#School Days – EPISODE 8 ********************************** We were instructed to sit at the middle of the room while our room head drafted out our morning duties for that saturday on a sheet of paper. While sitting on the floor, I silently prayed that I shouldn’t be given anything that has to do with cutting, I didn’t know how to scrub or mop neither but I assumed it would be easier than cutting, or don’t you think so? After about 20 minutes which felt like ages to me, our roomhead was through with the list so he gave one of those speeches that could be considered as indirect threats and at the same time as encouraging. ‘Today is a general inspection day and you all know what would happen if we don’t take the first position so I don’t have to say anything further. Anyway, am going to call out your names now and your morning duties, you are going to do it today and for the rest of the week before leaving the hostel, don’t let me come and remind you that’s all I have to say for now, so the following people should stand up; Ogunshola Taofeek, Adetilewa Lateef, Anaka Kenechukwu …’ Just when I thought my name won’t be called until the last batch, He said ‘and Odoh Michael’. ‘What tha fvck! Did you really have to call my name so early?’ I pondered. ‘The four of you would scrub and mop the entire corridor. I want to be able to see my reflection on the floor when you are done, go and start’ He finished his speech and then proceeded to call other names. As soon as he said the last word in his speech, Lateef who is an average well built dark dude screamed first; ‘am scrubbing oh’. I didn’t quite get why someone would willingly volunteer to waste his own detergent in scrubbing, but I was surely going to find out in due time. Kenechukwu was the only person among the four of us who cared to talk to me, while we all headed out with our buckets to fetch the water we planned on using to scrub and mop. ‘You are a new student right?’ He asked. ‘Yea, resumed on thursday’ I replied. ‘Hmmm, and you already have a morning duty? You sure say you pray before you come this school?’ He asked, laughing his Bottom off. I didn’t quite get what caused his laughter so I simply asked; ‘What’s so funny?’ ‘Nothing o, just that its normal for a new student to have about two weeks grace to blend into the system before he is given a morning duty but you have been here for barely three days and you already have one! E be like say person for your village dey blowing fire for your head oh’ he replied and bursted out into a second round of laughter. The truth of the matter was, I had actually thought about that too but who could possibly be the one blowing the fire on my head na? That was the question that I had no answer to so I just kept quite as we walked to the main bore hole. Moments later, we were all on the corridor and mopping the floor like our lives depended on it, and technically speaking, our lives really depended on it after considering the room head’s speech. I had no experience in mopping but after looking at how Kene did it, I didn’t need a private tutor to tutor me on the act of mopping and besides, I’m a fast learner or so I think. Just when we were almost done, two senior students came out of nowhere, with one running after the other, they were acting like ill mannered kids as they stamped their dirty feet on the sparkling floor and there for doubling our work, we all looked at seniors as the ran through the corridor with our mouth opened in surprise and then turned to look at ourselves and without saying any other word, I and the other two moppers went back to work while Lateef just left, as we remopped the whole corridor I silently swore that kind of swear that’s untype able for those seniors. Eventually we were done with our duties and we quickly bathed and prepared for the inspection. *** As I stood at the front of my corner all dressed with my school uniform and a bucket which had a broom, hoe, cutlass, cup and a cutlery set strategically placed at by my side, I looked at the room and I just couldn’t believe my eyes. The room was sparkling to the core, not a single cobweb was on the ceilings and not even a grain of sand was on the floor, okay, that’s an exaggeration but you sha get the point. The roomhead who by the way bears Damilola then came with his wahala again. ‘Who amongst you all have a school blazers?’ He asked, Stanley replied in the affirmative. ‘Bring it out and wear it quickly, the inspectors are already at the P.T.A hostel’ Damilola replied. NB: P.T.A hostel is another name for the JSS2 students hostel. Its one of the bungalows. As soon as Stanley wore the blazers, Damilola ordered him to stand at the entrance and told him to scream ‘house greet!’ I was staring at both Damilola and Stanley with keen interest to know what they were up to since I had no idea when Stanley obeyed as said; ‘House greet!’ Suddenly, everyone in the room replied almost immediately saying; ‘Good moorrrrning sir, you are welcome to chad house, the oasis of perfection’ stressing the ‘morning’. ‘Why are you people stressing the good morning?’ Damilola asked in annoyance, ‘Stanley say it again and if they born any of you well, stress it again’ Standing there at my corner and simply observing, I felt the urge to slap Damilola, what’s his problem na? We have done our duties, arranged the room and displayed our implements and cutlery, yet he isn’t satisfied and is now looking for another reason to complain and shout at us, if only he would… ‘House greet!’ Stanley screamed as the inspectors suddenly walked into the room unannounced and therefore cutting me short in my thoughts. ‘Good morrrrrning sir, you are welcome to chad house, the oasis of perfection’ the whole house greeted in unison and obviously stressing on the ‘morning’ again. Anyway, that wasn’t the main problem tho, the main problem was the inspectors were three in number and all women but we greeted them using ‘sir’. The inspector didn’t seem to take it personal as it was obviously a silly mistake but the look on Damilola face said other wise, the guy had this ‘Una don die today’ look on his face. As the inspectors went round the room looking for a reason not to give us the complete mark, we all made sure we smiled our possible best so as not to give them any reason to stop and ‘really INSPECT’. Moments later, they were done with the room and then moved to inspect other parts of the hostel which was under the chad house umbrella which included the corridor, the bathrooms which we never used(don’t ask me where we bathed oh), the quadrangle and of course the toilet. As they left the room, someone started clapping and just like clockwork, the rest of the room joined him, Including me, little did we know what the future had in stock for us. We all relaxed after Damilola took the inspectors to the other parts of the hostel which belonged to the house. About ten minutes later, just when I was about to remove my school uniform and change to my house wear, Damilola walked into the room. He looked so angry that I could visibly see smoke coming out of his ears, mouths and other openings, I wasn’t the only person who observed this, as a matter of fact, every one of us observed the look on his face. We patiently waited for him to say what was on his mind, and after a few seconds of total silence which somehow felt like ages to me, he finally asked a question which assured us all of a sure death; ‘Who went to block on the floor at the bathroom?’ NB: Block is a slang which means to defecate. While Blockies means poo or faeces. After hearing this question only one song came to my mind; Davido’s Gobe. TO BE CONTINUED ***************** Watch0ut For Episode 9
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 20:03:57 +0000
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