I Did Not Want To Fall For You

9: Prefectship

It was a week since their escapade. It was a Wednesday, a boring Wednesday, and an even more boring class.
"Who knows the answer?" Mrs. Nonye, their English teacher, asked. She was asking them questions from the English Jamb past question booklet.
"The question is not straightforward." Sarah complained.
"Is the question supposed to be straightforward?" Mrs. Nonye shot her a disapproving look.
"She means it had different answers." Miracle spoke from the back of the class.
"The answer could be any one of the options. They can all be used but in different contexts." Daniel expatiated.
She looked at him in surprise. He winked at her. He never bothered to participate in class and talk more about answering questions. She thought he wasn't even listening.
"That's right, but what is the correct answer to fill the gap in this context?" Mrs. Nonye persisted, wiping off sweat from her forehead. She was a plump woman, and she sweated a lot.
"That's the problem; there's no wrong answer," Tosin replied impatiently, his eyes fixed on the wall clock in front.
"You students are..." Mrs. Nonye was interrupted by the siren blowing, signaling the period over and the beginning of recess. Sighs of relief and satisfied groans echoed through the class. Mrs. Nonye rolled her eyes.
"We'll meet in the next class, and I must have my answer by then." She said and went out of the class, some of her impatient classmates hurrying out after her so they wouldn't have to wait in line in the tuckshop.
"I don't know why you people bother yourselves when you can just call a junior," Daniel muttered drily.
"Some of us like to use our God-given properties." She retorted.
"Are you getting yourself anything?" He asked, ignoring her remark. She stared at him, blinking rapidly. He laughed.
"I thought you said you understand well." He forced out between laughs. He had spoken to her in his native language, Ibibio. She had asked him to teach her, and after two weeks of teaching, she told him proudly that she understood when she could barely say good morning in the language.
"You knew I was joking." She grumbled.
"I asked if you were buying anything." He translated, smiling.
"Yeah, I'm changing my usual course." She answered, leaning back in her seat and nodding at Sarah, who asked for her water bottle.
"What?"
"Those plantain chips, five of them; five chin chin; five gala sausage and two fan milk." She listed out, smiling sheepishly. Daniel's eyes bulged out.
"How many babies are you carrying?" He asked seriously, poking her stomach. She slapped his hands off, laughing, "I'm hungry" She replied, "I feel like munching on something for the rest of the day."
"I wanted to pay for you, but I've changed my mind. You will not be the one to put a hole in my pocket."
"Who needs your money? I'm an independent woman." She said cockily. He nodded.
"What happened to you today?" He asked, leaning towards the window, searching for the unfortunate junior to pass by, "you're usually economical."
"A girl's gotta spend sometimes." She shrugged. She would definitely regret it at the end of the day, but she felt like loosening up a bit. She handed him the money as he finally caught a junior.
★
"Kamsi."
She looked up at Kaito. She, Daniel, and Sophia sat at Daniel's back and were going through their Jss2 yearbook, laughing at their pictures from when they were younger.
Kaito dropped a notebook on her locker, sitting on Sarah's seat since she wasn't on it. They hadn't talked much since the day she registered for Jamb. She still felt weird knowing he paid for her.
He shook hands with Gabriel and greeted Sophia and Daniel.
"What?" She asked.
He opened the notebook, flipping the pages before pushing it closer to her. He was moving his lips, but no sound came out, and he was lightly nodding his head. She almost labeled him insane until he faced her and noticed the Bluetooth speaker in his right ear.
Very brave, she thought, using contraband where a teacher could easily see it. She turned her attention to the book, Daniel and Sophia going on with the yearbook without her, laughing loudly.
"You've solved it already," she said to him, a bit displeased. She pointed at the Physics calculation in his book.
"Yes, but I'm missing something, and I don't think my answer is correct." He replied.
She returned back to the note, going through the calculations carefully. She snapped her fingers when she figured out the problem.
"You subtracted instead of adding." She told him. He furrowed his brows, leaning closer, his eyes widening when he saw what she meant.
"That's stupid." He muttered, taking a pen out of his shirt pocket.
She pushed the book back to him, "You're indirectly calling yourself stupid." She pointed out.
He pushed the notebook back to her, handing her his pen. She sighed and got to work.
"Sometimes I am."
"I know."
He chuckled at her insult. She shoved the book back, noticing Kehinde B walk into the class. She had been coming for recess and free periods all week.
"Tochukwu, wats up?" She absentmindedly patted his shoulder, sitting ok Daniel's locker. Unluckily for Kamsi and luckily for Kehinde B, the errand boy also came at that time. Kehinde B had a huge appetite, she had come to notice.
"Ah ah! How many people are these for?" Kehinde exclaimed as the boy dropped the things on her locker and exited the class. She blushed, feeling self-conscious.
"Na Kamsi oh. She wan chip today." Daniel teased, grabbing his share.
She flicked Kehinde's grabbing hands away.
"I can eat all these at once." Kaito bragged.
"Boys can eat elephants, but Kamsi, Kamsi!" Kehinde exclaimed again.
"I'm hungry, what?" She retorted, handing over two plantain chips to Kehinde. It was her favorite. She looked at Kaito; he shook his head, getting up.
"Don't forget we're reading partners." He told her quietly before leaving. She rolled her eyes. Reading Partners, her foot!
★
"You know you've still not told me the full story," Kamsi said to Kehinde B. They sat on the edge of the gutter, bordering the road that led to the school's stadium where march past practice for the upcoming inter-house sports was going on. High jumpers, long jumpers, athletes, javelin, and shotput throwers were practicing on the two fields far away from them.
"I almost didn't believe it myself." Kehinde sighed. She just finished telling her of Taiwo's cold behavior towards her. His friends mostly avoided her, only giving her pity looks whenever they spared her a glance.
"He wrote in his letter that we could still be friends, but I guess it was just worded," she said sadly, "it's not like I wanted to remain close friends with him after the breakup, but I wanted us to at least, be in good terms. This is his fault, but he is acting like it's mine."
"What happened?" Kamsi asked again.
"He was getting tired of me. We've been dating for too long, about two years now. He has a crush on this Ss2 girl, Delilah; you know her?"
"The one that's running for Dining Prefect post?" She replied with a question of her own.
It was a process. In Ss2, the then Ss3 prefects would pick their preferred candidates to run for the post; the teachers would pick theirs then; finally, the school chooses the best, who would then be called 'Shadow Prefects.' They would act in their given positions still under probation until they graduated to Ss3, when the standard prefects would be chosen. Some would get dropped, and new people would take their place.
She had been picked to run for the female games Prefect since she joined the athletes when she first came to the school, and she had won two medals also because, the make games Prefect had taken a liking to her but she had eventually been dropped. According to the school, they needed someone who had been consistent in the game; Onyedika, her competitor was chosen instead. Then she was picked again to run for the female Catholic prefect post and the female labor prefect simultaneously. Mr ope, the Catholic chairman, didn't like her, so she picked to run for the female labor prefect post with her sly competitor, Danielle smith. She and Danielle, with two other girls, had shadowed for female labor Prefect and assistant. People had high hopes for her; she was brilliant, she was smart, respected among teachers, and strict when she had to be, pretty "because the male teachers have a thing for pretty female prefects" Toyosi had told her, but then Danielle was also all these things, and she also had an advantage, Danielle's aunty was the V.P admin before she was transferred and Danielle was also popular among the teachers. And so in Ss3, a week after the resumption and a week before Danielle's aunt left, on the day of the badging of the worthy prefects who had served the school dutifully as their principal had put it, Danielle smith was called out as the 'worthy' female labor prefect, to Kamsiyochukwu Joan Anunobi's not too surprised face; Abigail Kolawale one of the girls who had shadowed, her 'worthy' assistant.
Kaitochukwu Michael Iwele, who didn't run for any post but who people were expecting to be the assistant head boy, was chosen as the 'worthy' male labor prefect; Chinonso Udoka, who ran for the labor post, was the 'worthy assistant. Taiwo and Kehinde Akinola, the twin duo, were the 'worthy' golden head boy and head girl of the school, Bode Thomas and Cynthia Iheoma their 'worthy' assistant. Kehinde Bamidele also didn't run for any post but was chosen as the library prefect; Tunde Thomas who had run for the post instead of being the male library prefect became her 'worthy' assistant hence Kehinde B's troubles began. Toyosi had run for the female dining prefect but was appointed as the female 'worthy' assistant, Ejiro Asena the 'worthy' female dining prefect with their male counterparts and the list went on. After the badging, Kamsi hated the pity looks that people gave her. She didn't know if people were expecting her to cry like two of their mates did because they had worked so hard for the post or if they were expecting her to bitch on Danielle because she had gotten the post instead of her. She did neither, kept her head up with her signature blank look on but within her, she had felt down, disappointed, unworthy. Since then there had been an unspoken rivalry between she and Danielle and most times Danielle won.
"Yes her." Kehinde B affirmed , "I felt they were getting too close. I told him and he denied having a crush on her, he said I was being too possessive. The troubles began." Kehinde B shrugged.