The noise of heavy music accompanied by the reek of marijuana stormed into his room like an unwelcome long-lost excited friend. The boys' next door had resumed. They never quit. The gaps in between their 24 hours of loud music and smoking are for dozing or when they leave to refill. He can recall seeing no one of them at the school gate, or as part of the crowd that turned to attend soccer games in the school, not to mention in any class.


They were familiar songs, noises, and stinks that cames from that room. One particular thing that still amazed him was the number of girls that move in and out of that abode. The routine never varied. They go in, smoke and loud music comes out, then behind the loud music was the moan of ecstasy and climaxing. He knew all these now.


He tossed and turned, face squeezed and held his occiput, getting set to start the custom where he bums around to count how many times each blade of the ceiling fan turned and at what degree when his eyes picked the wall clock from a distance. It created an upper half of 9 and 3; he reached out for his lens when he realized; the sun was out, his door unlocked overnight, and something was going on inside his skull.


Then the realization hit him like when a salon car hits a parked lorry at top speed. It was the hour of his last exam for the term and he ought to be on the seat in the exam hall 15 minutes sooner. He forsook all his morning routines, scampered for his file as he darted out, charged back in again to pick his exam card. He stared at it, hesitated for seconds, faced up, and rumbled something. In between running, jogging, and walking he headed out to the bus stop. The incidents of the preceding day started coming to him.


On his approach to class for the 4 pm tutorials, he saw the hall was unusually full by 3 pm. Dapo, introvert to some and extrovert to others, it depended on the relationship he has with you. He was always punctual and one lad the other students have their eyes on to fly the flag of the class academically. He arrived for class 20 to 30 minutes earlier.


"Chairmo, Chairmo, Chairmo!" They applauded him as he neared.


Befuddled about what was happening, he stopped when several friends started sprinting toward him. He considered running and savoring the prank started by his buddies but remembered they were in the serious part of the semester where fooling around could be reckless, with a huge paper the next day.


When they got to him, a company of his classmates had formed a guard of honor to usher him into the class and celebrate his recent appointment.


His friend Pam, explained that the erstwhile Chairman, Cosmos had ordered an emergency meeting for 2 pm earlier on the order of the Head of Department but the message could not spread to everybody because of the brief notice. HOD had removed Cosmos as class Chairman during the emergency session and installed Dapo to take charge of the class affairs effective from today. The entire class cheered his installation with chants of "Chairmo, Chairmo, Chairmo!"


Only their HOD wields that exceptional power in the entire school. How do you get rid of a sitting Chairman 24 hours before the last exam? Although there were accusations leveled against Cosmos bothering around abuse of power and graft he could have spared the poor boy another day, Dapo thought to himself.


Everyone walked on eggshells around the HOD. It was impossible to read his emotions or reactions. He only smiled at ladies he admired and never to the fellows and now he must work with this fellow next session.


Students in every other department elected their officers and removed them when they deemed it necessary but, in their case, the HOD spared them the troubles. They heard stories of how he stopped many from leaving for NYSC because of one deliberate carry over or the other in his subjects because of their failure or noncompliance to satisfy up with his particular demands. The Fear of HOD was the beginning of wisdom.


Dapo was now at the bus stand. He trembled and trotted as he considered if it would be smarter to stick around for the bikes to get to him or just run further away from his destination where he will find one. If he stuck around, it edged closer to school, but the bikes did not show. Running to the stand where they parked and waited would be the opposite direction and distance from his proposed target. The latter looked wiser; he realized. He ran, he perspired, his head still felt light and dangling. It occurred to him how he found himself in this imbroglio.


Dapo had gone to join Pam and Susan in their regular spot to revise for their paper. This one appeared enormous and important. He needed "A" in this one and if he can achieve that, his CGPA will sustain him in the prestigious top 5 of the department.


Pam and Susan were not at their popular reading class. On his path to Pam's lodge to find out? He heard more salutes from recognized and unfamiliar faces, "Chairmo, Chairmo!" This point, it was sinking. He waved to everybody that hailed him and headed to Pam's. Pam, another member of the top 5 gang, a natural bodybuilder, always on bald hairstyle, and 6'5 taller than Dapo at 5,9. You will confuse him for a bouncer if he went around any party venue. He had a live-in partner.


Susan, vary in size and height compared to her sweetheart, she was a real head roller. Guys envied Pam and passed quips on how her beauty added a few inches to the size of his head, and if they ran into any difficulty, he would just package her in his pockets and take off then bring her out when it was clear.


Dapo picked up uncontrolled laughter and japing as he approached his buddy's lodge. The current Chairman doubted it came from there, with only hours to their last paper. The analytical and serious one in the group, Dapo, had a frown on and did not knock. He nudged the door in and the cheers of "Chairmo, Chairmo," greeted him. Dapo adjusted his lens and waved to them. He stared and saw they created a circle with Pam, Susan, another mutual friend Nuhu, and new fellows he could not pinpoint and in the centered were two big bottles of drinks that look like wine because of the size and 6 bottles of soda with cups assigned to each individual.


"Is it not too early to be celebrating?" He questioned. His grin waned.


Instead of replying, they erupted into a frenzy with one or two guys pointing at him as they fell over each other chuckling. Dapo figured what they have said behind him and joined in the hilarity. He gestured to expand the sitting arrangement to join the merrymakers, called for a cup, and beckoned on Susan to pour him liquor.


The roar abated, and everybody now fixated on Dapo with worry all over their faces."Oya, pour am, I go drink am like that." He ordered one of the strange faces to serve him from the bigger bottles when Pam and Susan refused to act on his request.


"Chairmo, this one no be the one wey you sabi drink o," Susan said. The amusement in her face changed into worry.


"Full am abeg," he added to the guy pouring the alcohol.


"You suppose mix am with soft drink o!" Pam yelled.


The information arrived late. Dapo emptied the full cup with three gulps. He held his tongue out, his right palm on his neck as he sought to force out a breath amid the hot sensation. They gawked at this stage but he raised the second hand to show that he was all good and within moments the rant of "Chairmo, Chairmo," permeated the air again.


Before he reached the exact point where the bikes were, he had invited one of them to meet him. He sprang on and guided him towards the school.


9.45 am, and he perceived it was late, but only wished. Regrets overshadowed him. Why did he try to impress them?


He recalled leaving Pam's place but had no memory of how he ended up sleeping instead of heading back to the class for review.


Dapo got up from the circle and requested the couple to join him at their usual reading spot. He staggard, they overlooked it. He shut the door behind him and stuck around to climb down from the stairs. His sight was vague and wobbling. He took off his goggle and cleared it with the edge of his turtleneck and settled it back on, but it made no difference. It felt like climbing down 50 steps. He got on the road but had no control over his movement. He perceived he was moving but unsure of the direction. The potholes under his feet feel a lot more than he was used and it seemed to affect every step he took; he was unsteady but kept on moving.


Dapo's thoughts were off and on when the man slowed as he neared a gas station."Guy, why you dey stop?" He howled at the guy.


"Bros, my fuel no go carry us reach. I Wan buy small top-up." He countered."Why you no tell me when I dey enter na," he fired.


His own sweat-drenched him; his hair like one who just got discharged from a local police station after four days of custody. He got off the bike, weighed, and searched for options but before he could conclude the guy was through and ready to continue the trip. He bounced on again and they proceeded. Dapo tapped the man throughout the ride like one on a racehorse, imploring him to hurry.


At the school gate, they denied the lads access despite Dapo's pleas. He paid the fellow and resumed jogging mixed with running. He would slow down now and then to catch his breath. More shouts of "Chairmo, Chairmo," but he paid them no thought. Failure became inevitable, and he had to take this as a carryover and a fall out of the admired "Top 5 Geng".

The Business Finance Lecturer was not a lecturer he wished to trifle with. His subject was one of the 4 with higher credit units.

He worked at the Government State House, so he traveled an exhausting distance to come to the school for his lectures. He managed 2 hotels among other interests. A disciplinarian who does not accept excuses as reasons. When his lecture started, no one enters the class again. The students spoke of him in hush tones when waiting for him to come to tutor them. He was always neat; repeated no attire; wore well-polished shoes. He was in a league of his own.


Dapo blamed himself for letting down his moral guards and consuming that alcohol just for show off; he blamed the HOD for making him Chairman; blamed Pam and Susan for not doing enough to stop him; blamed the guy that poured him the drink for getting him drunk; blamed the bike man for stopping to buy fuel under such circumstances; blamed the security guards for being overzealous.


As he advanced towards the hall the at top speed, he noted the class was bare but shrugged the view aside and associated it to the result of the headache or the sweat on his glasses that altered his sight. The farther he moved, the closer and clearer it turned out that the class was empty.


He removed his glasses and rubbed his face. It was impossible that they had completed the exam. Maybe there was a change in venue. It would not be the first time that would happen in his department, he recalled, Crumpled.


Dapo slowed towards the hall and it became unmistakable that the exam was not carrying on in that class. There was a dangling and conspicuous paper that caught his attention. It had "we have postponed The Business Finance Exam..... Signed Cos..." inscribed on it. He slumped to his knees in front of the class, lifted his hands to the sky, heaved an enormous sigh of respite, collapsed on the floor with tears and sweats mixed on his face.