Life of Jiji

All Rights Reserved

2020 ©Tena Ifiemi

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ΛЏФ ÐłÐЛ'Т ϾФMΞ БΛϾК to the hostel for like thirty minutes into the siesta. I had my speculations of where she might have been though, but if my suspicions were any correct she didn't make it obvious. She just grabbed her toiletry bag and stalked to the bathroom. When she was done there she got dressed and went to sleep immediately.

Oh well...

I wonder how Ayo did it. Fall asleep so fast, I mean. Cause I didn't sleep all through the siesta period; my mind was all over the place... which is not rare at all. I thought back to my former school: Gold Crest High School. All I can say is that the thoughts were not good at all. As always I had been an easy target. I can't say why but I had never felt completely alive in that place. Not that I ever really felt alive but although its too late into high school, I wanted a change...

I want to see if it would work out here, I want to see if I can actually have people to call my friends and maybe even a best friend if I keep my fingers crossed long enough, or at least people to visit during the holidays... people who would come to my house to visit me and not just TJ and Reya.

Why did I choose Meliora? Because Reya is here! Of course I would have chosen any other good school. They're a lot of them better than Mel but I for once wanted to be closer to family, to try and see if there was someone in there I could actually talk to. TJ is away at college so that left Reya.

I laughed quietly to myself. Did I actually think that Reya would have time for me? This was her world and I'm intruding. Would she want to bother with the obnoxiously quiet little sister? Of course not Jiji! No I'm not painting y sister out to be the bad guy. I love my sister and the rest of my family, I just don't think I'm worth wasting time over.

When the bell went off indicating that siesta is over and its time for prep, I slipped out of bed, put on my flip-flops and went to the bathroom. I didn't really need to pee, I just wanted to stretch my legs I guess. After washing my face, I walked past a hallway full of droopy-eyed girls as I walked to my own room to just to find my roommates still asleep. I shook my head and proceeded to tap on them and try to wake them up. When that didn't work, I started calling their names it their ears but they didn't budge. Okay, Nini stirred a little but Ayo; not at all.

Probably exhausted from all that catching up she had to do with Kene. If you know what I mean...

How were they able to get up before me this morning if they sleep this deep? Okay maybe I called their names to softly for them to jerk awake but was I supposed to shout? I wouldn't like it if someone woke me up by shouting in my ear.

"Who are those girls still lying down?!" I turned back to see Mrs. Ayoola standing at the door with one hand pressed to the wall, a thunderous expression on her face.

"Ayomide! Niniola! Get up from there right now!" She shouted and the girls scrambled out of their beds. I guess that's what it took to wake them up. And then I wondered if they were actually conscious when I was trying to wake them up.

"Good morning Miss Ayoola." Nini greeted and I fought the urge to laugh. Mrs. Ayoola only narrowed her eyes at her.

"Goodnight!" The woman snapped and exited the room. I giggled and the girls wore amused looks, I'm sure that if they were not so shaken after the way they were woken up, they would have joined me.

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Prep was in the classroom bock so it took a while getting there and settling down. When we got there, we learnt that there was a new arrangement and that instead of doing prep in your class, everyone would now be assigned specific prep classes. They were going to mix all the students in senior school (Year 10 - Year 12) Together and just scatter us into different classes. Everyone was angry and we hardly had any afternoon prep since students were shouting and protesting. First none of my roommates happen to be in my class, now I was going to have to deal with Year 10s and Year 11s that I don't know as well. I must say, Its a very good way to make me pay attention to my books; since I won't be talking to anyone.

After afternoon prep was dinner and after dinner was prep again. Night prep. Don't they think we get tired of studying? Why don't we just watch Tv or something?

It was during night prep that I really saw my prep classmates. We were 18 since that's the normal number of students per class in Meliora. 6 students from each of the senior classes. I recognized Katherine from my class and Kene; Ayo's boyfriend. That was all until Ayo stepped in. I smiled and almost laughed when out of the corner of my eye I saw Kene wearing a mischievous grin that was so wide, if his mouth was any bigger it would have covered his whole face. Ayo noticed him and I noticed she tensed for a second before she blushed and looked away from him before she strode to claim the seat beside me. I wiggled my brows at her with a meaningful look and she rolled her eyes ignoring me. I felt like laughing but then the class was so quiet I'd definitely look crazy. I didn't know any other person, although I recognized a few faces from being in the school for almost two days now and going to the cafeteria and hall. Thirty minutes into the prep the whole place got noisy and I abandoned my reading and started daydreaming.

Not that I was reading though... but was I supposed to be? This is the first dat of school, we barely have any notes.

As the noise took over, Kene moved from his seat to come and sit at the left of Ayo. She shifted in her seat as he told the person who was already sitting there to get up and take his own seat. From the way the boy obeyed I could tell that he was in Year 10. As Kene moved it was like a beckoning to our other classmates because the next moment three other people who I just told myself were all my classmates joined their tables to the gathering.

Nobody read...

"Richard its your turn." Katherine said tapping Richard on the arm. Richard was tall and dark, very dark, basically black. By now I already knew the names of all my five of my classmates who were in that prep class. There was Ayo, Kene and Katherine; who I already knew. Then Richard, Mercy and Tolani. All of them were really cool people. Mercy was petite and Tolani had this cute chubby look both with beautiful caramel skin.

Right now we were playing Whot and I was loosing. Richard who was before me gave me a mischievous look before dropping the cards he was holding.

"Pick four Ejiro." He said wiggling his eyebrows.

"Aww, Richard!" I cried slapping his arm but he only stuck his tongue at me. I rolled my eyes at his childish act and proceeded to pick two from the stack of cards but before my hand could even get there Ayo slapped my arm and I turned to look at her sharply

"What was that for?" I whined rubbing the spot were she slapped me. If she had to draw my attention, the slap didn't have to be so hard.

"No wonder you have so much cards in your hand. You have two cards with 20 on it and you're still going to market. Unbelievable." She said turning back to her own cards.

I scoffed, "So you were peeking at my cards."

"Its better for you that I did." She said with a sideways glance at me.

I played the both Whot cards and everybody shouted.

"What?!" I yelled back starting to get embarrassed.

"Have you ever played Whot in your life?" Kene asked laughing so hard. I rolled my eyes when I saw Ayo smiling at him. She looked like those love struck girls in the Indian movies my mother watches.

"No." I answered nonchalantly, just the same time a teacher entered into the class. The whole place fell silent and everybody scrambled to pack the cards and hide them but the man was too swift and he caught us before we could hide everything.

"Give me those cards! This is what you came to school do, right?" He yelled and I wondered why. we were just in front of him. There was no point trying to damage our ears.

"I said give me those cards!" He yelled again and I raised my hands to cover my ears. He looked at me sharply and I dropped them back down to my lap. That's when I recognized him as that same man Mide called a bitch at the assembly, I couldn't quite remember his name. All I know is that he is presumably a bitch.

Mercy, who owned the cards grudgingly gathered them and handed them over to the annoying teacher. Then the annoying teacher told everyo ne in the class to stand up and he changed our tables, making sure he gave enough space between people of every class. When he came to me he stood in front of my table and looked at me. I assumed it was because he was trying to recall if he had seen my face before which he hadn't since I was new.

Then he shook his head.

"So you that is new in this school, you are already following the bad crowd. Don't you realize that this is prep time? Have you never heard the saying bad company corrupts good manners? Or didn't you come here with good manners? How can you see them playing Whot in class and you decided to join them?" Then he shook his head and left. I looked around and saw my classmates giving me sympathetic looks and my face burned with even more embarrassment. I brought out my English textbook from my bag and started flipping through it before the person beside me cleared his throat. I didn't turn.

"Don't mind Bamidele." He spoke even when I didn't turn. "He can be a bitch sometimes."

I smiled, amused that he used the same word Mide used to describe the annoying man. I turned to him and don't ask me how I knew but I knew he wasn't in Year 10 and I know or my classmates now so he's definitely in Year 12.

"Yeah... he's a bitch." I replied and turned back to my book.

"What's your name?" He asked me and I glanced at him.

"Ejiro."

"Mitchel." He said when a few seconds had passed. I guess he was waiting for me to ask for it. We didn't say anything after that. I was halfway through a comprehension passage I was reading in the textbook when Mitchel snatched it from me. I glared at him as he turned to the first page thus closing the page I was reading.

"Nice handwriting. Wait your surname is Irikefe?" He looked at me wide eyed.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"So you're related to Ovieya then?"

"Is that a bad thing?" I simply asked for the second time. He just grinned stupidly. I couldn't lie though, Mitchel was really good-looking. In fact, most boys at Meliora were really cute... can't say the same for my former school.

"You guys have the same weird nose."

"What?!" I glared at him. Why would he say that? My nose is not weird!

"Sorry Ejiro." He said with an annoying glint in his eyes. He definitely didn't think there was anything to be sorry about.

"I like your handwriting, please help me copy these notes. I'm exhausted." He gave a fake yawn and slid two notes from his table to mine.

"You're joking." I said sliding it back to him.

"I'm not!" He said, sliding them to me again. I gave him an are you seriously serious look but he just widened his eyes and pushed out his lower lip.

Was he giving me the puppy dog look? Seriously?

"Fine." I grunted and pulled the books from him. It was Geography. Who does Geography?

"Are you serious?" I asked turning to face him when I opened the book. We had been whispering since although the class had gradually become noisy again.

He raised a brow at my question.

"You're handwriting is beautiful, Mitchel! Why do you want me to copy your notes." I glared at him.

"Umm, because I'm tired. And you're so idle, you needed to do something. Besides, I'm your senior. I know what's best for you."

I just stared at him. Did he really just insinuate that writing his notes was what's good for me? I didn't say anything else though, I just started writing my mouth stretched in a thin line. I really don't know if I'm angry or not and I guess that's weird. When I got to the third page (Yes, the note was that long), the bell went off and people started putting their books back into their bags.

Yes! Finally!

I glanced at Mitchel and he smiled taking his books from my table.

"Thank you dear."

Dear? I feel like a child now.

"You can continue tomorrow." He finished and I narrowed my brows.

"What?! Aren't you going to finish it yourself so that you can submit tomorrow?"

He just laughed. "I don't have Geography tomorrow dear." He emphasized on the 'dear' this time as if he realized that it annoyed me. I glared at him for a long couple of seconds before I turned on my heel and went to catch up with Ayo at the door.

"That boy is so annoying!" I said and she turned to look behind me.

"I know."

Just 'I know'? You won't ask who I'm talking about? You won't ask why he's annoying? Hmmm...

"Mercy!" We both turned and saw Richard coming towards us waving a stack of cards over his head. I turned to see Mercy beside us.

"Thank you, Richard." Mercy said as she took the cards from him and shoved it in her back.

"That Bamidele is truly a bitch."

Now that, cracked me up!

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Whot is a type of card game played in Nigeria

* market, general market or gen are what we call the remaining stack of cards you pick from when you don't have anything to play....

How is everyone???

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love, T