The Externals - Chapter Twenty-two

 

On Sunday mornings, I enjoyed being woken by the soothing voices of my Aunt's church choir on radio but on this particular rest day, things weren't the same. I could still hear their voices but it was mixed with the banging of a door and the articulation of a violent woman. The same woman that shared both parents with my biological father. The previous night, I forgot to wash the utensils I used in eating because I got engrossed in texting Zach and retired to my bed when I got too lazy to keep sitting upright.

Instead of telling me to wash the plates nicely, she chose to publicize what happened and accused me of disrespecting her because she chose to cook for me, even though I did 'nonsense' with my friends and returned home late, not caring if she'll have errands to send me. I should have seen that coming because she had lots of informants in the street. But despite what happened, I didn't allow my mood to be ruined. I wore the same gown I wore for the party to church and my church friends loved it. They even asked to take pictures of it and get the contact details of the designer.

When I returned from church, I focused on preparing for my first paper which was Civic Education so I no longer had the time to reply to Zach's messages on WhatsApp or check the number of people who already liked our party pictures on Facebook. My goal at that point was to answer all the revision questions I prepared for myself perfectly and get the difference between the definition of a mandatory road sign and a prohibitive road sign because I was mixing them up.

At last, Aunt Tolani appreciated my efforts. She fetched the right amount of water we needed to survive in the house without complaining and sent some other kids in our neighborhood to help her get the spices she needed to cook dinner. To reprimand me for what happened, she cooked nourishing noodles with sardines for herself and gave me the raw ones to cook, without any spice to garnish it. Since I had no other choice, I ate the noodles and went to bed. I didn't even have the time and energy to cook so I just crunched it like a snack. As early as 5 am, I was back on my feet because I had the intention of revising the things I read for the last time. I was aware of the fact that I had limited time to do that in school.

"Babe, what's up?" Omma was the first person to arrive in our class the next morning.

"Wow!" I exclaimed.

"You seem to have forgotten that my house is in the street next to the schools", She bragged.

"Hmm. This one that you're in school early. Are we safe?" She was trying to memorize something before I came in.

"No!" She threw her book on the floor frustratingly.

"What's it?" I picked up the poor book.

"I feel like my brain's going to explode! I've not slept since Saturday!" She complained.

"Someone has boy troubles", I made fun of her.

"Look who's talking!" She said to make herself feel better.

"You sef know we're incomparable. Unlike you, I'm not dating someone and still crushing on another person", I teased.

"It's not my fault. You don't ask to like people. It just happens", She defended herself.

"You better drop that matter and face your future", I returned her book.

"You're right", She smiled."I need good results to enter Mark's university".

"Oh, God!" I placed my hand over my head.

Before the construction of the only hall in my school, our teachers used to merge students from different classes into one class to reduce the level of examination malpractice. Still, both junior and senior students have a way of helping each other get info from their peers. Students pray they get placed in a class where the best student in their class is, but I wasn't one of them. They knew I had zero tolerance for examination malpractice.

The emergence of the hall made things better for everyone. It wasn't so big so information could be passed across easily when the invigilator feels the need to go to the restroom or quickly get something from the staff room. Sometimes, the invigilator gives the student room to do what they want and once they abuse the privilege, it'll be taken from them. If the invigilator hasn't been paid a salary in due time, such a person is capable of tearing a student's script just for seeing traces of ink in his palm.

"I think I'm finally ready to take this exam", Adijat came to meet me under the mango tree where I was revising inaudible as we got closer to exam time.

"That's cool", I replied and expected her to leave immediately. She of all people knew I hated talking before exams.

"Ask me any question!" She closed her Civic Education notebook.

"Ok. What are road signs?" I questioned her.

"Road signs are symbols...."She paused. "Wait oo.." She really was prepared for the exam.

"Just take things easy", I said and the timekeeper rang the bell.

"Everybody, go to your seats now!" The principal ordered. He made the computer operator print out the names of students and their seat numbers a week before the examination.

"Sir, I need to pee", Adijat rushed to the toilet with her notebook.

"You have three minutes to return to this hall or forget about writing your exam", He threatened her.

"Sir?" Adijat rushed back to the hall.

Before allowing each one of us to go to our seats, the male teachers on duty searched the male student's pockets and the female teachers did the same for female students to get rid of incriminating items. We needed to place books on our desks for smooth writing because our exam scripts were too fragile to withstand their roughness but our teachers didn't allow them, even if they were new or not in any way related to the subject we were writing. They only allowed pens and erasers.

When it was finally time for us to start our exam, a junior student known to give important spiritual visions during Friday fellowships was asked to pray and the distribution of exam scripts started. As expected, students who were yet to pay up their school fees were denied access to them and asked to leave the hall. Without any explanation, I was also told to leave by my most adored principal.

For about fifteen minutes, I went from one place to another to beg teachers to help me beg him to let me into the hall but they ignored me. I tried asking the proprietor for help since I wasn't owing school fees but I couldn't get access to him because there were lots of parents in his office. When Mr. Principal finally calmed down, he told me his reason for sending me out of the hall was because I was yet to pay my lesson fees for the month we just concluded when he knew my dad was fond of paying lesson fees a week after.

Even though I was angry, I still begged him to give me till the next day so I could call dad on the phone and explain everything but he didn't listen. I accused him of being partial because the other students also haven't paid for the lesson fees and even school fees and he allowed them in. Then, he reminded me of the contract they signed. I wanted to do the same because even though I was sure I wouldn't be needing it but unfortunately, there was no ink in the school to print me a new copy of the form.

My village people were following me!

"This is totally unfair", Jessica hissed as she came out of the exam hall."How could Master ask us questions about the rule of law when he only explained it with his mouth. It's the only question I couldn't answer in theory".

"At least you did two, I was only able to answer one question in my theory", Omma groaned."I feel like my brain has been stolen!"

"It's not your fault", Adijat patted her back."That civic is mad. It has made me indebted to that stupid boy".

"Really!" I laughed.

"You're very lucky that you didn't write it. O tough gan ni", Halima's words surprised me the most and brought me a little relief.

"Alright, return to the hall for your second paper now", Our principal ordered.

"Master, we've not eaten lunch now", Janet grumbled.

"That's your problem. If I count one to ten and you're not in that hall, no more exam for you", He started counting.

"Oh..." They went in angrily.

"Lily and the rest, join them", He added.

"Sir, were you referring to me?" I had lost interest in writing the exam that day.

"Am I now a toy that can you can mess around with?" He threw a cane that almost hit me.

Thankfully, my seat was at the beginning of the hall and far from my departmental mates so I could fully concentrate on my work without being disturbed by anyone. The student sitting beside me also had hearing problems so people hated asking her for help. At the end, I came out of the exam hall smiling because most of the questions that came out weren't strange to me while most of my mates had sad looks on their faces.

At home, I didn't even put off my school uniform before calling Papa to explain my situation to him. There wasn't much cash on him at that moment, so he had to beg his best friend to help transfer some cash to my elder sister's account which I was using at that moment. That was the extent to which he cared for me. He never wanted me to lack anything. He was angry when he heard I was sent out of the examination hall.

Even when my sister called to tell me she's finally received an alert on her phone, I knew my troubles were not over yet. The lazy me hadn't learned how to use the ATM by myself so I needed Omma to follow me to the bank. POS services weren't popular in our neighborhood then.

It was hard for me to get up and leave for Omma's house that day because I knew there won't be enough time to read as much as I want when I get back but I still had to. I badly wanted few people to be in the queue at the atm stand so I wore my favorite orange shorts with a white top, hoping good luck will come my way. The first sign that showed that the opposite of that might happen was seeing Omma engrossed in chatting with her newfound love outside her compound instead of preparing for her exam. If she could ditch her book for a boy, I knew my request would mean nothing to her but I still had to try my luck.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?" I shouted at her when we got to her room to have our private discussion.

"Studying for tomorrow's exam now", She replied.

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Unfortunately, you walked in when we were taking a break but Mark and I have been studying since forever", She explained.

"That's too good to be true", I couldn't believe her.

"At least, I now know the laws of chemicals combination and kinetic theory of matter", She bragged.

"Bravo, mistress", I applauded her.

"I hate sharing him with anyone but you can come join us if you want", She suggested.

"Thanks but..." I whispered my reason for coming to her right ear.

"Zach, I know you'd absolutely love to help a lily in distress", She shouted.

"What are you doing?" It was too late for me to cover her mouth.

"I'm helping you. I'm not in the position to help you right now because I still have a lot to catch up with chemistry but he'll be very glad to do that", She replied.

"Omma, did you break up with I.D?" I had to ask her because there was no trace of him.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Welcome back guys! Can't thank you enough for always giving this book a chance. As usual, please click on the star button to show how much you support the book and give comments so I can know who's reading and specialay appreciate you! Do you think Omma has broken up with I.D? I'll be awaiting your comments at the comment session. Have a lovely weekend!😁🥰