AFTER 168 HOURS [BOOK 2,168 HOURS SERIES]

Chapter 1: The Graduation

The graduation hall was noisier than a market square, as everyone was busy with one or two things.

Gift and Theodora had binoculars in their hands and a blow horn in the other while Star ate popcorn as if she were at a baseball game. Humaira shook her head; they were always this silly, but she loved them very much. They had been her ladder to success all these years, and she could take a tremendous step in her life with the help of these three.

To her right was the university Vice Chancellor, rector, Dean of studies, guidance counselors, and all the other members of the prestige school faculty. They didn’t look as if they wanted to be here. Most of them had grumpy faces, especially her English lecturer, Professor Charles Ezechukwu; who is now a senior lecturer.

Of course, Humaira sat in the middle with her classmates... “Class of 2015, the future barristers of this country.” She smiled at the thought. Then, she lost it when she got a glimpse of Zainab. She sat there, amid others, like a lost, wet kitten. Humaira stared at her with ears of joy welling up in her eyes. It’s been five years. Five long years since she last saw her adorable sister. Now, Zainab is a grown-up teenager, more beautiful than she’d imagined.
She wished she could hug her one more time. Her mind flashed back to the last hug they had at the motorpack years ago. It was just like yesterday. Everything was still clear to Humaira.

Just about to meet her, the Master of Ceremony-  The M.C. grabbed the microphone and requested that they stand, file out of their seating row, and move towards the stage.
There and then, Humaira and other graduates took their graduate presentation cards with them, which were handed to the presenter at the lectern. Their names were called one after the other alphabetically as they walked towards the stage to take their seats.

Zainab’s puzzled eyes widened as the presenter announced their names one after the other. It took forever till when he said… “Humaira Sammi Ahmad.”
Humaira collected her card from the presenter respectfully and walked across the stage to take her seat. There was a sticker placed on the chair, showing her name. The sight was simply amazing… Zainab almost jerked off her seat with so much excitement that the surrounding people glanced at her with a weird look as if they were trying to say. ‘Is everything okay?’

Zainab didn’t bother looking at them - in fact, she didn’t even care to notice their looks. Overjoyous, Zainab laughed curtly as tears of joy streamed down her eyes as well. “Humaira...” she cried.

After taking a seat, Humaira also sighted her sister. A small smile spread across their lips. Zainab gasped for her breath and back to watch. Her mind was at rest, now that she had seen Humaira.

The rector started by greeting everyone, asking the graduates to stand up for their names to be called. Star watched gleefully as Humaira’s name was called, and she went on stage, not knowing if this would be the last time she'd see her want to make her cry. She held it in, knowing that she was a big girl in public. Crying wouldn’t stop Humaira from leaving, anyway. She just couldn’t believe it was yesterday’s Humaira, the young pregnant girl she almost found dead by the roadside.

Six years old, Hadee sat on Star’s lap, waving a big, pink balloon at his mum as she was called on stage. There had been an enormous improvement in Hadee’s health. Now, he could recognize Humaira and even started calling her Ma-ma. He’s a six-year-old but has the brain and mentality of a three-year-old.

The rector presented Humaira with a temporary card. She walked across the stage and shook hands with the A.B.U’s school faculty, however, her eyes and mind were glued on Hadee, who was with Star in the back row, and Zainab, who was trying to hold her tears at the front row. While going back to her seat, Humaira tripped, almost making her fall on the 6-inch heels she wore.

It was unlike before when Humaira couldn’t wear such shoes. She wore various kinds of footwear now, not the girl who was just disgraceful. Seated guests shivered as she tripped, but she quickly stood upright with a smile and went back to her seat. Perhaps she must have tripped because she wasn’t looking front from staring at her loved ones.

Apart from Humaira tripping while walking down the stage, everything went smoothly until it was time for the Dean of study’s speech. He wasn’t around, so he sent a representative; someone from the academics.
Despite holding a scripted, written speech, he made several mistakes in his pronunciation as he stammered while reading. Most graduates couldn’t get the information he was trying to pass across. It was shameful, but it was his first time presenting a speech amongst such an immense crowd.

“Best in Dressing, Best in Punctuation, Most Respected Student of the Year, Most Reproductive Student of the Year, M.S.S.N Leaving Amira, Sense of Responsibility & Organizational Ability Awards,
Best Law Student of the Year, 2015...” These were all presented to Humaira. There were lots of handshakes and clappings for the graduates, most especially Humaira, who graduated with first-class honors in Law and was already presented with job offers at two high courts within the country. With these, Humaira went back to her seat with about ten different awarded certificates.

After presenting all the awards and certificates to the graduates, the vice Chancellor addressed the graduates while the Dean and director gave brief speeches to the rest of the students. The valedictorian, who was Humaira, and the course rep (also called the senior class president), Fredrick Daniel, were also called to give a couple of speeches at the end.

Starting from Fred. He gave a brilliant speech, thanking everyone for their love and support and telling the seated guests how stressful it had been. The journey so far has been a hectic one, especially with the lecturers they have. It was his last day in ABU, so he finally poured out his mind. No one would beat him anyway. Everyone cracked a huge laugh at his words, even the H.O.Ds and lecturers at the seats. Although it was kind of lame, Fred seemed to have added humor to the most boring event. Humaira was called upon next to give her speech. It was her first speech ever. She was nervous, she had to give the best in the presentation she wasn’t even ready for.

“Let’s give our valedictorian a warm welcome.” The crowd clapped as the EmCee helped Humaira on stage (not to fall again).

With sweaty hands, she immediately forgot about her fears and insecurities, simply staring at Hadee and Zainab.

Note;

Humaira Sanni Ahmad scored a CGPA of 6.9 in a 7.0 grading system to emerge as the best-graduating law student of 2014/2015 set in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaira
She's a first-class graduate and also came top in all her law courses claiming some awards in the process.