Chapter 4

PRESTON

We arrived on Monday and were forced to carry our heavy trunks on our heads from the campus to our dormitories and we thought that was it until we got to the dormitories after the row call and things got worse.

After seeing the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life, (and that says a lot since I have seen a fair share of women) in a school where most girls were either too chubby or too skinny and not really aesthetically pleasing, I wanted to know what was happening with me. I never had that kind of feeling before. My heart was beating twice as fast and I could not focus. I found myself smiling for no reason.

"Preston," I heard Micheal call " you look lost, is this about the girl during row call?" He winked at me.

" Come on, I'm just tired" I replied

"Yeah right" Harry replied casually.

"She's beautiful," I responded, 'cause that was all I could say.

They all burst into laughter.

"Will you stay here laughing or go to bed? " an older student asked and smirked. Why and with whom was he smirking? I thought to myself. Control freaks.

We proceeded slowly in silence. Perhaps some found it awkward that we remained quiet while others engaged in animated conversation. It wasn’t the presence of the senior that intimidated us; rather, it was simply our way—our shared silence.

After a while, we arrived at the dormitory and noticed that only a handful of us were still outside. However, upon entering, we were met with an eerie stillness. It was quite peculiar.

We just stared at each other, our eyes communicating the odd feeling we felt at that time.

But we entered anyway. Not like there was any other option.

There was no one in the hostel and that was unbelievable because out of almost seventy students in a hostel, it could not be empty at this time and the silence was weird.

The other two guys who were with us strolled towards the box room and froze.

We followed immediately and I froze. What in the name of Jesus was going on? Why was everybody naked? Okay not naked like they were born, but just underwear naked, and kneeling? What?

One of the guys kneeling signaled for us to join them with his eyes, but I was not going to do that.

"You have ten seconds to join them," barked a voice from the other side of the door, the one leading to the second hostel. That was when I noticed the seniors at the other end. They were eight in number, and I hoped at that moment that looks were deceiving because they looked old enough to be my father and even like angry bulls.

Okay, that said it all.

Five fingers on my jaw brought me back to life. Like I felt five fingers on my jaw that rendered me deaf for seconds, with just a ringing sound in my ear. One of the seniors stood in front of me looking raged, and I realized he was the one who smacked me. I observed my surroundings and I was the only one standing. In five seconds, I was on the ground, both knees on the floor and ears wide open to take instructions. The weather was cold, but it felt hot in here.

"Since everyone is here, we can now begin," one of the seniors announced."Do you know why you're kneeling?" he asked, he was as black as engine oil and as huge as De Rock if he was younger and 22 years old. How old were these guys? And why still in high school?

" No," we chorused and he laughed.

"Me neither," he said, causing all the seniors with him to laugh at this point. "But I just feel the need to tell you to kneel. Because we're the bosses around here. Got that?" He continued, asking like he expected a response from us. The fuck.

" Yes," was the only reply, that came from me.

" No " he snapped," you say no kaisa. We are all your kaisa's. Do you understand?" He shouted angrily.

" Yes Kaisa" we all responded weakly.

"Excellent. You all learn so fast," he grinned and stepped aside.

The next kaisa took his place. This one looked like the previous Kaisa but had no humor on his face.

"We'll work this way. Beginning from here," he pointed at the first guy on the first line" you will get up, bring down your trunk and box for us to check and when we're done, you put it back up and go to bed. Understood?" He roared.

"Yes kaisa," we replied in fear.

However, some of us on the fourth line grumbled because we had no idea when it would get to us. It was going to be a long night.

If they noticed, they did not react, as he went on.

"Good. You can call me Kaisa William," he said, without smiling. These guys were funny. If I had not received a slap, I would ask which of the Williams.

"Kaisa William 1 or 2?" a guy from the second line asked. This guy had no idea how their slap felt. My jaw still stung. I probably had his five fingers on my jaw, but could not ask my friends because we were avoiding trouble. How strange, because we were always the troublemakers.

The senior who had slapped moved, probably to slap again. He surely had issues with his hand. He looked at the kaisa questioningly and angrily, then stepped back.

"William 1, thank you. I like you already," he replied. Wow. He just smiled at him.

"Shit" I whispered.

"Let's begin."

The first boy started and it continued as all eight seniors selected whatever they wanted from your trunk and boxes and no one dared protest. This went well until the second line. The second boy on the line was chubbier than a pig and even wore glasses. Wonder how he was going to carry his trunk.

He stood up and looked up at the second shelf like his mother had to fall from there and he had to catch her. He was busted.

"Kaisa please I'll need help bringing it down. It's too heavy," he pleaded.

"I don't think we put any of that stuff there for you. So, you will carry it on your own."

There was silence as we watched him struggle with his trunk. An imagination of the Ghana pallbearers standing close by waiting for him, made me break into laughter, at the same time the trunk fell on him. He fell facing upwards with the trunk on his stomach. Everyone erupted into laughter, including the kaisa's.

"Enough," one of the Kaisa's who had been quiet all through said, and there was dead silence.

"So much for the size," he continued"You," he pointed at me, and I could feel myself start to perspire "Since you started the laughter, you and your friend help lift the trunk."

Harry and I did that and realized he had every right to struggle, it was like carrying a dead man. I pondered on how he carried it from the campus to the dormitory.

When the seniors went to open the trunk, they all looked at each other.

"Were you running from a war?" Kaisa William asked.

"You will need to cut down boy, and we'll help with that," the Kaisa who slapped me earlier said.

"My mother just thought I should bring enough of everything," the chubby boy replied "Please don't take my peanuts," he pleaded. Funny.

"We are definitely taking it." Obviously.

And the big guy had to burst into tears, but it was ignored.

When everything was over, no one even had the strength to converse. We just fell on our beds and slept like logs of wood.

* * *

"Up, up, everyone, up," someone shouted.

WTF, I thought, before I felt water pouring like it was raining on me. Wait, either I slept outside and it's raining on me or this is witchcraft or magic?

And who the hell was screaming? Maybe we were under attack, or the school had been invaded by witches or wizards, or both.

Before I had time to complete my thoughts, it poured down on me like a waterfall.

I jumped up, startled. When I finally gained my vision, the dormitory was in chaos.

Over twenty senior students or kaisa's, I don't know, were pouring water on those still on their beds.

What the fuck.

"You have ten seconds to be up or else you will get it hot from us," one of them roared.

When we were all finally on alert, one of them spoke. He looked so thin you could blow him and he would fall. But he was so tall, you would not try it, you just had to hold his legs and that would be it.

"You will each carry two buckets of water and bring them to the upper sixth dormitory before it's time to rise," he said.

Wait, rising time? What does that mean?

Fuck! It's barely ten minutes past three.

So much for wanting to be in a boarding school.