The Thorny Path - Episode 6

 

When Tolani found out that Nnenna was hiding from students, she told Ms. Aliyu about it. She felt her friend was running away from everybody. Ms. Aliyu called her after the day ended. She walked to the teacher before her mummy arrived to pick her up in her car. The school proprietor had sacked the security man and employed a new one. The new security man looked so calm but Nnenna never talked to him.

Ms . Aliyu sat on the chair and watched Nnenna walked close to her. She was calm and her head was bent to the ground. "How are you?" she asked.

"I am fine, ma," she replied. 

"Tolani said you are scared of everyone," she said and looked at Tolani sitting on the chair, in the classroom and looking at them. Tolani nodded.

"Yes, ma," she looked at Tolani too and looked away from her. 

"Why?" She asked.

She looked down at the ground. "Nothing, auntie."

"Don't be shy. Talk to me. You talked to your mummy when she wanted to hear about something. If you didn't, we wouldn't have heard about him," she said.

She looked at Nnenna and Nnenna nodded. 

"Now speak. Never remain quiet

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. Talk when you are not feeling well."

She nodded again and began to talk. "I think everyone hates me. Since my mummy came to school to fight, everyone looks at me and laugh."

"You are shy?" Ms. Aliyu asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"Don't be shy. Walk around. Own yourself. Hold onto your self-esteem and hold yourself high..." she stopped talking, then began talking again. "Do you know what self-esteem means?" she asked.

She shook her head. "No, ma," she replied.

"It means believing in yourself and caring less about what everyone thinks of you. I taught you people about bullying the other day. And people bully everyone in various ways. They are bullying you by laughing at you, but you have to act against their bullying. Bullies stop when you don't act. Now if you see them looking or laughing at you, ignore them and walk away. Keep walking. Try it first and come and tell me the result," she said.

Nnenna smiled when her teacher stopped. She thanked her. Her mother's car honked outside and she hugged her teacher. She hung her bag to her back and ran outside. She entered the car and her mother drove away. The new security man waved at her but she ignored him.

When Nnenna arrived at school the next day, she saw some girls looking at her. She smiled at them and they smiled back to her. "How are you, Nnenna?" the smaller one asked. 

"I am fine," she replied. "What class are you in? I see you in school every day," she said.

"We are in basic two and we are best friends," the smaller one said and the bigger one smiled.

She looked up and saw Tolani and Yewande standing on the staircase. Tolani was smiling and Yewande was looking at Tolani. "Why are you smiling? That is Nnenna," she said pointing at Tolani.

"I know. She is making me happy," she replied.

Nnenna walked close to them and stopped. Tolani smiled. "I told you. Now you are talking to everyone," she said.

In class, Ms. Aliyu began to talk about the spelling bee and mathematics competition. It was coming soon and the winner gets to be a one day principal. The top two will represent their school. She said Basic four, five and six would represent the school according to their proprietress. There would be a class test for all the classes. The best three would come out of each class. 

"Tear out the middle of your book for the spelling bee. Fifty questions," she said.

They shouted and began tearing out papers. 

"Great. Do away with your books. I want to see only the paper sheet and your pen on the table," she said.

She looked around and watched them do as she had told them. It remained the sheet and pen on their desks. 

"Good."

She started calling out each word until she got to the fiftieth and stopped. "I will call it out again in case anyone missed a word. I don't want to hear, I know how to spell it but couldn't hear what you were saying," she said.

They nodded and she began to repeat the words, till she stopped. "I think I am done. You can submit now. And make sure you write your names on it."

She stopped and waited for them to finish. She gave them five extra minutes. They finished and all submitted. "The luckiest part is that you people will hear the result today. The proprietress will call it during the afternoon break."

At the afternoon break, the students gathered on the assembly ground. They lined up according to their classes. The assembly prefect sang and the basic two teachers prayed. The proprietress stood in front to address them.

Read " The Odds Are Against Me " by the same author ( Obinna Tony )

. She said she was very proud of them.

"Let us start," she said and coughed.

She continued, "Basic Four and five students might find the spellings hard but we gave everyone the same thing. We wanted to select the best. We have seen where basic four and five always perform better than basic six. They didn't perform badly after the result sha," she said.

She handed the first paper to Basic one teacher. "She will call out the best three in Basic Six," she said.

The basic one teacher walked to the stage. She looked at the paper and began to call their names. "The third position had forty-two out of the fifty questions and she is, Amara, our head girl," she said.

Everyone clapped and she walked out. She looked disappointed.

"The second position got forty-seven out of fifty and he is, Wale, our head boy," she said.

Wale walked out smiling and everyone clapped for him.

"And the first position made us proud. He got everything. He is, Bayo, our assistant head boy." 

"Wow!"

They clapped for him and he walked out happily. He held his head high.