TARA

MARIAM

Independence made me feel giddy and happy, I didn’t know why, no matter the little moment of confusion and anger between my friend and I. But at last, we had to resume school the next day and now, the next words brought me out of my day dream. "Before we start on today's topic, let me hear your experiences on how and where you all spent your last holiday". Those were the words coming out from Mr Wale; our English teacher. He is a tall man, with chocolate looking skin, and a small protruding stomach, he had large black eyes, and a pointy nose with full lips, he was neither slim nor fat.

He spoke clear and his diction was good. As he asked us that question, Chelsea and her gang had already rose up their hands, but he ignored them as usual. He didn't like them.

His eyes scanned around again and his gaze fell on Malik, who now put his seat in front of Simeon. "Simeon, you are a quiet one, you hardly talk in class, so why don't you be the first to tell me of your holiday"

Simeon stood up and smiled a little, I could see the girls taking a sharp intake of breath. I did too but for some unknown reason, I didn't like when they did.

"I spent my holiday with my mother Sir and I helped her bake"

Mr Wale smiled, he hardly smiled and even though he did, it wasn't genuine but this one was.

"Oh wow, that’s nice, is your mother a caterer?" Simeon only nodded his answer to the question.

"I'm really glad to hear it. You’re the first person in this set, that is not standing up to tell me that you spent your holiday in Dubai or Canada or one of those places. A true Nigerian man"

"But sir, you haven’t asked me and you don’t know if I went outside the country" some laughed at what Kenneth said.

"Kenneth, you do still leave Nigeria" Mr Wale sighed to Kenneth's usual antics as he answered Kenneth.

"No sir, I travel to other African countries, it’s not the same thing" Kenneth rebutted.

"All is the same, remember this is English class Kenneth and that isn’t our focus for today. Alright class, today our topic is on proverbs. One way or the other, each of you have heard proverbs or seen or read about them. Also, contributing to the fact that you all are Nigerians; one or the other, your parents may have used proverbs either as a way of correction or when their giving advices or telling stories. So, with that being said you at least know what proverbs are. Okay then, Malik, our runaway friend, give us one proverb you know of"

"Don't judge a book by its cover" Malik answered but his tone sounded angry to me, but judging by how most of our mates looked at Malik, it seemed I wasn’t the only one that noticed his tone. Hearing Malik say that, it made me understand more because I was also part of the people having different thoughts in my head on where he had been.

We were all silent. Malik's strongest subject is English, that was another reason why we became close, because I was also strong in what I call English' sister; literature.

That was by the way, Malik was Mr. Wale’s bright student and because of that; he always set the bar high up for Malik, whenever he gave us mock exams for junior secondary students preparing for senior secondary and Malik always proved to come out best.

Mr Wale was quiet for some seconds, but he quietly shook his head and smiled, he pointed to the next person who was Kenneth. We, or I didn’t say anything as I looked at Kenneth for his reply "Is not every time the sun shines, that the plumber feeds his snakes, but you can throw water in the midnight. Think about it". Everyone was speechless as some started chuckling, then we had Yama say; "weitin this goat dey talk now? He con dey say think about it”. With that, each and every one of busted out laughing, some of us laughed so hard that tears fell from our eyes.

Unintentionally, the corner of my eyes dashes out to see Simeon and Malik shaking on their desks, silently laughing. I found myself smiling along with them even though I didn’t have an idea why they were smiling.

"Kenneth, do you know what makes this even funnier, is that you say this with a straight face. Young man I can't help but feel you are a lost cause. You baffle me" Mr Wale concluded to Kenneth’s idea of a proverb.

"Alright, Simeon can you give me a proverb?" Mr Wale asked, after getting the attention of the class and everyone was now listening raptly. He wanted to stand up and answer, when Mr Wale just waved his hand, indicating for him to sit down and just answer. "Spoken words and spilled blood cannot be taken aback" he answered.

The English teacher wrote down the first sentence Malik said on the board, along with what Simeon just said.

He then looked around and his eyes landed on me

NO! It's always fun when it's you laughing and criticizing others but when it's your turn to be called, you would surely want the ground to open up and swallow you. Swallow me now!!!

"Uniform female, what do you think the first proverb implies?" He was smiling asking me.

"Sir, to my own understanding, it means don't judge a thing or person by their outward appearance only but get to know them”.

He looked happy with the response and he turned to ask if anyone disagreed with it but nobody objected, then he told us to write it down. He motioned for me sit down which I readily did as Kuchi pinched me and winked as she silently laughed. We always did that to each other when one of us called to answer a question. But I couldn’t find it in me to return the gesture because had she forgotten? He called to the next person. "As for the second proverb, Chelsea, why don't you tell us what you think". She stood up with all confidence to answer, not because I think she knew it, but with the way her two maids, I mean her friends were backing her up, she could answer.

"Sir it means that when you spill blood from your body, you cannot put it back, that means the person is dead for life" Looking at it, she wasn't entirely wrong, but she also wasn't entirely correct, but since it's Mr Wale that is teaching; then I think it might be a problem but that’s certainly not my problem. "You are just an empty brain. I don't understand why the likes of you come to school when you should enjoy the trust funds your father keeps for you, and the two of you, her shoe shiners; Yolanda and Tiana, keep on following, till you all fall into the ditch together"

I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for her, she hung her head down in shame, but she didn’t allow herself stay in that place for long as she looked around to give us a ‘what are you looking at?’ look. The teacher moved unto the next person to answer, who was a girl we nicknamed, Americana.

She answered correctly and perfectly, saying that, whatever is being said and done, has been done. The deed has been done and can't be reversed.

After one English period, and two maths period, we had our long lunch break. During lunch break, I wanted to talk to my friend but I noticed that there has been a bit of a strain in Kuchi and I's relationship. I’ve been trying to pinpoint what went wrong, but I couldn’t arrive at any answer; and with the way my mum has been zoning in and out, I really had no one to turn to except her. I was in a dilemma.

I turned to see if I could talk it out, because I noticed that she also seemed a bit sad like me however, she was pretending to sleep. I say pretending because, she was bouncing her right leg softly and her eyes were squinting a bit, that's when she pretends to sleep; that's her way of saying she doesn't want to be disturbed, but she is my friend.

I softly tapped her, she opened her eyes and looked at me, I signaled for her to come out let's talk. I wanted us to talk outside, because today is one of those days that almost everyone wanted to stay in class and enjoy lunch break. We sometimes unanimously had those days. Where, like either eighty percent of the class were indoors or days where they were outdoors. I patiently waited by the door of our class; she came out like a minute later; this is the first indication we might quarrel.

Then she came and stood with her hands crossed over her chest. I was getting irritated but this wasn’t the time, we had better things to do than get irritated. I took a deep breathe in and exhaled, then I asked her; "Kuchali, please did I do anything wrong? Why are you giving me the cold treatment? Yesterday at the restaurant, you didn’t even acknowledge me or answer. What is actually going on?"

"I don't know Mariam, maybe because you think the world is all about you" she said coldly.

WHAT? Where was this coming from? So, I asked her; “I don’t understand, where is this coming from Kuchi?”

"How would you understand, when after all you're doing is enjoying and flaunting money, getting prefect ship positions up and down, getting the attention of two boys, is the world not revolving around you?!" Now, she was shouting and everyone inside the class kept quiet, while our other mates in their class, started peeking through their windows and doors. I was embarrassed but this was by the way. There is something wrong somewhere, something I’m not understanding and we had to talk about it.

"Kuchi, I really don’t know what is bringing all these and where these thoughts are springing from, but you know for a fact that these things you’ve listed aren’t quite true. You say I’m flaunting riches, but it's not like you are poor, besides if the two guys you're talking of is Simeon and Malik Omari, then you are wrong. You know Malik and I were very close then, and he hasn't really talked to me ever since he came back, and I just started recently talking to him. You weren’t giving me answers to where Malik went and all. That was why I invited him to talk and though I was surprised you all came; nonetheless I was happy.

As for Simeon, wasn’t it you that said I should learn to at least be friendly and nice to him?"

I was almost on the verge of crying and that's what I hate about myself, I am a cryer, I didn’t care if there's any word like that.

By now I could hear the whole Ss2 block quiet from science class to Commercial class, everyone that was in the three classes at that point were quiet. We had turn to entertainment news, but I didn't care.

"I said be friendly with them but I didn't say you should become a prostit-"

My palm landed on her face. I was literarily vibrating with anger. How dare she? She held her face and looked at me in shock, and I could see guilt on her face. Before any of us could go further with any physical altercation, we were being pulled apart by Malik Omari and Simeon. Yet, I became angrier because I saw Simeon tending to her like glass. I didn't like it and I couldn’t explain why I didn’t like it. He saw how she reacted towards me yesterday, so why am I the bad guy?

I pushed Malik away from me as I angrily huffed out; "go and comfort your sister, she needs it more than I do, I wasn't the one who got slapped". I walked into class; my mates were so quiet. Americana gave me a pitying smile but I needed to leave, I couldn’t stay here again. I used school to escape the house and I never really interacted with anyone asides Kuchali, now I couldn’t stay. I called my driver to come, and carried my bag and left.

I didn't want to stay around to see people pitying any of us or some being happy about the fight, so I left.

My tears kept on pouring nonstop, I felt my phone vibrating, I checked to see Yama calling, after that Americana called; we weren't all close but we were acquaintances at the most. Malik Omari called like six times and after that, I just decided to put my phone on aeroplane mode, as if on cue, I saw my driver come in.

As I sat down in the car, I looked back to see if anyone followed, and sure enough, Malik did; he ran after the car, but it was faster than him, he couldn’t catch up as he put his hands on his hips, his face a mixture of sadness and guilt? Guilt? For what?

SIMEON

Everyone was in a daze sort of, with what happened during breaktime. Simeon was not in any way a fan of violence, so regardless of who it was, he would play hero or whatever. At that point, even though he knew there was tension between both friends, he was instinctually drawn to who was on the receiving end of violence. His headspace didn’t have a who said what; because though he was curious like his classmates, he didn’t keenly listen. The class prefect Emeka, had already gone to report how he saw it happen.

Meanwhile, everyone in Ss2 B; art class, were cooking up their own versions.

"Well at the end of it all, don't judge a book by its cover" Sam murmured.

"I know right, the quiet and calm ones never cease to amaze me"

It was Chelsea and her gang, and everyone wanted to set them on fire with their looks. They always had wrong timing and everything. "Why don't you at least think positive for once, and stop being hypocritical people, at the same time stop feeding on negativity" it was Malik who spoke to Chelsea, he was still confused and angry about the whole thing. Chelsea scorned at him, but nonetheless, kept quiet.

He came back to his seat and put his head on his desk, all the while thinking why his cousin was behaving strange. He didn't want to go talk to her, he wanted to give her space because ever since his friend escorted her, he decided to come back to the class and wait for them. When they were going back home yesterday, Malik talked to his cousin to understand her attitude towards Mariam. All she said was that she was tired of the lying and pretense.

He heard what his sister said. Malik understood what she meant because he also felt guilty, however, she trying to put a hedge between them, so that Mariam would start hating her to ease the guilt in Kuchi’s heart wasn’t the way to go about it in anyway. It was actually something beyond their control, and it wasn’t only their decision to stop the lying with Mariam. He didn’t blame Simeon for deciding to step in and calm Kuchali, because he didn’t know the full story, what would happen when Simeon knows what he and his sister has done to Mariam?

Speaking of, he knew that Mariam read it all wrong, when Simeon went to Kuchi after what transpired. He knew with the way she pushed him and shouted, she was jealous, but jealous of what? he knew that Mariam herself didn't know that was what she was feeling.

He only sighed deeper.

Simeon took Kuchali to the school plaza, they had extra ten minutes more before long break ended, so they could talk, if that would be the case. Kuchali had sadness, regret, anger all on her face, but she hardly cried, not because it would hurt her pride, but because she didn't know how to cry and her form of expressing all these wasn't tears for her. She expressed them in drawings, no matter how little the canvas was, and whatever emotion she felt at that point, she drew.

"I don't know why you brought me here, but I am not going to talk" Simeon looked at her and smiled a bit at her defensive words. He had noticed the little friction between her and Mariam and it wasn’t his place to pry but with the little that transpired today, he had at least had to try and know what happened.

"I never said you should talk; I just wanted you to escort me to buy a drink from here, do you want any? Or can't I ask my bestie to accompany me?" She didn't say yes neither did she say no but she shifted her eyes away in shame as she understood what he may be trying to tell her. Firstly, he wasn't jumping into conclusions, secondly, he was indirectly telling her he won't pressurise her and lastly, the indication of him calling her bestie, meant he was trying to be a friend.

He came back shortly with two drinks, one soda and one yoghurt. He handed her the soda and took the yoghurt.

"Thank you, don't you take soda as well?" she asked taking the bottle from his hand.

"No, health conditions. Gas is bad for my health" she nodded in understanding.

"I'm really not like that, you know. I would never say that to Mariam; she is my good friend, and seeing the way Malik normally fawns over in the house, gets me annoyed, though our family is rich, he doesn't necessarily spend money like how her family does. The car she always comes with, is her own personal car her father bought for her, she changes phone every class, she's very brilliant in Literature-" she stopped, because she was getting angry all over.

She was angry because she wasn't as rich as Mariam, angry because Simeon didn't even ask her anything, but she started talking.

Simeon still smiled a bit but didn't say anything for a minute.

"Kuchali, I want to ask you, did these emotions and anger spring up today, or there’s something deeper than all these things you’ve brought out? You’ve always knows she excels in her studies; you’ve known her family’s financial background and you have told me one time that you encouraged her and cheered for her to be nominated as the female uniform prefect. Let’s not mention yesterday, so, what is really the issue?”

“I don’t know Simeon, why are you supporting her?” she chooses to ask instead, trying to feign anger.

“You don’t know or you don’t want to talk about it? You well know I’m not supporting her, don’t flip it to your taste. Exams are around the corner; the next two weeks would be for C. A’s and tests. It’s either you both hash it out before then so that it won’t affect your studies or pretend like you both don’t exist to each other till after the exams. Your choice to make. Anyways, tell me about your father” she looked at him puzzled with how the conversation changed but she didn’t dwell on it as she brought of memories of her father.

“He’s the funniest man I know. My sister and I never run out of laughter around him. He has silly jokes, one time when he travelled to London, he claimed that the queen was begging to snap a picture with him but he refused. She was outside the palace, wanting to see him. Can you imagine this man? When we called his bluff, he said it’s because we don’t rate him, that outside he’s well known and seen” that brought a small smile to her face, which didn’t last long as guilt and shame replaced it. He noticed it and wanted to speak about it, however the bell rang for break over. Simeon started packing up their things to trash it when she asked him; “what of your own dad or your parents? I’ve never seen any guardian or elderly person come to pick you from school. It’s either you go with Malik or go alone. Do you live alone or something?”

“My father is dead and I prefer to walk home in other not to stress my mum” he replied as he had already stood up.

Kuchali’s eyes widened with that information but she couldn’t dig deeper as he motioned for her to hurry along. She hardly got out information from Malik, ever since she found out that they were friends. Malik always told her to go and ask Simeon himself if she wanted information and that sometimes frustrated her to no end. Maybe it was payback for when Mariam asked her about Malik’s whereabout and she also gave the same answer.

They walked back together to class, Kuchali kept on pondering about everything. She called Mariam her friend, but then she hadn’t exactly been a friend to her. She couldn’t keep on with this façade, the guilt was tearing her up, the pretence was weighing on her, sometimes she wandered how Mariam could be naïve. The clear signs for the crack in their friendship has been there since, but maybe Mariam had been so engrossed and she cruelly fed on that. Kuchali quickly shook her head to dispel any thoughts and decided to concentrate in class. What would happen when she found out? One of the reasons Malik avoided Mariam wasn’t necessarily because of he wanted to catch up with Simeon, he also couldn’t face Mariam either and it was eating them both.

As they reached class, they saw the government teacher, had already started class, and knowing how strict he is, they could only pray that he allows them in.

"Will you both still continue to stand outside or are you coming in? Don't waste our time please". He said as his fierce gaze landed on them. They hurriedly rushed to their seats to sit down and Kuchi blocked out the piercing and questioning gaze of some of her classmates.

They were on the last class for the day, and that was when Kuchali noticed her friend had gone. Classes had finally ended for the day and students of both Science and Commercial class trooped in to know what had transpired earlier. However, as quickly as they trooped in, they trooped out. Why, because, out of the two of the main people involved, one wasn’t around, while the other; Kuchali, either gave a scathing remark or a scorching gaze to whoever asked. Simeon was still new territory to most of his classmates, so they avoided him. While Malik told them to go and ask the people involved. When they turned to art students to explain, people either gave their own version of what they think happened with exaggerations, or they were also clueless.

Simeon kept on replaying what happened earlier on, his heart felt itchy seeing Mariam like that, even a blind man could see how hurt she was. He didn’t need to read her eyes, to know that the pain, anger and confusion she felt in those seconds before she packed and left were deep.

Don't think of things that make you weak, especially people, he heard the other say

"How would thinking of today’s situation make me weak?", he replied to seemingly no one in particular

Because you will start having sympathy when it’s not needed. This isn’t what you need at this point. You need to graduate and be done and get out of here, not be close to people.

"Am I just supposed to live my whole life without anyone by my side then, is it?" he replied getting angry, the class was getting empty, but some few people like Americana and Malik were still trying to tidy up their lockers, when Malik noticed him.

It’s better that way for you and us; do you want people to find out who you are and what you did? Your friend is the only exception. Mum doesn’t need more headaches you know.

"...meon" he heard a voice, but he couldn’t respond.

“That is why I want to be dead because at least neither you or I should be alive. You make me abnormal, isn’t my life supposed to progress further, maybe get married, pursue my dreams?”

Get married? You can’t even confront your fears, you’re a coward. You wanted to leave mum with such a monster and you say married. Don’t be a clown twin. The twin came off mockingly.

Malik had already started calling Simeon’s mother, he drove out everyone except Americana that swore to stay to help in case it was something serious. Bless her heart, she thought he was having a seizure or something. Simeon didn’t want him to take over and he could feel himself going in and out. His body went into a state of shutting down. He could feel his breath starting to slow down too much, his exhales coming out way too long as he started feeling dizzy and lightheaded. But he wasn’t scared, because he rather be in this state than allow the other take over.

"...imeon" he felt like he heard something at the back of his mind but he couldn’t decipher the words.

"Simeon!". Then they saw him ‘faint’ and Americana screamed.