Kora

I was barely at ease. It had been exactly two hours since the fight broke out and Jeremiah had to go to the dean's office, and three hours since all the fleet of cars drove into NAUN. Rumor had it that the school had invited all their parents or guardians for a brief meeting. A meeting that was taking hours.

I was worried. Really worried, especially since I had spent the past thirty minutes pacing around the hall. I could see Luke from the transparent glass, sitting on the long bench outside the room rubbing his hands and bowing his head, but I pretended like I didn't. After all that had happened, avoiding Luke was the only thing that was sane to do. He abandoned me, not once, not twice, but all the time. He never took my side. He just watched everyone hurt me all the time. Why did I need to care about him?

Don't stress it, Kora. He deserves it. One voice told me.
He's into this trouble because of you in the first place. It's really wrong to just ignore him. Another voice told me.

What about it though? I didn't ask anyone to be an African version of Bruce lee on my behalf. He was doing pretty well acting like he didn't see Charles bully me from the beginning. If he had just stepped in at that time, maybe things wouldn't have gotten so worse. I exhaled and then came to a stop, making sure I was backing him.

The last thing I needed was him seeing the worried look on my face. I didn't want him to know I still cared so much about him. I couldn't even begin to imagine what he was going through. Unlike the rest of the boys inside the dean's office, Luke had no one to come in for him. He had lied to the entire school that he was new young money just to avoid being laughed at, and now his mother couldn't even come to intercede for him. How could she? She could barely even speak English the right way. The moment she stepped foot inside NAUN, the whole school was going to know Luke had lied to them, and Peter was just too busy with work to concern himself with anything that happened to Luke. Luke was the least of his problems. Good thing I called for back up when I did.

I checked my wrist watch.

God, Kora, you'd never learn not to be kind to people that never return the favor. My good heart was killing me. I hated the fact that I was too soft for my own good.

"Kora!"

Soft enough to call my own mother to stand in as Luke's guardian. So long for past relationships. He did get into all that trouble for me anyway. I didn't want to stay indebted to him or anyone for anything ever again.

"Mum." I ran into my mother's embrace. Ignoring the fact that she had the time to dress so dramatically under short notice. Her large pink hat covered half of her face, and her pink gloves ran up to her elbows. Her pink shoes managed to shimmer right under her black net dress. A complete drama queen. To my mother, her appearance was everything. She never wanted to be caught off guard or unfresh at any event, especially since she was coming to an only rich-kids school for a meeting with some of the greatest families in the country. My mum loves to represent all the time. I mean, this was the only time she might ever show up in school to represent anyone. She just had to make the best of it as always, and I was so used to it.

She gently pulled me away.

"Are you okay?"

I sniffed, even though there were no tears in my eyes, and then I nodded. I was okay now. A little bit at least. I watched her shift her gaze to where Luke was. The frown on her face worsened.

"Do we really have to help him?" She asked me. "We should just let him suffer for what he did to you?"

Sigh.

Sometimes, I just wondered if I was the mum, or she was. Fact remained that I loved my Mum. Not only did she not play with issues affecting me, she didn't play with anyone that tried to hurt me. Luke in this case.

"Mum."

"I'm sorry I'm being really inconsiderate and selfish, but I really don't like the fact that we have to help him after what he did to you. I might have to give him a beating before I do."

"Mum please," I slowly reached for her hand. "He got into this because of me. This is the only way I can feel okay and comfortable about it. I don't want to be indebted to him or anyone."

"I understand." She tapped my hand gently. "I do. Don't worry. Let's just help him. After all there was a time he was a part of our family, wasn't there? I'm sure they'd go easy on him. It wouldn't make sense if they gave others a lighter punishment, and him something worse for a crime they all committed. Good thing he was caught fighting a rich fight."

I smiled.
It was really hard to smile that way, but I did. My mum's presence was soothing. I felt better now she was here holding my hand. We heard a cringe sound. It came from the door. We all slowly turned to see what it was, hurrying inside the moment we realized Charles' friends leave the room with both their mothers behind them. Was the meeting over? Were they out now? They looked so upset and walked in a straight line. Charles and his really ugly mother were next.

Besides having a great body, Charles' mother was horrible everywhere else. She had a stern personality, and a really annoying ego. She was the mastermind of their entire family. The one that called all the shots. Evil. You could see it, even behind all that thick make up. Charles tagged along right beside her. He looked better than I had seen him after the fight. He had at least washed all the blood off and placed bandaids on the bruised areas. There was one across his nose bridge, another on his brows, and another one on his upper lip, and let's not forget that swollen eye. It was obvious Jeremiah didn't go easy on him at all.

Kingsley and an older man were next. By older, I meant old enough to be his brother, but too young to be his father, he wore a uniform. More like a military uniform, and looked a lot like Kingsley. That had to be him, one of Kingsley's brothers. I once heard they were all in the military, following in their father's footsteps. That had to be one of them, and unlike the mums, he didn't look the least upset. It looked more like he and Kingsley were going to laugh with a couple of drinks the moment they had left the building. Goals. I never knew Kingsley had such cool siblings, and then I saw him, Jeremih. He was the last to leave the room right after the average heightened woman in front of him whose frown happened to be in competition with the rest of the Mums. I'd have not recognized her if I hadn't seen her in the news a couple of times, and at the gala too. I could feel my mum turn around immediately to grab her mirror from her bag just to check on her make up. It wasn't every time you had to stand face to face with Susan Ozor. I exhaled as my mum turned back hurriedly right after.

That was it. That was who she was. Susan Ozor. Jeremih's mum or should I say, step mother. I watched how all the families turned to face each other, forming an arc at the center of the room.

"My apologies," Kingsley's brother was the first to start. "For my brother's misbehavior."

One of the mothers scoffed.

"Apologies?" The other one asked. "Can your apologies fix my son's precious face?"

"Or my son's broken nose?" The last one asked.

"Oh, that wasn't me." Kingsley cut in. "That was Luke." He pointed in Luke's direction. I forced myself not to laugh, even though Jeremiah was laughing quietly under his breath. Kingsley's brother pushed him gently. Luke stood up slowly. He looked like he was almost going to pee in his pants. All the mothers turned to him.

They were starting to examine him slowly.

"Him?" The woman turned to her son. "He did this to you?"

"Yes Mummy." He faked a loud cry.

"Who on earth does he think he is-" she turned back to Luke. "Who the hell is he?" Now that question was directed to Luke.

"Who are you?" The other woman asked him. "Where are your parents?" She raised her voice. "How can they not show up after their son hurt someone else's child like this?!"

"I-" Luke stammered. "I'm." He really didn't know what to say.

"I'm his guardian!"

Talk about wrong timing.

I wished I had turned around sooner to stop my mum from walking towards the crowd. I had asked her to help represent Luke in front of the Dean, not brag about it in front of the parents. What on earth was she doing? I was almost going to turn back into sand, especially when everyone turned to us. Mum's heels were making the worst noise ever. Jeremiah turned to look at me. The way his eyes widened, I was sure he didn't know I had been standing there all along. God, I was so embarrassed.

"Lilian?" One of the mothers called my mum's name. Had she recognized her already?

"Wait? You know her?" The other one asked as my mum walked closer to them.

"Of course I do. She has been dying to join our club for months now."

My mum scoffed.

"Dying? Who is dying? I turned down your offer, because it looked like you were trying to extort me. Who on earth pays three million just to join a club?"

"Like you could even afford it." The other woman whispered loud enough for everyone to hear. "Not like we wanted you anyway."

"Lilian." Charles' mother took a step towards my mum. She stopped for a second, and then slowly shifted her cold stare to me. I froze . "It looks like old habits don't die fast after all."

"Why don't you look at me If you have something to say to me. Leave my daughter alone."

This made everyone turn to me. God, I was starting to get really anxious and scared. My hands were going to start trembling soon again.

"She's her daughter?" The women whispered to each other. Susan was looking right at me, like she was trying to remember where she had seen me from. I could see the affirmation in her eyes. She must have figured it out.

"Kemi, you know her too?" One of them asked Charles' mother.

"Of course I do." She managed to smile for the first time. "Both our families go way back. I never thought I'd see them again, until today."

I hurried to my mother as fast as I could. There was no point staying there anymore. The last thing I needed was them trying to bring up the past.

"Mum," I grabbed my mum's arm, whispering to her. "Let's just go inside." I was about to pull her when-

"Lilian used to be the wife of my husband's best friend." She announced.  "They divorced after he realized they were trying to extort money from us, with false claims that my son had raped her daughter, when her daughter was the one that clearly forced herself on my son."

"What?!" One of the women said, as they glued their focus to me even worse.

"I mean, men would always be men. But one thing I acknowledge about my son is his great taste in women, just like his father. There was no way he could ever have considered her in the first place."

I raised my head to where Charles was standing, after I realized how the other women were buying her story. He took his gaze from me immediately. Shame, he was ashamed because he knew the truth, and there was no atom of truth in what his mother was saying.

"She got drunk, slept with God knows who, and tried to pin it on my son as rape." She clicked her tongue, and then shook her head. "It has indeed been a long time. Three years, isn't it? Fancy meeting you here."

"What?" My mother asked her.

"That's a lie." I didn't need anyone to stand up for me. "Why don't you stop lying and tell them all the truth? Tell them what your son did! Tell them what your family did!" I was starting to raise my voice. I could feel my mother's hand on my arm, trying to hold me back. God, I was almost starting to cry again.

"Who do you think you're raising your voice at?!" Charles tried to step forward, but Jeremiah grabbed his arm back to stop him. He turned to face Jeremiah.

"Do you want to lose another eye?" He had a huge frown on his face.

"What?" He asked him.

"Go ahead and hit her." Jeremiah was calling his bluff now, but Charles knew better.

"Until when are you going to stop dragging my family's name through the mud?" My mother asked her. "Until when are you eventually going to tell everyone the truth? Tell everyone how you ruined my daughter's life. How you ruined my family!"

She chuckled.

"Oh please." She said. "What family are you talking about? You call this a family? You don't even know who the father of your child is. Poor girl." She turned to me. "She doesn't even know whose blood it is flowing in her veins. She doesn't know whose genes and what traits she could acquire over the years, that explains the lies and stealing. You should be ashamed of yourself. Like mother like daughter after all."

"That's enough." My mother told her. "Won't you stop disrespecting me and my daughter? Harassing us?"

"All you do is jump from one man to another, and the worst part is, no matter how many male genitalia you suck on, you can never ever be on the same level with any of us. Ever. So you started to sell your daughter out too."

"That's a lie."

"To the extent that you'd ask her to fabricate evidence against other families, rich families, just so you could blackmail and extort money from them. Such a failure."

"That's not true! My daughter and I have never lied about a single thing to stay relevant!"

"Tell that to someone that actually doesn't know you."

"Do you all honestly have to do this in front of everyone? Is this the time to reminisce on past events?"

It took a while, but slowly, everyone started to turn to Susan. "It's bad enough that all our sons caused so much problems already, do you adults have to make everything worse?"

Charles' mother scoffed.

"Says the woman whose son almost beat my son to death."

"Your son should have learned how to fight." She snapped right back. "We spent thousands in making sure Jeremiah got all the training he needed to defend himself, if ever he had to. From judo to taekwando, Kungfu, shooting sports, boxing and even wrestling, so he never needed to not defend himself. Do you know the amount of people that would go out of their way to hurt our kids because of the families they are from? Don't you know how important it is that they know how to defend themselves from the world? All our kids had such training, even my daughter. Three years in Singapore and your son couldn't even throw a straight punch? How pathetic."

The ladies chuckled softly.

"Is it funny?!" Kemi turned and then yelled at them. They swallowed their laughter back immediately. She scoffed, and then took a deep breath before she turned back to Susan.

"This is not over yet Susan." She said. "I'm going to get justice for what happened to my son. Be sure that you'd hear from our lawyers soon." She turned to Charles, and then grabbed his arm.  She pulled him away from the crowd. The other women followed. Kingsley and his brother did too after a few seconds.

It was just us and the Ozors now. I turned to my Mum, I could tell she was really upset. I rubbed her hands to comfort her.

"Hello Sam," I could hear Susan say over her phone, as she slowly walked away from us. "I'd like you to reach out to the Orji's and find a way to settle this silently without making a fuss about it. Also make sure there are no recordings of what happened today anywhere."

"Let's go." My Mum told Luke, the moment Jeremiah came to a stop in front of us. Luke led the way into the room, while I drew a deep breath. I slowly turned to Jeremiah.

"Hey."

I lowered my gaze to his bandaged hand.

"How is your hand?"

He raised his hand up, and then turned it around.

"It doesn't hurt one bit." I scoffed. I knew he was lying. He slowly dropped his hand and then smiled. I couldn't believe he could still smile after everything that happened. I had so much to say. I wanted to yell at him and curse him for making me worry like that, and for getting himself caught up in my problems, but a part of me couldn't bring myself to.

"What happened in there?" I asked him. "Are you guys going to be okay?"

"It's not like we can get expelled or anything." He was trying to joke about it now. With the way I frowned, I hoped he knew I wasn't in the mood for his jokes. He cleared his throat. "We have detention for a week, and community service too." He exhaled. "I can't believe I'd get to actually scrub bathrooms and clean, but I can't complain though, it's one of the things we men have got to do for love."

"Won't you stop?" Now I was getting really upset. "Is any of this funny to you?" I shook my head and then turned around. Love? Did he just say love? My face was turning red, but instead, turning around, walking away while pretending to be upset looked like a better option.

"Kora."

I walked faster, even as he walked as fast as he could behind me.