Newbie

I yawned slowly and moved to lift my head from my somewhat hard pillow.

Well...that was strange.

But I was still too sleepy to care. I proceeded to rub my eyes with the back of my palms and yawned once again.

"You're awake," I heard a voice that sent shivers running down my spine and instantly cleared the sleep in my eyes.

I slowly turned to acknowledge the presence of the owner of the voice in realization.

Within those few seconds of turning my head, my whole life flashed before my eyes.

Tilda, don't tell me you have disgraced yourself again.

However, the first thing that immediately held my gaze was the large wet blotch on his shoulder - the hard pillow I had just lifted my head from.

My eyes widened and shame overwhelmed me. I opened my mouth but no word came forth

Believe me, I wanted to cry but I knew better than to back up shame with shame.

"I-I am very sorry," Words finally flew out of my mouth while my hands stretched out in a confusedly manner as if contemplating on whether to use them to wipe off the blotch or not.

"It seems you were tired," His smile seemed sort of a smirk than a half smile.

I drooled on him

Then I must have snored too!

Oh my goodness, Tilda.

I snored...and he heard it.

I didn't know what to do or say after that.

It felt like I had suddenly grown awkward or something - sort of speechless and very much ashamed...

"Tilda!"

"Yes sir!" I jolted out my thoughts immediately, causing my response to be unnecessarily loud.

"Please briefly explain to the class all I have taught today," Uncle one-shirt stared at me for a reason that only I seemed to understand.

He must have caught me spacing out again.

I stood up and opened my mouth to release every information I knew. I wasn't paying attention at some point didn't mean I was dumb.

My explanation was just as accurate and turned out to beat his expectations. What even did he expect from a straight A student like me?

"Sit down," His eyes followed me till I sat, obviously trying to recover from defeat.

Soon, mathematics lesson was over and he left the class.

What a relief!

Our Physics teacher was not around and SS2A didn't fail to use the chance to engage in truancy. If there were honours for bad behaviours, our class would receive one for noise making.

Many teachers had told us that we didn't even behave like actual science students. Despite all this, we were a class of brilliant students, except for the people I found annoying - I don't think I even need to call their names.

"Abeg you get biro?" Temi and her skinny friend came up to our desk.

As usual, Temi was chewing something.

"You be goat? Na only goat dey chew mouth everytime!" Another girl, who sat with Kiki and I but didn't talk with us much, blurted out.

Kiki and I burst into laughter. Temi and her friend joined in since she wasn't someone to get upset quickly.

"If you have a pen, give me jor!" She chuckled amidst chewing.

Kiki immediately went into her bag and pulled out a black pen.

"Manage this," She said as she handed it over to her.

"Thanks," Temi replied and left for her seat with her friend.

The class was quite noisy. Students formed groups and engaged in various activities - both good or bad, not minding their surroundings.

Some girls gathered themselves at a corner of the class, making videos and taking pictures. Those were the baddies in our class and none of their uniform skirts went past their knees.

A group of boys were playing rap music in the class and blabbing away to the lyrics they didn't completely know.

There was another group of the hardworking students. Although they were the least of every group. They tried hard to study amidst the noise and uttered words of "Everybody keep quiet!" In between. No oracle needs to tell you that they were totally ignored.

Another group of jobless girls started doing legworks with their benben legs in front of the class and a few of them who wanted to prove whatever, started twerking.

Then there was the aprokos squad.

While the others were simply onlookers or just did whatever thing individually.

Just then, a slim yet tall man walked into our class, cane in his hand.

One thing I knew my class for, nobody stopped what they were doing until the teacher started talking.

I heard this man was a new teacher in our school that taught either JSS1 or JSS2.

"What is the meaning of all this noise nau? Are you people babies?" The teacher began, his face scrunched up in disgust. "All the way from the junior block, your noise is disturbing. And you people are even in SS2! Haba! In fact all of you rest your head before I start using this cane of you."

I wanted to laugh so bad because this man was slowly setting a trap for himself.

He was talking of using cane on SS2 students of Nexus Academy?

Maybe he didn't realize the kind of school he had set his feet into.

The teacher just stood there, scolding and giving orders that nobody seemed to obey.

I didn't like trouble at all so I simply placed my head on the table while the others including Kiki formed defiance.

"In fact who is the class prefect?" The man proceeded to ask.

"He's in the staff room," One student answered.

"I don't want to hear noise from here again," The teacher warned, using his cane to place emphasis.

"Chairman, na SS2 we dey o. Dem nor dey control us like that for here o."

Everyone knew whose voice that was.

It was Emeka's. The agbero in our class. He wasn't the oldest in the class yet he appeared as old as some of our teachers, considering the fact that he was also huge.

"Excuse me? Is that how you talk to your elders?" The man blinked several times to be sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him as he flaunted his cane in the air.

"O boye. This one na confirm newbie," Emeka laughed deeply. "E be like say e go need manual."