JS1 dorm gets a new leader

Chidinma stared at the girl with her mouth gaped. Chisom’s sister was wailing beside her and she was in the clutches of her classmates, who were firmly preventing her from thrashing herself on the floor but she was still putting up an impressive fight with her legs which were free. All the girls were chattering and gasping and pointing to the girl on the ground. Some were even in tears already.

Someone parted the crowd and brushed past Chidinma to squat beside the body. It was Snr Dee-dee. She put her ear to the girls’ chest and listened. Her head sprung back almost immediately. “She’s alive. We need water. Someone, get me water.” The noise seemed to quieten at once. The sadness of the girls who were crying with Chisom’s sister vanished. Like it would have been more exciting if she was actually dead. Snr Dee-dee scanned the faces in the crowd. “You!” she said pointing at Chidinma. “Go and get water from your dorm.”

Chidinma stood transfixed still processing the information.

 “This girl, are you DEAF?!!” Her voice was angry now. “I said, get to your dormitory and bring water now!”

“Yes Senior.” She said snapping back to reality. She turned on her heels and sprinted to her dorm. She pushed open the metal doors of her dorm and switched on the light, then ran to her locker and opened it. There were only four sachets of water remaining in her locker. She snatched the four and held them in a cradle. She was just about to dash out of the dorm room when out the corner of her eye she noticed something tremble. She turned around to see the small frame of a girl shivering on the opposite end of the room trying to conceal herself beside a bunk.

She took a step towards the girl and squinted her eye to scrutinize the figure more clearly. She recognized the thin frame as one of her mates. The nervous girl who had sat next to her and Chisom during breakfast. “Stephanie?” The girl gave a slight whimper at the sound of her name and shrank back. “What are you doing here?”

Stephanie looked terrified. She was pale and she shook more than she normally did. Her eyes were fixed on Chidinma and her hands which were under the blanket of the bed she was crouched beside were trembling violently. As Chidinma took a step towards her, she seemed to shrink away from her. They heard someone mutter angrily from outside their dorm. Footsteps followed. Someone was coming.

“Quick, hide!” Chidinma whispered sharply to her. She herself ran to the door. A tall girl was just about to enter when she got there and she was looking impatient.

“How many hours does it take you to get water?” The girl said angrily.

“I’m sorry senior.”

“Sorry for yourself. It’s until someone dies that you people understand that something is serious. Take that water and run there now.”

Chidinma obeyed her and bolted to the scene. On her way she turned slightly to make sure that the tall girl followed her and didn’t go into the dormitory.

She handed the sachets to Snr Dee-dee who tore them open with her teeth and splashed them on Chisom’s face. The crowd held their breath but nothing happened. Then Chisom sniffled. Her sister wrangled herself free, rushed to her side and took her from Snr Dee-dee.

“Chisom! Sissy! Please open your eyes. Please say something.” She said as tears streamed down her face. To everyone’s surprise, Chisom sniffled again.

“The Sellotape!” Chidinma pointed out. Chisom’s sister cut it free with her fingers. Chisom coughed and groaned.

“Oh My God, my dear God. Thank you, thank you!” Chisom’s sister cried as she embraced her.

The crowd that was surrounding them was bigger now. Mingled with the rest of the crowd, Chidinma could see the face of her classmates who were too scared to run out initially. Snr Dee-dee stood up and addressed them. “All of you should get back to your reading rooms.”

The crowd mumbled their disapproval for that order. They obviously preferred to stay here, where the story was unfolding in real time.

“Did she not make herself clear, or it’s like you people want to wash toilet this night.” This voice was dry. Chidinma turned sharply to see Snr Swanky. When did she get here? “And that’s exactly what will happen if we repeat ourselves again.” Anyone who knew Swanky knew she had an unexplainable aura of persuasion about her. Some theorized that it was probably from her history of torturing junior students for six years in this school, but really, who knows?

The crowd shuffled and began to disperse. Chidinma heard Snr Dee-dee talk to someone. “Come, help me let’s carry her to her their dorm. Tomorrow morning, we’ll take her to the sick bay.” She immediately shot a look in the direction of their dorm. Was Stephanie still there? If she was, then this was going to be bad for her.

“No let’s not do that; Chioma is her sister. She can stay in Chioma’s dorm so that Chioma can watch her till morning.” It was Snr Swanky who suggested this.

“Yes, that’s a good idea.” Snr Dee-dee agreed. Chidinma took one last look at them and joined the last of the girls leaving. Stephanie is lucky. She thought. Lucky enough to be saved by a suggestion from Snr Swanky.

When she got to the reading room, it had not settled yet. All the girls were talking excitedly about the supposed death and resurrection of one of their mates. She joined Jennifer on their wooden seat. No sooner had she sat down, she noticed she was being ambushed by about five girls.

“Is it true? Did someone really die?” one of the girls asked with an inquiring look.

“Did someone stab her?” a wiry girl with a strained voice asked.

“I heard she vomited blood this afternoon, maybe it was poison.” Another girl piped in.

“Maybe her sister poisoned her. My mother told me that she knows people who have done that kind of thing.” Said a stout looking girl.

“That’s enough, all of you. Can you even hear yourselves?” Jennifer had cut in before Chidinma was able to talk.

“But it is possible. My mom said so.” The stout girl said not wanting to lose.

“Patricia just shut up; Chioma loves her sister.” Jennifer retorted.

“Then who poisoned her then?” the girls looked at Chidinma waiting for a reply.

“Nobody said she was poisoned.” Chidinma said wondering how something that happened just now had grown into this already.

“Then tell us what happened.”

“Chisom is fine.” She said, “And you better go to your seats.” She added and flicked her head so they all saw a group of SS3s entering the door now. The girls scuttled back to their seats.

When they left, Jennifer finally asked, “What happened outside there.”

“Shh, I’ll tell you later. Look.” A crowd of girls entered the reading room filling it up to maximum capacity. Chidinma observed the girls. It was the SS1s and 2s. They had their own separate reading room which they shared with the SS3s, but it seemed like Snr Dee-dee had brought everyone in here to talk to them at once. She was now standing front and center as the new comers took their seats. When they finished, silence fell.

Then Snr Dee-dee spoke: “I am sure all of you have heard the unfortunate event that just happened this night. I don’t know who the possessed girl who did it or what she did to deserve what was done to her. I don’t know if it was done as a prank or out of anger. But you better not repeat such a stunt again. Because if you put one step out of line and I catch you!” Her voice had risen a crescendo now. “I will first deal with you and finish dealing with you before I hand you over to the Hostel Mistress and Principal to suspend you. So, whoever you are, better watch yourself.” Senior Dee-dee’s eyes swept the room as she delivered this solemn promise.

She continued: “From now there will be two new rules. Firstly, each class dormitory will have a room head who will report to an SS3 student who now reports to me.” A subdued chorus of surprise breezed through the room. The senior students seemed particularly outraged. Senior Dee-dee waited for the murmur to die out before continuing, “Secondly, before Night prep every night, there’ll be a roll call and if you miss that roll call, you will explain yourself thoroughly.”

Some SS1s and 2s sighed, and some sniggered at this. It was not really common to see a junior student miss night prep. But the higher you advanced in class, the more truant you became. As such, the people who this new law would be affecting the most would be the Senior students and there was already a mixed reaction to it.

“Are you saying we’re the ones responsible for this?” The question came from a pudgy SS2 girl who had really bushy eyebrows and possibly a hint of a moustache.

“And what do you even mean by room head? Am I supposed to start giving my own classmate unnecessary respect now because she has a title?” Said an energetic looking girl with a razor-sharp nose. Both questions were followed by a mumbled chorus of support in the general direction where the SS2s seemed to be thickest.

Snr Dee-dee was about to speak when she was interrupted by the dry voice of Snr Swanky who put a hand on her shoulder to stop her and walked out to the center in front of her. “Since you’re in SS2 and still don’t understand English, let me break it down for you to understand. If you like don’t respect your classmates whether title or not. That’s your problem but just pray I’m not the one assigned to your room. Then secondly, if, by mistake you are even one minute late to that reading room on-any-given-day! You are going to explain first in English, then Latin and if I don’t like the explanation, you’ll explain next in tears.” The room was quiet when she finished speaking. It was probably due to that wonderful persuasive aura which she had that left you speechless. How did she ever come about such a wonderful talent. She walked back to the group of SS3s who stood behind the head girl.

Snr Dee-dee continued on. “As you can see, it’s already 9.50pm. This night is already gone. Use the next ten minutes to pack your bags then have the night devotion and go to each of your dorms. You’ll meet your assigned seniors tomorrow. Goodnight.”

Senior Dee-dee left the room and the rest of her SS3 troops followed her. Chidinma turned to see Jennifer already packing her books in her bag. She seemed unaffected by the new rules. “This is crazy.” Chidinma said. “Not only do we have to find ways to dodge punishments from seniors, now we have to start avoiding a possible tattle-tale in our own dorm. There’s just no peace.”

“On the contrary, I think they’re both solid rules.” Jennifer said. Her eyes were more interested in packing her books and finding ways to escape Chidinma’s eyes.

“Jennifer what are you talking about?”

“Think about it, if we did a roll call before night prep, someone would have noticed that Chisom was not around and maybe we’d have gone to look for her and hence catch the person who did that to her.”

“You’re sounding like you believe they tried to kill her.”

“Well.” Jennifer shrugged. “There was blood, where did it come from?”

“It was not blood; it was red ink. I saw it clearly!”

“My point is, Chisom does talk too much, so someone can try to scare her. These rules can help us catch or at least prevent it and if its already happened, someone who saw it can report safely to the SS3 person without other people knowing. You’d just have to tell the room head.”

“That’s it isn’t it?” Chidinma said with a realization. “You want to be picked as the room head. Are you even thinking about this, what if it was Senior Swanky that was assigned to us?”

“Well, I won’t say no if I was picked. The rules are there to help and also, Snr Swanky cannot be assigned to us. Didn’t you observe what happened. The people who need controlling are the senior students. She’s most likely going to be assigned to the SS2s. But it doesn’t really matter does it. We still have to follow the rules. The rules are there to help.”

A part of Chidinma agreed that she made a good point. There really was no need to assign such a firepower to JS1s. It seemed like a wasted opportunity. But she still was angry at Jennifer’s betrayal. She fired on. “Yeah, but you weren’t thinking like this when you needed help going to school at night to pick senior Swanky’s book.” Chidinma delivered the last accusation with venom. Jennifer’s fair face turned red and her round eyes narrowed. She breathed out steam from her nose. She picked up her bag and left to find another seat.

Chidinma found that she didn’t care. She packed her own books into her bag. She hadn’t done any of the homework she was given and they were getting due. She flung them into her bag anyway.

At 10pm they had their night devotion by praying the rosary and went back to their dorms for lights out. When they got back to their dorms that night, everybody wanted to know what Chidinma saw. She recounted the story on her bed for them and they all had their ideas who it must have been and the list was endless. Then they talked about which SS3 was going to be assigned to them and who they’d possibly pick as the room head. From their discussion, it seemed like they could live with anyone except for Snr Swanky. But they also agreed they had the least chance of getting Snr Swanky especially after the power play with the SS2s earlier in the reading room.

Chidinma thought about her fight with Jennifer before she slept, maybe she was a bit harsh she thought. Then she thought that maybe Jennifer deserved it for siding opposite her.

*

The next morning, at the refectory, Chidinma and Jennifer were still not on talking terms. She was eating her bread and tea when Senior Dee-dee came into the refectory as graceful as always, attached a paper to the door and went to her table without looking back.

Within a few minutes, a crowd had risen at the door. You had to force your way through to get to the front. Chidinma decided that her food was more important seeing that yesterday was particularly draining and she was still under punishment today. Besides, it was information that concerned the whole dorm, it was sure to reach her eventually.

She was right, it didn’t take long, Jennifer squeezed herself out of the tight group of students fighting to see what was written. She was white down to her shiny black sandals. Her round eyes were as big as ever. She looked defeated. Chidinma was going to ask her to talk just before Snr Swanky entered the refectory following closely behind her was Stephanie who seemed to be shrinking with every step.

They stopped right by the JS1 tables and everybody stopped eating immediately. In fact, she didn’t need to speak. Chidinma knew what she was going to say before she said it and she suspected that every other person who had not read it off the door knew too.

“Good morning girls.” Snr Swanky said with a smile. But her smile only served to make her face more sinister. “As of today, I’ll be in charge of your dormitory. That means that every little problem should be directed to me first. Stephanie here has graciously volunteered to be my mouth and ears in your room.”

She placed her hands around Stephanie’s shoulders and she whimpered. Stephanie seemed to be more interested in the colour of her sandals than the multitude of eyes which stared at her. Snr Swanky went on. “Do grant her all the necessary accordance you’d grant me. If you don’t mind.” She smiled even more enjoying the speechless faces in front of her. “Thank you for listening. Now finish your food so you won’t be late for morning assembly.” Then she turned and began to walk towards the SS3 tables. But she stopped and turned as if she forgot to add something. “Just so I might add, if any of you thinks or have been thinking of stepping out of line.” She eyed Chidinma coldly. “I hope you reason out the consequences of your actions very ‘very’ carefully. I’m only ever troublesome to troublesome people. But nevertheless, I am troublesome.” She gave a moment to let the threat dissolve into their minds. “Have a good day.” She resumed the smile and walked towards her class tables.

Stephanie quietly slunk to a table where there were none of her classmates.

Jennifer on the other hand plopped down beside Chidinma and immediately began to rant. It seemed their fight was over. “This is crazy, this makes no sense at all. Why us? We’re just JS1 students.” Her face was comically shocked and angry. “What was Senior Dee-dee thinking? Was she even thinking?” She put her hand to her face and rested her forehead on the table. Then she sprang up again. “Do you know who she assigned to the SS3s?” She didn’t wait for Chidinma to answer. “Senior Catherine.” She whispered her eyes wide close to Chidinma’s face. “How do you put her in charge of the SS2s? They’re going to eat her up.” Chidinma chuckled and resumed her food.

Jennifer carried on. “And Stephanie of all people.” Jennifer said with a quizzical look on her face. “She’s just looking for who she can control.” She lay her face down on the table with a slight tap. Chidinma felt that Snr Swanky could easily control any JS1 student but she opted against saying that and instead let Jennifer carry on. “We’re dead.” She said in comical exasperation.

Chidinma giggled. She looked around the pained faces close to her. She saw Stephanie at the table closest to the wall. Stephanie was looking thinner and paler than ever. Was she ever this thin when they resumed school almost a month ago or was this new? She didn’t even bother going to get food to eat. The poor girl was a bag of nerves and she’d probably never been away from her home for this long. Chidinma wondered if she’d continue in this school next term. She took her mind off Stephanie and back to Jennifer who was fake sobbing beside her.

“Awwwnn.” She said scooting over to embrace Jennifer “Don’t cry, besides, are you going to finish that bread?” Jennifer’s fake sob turned into a mean glare and she grabbed a slice of bread and chewed without looking away from Chidinma. Chidinma laughed. She was at least happy that she was not fighting with Jennifer again. They hurried their breakfast and left the refectory.