The Externals - Chapter Eleven

Once upon a time, there lived a girl who was taller than most of the boys in her class but all of a sudden, they grew taller than her.

That girl was me!

That incident gave those silly boys the opportunity to tease me so I was annoyed. I resolved to get back at them by gaining more height so I made beans appear often in the food time table I made then, but I could only follow it up to date for a while. As we all know, cooking beans consumes more gas or kerosene and that's not economical!

Instead of wasting more of my time pondering on what to use in substituting the meal on my time table, I pulled the long bucket which I use to keep my foodstuffs to myself and brought out the black polythene containing cassava flakes for consumption. Trust me, I really enjoyed it despite the fact that I didn't was no sugar or groundnut. The blocked sachets of water my Aunt bought earlier that day and kept inside one of her coolers were remaining so I added them and was satisfied with the outcome.

"What are you doing in my house young lady? Don't you have errands to run for your parents?" It was Aza's mom attacking me with questions.

Well, I didn't intend going anywhere after taking that bowl of cassava flakes and cold water which made me drowsy but I just had to force myself to walk down to her two-story apartment so Aza and I could talk about our project without being disturbed by our nosy classmates or troublesome proprietor.

"Good evening, ma", I tried to enchant her with my smile." I came here to ask Aza for help with my maths homework".

"Isn't there anyone else you can ask for help?" She said with pride.

If only she knew what I said was nothing but a ploy to make her do my bidding.

"There is but Aza has his own special way of explaining things", I told her.

"Okay. Come in", She let me into their living room where Aza and his siblings were watching a science fiction movie.

"Senior Lily, it's nice of you to come see us", His youngest sister gave me a hug and created a space for me to sit with them, on their longest sofa.

"No, Kemi", Her mom snapped at her."Don't ever do this kind of thing when you grow up! You have to be smart so you won't need a boy to help you with your maths homework".

"Who says she needs my brother's help?"Sijuade laughed hysterically."This lady standing here happens to be the most brilliant student in GMC".

Upon discovering the truth, Mrs. Amadou allowed me to have the conversation I desired with Timmy but she still kept an eye on the both of us throughout. It was a miracle she didn't throw me out instantly!

Like I'd wanted, everyone who mounted the podium on the first day of our fasting and prayer program didn't go beyond the stipulated time for their ministration, so all the students did what they were supposed to do, except for a few who were naturally stubborn. Moreover, Khadijat paraded the classrooms on time to get the names of those who were interested in buying food so it was easy for the students to pick them up after prayer since the food seller had already dished them.

As good seniors, my classmates who had business with the food seller waited for her to sell to the juniors first, which made the proprietor proud of them. Little did he know that some of them had filled their bellies with all sorts of junks before entering the school compound. Yet, they claimed to be part of those who were fasting. Well, I'm proud to say that I and my friends weren't fans of such things. We never missed any of the fasting and prayer programs since we started schooling in GMC.

"Wifie, would you like to have these?" John offered me some bananas after I broke my fast with half of the water in my water bottle.

"Thanks, husby", I smiled and collected it.

"Hmmm", The class echoed.

"You people should look for somewhere else to do your nonsense. This is a classroom oo", Halima rolled her eyes.

"It's a pity that they used lace and hot water to massage some people's mouth when they were young so there's nothing they can do to stop it from leaking", My words made everyone in the class laugh.

"Who do you think you're talking to? Are you mad?"Kenny slapped me and made disfiguring marks appeared on my dark face.

"How..."

My hands were itching to give that bastard what he deserved but my heart wouldn't let me do so. Instead of hating him for doing something unacceptable to me, I blamed myself for doing something that got him angry. I blamed myself for not being worthy of his love. I knew it was a very stupid thing to do but I couldn't help it Unfortunately, Jess was sorting money issues with her sibling at that point in time so she wasn't around to defend me. John had also gone out of the class because our computer teacher needed his help. Aza wasn't the violent and Khadijat only insulted him. All I could do was cry, even though it only made me feel worse.

As I was beginning to pull myself together, our civic teacher walked into the classroom, and of all the topics, he chose to talk about intimidation as one of the causes of peer pressure. Instead of joining my mates to talk about this topic which seemed interesting to them since it was an interactive class, I kept mute. Everyone sensed that I was still angry about what Kenny did to me so none of them dared to ask for my opinion on the issue.

Well, our civics teacher was able to do that as my superior. He didn't get any word from me initially yet he kept pushing till he got yelled at. Even though he understood how I felt, he scolded me so my classmates wouldn't take him for granted and told me to see him in the staff room for further questioning. If I had told him what happened, he wouldn't have hesitated to disgrace Kenny on the assembly ground like he usually does to offenders but that would have smeared my reputation the more. I wasn't ready to become a subject of ridicule among the juniors students who respected me.

Aza and I knew Friday which was always the last day of the fasting and prayer program would be preoccupied so we decided to have our presentation on Thursday and it was nice! Oh my goodness! You should have seen the faces of my juniors when they were watching us! It was filled with joy and admiration! I believe most of them planned on doing the things I did someday too. You must be eager to know what I did.

Even I didn't think I could do it but I recited psalm 118 from the beginning to the end in King David's tone without pausing and Aza translated it in Yoruba Language. We also told the origin of Christianity through a conversation. No one could point out any errors during our presentation because our costumes were also nice. I wore the Jewish outfit my grandma gave me at her party and gave Leo my brother's.

Surprised that there could be a male version of me somewhere? Well, there was but we weren't that close and he didn't sound interested when I told him about the gift. That's expected of him since he wasn't the church-going type. His character was similar to the idiot (Kenny) who tried so hard to stop people from attributing much importance to my presentation.

"Lily, I don't think I'll be able to take this dress off. I love it", Kaira took a selfie with the outfit on my phone.

After getting our principal's permission, I brought it so Halima could use it in recording our presentation. Depending on Kenny or any other teacher would have been stupid because they were capable of using it to blackmail me.

"Thanks", I replied Kaira. My original intention was to drag the clothes from her neck but had to caution myself. Despite being a Halima's supporter, she still had the guts to put on my special outfit for a long time.

What a friend!

"Senior, we want to use this cloth to snap picture too now", I was glad when some female junior students appeared to collect it from her.

In order not to seem partial, I headed to the foodshed and left Khadijat to monitor them so no sort of harm will befall the outfit. Our proprietor was impressed with my performance so he told the food seller to give Aza and I any type of meal we wanted.

That wasn't supposed to mean anything to Aza because his mom serves nourishing meals in his lunch box but I almost fainted when I saw him devouring his meal at the foodshed like a starving beast.

"What're you doing Leo? I know you're going to be in trouble of your mom finds out about this" I made fun of him.

"Please help me to continue ringing it in his ears. He won't listen to me", Jess who was having his mom's meal instead said. "This is the best meal I've ever eaten".

"It's not my fault, girls. My lips weren't designed to enjoy just one woman's cooking", He handpicked the remnant of boiled rice on his plate, ignoring the onlookers surrounding him.

"So what you're trying to say is that you can't be contented with one woman?" I teased him.

"You of all people should know I only have eyes for one", He looked in the direction of Jess who had gone to wash his lunch box outside the foodshed.

"I don't think so. If you're really do, you would have told her your feelings by now", I challenged him.

"Seriously?"He whined."You seem to have forgotten she now has a boyfriend".

"Ohhh...yeah. We're both unfortunate to love people who can't do the same for us", I sighed.

"Yet we did the best of all GMC's fasting & prayer presentation", He said happily.

"It wouldn't have been possible without you. Thanks a lot", I smiled.

"Anything for you, prin.."A junior student interrupted our conversation.

"Senior Lily, Master Gbenga wants to see you in the hall", He informed me.

"Okay. Thanks", I prayed silently to God that it shouldn't be because I failed the difficult maths assignment he gave us the previous day.

Sometimes ago, our principal jokingly told us assignments could be done anywhere and homework should be done at home but we took it pretty seriously. We had a way of convincing our teachers to name our homework assignments most of the time, without letting them know the trick behind it. That might sound dumb but it was the only way we could justify our actions if we got caught.

Before the close of school the previous day, everyone in the class asked Halima for help with the difficult maths assignment because she was good in maths. The likes of John, Jeremiah, and Daniel just copied the working and solution the exact way it was written in her book but I couldn't join them in doing such a thing because she was involved. At the end of the day, turned out the only reason Master Gbenga asked to see me was because he wanted to borrow my costumes for the drama they were performing on the final day of the fasting and prayer program.

A/N:

I wanted this and the upcoming chapter to be a Christmas bonus but I was so busy that I didn't have the chance to post till now so pardon me. I hope you enjoyed this year's Christmas because it was wonderful for me. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year In Advance😁😍

Yours teenfictionly,
Eniola Oluwamuyiwa.