6. She's Really Albert Einstein

""SS3A students our maths test is here o" Naomi said walking into class with a stack of white paper in her hands.

It was the fifth week and other classes were writing their continuous assessment tests. SS3 students were exempted although some teachers still chose to put them through the torture. Luckily, the tests had nothing to do with their exam scores and definitely had nothing to do with their jamb and waec which were the most important.

"Omo...see banging na" Pedro called out. He was a tall, muscular light skinned boy who was also appointed the sports prefect because of his active participation in sports. He however, wasn't the smartest of students.

"Nnaeh, this Udochie man no get joy" Jimmy replied 

"Aswr, how can someone get 30 over hundred" Pedro said shamelessly showing his script that held a big red 30 on top, a funny mocking face replacing the 0.

"Omo guy...see face na" Jimmy said laughing at Pedro whose eyebrows were furrowed in annoyance, the students around tried their best to stifle their laughter while some failed woefully bawling loudly. Mr Udochie has a good sense of humour. Infact, he had too much humour

"Guy!" A female voice yelled from the other side of the room... "5 over hundred...are you serious??!!!" Jessica yelled holding up her script which held a big red 5 in the middle next to a text which read "you didn't even try a bit". Her 5 also had a nose and eye with horns just like Pedro's own. Once again more laughter, Anita's lips were pressed together holding back her laughter not wanting to annoy them further as she stared at her own paper which had now reached her table.

"56/100" Amina said beside her "maddo, you're so lucky, I got 38" she said showing me her script which also had some derogatory faces on it 

"Me I shock o, with the way everyone is banging I expected a 20" Anita said truthfully. Even though she had studied for the test, she expected nothing more than the 40 seeing the scores her classmates had plus the exam was a bit too tough, so many questions were twisted and confusing.

"Thank God for you o" she said "Dami what did you get?" Amina said looking at Dami.. 

"Girl...it's not even funny, 63 over hundred after everything I wrote" Dami said frowning passing her script to us. Anita resisted the urge to roll my eyes as her and Amina exchanged a knowing look.

"You even knacked 63 and you're complaining" Pedro said answering their thoughts. His seat was two rows in front of Dami and a roll in front of Ifechi and he sat in Anita's column meaning he was seated almost diagonally to Dami

Dami stared daggers at him"if you know how much I studied you won't talk" she said and he just rolled his eyes and turned back to his gist with his friends

"Temi what did you get?" Someone called 

"Mind your business" Temi barked at the person and folded her script. From the looks of it she probably didn't score high because if she did she would have rubbed it on their faces gladly 

Even the smartest girl in the class failed..nawa o some of them thought

"Ah sorry o" the person said 

"But guy this test is not funny o, that man is somehow o. Test that doesn't even matter he's failing us like this" Jessica complained. One could tell from her facial expression that she really didn't find it funny

"Asin eh, he's just a devil" Rachel said "how can we just be banging like this?" She added 

"Maybe because you people simply didn't read" Grace said fearlessly from her seat. Jessica and Rachel gave her deadly glares, Jessica hissed loudly and turned to her seat while Rachel just looked on like a fool

"Iffa slap that your mouth" Pedro hollered from across the room. 

"Come and slap it lemme see you" Grace hissed at him and sat down examining her paper. Aliya peeped at it before screaming "wow grace you got 82, maddo" the whole class went wide eyed as people started hurrying to her seat probably to confirm the score

"Seriously, wow congrats o" Funmi said "it means you're the highest"

"Ahhh Gracey's brain don dey hot o" Samuel joked and Grace just rolled her eyes at him

"Na why u get mouth to talk" Tunde blurted and Grace gave him the middle finger

People were still congratulating her when Anita glanced around looking for Ifechi "where's Ifechi" she asked Dami

"I dunno, it's like she went to the toilet" Dami said coldly and focused her attention on the script in her hand, her maths textbook was also on her desk as she was making corrections or looking for wrong markings so that she could run back to Mr Udochies office

What is doing this one Anita said to herself, Dami looked up and glared at the girl making her realise that she had said it loudly

"Jesus Christ of Nazareth" Naomi screamed loudly staring at the last piece of paper in her hand. Some curious people rushed to peep at her script including Samuel

"Jesu!!!" He screamed "you sure say my eye no dey deceive me?" 

"Ifechi Okereke" Naomi yelled again attracting even more people, Dami and Anita inclusive. They trotted quickly to the front of the class that was now filled with a bunch of curious teenagers staring at one paper

"Wowwww" Dami said breathlessly unable to hold herself. There on Naomi's hand was Ifechi Okereke's name written in all caps on the top of her paper with a bold 100 encircled by the side

"So somebody can get 100 over 100 in this test?" Samuel said shaking his head. A few more curious heads had joined including Grace and Rachel

"This girl na machine or human?" Samuel joked 

"Asin eh" "aswr" "sigi" many people answered. The front was now filled as everyone wanted to take a glimpse at the Albert Einstein who managed to get a perfect score despite the massive failure. Their heads were so clustered that someone would think they were looking at a very important thing.

"Hmmph..are you sure she didn't cheat" Grace scoffed and everyone's eyes turned to her

"Tufia, bad belle" Samuel spat

"Because you think it's only you that can score better score abi" Mike lashed out at her.

"Don't mind her, she's just jealous because she's no more the highest" Jessica hissed voice laced with hatred. Grace glared at her almost ready to attack before Naomi interrupted

"Oya oya it av do.." "you people want to squeeze me abi.." she said and stared making her way out of the jam-packed circle she was now stuck in. Being the holder and sharer of the scripts, they couldn't blame her, she was probably suffocating.

"Chai give me the paper lemme make corrections" it was Temi's voice, they hadn't even realised that she was there. Naomi looked at her for a second before replying

"No o, it's not my own let me give it to the owner then you collect it from her yourself... Ifechi!" She called out

"She's not in class, give it to me, I'll keep it for her" Anita offered stretching her hand but the look Naomi gave the her made Anita to rethink her action.

"Mbah" she answered in Igbo "I'll hold it..when she comes she can take it from me before something will happen to it and they'll blame me" she finished off not without throwing Grace a look who eyed her in return, hissed and catwalked back to her seat in the front row.

Slowly the crowd dispersed as everyone went back to their seat except for Temi and her other "smart ass" colleagues that were still begging Naomi for the script who still insisted on her answer. As if on cue Ifechi walked in, her wet hands rubbing on her skirt to dry them off as she settled on her seat oblivious to the stares from our classmates.

"Albert Einstein has arrived" Pedro called out winking at Ifechi who gave him a flustered look with a mix of confusion.

"Hot brain" Tunde called out

"Ifechi congrats o" funmi called from her seat

"Yesso congrats..this girl you wowed everyone..your brain too hot u sure say you suppose dey this class?" Samuel joked, some people laughed and others started murmuring some congrats to Ifechi who stood there smiling cheekily still oblivious 

"Congrats Ifechi, some people are jealous of you, they said you cheated but I know you didn't cheat, you're a brainy girl" Jessica said loudly, her voice overshadowing the others as she threw a side look at Grace

"Come this girl are you even mad" Grace barked at her

"Ah ah..." Jessica stared turning to face the angry girl "why is this one shouting at me...did I call anybody's name...it's guilty concur thats killing you" she added innocently but it was pretty obvious it was Grace she meant

"You're foolish" Grace bickered

"And your mad" Jessica finished off 

Ifechi olled her eyes at their childish argument and returned my face to Anita

"What's going on?" She asked, Anita was about to talk when Dami beat her to it

"Our maths test is here, you scored the highest...a perfect score at that" she said in an indifferent tone. Anita frowned at her but she just went on

"Naomi is with your paper..see" she said motioning to Naomi who was now coming to their side to give Ifechi her script

"Ifechi congrats o, I never knew you were this brilliant" she remarked smiling cheesily, Ifechi grinned widely collecting the paper before placing it on her desk to admire her work

"Wow...Thank you"

"You just surprised everybody" Naomi chuckled still standing. Anita and Dami exchanged a look. "From now on I'll be coming for you to teach me maths" 

"No problem" Ifechi laughed with her head in her paper while Naomi stood there waiting for God knows what

"Just see how you're smiling Naomi, you even came to deliver the paper yourself" Dami said laughing. Anita joined in slowly

"Ehen...mind your business" she said before finally going to her seat. Anita turned to Ifechi about to ask for her script when Temi interrupted "Ifechi please can I use your script?" She asked from her seat in the first row 

"Ifechi chai I want to see it to" Anita added immediately after lowering her voice so that Temi wouldn't hear. Ifechi glanced at me before looking at Temi "chai Anita asked first..after" she lied and handed the paper to Anita.

"Ok no problem" Temi replied fully aware that she asked first but chose to stay silent

Turning to her paper, Anita took in its content with a wide eye just as she did the first time. There was no joking here she really got all the answers correctly. She glanced through the page before flipping the pages reading each answer carefully even though she didn't understand some of them. 

She admired Ifechi's nice handwriting along with the neat presentation of her answers. The attractiveness of the work must have impressed the maths teacher too. She focused on the second to the last question, the hardest and most complicated. It was on differential and integral calculus, one of the most annoying topics in maths which most of her classmates including herself never really understood. 

Flipping the last page she read through the last question and answer, it was on bearing. She admired the neat figure sketches Ifechi had drawn as part of her answer, of course she didn't draw it because she didn't even know what she was doing in the question. At the end of the page was the sum of all the method and answer marks which she all got and a short note written in red pen. Anita read it aloud

"Very nice Job, this is excellent. I am very proud of you Ifechi meet me after school to collect your gift" she finished and turned to Ifechi

"Omo girl!" "maths teacher said you should meet him after school for your present o" she said loud enough for everyone to hear as people started looking over

"This one is now a celeb" Amina joked and they laughed, it was a good thing they didnt have any class that day because of the mid term exams so the rest of the day was spent gisting while Ifechi's paper encircled the whole class with people seeking her answer script from time to time.