Purple Bougainvillea

One

It didn't take long for Jumoke to be enrolled in school. In fact she was enrolled before the resumption of school and when school started, she started with Vera. It was already the second term of SS3, she had a lot of catching up to do.

When she entered into the school compound she was thrilled with the flowers and trees that stood proudly on different sides of the school compound.

"Stop pointing." Vera kept shouting everytime she pointed at things or at people.

"You don't have to let everyone know that you are new in Lagos." She said to her as they approached a mango tree.

The mangoes on the tree were ripe and they all looked like they would fall off any moment. Unlike in her school, students were not allowed to pluck fruits from trees even though they were ripe, and it was for this reason Jumoke kept her hands to herself.

Under the mango tree there were benches and all of them were occupied making her wonder what her cousin was taking her there to do.

Initially she had thought that they were both looking for where to sit so that they could while away time before the assembly would start.

"Hi guys." Vera shouted to the group of people sitting under the tree on those benches; they answered with the same energy.

There was this guy sitting at the end of the bench, talking to someone else, which gave her the scare.

He looked like ugly Bayo, a guy who sold buckets in her village's central market. Bayo was so ugly that the adjective was added to his name. And he didn't mind as long as he was making his money.

Vera walked up to a particular guy, the guy that seemed to be in an unending conversation with the ugly looking guy. He wore a piece of his Bluetooth earpiece and when he finally noticed their presence, he turned and looked at them.

"Hey Vera, how're you doing?" He greeted.

As he spoke his dimples were on full display, and he wasn't even smiling. His name was Kelly; at least she could hear that from their conversation.

She could already imagining him smiling, his dimples going deep inside like his cheeks had been poked by a very sharp object without being allowed to pass through.

Her mind was still occupied with him when Vera nudged her and told her to introduce herself.

"My name is Jumoke." She said and Kelly snickered.

Then he snickered again and the rest of the guys on the bench erupted in laughter.

"What is funny?" She asked when they wouldn't stop laughing and that even refueled their laughter, even Vera was laughing. So she waited for them to finish laughing and after what seemed like ages, they stopped laughing. Then Kelly stretched his hand towards her and she took it, shaking it a few times before letting it go.
"My name his also Kelly" he said and most of them chuckled.
"I didn't say his" Jumoke protested.
He was being unnecessarily rude; like he had seen her somewhere before now and she had done something unforgivable to incur his wrath.
"Which one is hi?  What is wrong with you and the letter H" the ugly boy said and she glared at him and the rest of the boys that had laughed. This was just like the complete opposite of what Vera had told her about people in the city. It was the boys that were unbearable and the girls were nice; but then again, Vera never told her that the boys were nice; all she ever said was that they were 'fine'.
And as for Vera she was going to ignore her for some time for laughing at her.
"Okay guys it's okay ah, please just give her a break"
"But she keeps using the letter H when not necessary" Kelly said with a smile on his face and even though his smile was contagious Vera kept her face firm.
"It's not funny Kelly" she said and he stopped smiling.
"Kelly lives close to us, like about two houses away from us; two or three". This was said to an already angry Jumoke.
"I don't care"Jumoke said and hissed her way out of the mango tree.
She hated it when people made fun of her way of speaking.
There had been a time when one city girl had insulted for pronouncing something wrong, and that day she had beat hell out of the girl. The next day, the girl's mother came to speak English for her mother, with an accent that sounded like she spoke from her nose, telling her to warn her 'uncultured daughter to never lay her filthy hands on her wonderfully trained daughter'.
Well the end of the story is that the woman ended up being beaten by her own mum. So anytime her and her daughter returned home for Christmas, they kept their distance; they didn't want to be beaten up again by 'uncultured' people.
"It's 1-0 Kelly"she muttered under her breath as she left, promising herself she'll get her own pound of flesh in the end.