The Externals - Chapter Fifteen

"We all have our bad habits, don't we?" She blushed.

"Yh", I sighed and thought of a way to make our conversation lengthy. "So what are your good habits".

"Dancing is one of those. My sister taught me how to do it", She showed me some cool dance moves.

"That's cool", I was jealous of her because my sisters were never available to teach me anything.

"I'm also thinking of creating a cheer group for our athletes", She was excited.

A cheer group in GMC? I wasn't so sure about that but I couldn't discourage her either. I followed her to Master Gbenga's office to tell him about it when they returned from the field and he agreed. Immediately, she brought out a piece of paper and started writing out the names of the junior students who were interested in joining her team. I advised her not to have too many people on her team so she'll be able to monitor their performances and she agreed with me. But so that it wouldn't look like she was biased, she decided to organize an audition the next day to check out their performances and select the best.

When the athletes heard about Janet's plans the next day, they were happy and got more interested in winning the contest. Khadijat felt bad because she also loved dancing as well but couldn't join them since she was already among the athletes. Jess offered to bring her dad's speaker for her so they could use it in playing songs during rehearsals. Kenny promised to supply her with refreshments and download every song she needs while John said he was going to buy a new towel home so she could use it to dry her body after bathing to get rid of sweats.

How funny! Our school didn't even have a bathroom for students but we had a corper's lodge so the boys teased Janet about having her bath there even though they knew she was going to do that in the student toilet. Most male teachers go there to bathe on our party days when it's too late for them to go home and get ready because they had to put many things in place by themselves so that the party can be interesting. They'll just send their siblings to bring whatever Ankara they picked for the occasion.

Speaking of which, I couldn't wait for my graduation day to come. I and my mates were already planning on how we were going to pepper them that day! Kenny decided to tease John by telling him his towel was too cheap for Janet to use. John got angry at him for saying that and before we knew it, he already landed a blow on his nose. Unfortunately, our principal saw him while passing by our class so he was punished.

"I'm sorry. Can you start all over again?" Janet said to the third participant of the day during her audition. For reasons I was yet to figure out, she couldn't fully concentrate on the audition.

"Oda bipe eti mugbo yo! (It's like you've smoked weed) This is the third time I'll be doing this!" She yelled.

"Hey, watch your tongue! Who do you think you're talking to?" I replied her.

"I don't care!" She walked out of our classroom.

That stupid girl was just lucky that Jess wasn't in class at that moment and Halima went to get her order at the foodshed. Else, she would have seen hell.

"Are you okay?" I said to Janet, feeling bad for not being able to teach the junior that disrespected her a bitter lesson.

"Do you remember me telling you I don't like people getting hurt because of me?" She rubbed her eyes. She was trying to prevent tears from coming out of them.

"Yeah", I nodded and instantly realized that she was hurting because of John.

"How's the audition going?" Our principal smiled as he came into our classroom. I was glad to see him in a good mood cause that meant I could find a way to convince him to release John who was serving punishment in the office.

"Fine, sir", I smiled back."We wouldn't mind you joining us".

"No, thanks. I can't be part of his nonsense!" The tone of his voice chan ged."I want to see everyone involved in this in my officee now!" I already told you that man changes like a weather.

As soon as he said that, the junior students started denying their association with Janet and the cheer group. Even I wasn't left out because I feared his cane more than anything else. Still, he didn't listen to any of us and we couldn't dare to disobey his orders. While in the principal's office, we told him Master Gbenga(acting vice-principal) permitted us to do the audition so he would cut us some slack but he still didn't let us go. He insisted that we should have told him about the audition before anyone else and I guessed he meant, 'I'm in charge of everything that goes on here!'

The reason why we couldn't tell him was because he wasn't around. Of course, Janet considered it more important to tell Master Gbenga first because of their relationship. Yet, I convinced her to let us tell the principal about it as well since he was the general overseer. Funnily enough, Master Gbenga also blamed us for not telling him about it and didn't utter any word of apology on our behalf. Master Gbenga claimed that he was angrier at us because our audition was interrupting his class. Rather than concentrate on what he was teaching, a student lied about going to the toilet and came to our class instead while another kept singing and practicing different dance steps in his seat.

How could that be our fault? Who could he expect the students to concentrate after depriving them of their break time?

For the first time, Janet got beaten by a teacher. Everyone wanted to be there for her when she shed tears. They wanted the one to tell her sorry and give her a tissue to wipe her tears but their wish never came through. She transferred from a public school so getting both minor and severe punishment meant nothing to her! The principal was forced to give up on her when he got tired of using more energy to beat her so she would get hurt and cry as much as he wanted. I, who wasn't any good at receiving cane strokes cried like there was no tomorrow.

My allies (excluding Jess) tried to make me stop but they couldn't do so. It was the principal who came to stylishly beg me and made me lift up my head from my desk. He knew my worth! He knew I was the smartest person in GMC and always the first person to pay our monthly lesson money in my class! What kind of teacher would want to offend that kind of student?

Our civic classes were always fun because the subject teacher made extra efforts to make us laugh but that was not the case this particular day. We were all too moody to smile. There was no way we could be happy when our principal ruined Janet's chances of showcasing her skills to the world.

Why would he think allowing students to dance means supporting their intentions of being a stripper in the future?

"Guys, there's something I would like to show you", Mr. Dre, short for Dare still wasn't willing to give up on making us smile.

"I hope it's not some lame-ass comedy skit by brother Shaggi?" Victor scoffed.

"Nope. It's nothing of such. It's educative but entertaining as well", Mr. Dee wanted to entice us.

"A speech by Dame Patience Jonathan?" Kenny mimicked part of her accent and we started laughing. He really was a clown!

Mr. Dee rolled his eyes at him for stealing his show. He loved acting childish at times.

"Oya now!"Khadijat almost shouted at him because she was always eager to see, hear or do things. If Mr. Dee didn't get the chance to show us that video, I'm sure she would have gone to ask him for it in the staff room.

"Here you go", Mr. Dee brought his phone to my seat which was on the first row and Khadijat came there immediately, making it difficult for me and my partner (Aza) to sit conveniently.

"This is good", She was first to comment on the video of young adults dancing to enlighten people about the dangers of drug abuse.

"Janet can do something like this", I had high expectations of her.

"Then, what's stopping her?" He asked.

"The principal", We chorused.

Mr. Dre was indeed a blessing to us. As soon as he ended his lesson in our class, he went to the principal's office in order to convince him to let Janet continue dancing and training people to do the same. Within ten minutes, he brought back good news for us. Yet, the principal insisted that no seductive dance moves should be added to her routine and she promised to do what he said.

On the day of the second audition, Janet picked eight gifted junior student dancers to be part of her cheer team. After giving them lists of names to choose from, they decided to choose to be identified as, "the Elites cheer squad". Rather than come up with their slogan too, she gave them the task of forming the most suitable one for their team then started preparing them for the competition.

Friday gave the likes of me and Janet the opportunity to go watch the athletes train on the borrowed field. From afar, I could see Khadijat's long legs moving swiftly on the field to prevent Jess from winning her. On a norms, she wouldn't have made that much of an effort before defeating her. The training really did Jess a lot of good and I was also sad that all of that might go to waste.

"Jess has really gotten better! Too bad she won't be able to go for the competition", Omma sighed.

"Why can't she just ask her boyfriend?", Aza said bitterly.

"She's not the type that likes bothering people especially if she loves them", I wish I skipped the love part, knowing it would hurt Aza.

"He's royalty so why should that small money be a problem to him?" We slowed down our pace.

"Why do we expect people to just spend money anyhow because they're rich? They have responsibilities too!"I told them.

"Is there no other way to help her out?" Aza was really concerned about her.

"Actually, I got the money to buy her the sportswear but the headteacher said it's out of stock", I finally explained the situation of things to them.

"It's like her village people have followed her to Lagos", John chuckled behind us when he was supposed to be training with other athletes.

"What're you doing here?" I covered his mouth."You must not tell anyone about this! Especially Jess!"

"I promise not to say anything", He swore to me.

"I think I've got the final solution to our problem", Omma smiled.

Omma had a neighbor who would soon be going to her sister's place at Oshodi so they'll wake up very early the next day to go and pick the clothing materials for her wedding at Eko. Therefore, she advised me to beg the woman to help them get Jess the school's exact type of sportswear there. Instead of following me to see that woman, she ditched me for Appa who came to show his support for the athletes as well.

Still, she promised to call the woman and inform her of my coming before I get there. The apartment I was told to go had peeling walls and a provision store where all sorts of beverages were sold. During the last session, Omma told us the lady of the house lost her son to an unknown illness so it was hard for me to move towards the door because I was scared that a child ghost might just come out to hunt me. Much to my disappointment, no such thing happened. What came out of that apartment was a dark handsome man with an average height.