Hercules Cross

Part One.

The activities of the general assembly had stalled for the day. Students had started to move in their droves to opposite directions. The male Junior students in their thick blue shorts moved to the Junior block same as the females. Hercules walks from the assembly ground with a piece of paper clinched between his fingers his new class had been written over it with blue ink. He lifted his gaze from the paper and shifted it to the building opposite him. He climbs the short three-case stairs with his school bag strapped to his back like a combat braced solider to a red bricked, cream painted three storey building with a snow-white, sparkling mopped titled floor matched with the colour of the building. He leans against the veranda with a white piece of paper resting on his palm. Lifts his glaze upward whenever he comes to a class entrance in search of his new class. He passes the first class after getting a contradictory letter scribbed on the top of the class. "yes" He mumbled to himself pounding the air with his fist and as if he had cracked a century old nut . The letters on the sheet of paper had finally tallied with the what was written on the wall. Quickly he walks into the class. " Good morning sir" he greeted his new class teacher with a slight bow. "Good morning " Mr. Bassong replied him. Hercules stretches the paper to his table and he bleams a glance at it critically. He nodded in afirmation "this your class go and take your seat ". Thank you sir. He said before walking through a line in between chairs and tables. The people in class all looked at him and some faces were familiar some had been his classsmates in junior school while some he was just getting to know them. He spots a known face. " Hercules" a thrilled voice called from the middle of the class and curled into his ears. He whipped his head and it was obuko. A light skinned short boy with puffy checks. Obuko stretches his palm wide for an handeshake which hercules received with his face squezzing into a smile. The class was a beehive of People noise buzzed around from every corner of the class. Students had organized themselves into twos all killing time through chats some talked about how they spent there summer holidays, some about the new faces that had just appeared in the school like a long anticipated sun. While some had plunged into a round of chats about their new school . Many had complained some had used the advenue to start silly jokes. " hey the pocket of your trousers so large it can harbour an elephant" someone said making a section of the class erupt in a volcano of laughter. "silence" the teacher boomed with a fist falling like a giant tress on the table. A piece of paper danced briefly in the air like a fly buzzing happily before obeying the law of gravity. " If you packed you sily acts of junior school into your bags today drop it at home tommorrow". The voices which had rose tall dwarfed into hush tones. Hercules soon finds himself sitting next to Obuko after shedding heavy schoolbag like a weight lighter in the olympic event. A sigh of relief slips from his mouth bending side waist to restructure his bones. He reaches for for his list of books with a hand he stares at it with his widely opened he saw two colums unticked "It remains two textbooks" He mutters to himself . "Dont they have it in the school's bookshop? obuko asked. "No, maybe i will try the bookshop in Primear university" He replied. As Soon as the teacher left the class it rolled back into its noise making fortune. "Who has the new time table" someone yelled in a husky tone. It was Ogunlakaye a tall boy with the height of burj khalifa, his chest fortied like a heavily built machine. "we still have to wait teachers from the staff room to plan the new time table" Hercules suggested to Obuko. He opens his wooden desk to shove his books into it and starts to ink his name on his new notebooks and textbooks. Which department are you " Arts, scienonce or commercial?. "Arts" Hercules answered. with a filmsy voice not striking authority into the air. Hercules had known he could not attempt science because his head was light in the bedrock of science which is mathematics. He had struggled to achieve a second pass in his junior school exams.