Dubem [A NIGERIAN STORY]

Chapter 2

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Right then, I knew I was far more than doomed. Ella had opened that dirty, smelly, unwashed beak she referred to as a mouth, to cover up something that had occured three weeks ago. I couldn't even look at her anymore.

Miss Betty clapped her hands melodramatically, as she folded them against her chest. "Is this true?".

I bowed my head in embarrassment and shame. "Ma, I swear it was last three weeks, and I was joking oo". Then I thought again. Those last sentences did only push me into more trouble.

"You were joking about my butt, in class ehn?", Miss Betty clapped again.

"Vicky, what was your crime?", Mrs Elvis added.

"I didn't say anything o, it was only Ella that was talking.."

"Yes ma", I supported. "And she even said that Miss Sola usually talks weirdly and that... "

"Shut up!", Mr Ali screamed at us. He motioned for his office as he concluded, "now!".

*************

"So my head shapes like coconut abi?", Mr Ali began. The format which we stood, had Ella stand beside a fuming Mrs Daniels

In a matter of a great moment, Mrs Daniels striked her hands against Ella's bloomy cheeks. I watched in fear as Ella held her cheeks and helplessly slumped to the floor.

Was I next.

"You have the audacity to call your teachers names.. huh. Have you lost your minds, does that mean you people didn't have anything better to do with your lives. In fact kneel down all of you!".

Then it hit me for the second time, like a wounded bear who had just contact with a bullet. While we were so engrossed in our gists, we happened to have had that conversation at the canteen, where the lunch lady usually cooks and serves. I noticed the way she laughed when Ella would crack a joke.

It was a plan all along. To laugh along and report us later.

"You all are going on suspension, Dubem and Victoria will go on two weeks for laughing and not reporting while they still had the chance".

Victoria raised a hand to her head and began crying.

"Or don't you know that you connoted evil the minute you opened your dirty mouth to start laughing, not reporting is even worse". Mr Ali said. "Favour, Esther, Ope, three weeks. You just had to be involved in this one again".

Then he glanced over at Ella. "One month. I'm sorry but it's the rule".

"You can go now!", he said.

We rushed down through the crowds of people that had gathered to watch, ready to circulate any drama they would be chanced grasp onto.

We had reached the stairs, leading to our classroom when I had heard the sound of a slap. When I turned around, Ella was ready, her stance, bringing to a clear proof, the source of the sound, ready to lash Ope another one.

Ope dodged the incoming slap with the wave of her hand. "Leave me alone o, you better don't touch me if you know what's good for you", she fired.

"It's like you don't have sense abi, how can you be so short like this and have the liver to talk to me.. it's like you are mad o", Ella said.

She wasn't wrong in the Ope being small part. In fact, she was the shortest among the girls. But I couldn't have her get bullied like that, so the only way I could stand up for her was to do the one thing I was good at.

Not mind my business.

"Leave her alone!". Immediately, Ella's pupils dilated to the corner where I stood. I met a pair of five red, scary eyes staring at me.

"Ode, who put your mouth, you better mind your business". I couldn't believe my ears. Ope was fuming like a stabbed lion. "Just stay out of it", she spat at me.

"It's like your brain is using tiger battery, I'm even defending you sef. You don't have sense at all, why am I even wasting my time".

"It's you that is not okay. It's like they're worrying you from your fathers village", Ella chipped in real quickly.