More Than A Friend - Season 1 - Episode 6

6 years ago

More Than A Friend - Season 1 - Episode 6

The work began as the school prefect. Actually, we didn’t have much to do, especially I, as an assistant, Joel would be the one to jingle the bell, he had got a wristwatch while I bought a N200 worth of wristwatch as well, all we had to do then was to control others to sweep, to cut grass and we also catch the latecomers, but remember we were still in SS1, the juniors we were to control were our mates, that made it somehow difficult, we would just jingle our dear bell and continue resting while others work.

The only thing I loved about being the prefect was I stopped sweeping, cutting grass, taking cutlass to school and receiving irrelevant cane/punishment, school became something easier and sweeter for me, the class captain had no right to write prefects’ name among the noise makers, unless a teacher catches the prefect him/herself. “Wow! Sedentary life from SS1” I’d say in my mind, David too stopped doing all those hard school works that prefects should not do by forming strong-head even though he was not a prefect yet, sometimes he would be caned, sometimes he would escape it and go free, everything was going perfectly well, Deborah was my best female friend and after her, I preferred Taiwo again, David remained my loyal 6 while I was 5, other friends were just normal with me…

******fast forward******
The first term exam came, it was not that hard as I was able to read and understand most, I crammed some and was able to remember it in the exam hall, (la cram la pour), the exam went fine… inter class matches began, due to the fact that I didn’t like playing football in school, some friends didn’t know that I was a talented footballer (attacker). I told Joel I would like to play for our class, he doubted me but with the support of Quazeem and David who knew me then, they tried me in the first match against art department I played skillfully well and scored one brilliant goal, I surprised many students with my brilliant finish even though I played the shot twice as the goal keeper pushed it back to me, I was able to play just three matches during the tournament because I was helping some teachers to record marks, I scored two goals in three matches and SS3 won the cup at last.

The last Friday in first term, the day we collected our report cards, I was somehow scared but not too much, I had used all that day chitchatting Deborah, I asked her the grades she was expecting, she would mention A1 and B2, I’d laugh and ask “what of C4 and C5?”, she’d deny them talk less of D7, E8 and F9. Joel went to jingle the bell, we prayed on the assembly ground, principal came, talked, advised and dismissed the school to go and get the report cards from our perspective class teachers, I collected my report card I was shocked when I saw English Language F9, “Kwat!!!” I shouted and quickly folded it into my pocket to check other grades somewhere else, I got to under one cool tree, brought it out and saw;

Agricultural Science A1
Mathematics B2
Computer Science A1
Geography A1
Yoruba Language A1
Chemistry C4
Physics B3.

“And what happened to my English answer booklet? I scored 17/20 in the test given, I did my assignment and got 8/10, that is 25/30 in CA only, this F9 can’t be my handwork am sure”, I said to myself, I was not that worried because I was sure of the lowest grade my English could be, not F9, I kept my result and started checking friends’ results one by one.

It was a pity, my closest friend and also my seat mate (David) had about seven F9’s, in short, what he collected as report card that day was nothing but “red card” upon our class teacher was not a football referee. Quazeem had fine result too, Joel had no F9, on knowing this, my F9 in English started aching my mind and I was not happy with it anymore, Joe would never show his result to anybody, he has even disappeared, (probably gone home),
“Where is this Deborah now?” I asked in my mind and decided to check around for her, she was in SS1B Science Department, that was the reason we didn’t collect card from the same class teacher, finally I found her holding a white paper, pointing to me as if she has been searching for me also,

“Miss Portable, let thee checketh thy result for thou might have performed less than expectation”, I said, jokingly, she smiled and gave the result to me, while I was still unfolding the result,

“Jesus!” I shouted to scare her,

“What is it again? Have my grades changed? (Smiles)” she uttered with no trace of fear. I was not that astonished seeing her grades, I knew she was the serious type and could even score more than that, the lowest grade she had was C5 in physics, I returned her result to her and I was somehow quiet,

“Hope no problem” she queried indirectly,

“Where is your report card?” She asked, I slotted my hand into my pocket and gave it to her,

“Ah! You too! God knows who Miss Adelaja gave our report card to for recording, Joe too had F9, the boy went to complain and she told him not to worry that she’ll check it next term”, as I heard that, my mind came down a bit,

“Really! Which Joe?” I asked immediately because we had almost three students bearing Joe in our class,

“Ajibade of course” she responded quickly,

“Ah; that’s serious o”, I said as I looked worried,

“Don’t worry baby” she said, (smiling), I laughed out loud and looked at her face with the face of (are you joking?)

“You’re calling an adult, your big bro, even an ancestor, you’re calling him a baby”, we both laughed as she put her hand around my shoulder and we stepped on the field to start going home.

I didn’t even bother to ask of David’s whereabout, I knew Quazeem was busy abusing him and mocking him that he was not a good defender, he collected red card.

Deb: Why are you not talking? And how is David’s result?

I: My own result is making me to be Moody somehow and leave David and his result alone for now. (straight face)

Deb: Come-on! Cheer up joo. I already know that David had bad result, but you’re not trying at all o.

I: (surprised) Who told you I marked any of our scripts? Am I the one that caused his failure? You better don’t start.

Deb: Start what? Let me tell you the fact, your result supposed to be influencing his result positively, so that...

(I didn’t allow her to finish the statement before I interrupted)

I:… so that he will stop reading totally and depend on me finally, right?

Deb: No. Don’t misunderstand me. Just influence the boy positively, that’s all.

I: Alright ma. (She smiled and we changed topic), she was about to branch as usual, we said the normal goodnight, she was about five meters away when I called her back and opened my arms for hug, she gladly threw herself into my arms and I whispered into her ear, “see you when I see you again”. We departed.

?To Be Continued?