PRESTON

Mbanwi was indeed a small town. But it was perfect. The evironments were clean , freshness everywhere and there was a cool stream where people went to, to relax and entertain themselves. Harry and I had had our fare share of entertainment there. It was so lively and everyone there knew everyone who lived there. They had one supermarket, close to the market where you will find mostly meat, fish and farm products like plantain, groundnuts and many others. Looks like their main source of income is farming. There is a restaurant too, a motel that every one thinks is a hotel, mostly for visitors and there are also food joints. These people are also welcoming and very united.There is this thing about small towns, the good air , they do not have too many industries, polluting the whole environment or too much population causing a lot of heat. I love it.

       I had spent two days here with my friends, and I could say, we were enjoying it. We were at a motel, with Harry's parents. My mum had refused to come, off course, with the usual business excuse. This time she was not traveling, but was expecting a big investor. Who invests in a shoe shop anyways. My mum was a serious business woman. At thirty five you will think she needs to start resting , but no, she insists on working all the time. No doubt she was very successful. She had single handedly raised me, after my dad left her for another man. Why come to her first if he was gay?.

She started her shoes business with him, everything was going on well until she got pregnant and refused to abort the baby. He had taken all the money they had and fled away. She never heard from him again and never showed me his pictures. He was as much dead to us. Mum is the bravest woman I know. She had started afresh and built a whole shoe shop with branches everywhere, on her own. She was my role model. My very own mum. But as much as I loved her, I really needed her to be here, to always be there. But she always has excuses, in the end though, I win, I always win. But not this time around, she looked me in the eye when I asked and said" Boy, even if the transportation was free and I had no investor coming, the answer will still be no". That said a lot, since mum never passed on anything free. So, to me she was still angry about my going to that boarding school.

To escape from her trying to stop me from going again, I just said" okay" and left. I missed her, but we needed to be there for Michael.

" Hey man, why are you smiling like one of your fantasies just came to past? " Harry smirked at me.

"Shot up" I giggled.

"Just thinking of mum" would have loved to see her just once, before we going to school.

" At least you have her, so its better for you", Micheal said" Some of us do not even have parents" he continued.

"Come on man, you have your dad, you have my parents and you have us" Harry tried consoling.

Micheal lost his mum a year ago and it only took that long for his dad to remarry. His step mum was a pain in the ass and there was no doubt it was her decision that he be sent to a boarding school far away. She never wanted him around, reason why we always tried to make him feel happy, because that is what friends do right.

"Hey" I called,"wanna scare some girls again? Saw you last night".

He laughed. He had spent half of his time while we had supper at the restaurant, flirting with one of the waitresses. Scared the shit out of her. Surely, they had other ways of flirting here. Did not matter though, he was just having fun.

"Sure, who will pass on that?".

We dressed casually so that we blend. We were now sitting inside the restaurant for supper. All three of us with Harry's dad. His mum had refused supper, because apparently she had business calls. Liar. She did not want us to disturb her because she complained about everything.

The same waitress Micheal had been flirting with yesterday came to take our orders.
" Are you stalking me sweetheart? " Micheal smirked.

Her white cheeks and palms turned red. She was beautiful and completely white, which was rare around this area.

"What can I get for you please?" She asked Mr Paul, Harry's dad.She was ignoring Michael, it was going to be fun.

"I'll have fried rice and chicken, thanks" Paul replied.

"You?" She asked Harry.

"Same thanks" he smiled.

"What about you?" She asked me shyly and even gave me a broad smile, checking me out. Harry and Micheal cleared their throats and she adjusted. I have that effect on women all the time.

"Roasted fish and fried plantain please" I replied.

"Okay" she replied.

"You?" She pointed at Micheal. He smiled at us all, and we knew we were in for fun.

"So" he started, " either I am too small for you to see, because you asked for my friends order before mine, and I'm sitting before him" he indicated this by pointing at me then himself. Because we were all on a straight line." Or" he continued" you just love me so much, you want to give me a special treatment" he smirked. "I'll take the latter though" he continued smiling.

"Ohh trust me, you're just too small" she smirked back. The shy girl gone.

"If you don't mind, I'll need your order now" she continued "you're not the only customer here" she looked around to check the other customers.

"Fine" Micheal smiled " but what I want is not on the menu".

"And what can that be?" She demanded and lifted an eye questioningly.

Micheal motioned for her to bend lower so he could whisper in her ear. After a few seconds of  contemplating, she bent down.

"You" he whispered and smirked. We just watched in amusement when she said " What" confused, but it dawned on her as he kept on smiling.

"Asshole" she said and walked away.

When we got our orders it was not our waitress but an older woman. She got Micheal's order and her face clearly showed "I dare you", like we would. Not me please.

* * *

The first day of school was even more fun. We went to school as early as 9:00 am, so that we could do a survey of the school, since we barely had time during our interview and had planned on doing that when we get to school.

Paul and Brenda, Harry's parents,accompanied us. Once our trunks had been checked and ticked okay, they left, promising to come only on visiting day. Not like we were babies, we would be doing fine.
We then decided to survey the school. Since it was a catholic boarding school, there was a big chapel, and a holy hill, just for prayers. There were two dormitories twenty meters apart, the one which was not far from the administrative bloc was for boys and the other which was down a valley behind the kitchen was for girls. Wow.

There was also a playing ground, football, handball, volleyball and basket ball fields. Then beside the fields were farms. On campus, there were classrooms, with those of the first cycle different from the second cycles. Then the administrative, library, computer laboratory, food and nutrition laboratory and the science laboratory. There were also urinals for every building. Wow.

We just needed to check one more thing we saw on the fly outs before we would be satisfied. There was a lone building beside the administrative bloc and we decided to check it. So we went there.
"Wow" we said in unision. If there was one thing my friends and I had in common, it was singing. Piano lessons will be cool.

The day passed, as more and more students filled in, mostly new students and prefects. We had an assembly where we were welcomed by the male senior prefect and then evening prayers and then the worst tea I had ever drank, with bread. We were then asked to go to the hall for roll calls. That was when we saw there was a hall. We probably did not survey well.

The principal was not there to welcome us, but the Vice principal did. He welcomed us, not bothering to say his name and read the rules and regulations. When he was done, he pointed towards a girl who's head was bent.

" You there" he called. Everyone looked towards her direction and that was when she lifted her head to also check, but flinched when she saw it was her he was referring to.

She stood, I froze.

" Your name please" he demanded.

"Lelah" was all she said.

" You look just at me when I talk okay, I have your full attention. You're lucky you are beautiful I could have set an example for your brothers on you. Sit down" with that, he left.

I just remained frozen.

Beauty was an understatement .
 

           
              *   *   *
       Hmmm, okay. She stood, I froze. Watch out.