Beyond Hate

ELEVEN

Zara.

Drop top Porsche, money on my wrists,
Diamonds up and down my chains aha!

I bobbed my head to the music blasting from the headset Ene handed me minutes ago. Saturday mornings were the best. Sleep longer than usual, bath at anytime, contemplate whether or not you'd go to the dining hall for breakfast. Totally amazing except the house mistresses always killed the fun.

"Mrs Ade is coming!" Ella shouted.

Without further contemplating, I jump to my feet, threw the head set under my bed, slipped on my check and slippers then ran out of the hostel alongside others. Just as we got to the door, we saw Mrs Ade approaching us with a tangerine cane.

"Hello girls, they've rang the bell for quite sometime-"

We all stopped and ran the opposite way. Her voice was tiny and soothing, but her cane was painful and her hands merciless. I looked back, only to see the woman running.

"She dey run!" Mona cried.

Everything went helter-skelter from there on, some girls flew over the slab in front of the rooms, some ran straight ahead but we were all running towards the gate.

I ran rapidly, slightly bumping into my mates. The next moment, I was outside. We were all laughing and running all at once. Once we were a good distance away, we stopped to catch or breaths and talk.

I'd miss this.

We were all standing on the path leading to the dining hall. We were laughing and panting, relieving events of only moments ago. We stood there for a little while before we slowly walked to the dining hall. On getting to the hall, we all sat on a particular table ignoring the initial arrangement. I sat closely beside Mona. Slowly the number of people on the table decreased till it was only my group of friends left. I looked around, the SS3 boys were only few. It was surprising because Saturday morning was for Spaghetti. Boys loved the meal.

I looked straight ahead and to my relief, I sighted Afam walking closely beside Jerome. They spoke urgently and seriously. They stopped at our table and sat down.

Mona wriggled her brows at Afam the moment he looked her way. Afam smirked waved but this did not reach his eye. It wasn't like the Afam I knew. Something was wrong. I could tell. Jerome shook his head slowly before he finally looked up. His eyes landed on mine instantly. I froze, not sure why but with him staring solely at me, not speaking just looking at me softly, I felt peculiar.

"What's up." Jacqueline slapped Jerome's shoulders, pulling him out of his sudden gaze. He turned to her slowly and winked.

"Baby."

Jacq glared at him. She shoved him aside and stretched her arms towards Afam.

"What happened? You guys look a bit shaken. What's up." Grace asked.

Afam shook his head slowly. Jerome sighed. But neither uttered a word.

____

TOBY

I hadn't slept, I had kept my eye partly opened through out the night. O.J hadn't come to us yet. It was inevitable that he would. Saheed was missing. A hundred and one percent he'd be with O.J. like me, Dandy kept his eyes open. Sleep had been quite difficult. We all regretted ever letting Saheed tag along. I didn't know when it was that I fell asleep, but I woke up to hard slap on my neck. Anger and fear jolted me, I got to my feet immediately and not so surprised, O.J stood in front of me. His hard face was even harder.