Full circle

Butterfly

I met Rose in secondary school. She was the daughter of our Technical drawing teacher, Mr. Anselm. He was tall, husky looking but overtly kind and a gentleman. Rose was exceptionally beautiful, light complexioned, dimpled, explicitly shaped and very brilliant like most of the female children of the teachers in my school. She was in her own league and flaunted it at every opportunity.

There was a pack of queens at the time, Rose, Joan, Frances, Jasmine and Nadine.

Only the boys who had considerable swag dared call them out by name to their face. I can't remember any of them get into any form of verbal or physical confrontation. They never insulted anyone. The fear to engage them was borne from the sheer aura about them. They were distinctly very gorgeous in every sense. The five girls didn't even share the same classroom, Rose and Nadine were both of class A, Jasmine, B, while Frances and Joan were both of Class D. However, outside the classroom school work, the five were inseparable.

Joan Philips, is my adopted Sister. She is my fathers adopted daughter, whom my mum till her death believes to be our step sister in disguise. She is a female carbon copy of my late Father, I don't know how but I am glad the crave for DNA certification was not happening at the time.  My mum loved her all the same. Sometimes I think mum showed her even more love than she loved her three sons. They were like twin themselves, mum and Joan and it took so much effort for my mum to allow Joan join us to a boarding house.

Joan was my license to the big 5.

Growing up, there was nothing special about me, but for Joan, I would have gone through school without anybody noticing that I was there. I was notably anonymous, but my sister kept pulling me up. She played mother role once we were within the school premises. I was the untouchable brother. Joan was a year ahead of me in school though we were of same age. My other two brothers, Justice and James were enrolled at a Military school at the northern part of the state. Those two were alphas, they were menacing both in looks and in their size. My friends referred to them as Lord Justice and King James. Despite their size, they both loved Joan and even though I was the youngest, the benefits of the last Child fell to Joan. Joan was our family jewel. Meek and quiet at home but an eloquent tigress at school. I was the regular handsome french, my brothers were handsome swedes and my Sister was the British princess.

Joan checked on me very often.

Whenever Joan came to see me, her pack was always behind her, just a few steps away.

It was always so, till one day, Rose broke ranks and walked up to me to introduce herself. Joan was a little caught off guard but she noticed the smile and warmth from me and calmed down. This was days to the end of year send forth Party for the SS3 students. Word was that Joan was to be installed as the new School regulator, a post reserved for the best dressed and time conscious student of SS1 class graduating to SS2, other prefect roles were reserved for SS2 students graduating to SS3.

'Will the new Regulator's brother be coming for the send forth party that commences when the teachers leave... Rose asked. The question not directed to anyone in particular.

'He is too young for such events....' Joan cut me off before I could venture an answer.

I kept quiet. This was my sister's turf. I could only talk back to her at home. In school, we were not equals and nobody needed to remind me. She was the top dog, though unwritten, it was absolutely clear to everyone, myself included.

I noticed the brewing tension between the girls and the interest shown by the three standing just a few footsteps behind. Normally, they kept busy while my time with Joan tarried but this time, they had their full attention on us, all three standing. I got the feeling that what was playing out didn't just start, its was likely the fallout of a conversation the girls must have had earlier. As much as they looked very business like when they were in public, in private, they played so much, they gossiped, fought, quarreled but were always in love with themselves.