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"See the light in each other. Be the light for each other."
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                          ¶ AYO¶

I stood at the door of SSS3 Commercial that Monday morning, noticing every single different detail about it than we left it during the summer classes/ GCE break.

It wasn’t so different though. The only thing was that, the walls were painted a darker shade of yellow— almost amber and the desks and chairs looked like they were new or probably just really washed well.

The ceiling remained its usual dull color of white and the white boards were just cleaned. If anything, the class looked neater. I reminded myself that it’d be like that just for two days in the first week of resumption.

I looked around the entire class filled up with my classmates that I’d spent almost three years with or should I say, six? They were seated in groups, laughing and talking about whatever they could.

With my hands in my pocket, I entered fully into the classroom and gave a nod, signaling greeting to some of my classmates close to the entrance.

At one part of the classroom too, I sighted a group of my classmates, talking and I knew MJ was around when I heard his loud voice yell;

“Guyyyy that commerce question was effing med gan! Aswear!”

And then his loud, deep voiced and maniacal guffaw followed right after.

I smiled and shook my head.

Monjola Taiwo never did learn how to be quiet even though we’ve been best friends since primary five. To be fair, I never learned how to be loud either.

Loner me had no friends although I was never really one to socialize. I was an extreme introvert but one day, MJ almost got into trouble for an assignment with a teacher. I helped him and since then, he never let go of me.

I found the seat assigned to me by the class teacher and put my bag on the desk. That was when he saw me.

“Bruvvvvvvv!” 

He hopped out of the place he sat and jumped to where I was. Literally. And he caught a lot of attention even as he did because everything was so loud.

Heads turned, some were shook while some mouths laughed and others’ just hissed, knowing it was MJ and they were probably already used to him.

“NIGGA!” He yelled again, as he finally got to me.

I actually winced at the sound of his voice very close to me. I would never get used to this.

“Mother--” I did not allow him to finish his sentence before I cut him off. Another thing about him was that he swore a lot. Too much.

“I heard you the first time, you know,” I said as we did our infamous bro handshake. One that we made up because we watched Peter Parker in Spiderman— Homecoming, do it with his best friend.

Monjola had grown his hair real full during the break and decided not to cut it. His beards were out, meaning he did not want to shave. His eyes looked as bright as usual and his uniform was wrinkled a little with his white shirt tucked out, his tie undone and round his neck and the school’s customized jacket cardigan, rolled up along its sleeves, worn around his uniform shirt.  

“Omo, you don fresh oh! See as you dey shine!” He touched my chin.

“Abeg, commot your hand.” I shrugged his hand off my chin. “No dey whine.”

“My Guyyyy na you oh.”

I shook my head again as I settled in my seat. He slumped directly beside me and I started wondering if this was his seat because with the kind of person MJ was, one could not even know, he was always in different seats at the same time.

He was the only one who got away with exchanging his seats in this school in spite of how strict they were with that rule. And I low-key did not want him to sit beside me during class because he was a noise maker and would be a big distraction, which would definitely get me into trouble.

“Uh…is this your seat?” I gestured with raised eyebrows.

“Nope.”

“Thank God oh.”

“Ode. You don’t want me to sit with you abi?” He laughed, attempting to slap the back of my head, but I dodged it.

“Clearly.” I said.

“Nawa oh. A spec like me?” He feigned hurt. “You wound me, man.”

“Idiot.”

We kept talking about stuffs, of course with him doing most of the talking and shouting while I just nodded or laughed in response, until someone called my name:

“Balogun!”

I turned and looked behind me which was where the voice came from. “Yes sir!” I responded sharply but calmly, getting up from my seat and heading to where he—Mr. Ariyo, our Further Math teacher—stood.

“Good morning sir,” I greeted politely, bowing my head in the process.

“Morning,” He answered curtly and maintained eye contact with me. I looked away and at his other facial features, examining the fact that his brows were scanty and his face had eczema also that he had a scar on his left eye which made it more closed than the other and that he had mustache but no beards.

“You are needed in the assembly hall this very minute. Now go!” He ordered.

“Okay sir.” I said and in the next second I walked as fast as I could to the assembly hall wondering what I was urgently needed for. Was I in trouble? I was not rude to anybody. I mean, it was just the first day. I’ve never gotten into any trouble except with__

“Well, well, well, look who’s here. Our favorite meat!”

Speak of the devil and he suddenly appeared. Great!

Getting to the end of the hallway that led to the staircase, Sukanmi Olanrewaju A.K.A Sukky and his geng of over hyped idiots; Jare Omotola and Oghenekome Martins appeared in front of me. I looked at the three of them all hovered around me like hyenas wanting to eat their prey.

Why and how did I even meet these guys again?

Story for another day.

I locked eyes with Sukky suddenly wondering where I got the boldness to and it was like we were in a stare down match. I didn’t blink once but he did and then he started to falter. He lost the supposed match and I smirked in satisfaction. I cleared my throat. “Move. I’ve got somewhere to be.” They all stared at me, clearly shocked, but it was gone as soon as it came.

“What if I don’t want to?”  Sukky asked tauntingly, a sinister smile which showed his golden tooth and diastema, appeared on his face.

“Yeah, what if we don’t want to?” Jare proceeded to say and three of them crossed their arms, glaring daggers at me like I would melt or break right in front of them.

Of the three, Sukky was the tallest. He was taller than I was too. He had a square-like kinda face and big bulgy lips. Dark in complexion, broad shoulders and dark brown hair locked in Dred. He also had a permanent and hardened glare on his face. He looked intimidating, to say the least. Jare and Kome were very much like him but shorter by an inch or two. Jare was darker than but not as dark as Sukky was while Kome was obviously the lightest of the trio.

I let out a laugh, holding back any anger rising in me, as this was not the time to lose control, and said. “I don’t have your time this morning. Go pick on someone your own size, someone who thinks as dumb and as dimwitted as you guys do.” My voice came out calmer and bolder than I had expected.

“Because say you sabi English pass us abi? Balogun, better watch your back because we go soon reason your matter!” Kome barked.

Sukky stepped forward and looked me dead in the eye. “Don’t forget Balogun, say we sabi your secret, I sabi am wella.” He smirked and we began another stare down match but this time I lost ‘cause my shy, scared and intimidated self, came back. My insecurities sprang up.

The reality hit me like a brick and I realized I wasn’t that bold.

They left me standing there, dazed out of the earth and trying to forget the past.

I clenched my fists and started breathing heavily for about two minutes. One, two, three… I began counting.

After I calmed down, I started my journey down the staircase and few seconds later, I heard footsteps behind me.

I turned to see Nina Ogbeide behind me at the same time she called my name. I sobered up.

“Ayo?”

I smiled. “Hey. Good morning?” 

“Good morning, wassup na?” she replied with a smile as she caught up.

We stood for a while.

“I’m okay.” I wasn’t but I lied anyway. “You?”

“I’m fine too.”

“Well, that’s good to know.”

The way I replied, it was as if we were chatting on whatsapp. Pathetic if you ask me.

“What were you and the three idiots of our set talking about just now?” She asked with a very curious look on her face, knowing the kind of crooks those three boys were.

She looked very neat, as usual. Her face, very radiant. Melanin beauty not concealed in any way. Her hair was not braided but it looked very soft.

Her round and gold rimmed glasses sat on the bridge of her nose in a cute way. Her face was rid of any spots or pimples and her lips were glowing with the lip gloss which smelled of strawberry.

Her whole being smelled of strawberry. She smelled of strawberry every single time that it became her natural scent.

I chuckled, nervously.

“Nothing much actually. Like you said, they are idiots. They just do what idiots do.” I gave a flimsy excuse.

She giggled. “I guess you are heading to the assembly hall too.”

“Yeah, I wonder what I’m needed there for though.”

“Who Knows?” She said and we both shrugged at the same time causing us to laugh.

I honestly always admired Nina Ogbeide. How she carried herself with confidence and grace. How nice, free and outgoing she was. How she laughed and God, her smile was so charming, so welcoming.

Nina and I were not exactly close but we became friends during our GCE because we happened to be in the same centre. We exchanged numbers but our convos online didn’t go more than hi and normal greeting because I am a very boring person on whatsapp. I am extremely terrible at making convos.

“So, let’s go?” She said.

“Yeah.”

We resumed walking to the assembly hall.

After our comfortably silent walk down the stairs and into the assembly hall, we were directed to a room that I never noticed in all my years of attending RBA.

Nothing was special about the room though. It wasn’t even painted. And it smelled stuffy.

Some of our classmates were already waiting in the room, I sighted Ninuola Adams and Chidera Odikanwa from science class, probably wondering the same thing I was wondering. How did this room exist? And what were we doing here?

“See you later, Ay,” Nina said and reached out for a fist pump.

I grinned and obliged.

She skipped off to meet Ninu and some other people who formed chat groups.

I stayed on my own, not daring to join any chat group, because I probably would not even blend with them.

After a few minutes of waiting quietly while others chatted away, the V.P, principal, and two teachers walked in, causing the noise in the room to die down.

Long story short, we were all told that we would be badged as prefects today and to say I was shocked was an understatement. Me? A Prefect? How?

And to sum it all up, I was health prefect boy and Nina was health prefect girl. We were given the same posts. I felt really happy about that and if you’d ask me why. I had no answer.
Looks like this year is gonna be a good one. Hopefully.

But even as I stood beside Nina on the stage to receive my badge, I caught Sukky staring at me. He had a coy smirk on his face. One that changed my optimism about this year, this last year in secondary school.

And oh, I thought I had it all under control…

Heyyo!

Wassup?

How's the going going?

Your life?

Family?

Siblings?

Cutlery?

Okay, okay... I'm already asking too much questions which is leading to trash...XD.

So... how'd you see this chapter?

We got a sneak peak of Ayo's life.

What's his secret?

Me: No idea🤷🤷

And who can see the ship I'm seeing? Or am I the only one seeing it?👀👀👀

Last but not least...

Vote,

Comment,

Share,

Repeat!

God bless you!

~Ife😍