Dabira's Diary

37

Monday 21st July

Dear Diary,

The punishment continued for the rest of the week and it went on without any serious drama.

The boys mostly talked about basketball while the girls talked about their favorite Disney channel favorites, I didn’t particularly enjoy either of these things so I stayed on my own most of the time reading an Archie comic book or any random novel I managed to find

I avoided Henry and I was doing it perfectly until we were put on dishwashing duty. I had to wash while he did the rinsing; he always had something to complain about and it was frustrating

“You didn’t wash this plate well”
I took it back to wash again even though I could see that there was nothing wrong with it
“There’s oil on this plate”
He was obviously being petty because that plate was used for Pap and there was no way it would have oil on it but I still took it and washed it
“There’s still soap on this cup”
That was the final straw “if you can wash it better why don’t you do it instead of whining like an old woman” I threw the cup at him and water splashed on him, just as he was about to retaliate, the kitchen supervisor came in and switched us with another set of people so we could go and work outside
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After our work on Friday, we all agreed to go to the VP’s office to beg her to allow us to go for the excursion.

I won’t lie, I thought she wouldn’t even agree to see us so I stayed at the back which would make it easier for me to run away just incase she got angry and wanted to give extra punishment to all those who came to beg

I was pleasantly surprised though. She told us to come and sit with her at the reception and she listened as the ring leaders; Ariyo and Mide, explained our reason for coming to see her

“We had the whole week to look back at what happened and what we did” Ariyo started
“And we realized that at our age, we have no business looking for romantic relationships or writing love letters” Mide completed
“So what do want from me?” VP smiled, it was like she knew what we were there for but she was waiting for us to say it
Ariyo continued “we are not saying we have a right to go for the excursion with the rest of our mates but it is a learning experience, one that would stay engraved in our memories for life”
“We therefore implore you to look at the fact that we are remorseful and repentant and allow us to be a part of this wonderful learning experience” Mide finished off

We were all stunned, VP included; nobody expected two Jss1 students to speak in such a mature manner. It was quiet for a while, like she was contemplating whether to grant our request or not

After about 5 minutes, she stood up and walked into her office. We thought that was her reply to our request but then she came back with a file and her cane. She looked at us and then cleared her throat

“I will grant your request and even rip up the undertaking your parents signed so it won’t be on your school record but I have two conditions” she paused so we could take in what she just said before continuing “you will all write your names down and sign beside your names and it will be a promise that you will not come before me for any disciplinary issue. The second condition is that you will all receive two strokes of cane, do you all agree?”

We stared at each other, silently agreeing before chorusing “Yes ma”

We stood in a straight line, wrote our names down, took the two strokes of cane and then personally ripped the undertaking letter our parent had signed which meant that this whole thing never happened as far as the school records are concerned

I was more than happy to take the cane as long as my school record wasn’t tainted and I still got to go for the excursion

When I told my friends the good news, they were overjoyed
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This morning, immediately after breakfast, my friends and I ran straight to the tuck shop to get snacks for the excursion.
I saved a big portion of my tickets just for this and thankfully I didn’t save them in vain

We got drinks, chocolate bars, packs of popcorn and a whole lot of sweets. Everyone else at the tuck shop kept staring at us but we didn’t care, someone even asked if we were preparing for famine. I found that funny

After we had arranged our snack stash, we went to the front of the hall so we could get good seats and all our hard work almost didn’t pay off. The coordinators wanted us to sit in an alphabetical order so we could mix and mingle but the senior students managed to discourage him so we were able to sit together

We got seats in the middle which was perfect; I sat with Feyi, obviously while Honour and Jelo sat together. Once the journey began we took turns using the iPod that Feyi managed to sneak into school until it finally died then we talked, ate snacks and fell asleep until we finally got there
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We were supposed to go to a museum and then a water park but there was an issue so we ended up at a zoo. I wasn’t complaining though, I actually like going to the zoo
We were told to have partners so we wouldn’t lose anybody and once again, my partner was Feyi but we still walked with Jelo and Honour.

The first animal we saw was a parrot. We were all trying to get it to repeat what we were saying but we were talking at once so it didn’t get anything, the guide picked just two people to say things and the parrot actually repeated their words. The only place I had seen that actually happen was in a movie so it was really cool to see it in real life

We moved on to see the monkeys. There was a sign that clearly stated that we shouldn’t feed them but some people couldn’t resist so they fed the monkeys plantain chips and after a few they started acting crazy, someone even got a scratch and had to be attended to by the nurse that came along with us

We walked around for a while until we saw the ostrich. Nobody had to tell us twice to obey the sign that said we shouldn’t go too close to the cage unless we had a death wish

After that we saw a few other animals like alligators, monitor lizards, a few snakes and a few others. The last animal we saw was a Jackal and I finally got to understand why it’s called a laughing jackal

As soon as we approached its cage, we heard a very loud and sharp laughter. We all thought it was one of us because we actually have someone in our set that laughs like that but she wasn’t the one and that’s when we realized it was the animal and it continued the laughter till we left that area

We were all tired so we went back to the bus where they gave us packs of food and bottled water and when we were done eating, we left
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I thought we were going back to school but I was wrong.

The water park part of this excursion was a part that they couldn’t cancel because it was a tradition for every Jss1 set to go to a water park.

We were each given a disposable swimsuit and a small towel and then we headed in to have fun

I don’t think I’ve had that much fun in a long time. We had to pick five rides and then we could all go to the swimming pool to relax afterwards

I went on two water slides, they were so long and a bit scary but I actually enjoyed myself. The next ride I tried with my friends was the water wheel; another scary slide that captured your facial expression when it got to the scary end. My facial expression could be used as a meme

I chose two random rides and then I went into the swimming pool to relax with my friends. After about 30 minutes, the coordinator informed us that it was time to go and we were all really tired so we didn’t complain

We dried off, changed back into our school uniform. As we were about to get into the bus, Jelo remembered that she had some cash on her so we ran to the mini mart and got some goodies that we had to hide from everyone else

The bus ride back to school was really quiet because we were all tired and more than half of us were fast asleep, including me
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The moment we got back to school, we were super tired so we all went straight to our hostels, nobody was interested in dinner

The second my head hit my pillow after taking a bath, I was out like a light