REGAL HIGH

Finally it was the beginning of first term.

And my first day at Regal High School. The school was located in the one of the best and classy parts of Lagos State. It wasn't on the island. It was on the same mainland where I stayed but it was on an entirely different level. My neighborhood was no doubt a dump. It made me wonder how paradise-y Lagos island looked.

I was nervous to start in the school but I wasn't someone who showed any form of weakness. I had mastered the art of suppressing my true feelings.

I was already dressed for school. The uniform was a white long sleeved dress shirt with a deep blue blazer and an equally deep blue satin tie on a deep blue plaid skirt. I was combing my low cut hair in front of our severely cracked mirror when Dinma woke up. I watched her through the mirror as she kept staring at my outfit. I prayed vehemently in my heart that she wouldn't do anything stupid.

"Your skirt too long," She started in broken English.

I stared down at my uniform skirt. It was longer than my former uniform skirt but still it wasn't too long. It stopped just a few inches above my knee. I wouldn't have had any problem cutting it but this was a new school and no doubt a disciplined one at that. I wouldn't want to make a bad impression on my first day.

"I like it like this," I told her.

She scoffed. "Madam saint."

Sometimes I wondered how my grandparents trained these girls. I never got to meet them. I didn't even know if I had any other relatives. I usually wondered if they were the ones that influenced my so called mother and aunt.

"I'm not planning on doing anything stupid there. I just want to school and figure out a way to have a bright future."

She cackled and told me good luck. I fought the urge to insult her and rub the reality of her wasted life in her face.

"Remember I'm not giving you any transport fare. So if you like dey do like saint," she added in pidgin English and lay back down.

I sighed.

It was going to be my first day at my new school and the best advice she could give me was to screw my school mates or teachers.

Who exactly did I offend?

Sometimes I'm glad for the children that my mother didn't give birth to.  No child should face what I faced. I don't even think anyone could have gone through that and still managed to have some little decency or morals like me.

I took one last look at the broken mirror. I looked at the lady staring back at me.

Innocent. Beautiful. Good

She possessed those qualities. She was just perfect. Unlike me, I was the opposite. That's why she was my reflection after all. What I was supposed to let people see —to distract them from the ugliness lurking on the inside. But still even when I tried to hide, I still wasn't perfect.

I sighed again. I put on my shoes and flung my school bag over my shoulder before leaving the house.

I got to school at about seven twenty five that day even after leaving the house at six twenty. That is a one hour journey. I was lucky enough not to meet any traffic that morning. But I was bound to meet it in the afternoon. There's no dodging that.

After getting my school ID card from the admission office, I located my class —SS2 gold, the science class. It was on the third floor of the U-shaped school building.

When I entered the classroom, It all felt like a dream come true. I couldn't believe I was in going to school in such exquisite place. The classroom was painted in shades of grey. The classroom was quite spacious and there were just twenty seats in the room. At left side of the class, opposite the entrance, was a desk and a chair which I guessed was for the form teacher and at the back was a roll of lockers. I was told that one would be assigned to me by my class teacher so I had brought all my books.

My favourite things about the class was that the seats weren't clustered together like in my former school and there was a freaking air conditioning system. In my former school, we used faulty ceiling fans. During classes, students, both boys and girls, would unbutton their shirts just to cool out.

The seats were dusty so I cleaned one at the back of the second roll and sat down. I placed my bag on my desk. The class looked weird without natural light so I went over to the window to pull up the blinds. I heard someone say something and I looked towards the entrance to see a woman dressed in green overall. She was with a mopping kit. In my former school, on the first day of school we did thorough clean up.

How could I forget that?

"Good morning ma," I greeted in my sweetest voice going towards the woman.

"Good morning dear," she responded. I made to take the mop but she stopped me.

"What are you doing?" She asked with a raised brow and amused look that I was able to notice her really deep dimples.

"Uh– I want to mop".

She laughed and asked if I was a new student and I affirmed it.

"No wonder. It's my job to clean the classes," she explained.

"But what school are you from?" she asked. "Most schools around here spoil their students."

I couldn't tell her I was from some public school somewhere in a dump so I told her to forget about it. Immediately we finished our small talk, another student entered the class —a boy. He was average in height just like me, maybe a bit taller. He wore glasses but it didn't make him look dorky in anyway.

I sucked in air as he strode boldly towards me.

"A newbie," He said with a grin. "I noticed you wouldn't take your gaze off me. Is there anything wrong with my outfit or you simply just like what you see?" He asked cockily. The fact that he called me newbie gave him a bad first impression. I had vowed not to let this rich children intimidate me.

"My name is not newbie," I told him with my signature poker face.

"Chill. I didn't mean to offend you," he smiled. It reached his eyes and it seriously annoyed me. I think he noticed I wasn't in for his jokes so he asked for my name. My initial plan was to ignore him but I decided to be nice.

"Nairobi," I answered.

He gave me a funny look. "Well I'm Cairo. Some friends call me Abuja though."

I could hear the sarcasm dripping from his voice. I was not even planning on explaining anything to him. I simply said okay.

I heard him sigh. "I'm Chijioke. Chijioke Abel." I was tempted to make a rude remarks like 'my name is actually Chidinma Cain' but I simply said okay.

"Wait, are your serious about your name?"

"I said my name is Nairobi. Nairobi Chielo. Which other name do you need?"

"Hmm. . .I refuse to get offended on such a beautiful Monday morning so see you later," he said. He went to the desk ahead of mine on the first row and dropped his school bag.

Just then a group of two boys and two girls came into the class and went to meet him. None of them acknowledged me and I was grateful for that. One of the girls met my eyes and waved at me. She was slim and overly light skinned. I had overheard Chijioke call her Jessica and also 'my wife'. I returned the gesture with a small smile.

Chijioke murmured something to the group and the boys turned to look at me, then they laughed. I suddenly felt uncomfortable. I felt they were laughing at me.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves then I brought out my favourite scrapbook I had carried to school, to doodle Chijioke's caricature.

After some minutes, the bell rang. I knew it was time for the morning assembly.

"Nairobi. It's time for morning assembly," CJ announced. I heard one of the guys snicker and say Africa ni.

I managed to ignore him.

I walked behind them to the school's auditorium. Even if I did trail behind them, I didn't bother talking to them.

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So what do you think of this chapter.

How do you think Regal high is going to treat Nairobi?

Do you think the boy is one of the egoistic spoilt brat?

Ann♡