Chapter 8: Nigerian Batman

We got home and had our lunch together. After that, I went up to my room.

I lay on my bed with my phone in my hand, I was checking my messages. I had received more messages from Kolade. He was asking me if I was still alive.

Funny boy. 

I checked to see that he was online.

"Yes I am, Happy Sunday to you too," I sent

"Where have you been??" He replied almost immediately.

"Sorry I kind of forgot you."

"😒 And look at me worrying about whether you are still alive."

I laughed at his reply.

"😘You know You're gonna miss when I'm gone."

"Don't you dare quote pitch perfect for me... So what's up, what happened yesterday?"

"It's a long story."

"Let me guess, it involves Nenye and Vicky."

"Yeah."

"Why are you always going on adventures with those two, when are we going to have our own?"

"😂 You're funny."

"So what happened?"

I narrated the whole story to him and as usual, he gave some really hilarious replies. He was a really funny person and a good listener. That was one of the reasons that I was glad that I had asked to sit with him that day on the staircase. If not for that one question, I don't think I would have had any close friends in school.

The day that I found out he was royalty was when we were JSS3 during our school's third term open day, his elder brother, Adebayo, came with his driver to review his midterm scores. He was talking to our maths teacher in the dining hall where other parents were reviewing their children's scores. His driver walked to where we were sitting and said.

"Kolade your mother is here."

"What's she doing here?" He asked surprised.

"Just get your things ready, so that you can go and see her," He said and went away.

Kolade began to panic. He stood up with his school bag on his shoulders.

"Dude chill, it's just your mother," I could not understand why he was so alarmed about her presence.

I looked around and spotted a woman that was elegantly dressed. She had on designer heels and what I also guessed was a designer dress. Basically, everything about her screamed money. Mrs Khadija, our principal walked up to her and greeted the woman. The way she greeted her was weird, she prostrated for her like actually prostrated, the woman stopped her and they started talking.

"Kolade is that your mother? Why is Mrs. Khadija greeting her like that?" I asked.

He looked at me, a sheepish expression on his face. 

"There's something about me that I've not told you," He said.

"Are you Batman?" I joked. He just laughed along with me and said.

"No, I'm definitely not Batman."

"Aww why?"

"I don't know, because I'm a teenager and I live in Nigeria?"

I lifted one eyebrow at his reply.

"So? Didn't you tell me that there was a black Spiderman?"

"Yes but he's in a comic and from an alternate universe, that's not the point." He said and took a deep breath then spoke again.

"I'm kind of a Prince."

"Kind of?" I asked.

"Okay, I am a prince," He said finally.

"That's Cool," Was all I could say. How exactly do you reply to someone when they tell you that they're royalty.

I didn't get to meet his mother. She just talked to Kolade then went ahead to join Adebayo in reviewing Kolade's grades. Immediately after that, they left the school.

After that day, he begged me not to tell anyone. No one in the school knew, with the exception of some teachers and now me.

"You shouldn't be angry with your sister," He sent after I had told him that I was angry at Nenye.

"Yes I know, but I can't help it, this isn't the first time that she has put me in trouble with her."

"It probably won't even be the last," He replied.

"True," I sent the text and dropped my phone on my bed beside me.

Being angry with Nenye was like being angry with a tree, totally useless. No matter how many times she pissed you off, she was only going to apologise when she felt like it. That's just how my sister Nenye was, I didn't like it but I still loved her, no matter what she was still my sister.

My phone vibrated bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Yo, you still there?" Kolade sent.

"Yes, I'm still here, thanks Kolade, you're a good friend."

"🙃."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday

The second week of third term.

I was downstairs having breakfast alone. I was already dressed up for school and mom had insisted that we let her drop us in school, but as usual, CJ and Nenye refused.

They deliberately took their precious times to get ready so that mom would have no other choice but to leave us to avoid going late to work.

Both of them came downstairs with their school bags just as mom was about to leave.

"Were (meaning take)," she said as she gave each of us money for lunch.

"Buy food, not snacks do you hear me?" She stressed.

"Yes mummy," CJ and Nenye echoed. They were acting like they were good children.

I smiled at both of them and said, "Yes ma."

"Nenye is there space for one more person in Vicky's car," CJ asked immediately mom closed the front door behind her.

"Yes...why?" She replied and brought out bread from the fridge. I handed her the butter and a butter knife.

"Andy said that he's sick so I can't go with him to school, so I was thinking maybe I could go with you guys."

"You could have gone with mom," I pointed out.

"Yes but I don't want to look like a mummy's boy," He replied.

"Are you not still a mummy's boy?"

"Maybe I am, but people in school don't have to know that."

I shook at my head at his reply. He was so desperate to remain 'cool' in the eyes of his peers. It was kind of sad really.

A car horn interrupted us.

"She's here so you can just ask her yourself," She said and picked her school bag. I picked mine and followed her outside with CJ following behind me.

I got into the car to see Chidindu reading a book. It felt different seeing him so early in the morning. I was used to seeing him only in the afternoons.

"Hey," I said as I sat down beside him. He removed his school bag that was on the chair to create more room for me.

"Hi." He said.

CJ, Vicky and Nenye were still outside. 

I looked at the book in Chidindu's hand. It was Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe, one of my father's favourite books and also one of the many books that he liked to say that he had read when he was still a youth. I'm guessing that's where he got that quote that he liked to say from.

"Things fall apart," I read out loud.

"It's considered the first book in Chinua Achebe's African trilogy," He said in his weird Nigerian British accent.

I listened to him as he started explaining that there were two books that had been released immediately after this one. Altogether they were called the African trilogy.

I smiled at him when I realized something. He was a complete book nerd. I remembered the bookshelf that I had seen in his room, it was filled with books that were neatly arranged probably in alphabetical order. I wasn't sure about that last part though. The only person that I knew that had the patience to arrange her stuff like that was Nenye.

"That's interesting," I said.

"Have you read it?" He asked.

I shook my head, "No, but I'm familiar with it, it's in my dad's mini library at home," I pointed to our house. Speaking of which, why the hell were we still here?

"Hey! we're going to be late you guys," I shouted from the car.

They stopped whatever it was that they were talking about and entered the car. The driver that had been waiting patiently started the car and drove us away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

We reached the school and the driver dropped us at the parking lot. I came out with my school bag on my shoulder and proceeded to my class.

I then noticed that most of the girls also walking around me were whispering like the shy schoolgirls they were. What could have caused their muffled giggles and shy glances?

I looked back to see Chidindu behind me. He was walking slowly, the morning sun was out so it reflected on his hair and made it look more shiny and curly. What a sight it must've been to behold for these girls. I continued walking and ignored them.

I reached our class to see Kolade on his seat but one girl called Amina was leaning on his locker.

They must've been having a very funny conversation because she was giggling senselessly. I walked beside them to my seat and dropped my school bag quietly. Kolade turned immediately to acknowledge my presence.

"Zaram," He said overly excited.

"Me," I said copying his tone.

"Oh hey Zaram, see you later Kolade," Amina said as she turned away to go.

"What was that about?" I said and sat down.

"I don't know she just came and started talking to me."

"Just like that," I said in disbelief.

It's not like girls didn't talk to Kolade but ever since that incident on Valentine's day, most of the girls in our class acted like he didn't exist. So it was weird to see Amina talking to him like that.

It almost felt like she had been flirting with him. I looked at Amina that was now talking to some of her girlfriends. One of them said something to her and she looked back at me then looked away.

What was that about?

We had English for the first period. Our teacher was not yet in class so everyone was making noise. I was reading the Purple Hibiscus book that I had borrowed from Nenye this morning when the teacher walked inside. The whole class went silent. The class rep hit her locker sharply and shouted.

"Compliments class!"

"Good morning ma!" We echoed.

"Good morning students, you can all have your seats," Mrs. Uche our English teacher said. Her voice was very light but audible, it complimented how well she spoke the English language, and it made everything she said sound pleasing to the ear.

"Class there's a new student I would like you to welcome," She said.

"Chidindu! Please come in," She shouted.

Chidindu walked in with his school bag and stopped in front of the class beside the teacher.

"Class this is Chidindu, he's going to be joining this class from now on," She said to us.

"Say something to the class," She said to him.

He cleared his throat quickly and said.

"Good morning," His slight British accent was not very noticeable.

"Introduce yourself," She said again.

"My name is Chidindu Davis-Chima."

When he said that one girl started fanning her face with her hands. I looked around the class to see similar reactions among some of the girls in our class. I shared a look with Kolade who also looked amused.

"That's very good, now have a seat over there," She pointed to the empty chair in front of Kolade.

All eyes were on him as he walked to the seat assigned to him.

Chidindu looked at the seat then looked at me, I smiled at him but he looked away. I looked back at Kolade who made a suggestive face and I flipped him off.

The English class went smoothly, after class the teacher assigned Dumebi, our class rep to collect everyone's homework. 

I watched Chidindu bring out his own from his bag. He brought out a pen and started to write something. Dumebi reached his locker and said.

"Oyinbo (white person) where your own dey? ( This is pidgin for where is your own)."

She probably called him Oyinbo because of his accent.

"It's here, I just need to change the class."

"Na me wey you dey speak phoneh for?"( This is pidgin for is it me that you are speaking phonetics for?) She asked.

Dumebi was kind of notorious for being wild. In order words, she was raz( meaning she acted as she came from the hood).

She talked a lot about Warri, Delta State (Located in the southern part of Nigeria) where she grew up in. According to her, she grew up on the streets of Warri before her family sent her to stay with her uncle here in Abuja. She had street smarts and a tendency for calling people out on being fake.

I honestly had no idea how she got appointed as our class rep. She had been our class rep since JSS1 (7th grade) which meant that she had a good chance of becoming part of the student parliament next year.

"I'm just changing my class from SS1 Arts to SS1 Science." He said calmly as he continued writing on the book.

"Bros you dey waste my time ( meaning You're wasting my time bro)." She said impatiently.

"Dumebi calm down now," Kolade said.

She shot him a dirty look and he shut his mouth. Chidindu finished writing and handed her the assignment. She had a lot of them in her hands so she struggled a bit to add Chidindu's own to the pile. Some of the books started falling down.

Dumebi hissed in annoyance and tried to bend down to pick them up but they just kept falling.

"Let me help you." He said and picked everything for her and put them on top of the other books.

"Thank you." She said begrudgingly.

"You're welcome." He said and surprised her by smiling at her. She almost dropped the books again.

It looked like even Dumebi was not immune to his charms. I laughed to myself at that.

This boy was going to break a lot of hearts in this school.