Chapter 7

After extension classes on Saturday, Tomini, Esther, Zainab and a friend of Zainab – Ginika went to the mall. Zainab had suggested that they unwind before their Mock exams started on Monday. As usual they didn’t have much money but would stroll around the mall, window shop and just have fun being together.

They decided to go to Shoprite first to buy soda and some cheap biscuits.

On their way out, Esther spoke, “This is why I don’t like coming to the mall.”

“What happened?” Ginika asked.
Esther pointed at a boy who was approaching Shoprite. He had a T-shirt and sweatpants on, and was wearing a pair of glasses.

“I know him. God I don’t want him to see me. Can we go back in before he reaches here?”

“Go back kó!” Zainab hissed, and then a grin appeared on her face as if something just dawned on her.

“Isn’t that Joshua, the one that goes to your church?” Zainab asked mischievously.

“Oh! Yeah. It’s him,” Tomini added.

“What? Why don’t you want him to see you?”

A woman coming out of Shoprite pushed past Zainab who stood directly at the exit.  Zainab left the spot she was in and stood by the side with the rest of them.

“Please let’s be going abeg. Should we stop our own lives because madam here doesn’t want to see her crush?”

Zainab said, and started walking ahead of them, obviously annoyed that she had been pushed. They followed suit.

“Chill jare” Ginika said to Zainab. “The guy is smiling at you sef,” she spoke again, this time to Esther. Esther had a straight face on, but Tomini knew she was trying hard not to smile back.

“Hi Esther,” Joshua said when he reached them. He smiled politely at the rest of them and they all smiled back.

“Hi,” Esther replied, not meeting his eyes. Tomini chuckled.

“Won’t you introduce us?” Zainab asked. Esther gave her a mock glare and Ginika and Tomini laughed. Esther introduced them and they all said hi.

“Where are you guys headed?”Joshua asked.

“Nowhere, really...We just plan to stroll around the mall. We don’t have money to do anything,” Zainab answered and laughed at the end. Tomini and Ginika laughed too. Only Esther didn’t find it funny.

“Oh,” he smiled. “I actually plan on buying ice cream cones later. I just wanted to get Shoprite’s bread. Do you guys care for ice-cream?”

“Just go ahead and buy your bread. Don’t worry. We’ll just be on our way,” Esther replied, frowning.

“Abeg o, Esther, don’t come and spoil show for us. Please we care for the ice-cream,” Zainab said.

“Yeah,” Ginika added.

“We can get the ice-cream now. I’ll buy my bread later.”

“Okay,” Zainab and Ginika choroused.

They began walking in the direction of the ice-cream store. Esther was walking beside Joshua who was engaging her in a conversation. Tomini didn’t know what they were discussing as she; Ginika and Zainab were walking behind them. It was Zainab’s idea to let them walk alone.

Tomini laughed.

“What’s doing you?” Zainab asked.

Tomini shrugged. “I don’t know. This whole scenario is just funny.” She burst into laughter again and Ginika joined her.

“She likes the boy but she’s forming,” Ginika said. Tomini laughed again.

“Your voice is too loud. What if he heard you?” Tomini said.

“Abeg, who cares? Maybe he’ll buy us more ice-cream if he knows she likes him,” Zainab said, laughing.

“You guys are mad.  I don’t think she likes him. She looks uncomfortable,” Tomini said seriously.

“Duh she’s uncomfortable because she likes him. Like she’s shy,” Ginika said.

“Exactly,” Zainab supported. “You that does not know anything about love.”

Tomini’s eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Have you ever had a crush? You don’t know how it feels so your opinion does not count here.”

“Wow. Okay,” Tomini said feigning hurt.

Joshua bought them one cone of ice-cream each. Tomini was having vanilla flavor. They thanked him and he left immediately with his own cone, probably to Shoprite.

They sat at an empty booth, and began eating their ice-cream, except Esther. Her ice-cream was trickling down the cone already. Tomini couldn’t contain her laughter.

“What?” Esther turned to her.

“Madam smile. Who doesn’t like free ice-cream?”

“Abi o. This yeye girl wanted to ruin my chance of eating free ice-cream. Did they send you from my village?” Zainab said.

Tomini and Ginika giggled.

“Mumu! I should be asking you that. If you hadn’t opened your big mouth, he would have just left,” Esther replied.

“See your ice-cream is melting. If you don’t want it, give me o,” Ginika said.

“Gladly,” Esther passed the cone to her and she collected it excitedly.

“Wawu. This girl, are you sure you’re okay? Thank God sha, extra ice-cream for moi.”

“But he’s fine,” Zainab commented.

“Who cares? I don’t,” Esther snapped.

“And he has money,” Ginika said.

Tomini laughed. “Is it his money or his parents’ money?”

“Same thing, different spelling,” Ginika replied as she bit into the second cone. She had already finished the first one. Tomini shook her head at her.

“What school is he in?” Zainab asked

“I don’t know o.”

“Okay. Is he a science, art or commercial student?” she asked again.

“Guy, what is it sef? I don’t know,” Esther replied angrily.

“Chill o. Nobody is fighting with you,” Zainab laughed.

“I even thought he has finished secondary school,” Ginika said with a mouthful of ice-cream.

“No. He’s actually in SS2,” Esther said.

“Wow,” Tomini said surprised.

“So he’s younger than you. Ah. Me I can’t date someone younger than me,” Zainab said. Tomini chuckled.

“What are you even saying? Did I say I want to date him?”

“But you like him now.”

“Just shut up,” Esther said her frown deepening.

“I don’t see anything wrong in it anyways. He can’t be more than one or two years younger than you,” Ginika said.

“Even if he’s my age mate sef, for the fact that he’s in a class lower than me, I can’t o,” Zainab said.

“Can you guys just shut up? In fact let’s be going,” Esther said.

…

Zainab suggested that they went to her house to revise for their Physics exam on Monday. She didn’t understand some topics and wanted Tomini to explain them to her. They were still in the mall.

“It’s almost 4pm. I’m going home,” Tomini declined. She had Further Mathematics lesson with Miss Matilda at 5pm.

“Ooooh,” Zainab whined. “Esther, do you understand Light?”

“What part of Light?” Esther asked.

“Everything.”

“Ahh see Tomini is the best person to teach you. Plus you know she has lesson teachers now so her brain is on fire.”

Tomini laughed.

“When are we having the physics practical?” Zainab asked.

“Immediately after the theory,” Tomini answered.

“I swear I’m going to bang that practical.”

“Just answer the ones you know best. You understand the mechanics practicals right?” Tomini said

“Kind of,” Zainab shrugged.

“I have to go guys,” Tomini announced.

They walked to the entrance of the mall where Tomini flagged down a motorcycle. When she got down in front of her close, she paid the rider and walked briskly towards the gate.

“Fine gehl,” she heard a masculine voice say beside her. The man was smiling, displaying his yellowish set of teeth. He was clad in a blue T-shirt and worn-out light blue jeans.

She ignored him and continued walking, and then he grabbed her upper right arm.

“Fine gehl, answer me nau.”

Tomini angrily removed her arm from his grip and walked faster. So rude! She was so going to scrub that arm once she got home.

And that was the first thing she did when she got home. She had a cold shower and made sure to particularly scrub her right arm.

Miss Matilda arrived few minutes after five and the lesson lasted for about two hours. By then, dinner was ready and her mum persuaded Miss Matilda to eat before she left.

…

Zainab came over on Sunday afternoon so they could revise for their exam together. They solved past questions and consulted their textbooks intermittently. It was evening when they were done studying. Tomini made noodles and fried eggs for them. There was power supply so they watched TV as they ate.

Tomini’s dad arrived few minutes after they finished eating.

“Good evening, sir” they both greeted.

“How are you?” He asked looking at Zainab.

“Fine, sir.”

“What’s that your name again?”

“Zainab, sir.”

He nodded and reached into his pocket. He brought out his wallet and counted a few notes.

“Use it to buy biscuits,” he said stretching the money to Zainab. Tomini’s eyes widened.

“Thank you, sir,” Zainab gushed.

He simply nodded before going up the stairs.

“What? I can’t believe my dad gave you money. Jesus! How much?”

“2k”

“Two thousand?! Wow! We must share the money o. If not for me you wouldn’t have gotten it.”

“If I dash you slap,” Zainab laughed.
“Thank God I came to your house today.”

Tomini folded her arms across her chest, pouting. Two thousand naira was her weekly allowance for crying out loud, and her dad had given Zainab that amount just like that. This was so not fair.

“Please don’t visit me again. You’re not welcome here.”

Zainab burst into a fit of laughter.

…

The examination began at 9am. Other classes were still having their normal classes; it was only the final year students that were sitting for examinations. Art students were having Government and commercial students, Commerce.

They were all mixed up in the same hall. The student who sat in front of Tomini was an Art student and the one behind her was a commercial student. The people on both sides of her were also not science students. They had been arranged that way so there would be no cheating. Of course, some people would find a way around it and still ‘help’ each other. That was expected.

The exam lasted two hours thirty minutes. The questions were quite difficult. The toughest past questions had been picked and printed out for them. Many of the questions were familiar; she had come across them while reviewing past questions. However, she found a number of them tough, especially in the objective section.

She waited until the time elapsed before she submitted her work. When she left the hall, she went to the Physics lab with other science students that had submitted the same time with her. They were split into two groups for the practical exam as the lab wasn’t big enough for all of them to work individually at the same.

Usually during practicals, they paired up but this was an examination, and so the exam had to be done individually.

Tomini was part of the second group so they had to wait two hours before doing theirs. They had a different set of questions.

The practical exam for Tomini’s group ended thirty minutes before closing time. The practical was easier than the objective and Essay exams. Tomini was sure of her work.

After closing, she walked with Esther and Zainab as usual.

“How was your exam,” Zainab asked Tomini

“The practical was easy but the objective was kind of tough.”

“That’s what she’ll say but when the results come out, this girl will get an A.”

“I tell you,” Esther said.

Tomini laughed, shaking her head.
“How was the exam for you?” Tomini asked back.

Zainab simply shrugged but Esther went on to lament about how the questions were tougher than past questions and how the duration was too short.

“Yeah, it’s like they picked the hardest questions from each year and added them together, to be honest. At least, in an exam, there would be both simple and difficult questions, not difficult questions alone,” Tomini said.

“All I know is that that school wicked die! Their exam is tougher than WAEC itself. Mtchew,” Zainab was obviously pained. Tomini chuckled.

“Ordinary Mock o, they are setting these kinds of questions. Thank God it’s not them that will set our WAEC questions. If not ehn,” Zainab continued.

“I swear,” Esther said.

“But I think the time was enough. It was okay,” Tomini said.

“That one is for you o. For me it was too short,” Esther countered.

“Whatever.”

When she got home she slumped on her bed and drifted off to sleep without changing out of her uniform. Her mum woke her up by past seven to eat dinner. She grudgingly stood up and changed into her pajamas before going downstairs to take her food. They had papers scheduled for every day of that week. In fact, she had two papers the next day. The exams were being rushed for reasons unknown to her. By the end of the week they would be done with the mock exams. She would have to wake up at night to revise for her exams.

She took her plate of Jollof spaghetti and boiled egg to her room, and ate while viewing WhatsApp statuses. Some of her classmates had posted about the exam, and she laughed reading the posts.

Moments later, her phone buzzed and a message from one of her classmates, Samantha came in. She sent a picture of a chemistry problem and asked Tomini to solve it for her. Tomini dropped her phone and finished her food quickly. She dropped the plate on the floor by her bed and brought out a jotter and pen from her bag.

She was solving the question when her phone buzzed again. She picked it up to check the notification. It was a message from Michael.

Michael: How was your exam?

She turned off her data and ignored the message. She would reply later.

...
Glossary

Kó -  Yoruba meaning "No" or "Not" ( often used for irony or sarcasm)
Abeg - Please
Jare - Said at the end of sentences for emphasis.
Sef - often used in place of "anyway"
Abi - Right (as in “exactly, right?”)
Yeye - Useless/Worthless
Mumu -  Fool
Sha - used for emphasis
Moi - French word for "me"
Wawu - Wow
Gehl - Girl
Nau - Placed at end of a statement  for emphasis
Ehn - used for emphasis(in the context used in this chapter)
Bang - Fail

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