The Externals - Chapter Thirteen

During lunch, Master Gbenga told a junior student to call me from my classroom while I was eating boiled potatoes with fried eggs delightfully. I thought he was going to tell me my lips were in no position to eat having failed his test, but all he did was beg me to help Janet prepare for her English test since I was very good at it.

Unfortunately, I forgot to do that because another teacher also begged me to help her watch over SS1 students while writing their because I was free and she trusted me my unbiased mind not to allow any of them practice any form of test malpractice and I promised to make her proud. However, nothing of such happened. The students didn't respect me because I wasn't as pretty as Halima or Janet. They bluntly told me they would never listen to me until I had a plastic surgery. Rather than ignore everything, I allowed their words to get to me and it was no good for me.

"Lily, are you okay?" Janet noticed I got lost in thought while teaching her how to write formal letters, without copying from a textbook like most students do at my school.

"Yeah. I'm perfectly fine", I repositioned myself on the couch we boah sat on.

"If anything is bothering you, just tell me. I'm popularly known as the problem solver," She said in a delightful manner.

"Really?" I chuckled though what she said wasn't funny.

Could it be that I too had a crush on her like the other boys in my classroom? That's so gross!

"I'm serious. My female classmates used to call me a witch", She made a facial expression that got me scared.

"That's enough.." I stammered, moving as far as possible from her yet she kept following me.

"How could a petty me scare Lily Allen like this?" She laughed and started rolling on the ground.

"In ten minutes, write a letter of 250 words to your uncle who is the new minister of education, telling him about the new policies you would like him to put in place", I decided to punish her for making fun of me.

"Is that an informal or formal letter?"She asked naively, and I instantly called myself a fool for thinking she was here to take the position that belonged to me.

" It's a formal letter", I answered her nicely.

"The time you gave me is too short for that", She complained.

"I'm trying to groom you and you're complaining. Do you think Master Yemi will give you the whole day?" I made it sound like I was assisting her.

"You're right" She turned to the first page of her tutoring note and started writing.

Janet finished the letter on time and I went through it to circle out punctuation and grammar errors for her to take note of. She wanted to stay back for a while even after I gave her back her note, and called it a day so I had to drag her out of my compound and lock the gate since I wasn't expecting any visitor.

The following morning, I was awakened by the sound of a heavy downpour and strong wind. If my aunt was home, she would have been praying endlessly for God to protect our faulty roof from falling off, but I wasn't bothered. I was too happy my English teacher would come late to school because there would be a scarcity of buses and traffic since the road to his house was bad. Even though I prepared a lot for his English test, I still felt inadequate to take it.

Regardless of how cold the weather was, I took my bath with cold water and didn't hesitate to use for my cereals too. At 8 am, the rain still hasn't stopped so I continued watching the K drama series Omma gave to me last week titled, "The Heirs" knowing there won't be any open-air assembly gathering that morning. With lovesome eyes, I watched Kim Tan defend Cha Eun Sang at Boo Na and Chan Young's reunion party. I also wished there was someone who would love me for who I am and stand up for me like that. A few days ago, I thought John would be that person but, a princess charming captured his heart forever!

When the rain finally stopped, it was past 9 am and that was past the period for our English test. Ignoring our proprietor's instruction not to wear any other cardigan apart from the one that has the school's badge, I brought out my favorite pink hood from my wardrobe, wore it, and walked to school. Our English teacher who was leaving as I was about to enter my classroom replied my greeting with a smirk and I didn't realize what was going on until I saw the test question written boldly on the blackboard within five lines.

'Write a letter of 250 words to your uncle who is the new minister of education, telling him about the new policies you would like him to put in place'. Funny, right?

After seeing that, I followed him to the staff room to plead with him to allow me to rewrite my test but he dismissed me with a wave of his fingers. And that only meant he was never going to give me a chance to do so.

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry", Khadijat sympathized with me under the mango tree at the back of our school which was a regular gossip spot for girls, after I got back from the staff room.

Janet already told everyone what happened and apologized to me publicly while Halima made fun of me with her facial expression. She loved seeing me defeated and broken. Could she have convinced him to give them the test without me?

"It's fine", I tried to act strong.

"Why are you apologizing to her? She deserves whatever is happening to her!" Jessica said harshly.

"Jess?"I least expected her to say such words to me.

"Yes. It's me. It's the girl who begged you several times to tutor her in English but you wouldn't listen!" She sounded angry."Then, why did you change because of Janet? You were trying to make her like you, right?"

"Stop trying to blame me for your problem? Is it my fault that you were born a dullard!"I didn't realize the gravity of my words till a dirty slap landed on my cheek.

Jess was planning to give me more of that till Aza intervened, yet she wouldn't stop shouting, "You're so full of yourself! Do you think you're the smartest person in the world? There are many other people out there who are better than you".

"But certainly not you", I hissed and walked away. Even though I knew what I said was very wrong. I didn't apologize to Jess because I didn't want to look like a weakling.

For the remaining days of the week, Jess and I avoided each other like a plague. We neither greeted each other nor visited each other's home. The whole thing made me feel uncomfortable yet I couldn't bring myself to apologize even though Aza and Khadijat tried severally to settle the rift between us. Apart from not having anything to do with Jess, I also avoided having any interaction with Janet. Still, she kept scoring higher marks than me in different subjects, surprising everyone and gaining more social approval.

My anger could have been the reason why I wasn't able to concentrate fully on my tests and defeat her, right?

On Friday morning, the proprietor came to our assembly ground, to voice his concern over the fact that we've never gone to any sporting event outside our community. For this cause, he registered our school for one which was going to take place at Agege's stadium. As our sports teacher, the proprietor expected Master Gbenga to select the best athletes and train them more for the competition. He also appointed two of my colleagues who were active in sporting activities to assist him in doing so. They were none other than Jess and Kenny.

After he called Jess' name, a junior student who didn't like her for constantly punishing her for bullying people reminded the proprietor she didn't own a sportswear, just to humiliate her and make sure her is given to someone else. I didn't know what prompted me to speak but I did talk.

"Are you okay? Do you think she's happy not to be able to afford sportswear worth just three thousand five hundred naira", I gave the boy a cold stare.

"You don't have any reason to talk because you're birds of a feather", Jess hit me on my face. I was standing in before her because we were almost the same height.

"That's enough", The proprietor yelled at her."I can't believe you can act like this in a public place! Is this how you're going to represent us at the event?"

"No, sir", We chorused hastily.

"It's alright. Jess is not going to the competition if she doesn't have her own sportswear. I want you to make sure of that ", The proprietor said to our sports teacher.

"Sir.." Jess tried to apologize but he didn't give her a chance to do that.

"Keep your apology to yourself!" He said to her and walked away from the assembly ground then we marched to our classroom singing a song titled," the day is bright and fair" even though it was nothing of such.

As expected, Jess became angrier at me for running her chances of participating in the competition. Our other classmates knew it was her temper that made that happen so they stood behind me. In their presence, the proprietor once advise her to learn how to control her temper and avoid the use of force but she wouldn't listen. Her bad temper had both advantages and disadvantages. It once made her beat up a boy who was harassing me on the road to her house one evening and score 7/10 in our literature test. Since she was mad at me, she studied hard to prove to me that she wasn't as dumb as I thought and succeeded in doing so.

So, therefore, I thought of continuing to do things that will annoy her so she can keep getting angry and excelling in her studies! Crazy, right?

"Hi", Janet came to meet me in my seat, after our other classmates have either gone to place their orders at the foodshed or gist about the latest entertainment news under the mango tree.

On such occasions, Khadijat doesn't fail to express her undying love for Whizkid by listing all his old and new songs from start to finish. Kaira, on the other hand, loved Davido so she hated it when Khadijat told everyone who cared to listen that Whizkid was the best hip-hop musician in Nigeria. They both don't get tired of listing points to defend people who don't give a shit about them!

Well, I preferred Sean Tizzle. He isn't known to release songs every now and then, but his songs carried deep meanings. I mean who wouldn't be inspired to go about his daily job diligently after hearing, "Loke Loke" early in the morning?

"I came to see you concerning the issue you have with Jess", I almost forgot that Janet was standing in front of me.

"It's not something for you to be concerned about!" I kept looking at the storybook on my desk to avoid looking at her vulnerable eyes. It wasn't the kind of book I loved reading but I still collected it from the literature teacher because I was bored staying alone in class and didn't want to associate with any classmate of mine yet.

"What you say doesn't matter. I know you care about her as well. I don't want to be the reason why your friendship was destroyed. Please make sure she participates in that competition", She went on her knees.

A/N:

A big thank you to the Almighty God for giving us the grace to witness another year. Happy New Year, guys😍😁 I pray all your desires for this beautiful year will be granted. Thanks for the support you've shown this work so far and the upcoming ones!
Yours faithfully,
Eniola Oluwamuyiwa