The Lucky

Call of Duty: The Ill

"You need to be in school on Saturday. We're electing who to represent us in the Spelling Bee," Raji said to Jane as he shoved the exam question paper roughly into his bag, eager to go home after a stressful day at school. "I think I'm not feeling too well," he continued, concentrating on Jane as he tried to zip his bag in vain.

"What's wrong with you?" Jane moved closer to offer a helping hand. A fabric has gone in the way of the zip, preventing him from zipping up the bag. He wouldn't know, as he wasn't paying attention.

"Thanks." He muttered silently. "So, my head has been ringing since morning." He flung his bag over his shoulder as he started to make his way out of the exam hall with Martha. "I'm having what's probably the worst headache of my life." He added as he bent to pick up a tiny piece of chalk a teacher dropped during a lesson earlier in the hall.

"Sorry. Taking a Math exam in the afternoon can do some crazy things to your head." Jane suggested to an inattentive Raji, who is now throwing the chalk he picked up earlier at someone.

"Well, I guess," Raji responded, trying to keep a straight face to prevent Ibrahim from figuring out the chalk that landed on him from nowhere came from him.

Raji knows how to spell words in the English language. But he also knows when he's getting ill. This particular headache is not the result of any Mathematics exam; there are no two ways about it, he's getting ill!

His illnesses don't come often, but when they do, they usually leave him bedridden for quite a while. However, the coming days are so crucial that he can't afford to be bedridden: the remaining papers of his final senior secondary school exams are only days away, and he has been selected to attend a Spelling Bee the following Monday. If the rumors are true, the event will feature Mallama Hadiza Isma El-Rufai, the First Lady of Kaduna State herself.

Earlier that day, he received several copies of the invitation letter sent to the acting principal of Kaduna Capital School from Mallam Shehu. He was to distribute it to the other students to represent the school at the competition. He gave a copy each to Jubril, Jane, Juliet, and Matthew, while keeping a copy for himself.

The letter was from the Yesmin El-Rufai Foundation, a non-governmental organization founded by the First Lady of Kaduna State to improve literature and creativity. To celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child, the foundation typically hosts a series of activities, one of which is a quiz competition among leading public schools in Kaduna.

The letter contained some other information, but that was all Raji made out of it. He had hoped he'd be able to represent Kaduna Capital School (KCS) in the Spelling Bee, but the hurdles kept mounting. While he typically gets an automatic slot for participation in most competitions that KCS attends, it seems a fair bit of people are confident in their ability to spell. So, he'd have to go through a qualification process. However, that would only be possible if this throbbing headache stops or pauses until after the Spelling Bee.

"So, have you ever seen El-Rufai's wife?" Jane asked, seemingly uncomfortable about the deafening silence.

"Yes," Raji replied quickly, drawing an instant reaction from Jane, who wasn't expecting the answer at all. "Where? When?" She barraged him with questions rather quickly, while looking sideways into his face to get a firsthand view of an account of his encounter with the governor's wife.

"On TV. Yesterday." Raji quipped. He was never one to engage in prolonged serious discussions.

Jane hissed, smiling softly. "You are who you are." She got swayed by his claim of meeting the first lady. She turned to look behind her at Ibrahim, who is now tugging at Raji's arm from behind.

"Na you stone me chalk abi..." Ibrahim said rather loudly as soon as he caught up with the duo.

"Gentle please," Raji said rather peacefully for someone who just pelted someone else with a piece of chalk. "I'm not feeling fine."

"But you can stone somebody chalk." Jane quipped, grinning widely at the dissonance in Raji's words and actions.

"Where una dey go na?" Ibrahim asked, sticking to the pidgin he frequently uses when communicating. "Una dey go house?"

"No, we dey go work," Raji said sarcastically, suggesting Ibrahim's question is dumb, as they were obviously going home.

"Are you coming next tomorrow?" Jane asked Ibrahim who she expected should be at the Spelling Bee, given that he got the first position in the examinations from the previous term.

"Next tomorrow is Saturday na," he pointed out, suggesting he was unaware of preparations for a Spelling Bee. "Why will I be in school next tomorrow?"

"The Spelling Bee," Jane answered, standing at the gate while facing Ibrahim, who clearly isn't ready to go home.

"Oh, that? I'm not going jare." Ibrahim said rather quickly.

While he's one of the most brilliant minds in the school, Ibrahim seems to run away from competitions. He has never attended any kind of competition with the school, and he rejected the offer to be at Spelling Bee as quickly as Raji brought it up earlier.

"Tor," Jane said in resignation, looking through the gate to find Raji, who had since mixed with the multitude of students at the gate. "See you tomorrow." She said, walking out through the gate.

"Where is this boy?" Jane muttered after a few seconds of trying to find Raji among the students unsuccessfully. "Raaajiii," she shouted as she continued her search, keen to go home after the incredibly challenging Further Mathematics examination earlier that day.

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