"Nne, when you get there..." My mom cleared her throat, before the start of her usual sermon.
We were seated in our parked car, on the FORDS premises. There were a handful of cars littered across the compound as well. The break was over and it was time to be dropped off.
The whole thing had gone so quickly. Way too quickly. Even before I could actually begin enjoying it, I was certain the past one week wasn't a complete one, it was so annoyingly short. I could bet that if it had been spent at school, we'd still be at the top of the week.
It was frustrating that time was always opposite in reference to my needs. When I needed it go swiftly it dragged on awfully slowly, and then when I actually needed it to go slowly it rushed at top speed.
"...read your books, know what you're there for, don't follow bad friends, concentrate and listen and if you don't know something ask a question". I listened with rapt attention as my mom went on.
Where I would begin to ask questions in math? I basically knew NOTHING.
"And most importantly always pray. Take prayer seriously. Pray without ceasing. Pray on Monday, pray on Tuesday, pray on Wednesday,pray on..."
"Oh God! Mummy, I grab." I groaned, interrupting her. It was a nice and useful sermon and I really appreciated it, but I wasn't going to sit down while she recited the days of the week to me. I got her point.
"I just want it to enter your head very well. Oya let's go. Or you don't want to go?" She asked.
I couldn't tell if it was a rhetorical question or if she was really asking.
"I want to." I nodded, knowing whatever answer I gave would yield the same result anyway. I was aware she was just using the question as a bait to start another one of her sermons. School wasn't a choice to me anyway. I hated school but I loved education and I loved learning, I needed school to get that education.
I stepped down slowly from the car before gathering my stuff from the back seat. My apprehension rose as we walked toward the school hall where the search in was conducted by different house mistresses.
My heart dropped as I stepped in.
Devastatingly enough, Ms, was the first person I caught sight of on stepping in. She was seated at the other end of the hall close to one of it's glass doors.
"What a way to begin." I sighed to myself. How she was the first person I caught sight of in such an over crowded hall, I couldn't fathom.
Bad omen!!!
"Where is Ms?" My mom mused, looking around.
"I don't know." I responded way too too quickly. "We don't need to go to Ms, we can go to Ms Peculiar, she's our other hostel mistress." I hastily added as I spotted Ms Peculiar, she was seated at the right hand side of the hall, close to it's entrance and few feet away from I and my mom. The only problem was that there was a long line of persons, SSS3's in particular in front of her, waiting to be searched in.
I glanced across the other end of the hall where Ms sat. She had only a person standing in front of her. I nodded my head slowly in understanding.
Clearly, no one would choose to go to Ms when Ms Peculiar was an option. They could easily sneak in contraband items with Ms Peculiar on the watch.
"Who is that one?" My mom questioned me in our native language.
"See her." I muttered, nodding my head in Ms Peculiar's direction.
"Ahn ahn. No naw, the line is too much." She complained, just as expected. "Where is Ms?" She repeated, stretching her neck and looking around.
"God please let her not see her." I prayed under my breath as she continued to stretch and look around. I glanced over at Ms Peculiar's direction, the queue wasn't lessening in any way.
