Dabira's Diary

2

Tuesday, 10th September

Dear diary,

“Everybody wake up, let’s move to the common room for devotion” a loud voice startled me from my sleep,

it was immediately followed by a loud siren like sound, I covered my ears and tried to go back to sleep but my dorm became too noisy with everybody trying to rush out, my bunkmate, Daniella, or rather Senior Daniella jumped from her bed and shook me awake, “Dabira better get up if you don’t want Senior Uju to punish you”,

I got up wondering who Senior Uju was and why she would punish me for not getting up this early in the morning, I checked my wristwatch and saw that it was just 5:25am,

I wondered why we had to be awake at this time but I couldn’t complain so I just followed everybody out the door towards the common room.

“In Jesus name we have prayed” a tall chubby light skinned girl said to end our devotion session, then the tall elderly woman I saw yesterday came to address us,

“Good morning girls, how was your night?” she didn’t wait for an answer before she continued “welcome back to school and for our Jss1 students, you are welcome to Bright minds academy, I am Mummy K” I wondered if that was her real name, I found out later that the K stood for Korede,

“Since it’s your first day, the Jss1 students will just be assigned their labor duty points but you won’t do any work today, the Jss2 students will do the work for Jss1 students today” this caused a lot of grumbling and mumbling in the crowd

“Jss1 students will also get their uniforms, house wears and church whites from the store today immediately after the assembly and finally for the Jss1 students, you will be attached to your bunkmates in Jss2 for the whole week, they will show you how things are done”

I zoned out after that, I still had this pit in my stomach and the urge to call mummy and tell her I wanted to go to a day school, but that wasn’t going to happen.

We filed out of the common room after the devotion and announcements, I lost my way back to my dorm and just as I was about to burst into tears because I didn’t know how to ask anyone for directions, someone walked up to me with a very bright smile, she had a white Disney princess night gown that was similar to mine, but mine was pink,

“Where’s your dorm?”
“I’m in dorm 4”
“That’s my dorm too, let’s go”
“How do you know the way?”
“My sister is in SS3, I’ve been to this place like a 100 times” she said laughing “I know almost everywhere in blue house”,

When we got to the dorm, I realized that her bunk was directly beside mine, I didn’t take notice of much the day before, I was too nervous to notice,

“I’m Feyiyemi, what’s your name?” she asked as she undressed and prepared to go take a bath,

“I’m Dabira”

“Alright Dabira, let’s go and take our baths before it’s time to go for breakfast” she was already tying her towel, with her bucket and soap bag in her hands, I didn’t know how to undress in front of others so I didn’t know what to do,

“You’re wearing a gown, tie the towel from under and then remove the gown” she helped with that and then we went to take our baths,

The water was so cold.
**************************************

“Excuse me Daniella, are we going for breakfast now?” I asked my bunkmate not realizing my mistake of omitting the senior in front of her name,

“Are we mates?” she asked visibly furious “What happened to senior Daniella? It’s just your first day and you’re already being disrespectful, if I see you near me you’ll regret it, rubbish” she carried her school bag and stormed out of the dorm,

“You should be very careful with how you talk to your seniors” the dorm head said, I think her name was Senior Abigail while taking her time to get ready, that raised another question in my head about why we had to leave so early while she still had so much time to dress up,

“Yes m-ma” I stammered,

“Don’t call me ma please, just be careful” she turned to the rest of the dorm “ Okay guys it’s time to move out, Jss2s make sure you show Jss1s where to go and how to properly do things ohh”

Everybody moved towards the door with their bunkmates, but mine had left me angrily so I stood there confused and about to cry when Feyiyemi walked up to me with her bunkmate,

“Senior Christabel said you should come with us, she’ll help both of us with breakfast and assembly”
“Thank you Senior Christabel” I said wiping my eyes,
“You’re welcome dear, don’t cry okay? Let’s go” she led the way out of the dorm “Hope you guys like yam and stew”...