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Later that day while we were in class Edith asked me if I didn't have brown sandals, to which i said no, then she advised me not to wear either ran slippers or black sandals next time, that I should buy a brown sandal!
That was four years ago, when I came newly to the school, now in SS2, I didn't think Edith was still a student because I hardly see her in school.

* * * * * * * * * *

My classmates were very funny and silly. When lessons were not going on, all sorts of jokes are cracked live in the class with the rest of us laughing heartily. During those days, new teachers were brought and of course they were Core members. These youth corpers mostly were not Igbo oriented, they don't understand and they don't speak Igbo and that was a great advantage for my naughty classmates. I personally do really pity for those young corpers that are normally brought to my school. The barricature meted out on them by my classmates were hilarious and downgrading. I remember a particular Hausa corper that was brought to teach .....oops i can't remember the subject ...,

**smacks head roughly**

This young Hausa corper was so skinny and lean that my classmates nicknamed him "Okporoko" meaning "Stock fish"
Undermining his stature and body build, this young Hausa corper paraded himself round the school as if he wasn't aware of the laughter that his presence evoked in the students or perhaps he didn't care.
As he would back the class writing on the blackboard, my classmates would throw all sorts of mockery at him in Igbo, and what could he do?
Nothing of course. My classmates were very cold and ill-mannered, courtesy was strange to them.
A day came when one of the corpers was teaching and the whole class was buzzing with noise. The young man would shout at us, quietness would temporarily return and before he could speak three to four words again, the whole place was noisy again. It continued for long until the corper got annoyed and burst out angrily on one of the boys throwing a chalk furiously at him and yelled,
"Would you sit the hell down and shut up!!"
The boy mockingly shouted back in reply
"Biko, ozugo mak'igbum di anyi", ("Please, its okay, don't kill me friend!" and the class burst out laughing, this was just how my classmates treated the youth corpers.

Another notable and hilarious event that i would never forget easily happened with another youth corper in my school.
He (or is it she?) came new and decided to introduce himself. He took a piece of chalk and wrote his name on the board and thereafter proceeded to know our names too.
Remember there coppers were daft when it comes to Igbo language. The class made fun of him that day. I held my stomach amidst laughter. The copper went from seat to seat asking,
"So what's your name?"
and you can guess the replies.
Nobody gave their real names except me of course and some few that had a good conscience.
My classmates gave names like
"Maazi ota orji" (Elder that eats kola)
"Ibu ewu" - You're a goat.
"Mkpi" - Male goat.
"Ibu noo an

........Happy........Sunday.................


....
The space between the chairs and desk was narrow and could contain one person at a time. As I made to squeeze myself through, coming from the assembly ground, I mistakenly stepped on the toes of one of the big girls in my class.
"Look what you did!"
She yelled in Igbo language.
"Didn't you see me trying to pass?" I asked, and before I could finish speaking, an eye blinding slap landed across my face. I instantly started rubbing my eyes that had turned red already. As usual, I didn't retaliate, I just stood like a helpless beggar nursing my eyes. The girl next to my seat, or rather Alloysius's seat was very sorry for me. She chided the 'slapper' and told her that what she did was wrong. Then she turned to me. Her constant
"Ndo ooo, ndo oo" made me look as if I were her younger little brother at home.

I managed to sit down on the little space left for me after Alloysius had sat down comfortably.
Edith looked more matured and good mannered than many of the girls in my class, she had this mother-like carraige and character and she was beautiful too. She was far bigger in size than me, but unfortunately she knew next to nothing in 'book work'. This was not the only case where she identified with me. I still remember another incident at school. Remember i was still new and hadn't really got acquinted to the 'ways' and norms and behaviour of the school.
At that time, I wore black big sandals to school and 'oh my God!' I hated those ugly sandals! The heels of the sandals were high and the front of the sandals was low, and it was rubber too. None of my classmates, I think at that time wore rubber sandals, it was an insult to them. Being my 'firsts' in the school and having nothing else to put on, I managed the "silly looking" sandals. Due to the shame the sandals accrued me, I always go to school with a rubber pan slippers. The latest at that time. The pan slippers was painted white and black. The colours were interlocked that it looked like the square designs in carpets.
On this particular day, while in class, i brought out my 'new' pan slippers and discarded the sandals in a corner. I stood up and marched out filled with pride because I knew my classmates would be staring at me and would be jealous of my guts to put on slippers instead of the uniform code which is brown sandals. My glory was short lived, for no sooner had i stepped out of the class than I accustomed a prefect or so to be. He immediately siezed me and asked for the slippers, i immediately started pleading and of course it fell on deaf ears. He held his cane firmly and with the other outstretched arm asked for the slippers which i refused to give him and was still pleading at the same time. He then asked me to follow him.
I followed him like a slowpoke. We went upstairs , then to the last stairs leading to the top of the school building, and there i met other senior boys discussing and chatting carelessly. Immediately they saw me, they knew they had gotten a prey to feed to on, and my heart beat pounded furiously against my rib cage. Before i knew what was happening one of the boys siezed a cane, he held my shorts taut against my buttocks and meant to unleash the cane on me, but was told to hold on by his peers. The senior boys were very arrogant and wicked. They asked why I didn't tuck in my shirt. I pleaded with them that my shorts were torn at the back and to tuck in my shirts would mean earning ridicules from the students. Of course they were not listening to me, instead they were debating on the series of lashing to be meted out on me. My eyes were already red with tears.
Then rescue came!
Yes, Edith came to my rescue!
She was passing by when she looked up and recognising me, she came and started pleading with the boys. Though she was also a junior student like myself, she had more influence and popularity with the boys. That's women for you!
Were my class girls would enter and come out free, dare enter there as a boy and you'll live to tell the story!
"Diko nu gbaghalu, diko nu oo"
"Please forgive, please forgive, he's just a small boy, and he's still new, please forgive".
Edith pleaded on my behalf in Igbo accent of course, English was a luxury to students in my school. Though i felt ashamed by her choice of words, especially the
"he's just a boy" part, i maintained an innocent disposition as she pleaded my case. Her feminine whims and tricks paid off on my head at last. The senior boys finally released me, and I flew out of the place leaving behind Edith as the crackle of her laughter shook the place as she chatted heartily with the boys.

Divepen1:
Still going fine...
I just read to be entertained, I will scrutinize later. Yet, you did not capitalise all the 'I'.
Also brighten the story with dialogue

Noted boss! It's an honour to entertain you..prettydiva, logoD, Toy, etc, you're all welcome, ..hope i won't raise ur hopes in vain ...

stuff46:
Your's faithful is here. It's still down that memory that we once share, tho your's seem more complicated.

Its really worth my time, keep on the good work tho.

welcome brother .
#teamPhleg

* * * * * * * * * *

undermining the fact that i was "lazy" in fights, my classmates loved me alot. I had so many friends among them. I was friends with the good, the bad and the ugly. That's my person. I don't know why. Though an introvert, a phlegmatic for that matter, i had friends in my school that would defend and stand up for me anytime the need arise. I was friends with the intelligent and the brilliant boys in my class, friends with the hooligans that take school as a period to while away time and chase after girls. I moved and mingled with everyone in my class, but i had this character, (or should i say "will power?" that no matter how bad you might be, i can 'move' with you for a year or so and i wouldn't be influenced by your bad characters. So though i moved with all categories of people and persons in my class, i wasn't influenced by their raw and dirty language or their incessant lust and 'toasting' of females. I was just a moral person i guess.
With the brilliant and intelligent ones (though they were very rare), i moved with often, learn the little i could from them and teach them the little they wanted.
With the hooligans i seldom move with, except when i wanted to buy a phone, collect songs or videos from their phones or just want to hear their ever laughing voices as they cracked their silly jokes. I was the most the brilliant boy in my class. I easily top the class at the end of every term, no one was able to match me intelligence.

Competition was zero. Apparently 99percent of my classmates lacked the zeal and passion for academics. All the boys majorly wanted to quit school and start earning money and all the girls majorly wanted to gate an affair with a boy and become a school dropout. No exerggeration. This was what was prominent in my school back then.

As i moved with the boys, the girls were not left out. Though i'm naturally a very shy person , but one or two occasions , i do come out of my shell and dare my screaming shyness, and of course once in a while, back then. Today, shy keh? I don tear eye naaa!

I wouldn't call myself very handsome, neither would i call myself anything near ugly, but i think i have this natural "attractiveness" that girls normally love. Many places i've lived, i just discover that most times, the girls in my neighbourhood just kind of like of or find of attractive, why they do so, i don't know. Perhaps all guys possess that demeanour, i still don't know, maybe when i get married someday, my darling would be in a better position to tell me more about women and their likes.

So yes, i moved with girls also, but not with all as in the case of the boys.
Infact some of my class of my class girls don't even give a damn if i exist at all. I can hardly remember them or their names now, i too don't give a damn if they're still existing. (I pray oo)

How can i forget my earliest days (or was it my first day?) in the school?
I was still putting on white and green shorts with a big hole at the buttocks in comparison to the white shirts and white shorts the boys wore in my school. While the boys wore white and white, the girls wore a white top with a sky-blue gown, with a cap that looked like the ones worn by those American Navy officers i watch in movies.
I was still very new back then in the school. That was in Jss2 precisely. I came along with my bag and books only, no chair, no desk. I managed to share a chair and a desk with Alloysuis, not after murmuring and complaining about the 'poor' state of his chair and desk at the same time.
The first time i talked to a girl i was greeted with an eye blinding slap across my face, that was the first time my classmates labelled me a weakling!

..........

The whole place was in disarray. All the girls whose loose mouth had caused the fight ran outside and stood watching from the window , cheering their boys to fight on. It was at this junction that i woke up!
At long last the fight stopped. Books were recovered and lockers were raised up . Many were damaged, mind was intact, 'cos i sat on it through out the show of " man-power". It wasn't my fault that i don't have the "man-power" to fight, or is it? I'm not a weakling! No, i know how i work to get the money i spend, so no i'm not a weakling. I just hated fighting, because no matter how i tried i still get beaten by my opponent. I vividly remembered the shameless fight between me and Miracle(I've forgotten his real name). I visited a friend at the market, and of got talking, them this little boy (when i mean little. I mean little) came along with a tray on his head - he was selling "ukwa"(soya beans). He was my classmate, though we were in different arms. Yes, i remember his name now! Arinze! "Arinze nwa'kpuda". Arinze the dwarf!
I've forgotten what led to the fight shaa, but the bottom line was that, though the boy was shorter and smaller than me, i couldn't beat the hell out of the brat. Infact Arinze held my shirt at the neck, pulled me and dragged me about, amidst my struggling and panting to get his hands off me! At last he left of and guess what, he'd succeeded in rumpling my clothes and making a fool of me in the open! I hated myself! Daniel Dike who i came to visit sympathized with me, but after that day Daniel never ceased to refer to that incident at the market place whenever he wanted to tease me for my constant bragging.

The voice of Christian brought me back to reality.
"So you were here during the fight and you couldn't even do anything, it's people like you that's spoiling this class".
I said nothing, because i had nothing to say. They all knew me as a "lazy" boy when it came to physical combats. In groups the boys gathered and started planning on how to revenge on the senior boys, though i wasn't sure who won the fight, the senior boys or my class boys.
They strategized and planned with their swollen faces and bruised hands. I really pitied them. The senior boys were bigger and perhaps stronger than they, and i knew what the outcome of the fight would be if they launched a counter revenge.
My class boys where much, but they rarely stay in class. The bigger boys hung around on the stairs, playing music from their phones and discussing frivolous issues ranging from how to get ore money, travel out and secure an apartment to how to chase after and hook up with the beautiful and promiscus girls in the school. Perhaps if this set of bigger boys were around during the fight , it would have been a landslide victory for us. This was my school in those days, i wonder if such fights still take place today.
After plannin upon planning no motion was moved. No counter revenge was initiated, and the issue faded out with the passing time, but the bitterness and hatred for the senior boys grew in us and more fighting events took place in one time or the other throughout the entire tenure of the senior boys in my school.

You are all invited.

D9ty7
, Tiffanyj,
helenbee,
teebashy,
fatalveli,
prettydiva89
Divepen, Ali1king, kingphilip, onemansquad, tecno4life, bluestarry, jefferyjamez, slap1, supermartin, ishilove, jeanfortune, vibra, almacherich, marynneka, trusted, Shadowbean Abimbawealth, emarkson, jhimmy, UnknownT, laykorn, kenwins, iceberylin, Ollyfad, AnnbabyHot, debonairprinx, rondo235, MzNelly, Champele, Meel unique27, MrsGoodness, Lionize, MhizTemmie, AlienStar, Theorbiter, Ionprince, Susrite, Glowstone, bigwig97, Missmossy, ruffhandu, may3 Tomkhalifa52, okeyfineboy, kechywillz, folake25, tescoleps, teamplayey, ethereal, unlimitedbosco, PrinceGozie, Yudeeaikay, pelontus, justicesky24, mariamferanmi, qloreal, onosj, Rahma26, Kayleb37, Mutaino7, lawrenzo007, Tobilastik, yettielicious, eunisam, Athanatos, usmanspihn, hassan85, princesa, kiddyking, moshood1993, handmaid, missterious, kingphilip, kenwins, SexySapphire, Princesschi, Niwdog, Suspect33, Visionaire, Bunsky, laykorn, emitheo, alabig, marioking, elhafeez, OlufemiWhit, hassan85, davefieldpop, Ridens, sade1, Jayson4a Rahma26, Jeez2, ritzeluv, romzey pryd, sentaljohn, marcusagrippa, sommyqueen, omah1, adegwurulez, missstella, olusegunbob, scopiicaar, Flowtry, simiolu1, Crownfullhouse, tescoleps, alleazardous, whalesbanks, dare0834, Olasultan, stillchris, Bowaley17, dokilolo, teamplayey, Omolsdare, Calmdove, eremy, alizenbohr, atilla, tsodjete, folake25, ritababe, ruffhandu, mozele, Sprintson, trevolady, teemanbastos, ruffhandu, Demlad99, Cestmoi1, sammyomotola, kingphilip, simonhabby, tfabu, Elparaiso,Tandullceblog, Hameenat94, martin98, kenwins, Emmyk, urchbarbie, princesa, Divepen, obumsway, kusibe77, Twaci, viktohmarkz, Activity77, VigorousV, nnapo, Beesluv, edogho, keeper1, ogrin12, curvyschlong, anasbeaut, ncChigo, hottadiva, janeso, olashas, grandx88, joliematt, dodobytes, scribespad, kodylicky, lajaja, kenwins, suxxman, babie78, elemagoon, henryozil, hillsnite, Thermythorpe, goldenone, donephi, Kedam, DrJulian, stalicia, awwal339, typompy234, Skimpledawg, Kennedymac, RotrEmmanuel, sweetstuff20, eagleeye2, OLADO,
festwiz, kingzpen,Seun, Lenmafon, kajemjay, hayoronke, temitopedaniel, amenbaby, dopevick, Abbey2580, nisotzoe, haibeehae, wemmieslim, Sheanoel, marioking, lordgalore, Ikeano92, chuks000, monatim, Omololamide, olarafiat, JigsawKillah, xtremelygifted, godsonchikelue, Georgry, Kflorencek, Xtarxhyne, Onyi42, ayomi23, Rounakid, Olusharp, Silkmoth33, harmlessphil, mariamferanmi, ninja4life, Jennimma, whisper2esi, unilever, Babe2sure,bookhy, kingphilip, Chrisx1x, adeniyi00, Skyfornia, Darus05, Flakkydagirl, Ggee, MuniratAbolanl, Zeinymira, OVI75, Sirdy48, bayulll01, Anelk50, missterious, Chibueze90, Diamondamsel, MosesIgb, Fantasywrita, boladex1, Abuklaw, Omortolah, snowprince07, Kingso23, Bertadayz, Timothy3113, BestInDeeWorld, mattiechris, tunb, soulminister, ProfDee26, Hammenat24, Bloomingbud, seunviju, TiffanyJ, moseph, wizkris, Epaul, ProfDee26, babyboom, Inyanga, Grace, Ezeh, olarafiat, Komzzy1, candy, Odward, uchebest2006, Babyjoker, PrinceAdepoju,Suspect33, NeuroBoss, jaki006, light57,jubileesmith,stuff56, onemansquad, ritababe, selinabrown, icebrylin, tecno4life, ogbarmey, adeh37, adewealth027, koolwilly, standd, sir emzypaz, dastancypayne, Niftyrules, Bluestarry, Tescoleps, harjibolar10, profmaojo

and all lovers and readers of the imaginative work of art..

Divepen1:
Which memory..
I dey here

My memory!
Welcom sire

Down The Memory Lane - 1

* * * * * * * * * *

The flying of plastic chairs and shouts of 'war cry ' woke me up from my sweet sleep. I cleaned my eyes, stood up and was surprised to see the whole class in a fit of rage.
"It has happened again".
I sighed. Not sure of what to do i moved out of my wooden chair and sat put on my desk watching the great fight with utter dissappointment. The BIG ONE the hero of the day. He scattered chairs, pushed down desks as he combatted fiercely with the senior boys one after the other, his big head moved in such a way that i thought it would fall off his neck.
The girls said to me in Igbo "look at how this one is looking, won't you jump down and defend your class?" i managed to shift my gaze from the girls back to the fighters, not after swallowing the bitter gall of shame. My classmates, my friends and all the other boys were locked on in a serious fight with the senior boys. It wasn't the first time such digits occur in my school. In fact it has almost became a norm: that after a successive handover of "power" from the outgoing senior students to the incumbent class, there was always an outbreak of violence between the new "power-drunk" senior students and the immediate "junior" class. My friends looked at me with disgust. I was used to it. The fight lasted for up to an hour or so. No teachers came around during the fight, not even the principal. The passage to downstairs was barred by the same senior boys who didn't join in the fight. I managed to slip off my desk and walked outside amidst the pushing and throng of angered students, as i got to the passage, the senior boys won't let me go through.
Though i knew most of them, we were not really "close". I begged the senior boy who was "in-charge" of the doorway to let me go, but he bluntly refused. He held the railings with his left hands and gripped the window bar with his other hand, totally barring the entire doorway.

The girls were still outside the classroom shouting and cheering the boys to fight more! And the boys were not tired of fighting either!
I later learnt how the fight started. As the 3rd most powerful persons in the school, the senior boys had come to my class to give a "speech", but the girls in my class won't give them audience. Girls!
They jeered and booed them, and told them to go away and stop "claiming seniority!". The boys kept quiet, because they had earlier on bargained with the senior boys that they should accord them at least some form of respect, as we were next in class ranking after them, to this the senior boys outrightly refused, they wanted freedom and power to themselves alone!
A senior boy moved forward and asked the whole class to go on their knees, since our girls won't let them speak. To this our boys had taken as an affront to their personality and vehemently refused to obey. The senior boy had allegedly took his cane and started unleashing hot lashes on the students in the first row. Canes were brought out too (almost every boy in my class had one, except me of course), and in a second there was a sporadic lashing and slicing of each other with the canes. Next, canes were siezed with hands, broken and discarded, and the fist replaced them. Ricochetting blows were administered with clenched fists, and before anyone knew what was happening, the hands involuntarily picked up stools, chairs , wooden and plastic, desk and planks, swing them high in the air and crashed them down on their opponents. Books flew in the air, pens were broken and crushed. Who cared!

Down The Memory Lane - 1

I dedicate this work to the following personnels who had been with me through my first work, The Legend Of The Saints .
The likes of:
Timothy3113
toykathy
LogoDWhiz
miss universe
Aisha800
Mczigx
Pvictor10
dave p
rockhilz
rockhilz
franasoan
fhunn

I look forward to enjoying your company as we take a glance together Down The Memory Lane