In All Her Glory

•16: In Enchantment•

|Chapter Sixteen|

Sharon's POV:

"No way!" Number One gasped.

"Ugh," Number Two scoffed. "Yes way, baby girl. Wake up!"

I walked past the two parrots, my mind wondering for a second whatever was the new gossip flying around the school hallways again. Last week, it was that SOJ's guy who had been expelled was now into cyber fraud and was already filthy rich in the space of just two weeks. The ringtone on the lips of Prescottians last week was, 'School na scam!' Almost all the senior students were  arguing on whether education was no longer the way to a better future or if school, like Nelson Mandela said, was still the right path we could walk to freedom.

I didn't blame them. In a developing country like Nigeria, you go to school to get a secure job and earn money. No one really wants the knowledge.

I reached my locker and dumped all my books in it. My eyes gazed at the books that were believed to help me and every other Nigerian student become somebody in life. What was the essence of going to school, really?

The bell was rung. Assembly time. As I shut my locker close, my eyes met Mrs Abudu's stern gaze. I hurried away before she could add me to her list of assembly latecomers. I met Joy, a junior who was also in the school choir, as I reached the large threshold of the assembly hall. We waved at each other and dispersed.

When we had sung the stanzas of the national and school anthems, Principal Annonye came up, Kimberly and Kingsley Nana trailing her steps.

"Before you go to your classes, I'm going to address the school choir. Our carol is fast approaching. Only a few weeks left."

The whoops of many students interrupted her. Surprisingly, she didn't berate them but smiled instead. Like she was excited for the event herself.

"Uh?" A scoff escaped. "She can be excited?"

The person to my right chuckled. I looked at the pimple-faced girl who had a pair of blue contact lenses in her eyes. Her eyes were startling against her chocolate brown skin.

"Rumour has it that Principal Annonye loves the Christmas carols more than she loves her husband," Blue Eyes gossiped.

I couldn't help it, I had to laugh.

"Okay, I'll let our competent music twins talk to those of us in the school choir. Come on, a round of applause for them." Principal Annonye swathed off imaginary dust from the sides of her pencil skirt, shook her head like she was the one being applauded, then stepped aside.

"Thank you, everyone," Kimberly smiled as she took the older woman's place. She raised a fist. "Go, Prescottians!"

"We shine bright!" The room echoed.

I smiled. If Indy were beside me, dude would have nudged me on the shoulder so that I could join in the chant.

"This is just a quick announcement. Due to the past few weeks that were dedicated to the continuous assessment tests, we haven't had rehearsals for a while. Good news is that we're going to kick off rehearsals towards the upcoming Christmas carol this week."

Fifty percent of the students let their cheers rise into the air. I looked around. Even Soji and Lupita were hollering, and they were not in the choir!

What are those two doing sitting together? When did they start sitting together?

I decided it was not my business and faced the stage where Kimberly was trying to calm us down. Kingsley stepped forward.