“We can love an honest rogue, but what is more offensive than a false saint.” – Jessamyn West.

•••

“So, what you say? Me, you – Saturday. Spider-man home-coming at ICM?”

Rena gritted her teeth in distaste, discreetly as she listened to Itunu’s request. The boy was at it again. New term, new tactics. Ever since they had resumed the previous week, he had relatively given her space and hardly interacted with her but she knew she wasn’t wrong to doubt the feeling within her that another proposition like the one he had just posed was looming.

Couldn’t the dude just get a hint? He had been budging her relentlessly for the past three years, in the hopes of brewing some sort of romance with her. Maybe from the onset, she did have feelings for him? Who didn’t, but his clinginess and unrelenting badgering attitude wasn’t in any way appealing. She didn’t know how that didn’t drive the rest of the girls’ population pawing over him.

“Gee, I don’t know Itunu. Can I at least bring the girls along?” She replied finally, in a bid to discourage him. She knew he of course had the notion of a date in mind, but the presence of the girls would ruin such goal.

“It’s not like I don’t want them to tag along.” His face had become a jumble of unimpressed emotions, and his jaw also clenched as she studied him through the corner of her left eye. “But they don’t appreciate the true genius of an action, adventure movie produced by Marvel Studios. If they tag along, I’d come out of the movie cinemas more confused than I was when I go in because of the numbers of question they’d ask during the movie and their attitude.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “Why the hell haven’t you seen Home-coming, anyway? It’s been out for almost two months, now. You’re lucky they haven’t taken it out of the movie schedule.”

Itunu averted his gaze downwards to her, but she refused to meet his gaze. They were in the hall-way walking to class. Assembly was going to commence in the next few minutes.

“It came out late July, the same week we travelled. And believe me when you go to a country like UAE, the last thing that’d cross your mind is to go see movies there. So much stuff to do.”

A twinge of envy, tugged at her heart as he mentioned UAE. Dad had originally promised her they were going to tour Abu Dhabi and Dubai, but for some unknown reason he had changed their ticket to Paris’s. Almost like he knew he was going to come across a love interest.

“And need I say much about Tobehi?” He made reference to his best-friend. “He has a girl-friend now and pretty much follows her everywhere, like there is some sort of testosterone magnet glued to her back. I’m now second priority. So, he’s out of the equation.”

“Why don’t you get yourself a girl-friend, then?” Rena queried, deciding to take her refusal to a whole new level. Her question stunned him and he flinched, but he quickly morphed back to his façade. “Huh? Everyone has one these days.”

“But not you?”

“That’s because I’m not gay,” She jeered, knowing his true intention. “Look, Itunu. Home-coming wasn’t really a great movie. For me, so I don’t think I want to see it again. In fact, we get so much home-work these days, it’s safe to say we’re in a relationship with our assignments and that they’re our girlfriends or boyfriends. So I have a date this weekend, Itunu and it’s with my numerous assignments. I’m going to have to cancel out on you.”

They finally halted by the door-frame of their class, and she finally lifted her gaze up to meet his.

“Okay, fine then. There are other things we could do that I’m sure your boyfriend wouldn’t consider as cheating.”

“Thank you,” She chuckled softly, giving him a short pat laced with feigned affection on his right shoulder before swirling around and walking into the class. At the back of the class-room, she could see that some small meeting was going on, and she couldn’t resist from joining. April and Moyin were present also. The latter being addressed by Legide, who was apparently some sort of visitor since she wasn’t in their class and the former – leaning over the wall, looking like she was staring at some sort of indiscernible piece of artwork.

“What happened to you, did they seize your phone again?” Rena enquired, as she approached April.

April turned on her friend, sinking into the chair behind her. “Why must everyone’s first assumption be that? Can’t I be angry because of something else like a normal person?”

“A normal person? You mean like score tests and all that?” Rena smirked. “Uh, no you can’t. So I’d ask you again, what did they seize?”

April rolled her eyes, heaving a sigh of defeat. She knew her friend too well. “My nail polish. I wasn’t even using it. It was just in my locker. Mrs. Eruzebe abi Ebuzebe, whatever it is that her parents gave her–”

“Her husband–”

“Yeah, her husband whatever.” April scoffed. “She asked me for my note. And then I opened up my locker to go through my books and the thing fell out by mistake. Before I could say nail, mama don take am. She said she had warned me several times this term not to use it, and I was like nigger – this term just commenced two weeks ago, so what do you mean several times. Moreso, you just resumed yesterday so it’s either you came to my house to warn me, which of course is stupid—or you were warning me in your dreams.”

“April!”

“But of course, she couldn’t hear all what I was saying because like her I was guilty of telling her all that in my dreams and not in reality. Sha, she seized it and went off. I should have been careful, because in the past I noticed she was always eyeing my nails. But I didn’t take it as anything, because you know—people always check the girl out.”

“Pele,” Rena tried not to sound too amused. “Just look at how ugly your nails are now, urgh! You really need to get a new one.”

“You can’t even butter me up and say – you’re still beautiful April without all the artificial stuff.” She rolled her eyes.

“That’s not possible, because you’re the artificial stuff.” Rena laughed, as Legide and Moyin moved closer to them. “The rest is what’s natural, believe me.”

“…Yeah, I think it would be a splendid idea. I could also distribute broadcasts all through our various Whatsapp group chats. Rena here, is in every single one of them – so she can definitely help with that.” Moyin gestured, as she conversed with Legide. “Speaking about Rena helping, would you like to join the literary club also? You know you’ve been saying you want to take a break from the choir for a while.”

Literary club?

Rena’s brows furrowed, as she turned to face the girls by her left. “Gee, I don’t know. I’m not really a vocal person–”

“Of course, not.” Legide cut her off, as she giggled in derision like the suggestion was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. “I mean if Rena joins the literary club, the only good she’d be able to do is render the boys on the opposing side speechless with her beauty. Which could really be helpful, making our side the winner without stress.”

The entire group erupted into raucous laughter, but not Rena. She feigned hers. The girls might not have seen it as an insult, in fact they thought it might have even been a further boost to her ego but it wasn’t. The truth in Legide’s statement was all glaring. She wasn’t one with the brains to join club, and looking good and being beautiful was perhaps her only talent. She had never felt so shallow in her life before.

“And if April joined, the only good she’d be able to do is instill her natural aura into her teammates. Losing or winning, doesn’t matter. They won’t feel bad about the outcome. As long as they don’t get their nail polish seized.”

Rena’s retort caused another streak of laughter, and her addressee didn’t at all seem upset by the insult thrown at her. Unlike her, who felt insecure about not being all that smart. She just wished she could be April sometimes.

“I don’t think it’s such a bad idea, though. You guys joining.” Moyin continued, folding her arms. “I mean Rena it could work in increasing the pitch of your voice, you know. If you learn how to talk loudly for a very long period of time, it could break your voice into the next pitch. While, April you know – same goes for you. You’d gain experience in talking to a crowd for a really long time and learn how to convince them, just in case someone seizes something of yours again. You’d have the knowledge on how to convince them.”

Bish!

“Okay, enough jokes.” Legide still had remnants of her previous smile, plastered on her face. As Rena studied her, she couldn’t help herself from getting envious. Legide just like Moyin, belonged to the class of students whose reputation stemmed from their academic excellence but unlike Moyin, was in possession of the goodies also. Although not main-stream, she was the type that was satisfied and never looked at folk like her and April with envy, or hype their ego or act like they wished to be in their position. People like her made being popular because of one’s looks – stupid.

With skin so smooth and dark like a black-suede rug, short black braids that curled to the crane of her neck, and a voluptuous body shape accentuated by her tightly-fit uniform that made the others like Rena and April who had curvaceous figures—look like bamboo sticks, it was easy to see why Legide never worshipped the likes of hers like the rest of the school. She had her weapons in the right proportion also.

Legide continued. “But you guys could still help, though. I’m positive if people like you and April go about distributing our pamphlets, you’d be able to convince a lot of people to come into our club. In fact, people like y’all don’t even need to walk around. I’m sure if you stand static in the middle of the hall with our pamphlets, the students themselves will come rushing to you for them. Next thing we know, it’d be World War III: The last member.”

Once again, she had taken another classic shot at the fact that Rena’s looks were the only thing she had. Which wasn’t totally true. She could sing, and her voice was quite extraordinaire. But to people like Legide, singing probably wasn’t a talent. It was nothing more than a natural endowment.

“We’d be glad to help you,” April sat up, entwining her fingers. “But are you sure you want our help for real? It would be quite disastrous when these people join the club and find out that the agenda isn’t about debating about who is more beautiful between Rena and I. It would be a huge slap to their face, you know.”

From April’s statement, Rena could sense that she wasn’t the only one irritated by Moyin’s and Legide’s retorts and it would seem the girls grasped the meaning behind April’s statement quite well, because of the next turn the conversation took.

“So, y’all would help us with the broadcasts and distribution of pamphlets then.” Moyin nodded. “But on a serious note, learning how to speak in front of an audience would go a long way to help you guys. The elections are drawing close, and both of you are deffs running for the social offices. You’re going to be doing more talking to people than learning in school in the next few weeks.”

“Really, I need to learn how to speak? That’s swell because I was counting on my beauty to do all the work for me.” Rena couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice. “You know just step up to the podium, have them look at my face – fall in love with it and then vote me. It’s a pity that it’s going to take more than that.”

“No offence, but everyone else running for that office probably has the same agenda.” Legide replied. “So it wouldn’t hurt for the both of you to you know, have an edge over them. Learn how to speak. BTW, if you think it’s compulsory to join the team on a contest day then you don’t have to worry about that. Only the professionals would be called upon for such task. But everyone would be taught on how to address an audience.”

April rocked her shoulders. “Fine, that’s great with us. But as for me, you’re gonna have to provide me with some sort of mask and clothing that would cover me totally and reveal only my eyes. You know like the way those hardcore Muslim women dress. Just in case people start to think it’s a fashion parade when I come on the stage.”

Moyin rolled her eyes. “You’d be wearing uniform, silly. No one is going to think that.”

“They can think it’s some sort of new design?” April piled on. “See this one. You need to go into the market and see real designs. Then you’d know just anything could get into vogue at any time and be accepted, as long as it’s from a designer with a big reputation. Just look at Ross, they’re the biggest these days. Fisayo, Tomi’s mom right? She’s the biggest designer in the country now. If she designed a new pair of women dresses made of nylon, everyone will still rush it. It’s all about name, in fashion mehn–ouch!”

April squeal died down, after Rena who pinched her – motioned in the direction of Tomi, who had just walked into the class. He didn’t acknowledge their presence with a nod or even a glance. He walked straight to his seat at the back – on the third of five rows, brushing past numerous desks and chairs before dropping his bag on his seat and stalking out.

“This your mouth, they will soon seize it too.” Rena shook her head at April. “When it puts you into severe trouble one day, the person will devise a means to seize it. Nonsense.”

“How would I know he would walk into the class right at that moment?” She frowned. “You think he heard me talking about his mom? With the way he’s frowning like that, looking like he would stab whoever that he comes across – I don’t want to get on his bad side oh. Or just seize my mouth by cutting it off with a knife or something.”

“Thank God, you know.” Moyin sighed. “I really feel for him, though. The punishment they gave him. He worked really hard at the library, yesterday. And that Obehi dude, is just useless. You should have seen him with his crossed legs, and big food flask. Wining and dining as Tomi was doing all the work. He couldn’t even lift his legs when Tomi was sweeping, baba had to do it for him. It wasn’t pretty at all.”

“You weren’t there to assist him, Rena?” Legide’s voice held interest. The sort of interest Rena heard in her own voice.

“No, it wasn’t my turn on the time-table.” She shook her head. “But I’d be there today. And I’d help him, I don’t think the punishment makes sense also. And just like Moyin said, Obehi probably made him disgusted yesterday with his act.”

“Oh, okay.” Legide nodded. “He is joining our club as an actual member, though. I approached him and he was all for the idea. I think I’m going to have a great time working with him, I just hope what’s happening lately doesn’t change his mind, though.”

Rena once again, couldn’t help but think there was some sort of subtle battle between her and Legide on perhaps, who had Tomi’s company more. If there was a battle, Legide was winning though.

Working closely with her in that club all the time?

“Fuck it, sign me up for the full membership thingy.” Rena announced, rising to her feet. Her words coming as a big surprise to her audience. “Mama needs to learn how to talk to an audience.”

Well, that was what she claimed her intention to be but she knew the girls knew that her intention was quite wide of that mark.

Talk to an audience, indeed.

*****

Silence.

That one attribute was his shadow these days. It followed him everywhere he went. It didn’t matter the population of life present. Class-room, hall-way, staff-room, it didn’t matter. As long as he was present, silence was also.

He didn’t know when his life had taken such a drastic and turbulent turn. Before he was silence, just in the shadows – people hardly taken cognizance of his existence only on few occasions but reverse was the case these days. He caused silence. Wherever he stepped into, a pause went into play in general activity and suddenly the attention of everyone would transfer to him.

It wasn’t an easy scene.

He did his best to hold himself up, and not tumble to the floor due to the numerous gazes from differing corners biting at his flesh. It didn’t help things that he was currently in the dining hall, and was walking right in the aisle in the center and could feel the heat of every gaze on him. But he refused to meet any one, the best thing to do was to keep on straight to his destination ahead and ignore totally the number of eyes on him.

When was it all going to end?

He knew it would definitely come to an end. Nothing lasted forever. But it was hell, and although it had gone on for only a day – it felt like eternity. And judging from previous school scandals, he knew it would take a week—tops for the normalcy to return or whatever that was left of it anyway since he became one of the most popular males in the school.

He kept his gaze averted to the ground, until he finally arrived at the food stand ahead. The menu for the day was Jollof Rice and Plantain with Turkey. Despite his anger at everything, he just couldn’t resist lunch today like he did the previous day. More so, he hadn’t had anything for breakfast and was starving seriously.

He needed the food.

“Good afternoon, ma.” He nodded curtly, as he halted in the front of the woman on duty service. She was the guidance counsellor of the school, and one of his favorite persons. She also taught the Christian Religious Studies subject and partook in other menial tasks. It wasn’t like the school didn’t employ caterers to attend exclusively to the food department, the counsellor just loved joining them and rendering help.

“Tomi, how are you?” He couldn’t stop his lips from twitching into a smile, as a very radiant smile glimmered from her face. She retrieved a plate from the dishes rack on her side, and began to dish out his meal for him. “I don’t think I saw your face yesterday?”

“No,” He lowered his gaze, shaking his head. “I didn’t feel like—I wasn’t really hungry.”

She nodded in comprehension, and then passed the plate to the caterer by her side to place a piece of turkey on the meal. “I know what’s going on, Tomi and I’m really sorry about that but I’m sure you know why the school has to punish you? You’re a prefect, you know the rules.”

“I know them, ma.”

“Good, the principal just wants you to be more careful and to prevent such from happening again. It was a very large sum of money that almost got stolen, and something tells me if there is a thief next time, he or she won’t be generous enough to drop the money in the premises after stealing it.”

Once again, he smiled. “I guess I’m really lucky then.”

“You are, my dear.” She nodded, taking back the plate from the caterer’s hands before handing it over to him. “Food is very essential, okay? Don’t miss it again for anything in the world. You need all your energy to do us proud in the upcoming Cowbell championship.”

Urgh! That.

“Sure, ma. Thanks a lot.” He nodded again before turning around and commencing another walk. It was the same as it was when he walked into the hall. Eyes rooted to his body. He couldn’t eat here. He needed to get away from the excess attention, and he knew just where to go to.

But unfortunately for him, his action wasn’t exactly in accordance with the rules.

“Where are you going, Mister?” A towering figure, which he guessed from his baritone was one of the labor prefects, appeared from behind and blocked his passage. “Do you want to give that food to a beggar outside or something?”

He sighed. All labor prefects were very unpleasant and notorious people. It was indeed going to take some coercion to go through.

“No, I want to eat it.”

“Then why are you leaving the hall?” The prefect questioned him further. “You’re supposed to eat it here, mister. Not take it outside. Or are you planning on pouring it into some flask so you could take it home? Don’t you have enough food to eat in your house? If you don’t you should go meet the welfare prefects, I’m sure they’d have more than enough to give you daily. But as for that food in your hands, it’s for eating here.”

He could only grunt in displeasure, as he stared at the food blankly and then at the prefect who was hell-bent on keeping him in the hall. Weren’t some people considerate at all?

“Bayo, leave the boy alone. He is having a hard time already.” A familiar feminine voice came from behind also, and as expected belonged to the female head-girl – Najite. “Tomi, don’t mind him. You can take your food anywhere to eat–”

“Even the toilet if you want–” Bayo butted in.

Najite narrowed her eyes in a threatening manner at Bayo, and it worked in shutting him up. After their mini glare contest, she returned her gaze to him. “You can eat outside the hall today, but you have to remember that there are rules, okay? We’d only let you off for today.”

He nodded. “I understand, thanks.”

“Off you go,” She smiled, gesturing to the now free door-frame. He did as ordered, and hastened his strides once he was outside. In the next few minutes, he was back in class and on his seat munching satisfactorily at his lunch until two figures walked in, interrupting his peace.

Alexis and Mofiyin.

The boys had a knowing smile on their faces, as they headed over to his side – their meals in hand also. Mofiyin sank into the seat in front of him, and rolled the chair backwards to face him while Alexis took the one on his left.

“Gee, you guys don’t understand the subtle intention of leaving the entire hall and coming here to be alone?”

Alexis smiled, plunging a spoonful of rice into his mouth. “You should have told us back there in the hall. You don’t expect us to just guess that sort of a thing, do you? But if you really want to be alone, we could return back to the hall to our seats so you could come and tell us and then leave again. That is if you can of course, so in short. You’re stuck with us, my friend.”

“There is actually another bargain that could drive us away,” Mofiyin said, his fingers wrapping round the cover of his bottle of water. “Sacrifice your food. Especially your meat. Then be rest assured that we will take off back to our origin without leaving any traces behind.”

Tomi shook his head, picking at a lump of rice on his plate. “I won’t have a part to play in getting y’all high on Jollof rice. I’ve heard the accent of one of the caterers and I’m very sure she’s Ghanaian. We all know the dangers of Ghanaian rice.”

Alexis cleared his throat in a manner that earned him a frown from Tomi and Mofiyin. “That Ghanaian rice thing always eluded me. What do they put in it that make people act mad? Or is it just that good?”

“Nothing beats Nigerian Jollof, Bruh.” Mofiyin held his hand up in protest. “The reason people like to meme Ghanaian jollof and all that is probably related to their high rate of hard drugs consumption. You know they were ranked number three in the world currently. I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to say they put such in their food.”

“Dude, that’s racist.” Tomi stretched out his left hand, not failing to strike Mofiyin’s left.

“It can’t be, jor. We’re all blacks.” He spat, returning his attention back to his food. “There has to be another name for it. Another name that I don’t think exists. Making my statement earlier acceptable and not offensive. Because if it was, believe me they’d have found out some sort of word for it.”

“Anyway, that’s enough un-racism that’s still offensive, for the day. How’s our most popular dude doing?” Alexis asked.

“How am I doing, or how am I fairing?” He bit his lower lip bitterly. “You don’t use doing for someone just managing to get by. But I still don’t get it though. Why does everyone have to look at me like I’m the one who—I don’t know, gave birth to Trump? It’s annoying.”

“Okay now that’s racism.” Mofiyin laughed. “Except now it’s reversed. Reverse racism, hell yeah.”

“Reverse dance, ni.” Alexis snarled. “That’s the cause of watching too much Ayo and Teo videos. There is nothing they don’t use reverse with. Even reverse itself, they reverse reverse.”

“Reversing reverse is just the normal thing, silly.” Tomi shook his head. “Anyway, as I was saying before the useful diversion. Why do they have to look at me in such – wicked way? All I did was not lock the lab by mistake, which I’m not even sure is the case because I can remember locking it clearly. But let’s say that’s just what happened. I didn’t lock up a teacher in my locker, or wear only my briefs to school…”

“Wanna bet, he’s gonna end with something weird?” Alexis whispered to Mofiyin.

“You mean something arrogant.”

“…Or got caught while banging a girl, or solve a math question wrong.”

“You betcha!” Alexis yelped, and Mofiyin laughed alongside him.

“It’s the truth,” Tomi shrugged. “In fact that’s the only feasible explanation I can think as to why the school should be enraged at me. For solving a math question wrong. I just don’t understand it.”

Mofiyin set his empty plate aside, and leaned forward in his chair. “I think you’re looking at them, looking at you in the wrong way. They’re not really looking at you like – Eruku ti de o, it’s more like oya – E file fun bad bish. You know someone with a not exactly bad reputation, but with a good one who is really popular. It’s just intense because you chose to walk alone these days. Believe me, if you walked with me or Alexis it would get better.”

Well.

He couldn’t exactly dismiss the truth in their statement, but if they understood what he was going through, they’d understand his decision to go solo. Besides, he didn’t think they were the type of people that could handle that much attention even if it was collective.

“You sure?” He was tearing at the meat on his Turkey wings now. “The sun is hot enough, you want to compound it with the heat of people looking at you? Cos we all know that’s what is going to happen if you decide to walk with me. I’m just doing you a favor. Especially you, Alexis that wears sweater most of the time. You’d just be sweating like Christmas chicken.”

“Christmas chicken?” Alexis’s lower jaw fell open. “Not Christmas goat, bah? It’s now chicken.”

“Till this day, I don’t understand why they say Christmas goats sweat. I don’t think I’ve seen any sweating, not like we kill goats in my own house. But I know Chickens would definitely sweat, when they pour hot water on their body before their cooked and all.”

“They’re usually dead already, ode.” Alexis retorted. “It’s only you that knows animals that sweat when they’re dead.”

“Then that analysis is spot on.” Tomi laughed, adjusting his glasses. “It describes you totally. You’d be a dead man, Alexis and then the heat still on your dead body will make you sweat nonetheless.”

Mofiyin found Tomi’s words amusing, and gave him a high-five. Tomi could sense that he was indeed getting on Alexis’s nerves.

“I would have you know that I’m not that shy a person,” Alexis grunted, his grip on the bottle of water wedged between his thighs – tightening. “I’ve given speeches to an audience in the past before, and I can assure you I wasn’t fidgeting and shaking.”

“I’ve told you several times, Alexis.” Mofiyin interjected. “Talking to yourself in the mirror, doesn’t count. And talking to an empty room of people in your dreams don’t either. It has to be the real deal.”

“You guys are pathetic.” Alexis grunted as Tomi and Mofiyin laughed further. The bell for the end of the period strummed at that moment, bringing their actions to a halt. “Well, lunch over. It’s time for a special person to resume his punishment.”

“Oh, please.” Tomi growled.

“C’mon, lighten up. At least Rena would be there today.” Alexis piled on. “I checked the schedule, it’s her turn as prefect to be on duty. I know you have feelings for Legide, but hey it’s Rena we are talking about. Maybe I could suggest to walk Legide down that path and she’d see both of you hitting it off and realize just how much of a catch you are.”

“You’re sick.” Tomi tried to suppress his smile.

“Thanks Guys for not caring about my feelings and talking about Rena with another dude like that.” Mofiyin grumbled.

“Spare me, dude. If you cared about your own feelings in the first place – you wouldn’t go and fall for someone that hundreds are also dying for.” Alexis drawled, before returning his gaze back to Tomi. “Anyway, just take it easy bro. I’m one call away if you need someone to quickly drop by and slam the door shut, just in case you guys are too busy arranging books to do that.”

Tomi raked his hair vehemently with his hands. “For goodness sake, Alexis. We’ve talked only once–”

“Great, now you know her name and she definitely knows yours. That’s only what y’all would need when the activity begins, you know. Just in case she’s really overwhelmed by a particular book and wants to scream your name out for help.”

Tomi hurled his spoon violently at Alexis and he ducked in time before doubling over in laughter. Vile fool, he thought. Always reading too much into everything. To be honest, he didn’t exactly know if he was thrilled at the prospect of having another discussion with Rena but he knew it was definitely not the opposite feeling either.

It was an uncertain thing.

That was why he kept a clear mind, as he stood up from his feet and approached the library – eager to see what was in store for him.

*****

Elections.

It was impossible for one not to know the meaning of said word, if ignorance was previously in play. The posters plastered all about the school broadcasted the fact quite well. The school administration never took the student council elections in such light before, but since It was the 20th one being conducted, she guessed they were pumping in resources just to satisfy all righteousness.

The title.

Of course, she knew what her fate would be in the upcoming election. She was one of the few people who had full assurance that they’d come out victorious in whatever office she ran for. The protocol was simple. The teachers would pick students suitable to differing offices, and shortlist them into a nominees list and then the school population would be made to vote from the list put down by the staff.

So, she wasn’t exactly in possession of the power to influence her fate. No, the teachers and the students were. She had totally no hand to play in it. The teachers would choose her office, and the students would act in ensuring she got sworn in amongst her competitors.

She had totally no hand in the entire decision making process.

The same went for everyone though, she reminded herself. She just wish she could influence things a little bit and not have everything play out in front of her like some sort of stage play. The notion was ironic. She had all the power any female in her class could dream of but she didn’t exactly have power to exert effect on anything currently. She was powerless just like every other single, regular person.

Until the entire election procedure commenced of course, and the ensuing stress that always accompanied it. Declaration of manifestoes, campaign speeches, debates for the senior prefects and most of all – drama, in the voting process and eventual end. Asides from the fact that it terrified her, it also made her and everyone else – anticipate for the fun in store.

As she walked to the library, to commence her shift – these multiple thoughts ran through her head. Upon arriving at the library, a cold chill ran down her spine at the image of conversing with Tomi again. She knew he was nothing less than pleasant, and they had indeed talked some weeks ago – but for some reason, it felt like she was walking up to a total stranger she knew nothing of.

Exhaling sharply in a bid to assemble courage, she stepped through the threshold and into the large library hall. The muffled noise of books shuffling and screeching from the back of the room drew her attention instantly, and she knew without doubt that he had arrived already and was on duty.

Walking over to join him, her mind travelled back to their planned escapade two days ago, to lure him into a scandal and place them in their world. It was a very delicate mission to execute but it had fallen through, and here he was in her company for the next couple of days.

It was a lucky gamble to assume that he would serve punishment in her company, but it was just like Dabby had said. It was protocol that whenever any prefect misbehaved, the burden of another office adjacent to theirs would be transported to them and they’d carry it for a few days. The laboratory and Library prefects had very similar duties, and so it wasn’t far-fetched to imply that he would end up in the library.

It was a long call, but it worked.

“Hey,” She called out to his busy figure, by one of two shelf of books by her desk. He whirled around instantly with an incongruous expression on his face, but it melted into a smile when their gazes locked. “Someone is busy, huh? You need any help?”

“Actually, nope.” He announced in a hoarse tone, as he turned around back to the shelf and crouched to arrange some books in a lower compartment. “I’m doing just fine, thank you. If anyone walks by, perhaps a staff – they’d say I’m not serving my punishment properly and you’re helping me. That would make them prolong it, which I don’t want. And if you wish well for me also, you won’t also.”

Oh, I wish well for you but that’d be great.

“Oh, okay. I’d just watch you then.” She shrugged, entwining her fingers. Silence descended, as she racked her head for some topic that would incite small talk. She didn’t know why it was so difficult now. She never had problem talking with anybody. “You sure you’re okay? You’re really sweating you know.”

“Oh, that.” He swirled around, an exhausted expression on his face. His facial image broke something in her and she felt remorse for what she had to put him through just because she wanted him to get sucked into their world and become one of them. They had indeed taken it too far.

“Well, I uh – today is Thursday and I have only three shirts. Usually, I wash one on Tuesday that I’d wear today but the activity here has left me too exhausted to do any menial task when I get home. Especially after my math tutor leaves. So I wore all three shirts without washing any, and just had to wear my cardigan today over this shirt. You can see it isn’t all that clean. So I’ve been sweating cos of the heat, not because I’m that tired.”

Once again, his words squeezed something in her tight and she felt like an asshole for the entire scandal ruse.

“Couldn’t you have used a washing machine, though?” She enquired, a bit confused. “Or given it to a dry cleaner.”

He chuckled, like she had cracked some joke. “My mom doesn’t let me use the washing machine, because and I quote – ‘you need to know how to wash with your hands, before you can use the machine’ and please, if she won’t let me use the machine, why would I even bring up dry cleaners? It’s either I wash them or no one does. It would remain that way.”

For a woman that headed her own fashion line, Tomi’s mom was quite peculiar to her. Rena never pegged her for the domesticated type.

“BTW, why are you here?” He turned around again, before she could reply and resumed his work. “Something tells me you have something better doing than watching a boy arrange books in a stuffy room.”

“Well, maybe I do.” She smiled. “But not if that boy is someone going through a phase.”

“A phase, huh?”

“Yup, a phase or rather a transition.” She nodded. “I know a thing or two about being in the spotlight. The brightest ones. I know how scary and how annoying it could be and I also know how pleasant it could be. That is, I’m here because I understand how it is to be in your position currently. Because, I’m in it every single day of my life. Give or take a little concentration of fame.”

He turned around again, and faced her. “How do you do it, then? How do you live this life without—you know, tearing your face out and you know digging a hole in the ground in which you could just disappear into. Not to die or to bury yourself alive though. But to just, you know disappear.”

She laughed, this was going well after all. “Well, there is no special formula behind it. Don’t expect me to tell you some sort of cool story of how I just evolved and broke out of my shell. It’s just simple experience. As time passes by you’d begin to get the hang of it, and get used to it. At some point, you’d even be able to enjoy it. That’s just the simplest way to put it.”

“Well, I don’t see how I’d ever enjoy this.” He folded his arms. “I mean, this place alone is work. The numbers of books laying around in different corners is just disturbing. Do Lake Students really read this hard, though? Cos it isn’t reflecting on the general score-board in any way. Do you think there’s any chance that this school has been invaded? Dale High in Ikoyi has experienced a crazy surge of grades. It’d make sense if its their students infiltrating our perimeters to read our books.”

She couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “The books are just an act. People hardly come to the library to read. Fifty percent come to copy assignments and all that, and so just place a book nearby so as to put an act in case a teacher passes by. Some come to read other things. Comic books, novels and all sorts. So they pick up a text-book, place their book into the text-book and read away. While some just come to sleep. Grab a book, place it on their lap, bury their face in their hands and pretend they are reading, meanwhile. They are in a land far, far away.”

Tomi chuckled, his hands sliding into his pockets. “The way you narrate, you speak from experience don’t you?”

“And the way you asked me that question, you ask from experience don’t you?” She retorted. “Something tells me I’m not the first person you’re quizzing in such way. So you already know that I’m definitely speaking out of experience of some capacity. So, what category do you belong to? I know you must at least belong to one.”

“Oh, I actually I belong to a special one actually.”

“Which one?”

“The one that comes to the library, picks up a book and actually, genuinely reads it to acquire knowledge.” He flashed her a peevish smile. “Sounds strange to you, right? Well, now you know that there are people like us in existence.”

She shook her head. “Do you avoid me?”

His head jerked backward, and a wrinkle formed on his forehead. She began to regret her decision of asking immediately, but she just couldn’t hold it in anymore. The way he acted so effortlessly apathetic around her bothered her. Especially when he was in a position to associate with her.

“You heard me, Tomi. Why don’t we talk, is it that you don’t like me or—I don’t know really.”

“Why should I not like you?” His lips twitched into a smile. “I have nothing against you really. Why do you ask?”

“Nothing, we just don’t talk. Why?”

“Well, if you want to talk so bad why didn’t you just talk?” He sounded confused. “I mean, I’m just a couple of seats away right? You could have talked if you wanted to. So that question is absurd, really. And even if you were shy, and you can’t talk to my face – you should have just told me.”

“And then what will happen?”

“I will know you are shy and know you want to talk to me, and definitely stay away from you because two shy people trying to talk to each other? Urgh! Never works out.”

Just like she had been doing for the past minute since she was in his company, she laughed again.

“I just didn’t know if you wanted to talk, you know.” She replied, gesturing nondescriptly with her hands. “I mean, you always have this frown on which basically tells everyone to fuck off. And me, I don’t like being humiliated or snubbed so I usually avoid such situation. I just don’t know how to approach you, I guess.”

Tomi’s eyes narrowed. “Can’t you see what you just did?”

“What?”

“You just answered your own question.” He pointed out. “We don’t talk because you don’t want to approach me. Simple, I think the question you were going for is perhaps – Tomi, why don’t you talk to me?”

She swallowed, it was indeed true. She was only beating around the bush and trying to find another way round the task before her.

“Okay, then. Why don’t you talk to me?”

“Nothing, I just like to avoid drama.” He shrugged, turning around finally to resume his work. But his voice was still more than audible. “No offence, but we know what happens to whoever starts talking to you out of the blues and joins your circle. I like operating in the shadows, you know. It’s better for me that way. And I think that latest TMNT movie has taught us that nothing good hardly comes out from stepping out of the shadows.”

She swallowed. “I see, but look at you. You stayed away from Drama, all your life here and it came to seek you out like you kept soap opera in your bag and it followed the scent or something. The spotlight is already on you, good-luck trying to find the switch to put it off. Mister. ”

“I don’t really need to find the switch to put it off.” He turned around again. “All I need to do is find the circuit breaker and pull all the wires and then – all the lights would go off.”

“And how exactly do you plan on doing that?” Her brows dilated in curiosity. His metaphor indeed hold some sort of sense, and she couldn’t help but wonder how he planned to pull of such stint.

His gaze didn’t hold the confidence his voice did. “I uh, really don’t know. But I know there has to be a way out.”

“Do you know something about being in the spotlight? Let me enlighten you. Before stepping into it, you’d be perfectly alright with roaming in the dark and finding your way. But the moment you step into the light, the light would daze you so much and almost render you blind because of how bright it is. And since you’re blind now, you’d not be able to do without its light. So if you somehow find a way out of it and into the dark again, my friend – you’d crash and burn because the dark would now be new tides.”

His eyes narrowed, and his head tilted to one side. “So you’re saying once popular, a person can’t go back to being unpopular and survive it?”

“Why don’t you try it,” Her shoulders rocked, as she pushed herself off the desk she was leaning on and up to her feet. “Try and see if you can find that circuit breaker, and see if you could pull all the cables that’s if that action won’t shock you to death because breaking the whole light supply means taking the spotlight from everyone, plunging everyone into the dark.

“Even if you can survive one suicide mission, the second is just homicide. My advice, get used to the light – wear Goggles, to reduce light penetration if need be but stepping out of it? It’s worse than being blind. It’s like having your eyes shut close permanently. You know within yourself that you have the power to navigate the terrain, but It just won’t work.”

For a moment, a brief silence hummed between them. When he spoke next, she could sense that he had gotten the hang of the entire thing.

“Gee, thanks for muddling up my head with the whole metaphor thingy. Now I’m more confused than I was, but thank you. The decision is still mine to make at the end of the day.”

“And I hope a day, where a voice from the dark would call me for help won’t come.” She smiled, taking backward strides as she did. “Because he’d be helpless. Don’t overwork yourself too much. The janitor is still going to come around.”

“Oh, I better do so, so he can put in a good word for me. Thanks for keeping me company, I owe you one.”

“We’d see about that.” She concluded with a final wink before sauntering out of the library. She hoped he got the analysis on the whole glamour division. Her words weren’t exactly true, she had seen people that went from the spotlight and back into the dark – who didn’t perish, but for selfish reasons she couldn’t tell him that. Because she wanted to keep him in the light, well within her reach.

Hahaha.

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I said there would be no update next week, I didn’t say there would be none today now did I?

Take a moment to tag your friends and family. Do your bit in supporting this novel.

So, so. That’s the 5th chapter. Hope you enjoyed it. The story’s introductory phase is gradually coming to an end, and real action would be commence soon. Make sure you stick around. See you next two weeks, probably.

Oh, and of course you should have guessed that this book is set in the 2017/18 academic session time frame. So you don’t begin to wonder why I’m referencing old stuff.

In the mean time, check out these other great African Novels.

1. Chasing Anabelle by BenPaul_fwc

2. Cinderenny by frostyella

3. Conquering Extinction by harielta

4. Waves Of Destiny by Finest_Wine

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Glossary:

Vernacular Interpretation.

Yoruba statements.

1. Eruku ti de o – A fierce, ominous figure has arrived.

2. E file fun bad Bish – Leave it for him/her, bad bitch. It has a twisted meaning inclined to appraisal.