Unveiled

Chapter three: Blending in

'My name is Mr. Mango, I will be your class teacher and I will guide through your lower primary from today henceforth, welcome our new friend Eugene!' This with other numerous statements were said by this new old man at St Elizabeth Faith Academy, Bokoli where I had transferred to with my sister. It was a nice class with much brighter 'kiddos' than I expected. Everyone knew the complex math I bragged about at Joy land with a few individuals struggling with their walnut sized brains to make it happen (I withhold the names; Of course, I remember y'all, I have had problems forgetting dumb people).

Life was hard. Adjustments have always given me problems and sometimes I fail completely to get through the tests of life. I wanted to make it here too and I had to make a few friends here and there. I wasn't having problems with the teachers because I was super-fast at grasping the small concepts that were being disbanded to us. I was good at creating scenes and faking stories to keep my friends active and alert. At some occasions I made them feel so much about my bad experiences and donated one or two queen cakes for the sake of my revival. I don't know the best way to put this but yeah, you guys are bright enough to connect the dots. Well, others will blend in and just understand me because that's the only option they got. You know of Naomi in the Bible? Of course, you do. Oh! You're a Muslim? That's fine. You guys know the bible much more than we Christians do. Save me the complaints.

I could make a quotation from the Bible but then I don't want to rewrite the scripture. 'Where you go, I'll go and where you stay, I'll stay...' Yeah, I know. It's not the exact statement in the book. But either way Ruth told Naomi those words and made a vow to cling on her in and out of crap. (A big sacrifice that is rare these days). The thing is, I am Naomi, and Love is Ruth. Wherever I went, love followed suit and in a chronological way. So much as if it was a planned scene.

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Ruth was a twin girl to Naomi and they had a brother called Karlmax whom we shared a class later in high school. Pin the interest to Ruth. She was this small girl whom Mr. Mango gave me as a desk mate. Sitting with a girl on a desk was a punishment those days (I wish we had desk mates in Campus). I came to learn a lot about her and we were good allies until hearts were involved. She was a very small girl by then. (well, we were all small, but I was literally a grown up). We just liked each other and we could share pencils and play with papers. That was in class one. I have always had this notion that 'when playing with kids, you let them win', and this made me loose a few play jokes to her. This love was the forbidden kind and it was one way because as much as I was concerned, I knew Ruth was not aware of my feelings towards her. She took me as a friend and a desk mate but she was my other half. I felt so bad when I saw any other guy making her smile and this could make me create a scene for no good reason. All in all, I kept mum about the feeling and just owned her in my own world. We never talked about love with her, of course not the ones that I remember.

Mr. Mango was so old. He was this funny old guy that I miss a lot. Having grown under a scary dad and in a village, fatherly love from him impacted me differently. I grew to like him and spent most of my free time chatting with him. He observed us keenly in class and one day he got us red-handed with Ruth. I had put my hand over her minute thighs and simultaneously tickling her belly with my other hand. My shoe was off and my feet were finding way to her feet down there under those small tables. I wasn't punished. Mr. Mango laughed and asked me to stand up. It was awkward and so absurd to me. I thought he was going to punish me heavily and even strip me off the title of class monitor or worse off send me home for being such a nasty boy at a small age. He however changed my sitting position with a motive of getting me detached from Ruth.

All this time Ruth had not even noticed a thing. Well, it was so casual to her but highly official to me . 'The class monitor will be sitting alone to write the noise makers well!' That's the time I was stripped off my sweet desk mate that never got to learn about how I felt about her. We never talked again until last month when I saw her on Facebook marketing her online products (I hope she is making a fortune out of it now; Aim Global fucked me up). I wanted her to remember those days but she wasn't connecting anything. I didn't insinuate that she's still dumb, did I?

Later on, Mr. Mango died and my title as a class monitor was split. I had an assistant that I can't really remember. But still after the incidence that happened between us; Me and Ruth, or Ruth and I (You want to correct my flaw? Make a write-up), I didn't give up on love.

Many things happened but love was prevailing upon them all. At class three I had a friend. A guy whose father was by then the Principal of Bokoli Boys High School. He was called Derrick Kuloba. A very active young man who liked running around and trying anything to annoy the girls he hated. He is presently playing hockey for Strathmore University (Congrats boy, running around got you a profession to follow).

Twist of fate followed me up. I had made friends with so many guys in class. My stories were getting weird and weird every other day in school. Some other times I got the audience so much freaked out and turned around their moods. One day I died! Yeah, literally died. It was in a story I was telling to them and I was drowned in a river or something and I died. They never asked why I existed at that time and I never explained the reason why because it seems that was not their point of concern. After all I was alive and healthy. Through these stories I met someone, my very much appreciated person in my life that turned my love life around. The author of my love script!

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Sylvia Munda was a bright young girl that stayed a stone's throw from the school. She was the pride of St Elizabeth Faith Academy and was the eagle amongst all the girls; and the guys too. She came up from nowhere and took us all by surprise. Topping the class became her responsibility and we had to gamble up from the second position. However, much we tried to outdo her, we failed.

Any time you tried to come first, you pretty much came even worse off than your target. At some point I came first and she cried all day long as if the title was meant for her alone (Yeah, you know, Girls!). It was not so voluntary but having no option we gave her the respect she deserved and as time went by our respect turned into fear. She wasn't struggling to maintain her standards and she kept improving all day long. We even teamed up with Derrick to beat her but we never came close to that again, ever, until a decade and some months later.

I don't know how it happened but we grew fond of each other; Me and Sylvia. We shared stories and the much more fabricated stories were specially built for her, I loved seeing her innocent face turning out so sympathetic and deep inside her a tear or two was shed to console her good friend. We liked each other so much but as the lanes dictated, having fishy behavior wasn't part of our plan. Joking around with Syl could get you unnecessary punishment and most of us avoided such. She liked hanging around me and having to get me talk about my experiences and my past (Yeah, My past. I was a small boy but had a past at that age). Of course, I couldn't tell her about Angela and Elizabeth because that was a direct ticket to rejection.

She had the beauty and the brains. A rare combination of this era (I guess we were in another era). She was so much into books and the beauty part was the role of her mother. Getting better robes and new shoes and the whitest pairs of sock for her. Attractive and always active. We had a lot of things in common except for the ones God intentionally created to be different.

She liked me. I liked her. This was the fourth girl since my 'trying out with girls' button was turned on. This whole liking and appreciating each other later on messed us up and ruined either of our lives. Keep reading!

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I changed schools between class three and five. Anywhere I went, I was the brightest kid and I got the confidence in me to tackle anyone (Whatever come me!) I remember moving to St Mary's Academy, Then Back to St Elizabeth and again out to St Mukhuyu, To King David and again back to St Elizabeth at Class six. My standards were way below average when I returned at St Elizabeth and I struggled to put up with the high pressure of the now very insane about success, Sylvia Munda.

She was not so much into me at this stage and any boy who tried to get at her was in for direct punishment (severe) from Mr. Khisa, the English teacher. She was still leading the class but had a competitor who was up for the task too; Arnold Satia (My homie and best friend of all time. Oh, he is studying Medicine now at Moi University. Maybe from this date 2018 and some few years to come, he will be a good doctor out there. Say Hi to him if you meet him up. He was the best there was amongst the boys). Love story at class six was just complicated. A lot of stuff wasn't adding up and Syl was so much not in the moods for love, or rather talking much. At this stage I had friends whom you ought to know about too.