Kora

"Don't you feel better now that you finally left that room of yours?"

That was Grace's way of telling me that she was happy I had finally decided to stop feeling so horrible about myself, and left my room for the first time in three days. She had one of her legs beside where I sat, on the long metal bench in the football field, as she stretched herself, while I just sat still, staring into blank space. 

Grace had pulled me out of my bed that morning, to join her on her regular 9am run at the football field. I was feeling really tired and lazy to even do anything, and so I sat there, on the bench, staring at my pair of purple sneakers, as my feet sat prettily in them.

I was barely listening to anything she said, to the extent that I had not noticed the group of girls that walked to where we were. I did, but I wasn't just keeping tabs on anything that was happening around me. Their gym bags were right beside my bench. They had just finished running, and so they reached for their bags to get out their water bottles. There were about four of them. I let out an exhale, and then stretched my arm as far as I could.

"Oh my gosh." One of them started. "Did you guys hear? Jeremiah is in school today."

I paused for a while, and then turned to her. She was the only one with her phone in her hands. Did I hear correctly? Did she just say Jeremiah was in school?

"Really?" They all pushed themselves closer to her.

"Yes. It's all over the group chats."

I watched how they all took out their phones at the same time to check. I waited patiently. I wanted to know more, to listen to them. I wasn't on any of NAUN's group chats, so I had no idea what went on most of the times. Plus, there was a subscription fee for this particular group chat, that always had exclusive updates on every member of old money. Jeremiah, being the most talked about. I mean ever since I got here, it was all everyone ever talked about. Jeremiah Ozor. He was an everyday trend. You should see how a lot of students paid so much to be in the group. I'm not just talking about NAUN students, I'm talking about students all over the country, and even some over her boarders.

Fifty thousand every month. That was how much you had to pay, if you wanted to be a member of the group.

Scoff.

Why would I ever pay fifty thousand, just to update myself on the lives of people that probably don't know I exist? People I could care less care about? Nope. I'd pass the offer over and over again.

But I'd give it to whoever it was that managed the chat. No one ever knew who it was, but what we knew was that whoever they were, had to be a member of old money, or someone close to a member of old money, because the kind of gists they brought to the group sometimes, were just so real and accurate. They were things not a normal student in NAUN would know.

They always got the gist first, even before the media, and that was why everyone wanted to be a member of the group, but the average Nigerian in me knew better. Why would I waste my money on news that didn't concern me, or news that I was eventually going to hear about at the end of the day?

"It's true." Another girl announced. "It's on my class' group chat too. He's at old money's basketball hall. Today is their activity day."

At this point, old money wasn't a part of NAUN anymore. It was an entire school on its own. An entire society on its own.

"Really?" Another one said. "That's great news." She let out a relief exhale. "I couldn't sleep well the entire two days he was away, because I thought something bad had happened to him. I thought he was sick."

"Tell me about it." Another one said. "My sister's obsession with Jeremiah has reached an emergency level. She didn't eat the whole day yesterday either, because she thought he was going to stop coming to NAUN, and she wasn't going to see him again." She took out her phone. "She's going to be so excited to hear this."

Grace scoffed.

"Crazy people." She kept her voice as low as possible. "Imagine obsessing over someone that you'd starve yourself, because he didn't come to school. These fan clubs are the worst."

I got up from the bench quickly.

"Where are you going?" I could hear her ask me the moment she grabbed my arm with hers, while I tried to pick up my gym bag from the bench. I looked at her. She knew. "Don't."

"I have to see him." I told her. "I have to explain what happened, so he can understand."

Grace exhaled. The way she looked at me, it was really obvious she pitied me, and was tired of advising me.

"Don't wait for me." I told her. I was in a lot of hurry. "I'll just take a minute, and then meet you at the dorm."

She exhaled, and then let go of my hand. She wasn't going to stop me. Grace understood how important this was to me, so she let me go. I nodded, and then grabbed my bag. I walked as fast as I could, away from the football field.

Where was old money's basket ball hall anyway?

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Phoenix block, popularly known as Old money's headquarters. The biggest and most beautiful building in the whole NAUN, quite a distance from the other buildings, from the rest of the school.

Imagine having to share a compound, or a piece of land with a group of people, and still feel like it's two completely different places? That was the privilege old money enjoyed, as far as NAUN was concerned. They did everything differently, they had everything differently, and they weren't even up to half the population of the entire school.

The building looked like a really huge palace, compared to what the rest looked like. It was made of shiny glass, and had really beautiful tall trees around it. You could see NAUN's flag too, and a tiny shinny diamond above the golden crown on the flag. Now that was royalty on royalty. A different kind of royalty, kind of what made other people feel like the owners of NAUN were all hypocrites.

Imagine creating a school for rich people, a school poor people would have to rely on rich people to attend, either by scholarship, or by sponsorship. A school where everyone had to put on uniforms like a bunch of secondary school students, just so some students didn't feel intimidated or inferior when some show up in customized clothes and designers, and still go ahead to create some kind of separation between the students, favoring some, by making a whole sector for them, where they didn't have to mix with the rest of the school, hiring Caucasian lecturers with only a few Nigerian Professors, making a part of the school look and feel more superior than the rest, just because they belonged to the richest of the richest families in the country, cloning the name "old money" with the words "Phoenix", a building not everyone had access to, and making it look like it was just a regular building, when it was nothing close to being as regular as the rest of NAUN, and trust me, there was nothing regular about the rest of NAUN. If NAUN was as great and luxurious as the whole world thought it was, then think of what this building was.

I let out an exhale as I kept staring at the tall building. I had never been to that part of NAUN before. I didn't think anyone had too. I mean, who would even let you inside there? Not with all the security cameras watching you. You couldn't even get past the front door without going through a security check, and identifying yourself. I mean, what do you expect, when even the president's son was in that building? Do you have any idea what was at stake, if perchance one of the kids in that building somehow got kidnapped? How much their ransom was going to be? I mean, if any bad guy somehow summoned the courage to kidnap any NAUN student, any one at all, that bad guy would be millions of dollars rich, not to talk about if that child was an old money, let's say the child of the president, or his vice? Or one of the high earning business men in the whole country? That particular bad guy, or group of bad guys could hit jackpot. I'm talking about hundreds of millions, and even billions, especially if the child was kidnapped on school premises.

Of course there would be tight security, tighter security.

Now, the big question was, how was I supposed to get in? To get past all that cameras without being recognized? I just needed to be in that building, and once I was in, I knew I could figure the rest out, including where that hall was. I mean, that was the only thing I was thankful to NAUN for, the rule that everyone had to wear a uniform. That was good, really good, because once I stepped foot into that building, it was going to be really easy for me to blend in.

I heard some girls chuckle from behind me, and it made me turn. There were about six of them, neatly dressed in their short uniforms and jackets, net panty hoses and really shiny shoes, and their weaves, their weaves just flowed with the wind. They looked like seniors, and had bright smiles on their faces. Old money seniors. Whatever they were talking about sure made them really happy.

It looked like they were approaching the building too. That was it, my cue, my only chance to be inside that building. Good thing they didn't even notice me. They didn't even see me standing there all along, and when they got really close to me, close enough, I joined their really small arc, trying to fix myself somewhere behind them, somewhere the camera wasn't going to notice quickly. I bowed my head as low as I could, walking with the same pace they did, right until we got to the door. I watched how they raised their phones in the air as we walked into the small security space. There was another glass in front of us. It only took a minute as the door scanned us for metal objects. Thank God I didn't come with any. It opened. I pushed myself even closer to them, just as the glass in front of us opened, and then we walked in. It closed behind us.

Phew!
All this to just convince this guy that probably didn't want to have anything to do with me anymore, how sorry I was.

I took a deep breath, and then gasped for air, just as the girls walked away from me. I could not believe my eyes. I could not believe how shinny and bright the hall I was standing in was. The entrance hall. Everything was so bright and beautiful. I had never seen anything like it and so it made me wonder if I was still in the country because, oh- my. I swallowed hard. I was definitely going to get lost in this building. How on earth was I going to find my way to the basketball hall? I turned to my left, there was a man standing right there, in a security uniform, staring at me. Why wouldn't he, when I was making it really obvious that I had never been inside those walls before.

Attitude Kora, keep up with the attitude.

I eyed him, and then looked away, like every other spoilt rich girl would have, clenching my fist and saying a short prayer in my head, so I didn't get caught. I took a deep breath, and then walked away as fast as I could.