Chapter 3

LELAH

Okay, pause. "Take me, dear lord," I prayed.

So, I might have been very good at concentrating, but that was just during classes. Out of class, never. That had never affected me until the vice principal called out and I noticed he was referring to me. Like 'what the fuck'. Must people always listen to things they do not want to listen to? I pondered and stood up when I realized he was still staring at me.

"Your name please," he demanded.

"Lelah," was all I could say, in the lowest tone. The spotlight was not my thing. I was only in the spotlight when representing my school or doing something official.

"You look just at me whether or not I am talking to you,

I have your full attention when I'm trying to communicate something or not. My presence requires attention, okay" he backed at me, but didn't stop long enough for a reaction from me, "You're lucky you're beautiful, I would have set an example for you, for your brothers and sisters to follow," he concluded and then looked at me sternly.

"Sit down." He barked again before leaving.

Oh my God. I sat down immediately, but not without catching the eyes of a guy, staring at me. Okay nice, really nice. And was his mouth open? Eww, a fly could get in there. But wait, he was cute AF. Why am I blushing?

Finally, we were free to rest and rise early to begin activities the next day.

The dormitories were divided into three. One section for forms one to three, the other for forms four and lower-sixth, and the last for forms five and upper-sixths. This was a good arrangement. I did not want to be with kids and not with grumpy examination class students.

My town was not big and this boarding school was the biggest and only boarding school we had. It was a big contribution by the catholic church. The dormitories were three moderate buildings for girls and the same for boys, as we were shown them on the day of our registration. Forms one and three dormitories consisted of bunk beds while the rest had single beds. The dormitories had two hostels each, one on the left and the other on the right, and between them was a box room, where trunks and boxes were kept, together with extras like buckets, brooms, and rags. Which was not bad at all.

Yes, I was in a day and government school throughout my first cycle, but Dad just thought since I made it in the ordinary levels; with flying colors, excuse me. I needed a change. Something new, and here was I, trying a new kind of school. A boarding school, God.

We got into our dormitories, preparing to sleep, when some older-looking students showed up at our hostel.

"All of you, beside your trunks. Now," one of them, who was as thin as a rope instructed.

We did not get the memo, but older students got it. They scrambled to their trunks giving us looks that said "Follow!". Some of us were still confused, but when one student got slapped square in the face for hesitating, and she cried so loud we had to block our ears. That made the rest of us move.

We were asked to open our trunks and boxes. One of the seniors, Bucky, who was as fat as an elephant, started collecting things from our trunks, and by things, I mean food. No doubt she grows fatter by the day. Don't judge me, I know almost all of them, it's a small town.

When Bucky was done, Larissa took over and when she got to me, she stopped.

"So," she said, "the mayor's daughter decided to join us in our school this year," she giggled "Give her a round of applause," she instructed. Everyone clapped. Some out of fear and others, well I don't know. Now that I had the chance to check, there were six of them, all ganging up on us.

"You thought to join the wealthy? Ohh," She laughed.

I am a Mayor's daughter, so it is safe for me to say we are wealthy. I just preferred day school to boarding school. Most of these students had wealthy parents, and I know that because the school fee was quite high and a normal parent could not afford to send a kid here. By normal, I mean just having an average amount of money or wealth. Most of these students here from our small town had parents who were farmers, who supplied in the big towns, and managers in big cooperatives, like Bucky's father, who was the manager at the main and only supermarket. My father was in control of all these, so yeah, we were wealthy.

I just kept quiet, because what could I say? okay, not that really, but your girl was not bold enough.

"Of course, you won't reply, because you can't, "one of the seniors said, they laughed together before continuing with their looting. One by one they collected stuff from our trunks and needs from our boxes. None of us spoke because of the slap and of course, we were confused.

We heard stories of incidents like this one happening, but it just felt different experiencing it.

While we packed our things during the day after being checked, some older students discussed things that were done to new students especially lower sixths and form ones. They said the senior students could ask you to fetch water for them, take things from you, and exploit you like that. So much for something new.

"Done," someone shouted, bringing me back to life.

"Make sure you're all up early and be in the chapel on time," Jessy said, as they walked out of the box room to the form four hostel.

We packed the remains of our things that were left outside back into our trunks, neither one of us saying anything to anyone.

We just sat on our beds, waiting for them to finish up with the new students of form four, and when they finally left, we had time to analyze what just happened.

"What the fuck just happened?" Emily, one of my classmates, in the science class, whispered in an angry tone.

"Fresheur, bitch" Nelly, a repeater, replied.

" What is fresheur?" I asked because I just had to know.

"Treating new and repeating students like shit because some of them are new and all of them have no power, and that's French for fresher." Melanie, another repeater of the art class replied, looking frustrated.

"Now, if you don't mind, some of us have to rise early and silence will help. Thank you " she concluded, in a threatening tone.

I guess we were too pissed, too tired, and too scared to do anything.

"Goodnight to everyone" Stephanie, another repeater, said in a sing-song manner. She was much nicer, so it did not sound strange coming from her.

" Thank you for saying so, but next time mind your business," the rest of the repeaters replied in the same rhythm.

Okay.

Wow, that was nice. A good way to reduce one percentage of pressure.

Goodnight.

But wait a minute, these girls also collected from their friends, they are repeaters, but not new students.