Chapter 6

When she came back from school at past four pm, she rested a bit before her math and physics teacher came. The lesson lasted for a little above two hours. Mr. Ahmed left her with a truckload of assignments; most of them were from WASSCE past questions and a few from her textbook. She had to get started on them soon as Mr. Ahmed will be coming in for another lesson on Wednesday, and she also had assignments from school. She decided to watch TV for a while before working on her assignments. The TV was on so she grabbed the remote from one of the sofas and sat down on it, flipping through channels. She settled for ‘EbonyLife’. They were showing a series. She had watched the episode they were showing before but decided to still watch it. She just needed to relax.

“Tomini,” her dad called.

“Ooooh!” she whined quietly. What did he need to tell her this time? Her day had been ruined from the start because of him. He had better not make it worse. She stood up and walked to his study.

“Yes, sir”

“How are you?” he asked, twirling in his seat behind the mahogany table.
Had he actually called her to ask how she was?

“Fine,” she answered simply, fixing her gaze on the bookshelf that stood at a corner. She watched him curiously as he opened his second drawer and pulled out something. Her phone! Oh my, he wasn’t going to give her back, was he?

“I’m giving you this phone back,” he looked at her sternly. “It must not in any way affect your studies. Okay?”

“Yes, sir,” she said happily.

“Stay away from foolish boys. Are you listening to me? Face your books and don’t spend all of your time pressing this phone.”

“Yes, sir”

He stretched the phone to her and Tomini collected it quickly before he changed his mind. The man was full of surprises.

“If you get distracted I’m going to seize this phone again. Then, I want you to check CU’s (covenant university) website and see the engineering courses they offer. Start thinking of which to choose although I think chemical engineering is good for you but I’m leaving the choice to you. The choice is yours. You can go.”

The choice was hers? What choice was hers? He forced Engineering on her and only gave her the change to pick what kind she wanted to study. Anyone who heard him would think he had completely given her freewill.

Tomini walked back to the living room and turned her phone in her hands. It was dead, so she went to her room to charge it. She left it to charge while doing her assignments. She decided to take a break and checked the phone’s battery percentage and saw that it was 54% charged. She unplugged it and switched it on. It occurred to her that her data subscription would have expired. It was already late so she decided to buy airtime the next day on her way home from school.

The next morning, she woke up early feeling happy. Perhaps it was because she had gotten her phone back. She got ready for school and went downstairs to the kitchen where she knew her mum would be.

“Mummy, what are you cooking?” she asked excitedly.

“Madam, I can see you’ve lost your manners this morning. You can’t greet?” her mum eyed her.

“Sorry mummy. Good morning, ma.”

“Sorry for yourself.” She replied as she beat eggs in a small bowl.

“Mummy, I need money for data.”

“Go and meet your daddy for that. And what happened to your pocket money? What are you spending your money on?”

“I’m saving it. I don’t want to use my money to buy data o,” she pouted.

“Don’t let this phone enter your head. Your mock exams are very near. Is it not November you’re starting? That’s next month. In fact you shouldn’t be online.”

“Ahh mummy!” Tomini exclaimed. “It’s just mock na. It’s not even the main exam. And I’ve already been studying.”

“How prepared are you for your exams?” Her mum asked as she poured the eggs into the frying pan.

“I’m kind of prepared.”

“Kind of? Tomini your dad must not hear that from your mouth. You can’t be kind of prepared. You have how many lesson teachers. Do you know how much your dad is spending on that alone? You can’t be kind of prepared o. You have to be fully prepared.” A frown was set on Tomini’s face. Her mum was kind and sweet, but could flip at any moment.

“Is your exam timetable out?”

She shook her head.

“You can’t talk again abi?”

“Mummy I answered you na,” she grumbled.

Her mum kept mute as she served her dad’s breakfast in a tray.

“Oya serve your food,” she urged Tomini.

***
“You!” Tomini pointed randomly at a female student on the JSS3 line. “Come out and lead praise and worship.”
The girl came out hesitantly, squeezing her face. Tomini hissed. Whether she liked it or not she had to lead.

After the praise and worship, a teacher came up to speak on the moral topic of the week. Tomini and other prefects were inspecting students on the lines and sending the offenders to the back where they would be flogged later.

They had chemistry first period; another eighty minutes of writing notes she did not understand. She was thankful she had a private chemistry teacher, if not this period would have been more difficult than it already was. When they settled down in the chemistry lab, Mr Akinola turned to the white board and wrote the subject and topic for the day, after which he turned and said,

“Tear a sheet of paper, we’re writing a test now.”

Students began hollering. Many people were talking at the same time.

“Sir, no o.”

“But the tests do not even count.”

“Sir what’s the use of the test?”

“You didn’t tell us we’ll be having a test.”

Mr Akinola banged his cane on the table in a bid to silence them.

“Everybody, on your knees.”

“Because you are now in SS3, you think you can talk to your teachers anyhow. You’ll write the test on your knees. And I’m going to make it a part of your mock exam, whether you like it or not. I don’t know how other teachers are doing it. This test will be 20 marks. I wanted it to be 10 before but it’s like you people want to show that you have two heads.”

Students were still murmuring and that aggravated Mr Akinola.

“You people are still making noise!”

“No, sir,” the class captain, John said.

“Sir, no o,” another said.

Why were these people still talking? Tomini thought. The man would only get angrier.

“I’m giving each of you two strokes of cane.”

“Ahh,” someone shouted.

“Sir, we’re sorry.”

Tomini did not join in the pleas. Teachers did whatever they wanted to do whether you interfered or not. He was bent on punishing them today; first the impromptu test and now flogging.

Mr Akinola ignored their pleas and flogged every one of them. He told them to sit down afterwards and proceeded to dictate his notes. He might have changed his mind about the test because he made no mention of it again.

…

After school, she walked home with Esther and Zainab. She remembered she had to buy exercise notes for her further mathematics class so they stopped at a shop near the school to get them.

“Good afternoon ma. How much is 80 leaves?”

“Eighty naira,” the middle-aged woman responded. Tomini picked two of them and asked her if she sold airtime. She answered affirmatively and Tomini bought two hundred naira worth of airtime. She paid the woman and collected her change, before leaving with her friends who had been waiting with her.

They continued their quiet walk. Surprisingly her friends were not talking a lot like they normally did and she enjoyed the silence. When they got to the junction where Esther and Zainab usually went their own way, they bade her goodbye and she decided to wait for a keke(commercial tricycle) that was headed her way.

She waited a few minutes and got impatient. She flagged down an okada instead. After negotiating a fee, she climbed the motorcycle. It was sunny but she still enjoyed the cool breeze that blew on her as the okada sped.

As she alighted from the motorcycle, she saw her classmate, Michael walking towards the gate of her close. He might have come to visit a friend here, she thought.

“Hi Michael,” she said as she approached him.

“Hi Tomi,” he smiled. “So girls like you climb okada, too. Omo I shock o.”
Tomini laughed.

“Oh you saw me. And what do you mean girls like me?

“You’re tush now. See your fine house sef. Your daddy has money.”

“Am I supposed to order uber from school to my house?” He had said her house was fine. How did he know her house? He couldn’t be living in this close. She would have known for sure.

“How do you know? Do you know my house?”

He smiled. They were now nearing her house.

“Isn’t that your house?” he said pointing at their black gate.

“Chill, are you stalking me? How do you know my house?”

Michael laughed loudly and she admired his pearly white set of teeth.

“Answer jor,” she squeezed her face.

“Abeg I’m not stalking you. You’re not that important.”

“Ehn?” She hit his arm playfully and he laughed. “Are you mad?”

He continued laughing.

“So what are you now doing in my area if you’re not stalking me?” Tomini teased.

“I live here.”

“Ehn? Really? And I didn’t know. I’ve been living here for forever. Or are you lying?”

“I live down this close. The last house actually. And I just moved in on Saturday so that’s probably why you’ve never seen me here.”

“Hmm. So your family just moved here,” Tomini said as she stopped in front of her house. He also stopped walking.

He hesitated before speaking.

“Yeah”

“Let me be going before your dad just comes out and sees us together. I’m not yet ready to die biko,” Michael said.
Tomini laughed heartily and waved at him, entering her house.

He was so funny…and kind of cool, too. A grin was plastered on her face as she unlocked the door with her spare key.

She walked into the silent house, wondering if her mum was around.
She plopped down on the couch and exhaled loudly. She groaned at the thought of her further math lessons. The universe was definitely against her.

A few moments later, she went up to her room to shower and change. She walked towards her parents’ bedroom and knocked on the door. Hearing no response, she pushed it open and saw her mum’s sleeping form on the bed.

She closed the door gently and went downstairs to the kitchen. She spread butter on four slices of bread and rummaged the fridge for a drink. They almost always had coca-cola drinks at home. She brought out a plastic bottle of coke and set it on the island beside the plate of bread.

“I cannot come and go and kill myself,” she said out loud, as she uncapped the coke bottle and took a long gulp.

…

Her further math teacher was a woman named Miss Matilda. She was light skinned and wore long box braids. Tomini liked her.

From her accent, she could tell she was Igbo. They started ‘Sets’ and she gave Tomini a few questions to solve after giving her several examples. Tomini surprised herself by getting all of the questions correctly. She was dancing in her mind and a huge grin graced her face when she saw her score. So she could understand something in further math, Tomini thought to herself. It wasn’t as difficult as she had thought. Maybe it was because this was the first topic. They had even treated it in math. She would most likely fail miserably as they went deeper into the subject. She was sure of that.

Miss Matilda left at a little past 7pm. She was to come in again on Saturday and Sunday. Her mum came downstairs and switched on the TV, tuning into Aljazeera.

“Mum, what’s for dinner?” Tomini asked.

Her mum sighed loudly and tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear.

“Tomi, I don’t know o. I’m so tireeeed,” she drawled. “What do you suggest?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Tomini shrugged. “Maybe porridge, It’s been a while.”

“Okay. Help me cut the yam, so gbó (you hear)? Your dad will be back soon. It’s probably traffic that’s delaying him. Please cut the yam for me.”

If Tomini had known her mum would make her cut the yam, she would have suggested something else. She loathed cutting yams; it sometimes made her hand itch her. She however had no choice today. Her mum was clearly tired and she couldn’t add to her stress by refusing to help.

When she finished cutting the yam, she came out to find her mum asleep on the couch. Tomini ended up cooking the yam porridge and her dad had arrived before it was ready. She was surprised he did not complain about the food not being ready on time. Why was everyone surprising her today? She served his food and placed it on the dining table and went to his room. She knocked and spoke from the door, not bothering to enter.

“Daddy, your food is ready.”

“Okay,” he replied.

With that she went back downstairs and woke her mum gently so she could go and sleep in her room.

She still had not loaded the airtime she bought. She would do that after eating, she concluded. She served herself a portion of yam porridge and beef and ate in the sitting room, watching the TV screen absentmindedly.

...
Glossary

Abi - Right (as in “exactly, right?”)
Oya - come on
Na -  used when trying to make something clear or for emphasis
Okada - Commercial motorcycle
Keke - Commercial tricycle
Omo - girl/boy/guy
Tush - Posh
Sef - often used in place of "anyway"
Jor - a dismissive or aggressive "please"
Abeg - Please
Ehn - (in the context used in this chapter) Really?
Biko - Igbo word for "please"
Igbo - A tribe in Eastern Nigeria

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