I’m in the school bus with my classmates. They’re gisting and playing as usual. I’m looking outside the window watching the dirty roads and the pretty cars. There are lots of hawkers too. I’m day dreaming about what it would feel like if I was born American. If I was like those pretty kids in the Teletubbies show, and the ones in Barnie’s show too. I really envy them. Every single day I’ll get to hang around my favorite stars.. How nice! I’m thinking about how I would become an Americana with an accent, really smart, and rich. I’ll eat only expensive food, and wear really cool clothes.
Before I could dream further, we had already arrived school.
The class this morning is dark because of the cloudy sky. It’s like it’s about to rain. It’s a Monday so the oversabi girls have begun their usual discussions. Tosin, a dark smallish girl with a really wide gap tooth is bragging about her uncle’s house. She visited him in Magodo over the weekend. His house is really big and he has a pool. They offered her rice and chicken but she opted for juice instead. According to her; ‘me that I’m already tired of chicken’.
All the while I’m focused on my storybook. Experience has taught me that the level of saltiness of those girls are really high. It’s best to avoid them.
Not long after, the English teacher came into the class. She taught us letter writing. Writing a letter has its own rules and procedures. The date and address have their own standard positions on the letter. She says it is rude to start your letter without starting it with “How are you and your family?”. And she says we must always end our letters with Yours sincerely. Informal letters are more easier to write than formal letters. She says there are lots of differences; but the only difference I know is that one has two addresses while the other has one; and one has a topic, while the other does not. But she says there are also some differences in writing the body of the letter. According to her, a formal letter has to sound formal and vice versa. I do not understand what she means by this, but I just nod. I’m definitely getting a small score in the homework she gave.
After three more classes, it’s break time. And the class has become rowdy. For Jss1 students we really make a lot of noise. Today my dad made me rice and beef as usual. The oversabi girls have gone to the canteen to buy food. Their mom’s are obviously really busy making money; excess at that, because for 10 year Olds, they’re handling more money than is necessary. Their parents even allow them pay their school fees themselves. Something I’m sure my parents would never allow me do until I become really old.
“Nawa oh! Ahn ahn!… Shio…” I heard someone murmur. I looked up to find the oversabi girls gathered together looking towards me with squeezed faces. ‘ What? ‘ I asked. “Nothing” Sandra responded. One of the clique of five that weaved her hair with attachment every week just so it appeared long. Her face is like a ball. Whenever I look ate her face, I see a small ball with an oversize wig on it. “Your water bottle is filthy, throw it away! If you want a new one I can bring for you, we have plenty ragolis in my house”. This was Tosin talking, the gap-toothed she-goat.. I was hurt. And flushed in embarrassment. Tosin was always like this, to me especially. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I’m quiet? or because I laugh a lot. But this time I didn’t laugh. I felt really insulted. What was more painful was the fact that other four kids responded with ‘as in eh’, ‘abi o’, ‘me sef we have plenty oo’, while another just giggled (I used kids here to depict a goat-child, not kids as in kids). But I didn’t respond to her. I didn’t know what to say, neither was I bold enough to respond. So I just looked away in shame.. Yes my water bottle was old and rugged. But it was my water bottle. I do not know where they sell water bottles. Even if I did, I do not have any money. So why be so rude?
When I got home I didn’t tell my father. Not because I didn’t want to. It was because I forgot. I always forget.. There’s so much she does but I keep forgetting. Maybe it’s because she talks to me sometimes. She even comes to my house too. Especially when we have assignments. But it doesn’t stop her from being so rude. I have gotten so used to Tosin’s yabs that I now ignore them.
One time, this time, directly in front of my seat, they were discussing how dirty the school toilet is. I think one of the kids said something about how it was so dirty that she had to pee, holding her breath, and by the time she was running out, she had turned blue. At this, I laughed. Th toilet isn’t as bad as they ,make it seem though, but their gists are quite interesting. And as usual, Tosin started bragging. “God forbid, nothing can make me shit in the school toilet, I’ll rather wait till I get home. Ours is so clean, I even eat while there” And the other kids chorused “Me too oh!”. My seat partner had joined in their conversation. She says her mother hates dirty toilets, that she calls them to order when ever they mess it up. At this, I nodded in agreement and responded with “me too!” I was close to my seat mate, so it was easy for me to contribute. Although I do not have a mother, I was referring to my father. He spanked me when I used the toilet without flushing afterwards. Tosin now turned to me and asked “ehen Nancy, how many times in a week do you people wash your toilet?” “We wash it every Saturday” I boldly responded. Sure that it was the normal way it was done in everyone’s home. “Yepa! You people are dirty oh!” she replied. “Oh! we’re supposed to wash it three times a day?” I asked sarcastically. This Tosin girl is by far a trouble maker. What is her own? “You’re supposed to wash it everyday. My mother makes sure we wash ours every night before we sleep, so we don’t get a toilet infection”. I was tired already. What is a toilet infection? But I didn’t ask. I just nodded, with a simple “oh!” and went back to my novel. But I knew I had to stop all this talk about being a dirty girl before it escalated into something big.
The next weekend, Tosin came to my house to do her homework as usual. Whenever she came she was nicer, more friendly. Smiling sheepishly while she copied from my note. Her block head didn’t allow her understand anything the teacher taught so she relied on nerds like me. Nerds who in a bid to please her, and avoid her unbridled tongue, allowed her have a way at almost anything. But I was already fed up. That morning, I already told my father all the things she said to me at school, the ragolis incident, the dirty toilet incident, her always insulting my hair for being too short and kinky, and her other rude comments. Somehow, all the anger which I had buried within me turned to tears and I narrated these incidents amidst sobs. My father was horribly angry. He was angry at me for not saying anything. That day, he reminded me that my father was not just a common man. He was a navy official. At the snap of his fingers he could put all Tosin’s family members in the prison for one full year. He said he can send Tosin to the home for Juvenile delinquents with just one phone call. He told me he could close down all the schools on my school’s street with just one letter. He said my case is the case of the villagers whose mud house are built on top of gold, but they are still really poor because they have no idea. He told me to wipe my tears, and he’ll handle the situation.
When Tosin came, she was smiling at me as usual. I told her to wait outside I’m coming. I went to tell my father that she was around. My father dressed up in his military polo and trouser, alongside his boots. He held a long gun in his hands and matched towards Tosin. She was surprised, but she thought he just wanted to pass and go outside, so she made space for him to pass. “So you’re Tosin right?” “Yes Sir” She responded. It’s the first time she’s meeting my father. “You know I’m Rita’s father?” “No Sir” she responded. He did something with the gun, something that scared her, like a lever he pulled or something. “So that is why you’ve been picking on my daughter ehn! That is why you’ve been calling her dirty?”As he was talking, he was dragging her hands across the stairs. She had started crying by this time. “Sorry Sir” She pleaded. He dragged her out of our gate pointing at her and warning her never to return to our house “the next time I hear anything about you, I’ll arrest all your family members. I’ll make sure you’re suspended and no other secondary school will accept you. You’ll remain a school drop-out, an illiterate, all your life, now get out of here before I shoot you.” With that she scrambled away in fear. My father looked up at me on the balcony, he had this look of satisfaction in his eyes and a small slanting smile on his lips. He really frightened the poor girl, but she deserved it. No one messes with his Nancy and goes scot free.
After that incident, Tosin started avoiding me. She either avoided me, or she sided with me. But she never looked me in the face. The poor girl was obviously frightened. She had the shock of her life. One she could never forget. Her hugest assets are her parents, and her greatest fear is losing them. My father knew this and he threatened her with it.