Half Step At A Time

chapter 10 : uncle "pep talk"

Life could be cruel at times, you know. That moment when i reached the hall and saw people packing out,I quickly realised I was in a lot of trouble. I used instincts and behaved like I was part of those coming out of the hall.
But of course, unfortunately,I got busted by the prep monitor, Mr ayodeji.
"You! Where do you think you are going?". He yelled after me before I could sneak through the back door of the hall. I didn't have a choice, I just had to turn back and ask.
"Are you talking to me, sir?" I asked with the most innocent face ever, not that i wasn't innocent before though.
"Yes, you,what's with that face? I know you didn't come for prep today."he said folding his arms.
"Well, sir..." I didn't even know what to say. Like how did he know? I once heard some gossips from some old students that he had registered the names and faces of all the students in the whole school in his brain. Amazing right?, his brain must be a super computer.i wouldn't want to keep that amount of information in my brain, for fear that it might burst one day. well, I hadn't come to believe it yet but what I was seeing now was confirming it little by little.
"So why did you skip prep, doyin? You are a new student right? I don't expect you to have adopted the stupid things the old students do so fast".
Yup, what they said was true, he knows my name and even knows that I'm a new student. What do I do now? I asked myself.
"Answer me!" He hammered.
"She was in the clinic" someone said from behind.
We both looked back and saw the young school nurse that obviously couldn't be up to seven years older than me. This wasn't the first time I was seeing her. When I was looking for a class to stay a while ago, I had seen her sitting in front of the school clinic and had greeted her. She had asked me where I was going to but I told her I was searching for a class to stay and read or sleep. She had asked why I wasn't playing with the others or gisting. I told her I didn't feel like. She gave me a slight scolding.
"You know, once in a while, you should try and associate with others and have some fun because when you get older, you would need those memories to warm you up" she had said .
I was already getting tired of her pep talk so I quickly thanked her and left.
I didn't know she would be the one to save me .

"She had a little cold, so I told her to stay and warm up after I gave her some medicine. I didn't know that time had gone" she said, telling the lie so smoothly that I myself was already believing it, even though I knew so well that I never did any of those things.
Mr Ayodeji looked at me.
"Doyin, this would be your last warning, next time,go to the clinic before the prep starts, do you hear me?".
" Yes sir" I said with relief and turned to thank the nurse for saving me in the middle of that brawl as Mr Ayodeji took his leave."Thank you so much ma" i curiously said.
"please call me Temilade" she replied, smiling." I'm not older than you that much, you know, I'm a youth corper and I'm just here to serve, but I try to give certain students comfort in these kind of situations because I know exactly how they feel."
Are you an angel? I said within me. It's so hard to find people like this nowadays.
"That's nice, thanks once again, miss temilade" i said.
" yeah, anytime , you should head to your hostel now before you are locked outside, it's already late." she said patting my back.
I ran to my hostel, waving her goodbye .
And that was how I made friends with our school nurse.

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

"Uncle bode!!" My sister screamed and ran to hug our uncle who was standing in front of the school gate. My class teacher had told us to meet him there.
My sister was quite fond of uncle bode , maybe because he always provided her art supplies anytime she wanted. I wouldn't blame her though.
I myself didn't like him that much, because he talked too much and always made unnecessary remarks.
"Doyin, you won't come and hug your uncle, anyways, you are already too big, I don't blame you, you are even becoming as tall as me. Where are you growing to gan?" He said laughing and patting dara on the head.
I looked at myself and looked at him, who was heavily towering over me with my head reaching his elbow, then I wondered where the lie was.
He extended his hand towards me to give me a warm handshake.
"Thank you for coming uncle, I'll lead you to the vice principal's office" I said, accepting his hand.
"Must you always be so formal and serious?anyways, let's go. I even have a meeting after this" he said, looking at his leather wrist watch.
Funny how he thought I was being serious when all I was doing was preventing him from starting one of his pep talks.
He gave dara some money and sent her back to her class. After that, I led him to the vice principals office.
When we got there, we were told to wait till he finished attending to a parent.
"Doyin dear" uncle bode called me while we were waiting.
"Yes" I looked across to his side.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked.
"Okay?" I said reluctantly, sad that I couldn't run away from his pep talks this time.
"Well, I don't have that much idea of what you are about to do, all I know is that I'm to sign an undertaking. But, are you really sure about what you want to do? Have you thought a lot about it? Have you prayed to God about it?" He asked.

I tried to answer those questions in my mind. Well, I had thought a lot about it, even from when I was very young. I was really sure I wanted this more than anything else, but the problem was that I hadn't really prayed about it. I had only thought that if I fought hard enough for it, there would be no problem.

"Uncle bode, I'm really sure about this, there is no problem here. Everything will work out" I said.

"Are you sure?".

"Yes, uncle, i havent really prayed about it, but i will do so".

"Thats good, but all I want to say is that whatever you do that doesn't work out, you should see it as God's plan. You that his plans for you are perfect right?".

"Yes, i do".
I suddenly had the feeling that I was on the right path and was completely covered. Anything that was about to happen now won't be out of place again.

"You might not get what you want now but it might be for a reason and to give you a brighter future and if whatever you do works out, you shouldn't take it for granted, hope you hear?" He said.

"Yes sir, thank you sir" I replied, smiling.

Looks like his pep talk might have taught me a little lesson for the first time.