SAFE

When I wake up, I'm temporarily confused about where I am and what day it is because of the dream I had. When I remember I let out a sigh of relief because it's Friday, then I also remember that today is the day I'm supposed to face the disciplinary committee and for the umpteenth time I close my eyes and imagine sending invisible daggers at Edith.

I drag myself out of bed before my mum starts yelling for me and my brother to come downstairs or we'd be late. She just loves being so early to everything and know it's not a bad thing but it doesn't feel good.

After bathing and dressing I head downstairs to greet my parents, my dad's not down yet and neither is Ebube. Chidi doesn't have to get up as early as us and Nora doesn't have to get up early at all.

Chidi is running a 3 year computer program here, then after he gets sent outside the country for the final year and masters if he wishes to stay.

"Mummy good morning ma", i say when I'm in the kitchen. Lately she's been insistent on us adding the 'ma' at the end of the greeting. One morning I forgot to add it and I was the black sheep of the family for that day.

"Good morning Ebere. How was your night?" she replies, I smile and nod remembering my dream. She's busy washing fruits to take to work, she finishes and turns to me,"What are you going to eat, and where is your brother? Don't tell me that he's still sleeping, it's already 6:45".

"He's still upstairs, I don't know if he's done dressing yet. I'm not hungry now so I'll make sandwich to take to class". [I don't know if he's even awake but I cover for him anyways.]

Emerald high opens on or before 7:30am and classes starts by 8am, so in my opinion we wake up too early just to get to school that technically starts by 8. All part of my mom's obsession with punctuality, but that aside I do need to get to school early today.

First period is chemistry, Mr. Akin, and he's really strict. If I'm even one minute late, I'm not going in until the end of chemistry class. I move to start making my sandwich, after mixing sardine and mayonnaise in a plate, I apply it like butter on two slices of bread, wrap it in tin foil and stuff it in my bag.

I turn around and see my dad and Ebube coming down the stairs together. Dad is already ready for work and so is Ebube. We grab our bags, say bye to mom and follow dad out the door, he usually drops us off at school when he has the chance or if we're early enough. In 10 minutes we're at school.

I'm looking forward to today because its Friday and also a mini sports day, classes end by 1pm and we have sports until 4pm. I've only seen pictures of what happens then on the school brochure before I came.

When I and my brother walk through the school gate everything has already been set and it looks exactly like it did in the brochure.

A makeshift badminton court had been set up beside the mini basketball court and the volleyball court, located a few feet from the school gate. Despite being lazy, I was interested in the badminton. Some other equipment had been put aside for other games for the juniors.

"This school is something else though", Ebube says beside me and I jump then let out a little laugh. I had forgotten he was there, "I know right", "Why are you smiling like an idiot, it's not as if you'd participate in any of the sports", He says while looking at me, I laugh louder this time because he's right, "Shut up, neither would you", I say then continue walking to class.

*****************************************

It's only been an hour and 30 minutes since class started but it seems like it's been much longer. I've been thinking about my meeting with the disciplinary committee that is supposed to happen today and I can't calm down.

I glance at the clock again and notice that chemistry class is over in 15 minutes. I know I'm going to regret not paying attention later because chemistry is a tough subject for me.

Luckily for me Mr. Akin ends class early so I have some free time to talk to Favour before break. Immediately he's out the door I turn around to face her, "Favour I want to talk to you about something, it's about Edith", I say going straight to the point and telling her what happened yesterday.

"Oh wow, sorry Emma, even though you didn't do anything. Her parents don't give her pocket money at all that's why she was asking for money that time", she says then adds, "Don't worry, I'm close with Miss Anna, I'll help you to explain what happened since I was there".

At that moment the bell for break rings as though the universe sensed my brief relief and chose to punish me for it. Five minutes later Miss Anna stopes at my class to call me, I stand up and Favour does too.

We walk up to her and Favour exchanges pleasantries with her, then she dives right into explaining. When she's done Miss Anna turns to me and apologizes then proceeds to explain what started the whole shit in the first place.

According to her, Edith has been bullying juniors for their pocket money; apparently becoming a senior really went to her head.

She asks/coerces them to give her the money with the promise that she'd pay them back but when the time comes to pay, she threatens them with punishment.

She's been doing this for a week; the juniors became upset so they snitched to Miss Anna yesterday. When Edith was confronted she lied and said that she only borrowed money from me. [That explains why she didn't believe me yesterday, tch.] Miss Anna apologizes again and goes off to find Edith.

As soon as she's gone I feel like I can breathe again, I turn and give Favour a hug

even though I'm not a hugger. We both laugh, "Edith is always doing nonsense like this so it's not a new thing", "Please from now on let her do them on her own, if I get in any serious trouble my mom would just kill me", I say with a sigh.

The bell rings again and break is over, I sigh again, [wasted break.] We have 2 periods of math before its time for sports and I plan to enjoy it as a free girl and this time, time flies by quickly then it's time for sports.

A group of Favour's friends from SS1B and C immediately drop into the class to drag her out, she does brief introductions between me and them, shouts a muffled 'bye' to me and she's out the door. I shake my head with a little laugh.

I quickly arrange my things and stand up, Rebecca walks over to me, "If you're going out lets go together", I smile, "Okay." "I'll come with you!", David adds from behind us, we both turn to look at him, he's smiling a cute but weird smile and Rebecca laughs, but for some reason it annoys me.

He gets up and we walk out of the class.Most of the students are already headed towards the mini field outside the school compound for compulsory warm- up exercises, we're part of the last group of students so from behind looking forward, the school compound is a mixture of colours.

The school sports wear is a polo shirt with white turtle-neck and trousers with white stirpes running down the sides, paired with white socks and white sneakers. The uniform colour depends on what Team the student is on.

There are four teams separated by colour; the red team, the blue team, the green team and the black team. I joined the black team because I like black; same with Rebecca and Favour, my brother joined the blue team because he didn't want to be on the same team with me, and i felt the same way, same team with David.

We're a few feet from the gate when I spot my brother up front I call out his name and motion for him to wait while we catch up then I do a general introduction. He and David hit it off immediately and I smile to myself.

We're out the gate now, the juniors and seniors have formed separate circles with a coach in the middle of each one. We rush to join the seniors and the warm-up exercise starts immediately.

We start with jogging in place and I let out a little laugh because I'm free, excited and looking forward to the rest of the day.