WALK THROUGH WALLS

TWENTY SIX

Beep beep beep
" Damn... Shindwe Pepo nyeusi." That was the first words that came out of my mouth when I had an alarm clock ringing. Seriously who still set alarms using that annoying sound with all the many composed songs sang daily jeez. The beeping noise didn't stop. I woke up and tried to trace the site of the alarm clock because apparently the owner was still dead asleep, the irony behind it. To make matters worse it was a pink clock, seriously.

I went and switched on the lights, switched off and then went back to my bed and said my morning prayers then went to take a bath. Then I dressed up and then woke up Aggie. The goodness was responsible for that. She complained because she had set her alarm to 4:45am but when I woke her up, it was 4:00am. That meant that I woke up at 3:30am. Seriously, as if a night runner or what I needed as an uteo to fly on.

She surrendered to my annoying shaking and went and took a bath then dressed up. We sat to wait for 4:50am to go to the morning meeting. As we were waiting, she updated me on what they were told when I decided to rest my head on Cai's shoulder and rest for sometime after our performance. So that morning we were to go for an aerobatic class and yoga then we will be grouped in various groups. Then we are to go for breakfast at around 6:30am then we will be going for some music composition class before we go for another break at around 10:00am. Afterwards we will go to our various groups for group activities then after lunch that is in the afternoon, we will have an hour break for siesta then reassume 2:30pm for a joint practise of a song that we will present on the official day of the competition.

Listening to the schedule was tiresome enough but as they say, no pain no gain, I knew that from this place, I will be leaving better than I came. Aggie also told me that every week we will be given a challenge and also that sometimes we will be teamed up with boys. That we will be performing every Friday the weekly activities and on Saturday there will be the competition itself. The judges will be judging our performance but the public will be voting for the best contestant just like they do in projectX101 or something. There will be people who will be going to relegation from all the groups and every week two or three participants will be going home. The group members will be also choosing the members who will present the weekly activities according to the strength of the member. I didn't understand the logic behind that because at this point, Aggie stopped speaking English and she was speaking in Tâi-gî. Ok I understand the language but when one speaks as if she is rapping, some words fly passed me.

At this time, our wierd roommate was awake. So this I have to complain, setting the alarm at 3:30am like a witch and then wakes up at 5:00am... If that is not being malicious, what can you call that? We decided to leave her and go for the morning something something. We were among the first to reach the room. We took our yoga mats and got the best place to listen to the instructions well. We sat and waited while the others came in dragging their feet.

It was evident that most of these people were not morning people. When Eugene and Cai came, they walked up to us, greeted us and then sat with us. The aerobatics started at 5:20-5:35 am then from there were had yoga that lasted for thirty minutes, wierd I know. After we were told to relax before we assembled in the auditorium. Then we were told to line up and pick pieces of paper. Apparently that was how we were to be grouped. Different colour words were written.

I took colour pink, mmhhh, I guess it was because that's the first colour I saw when I woke up today.. yes I am African so I am highly superstitious. Aggie was in the white team. Eugene was also in the white team. Cai was in the yellow group. The boy who sang Stupid in love the previous night was also in the pink team. My wierd roommate was in the red group, fun ha!. So we were told to move and regroup ourselves according to the colours we chose.

The wierdness was not that I choose colour pink, damn I hate this colour, but the twist of my day was that my group consisted of five Korean girls, a Japanese and a Taiwanese who I guess was a colleague of Aggie because she was wearing the same t-shirt as her still. We were then given our respective t-shirts. In total there were six girls groups and six boys groups. All groups had eight members each except four groups that had nine members instead. The colours were pink, white, yellow, green,red and black.

After that exercise, we were instructed to go for breakfast then meet in the auditorium for the composition class. We thanked the instructor and went out. My mind was just out of place at that time before I felt someone walking beside me

" Good morning Lensah. I am Tem Khamphee Tripobphoon but you can just call me Tem."
" Wow, what a long name. Let me guess, you are Thai are you?"
" Yes. My long name gave me out "
" Something like that. By the way, yesterday I fell in love with your voice and you even sang my favourite song at that."
" I noticed so. I don't know what I was looking at but I saw that Chinese boy you hang out with take a photo of you shedding tears and then he helped you wipe them away so I figured that maybe it brought back memories."
"Not at all. Before you came on stage, I was preparing to sleep but when I heard the song it made me remember them days back home in Kenya that's all. By the way I am happy that you are from Thailand"
" Much, why is that?"
"Because now I can have someone else to address as P' "
" Hahahaha, you are funny. I think you are older than me so..."
" Age ain't nothing but a number, I will address you as P'Tem from now onwards. Damn it sound nice P'Tem, P'Tem. I guess I should take a selfie with you and brag to my other Thai friend who refused to allow me to address him as P' "
" Wait. You have a friend from Thailand?"
" Yes, two of them actually, you might even know them but... Sorry am speaking too much. Let's get breakfast."
" I don't mind you speaking. It is actually fun. You have just made my day. Can I join your table for breakfast?"
" You are welcomed. I know the others will not mind."
" Ok then. I guess I will also address you as P'Lensah. Deal!"
"Fine. Let's serve then."

We had reached the cafeteria at the moment. The queue was not that long so it didn't take us long to pick the breakfast  and head to the table were Cai and the rest had already settled down.  I did a quick introduction of P'Tem to them and vice versa then I took the promised selfie to send it to Bambam who had refused for me to address him s P'Bambam. Little did I  know that I was opening the Pandora's box...