CHAPTER FIVE; Public toilet.

When I woke up this morning, I was a bit tensed and eager to go to school. I was eager to go to school for the first time.

When I got to School that morning, I brought out my small napkin from the side pocket of my school bag and started cleaning my table and chair. As usual , I came early to School today. When the bell was rang for assembly, I went out with my School bag as usual and was surprised when I got to the assembly ground and saw that the people leading the assembly were different from the ones leading the previous days. This time, I saw two boys and a male teacher standing on the corridor. The vice principal, wasn't there .

I realized that they were singing a different song. It sounded like Arabic, was this a Muslim assembly? I asked one of tye girls lining up beside me and she said yes. I noticed something's really strange, the christians were singing along too, the most striking thing I realized was that the girl who called me beautiful and looked at me like a dirty sinner on my first assembly , I mean the short and muscly girl, was also singing tye song along with the Muslims solemnly. I looked at her in awe, wondering why she did that. Well, I didn't sing along with them, not because I didn't know the song , but because I wasn't a Muslim. I am a CHRISTIAN and a very proud one at that.

The girl beside me noticed my silence and decided to be nosy, instead of minding her business and asked"why aren't you praying?" My reply to her was"No! I'm not a Muslim." she looked at me weirdly and then said "whether you are a Christian or a Muslim, it doesn't matter, we are all serving the same God, God and Allah are one." Well, I knew she was wrong, I just didn't want to get into any argument with her So I just looked at the other direction and rolled my eyes so she would see me.

After the assembly, when I went back to my class room, There was no teaching that morning. During break, I went downstairs to wait for my Cousin at the food vendor's place. He came on time , I didn't have to wait as long as I did the previous day. This time , he was holding a compass and a pencil, from his reaction to my greeting, I knew he must have been very busy, but had to attend to his annoying, hungry, little cousin. Chibuikem is a science student, he needs a lot of focus on his academics. He said to me after buying the bread and egg sandwich and Ice cream which was my favorite for me"Look, you are not a baby any more, I think I've helped you a lot for the past few days, so, you have to do things by your self from now hence forth, okay? tomorrow, come out like a brave girl that you are and bye things for your self. If anybody bullies you or takes your money, please let me know. okay? is that fine?. " I nodded at him even though it wasn't fine with me at all not even a little bit. I am brave but I was just not used to being choked up in the crowd. Chubuikem is tall and also in the section of the school and plus he is the Labour perfect,so, he gains a lot of respect from the pupils and the good vendor's too. When Chubuikem tries to get something, tye way is cleared for him like a King. most times he just stands at the back of the crowd and greets tye food vendor nicely with a charming smile and she attends to him quickly or he would sometimes go into the shop or send someone else to go there and get it for me . He was so influential in the School. When I told him this , he just blushed and said that it was his elder Brother's influence that he took over because his elder brother Chibuzor, was the first Head Boy in the Junior School and also the Head boy of the senior school in his set. To be honest, because of what my Cousin told me, I dreaded coming to school the next day.

Getting to my class room, I ate the food happily not thinking about tomorrow for a while. After break, the social studies teacher Mr. Dele walked into the class room with the girl who writes on the board for him, this girl is a very fast writer so, I liked her writing on the board. Mr. Dele warned us to be well behaved as he wasn't going to be in class with us because he had some important things to deal with. He stepped out if the class room and they all resumed in their noice making again. I took out my note quietly from my bag and started writing.

Suddenly, I felt a small discomfort I'm my stomach and knew that I had to go to the toilet and answer the call of 'nature'.

I quickly drank some water form my bottle, closed my book, and kept it in my school bag. I didn't want to take it to the toilet so, I asked Muini to watch it for me with a kind smile on my face. That girl can be really annoying and pestering sometimes.

I rushed down the stairs to the girls toilet which was directly before the corridor. When I entered the toilet, I was welcomed by the terrible smell of septic disposable. I had to cover my nose with my palm. I was too pressed so, I walked into one of the opened toilet with a broken door. the whole toilet was wet, with what? was what I didn't know and didn't want to know at all.

seeing the unimaginable dirty toilet, I suddenly stopped feeling pressed, like it disappeared. I was shocked at this and decided to run out of the toilet but was caught at the front door by the toilet cleaner. she looked at me in disgust and said " you are stupid, how dare you use the toilet, now go an wash that toilet !" she said this in pidgin English so I had to interprete. From the way she spoke and appeared, I knew she wasn't educated. I just pulled my hands off her and explained to her hat I didn't use the toilet because it was dirty and she hasn't cleaned it yet. She looked at me with so much irritation in her eyes, and started swearing at me.She told me that if I used the toilet then she It won't be well with me and that it was mother who was a toilet cleaner and not her. I was amazed and amused at the filthy words that came out of her small and elderly mouth. Fist I didn't use the toilet, so, I wasn't moved at all by her swears and secondly, It was her who was a cleaner in this dirty public toilet and not my mother who was a trader . This 'mama cleaner 'is very funny and dramatic I thought to myself while walking back upstairs to my class room.

On getting to my class room, I discovered that the girl copying the note had gotten really far , so, I got to my sit to try to catch up with her but not without getting insults and frustrated remarks from the students at the back because I was blocking the board from their view. The annoying thing was that those who weren't copying the note joined in the insults and remarks, just for the sake of talking and making noise. I copied my note speedily and eventually , I was done just in time when I heard the closing bell followed by the joyful noise of the students.

I packed my bag and got ready waiting fo Chubuikem to come and pick me, so I can go home early, I had a lot of notes to copy, I took a lot of Fatima's complete note today, so I can copy them when I get home because, as usual, there was no assignment from school. I couldn't wait in the class room because of the dust from the sweeping so, I waited outside by the corridor.

Chibuikem came to pick me up early today unlike the past few days. On our way home, I told him about everything that happened , the public toilet issue and donon and so forth. He looked at me with concern laced in his face and said"thank God you didn't use the toilet, you would have gotten an infection if you did. don't ever use that toilet, make sure you always use the toilet from home before coming to School and don't drink too much water in class. " My response was " okay, thank you. " The rest of the journey home was silent.

At home, I did the usuals. I bade Chubuikem good bye, took the keys from the hidden place,opened the door,had my bath ,ate and started copying my note.

This night, before going to bed, I told my mum and dad about the terrible experiences I've been having in the school;no teaching, dirty toilet, too much beating and so on and so forth. They just sighed and and sent me to bed. This night, I didn't sleep peacefully as I did the last two nights but tried to sleep but to no avail as I was anxious about how I was going to get food from the food vendor tomorrow without my cousin Chibuikem.

Finally, I fell asleep till the next day.