THE EXTERNALS

Chapter Nine

Thursday weren't the only days we had departmental classes. What this pretty day mainly stood for was extracurricular activities. And like I once said, I was an elite member of the press club which happened to be the most boring. On the other hand, Halima was a member of the drama club which every student wanted to join because their members were good talented at telling jokes and acting of course. As for Kenny, he was a popular member of Jet Club since he donated high amounts of money for their termly projects. He was the president and derived joy in using his position to opress students.

Deciding not to be a good girl anymore meant that I had to win over their club supporters to myself so I thought of doing something which later looked stupid to achieve my aim. My club wasn't on the preferred list because all our coordinators do during club meetings is point out everyone's flaws without working towards making things right. We also didn't have time to tell jokes because news collection was the most important of our agendas.

At recess, I left my homeroom for the staff room to collect my biology note from a teacher who needed to copy some topics there and he begged me to help him distribute some notes to JSS2 students. There, I heard some drama club members talking about how they couldn't wait to hear Halima's joke but my club members were sad because they knew theirs was going to be boring as usual.

In order to make our first club meeting for the term memorable and get back at Halima for the things she did to me by taking her supporters, I searched for nice jokes on Google and practiced how to present them. While doing so, Kenny caught me and didn't hesitate to report the incident because he wanted to get back at me. He was also guilty of the same offense but many people were behind him so he was immune to getting caught. Luckily for me, our English teacher saw me being taken to the proprietor's office. When he asked what my offense was, I told him I brought the phone to research news, and he did his best to have me released with zero punishment.

At the beginning of our club meeting, Aza took the opening prayer, then I came up with a manageable last minute which I read to everyone aloud then started telling my jokes. To be honest, it only made things worse. Only our coordinators heard it till the end. The other students fell asleep in the middle! If someone had told me things were going to turn out this way, I would have argued it out because when I watched those jokes on YouTube, they made me and every other person who watched it happy. Why didn't they feel the same way when I was telling and acting it?

"You should quit trying hard to impress me", Kenny decided to annoy me during our lesson break, when the news of my inability to tell a joke properly went viral.

"Who says I am?" I scoffed.

"You once asked if I loved you so who wouldn't think that way? Besides, everyone knows one of the reasons why I love Halima is because her jokes make people laugh, which is so unlike you", He smirked.

"You can say whatever you want because I don't bloody care!" I lied and headed for the class exit.

"Just so you know, I'm never going to fall for someone like you. All I wanted to do was use you", He chuckled as I turned my back on him.