I'm back!😁
Happy new year 🎉

Ifechi woke up that Saturday morning feeling more tired than she had gone to bed.

"You are still sleeping!" Her mother had barged into her room and said.

"Mummy it's Saturday na" she replied tossing the small blanket over her body as she adjusted into a more comfortable sleeping position.

"Hmmm....I thought you said you have an exam this morning, or did they cancel the competition?"

Her eyes flew open.

"the competition!!!"

In a nanosecond, she was flying out of the bed almost tripping over the mess of maths textbooks and papers scattered on the floor and entering the adjoining bathroom.

"Be careful o" her mother said before stepping out.

She hopped into the passenger's seat of her dad's modest Toyota Camry some minutes later and glanced at the time on the car's digital clock.

7:05

She breathed a sigh of relief when he pulled into the school's spacious driveway. She was walking towards Temi in a silky ironed uniform when an arm pulled her back.

"Damien?"

The pretty boy grinned, spreading his arms in the orange sweatshirt and joggers he wore.

"In the flesh and blood"

"But what...why, wait...what are you doing here?"

He chuckled at her little frenzy "I went to my friend's house to retrieve a stolen item....." He said with a smile that suggested that the item, a sleek silver object in his hand, wasn't really stolen but borrowed and held too long by the borrower.

"I remembered your competition was today so I decided to stop by...to see you"

She couldn't help but smile.
He stopped by to see her...

"Thanks, that's nice of you" she said

"Good luck in your competition....be sure to bring back that trophy"

"Thanks"

"Guess I'll be going now, but before I give you my good luck kiss, first answer this question"

He was replied with an eye roll.

"whats the question?" She finally added.

He cleared his throat suddenly taking a serious stance.

"Which 3 numbers have the same answer whether they’re added or multiplied together?"

Ifechi thought for a few seconds.

"Hmmm...Ok I dunno...tell me what the answer is"

Damien shook his head "you didn't even try"

"Is it 1, 2 and 3?"

They turned to Temi, who had advanced closer, her ironed uniform looking even silkier under the glow from the morning sun.

Damien smiled in approval.

"where did you get this question sef" Ifechi interrupted

"One puzzle book like that" he shrugged.

The teacher in charge arrived immediately, tagging along with him was a young corp member, their further maths teacher.

"Seems it's time for you guys to go so that's my cue to leave"

Where's my good bye kiss?

"Hmm?" He turned, a teasing smile on his lips that made Ifechi aware that she had said it out loud.

"Nothing!"

He shook his head smiling.

The girl don dey fall.

Grace arrived after some minutes completing the trio.

The girls were ushered into the vehicle the school had provided. It was a long coaster bus branded with the school's logo. It occured to Ifechi that she'd never seen the school bus being used until then. Perhaps it was because most students were either picked up by their parents or drivers. The very neglible few like her who weren't, preferred to walk home.

The drive was a long and boring one. With only five passengers in the huge vehicle, six if the driver was included. Ifechi found herself bored after several minutes into her revision. She looked over to the seat several rows behind them, were Grace sat alone, black airpods stuck in her ear as she tapped some things on her phone.

For some very weird reason, her feet seemed to have a mind of their own.

"Where are you going to?" Temi asked.

Ifechi tilted her head and Temi's look was proof enough not to dare what her mind wanted to do

"You're joking right? You want go and talk to Grace, Grace Williams...since when, do you want to die?"

"Oh come on" Ifechi laughed, but the expression on her friend's face showed she wasn't joking.

"Just stay here my friend, we can even revise this study guide"

"I've been doing that for over 20 minutes now...let me just go and say hi na, abi she's a human being too...maybe I can even invite her so that we will all do it together"

Ifechi was gone before Temi could talk any more sense into her. She arrived in front of Grace,  whose head was still bent. Taking the seat beside her, she muttered "Hi"

The girl turned immediately, a look of surprise flashed her eyes before it was replaced by a frown. She plucked the one of the airpods from her ear and answered.

"Excuse you?"

Her voice was cold, hostile, enough to make Ifechi know that she wasn't welcome, but the girl didn't fret, she repeated with a big smile.

"Would you like to join us to revise?"

"No"

"Oh okay"

Ifechi counted to three before she spoke again.

"Erm...well how you are you doing?"

Grace stared at her blankly, not sparing her an answer They remained in that position for about some seconds before she hissed and turned back to her phone fixing her airpods back.

"If you're done polluting my air with your presence, you may leave, I don't have time for any useless interactions and your bad perfume is ruining my nostrils"

Ifechi jaw almost dropped to the ground.

She carried herself back to her seat in front, throwing one last glance at the mean girl.

"Do you want to revise integration by parts?" Temi asked with a look of sympathy.

Ifechi turned to her with a weak smile "let's begin"

~~~

It was a few minutes past 9 o'clock when they arrived at the exam center and Ifechi now knew why they'd left so early.

Many schools had already arrived, there were a lot of school buses with students in fronts. Ifechi noticed that they were more students from other schools, most had about 6 or 7 and some even had more than 10 students in the same uniform.

"Every school is allowed to bring watchers" Temi answered her thoughts.

"Watchers?"

"Yeah... like other students apart from the three contestants, they're not part of the competition, they're just to watch and probably cheer."

"It was I, Grace and Emmanuella last year, the best students from the immediate lower class, I wonder why they didn't pick anyone from these SS2 this year" she continued as Ifechi scanned the environment.

Her eyes landed on a particular school that had just arrived. They seemed to attract all the attention  to themselves. More eyes began to turn as their students began to step down from the luxurious school bus. They were about seven in total, four girls and three boys. It seemed like they were already used to the attention because they stood poised and elegant chatting among themselves casually, in their grey and white checkered uniform that looked too posh to be locally made.

"That is Royal college, only the best school in the whole of Portharcourt. You can probably already tell it's an elite school, the millions they pay as fees is well accounted for at least..they've taken home the gold trophy for 4 years consecutively..." She paused and stared longingly at the students "... this year will make it the fifth one in a row" Temi sighed.

"How are you so sure that they will win this year?"

Temi snorted "They will...they always do." She sighed. "At least we can come second, I mean if Stemfield doesn't bother us this year. Till last year they used to tag after RC, sparing us third place, but last year, one of ours Seniors Feyi put up a fight and beat Stemfield in the semi finals, but Royal College stole the trophy again.. they're unbeatable!"

"They're beatable abeg..."

Temi hissed. It was a low, long hiss.

"Don't beat yourself up for it" Grace interrupted, they'd almost forgotten she was there as she stared too, at that same particular school.

Ifechi wanted to ask her what she meant, but she was cut off by a loud noise.

"Please all the school representatives should move towards the hall.... contestants to the left wing, others on the seats at the gallery, thank you" interrupting sounds blared through the speakers mounted on the building.

A brief introduction ensued after which the competition was declared open.

Ifechi soon decided that the competition was overrated, at least by Temi. The procedures were easy. Schools were grouped in threes— the last two schools were paired together as a result of the remainder of the 26 schools that participated— each competing for who would emerge the winner of that round and move to the next.

Ifechi and her classmates scaled through easily. The questions were too simple, their opponents too slow. It was one question for 15 seconds and sometimes, most times the other schools didn't solve on time, granting them extra marks by answering the bonus questions.

It was hours of throwing and answering questions before the preliminary round was up.

They had a 30 minutes break for refreshment and relaxation.

Ifechi stood up from her seat immediately. She took in greedily, the fresh air once she was out wondering how close to 3 hours went so fast? Pressing a head to her forehead, she noticed one of the girls from the elite school stepping out looking effortlessly pretty which made her question if they'd been part of the same competition.

"did you see those RC guys?" A voice cut sharply through her imaginations.

Ifechi was startled at first but her heart stopped beating when she saw it was just Temi "Gosh you scared me.....how? What are you talking about?"

"The prelims! Honestly, I felt sorry for the schools that got paired with them, it was obvious they didn't stand a chance. Did you see the way they just dominated every single question? Those kids are monsters I tell you...monsters!"

Ifechi couldn't help but burst into laughter at her friend's frenzy "come on...I think you're obsessing over them too much, we are just as good as they are"

Temi shook her head slightly but didn't say anything.

The 30 minutes went by and contestants were ushered back into the big hall for the semi finals.

The three girls stood attentively while their maths teacher uttered words of motivation and advice.

"Just Incase you end up in the same group with Royal College, don't get scared. Fear will only discourage you. Focus on getting all your questions right and if we are lucky, we might get tied which will automatically lead us to the finals" Mr Udochie said and Ifechi felt a strong dislike at the fact that the maths teacher also believed in the strength of their opponent, rather than in the strength of his training.

"We won't get into a tie.." she assured herself while they filed into the blue stage for the next round.

The shuffling was done and they landed in the same group with two schools that weren't RC. She felt both relief and disappointment at this.

There were nine schools in the semi finals. The Prestigious school, Royal college got paired with two other schools whose students — by the looks on their faces— had already lost hope of winning after seeing whom their competition was.

The semi finals was a bit harder than the first round. Ifechi didn't expect the students from the other schools to be almost as fast as they were in answering questions, barely giving them chances to obtain bonus points.

One of the students from  Standard community school, an angry looking boy, faced her with a smug smile after he had blurted out the answer to a question they couldn't solve on time. She recognised in his glare, a mixture of scornful self-satisfaction, a look of a person who assumed they were proud because of the school they came from and so wanted to prove that he was just as good as them, despite attending a lowly rated public high school.

At the end they won their semi finals, just as Royal College won theirs and the third winner, Stemfield emerged as champions in the third group. As they stood up from their seats, the unattractive boy glared at them contemptuously as if he believed he deserved to be in the finals and the device which computed the final scores had somehow malfunctioned and cheated.

The aura of the finals seemed invariably familiar. The same three schools who always reached the finals advanced yet again.  The cheering of the contestants by fellow schoolmates as they walked towards the stage was loud and deafening. As Ifechi's school didn't bring along watchers, only a few hands clapped for them as they ascended the stage — purplish looking, illuminated by the changed color of the bulbs in the chandelier hanging from the middle of the tall ceiling.

The hall suddenly became quiet and then the large podium in the middle of the three arranged benches lit up brightly to reveal the major moderator, the MC, a chubby looking man with a friendly smile, holding a red envelope which Ifechi felt contained nothing important and was merely for aesthetics.

"Welcome to the final stage in the intra state mathematics competition, congratulations to all...."

Ifechi zoned out of the remaining intro speech. Her eyes was focused on someone, a girl from Royal college who stared back just as intently as if they were both trying to read other. She wondered if they saw them as a competition. She knew that they— especially Temiola, who was shivering subtly beside her, huge goosebumps on her dark skin— saw the contestants from Royal College as a very big competition.

Stemfield seemed harmless compared to RC although they were extremely brilliant, answering questions as soon as they were thrown. Their three representatives, with their huge glasses balanced on the bridges of their noses and extremely bogus school vests, reminded Ifechi of the pictures she saw on the web when she leisurely and aimlessly browsed about Private boarding schools abroad.

It took a question from the applications of integral calculus to throw them off balance. Ifechi spat out the answer as soon as the buzzer went off and smiled when she saw their score on the projector screen increment by 2 points.

After that, they failed a few more questions. Ifechi, Temi and Grace grabbed these opportunities with glee while the students of Royal College seemed relatively relaxed, assured that their normal points would be sufficient enough to earn them the trophy. They only grabbed the few questions that DCA didn't answer on time. It was like a personal rivalry between both schools; Ifechi's school and the elites. Not a single question was left unanswered.

At the end of the last question, everyone's heart started to beat. The computer connected to the huge screen ran a quick calculation and the final points were displayed for the whole hall to see.

It was a moment of truth.

Ifechi shut her eyes when the total scores came on and only opened them when strange sounds filled the hall. There was no applause, no deafening cheers of triumph, only murmurs and gasps.

When Temi, with a tone of surprise and immense doubt muttered "Unbelievable!", Ifechi forced her eyes open.

Stemfield had come in third, with a handful of points. Eyes widened when the figures underlined next to the other two schools were revealed to be the same.

There was a tie!

"Wow! This has never happened before" the MC spoke with an amusement "....Royal College has never been one to share their trophy with anybody else" he added with a chuckle and Ifechi sensed that the contestants from RC must want to wipe that teasing look off his face.

To Ifechi's amusement, a look of disbelief flashed on Royal College students' faces as they glanced at the screen and back at them. They didn't think that they, (she, Grace and Temi) stood a chance against them. It was on their faces, the faded looks of condescension that had now paved way for something new, an unusual sense of respect.

They started the tie breaker moments later. Same procedure, except the questions were tougher and the answer time had been reduced to five seconds.

The unexpected outcome of the finals had pumped some boldness into all of them. Ifechi could tell, from the look of determination on Temi's face, that she too now believed that they could win the trophy this year after all.

Royal College students were harsher, more brutal and they pounced on every question like a hungry lion attacking its prey. D' Champions Academy students were not left behind. Ifechi recoiled in shock, a shock of amazement when Temi called out the answer to a question even before the moderator had finished reading it out. She didn't even solve it, Ifechi was sure, yet she somehow got the answer right.

The end result was palpable, the result still hadn't changed. Both schools had answered all their questions right and so the tie hadn't been resolved.

Murmurs arose, much louder chattering than the first. The MC, bewildered as he was, stepped off the stage to consult the panel about what to do next. After some minutes of hushed talkings, perhaps debating, of Ifechi wiping off sweat from her forehead, of Grace cracking her fingers in a manner that seemed too ungainly for her persona and of Temi hopping giddily from one foot to another with a huge smile on her face, the MC stepped towards the stage and assumed his position.

He cleared his throat "Ladies and gentlemen, schools and guests, Staff and students, allows us to introduce you to our last resort of the tie breaker.."

Ifechi's heart rate doubled. She became more tense.

"The two schools will produce a single representative for this round. A question is to be read and the contestant who answers it first automatically wins the trophy.....both schools may have a minute to decide"

They got to work immediately on electing the final representative.

"You should go." Temi said turning to her sharply.

"No way.." Ifechi replied quickly, her heart still beating rapidly. "I think Grace should go, she's the best when it comes to speed" she suggested instead. They turned to look at Grace and she hesitated, taking in a deep breath and blinking rapidly before facing them.

"You should go Ifechi.."

Ifechi eyes widened. She never expected Grace to decline let alone insist that she went.

"....you're more qualified than I am, you'll do it better" she added still not meeting their gaze.

"See!" Temi shook her shoulders softly "you should go, you can do this, I trust you, we trust you". She said "we" motioning to both her and Grace and Ifechi felt stronger and bolder than she'd ever been. She nodded and stepped out of the seats to one of the two seats, facing each other in the middle.

Her opponent from Royal College, the pretty girl she'd seen earlier was already seated. Their eyes locked. She stared at the girl and the girl stared back, sizing her from head to toe as one would stare down an opponent they were sure they would defeat.

"Are you ready?" The MC spoke and suddenly the hall seemed to take on a new atmosphere. An instrumental which Ifechi found too dramatic began to play from the installed speakers and she started feeling dizzy.

Ifechi said a silent prayer to God, to Jesus and to the blessed virgin Mary, mother of God, to help her win the competition.

"Hear the question" he started. An eerie silence fell on the hall and everyone was still, even the MC suddenly looked tensed. Then after exhaling softly, he read:

"X, Y and Z are three integers such that X Y Z = X+Y+Z, what are the values of the three unknowns?"

It was a second, no, a nanosecond that passed when Ifechi dropped her pen suddenly aware of it's uselessness. Her memory sprang up like flowers in the summer and her mind recalled the events of the morning, in the school's compound. She remembered Damian and his trick question and the answer appeared before her, like bold numbers carved just as deeply as her initials on the dorm locker she used in her previous school was engraved.

"The answer is 1, 2 and 3!!" She yelled and the world around her seemed to stop.

Silence.

1

2

3

"Correct!!!" The MC screamed in a voice ten time higher than hers.

It started with a scream from Temi and then, the hall erupted in uproar.

In a second, Temi was running to her, smashing their bodies together in a forceful hug and students from Royal College were stomping out of the stage. She stood with the gold trophy in her hand smiling earnestly at the camera, Temi and Grace on each side of her, and the maths and further maths teacher behind the three of them. They took multiple pictures; first alone, then with the MC, with the panel, different reputed individuals that graced the ceremony, and with schools that wanted pictures with the champions and soon, Ifechi felt pain in her cheek from smiling for too long.

They left the hall after the event was over, a new burnish in their steps. They were after all, the ones who broke the record that Royal college had set four years ago.

The school in subject had hurled off immediately after receiving their silver trophy, and Ifechi thought they'd left until she saw them outside. The seven students were standing in front of their luxurious coaster bus while a teacher was confronting them. When they looked up and saw the people who stole their trophies, they all hissed and went back to their discussion.

One of their students, the pretty girl Ifechi had admired, approached Ifechi some seconds later. She carried the shiny silver trophy in her hand while Ifechi bore that of her school, the heavy gold trophy in hers.

"Congratulations" she said with a smile that made Ifechi to be taken aback.

"Erm...thank you.." she stuttered, nervous, feeling intimidated by the presence before her. Even though they'd won the trophy, there was still that aura, that superior atmosphere that she knew had to be common to students of Royal College and that this aura would probably always be in their possession.

"... congratulations too" Ifechi added after a few seconds. The girl's smile deepened revealing her nice teeth, a smile that made Ifechi instantly jealous.

"I'm Zemaye" the girl said stretching out an arm for a handshake.

Ifechi took it shyly "Ifechi" she murmured. The girl nodded and then before she could say anything, a boy came to fetch her. Ifechi almost tripped on nothing when she beheld the beauty or in this case handsomeness of the person in front of her.

How can someone's son be this fine??!!

He whispered something into the girls ear to which she nodded to and then turned back to Ifechi with an apologetic smile. "I have to go, it was nice meeting you... congratulations once again" were her last words before she left with the guy, both holding arms in a way that made Ifechi almost certain that they were dating.

Back at their luxurious bus, one of the other girls seemed to pick a fight with the girl that had just spoken to her, probably wondering why she was interacting with the enemy. Zemaye only shrugged in response and Ifechi wanted to laugh at the look on the other girls face when their eyes met and she boldly sent her wink from across where they stood.

"Sore losers" Temi said emerging beside her. Ifechi nodded in response but didn't say anything else. She wondered too if Temi would get angry if she told her that she'd exchanged pleasantries with one of their rivals.

"Let's go, let's go" The maths teacher called to them when the driver had arrived. His old face was lit up with happiness and he had put on a permanent smile which was like a crooked line drawn from one end of his cheek all the way to the other end.

The drive back was joy filled. The driver blasted music from the bus radio and Temi and Ifechi sang along. Grace didn't sing but Ifechi didn't miss the small smile on her face that was there throughout the drive. This was their victory, there were no differences to consider in this victory that they had all struggled to win.

When she got home, her parents were elated and nervous. They asked her how the competition had went, what had happened, who had won, and Ifechi's response was a personal picture with the commissioner for education with her gold trophy. She couldn't wait to receive her medals and cash prize on Monday.

"Praaaaaiiiiiiiise the Lord!" Her mother shouted and they all gleefully chorused "Alleluia!"

That night they made a special jollof rice to celebrate her and her school. As she sipped from the chilled pure haven that her dad opened in her favour, Ifechi never felt as alive, and as accomplished as she felt then.

She slept with a giddy feeling and a huge smile plastered on her pretty face.

A/n

They won o! They won😂

Please vote and comment on this chapter if you like it.

God bless you ❣️