Update 91

IV

The school was almost over by the time Vincent was returned to the class. He could not confront the new boy because there was a teacher in the class. That was the last period of the day, so Vincent would patiently wait until the school had closed for the day.

Then as the bell was rung for the close of the school, the teacher rounded up his teaching and gathered his textbooks. Then the teacher did something Vincent had not expected. He called Junior Black and told the boy to follow him. Vincent frowned at this. Several thoughts began to circle his head. Did Junior tell the teacher to call him after the class? Had the newcomer reported him already? What did the teacher want with him? He had just joined the class today and he was already becoming the favourite of the teachers – what nonsense! Vincent continued to wonder what the teacher wanted with the new boy. He watched with darkened expression as the boy packed his books, picked up his bag, and left the class.

“What are you going to do now?” asked one of his errand boys.

“Do about what?” Vincent growled at the boy.

“I’m talking about the new boy,” said the student, “Now that he has followed Mr. Okafor to the staff room, what are you going to do now? I know you were waiting for the teacher to leave so that you could deal with him.”

“Did I tell you that? Did I tell you that I was going to deal with him?”

The boy looked confused, “That newcomer disrespected you. Surely, you won’t just allow him to get away with that. You sent words to him to come and pay you some respect and he ignored you. He has to pay for that disrespect. No one disrespects you and gets away with it.”

“And how is that any of your business?” Vincent snapped at the boy. “I know you are looking forward to violence. You want me to hurt the boy. You yearn for blood and tears. You are a terrible child. Just like Miss Bongo taught us in Literature class, you’re like Iago. You are always staying in the shadows and causing mayhem, but no one suspects you because you carry an innocent gait. You whisper dirty words to people’e ears and set the world on fire through their actions. That is exactly what Iago does in Othello. I’m not going to fall for your pranks. I will deal with the newcomer if I want; it is not until you tell me what to do. Now get the hell away from my side before I transfer my anger to you, Lasisi.”

The boy’s eyes opened as widely as they could go, then fear clouded his face. He knew exactly what Bro Vincent could do to him – and no one would be able to do anything if Vincent hurt him, not even his parents. Realising that, he quickly picked up his bag and left the class.
The other students who had been hoping for a physical confrontation between Bro Vincent and the new boy were disappointed too when Vincent picked his bag and left the class. No one had the courage to question him about his intention. And since Vincent left the class, the rest of the class saw no reason to remain there any further. So they also picked up their bags and left the class.

However, contrary to his classmates’ thoughts, Vincent did not go home. As a matter of fact, he had not even forgiven Junior for the disrespect. He still planned to hurt the boy and show him that he was the boss in the class. However, Vincent did not want to do that in front of the class. The fact that the boy had refused to acknowledge him in class in the presence of all the students had put a little bit of doubt in Vincent’s mind. It was clear that the newcomer was not scared of him. Surely, there was something the boy believed in – and Vincent was reluctant to find out about it in the presence of all the other students; he did not want a situation where he would end up being embarrassed or disgraced in front of the entire class. And from experience, Vincent had learnt that one’s physical size did not determine how powerful a person could be.
And so after leaving the class, Vincent hung around somewhere close to the staff room and waited for the boy to come out. He waited for almost half an hour before he finally sighted the boy come out of the room. Vincent studied the boy again; there was no indication of fear or trepidation about the boy. In the past, Vincent had seen students literally pee on themselves because they were afraid of him. Even girls wept like little children and begged him to spare them. He still remembered how Lola Onuka had almost fainted when he screamed at her. He admitted that he had partly contributed to shattering the girl’s self-confidence. But he felt no guilt for it; if a person could not defend themselves, then they were as good as dead. This is a dog-eat-dog world, and you have to be able to stand up for yourself. You don’t have to be all-powerful to do that. You only need to know your rights as a human being. You should be able to say No to people who you are scared of looking in their faces. But Lola was not any of that, and so all the students in the class had decided to use her weakness against her. Vincent knew that all the abuses could stop if he intervened on her behalf, but he was never going to do that. She must learn how to stand up for herself or continue enduring the abuse. Vincent had nothing against Lola Onuka but he was not going to defend her; nothing would make him do.

This new boy was particularly different; he was different than other boys Vincent had encountered. Besides the fact that the boy was not scared of him, there was something about this boy that seemed to bother Vincent. There was a kind of recessiveness in him that intimated danger – Junior Black seemed like a calm but dangerous boy, and it was only Vincent that was seeing this quality in him. Perhaps this was why Vincent had a second thought about directly approaching the boy, even as he saw him come out of the staff room. Rather than approach the boy, Vincent trailed him and watched where he would go. Before he would confront him, Vincent wanted to know what kind of person Junior Black was. He would tail him to wherever he was going. It would be a great advantage to him if he could determine where the boy lived. He didn’t know what he was going to do even if he did, but he knew he would rather know where the boy resided than to go at loggerheads with someone whose origin he knew nothing about – especially someone whose demeanour seemed to indicate danger. Vincent was not sure if the danger he noticed in the boy was of violence or something deeper, he just knew that this was not a student he would be able to easily mess with.

Junior, however, was unaware of the person trailing behind him in the school compound. Once again, he had forgotten about the students his classmates called Bro Vincent. He didn’t care much about the student if all he could do was bully other smaller children. Junior only remembered who Vincent was when he set his eyes on him, otherwise, the big student didn’t exist to him – just like he didn’t exist now.

He walked confidently through the school field. He checked his wristwatch for the time. It was just half past two. He wondered if his father or Tony were already waiting for him. He doubted it; his initial thought was that the school would close by 3 in the afternoon. And that was certainly what his father must have thought, too. But Junior didn’t mind waiting. Actually, he would like a couple of more minutes in the school compound just to catch up with everything he had missed for almost two years – the fields, bushes, flowers, trees, tyres, books, and everything that could be found in a school setting.

As he walked past his classroom, he noticed a girl sitting alone. The class was empty beside the girl. He recognised her as the girl who used to sit close to him in class. The same girl almost everyone in class enjoyed bullying. He tried to remember her name. Was it Bola? Biola? No, he shook his head. That’s not it. Oh, yes! Lola. He could even remember her surname now. Onuka. She was Lola Onuka. Junior stopped and stared at her. She was huddled in a corner. Her schoolbag was on her thighs and she placed her head on it. Junior crossed and stepped into the class.

“Hello Lola,” he said.

She slowly lifted her head and looked up at him. A weak smile crossed her face. “Hi Junior. What are you still doing in school? I thought you would have left.”

“I was about to ask you the same question,” replied Junior, “I was called to the staff room.”

“I hope there is no problem,” said she, “Students called into the staff room are usually in big problems.”

Junior smiled and shook his head. “No, there’s no problem at all. I was called in to help sort out some books.”

“Good.”

“So what are you still doing in class when everyone has left?”

“I’m thinking about how I will get home,” she explained. “I have no transport fare and my house is far away from here.”

Junior frowned. “Did your parents not give you the transport fare?”

She shook her head. “No, that’s not the case. I was supposed to leave with the schoolbus, just like I came this morning.”

“Then why didn’t you leave with the bus? Did you miss it or what?”

“I was not allowed to enter the bus,” she replied sadly.

“I don’t understand. Are you owing the bus fee? Who didn’t allow you?”

“It’s the students who pushed me out. They said they don’t want me in the same bus with them.”

Junior’s frown deepened. “Are you telling me that your fellow students told you to not enter the bus and you listened to them?”

“They all ganged up on me,” explained she, “What do you expect me to do?”

“As long as you are not owing the bus fare, you have as much right to be on that bus as any of the other students. Why do you allow them to treat you this way, Lola? If you continue to allow them to treat you like trash, the bullying won’t ever stop. They will continue to frustrate your life. You need to stand up for yourself. Now how do you plan on getting home?”

“I have no choice but to trek.”

“You need to tell your parents about what you are passing through in school, Lola.”

She shook her head. “My parents have passed through a lot. I don’t want them to start worrying about me, too.” She gave a sad smile, “Don’t worry about me, Junior. I will be fine. There is nothing they bring that I can’t take. Someday, they will get tired of bullying me.”

Junior shook his head. “No, that’s not right. You can’t continue to take all the nonsense they dish at you. You just have to stand your ground against a few of them and all the others will fall in line. That is how this world works. People treat you the way they see you treat yourself. You have to protect yourself first, then you shall be protected, naturally.”