Ascenders: Rising From Zero

The teacher adjusted his glasses, taking a cursory look at the class of 45 students. The students wearing various styles of the latest fashion.

"Children of nowadays eh!" He sighed.

Straightening up, he cleared his voice putting on the classic teacher stern look:

"Let's do something different today. How many of you know about the rich culture of the Yoruba kingdom, of ancient times?"

At that, a girl jumped up. She had glasses on too, obviously the class nerd with an all back braid plait. "I do, sir. About the times when the Orisha were not yet walking the Earth, right?" She asked gingerly.

The teacher laughed, wiping his mustache with a white handkerchief. "That is close but not quite it, Stephen. Nice try!"

"Ouch!"

"Ooh"

"Hurts!"

The class suddenly erupted in laughter as they mocked Stephen with various oohs and Aahs. Sullen faced, She sat down after making faces to the close classmates about her.

"Ooh, come on, class. Did you know that the Gods or the Orisha had a soldier force of spirit beings or Emi Oguns that ran their errands in the various aspects the gods were concerned with? And that they were called Irunmoles?"

"Sir, excuse me." Stephen rose a hand again. "You are using the verb were in your narrative. Does that mean that gods don't exist no more or all that history was just a lie?"

"Oh, Sorry! Truth is, the Gods have stopped walking our realm. Rather they use Irunmoles, Messengers of Light who you can also call Angels."

The teacher smirked, raising one finger up.

"Except they are not the conventional idea of what you perceive angels to be. They grow, reproduce, eat and all that we do but their primary purpose is to assist The Orishas that they serve once time comes."

"Oh!" Stephen cooed, seating back in her chair.

"I did a little research, you know, the Yoruba culture of Nigeria is really rich and much more than what you see on the pages of google, bing etcetera. In fact, what search engines bring to you are merely diluted and fragmented parts of the real thing." The teacher smiled.

"There's a certain story you will never find on search engines. A very ancient one. One that tells of an Irunmoles, Trixius the great who challenged the gods to battle." He paused, wiping his face again.

Lifting a finger up, he continued. "One Irunmole against the host of Orisha. The various gods and all the gods could do was to seal his soul. He was so powerful that he couldn't be destroyed but sealed."

"Trixius was so powerful that the gods placed all manner of seals on him. But rumors had it that Trixius will break his bonds. How? No one knew but the gods knew that Trixius planned for every eventuality.

But that was long ago. As to whether the gods are still uptight, that's for..."

"Excuse me sir." A voice from the back of the class cut in.

"Yes?" The teacher looked in the direction frowning slightly.

"Sir, I think I need to... <yawwnnnnnnn>... oops! Sorry sir!" The student buckled over, covering his mouth simultaneously, earning himself a round of laughter from the class.

Immediately, he dashed out before any more talk could be made.

"Oh, Bayo... I wonder how you will pass history if you keep acting this way." The teacher sighed before wiping his face again.

Outside the classroom, Bayo jogged further to lodge himself at the stairways.

"What a boring class!" He smiled. "Glad to be out of there. Like, who does Yoruba mythology anymore?"

Average heightened, black eyes with a curvy yet round face, Bayo had looks that could get a girl all over him.

But one thing he didn't always have was the passion for schooling and education.

Not that he didn't want to study but it was all a bother to him.

Why study when people don't earn from what they study?

That was his perspective to education and as result found himself struggling between the middle of the class or bottom of class grades.

"Feel like eating something. Better head to the tuck shop." He said to himself.

Just then, he pulled himself from leaning against the wall and trudged down the stairs.

In a short time, he had exited his block of class room and was heading to the administrative block where a tuck shop was located.

Bayo jogged over quickly to the shade of the Admin block only to be taken aback. Behind a pillar was a girl giving a quick kiss to a boy who held her by the waist.

Laughing softly, the girl hit his hands away. "We are in school, okay?" She smiled but the smile froze seeing the surprise look the boy had.

"What?"

"Bayo is looking at us." The boy mouthed.

At that, She turned around to give a cursory look at Bayo.

"So what? Bayo is my ex!"

Bayo gasped!

He just couldn't believe his ears. His own girlfriend who he caught cheating on him would even tag him as an ex before his face?

What audacity?

His heart raced, thumping furiously as his eyes moistened.

No, he wasn't going to cry before the bitch of a girl.

"How... dare... you, Shade?" Bayo fisted his hands, visibly shaken.

At that, Shade made an innocent face, pouting. "Ooh, did I break your heart? Sorry baby boy. But you see, Wale here is better prospects for me. At least he doesn't tell me the history of his family when I ask for money." She rolled her eyes now.

Taken aback, Bayo tilted his head towards The Wale. "So you used money to get her , right? Damn you, Wale. I thought we were friends."

"We were. But you see, money is important in a relationship. And that aside, Shade deserves a better person than you. You are just a depressed, sad, broke and boring and delusional guy seeking for some attention from a girl.

You are worth nothing, man. Hopeless case.

And you think she'll remain with you? Come one, she was only managing you all along.

At least until I came in." Wale smirked, clearly unashamed.

"Aww... that's so sweet of you, Wale" shade mouthed, giving a quick kiss once more.

"NOOOO..." Bayo screamed, his legs propelling him towards the gates of the school.

His eyes streaming hot tears as the wind lashed against his face.

His girl and his friend?

Together?

No...That was just simply too-much for him to take!

He brushed against some students as well as he neared the gate.

"Hey, what happened? School isn't over yet." A baritone voice broke into his line of thoughts.

It was the old security guard and his ever faithful whip.

Seeing him, Bayo went into a hyperdrive. With a clouded mind, all he could think of was getting far from here and this old geezer wasn't going to stop him.

God. He hated his life.

But why him?

"Sir, I was sent on errand by my teacher." Bayo lied.

"Eehn..." The guard looked suspectingly at him as he moved closer. "Where is the permit letter then?"

"It's here sir." Bayo lied once more , dipping his hands into his trouser pockets.

The guard got into close range dangling his whip. "I say, GIVE ME THE LETTER. You think you can lie for me ba?"

The whip swirled in the air, traveling with lightning speed as it descended down.

Just then, Bayo diver forward, spearing into the old security guard, completely taking him by surprise.

The guard fell hard on his butt , grunting in pain as his own whip lashed his legs. He twirled around, rushing to his feet only to see that Bayo had unlocked the gate and dashing out already.

"Come back here!" The guard screamed, running after him as fast as he could.

He dashed out of the gate only to be met with a scream and the fast paced motion of an eighteen wheeler truck smashing the young boy.

"OGod! "The guard's face twisted in horror, watching as the student slammed hard on the asphalt a few meters, still in front of the truck.

The brake of the truck was engaged as the types squealed.

However, the momentum of its kinetic force pushed the truck grudgingly forward, climbing over the body of Bayo and turning him to ground paste of blood, flesh and bones.