LoveStruck

"Aha! are you blind?!"

She received a few snide remarks like that as she rushed mindlessly, and kept colliding with people. Not everyone who was out on the streets was sane enough; some were miserable, others were probably whining about having to arrive at work early every day but only receiving a flat pay each month, and Sarah bumping into them was a way for them to vent their pent-up rage.

"Sorry!" It came out as a yell, earning her numerous glance from passers-by. The worry of getting hit by a vehicle prevented her from moving as fast as she would have liked to down the streets or likely teleport to her office–if she could.

The line of sweat trickling down her spine and her brows was in no way how she had expected her morning to be. She had never had a thing for being sweaty on a cool morning, she preferred being fresh and clean to enjoy the cool morning breeze on her skin.

It wasn't her first time being late to work, but today, she was overly late! Never had she imagined waking up at Past eight in the morning to prepare for work, but, it was happening!

Everything had felt weird when she woke up, she never heard her alarm ring, the house was suspiciously quiet, and her thick curtains had blinded rays of light from entering her teenage room which would have been a warning for her that it was daybreak.

She had thought she was up early but seeing one of her elder twin brothers dressed up neatly for work and the brightly lit compound of her house through the louvers made her dash back to her room in a haste and forget about the food she planned on dishing out for herself.

Everything she did after then was in a rush, and now, running with her short legs to work, she could feel the taste of toothpaste mint in her mouth, her long black braids falling from its loose knot atop her head and cascading down her back, thereby, making her run feel uncomfortable. One thing she was grateful for not rushing about that morning was her choice of clothing. She had picked a pair of comfortable black pants and a puffy, long sleeve, green chiffon blouse that would make her run to work easier.

Struggling to wear one foot of her flat silver pumps that morning, she had half yelled at her other older twin brother, Ire, about her predicament. He was the first of the twins.

"I thought you were not going to work, I and mom knocked on your door by 5:30 am but you mumbled about not going to work." He only spared her a glimpse once, probably to see what she was wearing, and then, he returned his gaze to his laptop on the brown-matted dining table.

"You should have hit me! I would have woken up." She struggled to arrange the contents in her black bag in haste, her hands damp with sweat from her lotion and the fear of being late for work. Books, her purse, her laptop, stationaries, powder, a bottle of water, her eyeglasses, a roll of tissue, a light purple handkerchief, lipgloss, and snacks were sprawled out on the living room center table, waiting for her to pack them.

His black orbs looked up at her, a smirk playing on his dark lips. "And then receive a smack on the head from one of your hard slippers?"

"Sarah, aha!" her mom, a chocolate–skinned woman, exclaimed, "I thought you were not going to work." The surprise was evident in her voice as she stood akimbo at the entrance of the kitchen and stared at her daughter. The striking resemblance between the two females wasn't one to be overlooked.

"You should know–" She placed the long strap of her bag over her head, across her left shoulder. "–I say crazy things when I'm asleep."

"I also thought you were sick and I was planning on getting some drugs for you." The slim woman adjusted her Ankara wrapper around her bust and took a seat near her son. "How about your food? Morning food is important for the day."

She held her pink perfume bottle close to her armpits. "I'll be back for it in the evening." She looked down at her clothes to spray some parts. "Please, mommy, keep my food away from brother Ire." She looked up from her clothes to see him eyeing her with a sneer.

"Spray your perfume well." He scratched his neatly trimmed beard. "9:15 am," he sang.

She rushed toward the black door. "Odabo."

"Sarah, that top you're wearing, it's not covering your bumb0m." She slammed the door shut behind her, ignoring her mom's overprotective comment about her choice of dressing.

"Break the door! Thank God you have a fat salary." She heard her brother shout, but, she had been too in a haste to respond.

She had packed out of her family's house at the age of Twenty–three to a rented apartment where she lived, alone. The reason why she moved out? She was tired of the way she was been treated, it wasn't fair to her. Her family always wanted to know what she was doing all the time and who she was on the phone with– She never had much private time. As the only girl among three boys, they ordered her around, saying as a girl she had to do the house chores. It was only on a few weekends she came home to have some bonding time with her family and also enjoy free food. Living alone as an adult wasn't that simple, she sometimes ran out of foodstuff.

Reaching a junction, she flagged down a public cab to carry her alone to her destination. The driver, a tout–like man with small dreads agreed to her offer, eager for the extra money he was going to make from carrying a single passenger who was ready to pay for the whole seat of passengers.

She half jumped out of the cab when it stopped at her destination and squeezed three thousand nairas into the driver's hands. She wasn't sure if she gave him more than the amount of money she was supposed to, but, the driver shouting behind her for her to come back for her change only indicated that she had given him more than the required money.

"Keep the change," she shouted. That money was going to eat deep into her pocket, but, at this point, it was like money was nothing.

"Madam, I hail o!" The driver exclaimed in joy as he held the wad of notes in his hands.

She ran the rest of the way and arrived in front of a black school gate with a huge white placard that read "STAR COLLEGE"

Star College, is a school that comprises kindergarten classes down to preschool and is mostly attended by kids whose parents could afford the high school fees. It's a school widely known in its vicinity for its past and previous achievements.

Her breathing seemed to slow down in utter relief at the thought that she had finally made it to school. Her next strategy was how to avoid other staff members and the loud mouth Principal. If she was specifically seen by the Principal, she would receive a thirty-minute round of elderly talk from him.

She reached for the handle of the gate and slowly pushed it open. Her head followed next, taking a swift survey of the school environment. She greeted the two young gatemen with a nod before slowly pushing her body through the slightly opened gate and walking in haste toward the brightly painted yellow building.

Her right foot was just a few inches away from the raised pavement of the three–storey building when she heard it. "Ms. Sarah!"

Jesus! her mind screamed. She knew that voice, she could recognize it anywhere without having to look at its owner. Her heart skipped multiple times and she thought she would faint. Plastering a fake smile, she slowly turned in the direction of the voice. He was coming from the direction of the school library, Mr. Adetoun, the Principal.

"Ei! God." She clutched tightly onto the handle of her bag and bit her lower lips. Her lips and mouth had gone dry. "Mr. Adetoun, good morning sir." She looked down at the ground and slightly bent her knees as a means of greeting.

"It's a very good morning," he replied, standing akimbo and skimming his eyes over her disheveled appearance. The sarcasm with which he spoke was very evident to her.

As if woken up from a daze, she shot up her head to look at him. "Sir, I swear I had an emergency this morning, my brother was rushed to the hospital early this morning," she rushed. "God forbid!"

He heaved a deep sigh that moved along with his shoulders and looked down briefly before staring up at her again. He was tall, tall enough to make Sarah intimidated and crawl back into her shell with all the lies she had planned on dishing out to him."The last time you were late you said your younger sister was rushed to the hospital." The dark-skinned man folded his left arm and placed his right hand on his cheek. "Sarah, you have no younger sister o, I just allowed you to go scot-free and the other time you were late before the last time, you said your grandmother was also rushed to the hospital."

She pursed her lips as she stared mindlessly at the ground. She couldn't deny that all that she had told him were lies. She felt bad for lying to a man old enough to be her father. "I'm sorry, sir."

"Hmm, you're sorry." He removed his hand from his cheek to fold it across his chest. "We've been calling your number but you weren't even picking up, see, as a teacher you need to be–"

That was it, another exaggerated thirty minutes of elderly advice. She kept zoning in and out of the conversation, catching only a few of the words he said. Standing there with a tired body and listening to him talk, she felt like her whole body would soon give way. Not that she cared if she would come late another day because of waking up late, she needed a good amount of sleep to function well for a job she didn't feel happy doing.

"The next time you come late again, be ready to hear from the proprietor. God knows I've tried over you, even your father in heaven would know I've tried over his daughter."

As always, he was using her late father to justify his actions again. The man and her father had been best friends since childhood.

She swiftly raised her head and shot him a hard look. "Mr. Ade, you've said enough."

He scratched his hair in guilt and slightly bent his head to avoid her gaze like a child. "Eh, all these things I'm doing are for your good o."

"I know." She pouted her lips.

"Ehehn, Sarah." He lightly tapped her right shoulder.

"Jesus Christ, Baba Mary what is it again?" she snapped. Her legs were getting wobbly and her body was feeling hot. All she wanted at that moment was to sit down and have some fresh air while she munched on anything edible she could find.

"Aha! Sarah, calm down, it's not up to that o, I only wanted to tell you about the new student that was brought this morning, she's an oyinbo." He smiled.

The word oyinbo caught her attention making all her senses shoot up as she grinned at him. "Oyinbo? What is a white child doing here, in this hard country?"

"I don't know, but anyways, she's in your class so take good care of her, she might be different to handle."

"No problem."

"The kids are in Faith's class, we merged them because you were not here early," he said.

"Okay, sir." She half turned toward the building. "I'll be heading to class now." And with that, she turned and headed to the building, not sparing Mr. Adetoun a glance to check if he was still standing or had headed to wherever.

She walked past the corridor of various classrooms with quiet steps, skillfully making her presence unknown to any of its occupants until she got to hers with the inscription KG 2 written boldly on the top of the wooden door.

Without hesitation, she walked straight into the quiet classroom and plopped down on the wooden teacher's chair with a loud sigh. Her seat was placed beside the marker board in front of the class, where her eyes could reach every activity going on within the four corners of the room. Releasing her grasp from her bag on the table, she roams her eyes around the cream-colored classroom, from the different kid posters on the wall to the toys piled on a table at the far end of the room, until they landed on the white wall clock– 10: 35am. The school's first break had just passed.

After a few minutes of relishing in the quiet of the room, she sluggishly picked herself up from her sitting position and made her way to Faith's class. If it was possible, she wished Faith could have the children for the whole day.

Faith is one year younger than her, and her best friend from University days. They had stuck together since then till the present moment. They both applied for jobs at Star College specifically because of the high income.

"You're late! and you look like you've just seen shege," The 6ft tall fair-skinned lady exclaimed, the moment she set her eyes on her friend who was leaning on the door frame with drowsy eyes.

"I had an early morning emergency and I got stuck in traffic when I was coming." That was another lie. If God had a book record for keeping her lies, He would have used more than a notebook for lies that she mostly told when at work.

Faith scoffed. "Madam, you and I both know that was a lie you just spewed out." She picks up her phone from the wooden table in front of her, her gaze not leaving Sarah for a moment.

"Where are they?" Sarah points in the direction of the empty room.

"The P.E teacher left with them some minutes–" She stifled a yawn, "–ago."

"Thank God! I'm off to get some minutes of sleep," she said, turning her back to leave.

"Ehehn–" Faith's oval-shaped face lit with excitement as she looked up from her phone screen. "–there is this new kid in your class they just brought this morning, she's oyinbo, this girl is so fiiinnee," she squealed. "I was asking for her name this morning, she didn't even answer me, but that's not even what I wanted to talk about..." She dismissed with her right hand. "It was a black lady that brought the girl to school, you know na, if the lady is her mother she's supposed to be half-caste or probably the lady is just one of all these gold diggers th–"

She briefly closed her eyes and muttered, "Jesus Christ!" Her hands were itching so bad to pull out her friend's wig and run away with it. With shoulders slumped down, she turned back to face her friend with hands akimbo. "Aunty, just shut up," she half snapped. "Can't you see the way I'm walking? Your friend needs food! not gist."

"Am I a mind reader? You should have told me you were hungry." Faith pouted her lips and stared at her friend with puppy eyes.

"Okay, that's it." Sarah raised her left palm. "I'm off to my class, Bye!" And with that, she walked out of the class ignoring her friend's sulking look.

Foreign Words

Ankara Wrapper: African patterned clothes.

Odabo: Bye

Baba: Daddy/Father

Shege: Pepper/red(trouble)

o: It is used to emphasize a statement in the Yoruba language.