1

Darrel stretched his hands over his head. His joints were sore from sleeping on the ground in his friend, Jason's room. Although he was a full fledged student, he had no room.

The scramble for higher education over the past decade has been high so that education in general is now a lucrative business in the country. Schools take in more students than they can make comfortable for and then they make it look like they are the ones doing the students favours.

The classes would have no fans or lights or windows. The windows aren't big yet through them, students who could not find a space inside would peep through to listen to the lecturer teach. There are no microphones either and God forbid a lecturer should raise his voice for the good of his students or ask 'any questions?' at the end of his incomprehensible lecture.

The sun burning down furiously does not help the mood of student or lecturer alike. Prices of food stuffs are high. The distance between buildings are wide yet there aren't enough commercial cabs, bikes or tricycles to go round.

Now, imagine after all that daily pain, you don't have a room of your own to collapse into. That is the problem of Darrel and about a hundred students in the Masagor campus of Capin University.

Someone slapped his shoulders as he was buying a bottle of coke from a vendor. The coke wasn't as cold as he would have wished but the vendor insisted that hers was the coldest presently throughout the campus that was deprived often of power. He turned to see his bestie, Favour. She grinned and cheekily snatched his drink from his hand to take a generous gulp.

"Ahh," she moaned with satisfaction as she handed Darrel back his drink. "Thank you for solidifying me. I was on the verge of melting."

Darrel laughed. "I thought you have a lecture now."

"Plans changed. I was late."

Darrel checked the time on his phone and scoffed. "You are not."

"The baboon got there an hour earlier, locked the lot of us out saying we were late."

"People come to a scheduled class an hour early?"

"Nobody is in the class Darrel. The man just doesn't want to teach."

"Then why come at all?"

"I think it's in his job description to show face at least once a week. What about you? Classes done?"

"Yup."

"So where are you going to now? Jason's room will be locked by this time."

"Library."

"The library is always noisy. You don't like noise."

"Well I don't have a choice Favy, all the classes are in use. Unless you want to invite me to your room."

"I will kick you to Mars," Favour threatened with a laugh, "If you want to see, carry your phone and watch porn!"

"Porn is not the same."

Favour smacked Darrel as they both laughed. In the hot season, students don't bother to wear clothes when they are in their designated hostels. Darrel suggesting to tag along with his bestie to her hostel therefore would be catastrophic. Favour's phone pinged.

"Oh," her lips turned down as she stared at a notification on her screen. Darrel glanced over her shoulders, obviously wondering what made her upset.

Her phone screen was dim however and only she had the eyes to read whatever was on it. Darrel asked her.

"The Tomos are holding a wake today."

"Is that why you are doing your face like shit?"

"But it's sad. Tumitse Tomo just going missing like that."

"You can't blame them for wanting to move on."

"Move on? It's just been three months. The prodigal son took way longer away from home."

"Tumitse was worse than a prodigal son. People called him housefly for goodness sake. He was a cultist. The school had been threatening to rusticate him for as long as his family had been threatening to disown him. He's probably dosed himself to death somewhere."

"And what about his roommates?" Favour sneered. Darrel's arguments easily drove her to madness. "Were they cultists too? And please don't speak of Tumitse in past tense. He may be dead to his family but he's not dead to me."

Darrel gave a hilarious mimic of Favour's last sentence. "Do you think you are in a movie Favy? Are you his lover? Which one is he may be dead to the world but he's not dead to me? Oya add that you locked him in your heart na, that's why nobody has seen him since."

"You are annoying," Favour huffed.

"Favy. Tumitse was popular but he did not know you so don't burn your head because of him. The wake is a ritual of his family disowning him, it does not mean he will actually die wherever he is — if he's still alive, okay? Better think of how you are going to sign attendance so you will write your baboon's exam."

"Well…" Favour trailed off. "That's not even the annoying part."

"Okay. I knew you were just beating round the bush. What's the annoying part? Nobody put up missing stickers on the walls and trees?"

"No. Didn't you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"Darrel, you are a boy and you did not hear? Are you sure you live in this school?"

"You are beginning to sound like a gossip Favy. I have somewhere to be."

"Where? The library? You don't have anywhere to be joor. But you are serious right now? You haven't heard that this yeye school of yours have opened the room already for new occupants."

"Why Favy? That is not news naw. It was bound to happen."

"But it's just been three months."

"So? If they really needed the room, they wouldn't have gone AWOL just like that when they know there are many people who would give a limb for it. Or do you think I like squatting every time in Jason's room?"

Favour frowned. "Darrel, don't tell me…"

"It is exactly what you are thinking Favour and you should be happy for me. I have a bed space in that room. I finally have somewhere to retire to. Somewhere I deserve by virtue of my studentship in this uni."

"What if the owner of the bed space comes back?"

"They will find somewhere else to stay or take it up with Management. Besides, they've broken a major rule by just disappearing like that. They will be expelled upon arrival."

"So you're praying for them to be expelled. Of course you are! You are selfish prick Darrel. You don't even care what happened to them just because you have a bed space that shouldn't have been yours."

"Favy, everything should have been mine! I'm not owing anybody school fees shuoo. I even paid extra money to get the space. You are rapping like a Reverend sister only because you have a bed space. Your rich parents pulled strings to get you one, you didn't even spend a sweat so please, Abeg I use God take beg you, please don't whine."

Darrel walked away, eager to reach the library.They hardly ever quarrelled, but today their ideas clashed. Favour has always been superstitious and she would compare Darrel's shady move to seeing a naira note on the floor and pocketing it without knowing if it was a witch or demon that put it there.

She would compare his move to sailing right into a trap set by the fisherman for the clueless fish. By the hunter for the oblivious antelope.