Saved by my nightmare (A Nigerian Story)

CHAPTER 11

بسم لله الرحمن الرحيم
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Lagos, Nigeria.
2012.

As Maliya walked into school that morning, she couldn't help the fear that enveloped her.

That day, everyone was going to be handed over their report sheets, and it didn't take a genius to know that the competition was tough.

By the time she got to her class, the class teacher had already started handing out the brown envelopes, which she assumed would contain the report sheets.

Half an hour later, the class teacher finished handing out the envelopes, sternly warning them not to open the sheets.

The students however, had never been ones to heed warnings, and so immediately the teacher left, most of them proceeded to rip of the seal.

It was comical to see the different expressions that was etched on everyone's face.

Although slightly nervous, she knew she had written most of her papers very well, so she didn't feel the pressing need to tear the paper open.

"What did you rank" a girl asked her, annoyingly sticking her head close to Maliya's face.

"I've not checked mine" Maliya bit back at her, irritation clearly laced in her voice.

The girl had been going round the class asking everyone what they ranked for quite some time, with a wide grin on her face.

"Well, I came sixth" the girl informed, Maliya had hoped her lack of response would make the girl leave, but she didn't seem to take the hint.

"I really did well, right?....you know we're more than sixty in this class right?" The silence from Maliya persisted.

Forcing a smile on her face, Maliya looked up at the annoying visitor she had apparently invited with her sweet nature.

Liar.

The snarky little beast called her mind could make her doubt being as sweet as she knew she was all day long, but it would have to endure the pain of interpreting all the rubbish that flew out of the annoying girl's mouth.

Digging into her bag, she drew out her battered copy of her favourite novel 'gifted hands' by Ben Carson in the hopes of tuning the girl out.

She had to give it to the girl though, she was really resilient.

"Welldone" she finally blurted out a few minutes later and while her ears were relieved of the pain of hearing the girl talk, her ego had been badly bruised.

Maliya had always prided herself on being the most apathetic person there was.

But in less than an hour, the little hyena of a classmate had shattered her will to remain quiet into nothingness.

The assistant class captain--a dwarfish boy-- walked to the front of the class clutching a white piece of paper in his right hand.

"I'm going to be calling out the ranking for everyone that's too afraid to check it themselves". From her peripheral view, she could see a girl use her hands to cover her ears.

" First was....." apparently, the idiot thought adding an air of suspence would make him sound more awesome.

It didn't

"Rumaysa Kamardeen" unconsciously, Maliya had lifted an eyebrow-- she was not so pleasantly surprised.

It was then she took notice of Rumaysa. The girl had come to meet her with the intention of being a pain in her butt at the beginning of the term, but she had very much known that the tough girl exterior she was playing was only a facade.