WOLE

It was terrible. I woke up with a sour sort of taste in my mouth- like I had just had a dose of Grandma’s agbo jedi, which for your information tastes terrible.

I sat up, breathing heavily like I has just concluded a marathon, trying to gather what was left of my wits even as I tried my best not to bring up what was left of my dinner.
I hate it when I have these- dreams. I don’t know what else to call them, and I’m sure if I even mentioned it to anyone I’d be bound and transported to yaba left faster than you can say “Jonathan”.

I managed to pull off from the bed and waddle off in the general direction of the bathroom. A few tries and I finally got in, stumbling to the basin where I rinsed my mouth with cold water.

Already feeling better, I raised my head and happened to see my face in the mirror. I froze. Because right there, right then, my pupils had gone blue and luminous.

AMINAT
I hate resuming in schools. Schools are dumb, and there’s nothing dumber than a secondary school. I mean, it’s called Little saints!

I stood up and stretched, yawning as I did so. Then I heard a voice “Good morning princess. Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, I did. Good morning. You really don’t have to sleep in my room, you have yours. And there are guards posted just outside the room. There are guards everywhere- I can’t even climb a tree without someone watching and alerting the others in case I scratch myself or something.”

“You are our princess. We must serve and protect you with our lives, if need be.”

“Well, this princess would like it if you guys gave her a little bit of a breathing space. A girl likes her space you know.”
I put on a pair of bathroom slippers and yawned, running my fingers through my hair. It felt like a real mess. Anyways I rubbed my eyes a little to get the sleep out of them and went off to brush my teeth. it was my first day in a new school and I felt terrible. I wondered idly if I could somehow talk my way out of this, maybe threaten suicide…

A FEW HOURS LATER…

He sat there with his nose in a book, thumbing silently through the pages. He was always like this- alone, aloof and seemingly satisfied that way. He pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose- hating the fact that he had to do so. Maybe he’d ask for contact lens soon, he thought, although his mother was most likely to object.

Around him, the rest of the class of SS1 students continued their noise making, everybody seemingly talking about a hundred things at once. Though Wole tried to ignore it, it buzzed in his ears like an angry bee.

Just when he had given up hope, the class went quiet. He gave a small sigh of satisfaction- finally he’d get some reading done then froze. For the second time that morning, he slowly raised his head to see… To see Mr Adeleke standing at the front of the class, a slim, dark-complexioned girl beside him. She held some books close to her chest and it was obvious she would rather be anywhere than where she was at that moment. Wole couldn’t blame her, he understood that feeling, being a transfer student himself. Like him, she wore glasses.

“Good morning class.” Mr Adeleke seemed beside himself with joy- why exactly, no one knew.

“Good morning sir.” the class replied. Glasses aside, she was quite pretty. Some guys in class were creating empty seats besides themselves, winking at each other and making snide comments as all teenagers are wont to do in similar situations.

“This is P- I mean, Miss Aminat Yusuf. She’ll be staying here with the rest of you, and I’ll advice that you treat her with respect. Any of you caught taunting or otherwise looking for her trouble will be seriously dealt with.” with those beautiful words, he left the class, leaving Aminat to find a seat and settle before the first lesson.

“Wow! We have ourselves a teacher’s pet,” drawled a fair-complexioned boy from the back row.“how about you sit with me and I teach you a few things, hmm?”

Aminat took a deep breath, pulled the book closer to her chest and walked right up to Wole.

“May I sit with you?” she asked

“If you want to.” he replied, plucking his bag off the chair and clearing a space for her to sit on the long padded bench.

“You can keep your books in the locker.” he opened the locker for her to see, showed her how to do it on her own and promptly resumed reading. She muttered a quick thanks and soon everything was back to normal.

That's it. Hope you liked it. If you did, please let me know. Send an email to olaoluolowo@yahoo.com will be waiting to hear from you ;-)

Just wen i was startin to enjoy d story it ends