63
“DID YOU HEAR THAT!”?
“Hear what?”
“That Amanda just came back from the psychiatric hospital”
“What! Are you serious, so the rumors were actually true”
“Yes na, I heard that the poor girl wasn’t completely okay up there”
“Wait is that not Amanda over there?”
“Shhh don’t point at her na, see now she’s looking at us”Copyright by Nôv/elDrama.Org.
“Why is she just staring at us like that, Abeg let’s just go”
I stared unwavering at the two girls as they hurriedly left. God I hated this school. It was only full of rich dumb snubs, didn’t they know the difference between a Rehabilitation center and a psychiatric hospital.
And yes apparently I’m the Amanda they were soo shamelessly talking about openly.
I stiffly continued my walk down the hallway and as I walked people kept pointing in my direction whispering to themselves, well I wouldn’t exactly call what they were doing whispering as I could vividly hear them.
“Guy guy look, no be Amanda be that?” A random guy that I didn’t recognize tapped his nearby friend.
(Pidgin English translation: Dude is that not Amanda”
“Yesso, it’s her o” the whispers continued.
“Ah Amanda is back”
It’s not like I wasn’t expecting this type of reaction from people, after all my lovely parents were the one’s that informed the whole school that I was in the hospital because of I was mentally unstable. I’m not even lying, that was exactly how they put it.
You see the school I went to, was one of the most prestigious schools in the whole of Nigeria, residing in the capital Abuja, it wasn’t in anyway like your typical Nigerian School.
Qatass academy was the name of the school I attended. It was an extremely expensive school that was why people called it the school for the elites, but I honestly didn’t agree with that title. It was more of the school for the rich retards, because honestly I can vouch that 90% of the students that went here didn’t know anything.
“Hey Fatty! So you really are back” an extremely girly voice brought me back to reality.
From the annoying high tone of the voice I could already tell who it was.
“Silver” I said in a small voice.
“Still haven’t learnt to talk out ehn? Fatty” She teased with a bold smirk, her two friends behind her Damilola and Fatima released low chuckles clearly finding amusement in their friend making fun of me.
“My name is not Fatty” I muttered lowly.
She only laughed “Ehn but you are fat na, so the name fits perfectly”
I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry. You promised yourself you won’t let it get to you anymore Amanda.
Students stood stagnant watching us like we were currently the best drama on TV. Amebos! don’t they have classes or something.
(Translation: Amebo is a Nigerian parlance for ‘Gossiper’s’, or for people that can’t mind their business)
“Excuse me” I said trying to get pass her, already tired of her belittling me.
“And where do you think you are going? We’ve not even finished our friendly chat” she spoke pushing me back, I almost lost my balance but quickly regained it.
Having enough of her I spoke up
“Leave me alone Silver!”
A look of pure shock passed through her face. I bet she wasn’t expecting that, even I was surprised by my boldness today.
“Ehnn so a month in a mental hospital has made you grow a backbone bah?”
“Too bad you’re still fat and ugly” She once again smirked.
Those words they spok to me kept racing through my mind bringing back painful memories I honestly really never wanted to recall again.
“Abeg abeg Silver let’s leave the girl alone before they say we are the ones that made her kill herself, you know she isn’t exactly mentally stable” Fatima suddenly spoke with a very evident cruel smile plastered on her face.
The way they joked about suicide everytime like it was a mere thing was really sickening. They shouldn’t joke about something as serious as that.
I sighed releasing a relief breath as they finally left. Nearby students also began to leave seeing as their favorite show was over. See why I said I hated this school.
I adjusted my school bag on my back ready to continue my journey to my locker.
I felt eyes on me so I looked up to find the source and it wasn’t anyone I was expecting, not in a million years. I was shocked to see it was Frederick, the most popular boy in the whole Qatass Academy that was unblinkingly staring at me. Even when he knew I caught him staring he didn’t bother to remove his gaze.
I quickly averted my eyes from his. The way he looked at me was like he knew something about me that no one else did.
And I didn’t like it one bit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“WHO CAN TELL ME, what you’ll use to solve this mathematical problem?”
As soon as that question left Mr Joe mouth everywhere became extremely quiet. Not like I was expecting anything different, like I said my school wasn’t really filled with the brightest students.
Then he started calling out names
“Emmanuel” he strained out.
Emmanuel stood up immediately, he looked somewhat determined to answer the question.
“Sir” he started “I don’t know the answer” he boldly voiced out, then a grin broke out on his face. Yup I was definitely expecting this.
The class that was once quiet went into a fit of laughter’s. You see Emmanuel was… would I call him… the jokester of the class, though he was actually really smart he just loved playing around. I’m pretty positive he actually knew the answer to the question to begin with.
“Everybody keep quiet!” My maths teacher yelled making the class revert back to absolute silence.
He only glared at Emmanuel and told him to seat down but not before calling him a ‘stupid boy’.
“If no one can answer this question, none of you are going out for your lunch break” everyone groaned at this.
“Sir haba na, you can’t do that” A girl, I think her name was Miracle called out.
“Ehnn? Oya watch me na” he smirked. I honestly believed he would go through with his words as he has done it before in the past.
Sighing in a low voice I decided to raise my hand. I really didn’t mind being held back on my lunch break like the other’s, I mean I didn’t have any friends to begin with that I was dying to see or anything, but I was actually planning on going somewhere when the lunch break begins. And I plan to keep to that.
“Yes Amanda, you have something to say?” He looked surprised though that I rose my hand, because I never and I mean never raise my hand in class. Only when I’m asked specifically that I answer.
“The answer is Pythagorean theorem” I mumbled.
“Even after one month she can’t still speak out loud” I heard a voice Snicker beside me.
I didn’t even bother to look I already knew it was Damilola.
“Correct” Mr Joe beamed.
“Are you people seeing your mate, somebody with a head on her shoulder. If you like ehn, you people don’t brazen up. It’s until you see yourselves pushing wheelbarrow in the future that your eyes will open. Mtchew nonsense” As you can see Mr Joe was that one teacher that insulted his students without any care in the world. Although our school had a policy for no beating and no insulting from teachers. My math teacher was one of those teachers that didn’t bother to abide by it. He was fearless I would give him that.
As he was about to add more to his speech about how unserious most people in the class were the bell rang signalling it was time for lunch break. Praise Jesus!
‘Thank God’ could be heard from every Corner of the class.
“See these children o, you’re happy you’re leaving my class abi? Don’t worry I hope you people know you’re having me again the period after your lunch break?” Groans left the mouths of almost all the students in the classroom.
( *abi* is a type of Nigerian slangs used In place of the English word ‘Right’- I will be using it a lot, so it would be nice if you could take note of it, thanks)
Mr Joe only laughed then dismissed us all.
Immediately I started packing my books in my bag and hug my bagpack on my back. I’m sure you’re wondering why I was bothering to carry my school bag while I could just save myself the stress and leave it in the classroom. Well I’ve tried that before and let’s just say I had to get a completely new school bag the next day. My classmates weren’t exactly really the nicest.
“Miss George” I heard Mr Joe call out my name as he was about to leave the class… well more like my surname.
I turned to him curious as to why he was calling me, some people that were still in the class also did the same.
Releasing a small smile he spoke “I’m happy that you’re back” after that he left.
I stood still in the same spot that I was in shocked by his words. After a short time I released a very small smile of my own happy that someone actually missed my presence, well there was always a first for everything right? I mean even my own parents didn’t miss me, I knew that because they didn’t even bother to visit me once in the month that I was away… sometimes I get the feeling that they aren’t even my real parents to be perfectly honest, so Mr Joe words came to me as a surprise.