A Secondary School Survivor; Year One...

Digging Deep

Duna was a lot hungrier than she thought.

As the final siren for class hours shrieked, Duna wearily stuffed her fork into her pocket and filled her water bottle with a sachet of cold water. Another serving of white eba and stew awaited them but she was fairly certain that potato chips could not serve as lunch. Not even three hundred Darias worth of chips.

The class emptied itself as she retrieved a sachet of Nutri-C from her bag, poured its contents into her bottle, and shook it. She took a satisfying sip of her instant orange juice and gave a contented sigh--

"Hey! Why are you still in your class?"

-- forgetting that one must not be in class during lunch hour.

"I'm sorry, sir", she said hurriedly and locked up without looking at the man but sensing unwelcome chills that reminded her of the vampire teacher.

The chill afternoon was overcome by the burst of heat that summarized the dining hall. Most were already deep into their food, a shocking few were already done or asking for seconds. Duna made her way to her table, passing Kemi on the way as she scarfed down morsel after morsel of eba and stew. Duna sighed with relief at the space on the bench and took a seat. Her relief faded when she saw they had served her food down and it had gone cold.

"Why didn't you just leave mine in the cooler?" Duna asked, hurt lining her voice.

"Why didn't you come early?" The table head shot back, "I had to serve all plates so that I could make room for extra".

"Well, now mine is cold and a whole lot smaller than what I see in your plates!" Duna yelled, feeling her face flush with anger. The others said nothing and it was left for Duna to stare daggers at the table head.

"Pass me the cooler", she demanded. No one objected.

She stood to open it and to her surprise there was still enough eba for three. It was then she noticed that three of the people sitting at her table were not supposed to be there, but the pot of stew was empty of meat anyway.

Duna went to fetch another plate and served herself. She ate a lot on a normal day but could only manage so much of the sour, jaw-slacking meal. She surmised that the table head did not particularly care who showed up as long as he had access to what he wanted. At least he didn't touch her piece of beef.

What a leader he is.

Duna survived lunch and left the dining hall. She joined the throng headed for the hostel, muttering "hey" and "hi" when familiar faces waved first. Perhaps it was more in her head because they always recoiled with a frown as if she ignored them.

She got to the hostel and stripped off her uniform, beret first. They had them wear it the entire day, or else it would be confiscated and there were punishments attached. Duna scratched her head and was pleased to find that there was now more prominent stubble growing there. She took up her mirror and smiled, knowing she could now use a hairbrush.

She took off the rest of her uniform, discarding them for washing the following day, and climbed into bed beneath Sosa who was already fast asleep.

After what felt like twenty minutes of sleep, Duna opened her eyes to a nearly empty hostel. Only two of the JSS3 girls, that included Honey, herself, and Moye were yet to leave.

She scrambled out of bed and reached for her watch. To her immense relief, she had twenty minutes until evening prep. Sadly, that included the time for dressing, arranging her bed, and walking to the junior school building.

And I just spent fourteen seconds thinking about it.

She worked like lightning to clear up and straighten her sheets. Her sandals had already appeared on her feet in the instant she fetched her keyholder, beret, and small Good News translation of the Bible.