Before we start, I just want to say that as Nigerians ( or UARians abi na Uraniums) we need to pray for our country right now more than ever before.

I also plead with all my non-Nigerian readers( if I have any😁) to join us in prayers🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽.

The Lord keep this country for us🤲🏽🤲🏽.

~~~~~~~
"Arise o compatriots,
Nigeria's call obey "
~~~~~~~
-The Nigerian National Anthem

Chetachi

Today's September 30th, the day Hillsong's holding its annual Independence celebration.

As I stared out of the back window of the car, I noticed everything was wrapped, covered or draped in the national colours of green and white.

Green, for our fertile soils that were barely cultivated anymore.

White, for peace and unity, that was already broken and shattered.

But, like always, the citizens I saw through the window were all smiles and hailed greetings as they went about their morning activities.

I arrived at school by 11:30, 30 minutes before the celebration began.

The school itself was also patriotically decorated.

I shook my head, recalling Beryl's tale of the fight that had happened a little more than 24 hours ago.

As soon as she mentioned Darius, I'd assumed he'd gotten into a another brawl with Azikiwe.

I was shocked when she'd completed the tale.

Darius and Ola?

How? From where, kwa?

I mean, it's not like they were BFFs or anything, but it's also not like they were enemies.

Then again, one only truly knows him/herself .

"Hey!" Deja called, approaching me where I stood.

She elegantly made her way over, decked out in a green mini-skirt suit.

Wahala for who no be fashionista.

I stared down at my white outfit and shrugged.

"Bestie of life! I see you, girl!" I hailed her.

"Yes o!" she responded, strutting and twirling like the supermodel I made her out to be in my head.

"Ommooorrr! Girls looking hawt!"someone hollered.

We turned to see Austin.

"Austin! What the actual hell?!"

He had painted his whole face to resemble the national flag, like those fans at the World Cup.

As if that wasn't enough, he was dressed from head-to-toe in green and white.

Literally.

Like, he even had on a curly, green-white-green clown wig propped on his head.

"What? I'm a Nigerian, aren't I? Gotta be patriotic!"

He winked at us and sauntered off, whistling the tune of '1st October, 1960'.

Austin is a very......interesting....piece of work.

Let's just say he's in a class of his own.

Deja and I went up to our classroom.

Lekki was there, with Ginika, taking advantage of the sea view from the windows to snap selfies.

The status updates, ehn?

"Oh, hi girls!" Lekki quipped, taking two more pictures.

We returned her greeting cheerfully, while Ginika sat there looking bored and aloft.

I still think it's weird how someone as sweet and sunshiny as Lekki Johnson can be part of Noelle's friend group.

They're all bitches, if you ask me.

"We all look so cute! Selfie! Selfie!!" she squeaked, pulling Ginika up and dragging her to meet us.

We all smiled, winked and pouted as Lekki directed the impromptu photoshoot.

As she took the pictures, I noticed that her white nails had tiny Nigerian flags manicured on them.

Again, wahala for who no be fashionista.

"They're about to start o!" Ginika said when we were done, walking to the door and flipping her electric white weave.

"I'll send you the pics later!" Lekki said, going after her friend.

Deja and I also made out way down to the auditorium.

.......

When it came to celebrations like this, we always had some sort of address from the Principal.

Most people stylishly stayed outside the hall at this part, filtering in when more interesting things began.

The auditorium was surprisingly full as the Principal began giving his speech on 'Nigeria and her future generation'.

"Shall we go check on Beryl?" I asked, tapping Deja's arm.

She nodded and we started moving towards the backstage area.

On our way, I heard an SS1 girl whisper, "Can someone get this man to hurry the fuck up? No one cares 'bout what he's saying anyway."

Her group of friends mummured in support.

The disrespect laced in the tone was enough for me to punish her as a Prefect, but her words struck.

No one cares what 'bout what he's anyway.

She'd care whether Kylie dropped a new makeup line.

She'd care if Cardi had beef with another celeb or not.

But once it concerned Nigeria, 'care' flew out the window.

Guilt tugged at my chest for a brief moment.

I shook my head and kept going with Deja.

Backstage, there was a contained commossion of people moving up and down, prepping for their performances.

The Independence celebration and most other stuff at Hillsong are pretty big deals because they get broadcasted almost nation wide.

The perk of having the MD/CEO of SSBC as a H-squared parent, I guess.

It was easy to spot the dance team, since they were all wearing the same green and white outfits from Gabriella Akpofure, Lagos or GALA, the fashion brand owned and run by Kesiena's mother.

The girls all had white braids with a few green ones here and there.

Thankfully, the boys had done nothing crazy with their hair.

"Oops, sorry Ricardo!" I apologised to one of the dancers, who I bumped into on our way across to meet Beryl.

"No p," he replied with a grin on his tanned face.

Ricardo and his family were originally Black Brazilians who traced their ancestry to Nigeria. So they returned and settled here.

Asides him, I recognized a few of the cheerleaders, including Janice, Rhianne and Adesuwa, my classmate.

They were all warming up and stretching.

"Bee!" Deja coo'd once we got to Beryl.

She was stretched out into a 180° arabesque.

"Just the girls I needed to see," she smiled at us, changing to the other leg.

"We're flattered," I said, jocularly.

"Mmhmm, I forgot to tell you guys o, but I've talked to Mr. Mystery Guy, his name is-"

"Jimi!" Deja and I chorused.

"Yeah, and...wait..you knew already?"

We nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Beryl whined, letting herself fall into a center split that looked painful at best.

"We thought it'd be better for you to talk to him yourself," Deja explained.

"Well, for that I won't gist you the full gist," Beryl huffed.

"Bee!"

"Anyway," Beryl continued, brushing the topic aside. "I spoke with Jasper yesterday, aaand he asked after you."

She ended by pointing at Deja, whose dark melanin almost failed to cover the colour blooming in her cheeks.

Jasper Okezie; Beryl's older brother schooling abroad.

The guy Deja had liked and who had liked her right back.

That is until he left, just when we were about to enter SS1.

It was around then that she started getting close to Kesiena, but that ended quickly, for some reason.

"I- he...how is he?" Deja spluttered.

"Oh? You're asking me? I think it'd be better for you to talk to him yourself,"Beryl said, blinking her eyes innocently.

Deja frowned and rolled her eyes.

"That's low, Beryl," I said, stiffling a laugh.

She got up and patted Deja's kinky braids.

"Last but not least, I've been asked to come on The Late Night Show with Jerry Ihenna."

"That's great!" I said and Deja nodded ecstatically.

"Five minutes till show time, guys! Five minutes!" a student wearing a black headset and carrying a clip-board announced as he walked round.

I recognized him as Ochuko from C class.

"You people should come and see o!"Adesuwa called out. She was peeking out through the thick curtain that seperated the main stage and backstage.

"What?" almost everyone chorused.

"They made Austin the M.C!"

A small crowd immediately surrounded Adesuwa to watch Austin, who was making the rest of the school laugh.

"Two minutes! Positions please!" Ochuko said.

"I guess that's our cue to leave," Deja said.

"Wish me luck," Beryl said.

Luck, kwa?

This girl could learn and execute dozens of complex choreographies in her sleep.

"Break a leg!" I said."But yunno, don't break a leg."

She giggled and got into position with the other dancers.

Deja and I made it back to our seats just as Austin finished announcing them.

"...And now, to kick off this year's Independence celebration, doing what the do best, The Hillsong High Dance Team!"

The crowd applauded.

The curtain went up and a jazzy version of the national anthem started playing.

The dancers all moved in perfect, mind-blowing sync.

But that was just the intro.

Next, they daanced to a medley of some of the greatest Afro-beats hits.

They did all the latest dance moves,incorporating moves from almost every style of dance, hitting each beat with precision.

Then, Ricardo and some of the other guys stepped forward from the group and started doing tricks like those break dancers on TV.

You know, like that head-spinning move and the one where you balance on on hand.

The applause and cheers became deafening.

If the crowd went crazy before, they went absolutely wild when, after the guys, Beryl and two other girls began doing flawless fouttee turns while the rest hyped them up as they free-styled.

A/N: Okay, so foutte turns are the turns the female dancer begins doing at 0:37 (so you don't have to watch the full video)

The first girl did 5, the second did 10, but Beryl did 20.

She stopped, but I'm sure she could've turned all day.

And if the crowd were wild before, they went ballistic when she did two simultaneous aerials across the stage.

Then came the final part that made everyone lose their freaking minds.

The dancers arranged themselves into 3 sections and those in the middle section took off their green jackets, revealing sparkling white T-shirts.

It was a small action, but the effect was visually stunning.

They had formed a human Nigerian flag.

As if that wasn't enough, at the last note, they all did a synchronised gbese as sparkles exploded on the stage.

I'm sure even those on the Mainland could've heard the shouts, screams and cheers coming from the auditorium in Hillsong High.

.......

"Oh my gosh! Did you see Ricardo? Kill me nawww!"

"That Tsema girl can sing o!"

"Austin was born a clown, I swear!"

"The fuck are you saying?! Beryl killed it, joh! Oya, can you do all those things she did? Rubbish!"

The celebration was over and students were pouring out of the auditorium.

After the dance, there has been other presentations as well as games and giveaways.

Deja even won 5000 Naira worth of airtime, lucky her.

At this point, we could either go home, stay and eat lunch from the school cafeteria or go home to eat.

Beryl, Deja and I chose the latter.

We were all about to grab a book I'd left in my desk when Sebastian rushed up to us.

"Oh Beeerrryl! You promised me an interview, remember?"

"So sorry, I forgot. Can you interview me now?"

"Of course," he said, fishing out his phone and opening the recording app.

" 'Sup, Seb?" I asked before he started interviewing.

Wait for it....

"Greetings," he said, and with that he bowed down, took my hand and planted a peck in it, before doing same to Deja.

If you haven't noticed already, Hillsong High is full if very wonderful species.

Sebastian has got to be the most dramatic guy I've ever met, but I know it's much better to be his friend than his enemy.

"You'd better stay and keep Beryl safe," I whispered to Deja.

I turned and went upstairs.

When I got to my class, Phineas, Kesiena and Majid were there.

Phineas looked up at me and smiled.

The dark green sweatshirt he wore worked well with his auburn hair and brought out his eyes.

I felt a teensy, tiny shock of electricity, the same shock I'd been getting since the night at the beach.

"Hey, guys!" I greeted, trying to take my mind off the weird feeling.

Kes smiled while Majid gave me a thumbs-up sign.

As usual, Kes was the most fashionable guy out of the three of them, dressed in a green turtleneck top with a white shirt as a jacket, on these dope green cargo pants and sneakers, all from GALA.

Majid simply contented himself with a white T-shirt, jeans and a big jacket that almost seemed like a trench coat.

I opened my desk, grabbed the book and was about to head out the door when Phineas called after me.

"You're going home?"

I turned round. "Nah. My friends and I are going out to eat."

Suddenly, a very Tochi like idea popped into my head.

"Do you guys wanna come?" I added.

They looked at each other, silently communicating.

"Sure, why not?" Kesiena said.

"Great, let's go."

(#^.^#)

This chapter's supposed to be longer but I'll cut it into two.

BTW, an 'aerial'( the move Beryl did) is actually just a cartwheel without using your hands.

I low-key love this chapter but I'm also not satisfied with it😭.

Sha,thank, thank, THANK you all for 330+ reads on TRO.

I love each and everyone of you😩💖💖💖.

The next chapter drops soon.

Don't forget to vote and comment💖💖💖💖💖

God bless UAR🥴🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬