Brown Skinned Bet

Chapter XLVIII

LAST DAYS AT PACIFIC CREST HIGH SCHOOL.

•Kainene•

          Thrilling. That was the one word I could use the describe our last days. Each day went by so quickly,leaving no time for us to catch up to our reality. We,the 0'22 set of Pacific Crest were finally done with high school,for good and for the better.

          We'd spent the whole week taking passport photographs,clad in our uniform with school graduation gown over it and cap to go with for our yearbook. It had been a hassle,but the elating type of hassle.

          My classmates had taken to singing in groups in the periods designated for our evening preps,mostly the girls though. They would huddle up together and in groups,singing farewell songs like,'See you again' by Whiz Khalifa and 'My heart will go on' by Celine Dion.

           Despite the initial gloom which had loomed over us the previous day,we'd went wild on Friday,the minute after we'd dropped our pens over our final paper of the NECO examination.

           It had been crazy. People tore their question papers into pieces,stomped over their pens and pencils,yelling and threatening to shake the very grounds of the school. It had taken us six long years to get here and we were going to ensure that everyone acknowledged that fact.

           Every part of the day had been planned out and the authorities of our school had played their part,granting us whatever request we'd placed. Mobile phones suddenly seemed legal,camera shots and videos kept rolling all through the time we'd spent in the refectory.

          The afternoon time had been allocated to the final football match between SS3 and SS2 students. Temi and Oghale had ensured that jerseys had been customised for everyone in the set with their names(or preferred nicknames) inscribed behind it,just below the 0'22 print.

          The girls had dressed in the provided sports wears,even though we were merely the cheerleaders of the game. We'd coiled the fore strands of our braids in blue and white hair cords,tied blue and white ribbons to our wrists and ankles and held white and blue pom-poms  to go with. The rest of our hair was pulled into a high ponytail,our feet clad in blue knee length pairs of socks and tucked neatly into pairs of sneakers.

          It had always been the tradition of Pacific Crest,quite an important parting ceremony. The final match was always held at a very high regard. It was more than pertinent for we the SS3 students to win the match,it would only supplement our position in the hierarchy. So the boys never took it lightly,practicing every evening all through the week for the match.

          The SS2 boys also practiced as hard as they knew it would be a big plus to their reps and levels in Pacreis if they were to defeat the outgoing set in their own final football match. But it was almost impossible,no outgoing set would dare to leave with such a dent to their imagine in Pacreis. It was the definition of what they call,a do-or-die affair.

         The game had had a swell start,our team scoring barely twenty five minutes into the first half of the game. The first half came to an end much later and the second half was started. Tensions began to rise though,when our opponents scored their first goal sixty five minutes into the game.

         The thought of the game ending in a tie was absolutely mind-boggling. I found myself chipping off bits of my nails unconsciously as we entered the last minutes of the game.

          "Omor,don't tell me this match will end like this" Onome had just chided into my ears as we'd reached the eight-nineth minute. Two extra minutes had been added to the game and in the very last minute,with an assist from Andrew,Tobi had scored the very last goal.