Crossed Lives

Getting out of my shell 🐚

This is actually my first story and I hope it goes as planned. Please vote and comment anything you think about it.
Blessings😇

N. B: The picture above is mine (I mean the character, not the writer)

I whined as my mom yelled my name and swung the door open, just like a typical Nigerian mom. I lazily picked up my phone from the bed side where I left it the previous night after the day’s work. It was as if I had barely slept for an hour and at that moment I wished I could turn back time but it was too late.
“You never take things seriously, I hope it  doesn’t get you into trouble and it’s better you start getting prepared before I come back here!”, she scolded then  got out of my room in haste after watching me rise slowly from the bed.

I ran into the bathroom not wanting more of mummy’s trouble, had a quick brush and a bath of about twelve minutes which was quite faster than my normal routine, it   usually ranged from fifteen to twenty minutes, who knows it could even be up to twenty-five because I really loved doing things with music. I know it still sounds weird that I took that long but I normally listened to up to five or six songs, repeating some of them, dancing or singing joyfully. I practically got most of  my daily inspiration from the comprehension of 90% of the lyrics of each song I listened to.
In about ten minutes, my hair was tightly packed  into a bun. I was dressed up in a blue three-quarter jeans, a black sleeveless top covered in sequence which glued to my frame, a  black face cap and a pair of black and silver sandals to top it all. I wasn’t  much of a fashionista.

I was so excited about my trip because I had really never been to Ibadan before but its ugly brown roofs that welcomed visitors was one of the things that made it popular, also the local  hilarious accent and insults  offered there were usually hot and deep. I’ve always thought to myself that by the time I got back home, I would serve any “dumb dumb” that came way hot!
According to my parents, I was born in Delta state, I don’t know where exactly because we moved away when I was really young, my parents weren’t satisfied with my older siblings not knowing how to speak their native tongue, Yoruba.
My father is from Ekiti while my mother is proudly from Abeokuta but has quite a taste for Ijebu delicacies since she lived there with one of her relatives while she was younger. Also, I have two siblings, Tofunmi who is the first girl, Tantoluwa, the only male and I’m the last born. Just as they had concluded on moving to Osogbo , my parents had a sudden change of mind which eventually landed us somewhere around Ogun state but still in Lagos, Ikorodu.  I intended to study Electrical Engineering at Dominion University in Ibadan. My choice of career and university was just too good, I could have actually decided to study in Unilag(University of Lagos) because things looked so cool and smooth over there and of course, I would have had a perfect shot at becoming more social and contingently famous  there, you know.  I also didn’t want to be reached easily by my parents, just wanted my own space sha.  This eventually didn’t  happen. Although, I had wasted my time choosing Unilag the last time without having connections. I had quite a great shot but still wasn’t picked and that cost me a whole year, spending time at home hardly doing a thing. I practically avoided most of my friends which were already in Uni. I knew by the time I was still wandering around Campus as a fresher, they would have probably been Sophomores.
“Odabo o”, I shouted standing outside  the door to waken my elder sister, Tofunmi who dozed off on the couch even though it was 7:30a.m but she insisted on seeing me leave. Meanwhile,  my brother was still sleeping his brains off in his room and my dad had been  out on a business trip since a week ago. Tantoluwa was still in Uni, 300 level to be precise but came home to spend some days probably trying to eat well, because his cooking skills were literally dead. Tofunmi just had her convocation the previous month but she wasn’t through with her processes to start serving the country yet.

“Safe journey”, she replied, stretching her arms and yawning as she snuggled up on the couch with her blanket.
      

                                   ***

Travelling to Ibadan with my mom  was  like an emergency trip because all freshers were asked to come to school for submission of some documents and brief registration, Nigerian Universities and their wahala.   
My mom didn’t have a car, she said even if she did it would be very exotic and she didn’t want to rush things as a result of our present financial situation. But, I also knew she wasn’t fine with driving on highways and travel roads where a lot of reckless tanker and truck-drivers carrying goods from one town to another displayed their madness. I got her there.

Mrs. Simeon was my mom’s friend and she happened to be going to Ibadan that same day so she decided to give us a free ride.

Lucky me.

I noticed a fair complexioned lady in the black  Toyota Camry parked outside our compound.
So this is the Mrs. Simeon
I thought to myself as I clutched the door handle , pulling the door open then  sat in the backseat.
“Good morning, ma” I humbly bowed  to greet Mrs. Simeon who was seated on the driver’s seat with her ponytail resting behind her head . “Good morning, ma” I repeated after getting a silent treatment from her. I leaned forward, bending somewhat to the right as my fingers gently gripped the driver’s seat and my eyes searched for  snobbish Mrs. Simeon’s right before she jerked turning to me.
“How could you not have noticed that I was on a phone call? ”,she barked as she maintained a stern look with her fingers curled around her iPhone.
Can you imagine? You were hardly talking and I didn’t even know ,you could have just gestured but you acted all lame and now you get to blame  me for it?
“I’m sorry, ma.”
“Where’s your mum, by the way? ”,she eyed me.
“She’s almost here, ma”.I hadn’t completed my statement before my mom suddenly entered the car.
“Good morning, Mrs. Simeon.I’m sorry for coming late”, my mother apologized.
“It’s no problem”, she blurted as  the  engines kicked start.
She seems saucy, though.
“Mummy, how many hours should this journey take?”
I couldn’t imagine how much longer I was going to be with a God fearing witch.
“It should be around two hours, right? ”,my mom wondered,  pulling her phone out of her black leather bag while partially focusing   on Mrs. Simeon who was driving the car.
“An hour and half ”,Mrs. Simeon responded.
“Okay”, I plugged my earphones in trying to escape into a world without problems. A world of my own, a world where imaginations were real and reality was otherwise for the sake of the moment.
I rested my head backwards on the seat, staring  through the glass at the pedestrians and roadside attractions using  that to while away time till I was in the music.

                                   ***

“Here we are”, my mum gently yawned  stretching  as she picked up her bag. It took us  an hour and 45 minutes to get there. It wasn’t  bad though.
“Thank you, ma”, I told Mrs.Simeon as she  pulled over at the school gate.
“You’re welcome, dear ”, she turned slightly with her buttocks remaining glued to the driver’s seat, “Take care oo”.
“Eshey”,my mom  smiled back as we both bided her goodbye  by the road side few seconds  after pulling my box out of the boot.

Looking at the main entrance of the University and ignoring how festooned it looked, I sighed trying to reduce the intensity of my  heartbeats.
All that kept popping in my head was Don’t screw up I don’t know what made me nervous but I became conscious of my surroundings as I noticed my mum stare at me in disgust from the school gate.

Oh shit!!
For how long did I  freeze?

I jerked towards the school gate smiling  sheepishly as I blinked abruptly and continuously .