5 Chapter 4- Through The Dorm

Chapter dedicated to Deria Abban my fellow writer.

Can we dance- The vamps

#4

Time seemed to have stopped until the bell shrilled through the walls of the dorm.

Saved by the bell.

" You heard Asare, tardiness is a thing she precisely hates so save your paranoias and grab your lunch bags. It's dinning." Anita rumbles and walks away towards her cabin.

The room was now filled with a shuffle of noises as they rummaged through their suitcases and backpacks for their plates and cutlery.

Ciarra stuffed them into her backpack still glaring at Sabina. Something was telling her they were not going to like each other.

What's that saying again, Two captains can never be in one shipm Well this was surely coming to pass.

" Come on Ciarra, let's go." Heather urges and they joined the others.

The first years were the last to leave the dorm since they didn't even know where exactly the dinning hall was.

" I smell something fishy." Kweiba comments and they all agreed.

" Ever read Kate Brian's Private series?" Ashanti asks them, " Billings house was the best house and carried the most secrets. I think it runs through all the prestigious houses in boarding schools."

" Agreed, oh there's Chelsea,let's follow her."  Ciarra points out from the balcony and they quickly descended the stairs and caught up with her.

" What's up guys?" She asks in an elated tone.

" Don't know where the Dinning hall is." Ciarra informs her.

" You came to the right person. I love food and everything associated with it." She states boldly and Mae and Healenore chuckle.

" I'm not really a fan of food." Faye complains.

" Then prepare for a fight with Mrs Asare." Chelsea informs her as they follow her out of the house, " There's three hundred of us and just one of her and if you end up with an ulcer or some sort of health issue, she'll be blamed so over here, if you miss dinning, you'll be weeding the fields."

" Oh." Healenore realises.

" Why are you all following me in the first place. Don't you have seniors in your dorm?" She asks out of curiosity.

" There's something off about them. Gives me the hibee-jibees." Faye says.

" Baeta, mind elaborating?" Chelsea asks the most outspoken one of the group.

" How do you know my name?"

" This is Manhattan house, word goes around pretty fast. Everyone knows Professor Baeta's daughter, and Doctor McAllister's  is here. The rest of you, well they don't have enough tabs on you to figure out who you are."

" There's one person missing in our dorm."

" These dorms hold a lot of secrets and there's enough space to carry it all. Have you asked yourselves why there are only five dorms occupying two three storey buildings. Don't try to dig into anything. Just go with the flow. That's what we do."

The conversation switched to the various courses they were offering and how different the school was in comparison to their junior high schools.

Finally they get to the dinning hall and Chelsea walks them to the Menu where several sheets of papers had been pasted beneath the various meals for the day.

" Umph, breakfast is served with milk?, I am lactose intolerante." Ciarra wonders.

" They have a list for students with allergies. As long as it was stated in your transfer records." She informs her, " Well, search for your names from the list to find your table."

All of them found their names except Ciarra who was still going through the list.

Chelsea joins a couple of her friends in a conversation.

" These contacts are the worst, especially when I am in a dark room." She complained and Heather joined her to help her out. The others waited for her before locating their tables.

" Oh my Gosh." Faye swoons and the rest turn to look at her curiously as several students also went through the list for their table allocations.

" I didn't know I'd be running into cute guys...three o'clock. But don't turn like I just told you something." She informs them and they find silly ways to get a glimpse at the guy leaning against a pillar on the veranda of the dinning hall. He was tan, obviously not black with curly dark brown side swept hair and vibrant emerald eyes with flecks of gold whenever the sun fell into his eyes. You could tell he was built even though he had the school's hoody over his house shirt.

" Awwww." Kweiba also drawls.

" Found it." Ciarra turns to them with Heather in toe.

" What are you all blushing about?" Heather asks.

" Three o'clock." Veronica alerts and they turned in a very intuitive way.

" Oh my God!" Ciarra comments.

" I know right, he's handsome obviously." Faye remarks clasping her hands over her shoulders in a dreamy glee.

" No, no no. It can't be...O Lord help me." Ciarra mutters out to herself before walking through the mass of students to meet him, ignoring the calls from her friends.

" I thought I called dibs on him." Faye complains.

" We don't call dibs on guys." Mae corrects.

" What happened to chicks before dicks?" Veronica complains.

" If that's your attempt of quoting the girl code then you're really lost." Ashanti whispers.

They couldn't hear the encounter but what they saw explained a lot. She said something and tapped him on the shoulder. He turns and his eyes light up in pure delight as he engulfed her in a hug, lifting her of the ground and drawing some attention in the process.

" Ooooh, turns out your guy already belongs to someone." Efua teases Faye.

" Is that her boyfriend?... I thought Sabina was just trying to be a bitch back at the house." Healenore also wonders.

Their questions were answered when she drew him to them. He smiled excitedly when he walked  to them. Faye practically fell back into Sarah's arms pretending she had fainted but Sarah pushes her back to a standing position.

" Hey guys, this is Lejandro." Ciarra introduces to them.

" Your boyfriend?" Sarah asks .

" Actually, one of his best friends. Bet you, if you see her boyfriend you'll know. He's one of my best friends." Lejandro clarifies.

" Oh, anyway I'm Fayanna, this is Ashanti, Efua, Sarah, Heleanore, Baeta, Mae, Kweiba and Heather." She points out but his eyes linger on Heather's briefly before he broke eye contact with her.

" Don't tell me you also think I'm eleven years old." Heather slits her eyes at him and murmurs.

" I'm not sure I'll remember all the names, but trust me Heather... we're gonna be one hell of a duo." He says and Heather rolls her eyes at him obviously not phased.

A bell sounds and Chelsea rans up to them from her circle of friends.

" That's your cue, find your seats before we say the grace." She says and they all scatter into the dinning hall.

  Lunch was Kenkey with fried fish and hot sauce. Most of the freshers were finding it hard to use the cutlery for such a meal. Everyone knows Kenkey is eaten with the hand and not cutlery, especially when it was this hard.

If you were caught not using your cutlery, your name would be added to the list of those who will sweep the dinning hall after lunch.

At their tables, they met new people.

Ciarra kept stabbing her fish till it was practically dead again.

" Are you gonna eat that. The teachers watch so they know it if you don't eat." The head of the table tells her.

" How are you even at this table. I thought boys were separated from girls in this school." 

" Not really, during lunch we mix up. It's only during breakfast and dinner that we have single sexes at each table. " He replies.

" One more minute and the bell will ring again and if you still have this much food on your table, your house mistress will feed you so I'll save you today. Push your plate to me."

She reluctantly does so and after peeping over his shoulders and around, poured it back into the saucepan and placed the lid over it. She slowly dragged her plate across the table back to her side.

" Who else can't eat theirs?" He asks the ten others and in a very creative and yet orderly fashioned way, he helped everyone who couldn't finish their food clear their plates. Then the bell resonates through the walls of the huge dinning hall.

The teachers were impressed by their table. Meanwhile others were being marched back to an empty table to be fed... probably.

Dinning was over and everyone rushed out of the room to the sinks outside to wash their plates.

The girls met up again and with Ashanti's great sense of direction, they found their way back to their house.

The rest of the day was as boring as possible until night time when they had to shower with icy cold water and suffer the chilly air pouring through the broken window.

Heleanore though, was provided with warm water because of a health condition she has. The dorm seemed to get chillier as it became late. Some had to sleep in their sweaters over their pajamas. Especially those who had their beds close to the windows.

                     OoO

Unlike the rest Ashanti didn't feel safe enough in her surroundings and if she didn't figure it out soon she'd be dead easily. She needed to get to know all secluded places in the school first.

She was up by 3:00am you could call her insomniac and since the rising bell wasn't off yet, took a shower and dressed up for school. At 4:30, as soon as the rising bell went off, she grabbed her slightly empty bookbag and headed out the dorm. Only Anita saw her leave that early.

She walked out of the house and breathes in fresh air from the morning breeze. She had pulled her hair into a high ponytail as prescribed and popped in her contacts to get a better view of her surroundings.

Today was supposed to be a day for orientation and they were to all convene at the assembly hall by 8:00am that morning for it. She had at least two hours to explore the school on her own before it's time for the daily assembly.

She walked down the empty road that was only lighted by the streetlights lining it up. She walked eastwards. Down flowery footpaths that seemed to go down an endless slope. After an hour of going down the slope a clearing comes into view.

A lake.

With several trees surrounding it's banks. Benches had been placed at vantage points. This might have been a place were people hang out but it looked abandoned.

Birds chirped noisely and hopped from branch to branch. She glared briefly before something caught her attention. Fishes! They jumped up out of the lake and back into it with so much joy.

It's probably some sort of ecological reserve the school was preserving for studies. She walked towards the banks and stood still with both hands in the pockets of her hoody. The sun was rising in stages from the horizon. As the light emerged the lake glistened in its glory.

    She reflected on her life so far. To be a person like her involved a lot of sacrifice...the right sacrifices. She wasn't just here to study to make a good life out of herself and make her father proud but to learn how to be a better person. That's what he always wanted. 

Her head was fussy with several heavy emotions she stared hard at the lake to hold back her tears. Gripping the strap of her bookbag, she recalled everything.  He would have been proud of her achievements.

And her mother...three years away from her wasn't long enough, she would have wanted her in this boarding school longer.

She watched the sun rise up into the white skies, spreading its reddish halo across the morning skies.

" Breathtaking, isn't it." A bold voice sighs from behind.

She wasn't the least startled. She stood still and her gaze towards the lake was unwavering.

" Depends on how everyone sees this view." She responds without turning.

He walks up to her and stood next to her. " How do you see it?"

" The coming of yet another tragic day for some." She replies with a light grin before turning to her right to acknowledge him.

He chuckled.

" Exactly how optimists are viewing this. You are an optimist aren't you." She asks.

" You can say that."

" Today is the day someone is going to lose a loved one, today is the day an innocent person is being unjustly convicted to jail, today is the day someone has to pay a debt that he doesn't have enough for, today is a day that someone commits suicide. The day a family is going to be robbed at gunpoint. I'm not pessimistic. But tell me, the balance of the goodness of this day with its badness?"

After a minute full of silence, he finally speaks up, " Life is a game for the fool and tragedy for the poor."

The screeching sound of the bell could be heard faintly at the lake.

She turns and begins to walk away.

"We will meet again?" He more like asks than states.

" You were right. Life is a dream." She replies with a smug smile and disappears into the woods back up the path she came with.

He grins without breaking his gaze at the lake. A few seconds later he also turns towards the direction with which he came.

It was time for breakfast.  Tea with buttered round loaves.  Some who weren't used to the early rising bells literally dozed off into their cups of tea until the bell went off to signal the end of breakfast and the beginning of the daily assemble.

Everyone was gathered at the school's durbar grounds for the address. The protocol prefects went round to help everyone to take a stand in an orderly fashion. Freshers in five columns first then a one meter gap before the juniors in columns of fives then the gap then the senior years in the same column of five.

       After five minutes of arranging everyone, the Chapel prefect mounts the podium and greets them all before her assistant raised a very popular worship song to which most people picked up and begun to sing to it. Afterwards, the Reverend assumed his role of leading the entire student body in an opening prayer for the term.

Then the principal of the school takes a stand behind the podium and clears her throat. The microphone gives off a disturbing feedback and all becomes silent.

She looks intently at the student body in front of her and smiles to herself when she notices most of the foreign students couldn't stand the early morning sunlight.

" You know, this is the school's highest record of foreign students. Don't worry, after three weeks, your skin is gonna get used to it. Early morning sun gives vitamin D, but if you know you're gonna have an issue with it, then please apply your sunscreen. This is subsaharan Africa people!, Not Alaska!" She chuckles in her thick New Jersyan accent and a few people in the crowd chuckled in return.

" I am your principal Aba Yankee and I would like to warmly welcome you all to this wonderful school. To you our dear foreign students, I want you to know that the school's laws and principles will not change in your regards. Nelesco believes in justice and impartiality. As the saying goes; ' When in Rome, do what the Romans do.' Let's start with the school's uniforms.

Under no circumstance will you alter the uniform either wholly or in part. Especially you my dear girls. Don't cut your skirts short cause we will know and give you the well intended punishment.

Boys are to be in their grey shorts, white shirts and vests. The tie is optional. Socks for boys should not be long and they are to wear black shoes. Only during prep and under a medical condition will you be allowed to be in sandals on school grounds.

Girls are also to be in their shirts, vests and skirts, ties are optional and you are to be in either white or black knee highs that have to be doubled over just beneath the knee. Then our prescribed shoes are either Mary Jane's or ballerina flats. No makeup what so ever is allowed unless during some seasonal changes in the atmospheric conditions of the school. Foreign students have been allowed to keep their hair. For you my dear girls, you have to either keep it in a neat bun, ponytail or in braids. And to the boys, I don't want any funky haircuts and hairstyles. Let's keep it lit and yet real.

To my dear Ghanaian students, if I do lay hands on any of you attempting to get funky haircuts, you'll be sent home until your hair grows back and you neatly trim it."

She flips her binder and continues,

"Now that we've established the guidelines for our appearance, shall we move on to   the real deal.

This school is renowned for its excellent performance in the nationwide final examination and that is the reason why many of you chose this school. We highly esteem discipline.

Extra curricular activities make  twenty-five percent of your final grades, homework makes five percent, class participation also makes fifteen percent whiles class work makes five percent and your end of term tests take the fifty percent. So be sure to take your studies seriously especially class participation since we noticed that's were all the laziness stems from. On this note, Great Nelson!!" She calls and majority of the students except for most of the freshers responded with the school's motto in both Latin and English,

" Animus est Formidabilem Terere!, The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste!"

" Good, so don't waste it. Information on the school's outline of activities for the semester will be announced to you during tomorrow's assemble. Have a good day, I leave here for your senior prefects" She smiles and picks her binder from the pulpit before walking back.

Helen Quaye and Ekow Blankson, both Senior Girls' prefect and Senior Boys' prefect respectively came up to introduce themselves

and after a brief speech,dismissed the gathering.

But before they could leave, one of the protocol prefects calls them back for an impromptu announcement.

" Do we have Goodman Ashanti here?" She reads from the paper in her hand, " You are to see your house mistress right after this."

The grounds was now noisy as people called familiar friends amidst the hubbub.

Ashanti stood with her arms folded, contemplating whether to  respond to the call or not. Heather walks up to her, concern etched in her expression.

" Where'd you go this morning, I almost thought you probably did something to yourself." She asks

" I am not insane. Why should I even go?" She wonders.

" Please do go, I'll be hanging around the water fountain, we can walk to the assembly hall together afterwards." She suggests.

" But neither of us know the place, why don't you join the others and get there easier."

" And miss out on the fun of getting lost?, I wouldn't trade that for anything!" She responds with determination.

Ashanti wonders who at all this girl was... well, she seemed too determined to give up so Ashanti obliges and walks towards the mass of teachers having undertone discussions on the podium. She spots Mrs Asare who's eyes locks with hers in a cold interesting glare.

**************

Big trouble.