A thousand naira

~ ANGEL'S POV ~

When my eyes fell on the head girl, I felt my heart skip a beat.

What was I going to say happened? I didn't want to tell her the truth because I knew doing so would only end up on a bad note for me and not even Bimbo and her friends.

"Ah ah," Matilda, the head girl had a look of surprise on her face as she walked in and shut the door behind her. "What happened here? What is all this?"

"E-erm... Good afternoon senior," I quickly greeted.

"Good afternoon," She responded. "You haven't answered my question."

"Er..erm- senior, I-I was trying to turn on the tap and I accidentally did something to the head and the water came over me. You know, the tap was changed recently and I don't really know how to use such kind of tap but...I have been able to put it back in order," I kept my gaze on the floor as I spoke.

"Ehn...are you sure?" She sounded a little suspicious. Maybe she had found out that I was lying?

"Yes," I nodded.

"I just wanted to wash up..." I paused. "It's..."

I couldn't finish my statement as to what exactly I wanted to even do.

"What's wrong?" She suddenly asked.

"I... senior, I don't have money to buy pads and I didn't keep track of my period so it came unexpectedly," I rushed over my words.

She kept quiet and that caused me to lift my gaze.

"If I had not happened to come here nko?" She queried. "What would you have done? Would you have gone around the school in bloody uniform?"

"No ma. I'm sorry," I pursed my lips.

"Sorry for yourself because you should be more careful next time and more at alert. You're a girl and you should be the one to take care of these things yourself. Nobody will clean you up," She continued with the scolding.

I kept quiet at her words.

"Go in and wash up," She then said, pointing to one out of the two bathrooms available in the restroom.

In Nexus High, there were both bathrooms and toilets. The bathroom were mostly used by students who wanted to take a bath after the sweat generating exercises they had gone through.

"Let me get you pads," She added. "I have my cheerleading uniform in my bag as well. You're very lucky I didn't take it out of my bag since on Friday otherwise, I don't know what you would have worn."

"Thank you very much, senior," I bowed my head a little before entering into the bathroom while she left.

By the time I was done taking a shower, she returned.

A gentle knock went on the door of the bathroom I was in and I opened it slightly to take her cheerleading uniform from her alongside the pads she had gone to buy for me.

Soon, I was all set. I stepped out dressed in her vest.

"You know what to do next," She simply said to me.

I nodded and reached for the mop stationed at a corner.

"Hurry up and go to your class once you're done," She added. "I don't want to come back here and meet you."

With that, she went into the restroom to ease herself. She washed her hand in the sink before taking out a small wallet from the pocket of her blazer and pulled out a 1000 naira from it.

"Before I forget, you can keep the change from the money I used to buy the pads," She handed the bill over to me.

"Ah," My mouth flew open. "Thank you senior."

I was almost kneeling in the puddle of water when she held me back up.

"Please don't," She quickly said. "I'm not God. Just finish up and go to class."

"Yes senior," I nodded and resumed mopping while she left.

As soon as she left, I paused to stare at the 1000 naira note in my hand.

My lips twisted. A thousand and one thoughts ran across my mind.

I was quick to finish up with mopping and returned to class immediately after.

My pace slowed down as I got closer to my class. Shame was beginning to overwhelm me as I tightly clutched two black nylons. One in which my wet uniform was stored and the other in which were my pads.

I walked into the class and thankfully, the teacher was already gone. The class was a little noisy as everyone was busy engaging in whatever they wanted to. Even at that, my entrance did not fail to capture the attention of many eyes.

I moved to my seat and sat down quietly. I quickly placed the nylons into my bag before anyone could notice what they was.

However, my seatmates and others made sure to ask, "Why did you change your uniform? How do you even have the cheerleading uniform? Which day did you join?"

I simply lied. "It's my cousin's. Not many of you know her."

After taking a deep breath, I gathered the courage to go up to Bimbo. As bad as going to meet her already was, she was sitting with Daniel and had an arm around his neck.

I swallowed hard.

Not her trying to hurt me even more with the boy I like.

They were quick to notice my presence. Bimbo gave me a questioning yet disgusted look.

"Bimbo," I called. "Pl-please...We n-need to talk."

"About what?" She snapped. "When did we suddenly become friends?"

At that moment, I stole a quick glance at Daniel to see the look on his face but, it was nothing new. It was the same way he had always looked at me - with a plain expression.

"I have something to give you..." My voice trailed off.

A smirk went across her lips.

"See me see trouble o," She dramatically clapped her hands. "Not only is she so pompous, she is even a lesbian."

Her sentence caused everyone to stare in our direction.

"It's...not like that," I looked away, wishing the ground could open up and swallow me.

"Ok o," She laughed and stood up to followed me out of the class.

We both made it to the roof of the school that was just an open space which a stairway led to.

"What's it lesb?" She struck a pose and folded her arms across her chest, an annoyed expression on her face. "I can see you were able to change by the way. Impressive countering."

I held out my fist and opened it to reveal the 1000 naira note that the head girl had given to me.

Bimbo's eyes lazily fell on it and back at me.

"Wetin be this?" She was starting to get impatient.

"It's a thousand naira," I mumbled. "I want to pay you back."

My voice then came as a whisper. "Little by little."

"With 1,000?!" She snapped. "Before you collect money from me, you ask whether your papa fit pay am back?"

A slap landed on my face. "Do I look like I came from the gutters like you?"

I whimpered, holding my burning cheek. I could feel tears gathering in my eyes.

"Ok," Bimbo sighed. "Minus 1,000 naira from 200k and tell me what the balance is."

I mumbled something.

"Ehn?" She pulled her right ear.

"199,000," I said, a little louder.

"You make me laugh," She scoffed.

"But, I didn't beg you that time. You proposed it to me," I finally found my voice.

"Was your mouth paining you to reject it?" She suddenly used her hand to clip my mouth for a brief moment.

Tears started rolling down my eyes. She was right...

I could have refused but I was blinded by my desire to "feel among".

"Eat your f*cking money," She snatched the note from me and tore it up into two parts.

"No!" I exclaimed and reached for the two pieces lying on the ground.

"Idiot," She left after saying that.

My tears came uncontrollably. Was God punishing me for trying to live the kind of life I wanted? Was I wrong for wishing for something more than I had?