Life Of Jiji

All Rights Reserved

2020 ©Tena Ifiemi

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"GФФÐ ΛŦТΞЯЛФФЛ MΛ." I looked up from the game I was playing in my mom's phone to see Damian standing just outside our umbrella.

What?

"Good afternoon dear." My mom smiled at him. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you." He answered and sat down on Reya's chair when my mom gestured to it.

"Friend of Jiji?" She asked and I groaned.

"Mom, it's Ejiro."

"Yes ma, a friend of Jiji." He affirmed with a mischievous smile in my direction.

"Cake?" My mom asked, cutting a slice of the Red velvet cake and sliding it on a plate towards him.

"No, thank you." He said, laughing awkwardly. "I've already eaten."

My mom scoffed, "Is cake food?" She asked and gave him a fork.

I gave him a mischievous smile of my own, letting him know that he isn't getting out of this. I knew he wanted it, he just wanted to act like a good kid. Note the emphasis on the word 'act'.

Sighing in defeat, he accepted the fork and took a piece.

"Wow, this is nice." He commented and my mom beamed. Literally. "Did you buy it here, in Lagos?" He wanted to know.

"She made it herself." I said and Damian gave me a 'did I ask you?' look before turning to my mom.

"That's amazing. You have to make my birthday cake."

My mom laughed. This boy sure knew how to win a mother's heart.

"I don't really bake to sell and Lagos is too far for delivery anyway." She told him, I popped another Toblerone triangle into my mouth watching as Damian devoured the cake in front of him.

"Who said anything about Lagos?" Damian asked and when she raised a brow he explained; "I stay in Port Harcourt."

"That's nice, we live in PH too. Jiji didn't tell you that?"

At this, I hit my hand on my forehead severally until my mom and Damian turned to look at me. I just rolled my eyes and stood up.

"I'll leave you people to it then." I said getting up.

"No, no, no." My mom protested, "Damian should go with you. I don't believe he came here to talk to me." She said and when Damian wasn't looking, she winked at me.

What!

"Your mom is cool." Damian said when we left the table. I turned back to give my mom a death glare before turning back to Damian.

"Ha, ha, ha."

"Ha, ha, ha?" He asked, turning my reply into a question with an amused smile.

"She's just putting up an act." I scoffed.

"Hater." He laughed and I smacked his arm. "What? I'm not the one calling her mom uncool."

"Its not like that..." I start to say

"It's not like that." Damian mimics me, but in a very dumb un-jijilike voice.

"Why do you have to be so annoying?"

"I'm not. Why do you have to be so quiet?" He retorted.

I didn't say anything.

"Are you okay?" Damian asked inching closer to me, and daring to put a finger under my chin.

"Why won't I be?" I asked, turning in a way that made his hand fall off, then averting my eyes from his immediately.

Damian scratched the back of his head. "It's just... I heard about that stuff... You and your roommates."

"Oh." I said. Was all I had to say. But I felt my cheeks heat up when I thought of what they would've said about the matter and thanked God for melanin.

"I'm sorry about Chisom. She's just like that sometimes. Maybe when she gets used to you..."

I gave him a look and he stopped talking. I don't know what he saw in my face but I know its how I felt when I heard him start to talk about her.

"I don't want to hear it. And I don't know why you're apologizing for her."

"I'm sorry. Maybe I should apologize for Ayo instead."

"Save it, Kene has done enough of that. Who knew boyfriends could be so useful."

Damian laughed and for a split second I was distracted. Don't judge me, judge him for being the finest boy in Year 11.

I blushed at the direction of my thoughts and I stared at the floor.

"Your mom is coming this way." Damian said. "But think about it. Ayo is a nice friend. And except if I didn't get the full gist, she didn't exactly stand against you."

And he left in another direction of the extra large field.

"Jiji dear. I need to leave soon, its getting late." She said and I looked at my watch. It was past 5pm.

"Its not that late." I protested, even if I knew it was. "Are you going back to PH today?"

"No, I'm staying with a friend, I'll return tomorrow. But, I still need to leave." She said and I nodded. "But I wanted to be sure you're alright. If there's anything I need to know."

"I need to pee?"

"Ejiro!"

"Nothing, mommy." I said, but I wasn't so sure.

"Hmm. You know, you've still refused to tell me why you needed to change your room but I'm going to let it slide. For now." She said, making sure I got it when she said 'For now.' "But I've spoken to the Matron, who has spoken to the Hostel Mistress. You're allowed to officially move."

"Thank you mom." I smiled and I guess this is the point where I'm supposed to hug, but I didn't. Couldn't.

~'|•√^°¥©,,,℅[=°™¥^°==∆°^^~

Revision for midterm exams followed shortly after visiting day and I've never been one of the academically sound... I wouldn't pass as daft either but I guess you know what I mean. And average student is another word for it.

And since I'm not one to be thinking about how to please my parents with my results, I was pretty indifferent about the whole thing. But that didn't stop it from being as stressful as hell.

"Bring out your books. We're having another test." Mr. Lawal said as he walked into the class, lesson note already opened in his hands.

"But sir!" About half of the class groaned. Including me!

Ever since this revision week started, we've had not less than four revision tests on ICT. At this rate, damn the reputation of my brain, I'm definitely getting an A1 in this subject. A star even.

"But what? If only you guys weren't so lazy, you'd realize I'm trying to help you." Mr. Lawal said, writing REVISION TEST 5 on the board.

"You've helped us enough already!" Katherine cried.

"I mean, its just bloody midterms." Fola groaned.

"No British swearing in ICT, Adebanjo."

I got 6/10 in the test. Don't judge me for being so smart after all.

"So, you've never actually tried the tuck shop cake." Damian said staring at me, like I just told him I'm transgender.

Its break time now, and for some reason, he decided to walk with me to the tuck shop.

"No, Damian. I haven't." I said, for the umpteenth time.

"But how, Jiji? Everyone buys it!" He said and I stopped walking. It took him a few seconds to realize that I was no longer beside him.

He came back to me, "What?"

"Don't."

"Don't what?" He said, but he was smiling, that smile that told me he knew what he was doing.

"Don't call me that." I hissed.

"Sorry, snake lady, your mom kinda rubbed off on me." He smiled and continued on his way.

This time, I speed walked to catch up with him. "I'm serious Damian." I told him, trying hard to sound as serious as I felt.

"God, I love it when you call me that." He grinned.

"Are you crazy? That's what everyone calls you."

"I know, but it sounds sexier when you say it."

I face palmed and looked around, spotting Kadijah.

"Kadi, please wait! Let's walk together."

Revision week, ran by quickly, but the exams were never ending. And difficult. I don't think the exams in my former school were ever this hard. I wasn't aiming at taking the first position, out of the 18 students in my class but no one likes an F9 in their results. I don't even fancy an E. So far, the only exams I've written are Biology and Marketing, which was earlier today. Right now, its prep time and I've been reading the same page of my Literature notebook for 30 minutes now. I don't have a problem with reading the literature texts, although Things Fall Apart is quite problematic. My problem is the figures of speech. They're so many! And I think asking someone to find the figures of speech in a book is cruel when there are like a billion of those bad boys.

Another thing that seemed to be never ending was Damian's attention towards me. It was like he was everywhere.

"Hey Jiji!"

I pretended like I didn't hear him and pretended to read my Literature book.

"Jiji. Jiji. Jiji."

I blushed at the fact that the boy was starting to attract attention. Would it kill him to say, 'Ejiro' like everyone else? Like he used to before visiting day.

"Jiji. Jiji. Jiji. Jiji."

"Damian stop!" I whisper yelled. He just wiggled his eyebrows and grinned.

Taking a seat beside me -Mitchel's seat- Damian sat down and looked at me. I'm telling you, it was creepy. Especially since I couldn't look back.

"What're you reading?" He finally asked.

"I'm not."

"Oh?" He smiled, amused. "Thought you'd deny it."

I frowned at him.

"What're trying to read?" He asked me.

"Literature." I shrugged. "Shitty subject."

Damian gasped and I raised my brow. "Didn't think cute little Jiji would be one to swear."

"I'm not little." I gritted my teeth.

"Oh, definitely not, that was a mistake. I've stood behind you before and oh my..."

"Damian!" I squeaked. Literally squeaked. I've never sounded how I just sounded in my entire life. And to hell with melanin, I probably resembled a beetroot right now.

"Yes, Damian!"

"Mitchel! Thank God." I breathed when I saw Mitchel standing beside me, hands folded against his chest

"Someone looks happy to see me."

I rolled my eyes. Boys and their smugness.

"Just because you're saving me from him." I turned to Damian, but he had already stood up.

"Bye Jiji." He said and then he was gone before I could say 'Don't call me that'.

Mitchel sat down. "So, he calls you Jiji now, how interesting." He winked and I groaned.

"Not because I want him to. Where were you anyway? Prep started a while ago."

"I was somewhere." He smiled. "Somewhere interesting."

"Look, Ejiro. Your problem with Literature is that you keep telling yourself that you don't like it." Mitchel said when I started swearing at my notebook. "Think of Literature like how you think of maths; which I'm glad that you actually really like."

"I can't think of Literature like maths."

Yeah, surprise surprise! I actually like maths. I think its amazing that you can understand one formula and use it to solve a whole lot of problems... Math problems.

"Maths is so yay and Literature is so bleh, y'know."

"No, I don't know." Mitchel said and I groaned.

"But you like reading novels. Don't you?"

"Yeah."

"So what don't you like about Literature?"

"Literature is not just about reading books Mitchel." I sighed.

"Yes, but by loving to read, you've conquered something."

"Uh huh."

"Now all you have to do, is read to understand, not just for the fun of it. When you're reading, grasp the story line. Important details, like the year something happened, The amount of time someone did in jail, places important things happened, names of people... Things like that y'know?"

I nodded. I can't believe I'm admitting it, but Mitchel is actually making sense. And it doesn't seem as hard as I've termed it to be... But still...

"You should have a jotter for reading too, so you can write down these things. Personally, writing things down helping me remember them better and besides, when you already have all these things written down, its easier to revise... Ejiro, are you seriously writing this down."

"First rule of remembering things right?" I grinned. "Wouldn't want to forget your great advice. I'm telling you Mitchel, you have a future in motivational speaking and being a best selling author!"

Mitchel sighed but the bell was rung before he could say anything else.

"See you at night prep." I said and picked up my bag.

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Hey guys🤲🏼

Long time no see, huh

What do you think about the chapter??? Don't forget, I love reading your comments.

*PH is a city in Nigeria. Its short for Port Harcourt.

Please tap the little star below to vote🙏🏼

❤, Tena