Every school has a bully

FEBRUARY

1.TENI

It is thirty minutes to eight AM, the radio is on a low volume, my annoying sister is singing along with the auto tuned voice of Tiwa Savage. Mum is focused on the road,driving cautiously. She is a cautious driver. She doesn't really know how to drive well yet ,but she has no choice now since Dad is gone. The morning is somewhat chilly. I draw a heart on the window with the sweat from my hands. Simi sways to the side almost touching me," watch it", I say and then I adjust my blue and white plaid pleated skirt,I also straighten the light blue sleeve of my shirt underneath my dark blue blazers and then button my blazers up. I hate sitting in the car besides Simi. But I can't sit beside mum. She is still upset that I burnt breakfast,so she asked me not to sit beside her so she can focus on driving.

I stare at my black flat cover shoe with white and sky blue fabric flowers in the middle. I had practically knelt and cried before mum bought the shoe last month ,she thought that I did not need a new shoe since the blue one I used last session still looked new. But a Queen Bee of the school must look like a Queen Bee. It's one month and a week into the second term of Sss3 ,Priscilla is gone and I am the new queen just like I planned. Last term was tough,but I succeeded in marking my territory. Although girls like Pauline think I will always be Priscilla's hand bag. She told me that herself but I won't let a petty nerd like her get to me. She wishes she was Queen Bee too. And I wasn't Priscilla's handbag,I just gave that evil witch support sometimes. She is really evil ,I remember when she poured hydrogen peroxide on Daniella's hand.

"I like your bracelet,'' Simi says, staring at my right slim brown wrist. I eye her and she backs off.

Soon we arrive at the Peace group of companies staff school, the annoying school I go to. PGCSS is a free affordable standard school for the children of the staff of Peace Group of Companies ,but only the less paid staff enroll their children or the parents who just choose to,like my mum but well after Dad left and she got demoted ,she has no choice than to keep me and Simi here. The school has a total of 120 students,and everybody knows each other.

"Come and take money " Mum says and hands me a two hundred naira note. Mum gives me money for lunch although good food is served at the cafeteria and for emergencies, in case I have to take the BRT home with Simi. Simi runs over to the next compound, the primary section, while mum drives away to work which is like five buildings away. I walk up the stairs into school. Just then Dammy pops out from nowhere.

"Hey!!!" She screams and hugs me. Dammy has been my friend since I came to PGCSS, when I was in Junior secondary school class one,OK she is not really my friend. She is like a sidekick. I am Batman and she is Robin. She helps me a lot ,she is like a hench girl. Every Queen Bee needs one. But I like her in a way she is nice and gullible and will do anything I say. That doesn't mean she doesn't have a place in my heart ,she does and I care a lot about her but she isn't that cool to be a friend to me. All the other eight girls in my class aren't either. I am hoping someone like Priscilla but less bossy comes along but we rarely get newcomers at PGCSS.

"How was your weekend?" she asks.

"It was fine, I had fun going to the mall with mum and Simi", I lied.

Things have been kind of tight ever since Dad left ,but I have to look cool. I am Queen Bee. Modupe and Tosin pass by , the two ugliest girls in my class. Dammy and I are the prettiest… Well I am the prettiest actually. I go to my locker and drop my bag in it after taking my Mathematics note and text book. PGCSS is modelled after an American high school building. The CEO of Peace is an American but we use the Nigerian curriculum for academics.