IT ALL STARTED WITH A BOY

Rainbows And Stormy Clouds.

     The week had taken it's toll on me. Caitlyn and Lee were both training me; Lee in defense, Caitlyn in offense. Classes were piling up, extra curriculars were popping up everywhere and Tishe was pestering me about the Welcome ball.

"Oluwatisómólorireyifunmi!" I snapped as she once again bugged me about asking Gazelle to the Welcome ball. She smiled sweetly at me as we walked to our locker.

"I am almost very behind in my home work, have just been told that I am the leader of a mythical kingdom, have a prefects meeting to host in a few hours and I'm still trying to understand how to play that terrible contraption called a talking drum and you're bothering me about a school dance?" I asked flatly as I unlocked my locker. I pulled out my note pad and pen while Tishe pulled out a slightly large brown sling bag. I heard the clink and clank of glass on glass and wondered what she had in there.

"Oh for once in your life Jeffy,"she slammed the locker door shut and I glared at her. I hate slamming my locker. She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. Anyways," she continued as she took the key from me and locked the locker. "Just loosen up. It's not the end of the world. At least you're still in school and not in some old dingy shrine in the middle of the forest wearing a red wrapper around your waist with incisions on your penis."
I gave her an incredulous look and she guffawed.
"See your face! Let's go to the Chemistry lab jare. I need the privacy."

We walked down the hall, down the stairs and across the cobble stone pathway to the next building. It contained the Chemistry lab, biology lab and home economics lab on the ground floor. The juniors' library and cafeteria on the first and the seniors' library and cafeteria on the second. We walked into the Chemistry lab, it was empty and a small black pot sat on a bunsen burner on the table in the middle of the room. Tishe made a bee line for it and I followed suit wondering what in the world this girl was up to. She sat directly in front of the burner and I sat next to her, nervous about the crazy smile and look on her face.

"Uhm, Tishe, what is this for?"

She grinned and dumped the bag she was holding on the table. She opened it and took out it's contents; several jars filled with leaves, roots and other plant parts, a box of matches, vials of a strange clear substance,several black ink pens and a large note book.
"Tishe, what are these for?"
Tishe smiled at me as she picked up a jar. It had pieces of sandy roots in it and I think I saw a bug crawling on the lid.
"This, is the vernonia  amygdalina delile."

I raised a brow.

"The common bitter leaf?"

She nodded.

"Yup. Did you know? That the consumption of the roots of this tree causes severe irritation of the tongue? Imagine if you go out to buy agbo, the  regular herbal traditional treatment that people take, and the woman making it ignorantly, or not so ignorantly, puts this in your drink. Your tongue will itch for days. I've been researching the natural cure for it. Turns out, drinking palm oil doesn't cure all itches."

My eyes widened.

"Did you eat this?"
She gave me an 'are-you-stupid?' look.

"No dummy. I tested it out on a few rats I caught. Well, my little brother caught them. But I tested it out sha. They died within a day. Amazing. For humans it would take longer but then. Hmm, if only I could try it out on an actual person, then I could record the time range."

I moved my seat away from her. She laughed as she put the jar down and picked up another one.

"These are the leaves of the Spiny amaranth, also known as tete elegun in Yoruba. Ingestion of the stem or leaves of this thing causes stomach upset and bleeding. You can use this to cook vegetable soup for a person and then watch as they bleed internally to death. It'll be quite a sight."