There were five beds in the room, with Jazz's bed closest to the window. Three girls were in the room with her. Jazz got up from her bed and started to unpack her things. She brought out her phone and walked around searching for signal. "Damn it! There's no signal here," She said.

"How come you're with a phone, didn't they search you when you came?" A tall girl with short braided hair asked her.

"Nope."

"Well phones are not allowed here so make sure you hide it where no one can see it because if you're caught with it, it'll get confiscated and you won't get it back until the end of the term."

"How am I supposed to call my bestie?"

"You can call her during the weekend so you can go outside where there's signal," The girl replied and Jazz reluctantly kept her phone back in her suitcase.

"By the way, my name is Kelechi. That's Amarachi and that's Fatima." Kelechi gestured towards the other two girls who smiled and waved.

"Hello," They said.

"Hi, I'm Jazz."

"We know." Kelechi laughed. "I'm so glad we're roommates, everyone would like to come to our room now. Ever since we heard that an American girl was coming to our school, it seemed to be the trending topic."

Jazz giggled and was about to say something when the bell rang. Amarachi and Fatima waved them goodbye as they left the room with their books.

Another girl came into the room and hopped to her bed.

"Kel let's go, it's time for dinner," The girl said.

"Jazz, this is Ronke, she's our roommate and my best friend."

"Hello." She grinned at Jazz.

"It's time for dinner, let's go Jazz," Kelechi said.

"I'm not hungry," Jazz stated.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not hungry," Jazz repeated.

"If you say so. We have evening prep after dinner so we'll see you later okay," Kelechi said as she left the room with Ronke.

Jazz groaned and fell face first on her bed.

* * *

"Wake up Jazz, wake up!" Kelechi called and Jazz slowly opened her eyes.

"What now?" Jazz asked sleepily.

"You've been sleeping since yesterday and I didn't want to disturb your sleep but you have to wake up now so we won't be late for the assembly," Kelechi said without missing a beat and continued to rock Jazz.

Jazz lazily got up from her bed and Kelechi quickly started to make the bed for her. "You have to make your bed whenever you wake up, it's a rule. If you don't, you'll get in trouble with the dorm captain," Kelechi said to her.

A girl then walked into the room and paced around inspecting the beds, she got to two unmade beds and shouted at the owners of the beds. Amarachi and Fatima hurriedly made their beds at her command.

"Ugh, who is she?" Jazz asked sleepily.

"Somto, she's the dorm captain."

"Why is she yelling so much?"

"They didn't make their beds," Kelechi replied.

She passed Kelechi and Ronke's beds and stopped when she got to Jazz whose bed was already made.

"Hello, how has your stay here been so far? Hope you slept well and nobody disturbed you?" Somto asked with a smile but Jazz just mumbled sleepily.

"Okay," Somto said awkwardly and left.

"Get your toiletries and go and have your bath, quick!" Kelechi said, pointing to the bathroom door.

"Okay, mom," Jazz said mockingly.

After getting ready, the girls hurried to their various classes. As Jazz walked through the hallway, it was as though her presence froze everyone as they stopped all they were doing and stared at her. Some girls flocked around her, touching and complimenting her hair and skin.

When the girls were gone, they all laughed. "Don't forget, you have to go to the school's bookshop to collect your textbooks and excercise books," Kelechi reminded her.

"We'll follow you so we can help you carry your books," Ronke offered.

"Yeah, sure," Jazz said dryly.

When they were done, Ronke waved them goodbye as she left for her classroom.

"Isn't she in the same class as us?" Jazz asked.

"Yes but she's in science class, we're in arts class," Kelechi explained.

There were a few students in the class. Some were chatting while some were reading and some were just completing their homework.

Everyone stared at Jazz as she stepped into the classroom. "Hi," She said and sat on top of her desk which was in the middle of the class while Kelechi settled in her seat at the front.

"Hello." A fat, fair girl who was seated beside Jazz beamed at her.

"Hi," Jazz responded.

"My name is Princess. You know, I'm so happy you're seating next to me," Princess said excitedly and Jazz rolled her eyes.

The bell rang soon after and everyone left the class.

"It's time for the assembly, let's go," Princess said and left the class. Jazz got up and started fixing her dress.

"Come on Jazz, I don't want to sit at the back," Kelechi said and took Jazz by the arm.

* * *

The assembly was in the school's auditorium with chairs arranged neatly in rows. The auditorium was almost filled with students who were already seated, most of them were chatting and giggling away, waiting for the assembly to begin.

"Now we have to sit at the back." Kelechi pouted as she and Jazz started making their way to the back when Ronke stopped them.

"Hey, I've saved seats for you here." Ronke gestured to the seats beside her at the front and they went to sit with her.

"Thanks!" Kelechi said.

Ronke laughed. "I know how much you love sitting at the front."

A boy and a girl who were both wearing badges climbed the podium and asked everyone to stand up. Then they called out a Christian and a Muslim to pray after which the National anthem was sung and the National pledge was recited.

Everyone took their seats when the principal climbed the podium to address them. The teachers on duty stood by the entrances to punish the latecomers. As the principal addressed the assembly, she spotted Jazz and her facial expression changed.

After the principal was done, she asked the teachers to carry out inspection on the students. Students that were not properly dressed with their shirts tucked in, their nails were too long or girls that didn't braid their hair, were punished. Several students were called out to be punished and afterwards they were all dismissed.

As Jazz strutted back to the class with Kelechi and Ronke beside her, a neatly dressed girl approached her, there were two other girls standing behind her.

"Get out of my way," Jazz almost shouted.

"I'm sorry for getting in your way but don't you know you're not supposed to be on mufti during school hours?" The girl said.

"Do I look like I care?" Jazz asked.

The girl laughed. "You will care when I report you to the principal."

"Like I said, do I look like I care?"

"You better learn to follow the rules and regulations of this school, just because you're a foreigner doesn't mean you can do as you please," The girl said.

"Oh yeah? Why don't you try and stop me." Jazz looked like she was ready for a fight.

"Let's go Jazz, it's almost time for first period!" Kelechi chirped and took Jazz by the hand away from the scene with Ronke following behind.

"Okay, that was totally unnecessary. I was just about to--"

"It was completely necessary. Have you forgotten so soon the deal you made with your parents? If you beat her up you will surely get expelled so try to control yourself," Kelechi warned her.

"I'll try," Jazz said. "Who the hell is she anyway?"

"Emmanuella, don't mind her and don't take what she says to heart, she's stuck up and very mean," Kelechi said.

"She's one of the neatest and most intelligent students in our school but because of her bad mouth and manners, they didn't make her the head girl of the school which made her jealous and even meaner. Now she goes around school with her friends insulting and bullying people," Ronke added.

"So you see, it's pointless to fight with her. She's just jealous of you and is trying to make you think that she's better," Kelechi said.

Jazz scoffed. "As if."

Amarachi walked up to them. "Senior Jazz, the principal wants to see you in her office, now," She said and left.

"Ew why is she calling me senior? I'm not old."

"That's what juniors call seniors here, get used to it," Ronke replied.

"Ugh," Jazz said as she headed to the principal's office.

"I hope she's not in trouble," Kelechi said as she and Ronke went to class.

* * *

"Don't you know how to knock?" Mrs Williams asked when Jazz barged into her office.

"You wanted to see me?" Jazz asked back.

"Don't answer my question with a question. Go back and knock."

"But I'm already inside, just tell me what you wanna tell me."

"I said go back and knock!"

Jazz groaned and went outside, shutting the door after her and knocked. 

"Come in," Mrs Williams said as Jazz walked in and slouched on a chair.

"Sit properly," Mrs Williams ordered and Jazz sat up. 

"So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" Jazz asked.

"I noticed that you were the only one in the assembly not wearing a uniform. Why aren't you in your uniform?"

"Cause I didn't want to wear it," Jazz replied casually.

"It doesn't matter whether you want to wear it or not, you are expected to be in your uniform during school hours, after school you can then wear whatever you want. I will pardon you today but from tomorrow I must see you in the school's uniform. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yeah sure," Jazz drawled.

"You may leave now," Mrs Williams ordered and Jazz left the office.

By the time Jazz got to her class the teacher was already there. "Sup teach, sorry for barging in like this."

The further maths teacher, Miss Chinaza, beamed at Jazz.

"It's okay, go and have your seat," She said and Jazz strutted to her seat.

The entire class was shocked by Miss Chinaza's response to how Jazz addressed her. Usually, if any student spoke to her that way, she would deal with the person. 

"Why don't you tell us your name and where you come from?" Miss Chinaza asked still smiling. 

Jazz groaned. "My name is Jackie. People call me Jazz so call me Jazz," she said dryly. 

"Alright dear." Miss Chinaza turned around to write the date, subject and topic on the whiteboard. 

"All these eye service teachers, they will never change," the boy sitting next to Jazz said and she turned to him.

"What?"

"I mean, she's only being nice to you cause you're coming from America." he chuckled.

"Oh really." Jazz also chuckled.

"You need to see the way she treats the rest of us," the boy said. "By the way, my name is Abubarkar. I'm also a foreigner like you but I'm African, I'm from Ivory Coast."

"Abu stop disturbing her with your biography," Princess said.

"I'm not distracting her. After all Miss C has not started teaching yet."

The three of them were startled by the bang of Miss Chinaza's hand on Abu's desk. "What is going on here, why are the two of you disturbing her?" She asked.

"No ma, I was just introducing myself," Abu replied.

"If I hear your annoying voice again eh," Miss Chinaza warned and went back to the board to start teaching. 

"Our topic for today is trigonometry," She said and opened a textbook before her on the teachers' desk in front of the class, "Open your textbooks to page thirty."

Miss Chinaza taught the class for about an hour before writing a maths problem on the board. "Who can solve this?" She asked.

No one raised their hands.

"So you mean that I've been teaching you for the past hour and even when I asked if you understood you said yes but you can't solve this simple problem!" Miss Chinaza shouted.

Still no one said anything.

"Do you think it is easy to stand here and teach? So because you're in arts class you don't want to learn maths is that right?!"

The class remained silent.

"Look at how they are moping at me!"

Jazz looked around before speaking up. "I can solve it."

Everyone stared on as Jazz made her way to the front of the class.

"I knew you were not like them, come on, show us." Miss Chinaza beamed as she gave Jazz the marker.

Within a couple of minutes Jazz solved the problem on the board. "There," she said.

"Look at them, they don't even know if it is correct. Clap for her!" Miss Chinaza bellowed.

The class clapped for her. "Thank you Jazz, you may return to your seat." Jazz smiled and obliged.

"You were amazing!" Princess chirped.

Jazz flipped her hair. "I know."

"Now, I want you people to learn from Jazz and stop being so lazy," Miss Chinaza said as she wrote down some more problems on the board and the bell rang.

"Thank God!" Princess sighed.

"Take this as your assignment and submit it in my next class." With that, Miss Chinaza left the class with her textbook.

The class suddenly became noisy as everyone started to leave.

"Miss Chinaza is so mean. We're lucky the school authorities banned the use of canes if not she would've killed us by now," Princess said when the class was almost empty.

"It's proof that God loves us," Abu said and they laughed. "Wow Jazz, you just solved a maths problem that no one else was able to solve, not even Kelechi and she's the best at maths in our class. I used to ask her to teach me maths, maybe I should come to you instead."

"Abu you talk a lot." Kelechi playfully hit his arm.

"It's one of my many talents," Abu joked.

"Aside failing maths?" Ella asked with a sly smile on her face.

"If you're so good at maths why weren't you able to solve the maths problem in class?" Abu asked and Ella just walked away with a huff.

"Put her in her place much," Jazz said and smirked.

"Enough of that. Come on, let's go and have our breakfast I'm hungry," Abu said and they all left the classroom.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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