Half Step At A Time

chapter 8: Doomsday

      Doomsday was here. The sun was shining brighter than usual, my heart was beating faster than usual, everything was unusual. That was a bad sign, but I would be placed in my department today, I hoped.

I skipped breakfast because I couldn't even eat through all the tension. One bite of food would seem like a lump of metal passing through my throat. I just gave my food to Victoria as usual.
"You sure you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah,Just a lil nervous" I replied, gulping down a whole bottle of water in a second.
"A little?" She laughed.

During the morning assembly, all I could think of was how I would break down if i didn't pass the placement test. I even got a scolding from the teacher beside me for not standing straight during the national anthem.

After the assembly, as I waited for the news to be broken, I decided to stay in the library, which was a tall building with up to 50 wooden shelves, each of them differentiating each genre of book. In the mean time, I busied myself by reading don't give up now,a book by one of my favourite inspirational writer.i had read the book for like 30 minutes when I unexpectedly slept off.

An hour later, I heard noises right from my sleep and I woke up instantly. It was a group of apparently new students giggling and jumping with excitement.
"It's out! It's out!"
"I got in!"
"Shhh...this is a library, not a playhouse!" The glasses wearing librarian said from her table.
"Sorry ma" they said in unison and continued giggling quietly.
My heart started beating fast again. The list must be out!

I stood up swiftly, rushed out of the library and ran as fast as possible to the science department to see if my name was pasted on the door. People were already crowded there. There were quite a lot of new students in the ss1 class. Anyways, our names were mixed together with the other old students, so the list was for the total amount of students in each department.

I squeezed through the crowd to have a look at the list. It was numbered from one to fifty two. So there would be fifty two of us in the science department. Obviously, later on, we would be divided into two; pure science and technical science.
I searched the names one by one, hoping my name would be there, but I couldn't find it. I searched again and again and again, but still couldn't find it.

I couldn't believe it at first. There must be an error somewhere, I said to myself.
I went to the arts department to check if my name was on their list, although deep down I wished it wasn't. There were forty one students on the list, but my name wasn't there either.

In tears, I went to the commercial department to check if my name was on the list. Hopefully, if I didn't see my name on any of the lists, it meant that there was an error, not that I didn't enter the science department.

My heart dropped when I actually saw my name on the list. I was number thirteen out of thirty students.
My mind went haywire...I thought the ground would open up and swallow me up instantly.
I couldn't believe it. I actually didn't get into my dream department.

*******************

I walked through the classroom area as confused as hell. I was so broken,I didn't know what to do. Everyone around seemed to be happy because they had entered the respective department they wanted. It seemed I was the only one who entered the wrong department.
With tears rolling down my cheek, I looked for an empty classroom to cry out all my sorrows. I found one and sat down to cry for about 20 minutes.
I was already halfway through when i heard a voice.

"Doyin? Is that you?"
I looked up
"Micheal, what are you doing here?"
He suddenly looked concerned.
"What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
I didn't feel like explaining anything so I just went with the typical response
"It's nothing, I'm fine"
He smiled.
"That doesn't work on me, doyin".
"Now tell me, what's wrong?"
I sighed and explained everything to him.

"I'm really sorry about that, doyin, but you do know that crying isn't the solution" he said, after I had told him everything.
" I know, but I'm just confused, I don't know what to do". I used the back of my hand to wipe my eyes.
"Hey, don't cry again" he said and handed me a handkerchief which he brought out from his pocket.
I reluctantly grabbed it from his hands.

"Why do you even have an hanky with you? Do you carry it everywhere?"I asked, dabbing my teary eyes with it.
Did he just randomly have an hanky with him everytome for situations like this?
He laughed.
"Well, uhmmm....."he scratched his head
"Never mind " I said and smiled slightly, little streams of tears still left unwiped on my face.

He continued "I just want to say that Instead of crying, why don't you go ahead and talk to the counsellor, she would explain everything to you and hopefully look for a solution."
" I guess" I said. I guess that won't hurt.
"That's a good girl" he said and patted my head, leaving me startled.
"Make sure you give me updates, you hear? I'll be leaving now, " He said and turned to leave.
I watched him walking out closely.

"And...Doyin?"He suddenly looked back.
"Yes?" I answered, still startled.
"Cheer up". He said and walked away.

*********************
"I'm sorry ma, but i don't understand, why did you put me in the commercial department? I clearly did well in maths and science". I cried to the hearing of the counsellor who just watched me with patience.

"Miss Adejare, I didn't say you didn't do well in maths and science. You did really well,but not compared to your mark in business studies, you got a hundred over hundred, you didn't miss any question!" She exclaimed.
Ohhh...so that's why they decided to put me there. But it isn't my fault, the questions were super easy! I should have just intentionally picked the wrong answers for some questions, stupid me.
"But can't you change it? Can't I change my department?"
"I'm sorry, miss Adejare, but the decision taken was a joint decision, the principal is aware of it also, it will be very hard to change" she said, pitifully.

Oh no, oh no, oh no. There's got to be a solution. I can't stay in the commercial department, I didn't like the idea of accounting and ledgers and records, I just get confused when given tasks related to them. I would really suck at it.what do I do?????
"Unless...." she suddenly said and my eyes beamed with hope.