Chapter One

Chapter 1

"Where is your math notebook!?", Asks Mrs Agu, the SS1 math teacher, this question is asked in a very frightening and malicious manner.

Frightening because the student being asked can clearly be seen cowering at her desk and malicious because the math teacher does not like students just based on general principle because she feels that children in the exclusive private school are just a bunch of overprivileged brats whilst she a hardworking civilian of the city is an underpaid teacher,

"I'm sorry ma , but I don't see clearly", the teacher whips out and evil grin "where are your glasses then"?, she asks in a falsely cheery tone

The young girl tries to explain why she does not wear glasses but her fear is getting in the way and all of a sudden she has developed a very chronic stammer while she struggles to get her response out.

The math teacher strides smoothly to her staff room and in a few minutes she is back with a wicked looking cane, In a no-nonsense tone, she says "step outside".

There there, stop crying, everything is going to be alright, you just need to go and explain it to her, maybe with some evidence like your doctor's report", says Olu's best friend Mandy while Olu sobs noisily and messily all over Mandy's school shirt.

"I hate that woman, says Olu when she's done wailing, "I mean 20 lashes", then she hiccups "I wonder if she treats her children the exact same way", "I doubt that" retorts Mandy.

"Just wipe your face and pull yourself together let's go and get some lunch, I believe you should feel better after some food has gotten into you". Mandy hands Olu her handkerchief because Olu had managed to drench her's in salty tears.

When they were at the cafeteria, Olu's other best friend Mimi walks up to both of them.

{Now you my darling readers might be wondering where Mimi was when Olu was getting lashed and the answer to that is Mimi is in a different Class situated at another section of the school , that does not stop them from being together all the time though…}

"What's up", Mimi starts to say until she gets a gander at Olu's face. "What's wrong?", she said immediately.

"Mrs Agu gave her 20 lashes for not having a math notebook", Mandy replies, Mimi's countenance changes immediately to one of utter puzzlement and mounting rage.

"Did you tell her that you have issues with your sight?", Olu's eyes immediately gets moist, "She tried to but the woman was not having any of it".

Every hint of puzzlement in Mimi's face disappears as rage takes over, She tries counting to 10 in order to cool herself down, It doesn't work so she tries counting to 10 again, It still doesn't work, in fact the more she keeps quiet and keeps counting, it feels like her anger is multiplying by which number she counts.

At long last she decides to cool herself down with her can of cold soda and it seems to take some of the edge off her blazing fury.

When she is done downing half of the soda, she lets out a sigh and asks "so what are we going to do about it?"

Olu struggles to pull herself together again and she succeeds " I'm just going to go home and grab my medical report then when I'm coming to school tomorrow I will hand it over to her, if she doesn't listen I'll simply take it to the Dean of studies or even the principal", Mimi with her temper now reduced to a bearable simmer nods her head in distracted acknowledgement but in actuality she is thinking of the best ways to make the stupid math teacher pay and she is thinking that the devil bean in her home garden{Mucuna pruriens is a leguminous plant native to Africa and some parts of Asia, when the plant comes in contact with naked skin, it causes chronic itching and if the affected area touches an unaffected area, it becomes affected too, side effects of this chronic itching include reddish bumbs, in Nigeria, this plant is known as "devil bean". This is a plant that you would want no where near your underwear}, this is going to serve as proper revenge for the wicked old lady.

While the three young ladies were carrying out this conversation, a tall and handsome young man walks up to their table and proceeds to wave in front of Olu's face. He does this for a few seconds then turns back to his friends and they all bust out laughing,

"She really can't see me" He waves in front of her face again and slowly walks backwards to his friends laughing.

(The name of the young man in this particular scene is Chuck, he has been picking on Olu since she refused to be his girlfriend.) Olu struggles with a visual medical condition know as glaucoma, that is cause by ocular pressure and leads to the damage of optical nerves. (This means that she can practically see everything, she just doesn't see them clearly, after Chuck's brief display of petty cruelty, Olu and Mandy pretend that nothing happened while Mimi is mentally adding another victim to her devil bean check list)

When school lets out, Olu , Mandy and Mimi drove to their respective houses by their drivers.

Olu lives in a well-developed estate on the north side of Newtown while Mandy and Mimi lives in another well-developed estate on the Southside of the town.

Olu's mother Nuli helped her with her homework due to the fact that she can't do it herself because of her condition… In case this has not been mentioned before in the story, Olu struggles with chronic juvenile glaucoma which has rendered her incapable of reading anything with tiny text, in most cases with things that have to do with texts, especially those of a textbook persuasion (they can be really tiny.)

On the south side of Newtown, Mandy is peacefully completing her own homework while highlife music is playing in the background. A few blocks away Mimi is currently bent over a potted plant and she is wearing protective gloves, She picks up a few leguminous looking plants and drops them in a Ziploc baggie. She drops the baggie into another cellophane bag and lets out a big and wide grin in the garden of her house.