PART THREE.

It was 8.30am the next morning. The final year students were scattered in the front yard of the examination hall. Some in groups talking, some discussing, some reading, some cramming, some revising.

It was the D day, just thirty minutes to the commencement of mathematics exam. It was a beautiful Wednesday with the sky shinning brightly and radiantly, Sola stood alone in the open field, looking upward to the radiant sky, with smiles on his face:
"The sky is gay today, I guess it wont be a bad day after all," Sola thought.

He then turned his attention to a group of students clustered around the big mango tree, at the axial of the yard; they were the students he had seen in the night. They stood in many fractions; they were all busy talking, jesting, giggling, laughing, and discussing among themselves. D loaded stood tall among the rest, a shinning Rolex watch was on his wrist, cool white canvas(banned though) on his feet. He had many students mainly girls around him. The group had far increased, a significant number of the final year students were there. Most of them had come to seek help from the big boys who were in the dinning hall in the in the night and who have the leaked answers. Who dosn't want to pass, some of them could not afford the levy requested, some or most scared of coming out in the middle of the night. Sola watched the students: some prefects, their fellowship coordinators, religious brethren, and the likes; they crowded around the big boys seeking for some of the package. He was contemplating strolling by but quickly wave the thought out.

Sola was soon joined by Ade who with other prefects, had met with one of the vice principals. Ade was the library prefect: he was an extremely brilliant and gifted student who had topped the set from Jss1.
"a 'kobo' for your thought?" Ade asked sneaking behind Sola and beaming his usual, brilliant Mr. Cool smile.

He was a very handsome young man: ebony, tall, cute dimples, and bright beautiful blue eyes. Coupled with his brilliancy, he was the toast and dream of many female students, but for reasons that had eluded Sola no matter how hard he tried, Ade neither have a girlfriend nor is the ladies type. He avoided them even if it seemed impossible.
"Hey Ade,how was the prefect meeting."
"Cool I guess, the old, pompous grammarian, was as you know, trying to give one of her unending sermons," Ade tried to mimic the elderly woman in a funny way that made Sola laughed "You are prefects, it would be unbecoming and....."

Sola watched as his friend continued his funny display, he had often wondered why Ade had always been his friend: a faithful, loyal, kind_ everything a friend could be. That he was a final year student was all thanks to his friend Ade. Ade had turned him to a bookworm that he was, making him have sleepless nights, visit libraries, and read like nobody's business. It had however, paid off. Although, initially not the brilliant type, he had grown to be among the best in this class.

He had known his friend Ade, since he could not remember. They used to live in the same neighbourhood before the Ade's moved to their own building in the G.R.A of the town. However, that did not stop or undermined their friendship, and when they both gained admission into 'Imperial Model College' six years ago, their friendship was cemented. Sola's thought was interrupted by Ade's friendly punch:
''Hey Mr thinker, time to go."

Sola could hear one of the invigilators, Mr. Adeyokunun A.K.A 'vigilante', shouting to the students to form two straight queues, one for boys, the other for girls. The maths exam would start any moment from then, Sola heart beat suddenly increased, as he, Ade, and other students marched forward. Lot of thoughts began to flood his mind. Although, Ade had succeeded in making him one of the best in his class, his weakness remains mathematics. He dread the class like one would dread HIV, his teacher always seemed to be performing magic whenever he taught the subject. He often end up sleeping while the class last, the only thing he liked about his maths teacher was that he allowed him to sleep in the class. Ade and himself had however become alarmed after his woeful performance in the maths mock exam, he managed 20 marks out of 100. Ade had to do a lot to convince him not to panic in the days preceding that day. He had arranged many special tutorials for him. They had both slept for just four hours daily, in the preceding days. They had also read for an average of ten hours each day, just to prepare exclusively for the maths exam. Ade had done everything he knew possible to help his friend prepare, and Sola seemed to have grasped some of the things he was being taught.

The queues had been formed but later dispersed as the supervisor refused to show up. It still, remains few minutes to the start of the paper, and the student went back to their different groups. Ade and Sola decided to go to a nearby flower, and they stayed there in silence. Although, Sola seemed to look calm, Ade knew that inside, his friend was troubled and anxious, He had prayed severally for God to help him. Sola for a time broke out of his thought and called Ade's attention to the group of students they had seen in the night.

"But the guys appear clean, have they learnt all the answers of hand?"
Ade broke into laughter and after calming down said, "Sola are you this naive, they may look clean to you but inside, I mean inside where the most intelligent invigilator cannot see, where even spirits can not reach_ lay scribbled sheets filled with handwriting that even the sharpest magnifying concave or convex lens cannot read. Handwriting that none except the writer can understand."
"But how do you know."
"Stay there, you don't know nothing, they have hidden stuff where invigilators cannot discover. See my friend just forget, even 'vigilante' cannot catch them."
"Hmm, all is..."
"Look!" Ade quickly called Sola's attention to one of the students at the shade of the mango tree, a female student, she was hiding something that look like a folded sheet of paper in her big woven hair.
"You see that?"
"Yes."

Their conversation was broken by a girl, Sola's classmate who walked gingerly towards them. She beamed her set of 32 crystal, white teeth as she came. She then greeted them, she had come to see Ade, it was usual and Sola had become used to it.

Many of the students always wondered why Ade would not partake with them in the examination malpractices. They had expected him like other extremely brilliant students like: Tobi, the math guru, Kabir, Tolu, Kenneth, Samuel; to help the seemingly or apparently less brilliant ones. The work of the bright students like the aforementioned, was simply to proof check that the packages delivered from online were correct. However, Ade had refused them and he was ostracized by the 'big boys'.

The girl walked away after few minutes, she had come to ask Ade to help her solve a maths problem. Ade and Sola knew very well that the question was part of the leaked questions gotten online. They also both knew that she had come for something more than that, probably to show Ade her new hair style.

Ade had solved the problem and now they were back on the queues. The supervisor: a middle aged, short, thick, dark woman with a funny Brazilian hairdo came out of her Toyota Camry and went to address the students.

It was the usual: thou shalt not cheat, bla bla bla. Sola could tell that the students can recite the address off hand.
"She looks strict," Sola whispered to Ade who was at his back.
"Hmm?"

By then, the search began. The supervisor had gone into the hall awaiting the students, while the invigilators(all of whom are Imperial Model College teachers) conducted the search. A funny scene happened which seemed blank to Sola and some other students but definitely not to Ade and the big boys. Mr. Adeyokunun was about conducting the search on the boys, when Mr. Adio, another invigilator walked to him, he whispered something into 'vigilante's ear and the two left together. Mr. Daniel, yet another invigilator then came up and conducted the search. Mr. Adeyokunun and Mr. Adio could be seen having a talk at an adjacent corner and by the time Mr. Adeyokunun was back, the search had been completed. All the students were already seated in the large hall. One hundred and fifty students were to take the mathematics examination that morning, the sitting arrangement were two on a seat and a considerable distance was maintained between two consecutive seats. As they were arranged in alphabetical orders of surnames, Ade surnamed 'Aransiola' was on seat number 12, while Sola surnamed 'Idowu' was on seat number 64.

Question papers and answer scripts had been distributed and then the supervisor in a loud shrill voice that sent cold to Sola spine, announced the commencement of the paper. Ade took a final glance at Sola and then buried his head to his work

*Note: Part four to be published by 9pm.