THE EXTERNALS

Chapter One

One of the reasons I considered myself a lucky student of Grace Model College, was due to the fact that my home was close to the school's gate. So even on the first day of the first term of my final year, I could remain curled up in my bed, and ignore my phone's alarm at fifteen minutes past seven. No adult was expected to step in and wake my lazy self up because it was one of those days when I stayed alone in my grandma's house.

As much as I wanted to be with my nuclear family members, none deemed me fit to live with them them them. So, I had to stay with my dearly beloved Aunt Tolani who comes home once in a Blue Moon. Even though her yelling was enough to pull down the great Effiel tower, I still longed for her to come home on days I exhaust the 'never enough allowances' my dad sends. When she's around, I eat meals with plenty of crabs, pawns, and other kinds of seafood she enjoyed selling.

Even though getting out of bed was hard, I was the happiest person on earth since it was almost time for me to walk out of secondary school victoriously. During the weekend, I spent a great deal of time ironing every item I planned on wearing to school, excluding my shoes. So, I had to walk slowly to school after spending a few minutes getting ready, to avoid getting ladened with the mud water which occupied several portions of the route I took there.

On my way, a few junior students from my school who lived in my street greeted me, and I couldn't help but admire their new pair of uniforms. I would have loved to have my fading uniform changed as well, but unluckily for me, my dad had important projects to spend money on, and my older siblings too had children with whom I shared the same need.

Soon, I forgot about my fading uniform when I discovered the walls of my school's building had been repainted with blue and pink which were its official colors. Right then, a smile walked its way to my lips but it turned into a groan when someone ruined my chances of being awarded the neatest senior at the end of the session, by allowing the mud water I'd been avoiding to stain my brand-new white socks!

Aminat exclaimed after seeing the mess she caused."Oh...I'm so sorry, senior".

"It's okay, Aminat. And please stop calling me senior oo" I refrained from cleaning the stain on my socks. We used to be classmates in primary school till I got a double promotion.

"I mean it!" She said again with an apologetic look.

"It's okay", I assured her with a smile."How was your holiday?"

"Fine", She replied. "What about yours?"

"Great!"I rephrased her answer.

I expected her to walk away after my response because we don't talk much but she didn't. I was beginning to wonder what was going on till she said, "Do you mind if I collect your uniform when you're done?"

"Sure", I affirmed, though slightly disappointed her reason for staying was not to become friends. It was a tradition in my school for finalists to give out their uniforms after graduation.

"Thank you so much!" She gave me a brief hug and joined her mates who were walking behind us. I found it funny that someone was excited to have an old pair of uniforms I couldn't wait to get rid of!