THE EXTERNALS

Chapter Twelve

Like everyone other person in the hall did, I admired Halima as she stepped into the hall with my costumes on to play the role of Queen Esther in the Bible. Obviously, the drama they acted was centered on pride - How Queen Vashti lost her position because of it. It was interesting but surprisingly didn't get the audience attention like the presentation Aza and I did. Admiring Halima wasn't something that was so pleasing to me, but I just had to. Her high forehead, full lips and enchanting eyeballs made her standout among others in our school. I would have loved to make fun of her because she had small boobs and a flat butt but there was no point in doing so when the boy I loved was head over heels for her.

On the last day of our fasting and prayer programme, it was mandatory for the every student and staff of GMC to move around the school's building seven times. While doing that, we would sing the "Wall of Jericho" song. During this period, I used to be scared that the walls of our school would fall but it never happened, much to my surprise. I thought that was meant to show our high level of spiritual strength though(lol). After we finished doing this, the proprietor shared the grace and everyone rushed to their classrooms to get themselves water. Since the time has already passed our usual closing hour, some students like me suspended eating till they got home and save more money for snacks. Even I was lucky because my aunt would have been home by then.

However, I couldn't leave early as planned because Kenny was taking photos with my brother's outfit. They really looked good on him so I couldn't force him to put them off on time. Instead of doing that, I acted like I didn't know he was putting them on and used waiting for Omma as my excuse for staying late. Anyways, I needed to borrow some Korean series from her.

"Here's the price for putting on your clothes", Kenny looked away as he handed me a five hundred naira note when he was done with his photo shoot.

"Who the hell gave you the permission to wear my clothes? I don't need your bloody money", I yelled at him.

"Being indebted to you is the last thing I'd do. You can throw it away if you like", He walked past me after placing it on my shoulder.

"It seems like you don't need money", Khadijat took the money which was now lying helplessly on the ground.

Knowing the kind of person she was, I knew she would have thought of using it to subscribe on her dad's phone so she could have more data to chat with her Facebook boyfriends.

"Who says I don't", We fought over the money childishly.

"Lily, you've turned something else oo", Khadijat laughed.

At the end of the day, we used part of the money to buy fruits which everyone in our class and few lucky juniors students took from. Then, we went to our homes, thanking God for making it possible for us to witness our second to the last fasting and prayer programme in GMC.

Next Monday - Fourth Week
My eyes still looked dull because I didn't get enough sleep the previous night, so I kept trying to make it look better by constantly rubbing my wet hands over them. We didn't need to be reminded that our pre-mid-term-test test was going to start that week, but our principal still made sure to do that so there wouldn't be any complain from any student.