Ifechi was at the school very early the next morning. It wasn't hard to find her class as "SSS3A" was boldly inscribed on the third door she came across on the top floor. She was resting her head on a random desk waiting for someone else to arrive

She opened her eyes when two girls entered the class immediately chattering and laughing about something when they noticed her.

They paused.

Both of them looked at her silently as if examining her for a moment

"Hi" she said awkwardly

"Excuse you, are you in this class?" A fair girl asked her.

"Yes" Ifechi answered resisting the urge for an eye roll at the obvious question, would she sitting there if she wasn't a member of the class?

They both looked at her stunned

"For real?" She asked again "like you're sure you're in SS3?" She said looking Ifechi in a not so subtle way

"Ehm...yeah I suppose, I'm new....well that's obvious but yeah, I'm new so I'm in SS3. I joined yesterday"

"That's weird. The school doesn't accept new SS3 students!" The other girl said.

"Oh" was all that came out from her mouth.

"Well, my name is Ifechi" she started after an awkward silence, they turned to her

"Anita" the dark skinned girl said " that's Dami" she said pointing to the fair girl who gave a small wave
"Short for Damilola, nice to meet you" she said settling in her seat, Anita took the seat in front of her.

"Thanks...same" Ifechi said, relief instantly washing over her. 

.....

"Settle down, settle down o" their form master Mr Winifred called out, he was a tall man in his late thirties. He stood in front of the class with a marker on one hand and a very long thick cane on the other.

"Class compliment" Naomi, the class prefect said, they all stood up groggily

"Good morning Sir"

"Good morning, how are you all doing?"

"Fine sir" some responded, the majority remained silent

"Please sit down" the man said even though most people had already taken their seat.

"I wanted to address you people yesterday but I later changed my mind knowing many of you wouldn't have come yesterday. I thought by now the class will be complete but clearly I was wrong" he said.

The class groaned.

"Nice to see you too..." the teacher rolled his eyes sarcastically.

"....Welcome to a new session. First of all we want to thank God for bringing all of us this far. Since SS1 I have been here, we haven't lost anyone and we should all be grateful for that"

"So, this is your last year as in this school and as secondary students..." He paused when he was interrupted by the cheering lads, Ifechi smiled.

Who wouldn't be happy to leave secondary school

"Ok ok...it's enough" Mr Winifred said and the noise died down slowly.

"As I was saying..I know this is the year that your seniority will enter your head and most of you will start doing rubbish boyfriend and girlfriend upanda" their form teacher said, loud murmurings and snide remarks filled the room

"Heeeyyy....." he yelled again, the class went dead silent again.

"......I don't want to waste your time by giving you advice I know you've already heard a thousand times but just be good children and don't do anything to tarnish your family's background" he said finally and they chorused

"Yes sir"

"Good"

"By the way congratulations to all those who got a post in this class, I'm really happy to see that my class produced both senior prefect and assistant for boys and head girl"

"Now is there any thing any one would like to say or?...." He asked looking around.

"Sir" a girl who was seated at the front row called out.

"Yes Head girl?"

"We have a new student in our class" she said and turned to Ifechi's direction.

"Who?" The man said following her eyes

"Her" the girl said pointing towards Ifechi. They made eye contact and she saw the gold badge on the gis shirt that stated 'head girl' before she looked away.

"Hmmm really..well dear come out and introduce yourself" he said causing everyone's attention to turn to her.

She stood up and straightened her long skirt and walked to the front of the class all the while feeling the eyes of her classmates on her back.

"See fresh meat o" Sam,the class clown hollered, the class burst into laughter and Mr Winifred pointed at him

"Samuel be careful" the boy raised his hand in mock surrender. Mr Winifred turned to Ifechi.

"Tell us your name, where you're from and your future ambition"

Ifechi looked around the class and started in her best accent. "My name is Ifechi Okereke, I'm from Imo and I want to be a computer engineer in future" she spoke fluently making random eye contacts with some of her classmates.

A girl scoffed a few feet away. "Computer engineer...more like computer repairer" she snickered and those around her giggled as well.

Ifechi turned to the girl. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me..." the girl said boldly "..who still wastes 5 years of their time studying such a useless course. If you want to work in aladapoe village, just go there and tell them you can fix laptop" she mocked

Ifechi was taken aback. What is the meaning of this humiliation from this random stranger. She felt anger rising through her veins and sighed softly before replying.

"First of all, computer engineering is not a useless course. Just because you don't know the future prospects of the career path doesn't make it lame. Besides, you clearly don't know much about it because if you did, you'd know it was four years, not five"

"Woahhhh" her classmates began to murmur. Ifechi smiled in satisfaction when she saw the smug smile wiped off.

"Is that all?" Mr Winifred asked, Ifechi turned her head to face him in confusion. Didn't he say name, state and career? She thought.

"No hobbies, talents, peculiar things about you? What's your favourite subject?" He asked

"Um..I like reading, singing and writing and my favourite subject is mathematics and physics" she stated

"Osheeyy, Albert Einstein" Samuel yelled again and they all laughed, Ifechi smiled too. Mr Winifred glared at him again

"last warning"

"What do your parents do for a living?" A random girl asked. Ifechi was shocked by the question. Why did her parents occupation matter? She felt the pace of her heart beat increase as everyone stared at her. Stuttering and nervous, she feigned confidence while replying.

"Um...my dad is an accountant..my mum is a teac.....sorry an educational consultant"

"Hmm....cool" the girl replied and the rest of her classmates murmured in approval.

"Alright..." The teacher interrupted "I guess you're done introducing yourself. You're welcome to D.C.A, I hope you have a great time here.."he said to her and turned to the class members, specifically Jimmy.

"You people should make her feel welcome o" he warned waddling his index finger

"Yes sir" they all chorused

"Go and have your seat..."

"..ok then it's almost time for your first lesson...have a nice day" he said and stepped out of the class. Another teacher walked in immediately.

"Class greet"

"Good morning sir" they said groggily. Unlike Mr Winifred, their maths teacher didn't take it likely. Mr Udochie was a man in his late 50s. He was a cheerful man and loved to crack lame jokes but could also be strict when it was 'needed'. Despite being old, he knew how to teach his subject well which was why they liked him

"Is it me you people are greeting like this?" He asked peering at them through his thick glasses

"Good mooorning Sir" they said louder

"Good ..have your seat" he said and started writing something on the board

Dami turned to Ifechi when she reached her seat "wow, you stood up to Grace Williams, new found respect from me"

"Who's that?"

"The mean girl at the front"

"Oh" Ifechi said. She was still nervous from her confrontation. Something told her she should have been nicer, she didn't want to make enemies on her first day now did she?

"so which school did you come from?" Dami  continued.

"Fggc"

"What's that" she asked, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion

"Federal government girls'college" Ifechi replied, Anita turned at once.

"For real?...I went there too" Ifechi looked at her in surprise. Who would suspect that anyone from this posh looking school could have been in her former school.

Well except her of course.

"Seriously? Which one?"

"Abuoloma" she said "left after my JSS1 first term though, If you see how I cried my eyes out before my parents agreed ehh" she added laughing at the memory. Ifechi didn't blame her, boarding schools weren't her favourite either.

"Ok" Mr Udochie said closing his board marker and turning to face the clasd "welcome to the new session. As usual, we will start with revision of the previous term exam answers" he said.

Everyone groaned. It was compulsory for every teacher to revise the previous term's exam at the beginning of a new term.

"We will start with question 1, the compulsory question which none of you except Grace got correctly" the man said, dissapointment evident in his voice "if you're with your past questions raise it up" he said, only 3 people raised theirs. He shook his head..

"I can see most of you have thrown away your question papers, so I'll just write the questions on the board" he said and turned to the board again

"Ahh PG dan arrive o" Jimmy yelled as a tall buff looking guy entered the class. "P.G" Jimmy yelled again, those around turned to him in annoyance..boy did he know how to yell.

"Godswill..why are you coming by this time?" Mr Udochie asked

"Traffic" was all he said in a curt manner that suggested he wasn't willing to be further questioned. The maths teacher sighed as if he was used to it and motioned for him to go in before turning back to the board.

The boy nodded and scanned the room, when he reached to the back where Ifechi sat, his eyes squinted in confusion at the new face just as all of them had done before, he eyed the empty sit beside her and started walking towards it. Ifechi tried to not watch him as he approached the seat next to hers and focused on the board where Mr Udochie had written a question on differential calculus.

"Oya.." the teacher said closing his board marker, it made a 'kpa' sound when the cap entered "who will solve this question for us?"

.....

"Do you want to buy anything?" Anita said when they rang the bell for break. Many students were out while some students from other classes came to her class mostly to see the new girl but none actually walked up to her, they all threw her glances and went to join their friends.

Ifechi nodded and closed the notebook in her front. She reached in and brought out the 200 naira note her mother gave her in the morning and stood up to follow her.

They climbed the second stairs at the other end of the corridor and went towards the back of the school building, there was a small shop with two big windows covered with metals protectors. Some students were already there buying snacks. Ifechi and Anita strolled over and stood in line.

"So do you like our school so far?" Anita asked

"Yh sure" Ifechi nodded absentmindedly her eyes were staring at the variety of snacks through the window. There was meat pie, fishpie, donut, eggrolls, buns, puff, the famous sausage called 'gala' as well as a number of different biscuits, sweets, drinks and other packaged goodies. She was deciding between gala and the yummy looking eggrolls. Ifechi also noticed a bigger line inside the canteen where food was sold in take away plate.

Before long it was their turn and they bought their snacks and started returning to class.

"Are you sure that's all you're eating?" Anita asked pointing at her white nylon. Ifechi stared at the contents of her nylon, an eggroll and 3 twix biscuit and nodded in confusion then her eyes widened when she saw what Anita was holding, four big donuts, three fishpies and 3 egg rolls and top it, a big bottle of Fanta.

"Are you eating all of it?" She asked surprised, Anita laughed at her expression "no o, ah ah now...what do I look like, part of it is for Dami, most of it is for me sha" she said grinning sheepishly. Ifechi shook her head smiling, they continued laughing when Anita stopped suddenly.

"I forgot my change" she said and hurried back praying that her money would still be at the place they'd just left while Ifechi stood there waiting.

She walked to the pavement at the side of the school building to wait there when she passed two people sitting on the pavement giggling to themselves.

"I would rather die than be caught in thaaat!" the girl snickered, Ifechi stopped and turned to them. The voice belonged to the slim, caramel skinned girl from earlier, the one who tried to humiliate her...Grace or so. She had on bob-marley hairstyle with beads Ifechi knew were contraband hanging at the ends. Ifechi looked at her briefly

"What are you looking at?" The girl snapped, the pretty boy next to her chuckled. Ifechi ignored them and sat on a spot far from them. Anita came almost immediately and Ifechi stood up happy to leave.

"What happened there, I saw them laughing?" Anita asked

"Nothing, they were just laughing at my skirt" Ifechi shrugged, Anita took a slow look at her skirt "It's a bit too long..makes you look like an SS1 girl but nevermind your skirt is not that bad"

"Yeah thanks" Ifechi said though she didn't need the assurance, ugly or not, she liked her uniform how it was.

"That's Grace and Josh, they're somehow especially that Grace girl. I'm sure you remember her na, she was the one that joked about your future course..."

"Oh yeah I remember"

"Yeah, what you did was good sha, giving her back to back...she's just a devil always feeling herself..." Anita said, a frown on her face.

"Feeling herself how?" Ifechi asked to keep conversation

"She's very proud, she thinks she's better than everyone else just because her father is a senator" Anita spat, Ifechi's eyes widened.

"Wow like seriously?" She asked.

"Yesso and her boyfriend is just like her, just stay away from them and their wahala" Anita said as they stepped into their class

"Sure"

...

Aladapoe village is a fictional computer village in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

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