of the jotters my dad brought for me when he last visited me, then began to write the names and addresses of my classmates. I planned to visit them, find out why they've not been coming to school and encourage them to do so no matter how difficult things were. They couldn't afford to give up when it was almost time to reap the reward for their six years of labor.

"Hi. Is anyone home?", I knocked on the door of Bene's apartment which wasn't far from my home, since he didn't show up in time for our 4 pm appointment.

"Who is there oo?"A familiar and childish voice replied.

"It's Lily from GMC", I announced my presence, hoping he would come to see me instantly, but his disciplinarian of a mom appeared in his stead.

"Shouldn't you be helping your mom in the kitchen by this time?" She rolled her eyes at me.

"I wish I could but unfortunately, my mom's dead", I told her.

"I'm very sorry for you", She shook her head pitifully."So you mean you cannot even gbomi eba kana?"

"Ma'am, I came here because Aza and I have some business to tend to", I changed our subject of discussion.

"What kind of business would you have with my son after school, young lady?"She asked me.

What the hell was this woman thinking? Her son was too much of a crybaby and a mama's boy so he was never my type!

"His friend is sick so we both planned to go see him together", I said hastily to prevent her from suspecting me of cooking up a lie.

"A boy or a girl?"She still asked.

"It's a boy", I almost screamed at her.

I didn't think I'd be able to violate one of the school rules because of my classmate and lie. I felt like I was under an influence or something.

Azagba felt guilty for what happened so he kept apologizing to me, as we walked to Jess's house. He never told his mom about our appointment, because he was scared of her. Even though what he did was very annoying, I forgave him because of the true love he had for my friend.

Jess always had a fierce and passionate look in her eyes when she defends me against bullies. Knowing I wasn't the first person to hear why she didn't come to school made me feel bad so I was hoping to redeem myself with the visit. Even Aza was just lucky to have met her earlier at the market on Monday when he went to buy food items for his mom. Jessica Nweze was from the eastern part of the country, but she lived in my area long enough to be called a Westerner. She lived in one of the single rooms of a two-story building that belonged to a woman who named her, "Temitope" at birth, with five other family members.

"Oh my God! I'm so happy to see you, guys", Jess embraced I and Aza at the same time.

"Same here", I smiled."You've gotten fairer oo. Which cream are you using now?"

"Cream ke?"Jess laughed in a hysteric manner."Can someone who doesn't even have money to eat buy that?"

"It's okay", I patted her shoulder."Everything will be fine!"

"Any miracle that wants to happen should better happen before the WAEC registration closes else.."She sighed heavily.

"Calm down, mama. Besides, how will you pass the exam if help comes eventually, and you didn't prepare well?"I told her.

"You're right but I still can't resume this week because I'm helping my dad at his farm so we can have something to eat, but I'll try next week", She replied.

"Do you promise?"I insisted.

"Yes, ma", She crossed her heart.

"Please manage this", I dipped my hand into the pocket of my shorts, to bring out a two hundred naira note for her.

"No. I know how hard it is for you to..."She refused to take it.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine!"I squeezed the money in her right palm.

"Thank you very much", She hugged me.

"You guys seem to have forgotten me", Bene had a jealous look on his face.

"Sorry, my baby", She patted his back.

Aza and Jessica later sat underneath an orange tree at the back of her house to talk about the action movies they've watched, and those they plan to lend each other while I watched them like a dummy since I didn't enjoy watching those kinds of movie. At nightfall, Jess's mom politely told us to go home so we won't have issues with bad guys, then he suddenly realized that it's past the curfew time his mom gave him and started sweating profusely. Even though Jessica and I felt sorry for him, his reaction made us laugh. Nevertheless, we planned a strategy to get him out of trouble, which involved telling one of her older male friends to follow him home and plead with his mom not to punish him, under the pretense that he lost track of time while taking care of his sick friend.