Monday came too quickly, Tomini thought as she walked through the school’s gate. It was 7:16 am and she was quite early for school. She played with the tip of one of her braids as she made her way to her new classroom. She greeted the teachers she saw on her way. School was quite empty. Most students did not arrive until it was almost or already eight.  There was only one girl in her class, SS3 Science. They exchanged greetings and Tomini made her way to a seat on the far left of the third row. Their class teacher might rearrange their sitting positions later, and she hoped she was not placed at the front row.

Assembly was held outside, in front of the school building. Some Prefects stood in between the rows of students, watching and cautioning the noisemakers. Others stood near the gate, waiting on latecomers and punishing them.

When it was time for the moral talk which was usually conducted by a teacher, the two health prefects, Tomini and her close friend, Esther, who was social prefect, inspected students. Boys were expected to keep their hair low and free from any style or design. Girls were not to use any form of hair extensions or accessories. Nails were to be kept short and black socks and shoes were to be worn. Students who violated these rules were told to kneel behind the gathering of students and were flogged by the teacher on duty after the assembly. Prefects were not permitted to flog students, but could instruct and punish.

Coordinating a group of adolescents proved to be difficult. They had been assigned prefects long before the summer break, around the time when the last set of seniors had started their WASSCE, West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations, the exam most Nigerians called WAEC, the name of the board that conducted the exam. Speaking of which, Saturday lessons were going to begin that week for the SS3 students, in preparation for their forthcoming external exams. Tomini thought it was too early to start the lessons. WASSCE did not start until February the following year. It was the school’s tradition to start the extra lessons the first week of resumption in September. 

The Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by National Examination Council (NECO) was not written in her school. However, students who wanted to sit for the exam usually registered with schools that accepted external students.  It usually commenced after WASSCE ended. Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) was not conducted in schools. Students registered for the exam on their own and wrote it in external centres. UTME was taken in one sitting; 4 subjects written on the same day in a stretch.

The questions were objective and only 3 and a half hours was given for the examination. The Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB), the board that conducted UTME had recently scraped pencil and paper exams and now Computer Based Tests were conducted. Usually, the results were out a few days after writing the exam. Popular opinion was that “JAMB” was a difficult exam; the time given for the exam too little and the questions too tough. The exam was a total of 400 marks, each subject taking 100 marks. Many struggled to score up to 200. The exceptional ones scored close to or above 300. Quite a number floated in between.

Tomini planned to apply for Food, Nutrition and Dietetics. Not many people applied for the course, so she had a good chance of getting selected. Many people stuck with the conventional, well-known courses like Medicine, Law, Engineering, Computer science and the likes. Moreover, since she was applying to a private university, it made it even easier to get admitted for her course of choice. Lesser people applied to private universities, and a very tiny proportion of that percentage applied for Food, Nutrition and Dietetics.

Time seemed to crawl through the school hours. Tomini had chemistry, math, biology, civic education and Food and Nutrition. School closed at the normal time of 4 pm. Some schools closed earlier during the first week of resumption but not hers. Her school was very serious; most of their activities were restricted to academic related ones. You could say it was a boring, old-fashioned school. The school was quite rigid. The only fun thing they did in school was sports, which was on Fridays. Clubs were not all that fun, but they were the only other activity that was close to fun. Even end of the year parties, which were normal for schools to hold, were not held in hers. Christmas carols and valedictory services were the only events that took place in her school.

The front door was locked when she got home, so she fetched her spare key from her purse and opened the door. She ran up the stairs to her room and had a quick shower. Afterwards, she cooked Indomie noodles and ate in the silent sitting room, hoping that the power holding company restored the electricity soon.

…

The rest of the week was identical to Monday. Things did not ease up, not even a bit. Teachers gave out assignments already despite it being the first week of school. She had already slipped into her old habit of piling up notes before studying. She already had pages of notes to read, and she hadn’t gotten started. Sigh. She didn’t get to work until a deadline was approaching fast and she was trying really hard to curb it. Most of her time outside school was spent surfing through the internet; scrolling through Instagram feeds, texting her friends and reading funny tweets. Truthfully, she wasn’t trying hard to curb it. In fact, she wasn’t trying at all. She had already eased into this lifestyle and it would not be easy doing otherwise. She knew she needed to change. WAEC and JAMB were lurking around the corner. She had to pass these exams at once, and excellently, too. Her dad had mentioned getting her lesson teachers to coach her in her major subjects. She disliked the idea but had no choice.

After spending eight hours in school, she would have to come home to more lessons. The school was making extra lessons mandatory for them, and now her dad was hiring teachers to teach her at home, too. It seemed this period would be the toughest for her in her history of schooling.

There was so much work to cover and little time to do so. She was going to be choked up in school work until WASSCE ended. She was going to have two teachers; one to teach her math and physics, and the other chemistry and biology.

On saturday night, her dad called her into the bedroom he shared with her mum. Her mum was also present, both of them sitting at the edge of the bed facing Tomini. There was a smile on her mum’s face, and that heightened Tomini’s curiosity. What was this all about?

“Tomini,” she heard her dad’s voice.

“Sir”

“Your mum and I have something to tell you.”

She figured that out already. Why was her mum smiling so hard? Even her dad had a soft expression on his face. She swore she noticed a hint of happiness on his face, and in his tone, too. She saw her dad’s lips slowly curve into a smile. What? Her dad was smiling? Now she couldn’t contain her curiosity.

“Daddy, what’s going on?”, she said seriously, eager to hear what made her dad that hardly smiled do so. Her mum laughed as she scooted closer to her dad.

And then her dad said, “Tomini, you are going to have a sister or brother soon.”

Her face squeezed in confusion. He couldn’t mean that her mum was pregnant, right? I mean, her mum and dad had been married 17 years, and in all of those years, her mum had been pregnant only once. She knew her parents wanted and had been trying for another child. When she was younger, she used to hope for a younger sibling and it hadn’t seemed impossible so she continued to hope.

Years passed and her hope slowly passed away with the years. She had closed her mind to it, already content with her reality as the only child. She couldn’t believe her ears. Her mum was pregnant? She knew her mum was in her early fourties and that it wasn’t impossible for her to conceive but she was completely dazed. Perhaps it was because she never expected this to happen. She had been quiet for seconds, not knowing what to say.

“Tomini, say something. You’re going to be a big sister”. Her mother still had a big grin on her face and Tomini laughed, still shook at the revelation.

“Wow, mummy. How long have you been pregnant? You’re not showing.”

“I did a test on Thursday. I’m two months gone. Your dad and I decided that we will tell you today. I couldn’t believe it myself. I mean, I had lost hope, to be honest.” Her mum was on the verge of tears, as she spoke. Her voice shook as she continued, “I’m so overwhelmed. God answered our prayers. Finally. Even when we thought it was a lost cause.”

She broke into a sob and Tomini sat by her mother, drew her close and rubbed her back in circles. The doctors her parents had consulted years back had said her mother and father were both able to bear children. Nothing had been wrong with either of them but she hadn’t conceived after Tomini. This was nothing short of a miracle.

Tomini’s dad must have thought so too because the next morning, her mum came into her room to wake her up for church. She was surprised at this. Her parents claimed to be Christians but rarely went to church. They didn’t even have a local church they belonged to.

On some special occasions like thanksgiving and cross-over night, they visited her maternal grandmother’s church. Grandma Ajayi attended a Redeemed Christian Church Of God parish in satellite Town which was about 15 minutes from their home. She guessed that was where they were headed and she was right. The service lasted for about 3 hours, and by 12 noon, they were on their way to Grandma Ajayi’s house in Jakande Housing Estate, Mile 2. Tomini sat in the back seat with Grandma Ajayi. Her grandma teased her about the wig she had on, saying it made her look more mature, and that she was already an iyawo. Tomini laughed at this, shaking her head internally. She was just sixteen and her Grandma was already calling her an iyawo (bride).

They talked about random things and her grandma mentioned that her uncle and her cousins would be coming over that afternoon as well. That elevated her mood immediately.

She had seen her cousins sometime last month, but she was still very excited to see them. She had missed them terribly, especially Lolade, who was a year older than her and had just gained admission into the University. Lolade must have resumed, she thought. The last time they spoke, she had said she was resuming the first week of September. A frown formed on her features, as her dad now parked his car in front of her grandma’s block.

They alighted and entered her flat which was on the ground floor. Her grandma went in to change from her church clothes. When she came back to the sitting room, she called Tomini to join her in the kitchen. Tomini walked behind her grandma to the small kitchen, phone in hand. The walls of the kitchen had some of its parts blackened. The counter was small and had containers housing spices on it. The cabinets where pots and pans and cooking spoons and knives were kept were below the counter.

“Grandma, what do you want to cook?”

“Jollof rice”, came her grandma’s reply.

A part of her had been hoping Grandma Ajayi would prepare her famous amala, ewedu and gbegiri. She loved her grandma’s amala so much, because she never failed to add plenty meat assortments to the stew. At home, they would eat amala with any soup they had, and the stew never had assorted meat or fish. Her mother would give her one piece of meat.

“Grandma, why not amala?” she whined. “I’ve missed your amala.”

Her grandma chuckled, pulling Tomini’s hand and drawing her closer. She drew her cheeks and they both laughed.

“Don’t worry, the Jollof will be sweet. And your big mummy said she will bring salad.”

Tomini had been trained to call her mother’s elder brother “big daddy”. And by default, she called his wife “Big Mummy” also. Her family had the notion that one shouldn’t call a parent’s older sibling “Uncle” or “aunty”. Her grandma began cooking the Jollof rice, while she busied herself with her phone, viewing WhatsApp statuses.

“Wash that rice for me”, her grandma instructed after a while, pointing in the direction of raw rice in a bowl. She placed her phone on top of the fridge that stood near the door and did as she was told.

Her mum joined them later on, telling her grandma a story of a certain Bisi who had gotten pregnant out of wedlock. Apparently, her baby daddy had denied responsibility for the pregnancy and her parents were furious because they wanted Bisi to marry the supposed baby daddy.

“What work is Bisi herself doing?” Grandma Ajayi asked Tomini’s mum in Yoruba.

“Hairdresser lón kó. Kò tii se freedom gan.(She's learning hairdressing. She isn't even done.)”

Tomini laughed out loud, looking down to the phone in her hand. She tuned out of her Grandma and mother’s conversation, scrolling through her Instagram feeds. She wanted to go back to the sitting room, but she would rather not sit alone with her dad. She wondered what he was doing alone in the sitting room.

Her Uncle and his family arrived thirty minutes later, and she was shocked but elated to see Lolade. Lolade said that The University had resumed but she was going to resume sometime that week. Lolade’s little brother, Gbola was three years younger than Lolade and was in SS1.

Her Grandma didn’t have a dining room, so everyone ate in the sitting room. Tomini sat beside Lolade, each of them with a plate of Jollof rice, salad and fried chicken.

After eating, they went into their Grandma’s room, leaving the parents, Gbola and Grandma in the sitting room. Lolade sat on the bed while Tomini rummaged through her grandma’s dressing table, opening the drawers. She looked through her grandma’s beads, and a royal blue one caught her eye. She pulled it out from the drawer and showed it to Lolade.

“I’m so taking it”, Tomini grinned.

“You mean stealing abi. Thief! ”

Tomini laughed as her cousin rolled her eyes.

“Ask Grandma for it. I’m sure she’ll give you. You don’t have to fap it.”

“Abeg, she won’t even notice that it’s missing. And I’m not fapping it, madam. It’s for Grandma, so it’s technically mine.”

Lolade shrugged and kept mute. It was quiet for a few seconds before Lolade spoke again.

“Did you guys go to church today?”

“Yeah,” Tomini answered simply.

Unlike her family, Lolade’s went to church regularly.  Tomini sat beside her cousin on the bed, the blue bead still in her hand.

“You didn’t read that book I gave you right?” Her cousin narrowed her eyes at her. The last time they met, Lolade had given Tomini “Why You Act the Way You Do” by Tim LaHaye.

“Lolade, abeg, I tried my best. It was quite boring. At least for me o.”

Her cousin’s voice increased an octave.

“How can you even say that book is boring? How many pages did you even read?”

“That’s why I said for me. It was boring for me.”

“Just don’t burn my book. The next time I come to your house, I’ll collect my thing.”

Tomini was going to miss her cousin. She guessed December was the next time she would see her. She voiced out her thoughts.

“December is not that far, Tomi,” Lolade said to her in attempt to make her feel better. “I’m nervous about going to school. I don’t know. I’ve never been away from home, on my own, for that long.”

“You’ll be fine,” Tomini assured her.

“I guess.” A small smile appeared on Lolade’s face.

Lolade removed her sandals and lied on the bed, on her back.

Turning to Tomini, she said, “Tomi you know you can actually be coming to my church right? Our houses are not even far from each other. My church is even closer to your house than it is to my house.  Daddy can be picking you up, if going by yourself is the problem. I’m sure he won’t mind.”

Tomini sighed. “You’ve said this before, Lola.”

“And I keep repeating it because it’s important. Your soul is important. You know that doing good and living right doesn’t make you a Christian right? You’re a good girl. You don’t do what most of your mates do, yes. I know but you can’t save yourself, Tomi.”

Tomini didn’t know how to respond. Her cousin’s persistence was almost annoying. She had nothing against going to church but she didn’t see it as compulsory. She believed in Jesus and prayed sometimes, so what more did she have to do?

Her parents were Christians also. They didn’t go to church regularly but that didn’t make them less of Christians.
She heard Lolade speak up again.

“Okay, you can at least be coming for our Teen’s church bible study on Saturdays. Abi what excuse do you have again?”

Tomini was slightly angered by her cousin’s words. She felt she was judging her.

“Lolade, see…”

“See what?” Her cousin sat up.

A thought crossed her mind and she sighed happily. This was a good excuse to give.

“We’ve started our Saturday extension lessons in School. I’ll come back in the afternoon and I would be too tired to go for your church program“. This should shut her cousin up. She was tired of this conversation.

“The bible study is in the evening. And it’s always fun. You’ll be with people your age, so madam what’s the other excuse?”

Tomini laughed.

“You better talk,” Lolade continued.
“I’m ready for you today.”

She heard the door open and turned her head to its direction. Gbola entered the room and told them that Grandma was calling them. 

She was so glad for this interruption. She walked out, ignoring her cousin’s call to wait for her. In the sitting room, she snuck the blue bead into her small bag.  Her grandma wasn’t in the sitting room, so she walked to the kitchen. Grandma had a frown on her wrinkled face. Tomini and Lolade stood side by side, waiting to hear what Grandma Ajayi had to say.

“Who did you people drop your plates for? Ehn?”

Lolade and Tomini kept quiet for the next few seconds. Tomini opened her mouth to talk but her grandma spoke again before she could.

“Oya, I don’t know which of you will wash the plates. Just wash them for me”, Grandma Ajayi said with a stern expression.

“But, I thought Gbola would wash them. Isn’t he supposed to wash them?” Tomini protested.

Her grandma wasn’t having it.
”What are you doing that you can’t wash them? You children don’t know that you are girls.”

Tomini took a deep breath. Lolade walked to the sink, a frown etched on her face and Tomini followed suit.

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