Lanre's Lashing Tongue

  Lanre walked ahead of Ify who was together with some friends. "Why is your friend acting like she does not know us? She would rather walk alone than walk or interact with us!" One of the females who was together with Ify asked. They were five in number who were walking back from school, Ify included. 

"Why don't you ask her yourself? Aapumaka o! You people should leave me! Look at her over there. You can go on and ask her. I no be person mouth piece!" Ify said. She had used her native Igbo language to tell the girl who asked to leave her alone. This morning when she had told Lanre about what she said to Okechukwu, Lanre had given her a serious warning. So she wasn't ready to be at the receiving end of Lanre's lashing tongue. Even the Lanre in question had her ears blocked with an headset. She knows people will think she is listening to music and wouldn't want to disturb her, but she is the only one that knows Lanre wouldn't listen to a song while on the road unless she had a heart break recently. And she is fully aware Lanre has not had one of recent. She had placed the headset over her ears to wand off people who would have loved to approach her. 

"Wait o, this one you no gree ansa person kon de tell Mary say make she go ask your friend herself, ona two don de quarrel again? Cause e no pass like that!" One of the ladies call Victory said in Nigeria pidgin which is in English same as "Why have you refused to answer to Mary's question? Instead you decide to tell her to meet Lanre and ask her herself, are the both of you fighting again?"

Ify grunted and walked away from the girls. They looked at each other in mockery and burst into laughter. 

"Lanre wait for me!" Ify said. Lanre acted like she could not hear her. Instead of waiting, she increased her speed. She started walking faster than before. Ify stood for a brief second looking at Lanre's moving back. Why is Lanre like this sometimes? She wonders. Sometimes she is the life of the party, happy and cheering every one up. Sometimes she is the one killing the vibes. While sometimes she is the heroine who saves the day coming to people's rescue. If she is not then she is the one causing trouble. But the worst is when she decides to go on silence strike. She can stay days without talking to anyone. 

Ify runs to catch up with Lanre. "Lanre why did you act like you could not hear me?" Ify asked not happy at the attitude Lanre was giving her. Lanre hissed and then increased her pace but Ify matched up with her. "Lanre stop this attitude of yours na!" Ify said pleading. 

"Ify, you too stop! Stop following those girls! Stop walking with Victory and her crew, they will land you in trouble someday!" Lanre said to Ify. "I'm not following them!" Ify said. Lanre shook her head. "Those girls only like to gossip and say what they didn't see, you walking with them is same as you identifying yourself as one of them. One day if anyone cross my path, I will so beat that person up! Mah gbatiyen!" Lanre said ending her word in her native dialect which means she will slap the person who crosses her path. 

"It's ok! Let's go home and rest. I am tired". Ify said. "Aren't you just lazy!? We didn't do anything in school aside from the assignment we wrote down. Why did we even stay in school till this time again? I would have used all that time to be writing my project!" Lanre said regretting the time she had spent in school doing nothing. "Omo, you no know say doing nothing de weak body pass when you de do something?" Ify said in pidgin. *"Don't you know you get easily tied lazying around than when you are busy doing something meaningful"*. 

Lanre laughs at Ify's analysis as they both held each other's hand going home to their lodge.