Chapter 9 No. 9

"No, I won't," I said, petrified of what was going to become of me next.

"You didn't hear me, did you?"

"Yes, I did. Perfectly," I said, trying to confront a bully. If Grace could do it, then I could too.

But...but... Grace has been a crazy brilliant girl for a long time while I'm a chicken! Screw me for talking back to Seun!

Seun grabbed my shirt and pulled me forward to him, my desk between us. "Now, tell me what has gotten into you, Johnson?" he bellowed.

I got goosebumps immediately and incoherently uttered something to him.

"Johnson, you better do my assignment or I'll show you hell! And do mine first before you do yours, understood?"

"Yee..e..yes," I stammered.

"Good, now continue to be good..." Seun was saying before he was shoved to the floor.

I looked up to see who did it and saw Victoria. Phillip Victoria!

"What have you done?" I whispered, even though I wanted to scream at her. Seun had never bothered Victoria nor gone near her and I didn't think he knew she existed. But now, I was damn sure he was going to start picking on her. What had she gotten herself into?

"Look for someone of your size to bully, coward!" she said, sweating already. She was scared.

That was much for her to say to Seun and the word coward would only make Seun angrier.

"I'm going to kill you if I get my hands on you, whatever your name is," Seun said angrily as he got up.

I walked up to Victoria and stood in front of her, spreading out my arms as Seun stood in front of me. Beads of sweat were already all over my face. Was that how much of a chicken I was? Screw me!

"Move away, Johnson," Seun commanded, moving his index and middle finger to the left.

"Please, forgive us. It won't happen again," I pleaded.

Seun scratched his temple, looking me dead in the eyes. He shook his head and pushed me hard to the floor. I saw him move closer to Victoria whose lips were quivering.

"Next time when I'm talking to Johnson don't..." Seun's remaining words got stuck in his throat because Victoria had managed to kick his groin so hard and crawled in between his parted legs.

Perhaps she was a good person that I should consider as a friend. She stood up for me when I least expected it.

Seun dropped to the floor in pain, touching his groin as he grunted with clenched teeth. His two friends, Hassan and Eze ran to him and helped him up by his shoulders whilst Victoria came to me and lifted me up

"Get up! Get up!" she yelled hastily and I complied with a heavy heart.

"If I get you both, you are a dead meat!" Seun said and freed himself from his friends, coming for us.

Victoria held me by my arm and we ran out of the class with Seun on our tail. We ran through the silent hallway, turned and bumped into the proprietress!

"What's going on here?" she screamed her lungs out.

The proprietress, Mrs Carson was in her forties. A slim beautiful woman with three sons and a husband who was a businessman. She had her dark hair down, wearing a black and white suit with high heels. She was one person the school feared and would never dream of having an issue with her, not even the teachers.

The three of us stood right on the spot we were, speechless.

"What's going on?" she asked with clenched teeth. "This is the second period and you're supposed to be in class! Tosin, what is wrong?"

"Mrs Carson, it's..." I was saying as I glanced up frighteningly at Seun who was breathing and glaring at me, "was Seun. He bullied Victoria and me in the class."

"That's a lie. Victoria pushed me to the floor. I did nothing wrong, Mrs Carson."

"That's a lie!" Victoria interjected.

"No, it's not..." Seun snapped back.

"Shut up! What are you supposed to have in your class?"

"Biology," I replied.

"And you decided to be wasting your time chasing each other? Follow me to my office," she said and walked away but we stood right where we were, afraid of what she was going to do.

When she noticed we didn't follow her, she looked back, and shouted that I was afraid the school shook, "Now!"

Victoria pushed me forward and Seun walked behind us, grumpy.

We got into the office that was painted sky blue. Her desk was full of files, notes, documents and her computer too. Beside her were a waste bin and a small refrigerator in a corner. Mrs Carson sat behind her desk, leaned forward with her fingers laced.

"How about I give you a referral, Seun? For bullying people? Four students came to secretly report to me. It's too early to punish you three but... You three are annoying, now detention! Here is what you will do, pick up your biology book and straight to the detention room. I'm coming there to check on you. And you will be there till the school closes. Now get out," Mrs Carson said, waving us away. Simple as that. She wasn't in the mood to talk much.

We did as Mrs Carson had instructed us and now we have a teacher at the front of us, looking at the magazine.

"This is your fault, Phillip, Johnson. I should be out! Damn it." Seun gave a stern look.

We weren't the only ones in the detention room, there were two other boys and two girls. And one of the girls was chewing gum loudly. I didn't know if she knew how much sound she was making, but it was damn annoying.

The teacher who was in charge angrily put down the magazine and pointed at the girl. "If I hear you chew the gum loudly again, I will send you to the proprietress and you will get suspended since that is what you want, right?"

The girl looked calmly and responded, "No."

"Good," he eyed and pick up his magazine back and the girl raised her middle finger at him

"Hey, are you alright?" Victoria asked as she came closer to me.

I looked at her and wanted to get mad at her but I thought back to how she stood up for me when no one in class did. I presumed I had to be friends with her.

"I will be fine." I smiled. "You?"

Victoria grinned, "Oh, I'm scared. We both know Seun won't stop bullying. I'm scared of what he might do to us after we get out of here."

"We better keep our heads down."

"Or better still, we tell Bisola and Toyin. Why aren't they in school?"

"I don't know."

"But you are their best friend."

"Yeah, I know."

"Telling them will be a good idea, right?"

"Yeah, they will do something about it. That will refrain Seun from laying his hands on us." I felt somehow saying that. I just wished I could deal with this issue myself, instead of relying on friends. I didn't know why I was this fearful. Damn! But they were great friends to rely on. I looked at Victoria who was already reading her note and said to her, "Thank you, Victoria. Phillip Victoria."

Victoria held my hands, saying, "You are welcome."

"Seriously, thank you."

She smiled. "It's okay, that's what friends do."

"Friends? Are we friends?"

"I didn't know we aren't friends?" Victoria said disappointedly as she batted her eyes.

"Why have you been talking to me since I got to school today?"

"Oh about that, I'm sorry... I... I just wanted to be your friend, that's all."

"Why? Because you think I'm pathetic?"

"What? No! I just wanted to make friends with you, that's all. And you are Bisola and Toyin's friends."

"They aren't your friends."

"I want to be their friend."

You don't even know them."

"It's okay if you don't want me as your friend or to befriend Bisola and Toyin. I get it, they are your best friends. I can be alone." There was a tone of distress in her voice.

I smiled and hugged her. "I was only teasing you!" She didn't deserve that sort of attitude from me after standing up for me but I just wanted to know how she was going to feel. "I want you to be my friend because you deserve to have a friend. I want to be your friend because you are somebody I should befriend, Phillip Victoria.

"Aww..." Victoria hugged me tighter.

"You better start reading before I report you two to the proprietress!" the teacher screamed.

Lord, I hope he won't tear his lung out before the school closes.

"God will take control of everything and soon we will be out of high school, right?" Victoria asked me.

"Huh... Yeah." God ought to have intervened when my life was miserable. Perhaps He would with time.

I began flipping through my note when I heard the bell ring for the third period.

Oh, it was good to be a long day!

_________

The school closed past four and I saw no sign of Bisola and Toyin. I made my way to where Mum was teaching instead of going home. I still wore my hoodie because I couldn't risk seeing Seun and getting beat up by him. I knew it was a probability but I wasn't taking chances.

The cloud started becoming grey, the breeze started blowing up my skirt and I knew it was gonna rain. It didn't give any sign at all. If I had known it was going to rain, I would have made my way home. I walked faster to Beloved High school, recalling the direction my Mum had told me. It was just a thirty minutes walk from my school.

I caught sight of the school and saw that it was already deserted except for some teachers who were just driving out of the school gate. I saw my Mum entering a car while a man opened the door for her and... And they were smiling at each other? I ran quickly to the parking lot and stood in front of the car. My Mun opened the car with a look of astonishment and came to hug me.

"Babe, you didn't tell me you were coming. Are you okay?" She ran her hands over my face.

"I just need to talk to you, Mum."

"About what?"

The man at the driver seat opened the car but I didn't even spare him a glance.

"Can we talk alone? Just you and I?" I asked as I held her hands tightly.

"Yeah, sure." She straightened and looked over to the man and back at me. "Tosin, I want you to meet Gideon," she said and lead the way to where Gideon was, "Gideon, this is my daughter, Tosin, Tosin, Gideon."

"Hello, Tosin." Gideon waved at me with a smiling face.

"Hi?" I greeted, taking a full look at him. Okay, Gideon was muscular and tall but not extremely tall. His beard was shaved and he was cute.

"I have to talk with my daughter alone, so I won't be able to come with you."

"She can come with us."

"Really?" my Mum asked.

"Yes," he confirmed and looked at me. "Would you mind coming to the restaurant with us? Say yes, please. There you two would talk and I will excuse myself, I promise."

I thought about this for a while and I said yes, earning a smile from my mother. Maybe Gideon was a good guy.

We entered into his white Mercedes-Benz and Gideon drove in silence as we listened to music titled Boo'd up by Ella Mia. After a few minutes, we got to a nearby restaurant and entered.

I went to sit at a corner and my Mum got the hint and followed me. Gideon came over and asked if we wanted anything but we said not yet. Not after we were done talking. Later Gideon ordered what he wanted and went to his seat. I looked over at him and saw he was taking his ice cream already and going through his phone.

With a sign, I decided to unbottle what I had been keeping from her. "Mum, I'm getting bullied again," I said softly.

"What?!" Mum nearly shouted. "When did this start? Today? Yesterday? Tell me."

"Two or three weeks now. Mum, I can't stand up to any of them! I feel weak, scared and sometimes useless! I didn't tell you this because I didn't want to bother you. You have enough on your plate to worry about me. I just can't take it anymore," I finally said how I felt and began feeling tears soaking in my eyes.

"Shhh, baby," she held my hands. "You should have told me. I am your mother and I have every right to know."

"I'm just so useless and a coward." I sobbed a little loudly which must have made people glance at us. I didn't know if coming to tell her was the right decision but I needed someone to talk to. Bisola and Toyin weren't around and I just wanted to cry my feelings out in the presence of someone I trusted. I couldn't hide it from her anymore.

"Hey, you aren't useless, nor are you a coward. Because if you had been a coward, you wouldn't have come for me when your dad was beating me up," she said and stroked my hair.

She was right. Maybe I wasn't much of a coward. But why couldn't I stand up for myself in the presence of my mates? Why couldn't I do it? "I just feel so bad."

"I know, honey. And I have to speak with that proprietress of yours. Looks like she isn't doing her job well when it comes to students bullying each other."

"I guess." My mum passed me a tissue and I smudged it with my tears.

"You will be fine, alright?"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier," I sobbed.

"It's okay, I will do something about this."

"You've had enough on your shoulders."

"Don't bother yourself about me. I will be fine and so will you, I promise. I will try my utmost best," my Mum said with a distressed tone. She wiped my tears and afterwards, she went over to Gideon before she went to get us something.

Gideon came over to where I sat in front of me and I hoped my Mum didn't say a word to Gideon about what I told her.

"Hey, you," he gave me a big tight smile.

"Hi."

"How are you?"

"Normal."

"Are you really okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"I heard you sobbing."

"It's personal, please.

"Alright," he said and relaxed back in the chair.

My Mum came over and gave us snacks and ice cream.

"She looks like you, Rachel," Gideon said, smiling at my Mum.

"Really? I didn't know that."

"Not exactly, but in a way."

People tend to look slightly alike, biological or not. Bisola took after her dad's complexion while Bayo took after Mum's dark skin. I was a dark-skinned girl, an average height with a slim body shape. It was just me.

Mum went into detail about how Gideon was nice to her and how he had promised to tell people of the photography work my Mum was into and I instantly liked him for his generosity. "Thank you for everything, sir."

"It's nothing, Tosin. She is my friend anyway. And I better get going." He stood up, pecked my Mum and shook hands with me.

When he left the door I found it as an opportunity to let out what was in my mind. "Is anything going on?"

"What?! No. He is just my friend and you clearly heard him when he said I am his friend," Mum said smiling.

"So, he is?"

"Forty-four. Not married. Nice and friendly. And he is just my friend."

"Just? And you are forty-two, Mum. So no girlfriend in his life?"

"None that I know of. But I guess he should have, right?"

"You can divorce Mr Johnson to be with any man right?"

"No, no, no. No, I love your father, Tosin."

"He is a cheater and an abuser," I said with hatred.

"He wasn't like that before."

I grunted and surrendered. There was no point in having this discussion

"Let's go home. I have to call Mrs Carson." She grabbed our remains and we left the restaurant. We hailed down a cab and we got in, telling him our address. Before we knew it, the weather changed and the rain started pouring down heavily.