Two Birds

Eleven

Dinner was a smooth wrap of akpu and a hot plate of okro soup that I had prepared and preserved in an ice cream bowl last Sunday. It was better that way; make excess and then store the rest.

In our dinning room, we only had four seats –more than enough if you ask me and I always sat by my dad's right hand side while he sat at the head of the table leaving the other seats; the one facing him and the one facing me empty.

I rolled a little ball of the white akpu, dipped it into a soup and forced it quickly into my mouth, swallowing it whole.

" I'm really going to miss the Orji's. " Dad sighed, partaking in his own share of the food.

Same.

" Did anything new happen in school today? Aside from the possibility of you becoming a prefect, anything new." My Dad asked.

I hummed. " let me think. "

Well. . . I bumped into Isaac. Tried my very best not to stain my glasses with tears and you know went to the same banned area where Isioma committed suicide. 

" Nope, nothing new. "

" Seriously?" My dad said, with raised eyebrow.

" what did you expect to happen?" I said, exposing all my teeth.

" Something extraordinary and unusual. " He said, digging into the cow meat.

The only thing that had caught me unawares today was Isioma's box. I did not expect to be in possession of something that was stringed together with her death.

I had gone through that letter multiple times and the one thing that held my attention and filled my head with puzzling thoughts was that somehow THE PRESTIGE were tied with Isioma's death. But how? The both of us had never seen them eye to eye. Aside from the fact that we were classmates with three of their top members. That was it.

We didn't say hello to them.

We didn't ask them for their numbers or ask them to come over to our houses.

Then. What was Isioma's letter all about? She never even liked them and on several occasions we had called them attention sponges whenever we spat at them.

Come to think of it, I couldn't help but notice a slight glitter in her eyes whenever they strolled the halls –almost as if she wanted to be a part of whatever they had.

" Chi!" My dad called.

I looked at him. " Did you say something, dad. "

" Yes. I have been saying a lot of things actually, are you alright? " He asked, with concern.

I nodded and sipped my glass of water.

" Okay. . .There's actually someone special I want you to meet this Saturday and -"

His phone rang, interrupting him from completing his sentence and when he stared at the Infinix phone by his side, whoever was on the caller ID sent smiles upon his face. " I'll be right back. " He rinsed off his hand in the bowl of water and shook it off, not bothering to wipe off the drips of water on a towel, instead he went off to the direction of the living room.

My father was an outgoing kind of guy and even though he was always in a good mood, it was not easy to get a genuine smile from him, so whoever that person might be must be a really close friend. I found it good though that he was in a happy mood despite his demanding job as an underpaid civil servant, at least one of us could find joy in the place life had thrown us into.

***

All ss2 students that scored perfect scores in their last term results should please report to the assembly hall for a briefing.

Those were the exact words from the mouth piece of the Principal; Miss. Pat Abbe during the third period of class today. I hoped this would be the last time we would be called because if this disruption of our classes continued, how on heart are we going to get the perfect scores again.

Loud tones filled with discussions flowed through the hall. Laughter, giggles and gruff voices of soon to be men disturbed my train of thought, everything had made me wish I had never gotten a perfect score on my grade.

I exhaled and eased into my usual front seat, taking out my pen from the jotter bind, flipping open my jotter and then in a disgruntled mood I began to write the first forty elements in the periodic table and when I was through, I proceeded to draw hazy stick figures at the back of my pad.

" Cool stick man figures. " The voice of the person who sat next to me said.

" What?" I looked up, jamming eyes with Tobi. The boy with the model physique. Isaac's right hand man and a member of PRESTIGE. I did not realize he was sitting next to me, making eye contacts with people was something I avoided. " Th-"

" Tobi!" Isaac's voice called from behind, prompting both of us to turn our heads to his direction. He sat two seats behind, surrounded by the two remaining female members of their group.

" I dey come. " Tobi said, stepping his thick black shoes on the perfect seat and jumping off to meet them.

I turned back and adjusted myself on my seat, wiggling my head out of what had happened. Just two seats behind were the Prestige –people who for some reason had something to do with the death of my friends but I did not have a reason to justify her death to them.

Mrs. Osunde arrived after a while, the heels she wore increased her already tall figure and it made an impact by making every step country as she walked to the centre stage. She wasted no time at all and began to address the reason we were all gathered here.

" The total number of students here equates to twenty four since one student has been removed. You all will be paired into groups of three or more and each group will be asked to work on a project on the theme; SAY NO TO SUICIDE. Since I don't want the same ideas, you all will be assigned something different.  Kindly look at the projected image. "

A white background with words in black took over from the school's symbol of a book and a lamp. I looked up staring at the well constructed words that aligned on the screen. Each students were placed in groups and each groups were assigned different task. My mouth was hung wide open when I spotted where my name fell.

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The picture you saw above is no lie guys. Under the mini category for The prestigious Glass slippers awards; Two birds bagged the 3rd place for best description. Thank you so much Glass✨

I am honoured and so proud of my baby. She's doing so well.🤧✨

Thank you to all my lovely readers, supporters and followers. 😇💕

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