Life of Jiji

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2020 ©Tena Ifiemi

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ł HΛÐ ТHΞ БΞSТ sleep since I came to Meliora today which was Saturday (we were allowed to sleep until 6:00 whereas other days we were woken up by 5:00)

Yes, its a one hour difference but it means a whole lot, okay?

But Saturday also meant we were going out for a jog round the school and aerobics afterwards. I definitely don't like the sound of that. Call it laziness or whatever you may, I'm slim enough not to want to turn into a sweaty, panting mess because I'm working out. I have every girls dream, the ability to eat and not gain wait. I wasn't skinny exactly, just the normal figure.

Without boobs...

I had to admit, Meliora had very good sporting facilities. Apart from the usual football field, basketball, volley ball, tennis and badminton courts, they had a gym! Like an actual gym! In school!

You think all the boys would be there don't you? You think they'll be lifting weights for six packs? Is that it?

Ha!

And leave football behind?

Please stop it! You're making me laugh.

I heard that there were board games there too and that you could get skipping ropes too. The perfect sports for a girl like me!

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After sports we had a breakfast of akara and pap or custard. I took custard with my akara since I'm not a big fan of pap. Mide begged me to take pap so that I could give it to him.

I was like, What? And then, I starve don't I? Because I've become a social worker? Giving my food to the poor? Except that Mide had a mountain of pap in his bowl and a hill of akara so he definitely wasn't 'the poor'.

After breakfast, we went back to the hostel for the hostel sanitation. We were supposed to clean our rooms, the toilet, laundry and the corridors just in time for inspection. I envied the Year 12 students at that point because they didn't get to do anything apart from clean their rooms while Year 10 and Year 11 girls cleaned the rest. I'm not going to complain and say its not fair because I'm going to get there one day and enjoy those same-and even more-opportunities. Just after the cleaning had been done, female teachers came into the hostel to 'inspect' it. I was nervous when I heard that the junior and senior hostels are graded according to their cleanliness and the cleanest boys and cleanest girls hostel would be announced at the assembly... leaving the other hostel as the dirtiest, of course.

We were told to stand by our beds and wait for the teachers or sanitation officers as they were called for the time being. Sanitation officers though, really? It sounded too funny from my mouth-calling those casually dressed teachers 'sanitation officers' that is. After waiting for a fairly long while for the teachers to get to our room we gave up and sat lightly on our beds careful not to crease the neatly arranged sheets. Thankfully, we heard the women outside our room so we had time to quickly stand and take our positions before they entered. There were three of them, two of which I didn't know yet and one of which was Ms. Chioma. I smiled when I saw her and she smiled back. After going round the room a few times and writing a few things in their book they told us to open our wardrobes.

"What?!" I don't even know when the word flew out of my mouth, but it did just before my hands came up to cover my mouth. If any of the ladies thought my outburst disrespectful they didn't say anything. Ms. Chioma and the tall woman looked amused while the other looked indifferent.

"It seems your roommates forgot to tell you that we check your wardrobes as well." Ms. Chioma said and I glanced at Nini and Ayo who were both giving me different versions of I'm-sorry-but-I-forgot-to-tell-you looks. I was so busy with the other things I didn't even think of checking if my wardrobe was arranged. Nini and Ayo had already opened their wardrobes I just unlocked my wardrobe and prayed to God that Ms. Chioma would find it clean enough.

When they finally left I hesitantly went to check my wardrobe and gave a huge sigh of relief when I found it presentable. Ms. Chioma had not said anything when she checked it earlier; just one nod of her head and a scribble in that annoying little book all of them carried about. We were free for the rest of the day! I felt like jumping up and down in joy. We were allowed to watch Tv in the common room or do whatever we feel like till lunch time and after that we have a one hour prep, but that's only because we didn't have to read at all at night.

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Like a very few, I didn't go out to watch Tv and I was the only one left in the room since Ayo and Nini decided to go. Laying on the bed doing nothing but staring at the fan above my head I didn't even know when I drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up though, that I knew because it was caused by the disturbing girlish squeals all over the place... I tried to ignore them at first but I couldn't when it got closer to my room. I stood up just in time to see a Nini, Ayo and a few other of my classmates walk in with a girl I hadn't seen before. I wasn't dumb and from the travelling box she dragged behind her, I realized who she was.

Okay, not her exact identity. But I knew she was the remaining roommate. Well, its about time! Who doesn't resume school for one full week?! I know my mother and she would never allow it. The woman is a sucker for punctuality.

I felt lost once again as the girls chatted and tried to catch up with their friend. I wish she hadn't come this late. Maybe I would have gotten used to her by now. Maybe I won't have felt so left out...

It took a while for the girls to notice that I was in the room. Ayomide, precisely. She pulled me up and dragged me to the girl's still unmade bed which all her things lay scattered on. She cleared some things aside, making space for me to sit down on the bed.

"Oya let me do the introductions." Ayo said after clearing her throat dramatically.

"Ejiro, meet Chisom. Chisom meet Ejiro." She said and I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

Such a simple introduction---not that I minded---but Ayo had made it seem like she was going to relay both of our histories and backgrounds to the other person.

"Hi, I'm Ejiro." I said trying to make my voice seem as excited to meet her as possible.

Not that I wasn't excited to meet her! I was just nervous... Which is absolutely normal when I meet new people. It should be normal for everyone when they meet new people but some people are not just normal, I guess. No offense whatsoever.

"Ayo already said that."

"Oh."

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before Nini broke it.

"Chisom be nice!" She scolded like a mother would, her child.

Chisom raised her head abrubtly, her eyes wide as she looked at me.

"Oh my God, I'm sorry. I didn't know it would come out to be so rude. I'm on my period and I have a terrible headache, you know how it is... Its the worst time for me to come back to school..."

I could tell that she was not done with what she was saying but she probably realized with the rest of us that she was talking too much.

"I understand." I simply said, just in case she might want to explain herself further. I felt weird that she even had to in the first place. Nini shouldn't have said anything.

Chisom intimidated me. She was pretty in that 'Queen B', Hottest girl in the school kinda way. But she didn't seem mean. That, I could be thankful for.

This night was a movie night. Ayo said it wasn't constant and that they just decide whatever it would be and tell them that night. It could be debate night, movie night, game night, social night or whatever the prefect in charge of all that stuff decided.

Kene piped in by adding that they probably decided on a movie night since school was just resuming and we hadn't learnt so much so they could afford to give us 'something so relaxing'. His words not mine.

After dinner, everyone proceeded to the hall for the movie. It was when I saw Ayo and Kene snuggled together just before the lights went off that I realized what Kene meant when he was talking about relaxing.

The sly dog!

After waiting for a fairly long while for the movie to be displayed on the screen, it finally was and the yells and angry protests from the seniors as a result was almost deafening. Meliora Academy decided to give us Frozen 2 to watch. I personally didn't have any issues with us watching it since I found the first part interesting and I was still yet to watch this one but my classmates had other things to say.

"Cartoon? They want us to watch cartoon? Do we look like babies?" Mide ranted.

"I'm very sure babies don't watch 'Disney princesses movies' Mide. They always kiss in them." Amarachi said finally silencing him.

I could tell he had more to say but instead, he shut up, folded his arms to his chest and started sulking like a baby. I guess he's fit to watch it then.

"But you guys liked the part one when you watched it, didn't you?" I finally spoke and as soon as I said the words all eyes turned to me.

"Where you in Year 11 when you watched Frozen 1?"

"Are you suggesting that we should enjoy the movie?"

"Who is that?"

"Oh that's Ejiro, the new girl remember?"

"Ohh"

"Never mind." I said and sunk deeper into my seat wishing I could seal my mouth forever.

When the movie started I watched my classmates relax into their seats and none of them made any comment on 'how stupid the movie would be'. In fact, some people were laughing and I swear I could hear a few people singing along. I rolled my eyes and fought the urge to yell, 'I told you so!' Yes, I didn't say the movie was going to be interesting but I also didn't say that it was going to be stupid and boring either.

"How was it?" I asked Richard as walked back to the cafeteria for our nightcap after the movie. He was the one that asked if I watched Frozen when I was in Year 11 yet I hadn't heard him complain since the movie the movie started till now.

"What?"

"The movie... Did you enjoy it?" I asked again and he looked at me for a few seconds before he spoke.

"No."

"Richard..." I pressed and he laughed shortly.

"I see what you're doing."

I giggled, unable to help it. "What am I doing?" I asked innocently.

"You want me to say the movie was not bad when I said it will be crap but I won't." He said and I laughed.

"Thank you, Richard for admitting that the movie was good."

"What? I-" He started, but I had already turned to Mide.

"How was the-"

"Crap."

He hadn't even waited for me to finish my question!

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Thank you 200+ reads!!! ❤

T