Living In The Ghetto - Episode 6

 

Adanne cowered her face while she sat on the slab outside the classroom waiting for Chimaobim. Other students from the primary school loitered around the secondary school lawn. They scampered up and down. A bespectacled young woman with a stick in her hand, peered out through the window and cautioned them to lower their voices. Adanne raised her head slowly and adjusted the bag that almost fell off from her laps . She scrunched her nose and moved her hand toward her eyes as she scrubbed it. Looking by the other side, she saw Timi fixated at her. They locked eyes at each other immediately and Timi pulled away his face.

Adanne sighed and turned away her face too. She unzipped her bag, took a cursory look at the contents in it then swung it to her back. Her eyes moved toward Timi again, but he wasn't looking. His head was bowed as he looked down, while his hands moved slowly all over the sands on the ground. Adanne stood up immediately and walked toward him. Her hand tapped his back and he raised his head up. His eye looked dim.

"Have you been crying?" Adanne asked.

"Mmm..." he muttered.

Adanne's beamed with smile, as her head rotated backward. She bent down slowly, dusted the sands that laid on the slab with her hands, then used her mouth to blow off some sand particles

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/living-in-the-ghetto

. Adjusting her bag, she sat down and shifted closer to him. They were interrupted by some obvious murmuring. They both looked up and saw two girls. Smallish in size but their face looked like someone who would have a mouth as sharp as a razor blade. Adanne guessed they were in junior class. Maybe primary four, three..., but they can't be in a primary six, she thought.

She smirked. "What? Can I help," she asked all at once while she felt uncomfortable with their constant stares.

One placed her hands akimbo while the other twisted her face in disgust. "I think you are new in this school," she blurted with so much irritation on her face.

One could guess because Adanne wasn't putting on a uniform. She wore a mufti. A plain pink long chiffon gown.

"I know," she said.

They moved close to them. "nobody likes this boy. His brother is an imbecile and they are always dirty. You'll be irritated if you sta---" one said. She spoke so well unlike the average children that lived in the ghetto and spoke mostly pidgin English.

"Irritated?" Adanne interrupted.

Adanne took another look at Timi and inhaled the environment. He didn't smell bad again unlike in the morning when she entered the class. 

"But he is not smelling," she said and touched him lightly.

"Na morning he dey smell like a pig. Very dirty like his brother," the other one said.

"Yuck," they both said and blocked their noses with their palms.

"Let's go," one dragged the other and they walked away amidst laughter.

This is not good, Adanne thought. Her eyes became wet and tears trickled down slowly. She tried to cover it up whilst wiping away the liquid on her cheeks, with her hands as she turned toward Timi. Their eyes locked together.

"You cry..." Timi voice trailed off.  That was the first time Adanne had heard him talk. His voice was soothing and Adanne blushed and muttered, "No."

Timi wiped away the tears that had clogged in his own eyes and watched Adanne gawk at him. He pulled off his face and placed his gaze on his bag.

"You are so nice. I don't know why people are rude to you," Adanne paused and expected Timi to reply her but he didn't.

Read " Outcast " by the same author ( Obinna Tony )

. Just his face that only beamed in a smile. Someone interrupted. It was a boy. Adanne stared at him. His eyes flickered left and right, while his leg danced around without being still in a place. His body wriggled and she could guess that was Timi's brother.

"Eeiiii," the boy muttered and made a sound at Timi.

He gestured to Timi again and he picked up his bag, waved at Adanne and walked to his brother while they strutted away. Adanne stared at him till she was interrupted by someone's hand. It was her brother.

She turned quickly and smiled. "I have been waiting since, Chimaobim."

"Why are you now smiling? What happened?" Chimaobim chuckled. "I am sorry, I was trying to finish up with the note I missed yesterday."

"They didn't do anything yesterday in my class, we fully resumed today though we only read an essay passage," Adanne said.

Adanne slung her bag on her shoulder, tapped her brother. He gripped Adanne's hand and they walked home.