Chapter 8 Another French Class Again

"Bonjour, élèves" ,

"Bonjour la professeur" , is chorused

"Comment allez-vous?"

" tout va bien, merci", some one responds from the crowd and we all turn to face him

"Wow, someone did his assignment", my french teacher smiles, " well done, Joshua"

She looks around the class, "Mirabel", she says pointing to her, she is sitted beside me now. She has been sitting with me in class ever since that day we spoke two weeks ago.

Mirabel stands up "oui mademoiselle ?"

"Construct a sentence in passe' compose'", she says smiling

"Je me suis appelée Mirabel Abduraman which means My name is Mirabel Abduraman", Mirabel responds with confidence and smiles sweetly.

The French teacher motions for her to seat down, "well done, You never disappoint in my class. I'll be asking one more person before explaining passe' compose' further and give you your class works", she turns to the board and starts scribbling down somethings from the textbook she has in her left hand then faces the class again, looking around for someone else to call.

"Mirabel"

"Oui Mademoiselle"

"Where's your partner in crime?"

Mirabel chuckles, " He hasn't come yet ma, I think he'll be on his way now",

I bend to her a little , " who's that?"

"Onuta"

"Oh.."

" No wonder, the class has been so quiet , both of you are not sitting together, no giggling and side talks today__"

"Sorry I'm late, good morning", comes a voice from outside the door, his bag is slung lazily on one shoulder and he is holding his blazer with his other hand. He walks casually into the class like he was not late to begin with.

"Is that French?",

He stops and turns to the teacher. "Sorry, bonjour mademoiselle or sorry la' professeur...Miss Nwankwo my brain is not really awake this morning "

" And your reason for been late?.."

" I woke up late", he shrugs

" This your attitude when you enter my class has to stop", my French teacher warns while giving him a stern look.

"I'm sorry ma", he responds going to a seat at the back of the class.

"I have a question for you, before you sit",

" Yes ma'am", he adjusts his bag and sits

She sighs in defeat

"Before you came, we were talking about passe' compose', I asked your friend to tell me a sentence in passe' compose' and she said...", she points to Mirabel

"Je me suis appelée Mirabel Abduraman", Mirabel repeats

" So I'm talking to the class now.., I noticed something interesting about that sentence, what's that new word she used", " who can answer before I get back to Onuta"

" If nobody answers , I'll pick randomly oh...okay, yes?, Chinyere"

"Me?" , the said Chinyere stands up, I recognize her to be that girl I had met the first time I had come to the school.

"Yes , you"

" But, I didn't raise my hand ma", she says looking around the class.

" Just answer the question ", an annoyed voice says from the midst of students sitted.

" I think it's the me' or something, I don't know", she responds and shrugs showing zero interest.

" It's appelée" , Onuta says out loud with a bored expression all over his face, he's turning a short ruler with holes, on his pen and looking straight at the teacher. Chinyere quickly sits down.

" Since you have answered , explain your answer oga" , she eyes his action, " and stop that thing you're doing".

He drops it on his table, " the sen.."

"Stand up", she says with a strained voice and he tumbles to his feet.

"The sentence Mariam made in passé composé which is present perfect tense, has the verb "appeler" which is to call or name. So you can translate the sentence to ' I have called myself Mirabel Abduraman' that's if you're translating directly,...although saying 'My name is Mirabel Abduraman' is not wrong", he courtesys playfully to the teacher and sits down.

"Your name is Mirabel", Mirabel giggles and everyone laughs, Onuta rolls his eyes and continues playing with his ruler on his pen.

"Omuta, Tres Bien, that's very very correct. But because you're good with it doesn't mean you should be distracting others"

" I've heard that before", he responds

She faces the board again ignoring him, "Continuing from where Onuta stopped, if you want to use the verb "être" (to be), you can say, 'Je me suis présentée comme Mirabel Abduraman' " , she continues while scribbling on the board " This translates to, 'I have introduced myself as Mirabel Abduraman' Or, you can put it simply as 'Je suis Mirabel Abduraman' which translates to, 'My name is Mirabel Abduraman' or "I am Mirabel Abduraman', Je vais bien, je vous remercie" She turns back to us " oya answer from exercise 21 to 22 and do 23 to 26 as assignment". She concludes and makes her way to the teacher's desk.

If I say I had understood any of the things that have just been said in this class, you can call me the biggest liar on earth.

I stare at my workbook blankly.

......

I have never felt so blank in my entire life . As the Ss1 students stand up to submit their books and make their way out of the class, I sit there, gawking at the gibberish in my workbook. I have never really been good in French. I'm good with other subjects like Mathematics, English, and amongst others but French, it has never been the one for me.

I remember the exchange between Onuta and the teacher today and how well he had spoken, he seemed like a very smart person, and a very proud one at that. I pull my pen from my mouth and push it into the side of my bag. I stand up and straighten my uniform that has already wrinkled at the sides, look around and notice nobody is really in class anymore except Onuta and Mirabel who are busy chatting away at the back of the class and some other few people from Ss1 and my class. We might be having a free period.

I draw in a shaky breathe and prepare myself to go submit my rubbish .

I walk briskly towards my French teacher who is still seated marking the work on her desk, drop the book gently, facing it down and looki up to take a swift look at her face, I turn around to make my quick escape..

"Hey, auntie!", I close my eyes at the sound of my voice, stopping in my track "come and turn this book ", she says with a stern voice, turning slowly, walk back to the table she's sitted,turn the book slowly and give her a sheepish smile before pushing it to her front. When I'm done with that, I walk back to my sit and try to quickly pack my books into my locker so I can escape this class before she calls me __

"Jesus, Glory",

I sigh, "Yes ma?", I know what I've done

"What is all these again?", I stare at her from where I'm standing and she motions for me to come over to her side.

She takes in a deep breathe and turns her full attention to me , dropping the book gently on the table , my eyes follows her movements. " Dear, your French, it's very bad"

"I'm sorry ma", I reply , I really didn't have anything to say to that right now.

"It's not a matter of I'm sorry ma",

I nod hesitately

"As a scholarship student. You'll have to pass all your compulsory subjects", "and in this school, French is compulsory for all junior students", she adds immediately knowing fully well that I might say that French wasn't important. I mean , we were allowed to pick any language of our choice and I picked English. Isn't English one hell of a language already?

" I'm really working on it ma, I've never really done French before"

She looks down at my work again and nods slowly then looks round the class. "I would have had Mirabel teach you but I think Onuta would be good. He's your senior and has had an experience with this more__"

I gawk at her. " No ma please", I whisper yell. " I think having Mirabel teach me will be easier and better since she's my classmate and all_."

" I've had Onuta teach someone before when I was still his class teacher and she improved so I think he's the best option ", she snaps.

God, I don't want that proud rich boy to teach me, he's going to either make me worst than I am now or make me kill myself with the way he'll talk to me. I hardly believe he'll agree.

Miss Nwankwo calls Onuta who reluctantly stands up, pulling his blazer from his shoulder. He stands to his full height, too talk for an Ss1 student, he strides towards us with so much pride and full on steeze, you'd think he was a king where he came from.

" Yes , Miss Nwankwo ", he grins at her and she rolls her eyes.

" I want you to do something for me"

" Yes ma, anything for you", he smiles again and uses his left hand to punsh his hair back from his face.

She adjusts in her chair and I shift awkwardly from one leg to another. I'm so nervous now. I wonder what he'll say about teaching me. His perfume is so nice , now that I'm standing close to him, I think I like the way he smells. I stand there , breathing him in while he waits for my teacher to answer him.

She looks up at him as if rethinking her decision to have him teach me before she opens her mouth. "I want you to teach her", she saying printing a red lucky racer pen towards me.

Onuta's face scrunches "teach who?"

"Miss Ameh", she says "she's doing really badly in her French and I don't know how I'm going to start explaining everything to her. You're very good with this__"

He moves his head to his left and his cold golden eyes land on me, bold and intimidating. He eyes me down for a second or two , "why not just have Mariam teach her, I heard they're friends"

"Onuta", she says calmly ", just do it for me, I want you to teach her. You! "

Oh God of mercy, I think this is the point where I beg her and tell her I'm good with Mirabel or anybody else, just to prove that I also don't want to be taught by him either.

"I_can't__"

"Please", she interrupts him, 'did she just plead with a student?'

"Fuck...", he mutters audibly

"Language sir", "so.."

"Okay ma" , he nods and forces a smile, "I'll take her, but once she does anything stupid, I'm out", he uses two of his fingers to salute her and disappears.

Who does he even think he is. I can't believe people actually overlooks the rude behavior this guy displays.

" So , you'll talk to him after school to put you through, hope we're good",

" Yes ma", I answer

" You can take this rubbish you wrote here, I feel embarrassed marking this book". I take the book swift and make my way back to my seat.

I carry the French workbook and textbook and some other things in my table and leaving it in my locker. I'm about going out of the class when Mirabel shouts for me to wait for her and I do. Onuta pats her on her back a little before his cold eyes land on me again for a few seconds before walking out of the class.