The Externals - Chapter Sixteen

Before his eyes could get the chance to drill a hole in my face, I asked for his mom. In response, he told me she was dressing up in the master's bedroom and offered to let me sit in their living room and wait for her but I turned him down. Soon, the woman came out to attend to me. She was willing to help me get what I wanted because Omma was her good friend and companion. I thanked her for that, gave her the money for the sportswear then turned to leave.

By the time I got back to the field, Aza and Joe were already racing against themselves. I thought the former was going to win because he was taller than him. Unfortunately, he didn't make my desires come true. I was surprised that the latter could make it to the finishing line before him.

Even though the distance between the duo wasn't much, I still teased Aza about losing a game to a junior. Each time that happened, he would tell me that it only happened because he was distracted by Jess who was about to engage in a conflict with some thugs who were disrupting their training. They also wanted to play a match on the field at that very moment.

In the long run, he got the punch that one of the thugs threw at her when she was vulnerable. Jess wanted to fight him back but Cleo prevented her from doing so to avoid causing more problems. Thereafter, Master Gbenga gathered everyone to make sure we were complete and ordered us to go home because he was worried about our safety.

If the school's broken fence had been restored, we would have been able to stay there for as long as we wanted without anyone worrying about our safety. I was angry at the government for not attending to this issue on time because I was sure the management of the school must have written a petition.

For chrissake, many students were caught using the broken fence as a medium of running away from school. Besides, what if those thugs really harassed us?

Well, the government doesn't actually care about anyone else but themselves which is quite sad!

"Are you okay?" Ada noticed I was lost in thought, while we were passing the same route home.

"Sure", I adjusted my bag strap.

"Am I supposed to tell my mom the truth about my black eye", He asked me naively.

"Sure. You did a good thing. You saved a damsel in distress. You're a superhero!" I laughed but was actually serious about what I said to him.

"She's not going to believe me. She's going to think I've turned into a bad boy", He expressed concern about his mom's attitude.

"Deep down, you know that's not your kind of personality. Shouldn't that be way more important than what any other person says?" I told him.

That sounded like encouraging him to disregard his mom but I would never tell him to do that. My only wish was to see him do things without worrying too much about his mom. He needed to be independent of her, to think about the repercussions that his decision will cost him first, not the effect it will have on her.

Even though he wasn't an adult yet, he needed to learn how to be independent and take responsibility for his actions.

"You're right!" He smiled and gave me a brief hug.

"Oh my God!" I screamed."Do you want people to start gossiping about us?"

"I'm so sorry", He quickly turned to the final route to his apartment while I unlock the door to my house.

Thankfully, there were no busybodies around because there was light so no one saw the two of us. After settling down, I took the remaining porridge I made in the morning then turned on my television and DVD player to watch the final episode of "The Heirs".

That Saturday, Aunt Tolani was not in the mood for work so she didn't talk about uprooting the weeds around the house. As soon as I started working, she ordered me to pluck and slice some pepper and tomato from the bush near our home then used it to fry eggs with sardines and the crayfish her customers gave her as a bonus for breakfast.

Despite not knowing who they were, I couldn't stop thanking them for making my weekend more nutritious until I heard someone knocking on our gate. I thought it was my cousins living nearby who come to visit almost every weekend and it was my Aunt's habit to share any meal we were eating with them when they were around, especially if they hadn't eaten before coming to our house.

However, the unknown visitor turned out to be Janet. She wore khaki shorts with a pair of pink tops that looked good on her and a stud earring. Her hair was shining due to the large amount of coconut oil on it and her eyebrow too had traces of gel in them. Halima made the girls in our classroom adopt the idea of combing eyebrows and gelling them but I didn't join them. I was waiting for the day the headteacher would learn that they'd turned the school into a brothel and punished them for if but it never happened  

Right in front of Janet and straight to my face, my very own Aunt told me Janet was more beautiful than I was. She also gave her more eggs and milk for her tea but Janet didn't take the milk. She preferred to take her tea black. I could vividly see the reason why she was pear-shaped and I was rectangle.

"I hope you'll forgive me for always shortening your ration", Janet said to me jovially.

"It's alright", I smiled.

"I came here because I need help with getting the outfit for the event ready", She told me.

"What have you done so far?"I asked her and took a sip of my tea.

"I have a design in mind already but I need a good designer to help me sow it at a low cost. The tailors I know are nothing to write home about ", She sighed.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. I wish I could help but there's nothing I can do", I felt sorry for her.

"Shebi that your big mummy's daughter sows cloth", I was thrilled to hear Aunt Tolani speak English. Yet, her statement made it look as if I didn't want to help Janet.

The truth is, I had issues with remembering things. It made me feel bad but what happened wasn't completely my fault. I just happened to get that gene from my maternal Aunt. Anyways, Janet didn't get upset about what happened. Instead, she begged me to help her convince my cousin to make the designs when I didn't even have her phone number then.

For her sake, I eventually got it from my aunt and immediately called her to explain everything. Luckily for us, she was back home from Uni to attend a fashion event and agreed to help even though her schedule was tight. Janet was excited about this! She didn't hesitate to tell everyone what I did for her, and that made me feel important. Almost everyone in the class was happy to know she had finally settled the issue bothering her. Only a few like Halima and Jess weren't too glad about what happened.

Halima didn't want anyone to disrupt their friendship by doing things she couldn't do for her. Jess, on the other hand, was mad at me for helping someone who had other persons she could have asked for her when I was the only person she had. Meanwhile, Omma was supposed to deliver her sportswear to me as soon as she entered the school gate but she didn't. She forgot to bring it with her because she was rushing to school as usual. She was part of the 'occasional latecomers in my class'.

In the evening time, I walked fast to keep up with my classmates who left me behind because I was awkwardly slow at writing notes that day, during our extra-lesson period. At the same time, a tall dark guy walked up to me. I got prepared to act meanly to him because I thought he was going to ask me out and I wasn't in the mood for that.

Before either of us could say anything, Omma suddenly left the rest and came to my side. She then reminded me he was the same guy that attended to me the day I went to her neighbor's house.

"Oh, my world! How could I have forgotten his face within that short period? Did he look that bad?" I thought then examined his face and body structure again.

He didn't actually look bad. It was just my forgetful mind at work again.

"Lily, this guy brought the sportswear I forgot to bring for you. He's a gentleman, right?" Omma continued talking.

" Yh...thanks", I muttered though I didn't see any big deal in what he did. The sportswear wasn't needed urgently.

"The only thing left now is printing, right?" She asked again.

"Yeah...", I didn't think about that until she mentioned it.

"I...know someone who can help you with that", The gentleman finally talked.

For a quiet person like him to have summoned the courage to talk, he must value the person doing the business. I would have assumed that that person was his girlfriend but printing jobs were more common among guys in our neighborhood.

" Oh...how much does the person do it?" I inquired.

"For you, it's free. You don't have to pay anything", He said effortlessly.

Much to Jess' surprise, I got her sports to wear ready before our proprietor came to access the outfits that both the athletes and the supporter's club were going to wear to represent the school at the event. She was extremely happy because of what I did, and angry at herself for not resolving our conflict on time.

While in the bus that conveyed us to Agege Stadium (the event venue), the junior students among us kept shouting like barbarians. No word from the teachers and seniors available could make them keep their voices down because they were excited about visiting a stadium for the first time and competing in a sporting event against a 'rich kids' school. However, I and the other seniors could not utter a word. Sitting wasn't very convenient for us because we had to lap the juniors. Only athletes were allowed to sit alone because they needed to retain their strength to enable them to perform well in the competition.

Another reason we didn't shout was because we were 'forming big boys and girls but we were still happy we got the chance to do something our predecessors couldn't do! We got the chance to represent the school at a sporting event outside our locality. We were very prepared. We were ready to do all it takes to win the competition. Of course, we felt threatened by the status of the kids from the other school yet didn't plan on giving up easily.

The artificial grass covering the stadium's ground and the spectator's seat also made the place feel unwelcoming because we weren't used to that kind of setting. Our fields back home were sandy. The only places available for spectators to sit were the cemented floors of the buildings facing them.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
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