The Dating Manual

Prologue: When faced with the perils of a foreign country

I stared at the teacher in confusion while the class laughed. Six weeks into the session and I still hadn't gotten fully accustomed to their accents and manner of speaking.

To say things were different would be a huge understatement.

Being the only person with a different skin colour in a Nigerian school, one would expect me to experience some hate and racism. It was quite the opposite. I was welcomed with arms wide open and suddenly became mega popular.

Slight problem, I'm not a popular goddess-queen, nor am I a particularly smooth individual.

Major problem, in reality, I'm an awkward seventeen year old with no previous social or romantic life, with a penchant for tripping and often saying the wrong thing, generally speaking, a young girl with a promising future of seven college degrees and a lonely life with seven hundred cats.

All that changed, though, the day I stepped foot in Nigeria.

For one thing, the weather was ridiculously hot. Even when my classmates would complain of cold, I'd look at them with something akin to hate, feeling like a melted lump of clay.

School rules and regulations were another thing. I was enrolled into one of the best schools in the city we moved to. Our relocation was due to a project my dad was assigned to head in the city, and so I followed like his loyal sidekick.

Anyway, I digress. The school was huge, and beautiful. The students in it looked like they were carved individually from a magazine written by God himself, and I nearly drooled at the sight of their skin, brown and sun-kissed to perfection.

Yes, I hated the school.

Maybe because I was a bleached potato with cute eyes amidst models and bronze perfection, maybe because I stuck out like a sore thumb-

Maybe because I tripped over the class door on my first day, causing everyone to erupt into boisterous laughter.

Yeah, that was probably it.

My 'incident' was soon forgotten though as I was warmly welcomed by the kids. I guess their warmth and hospitality made it difficult to completely hate them for their beauty.

I guess.

"Mavis, you're spacing out again." Dami said. She quickly became my friend on my first day. She seemed nice, although we were very different in personalities. She was the type to stick out for all the right purposes, coffee skin, hourglass figure and legs for days. Her hair was trimmed to a buzz cut which she tinted a very dark shade of auburn. Simply put, she was stunning.

"Sorry, what were you saying?" I asked, smiling awkwardly.

"I said, the teacher just left so let's go get something to eat while we wait for the next class." She replied. Another thing odd about the school was, we took all our classes in one hall, except those which we needed to use the laboratory for. One hall with the same people, everyday. It was nice because that way I could easily take note of my classmates.

Some subjects, though, like advanced mathematics, I took with only a few because the others didn't register it as one of their preferred courses. It was a lot more difficult than what I was accustomed to but I liked the challenge.

"Mavis! You sef ehn!" Dami said, nudging me in annoyance.

"Oh I'm sorry. Yeah let's go." I said, grinning sheepishly, to which she rolled her eyes.

We walked in comfortable silence to the place were snacks and food were being sold. They called it the canteen. A few students lingered around, talking animatedly. They were mostly juniors and they fell silent when we walked in, staring at me unabashedly. I felt uncomfortable under their sharp scrutiny.

"Aunty abeg give me two chi exotic." Dami said to the lady in charge, using the prominent language, pidgin. I had started to grasp bits, enough to understand that she asked the lady for two bottles of my new favorite juice. I didn't really get the deep parts though.

Soon enough, someone joined us. Someone was always around to start up a conversation, giving me ample opportunity to embarrass myself.

"Babes! what's up?" A friendly girl, Chika, asked, nodding at me and Dami. "Aunty wassup na? Run me one fanta abeg, my throat don dry finish."

The lady smiled at her and gave her the orange drink, accepting some money in return.

Chika turned to us. "Dami wetin dey sup na? You no wan run that package for me abi?"

I just looked at them in utter confusion.

"Babe chill, I go run am for you, two seconds. No dey pour charge for my body abeg." Dami replied, looking slightly annoyed. Dami had a quick temper, but she usually got over things pretty fast.

I zoned out of their discussion, observing my surroundings. That's when I made eye contact with a familiar pair of brown eyes.

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A/N

For non-nigerian readers, I apologise for the use of pidgin English. It makes the book more real, though. On the bright side, you can get a book and pen and start creating a thesaurus because each expression will be explained😊

sef ehn!- used as an exclamation when a person exasperates you mildly.

abeg- please

Run me- (contextual) give me

wetin dey sup na- so what's up?

You no wan run that package for me abi?"
- don't you want to give me that package?

"Babe chill, I go run am for you, two seconds. No dey pour charge for my body abeg."- Babe, relax. I'll get it for you, don't hurry me/ don't get me riled up.

Tell me what you think😊

-Rhys