Chapter 2

I was spiritually gifted that I saw my GrandPa, with cotton wool on his nose and ears, putting on a white singlet. I ran to my bed and hurried my head under my pillow at the sight of him, I remember it clearly because it could not have been a dream. He came to reveal to me that he was gone, because, he had been in the hospital for weeks. The following day, my Dad together with my uncle and some other relatives brought my Grandpa's corpse home and it was exactly how he came to reveal himself to me that he was brought home.

  Oh well, my education was rushed. I was in primary four when I was Eight, preparing to go to Js1. My Big Mummy suggested I went to a boarding school that my big cousin, graduated from. I did not want to go to a boarding school actually because of what I heard about boarding schools, bullying and all. But she claimed the school was a very good school and one of the best in Nigeria too. So my dad took me there. Myself and a family friend who happened to be cousins with my big Aunt cousin went to the school. Although we stayed in different hostels because the boys hostel was far from the girls hostel. 

 Being in the boarding school made me hate boarding schools more. I remember always grumbling and complaining to my parents to change my school. My seniors also hated me or at least I thought they did not like me except one Senior Temiloluwa, who was school daughter to my Aunty Cousin and also the Head Girl at that time because she was in Ss3. She was so tall and really pretty. I remember her always taking me to the dinning Hall whenever we wanted to eat. She even made them put me in the same room as hers, we were bunkies as we called it that time. She washed my undies, socks and Uniforms. She called me pet names and treated me like I was her own little sister. This made many seniors including my mates jealous. We were close at least not until I offended her in someway and of course the jealous seniors had to make matters worse. So she stopped being so nice to me like before because she felt I lied against her bullying me and being mean to me and other juniors.

  Asides her and some few seniors like Senior Cynthia who was one fair, Chinese looking pretty lady, every other senior just did not like me, some because they claimed my cousin aunty was really mean to them when she was in the school, others because they just did not like me. They called me names, bad names. My mum always cried with me to my dad to change my school, but my dad was all bent on me finishing from the school because my big mummy, who happened to be my Dad's eldest sister suggested it to him and he did not want to disappoint her. I remember always crying and falling sick whenever school resumed but always the happiest during holidays. I was very lean.

 Although I made good friends in the school. Friends like Ayomiopin her surname frightened me, Sangobowale, Zainab she was Muslim, Aminat, Mariam, Bukunmi, Iqmat and many other people.

I was also very close to one old man, who was a bus driver. I remember everyone called him Baba Driver. He drove Day students because my school was a Day/Boarding school, but I was a boarder because I schooled in Ogun State. He used to advice me and tell me stories of when he was much more younger. He used to buy me food from outside the school too because I so much hated the school's food time table. But the school also gave snacks to both day students and boarders on weekdays. Unfortunately Baba Driver died third term when I was in Js1. 

  Myself and Ayomiopin would sometimes attend Friday Salat, evening prayer sections with our Muslim friends Mariam and Aminat. They also sometimes joined the Christian's early morning devotion and sometimes the after school Christian devotion, in which Digestive biscuits were shared to all students in the school. My favourite food time table were Saturdays because most seniors either hated the food or had plans to meet their boyfriends, either way myself and classmates had more food to eat. Because Saturdays were free days they most times had one evening to night naughty party for all students, where two or more people would be picked randomly to eat a really disgustingly sweet portion, play truth or dare or dance and drink till you get full. It was all fun but I still hated boarding school, I wanted to be home. I was always imagining being a senior myself, bossing and bullying my Junoirs around.

  Even in my boarding school, I still saw ghosts. I remember one time, really late one night,I washed my school uniform really late that night then snicked out of my room to spread it to avoid insults from my then seniors. I succeeded in spreading my uniform, when I saw Inioluwa Darbo, who also happened to be my classmate, she too went to spread her uniform outside, on getting to the gate, they had already locked it leaving us locked out.

We both were afraid to call on a senior student to avoid being questioned, so we decided to wait a while before calling on the house matron. Then we saw an appearance of a girl walking far away from us gently then the figure disappeared right in front of us and a cat suddenly appeared where the girl was and left through a really small hole underneath the bigger gate. We both screamed immediately out of fear, which alerted the Matron and ran into our various rooms after they had opened the hostel gates to also avoid being questioned.

  Many students after our experience also had similar experiences to what we had, some were having nightmares about the hostel, so the school had a PTA meeting with parents, to discuss building a new hostel for girls and eventually had to change the girl's hostel. The newly built girls hostel was built inside the main school building and was with some distance far from the boys hostel. It was quite spacious too. The toilet and bathrooms were quite furnished too only that it did not just have a dinning, so some big classrooms in the main school building upstairs, were designated as dinning room for both males and females.

 My Dad would always come pick me from school during holidays and then we would journey through those thick bushes at Ago Iwoye in Ogun State back to Ikorodu in Lagos. My dad would also take some of my seniors that went home alone and lived in Lagos and drop them where they could get buses or cars back home, when we got to Lagos. 

  I remember when I got home, my sweet mother, awaiting my return, would have prepared Jollof rice with big chicken and packs of drinks waiting for me in the kitchen fridge. Those were the only things I loved about being in boarding school. Dolamu was still very little that time and was in Creche although he could walk already, he would run in his baby style with his diaper jumping from side to side , stretching his hands towards me to be carried up. Then I would carry him and plant kisses all over his face. Dapo, my younger brother after me would then come to me to welcome me, welcome sis, he would always say, himself and two other teenagers that lived with us that time, Yetunde and Abayo. 

  Another thing that made boarding school fun for me was the social night, organised by senior students, it was a night to call out the celebrates for the week and also to showcase talents. Some concoctions would be made of some yucky things for the celebrants to eat. I remember always dodging social nights my birthday week.