"Fisayo or whatever you call yourself go and lead the prayers." Ms finally spoke, after a lengthy period of silence. I sighed in utter relief. Everyone knew Timi as Fisayo but she was Timi to me, that's what I knew her as since our childhood.
Anyway, she was the choosen one, for the day's morning prayers and once again I had escaped! Perhaps, I could actually make it to the end of the term without getting called on by Ms, for both the morning prayers and the night rosary prayer.
The exorcism exercise had been a little over a week ago but still the in gist.
That night, we had eventually and reluctantly gone to sleep on our own accord. Of course, with the set mates I had, no amount of time dedicated to chatting and gossiping was enough, but we reasoned that the next day was a school day and keeping awake would only be to our detriment in the end. According to what one of the obsessed persons, Kofo to be exact, told me, they remained in the chapel over the night, going on with the excorsism exercise and had only returned to the hostel by about 2am in the morning!
I wasn't even aware when they returned but I was shocked at how late it was, because the next morning had been absolutely normal. We had woken up the same time; 4:30am which meant they only had two hours of sleep or even less. They hadn't shown any signs of tiredness whatsoever in school. Not even Chimdindu!
Also, the obsessed persons and all those that fell during the prayers that night had been instructed to go to the Chapel each afternoon after school, for prayers. They were given brand new blessed rosaries, which Sister Lauren advised them not to take off.
"So this reading is talking about..." Timi began, scratching her head. I looked into my spiritual pathway to get an idea of the reading and what it talked about. Ms could call out another person, if the person she called out at first didn't do justice to the interpretation.
"...it's about...it's talking about the coming of the kingdom and the end time. The end time according to this reading will come like a thief in the night. It would come when no one knows and when no one is aware. So...we should be prepared for it. Always and at all times." Timi took a quick glance at Ms seated at the back in between her stuttering.
"And so relating it to our school lifes. The kingdom represents our exams and everything. Our upcoming intercollegiate, GCE, WAEC and other exams we are going to write. So we should be prepared for it, we should read and study really hard now, so it won't come to us as a surprise. And I pray that the good Lord will crown our reading and all our hard work with infinite success." She concluded.
"Amen!" We all chorused. Her explanation was brief but sensible enough. She had done justice to it in my opinion.
Silence.
I glanced back at Ms, seated on her blue plastic chair in silence. This always happened after the explanations, the prayers couldn't forge ahead without her putting a word in or permitting for a go ahead.
"The kingdom comes like a thief right? And you said the kingdom in this case represents your examinations?" Ms began after a lengthy period of silence. She'd take and waste all the time in the world before speaking and would go ahead to rush us as soon as we got upstairs, accusing us of wasting time. Nice one.
"Yes ma." Timi mumbled, a skeptical look plastered on her face.
"So how would you say you're preparing for this upcoming intercollegiate? You and your set mates. Analyse your preparations for me, I would love to know." Ms rubbed her face, a sarcastic smile plastered on her face.
"Uhmmm..." Timi stuttered shifting from foot to foot. It was just better to keep silent when Ms asked questions like this, because anything one said could be used against them in her court of law.
