Kora

I could hear the tiny whispers from the hall, just as I stood at the front door, fighting within my spirit, and contemplating if I should just walk inside, in my head. For some reason, I was still beyond terrified, especially since the whole school was aware I was a mutual enemy now.

It had been exactly two days since I got my black card, but believe me, I was not dead yet. I still got a lot of people sending me death threat texts, and scribbling a lot of curses on my door, with paint I had to clean off every morning. I still had people turning their heads, whenever I walked past them, and people talking about me, when they thought I wasn't listening, and even when they knew I was, they didn't care enough to stop. That was practically the story of my life. In two days, I had become the most hated person on campus, and it was all because of that one kiss. Imagine the thought that my life was going to end because of a kiss? A really epic way to end my life, you'd hate to see it.

I felt a large bump on my shoulders, just as some girls walked past me. Looked like they were in a hurry. They didn't even care to apologize. I stopped walking in response to the sudden pain on my shoulder.

"Did you guys hear?" I could hear one of them tell the rest as they walked towards the hall I was walking to. "We are having music classes with old money for the entire week."

I raised my head to them quickly, holding my breath.

"Really?" One of them asked. "I heard that this morning, but I wasn't sure the news was legit."

"It is. Chiamaka just told me now that they are in class. She's in class too."

"Wow. Really? "

"Yes. I heard their music professor is on a one week leave. She's sick, so they are going to be having classes with us the entire week."

"That's amazing. Wow, it means we are going to be sitting with them in the same class. Us and old money? Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. Wait a minute."

They all stopped walking right in front of the door, and then turned to the second girl who tried to adjust her skirt.

"How do I look?" She asked them. "Do I look okay?"

"You look perfect. What about me?"

"Beautiful."

"Beautiful enough to get a kiss from Jeremiah?"

The third girl scoffed.

"You wish."

"Why? He kissed that girl the other day at the gala. Is she better than me? I'm ten times better than her. Prettier than her, and if things work out well for my father, I could get to be a member of old money in a couple of years, which means I'd be ten times richer than her too."

"Do you want to get a black card too? Didn't you see what Oma did to her the other day at the cafeteria? Don't say things that could get you into trouble."

"Let's just get inside. I'm tired of standing out here."

"What about Kingsley? Or Anold? Raphael? What about Sadiq?" The girl asked as she hurriedly followed her friends inside the room.

I let out an exhale.

Take a deep breath, Kora.
The voice in my head told me.

So what if we had classes with old money? So what if I had to sit in that classroom with majority of the people that hated me? Oma and her friends? Jeremiah? What difference was it going to make? Why did it have to affect me? Why did I have to skip one of the most important, and compulsory classes in NAUN, because of them?

Unlike other schools, NAUN knew the importance of music, and made it compulsory that all her students actually knew how to play at least one musical instrument, or at least try to. In our current day and age, a lot of schools gave a lot of importance, and opened their arms wide to people with knowledge in music or sports. Arts schools in the abroad, especially. It was already a crazy thing we were made to sit in the same lecture room with the seniors since last week, and now, old money had to join us too?

"Brighten up your face, Kora. Today is just going to be like every other day. You don't have to talk to anyone. Just sit down and mind your business. Focus, and it'd all be over before you know it". That was all the advice I gave myself for two days. I took a deep breath. That was it. That was one of the fears I just had to face. I clenched on tighter to my backpack, and walked inside the large lecture room.

Silence.

I watched everyone stop what it was they were doing, just to look at me. As always, I expected it anyway, and I knew exactly what was going to come next. The whispers.

I took a deep breath, and scanned the hall for an empty seat, where I didn't have to be surrounded by people with huge frowns on their faces, who weren't interested in being around me, and that was when my eyes met his, right above the tiny stairs where the entire old money were sitting, above everyone else. He was looking right at me, paying less attention to Kingsley who happened to be talking to him, before I walked in.

Those were three rows of powerful people, and he just happened to look like he was the most powerful of them all, in his brown turtle neck top, which wasn't even a part of the uniform, and his uniform blazer right on it. He never really obeyed the rule of dressing completely and appropriately in uniform, on school property.

Oma was sitting right beside him. She had her eyes glued on me, and when our eyes met, I watched her frown thicken as she raised a brow. I looked away, taking a quick breath. I knew I had to focus.

There was a seat right in front of me, it was the seat on the first row, directly in front of the professor's stage, and backing the rest of the class. There weren't much people on the row, no one liked sitting in front of the lecturers anyway. That was the perfect spot. I hurried to it quickly, before someone else did. At least I could turn my back on everyone and everything. 

The whispers began to settle a little, just as I quickly brought out my books from my bag, and my iPad too. I was really nervous now, and doing all I could to not think about the eyes that were glued on me. I opened my books quickly, giving them all my attention. I wasn't going to let myself be bothered by anyone, and even if anyone tried to, it was a good thing Jeremiah was there to tell them the truth, to tell them he didn't mean to kiss me, and everything he said was a lie.

Knock, knock, knock.

I held my breath the moment a hand rested on my desk, after knocking thrice. I could see some figures standing in front of me.

What was it this time? Did I really have to look up? Did I have to answer them, even when I knew they were nothing but trouble?

"Is she deaf?" I heard one of them ask the other.

"I'm talking to you." My book closed quickly. I took a deep breath. Now they were really desperate for my attention, and I was going to give it to them. I slowly raised my head to the girls in front of me. These were people I wasn't even sure I had any business with, people I had never talked to all my life. What did they want from me?

"What do you want?" I asked the first girl, referring to all three of them. She scoffed, a tiny smirk appearing on her face.

"Stand up." She told me. "You're in my seat."

In her seat? I didn't even know anyone was on that seat. It didn't look like it was occupied before I sat in it. Anyway, I just knew one thing, I didn't want any trouble. I took a minute to warp my head around it, before I got up slowly, after rolling my eyes, and letting out an exhale. I reached for my books, while lifting my bag with my other hand. There was an empty seat, two seats after that one, and it looked pretty free. I walked to the seat, just as everyone watched me. I hoped this was it. I hope this seat wasn't occupied too.

I placed my books on the desk, and then drew a deep breath, throwing my bag right beside me. I sat in it, and then took out my phone and headphones.

Blocking my ears was the same thing as closing my mind to all that negativity, and that was all I wanted to do. I heard another knock on my desk. This time, it was louder. Why on earth were they following me?

"That seat is taken too." The same girl told me.

"It's mine." The other girl said.

"I thought you were sitting in the second row?" I had to ask, because I was pretty sure I had seen her sit at the row behind mine earlier. Why was she claiming empty seats now?

"Who cares?" She asked me. "If I say the seat is mine, then the seat-is-mine."

"You're not allowed to seat in any of these seats." The first girl continued, pointing at every other row of seats in the hall. "Losers have their special seats." She told me. "Close to the trash can." They pointed to the right. I hesitated for a second, and then followed their hands to the door. There was a dustbin there, and right behind it was a desk and a chair, fully separated from the rest of the class. I scoffed softly, and then turned back to the girls. Were they insane? Did they really think I was going to go seat by the trash can? "Yours truly."

I shook my head, and then turned back to my desk. Like always, I was going to choose the second option. I was going to ignore them. I opened my book so I didn't have to look at any of them anymore. A hand grabbed on to my book, and then closed it immediately, raising it from my desk, and before I could raise my head, the other girls took the rest of my things.

"Hey!" I yelled standing up quickly, as I watched them walk towards the dustbin, lifting everything, including my bag in the air. One by one they threw them all in, every single thing I owned, into the dustbin. I watched them dust their hands, laughing amongst themselves, just as I hurried as fast as I could to the dustbin. I wasn't going to let it get to me anyway, all I just had to do was-

I paused the moment a hand pushed me back. Two boys walked towards us. Thank God for balance, and the law of gravity, if not, I might have just found myself on the ground. One of the boys turned to the dustbin, and then began to loosen his belt.

"I suddenly feel like taking a piss."

"Oh my God." One of the girls chuckled, as we watched him undo his zipper. "Don't be disgusting, Dayo."

I started to hear a sizzling sound. Like tiny drops of water, or should I say in this case, pee. Was he peeing on my books, and my bag? I felt all the strength in me leave, especially since a lot of people were now beginning to laugh.

"God, it's so filthy." One of the girls said, trying to dust off her hands as hard as she could. "Everything wreaks of average. I can't deal."

I was holding on tight, clenching my fist as hard as I could, and biting on hard to my lower lip, till I almost tasted blood. I was trying to keep it all in, but they kept testing me.

"Who did you say she was again? Did you say she was new young money?"

"That was what I heard."

"Oh my, I'm really disgusted. I think I might puke."

I couldn't. I just couldn't hold it in anymore. I turned quickly to face them. I was tired, I was extremely tired.

"What is your problem?" I asked them, making sure I was as loud as I could. "Did I do anything wrong to you? I don't even know you. Why are you doing this?"

"Is someone talking?" Now they were pretending, like I wasn't standing right in front of them.

"Isn't it obvious? You were given a black card. It means you are trash, and it's our responsibility to take you out."

Take me out?

I exhaled.

"What?" One of them asked, pushing me with one of her fingers, like she was disgusted by me. "You don't like it?" She pushed me again. "If you don't like it, why don't you leave? Transfer to another school, or just go back home to that dirty slutty stripper mother of yours."

I froze. I glared at her.

"What did you just say?"

"What did you hear me say?" She asked me. "I said the truth that everyone else knows. The truth about you. The truth about the kind of family you come from. Did you actually think we weren't going to catch on? We weren't going to know the kind of a person you are? You know, I was really shocked when I saw you on TV, kissing someone else's husband, but when I heard about your mother, I just couldn't help but understand where the whore genes came from. I mean, what do you expect from someone who practically spent the earlier years of her childhood tending to the needs of horny men in bars, while her mother worked the pole?"

"Who told you this?" My voice was trembling. "Who fed you all these lies about my mother!" I yelled at her

"I did."

I froze.

I froze not because of whoever it was that had spoken up, but because I recognized who it was. I recognized her voice, it only took me a second before I slowly turned to Racheal. It was Racheal. Racheal was the person that had told them.

I let out a tiny scoff, trying to ease my confusion in my head, because I didn't really understand what was going on, and why Racheal would ever tell the entire school lies about my mother's past.

"Racheal." I whispered her name.

"Don't look at me like I told everyone a lie." She stared at me. "I only told them the kind of a person you are. The kind that only takes from people. The kind that only takes what belongs to people."

"That's- that's not true." I took a step towards her.

"It isn't?" She asked me. I could see Luke pulling her arm, trying to get her to stop, but she just kept pulling herself away from him. "Then why were you with my boyfriend last night? What was the special thing he did for you in your texts?"

Everyone began to whisper again.

I looked around the hall. No one was obviously on my side. They all kept looking at me, like I was some kind of monster. I turned to the upper part of the hall, where he was, hoping he could at least take my side, and tell everyone the truth, because I was exhausted, I was tired of being treated like that, of being misunderstood.

If he was really going to help me get out of this mess, that had to be the right time. One word from him about what happened at the gala was enough to change everything. If he just told everyone the truth, it was going to end, but he just sat there like nothing happened, his eyes glued into the book in front of him. He couldn't even look at me. I swallowed hard, and then turned back to Racheal. It took me a while to realize that she had gone through Luke's texts with me, and it was obvious she had completely misunderstood.

"There's nothing going on between me and your boyfriend. You're completely mistaken."

She chuckled.

"I'm mistaken?" She pointed at herself. "Oh please, Kora, tell that to someone that doesn't know you, because I do. I know what kind of a person you are, and I'm sure the whole school does too. Soon they are going to know everything about you."

"That's enough, Racheal." Luke tried to pull her back .

"All you've done is take, take, take from everyone, my family included." She turned to the class. "Do you know how Kora has been able to claim and identify herself as new money?" She announced. "It's because her mother has a habit of sleeping with other people's husbands, getting married to them, and then getting divorced right after. Her mother continually, and literally wets the penis of lonely old men with her tongue, to stay relevant." She turned back to me. "How many step fathers have you had again? I've lost count."

"Stop this. Why are you doing this?"

"Or should we talk about the father?" She told me. "Who is your father, Kora?" She asked me. "How come you never told anyone, or talked to anyone about who your real father is?"

"Because he's dead."

She chuckled. I looked into Racheal's eyes. What on earth was wrong with her? Why was she trying to cause a scene?

"Racheal." I hurried as fast as I could towards her. "You don't have to do this". I grabbed her hand. "Let's just talk outside." I turned, and tried to pull her with me, but she pulled her hand away from me. I turned to her quickly and she slapped me.

"How dare you?" She asked me, while I still had my face turned to the other side. The class was getting really noisy. "How dare you touch me with those filthy hands of yours."

"Racheal." Luke got up quickly and grabbed her hand, looking around to calculate how much drama she had caused. "Racheal lets just go." He tried to pull her away.

"I'm not going anywhere, till everyone gets to hear the truth." She pulled herself away from him, and then turned to the class. "You all deserve to know the truth about Kora!" She announced.

"Racheal!" I yelled her name as loud as I could. I didn't want her to say it. I couldn't take it if she did, if the entire class knew about it.

"Kora has been lying to everyone. She's not new young money, and crass is even too good for her. She is nothing. A no one."

My hands were trembling, as I tried to think of a way to get her to stop. There were tears clouding my eyes already.

"Racheal please."

"Racheal, let's go." Luke tried to pull her again.

"Kora doesn't have a father, because her mother slept with so many men, during the time of her conception, and had forgotten which of them had fertile one of her eggs. The lucky one that birthed Kora." Racheal turned to me. "She was a street prostitute that didn't even know which of the many men she had slept with, was responsible for impregnating her. Kora doesn't have a father, not because he's dead, she doesn't have a father because neither her nor her mother knows who her real father is. Did I lie?" She asked me. "Go ahead and tell them if I'm saying the truth or not?"

I was dumbfounded. At that moment, I didn't know if I should be angry at Racheal, or at the truth. I could feel every part of my body weaken, and I couldn't even defend myself.

And that was it. That was enough reason to get the entire class heated up. I could feel the walls closing in on me, and it was getting really hard to breathe.

"Oh my gosh, is it true?"

"Is that really who she is?"

"No wonder. I can't really blame her anymore. I'd have been like that too, if I had grown up the way she did."

"I feel so sorry for her."

The comments went on and on, and I had never felt so embarrassed, all my life. I cringed backwards. Their words were like bullets being fired at me. I was trembling all over, and my hands were sweaty.

The girl from behind me scoffed.

"Just look at this. Her history is even worse than I thought."

"It's professor Dike."

The class went silent, immediately someone announced. It looked like the professor was in class already, but I was too lost in my emotions to even care, even though everyone were beginning to comport themselves.

"Can everyone get seated please." The old man in his late fifties announced. "I need complete silence, or you won't be able to listen to today's class."

I was the only one standing now, right in front of the class. The tears in my eyes were blurring my vision, I could barely even see. I swallowed hard.

I couldn't. I just couldn't be in there. I couldn't anymore. That was the last I could take.

"Young lady, please take your seat."

I swallowed hard, and then cringed backwards.

"Young lady?"

I couldn't even care that the professor was obviously referring to me. I turned as fast as I could, and started to walk towards the door, then I began to run, cleaning the tears in my eyes, as fast as I could, till I was out of the room.