Lagos, Nigeria.
7:50pm.
It was on a dark starry night that the students of Soleil High rioted in front of their principal's gate.
It wasn't a riot persay as nothing was affected except a glass pane of the west part of the dining hall and a tyre of the offending teacher's car but it was a riot nonetheless with the aggrieved students yelling insults and words of protests while avoiding and also insulting the people that attempted to chase them away.
At that time, Mmasinachi was in her class, ranting near tears to her already belle-ful friends about the injustice of it all. "It's not fair. I missed all my meals today. I haven't eaten anything since yesterday morning!"
She didn't bother mentioning that missing the rest of the day before and that she'd soaked garri and gone for break within said period.
Such meals were, at that point, insignificant and had nothing to do with the rice and ofada she'd missed that night. Not to mention that she was really hungry. Frustration had been her plight for a long period, with the prefect posts undecided and implied pressure from upcoming exams and the riot was a rare occasion to let everything out.
The crushed plastic bottle with its cover missing, sitting at the top of the dirt in the wastebasket was a testament to said frustration. She fitted the aforementioned cover between the knuckles of her index and middle finger and rapper it against the top of her wooden mixture of a desk and locker.
Her friends said nothing to her, only exchanging glances amongst them. Glances Mmasinachi didn't bother trying to interpret for fear they'd make her snap.
She didn't blame them. They'd eaten. They wouldn't understand.
They probably thought she was overreacting, which,in a sense, she was and in another sense, wasn't.
She left the class to stand outside, to attempt to calm the blood pumping through her veins, the anger that was making her head swim; to force out the excited voices that announced that the principal had said that whoever had not eaten should go back to the dining hall.
She could have stood there forever, at least until the beginning of prep, had Sade not passed her by before pausing at the lackluster response of her and backtracked.
"What's up with you?" She'd asked.
"Nothing." Mma replied although deep down, she knew she really wanted to rant to someone but, as a precaution, asked "Did you eat?"
Sade nodded as if confused and Mma's hope was snuffed out.
Sade wouldn't understand either.
Sade leaned against the old concrete railing demarcating the corridor and the sandy surroundings, and stared at Mma with cool eyes. "You didn't?"
Mma shook her head, now wishing Sade would leave her alone to sulk in peace.
Sade didn't though, instead proceeding to make herself more comfortable against the railing.
"Well, they're allowing people to go back to eat." Sade nodded at the direction of the tarmac road leading back to the hostel area, a road many such SS3 students who'd suffered the same date as Mma were now making their way on.
Mma recoiled, feeling oddly betrayed and indignant at the suggestion. "I'm not hungry."
Sade's eyes narrowed and she walked into Mma's classroom before reemerging a mere 25 seconds later. Mma had been counting. "Sunmi just told me that you haven't eaten since yesterday morning, just go and eat."
Mma shook her head again. "Not hungry."
Sade stared at her unbelieving while Mma's chose that moment to growl out loud for the first time in her 14 years of life. Typical of her body to betray her when it really mattered.
"Look, I know you feel like eating will insult your dignity or something like that but you being here is just starving yourself for nothing." Sade said, waving a hand in one of her gestures that always looked lazy and careless for no reason. "It's your money so you deserve to eat." Sade shrugged then as if it was the easiest thing to do, as if she had no idea why Mma was making such a big deal of it when the answer was right there.
Mma looked away, turning into class. Her locker had had it aside on her side of the bench before rustling through the books and old papers of story drafts that might never see the light of the world.
She could feel Sade standing behind her.
"Where are you going?" Sunmi asked as she packed up 2 books and her purse and made to leave.
Mma was already halfway out the door as she replied. "To eat."
Later, she would stand alongside the chattering people in front of the hall and watch as they shooed away the pokenosing juniors that failed to leave early for prep, then they would enter the halls and she'd sit through a Q&A session that seemed more of a boring lecture by the principal and wonder how long the culprit of the whole mess, a mean teacher whose ears stuck up like a doormouse's, could hold up his fake smile. She would look away when his veins looked ready to pop.
Everything would be forgotten once food arrived and later, she would lean back and think Sade was right after all. She deserved her money's worth, or her father's money's worth anyway.
But for now, she sulkily trudged back to the hostel area, glaring at anyone who came close, hoping for someone to bump into her and take the role of an outlet for frustration.
She missed her plastic bottle.
Excerpt from :
Academic Pride.
Glossary
Belle-ful : Having a full stomach.
Garri : Processed cassava granules that can be taken with cold water, sugar and other ingredients or mixed with hot water to make eba for soup.
Ofada : A kind of peppery stew, mostly taken with rice.
