Dabira's Diary

5

Friday 20th September

Dear diary,

It's Friday already and I just want to establish this fact; I hate Fridays,

It's labour day and I hate it, we're supposed to have general hostel cleaning but I think the seniors just want to use this as an excuse to make us sweat and work unnecessarily without getting questioned,

Now, can someone tell me why I have to rake sand, from what I saw in cartoons, you only rake dirt or leaves, so why am I raking sand and it's not just that, why am I raking it on Friday evening while seniors keep coming back to step on it,

The last three times that I have done my work this evening, someone comes back to step on it and that's not even the most annoying thing about today,

"Dabira!!!!" One of the Jss1s from the next dorm called me,

"What is it?" I dropped the Archie comic book that I was reading, I borrowed it from Senior Zita, Honour's bunkmate, and I was using it to kill time until we had to leave for dinner and prep,

"A senior said I should call you, she's in block 4 dorm 3", I was genuinely confused as to why a random senior would be looking for me all the way from block 4,
Maybe she heard something about me, or maybe I did something wrong, or , I don't even know anymore, but I was sure of was that I was nervous,

As I walked to block 4, I met Honour on the way,

"Where are you going?" she checked her wristwatch, she wore it everywhere, except to bath, " it'll soon be time to leave hostel ohh"

"A senior in block 4 dorm 3 is calling me"
"That's an SS2 dorm, why is she calling you"
"I honestly wonder"
"Well, good luck, I heard that a lot of Jss1s leave that place crying",
Well that wasn't comforting, but I couldn’t ignore the senior calling me so I continued walking towards to block 4, maybe it won't be so bad, oh how wrong I was,

"You're Dabira right?" I nodded,

"Take these buckets" she shoved 3 buckets that were obviously too big for me to carry in my direction, " I want them back here in the next 15 minutes, filled to the brim with water, if I see any sand inside, I will pour it away and you'll fetch another one, am I clear?"

"Yes S-Senior" i stammered, "But they'll soon send me out of the hostel,"
"And that is my business because?"
" I was j- just saying s-senior, I'm sorry"
" If they'll soon send you out of the hostel,then I suggest you move quickly" with that, she laid back on her bed  picked up her novel and left me very confused in the middle of her dorm,

"You better go and do what you were asked to do" another senior advised,

I took the buckets and ran out of the dorm almost tripping on my own foot, but before I left I heard someone talking,
"Amarachi the witch, you've caught another innocent junior to torment" she said this while laughing,

I honestly didn't get why she found that funny, there was nothing funny about it, but I knew one thing,

I was in trouble.
**************************************

I went back to fetch the bucket thrice and I fell down twice, I got a scrape on my knee but Senior Amarachi didn’t care,

"Why are there sand particles inside my yellow bucket" she inspected the water very carefully, obviously looking for reasons to make me fetch another one,

"It was very heavy, I-I brought the first two without sand because the handles made it easy for me to carry, but this one has an iron handle, it made my hand pain me"
I showed her the red marks that the bucket handle had made on my palms,I thought it would make her want to be a bit nicer or a least a bit lenient,

She didn't care at all,

" If you come back with another bucket of water that has sand particles, I promise that I will pour it on you and you will still go back and fetch another" she poured the water away and threw the bucket at me, I had no choice but to pick it up and fill it with water,

"Why are you crying" senior Funmi asked,she was washing clothes by the tap when I got there to fetch water again, she wasn't there the first two times

I explained the issue with tears, hicupping, sniffing and sneezing because of my tears and there was also a bit of cold,

"Let's carry it together"

I was shocked by her offer, i didn't think a senior would be bothered to help a junior let alone, an SS3 student helping someone in Jss1,

But I obviously wasn't going to pass on the opportunity, I quickly thanked her and we carried the bucket together, well she did most of the carrying anyway,

Senior Amarachi couldn’t believe her eyes,the look of shock that she had on her face was enough compensation for what she had put me through that evening,

"S-Senior Funmi" it was her turn to stammer "Why are you carrying my bucket?"

"Why would you send this small girl to carry a bucket that’s this large, it was heavy for even me, now Imagine how she must've felt carrying it" she pointed at my knee "she even scraped her knee, Amarachi please have a conscience "

"Dabira, go to your dorm, get dressed, If anybody asks you why you're late, tell them you were with me" I turned to run back to my dorm, but she stopped me,

"Tell Abigail that I said she should allow you to take cereal before you leave, dinner would almost be over by now, you can go now"

I ran as fast as I could...
**************************************

Night prep was fun...

Senior Uju fought with Senior Mirabel and it was such an interesting fight,

They fought because of Munachi, apparently Senior Mirabel wasn't the only one that wanted a rich school daughter,
Senior Uju had called Munachi to her dorm the night before and asked her who she really wanted as her school mother and somehow Senior Mirabel found out,

I have a feeling that Munachi told her just to see them fight,

"Hypocrite" Senior Mirabel insulted Senior Uju " I thought you were telling me to calm down that night, behaving like I was a gold digger, but you're even worse, rubbish"

"Please Please, take your nonsense elsewhere, are you the only one that likes good things, I didn’t force her, I just gave her a choice, at least I'm offering the girl a better choice, can someone like you be a school mother" she lowered her voice but it was still loud enough for Senior Mirabel to hear "you that may also need a school mother"

Senior Mirabel didn’t like that because the next thing we heard was a slap on senior Uju's face and a cat fight ensued, scratching, slapping, biting and certain insults that I cannot even bring myself to repeat,

The teacher on duty finally came to separate them, he took them out of the class with him,

I had a feeling they that they wouldn't be coming back as our prep supervisors.