THE RIDE

EPISODE 5

We needed a minimum GPA of 3.5 at the end of our second year, to move from diploma to full admission. After the first two weeks of living with Ada, I knew we could never meet up with that requirement, because Ada and I spent the most part of our idle time gisting and partying. So I made friends with the two smart brains in my class - Nneka and Ndidi. They had the standard

“first-class” persona; they could never be caught talking about anything other than their studies and did not care about trendy clothing or hairstyle fads. Clean t-shirts, jeans and hairs neatly packed in a ponytail, was their regular look. Every other thing was considered as frivolity to them. They had one aim and one aim only: To exceed the cut-off mark.

Nneka particularly hated Ada. In her opinion, Ada was a pompous and annoying individual, who wanted to be worshiped. She never understood why I was friends with her.

“She acts like the whole world has to worship the very ground she steps on. Who does she even think she is kwa. I cannot wait to see her face when our first semester result comes out and she packs all the Fs in the world.”

This was a trait some ladies had that baffled me: their ability to judge their fellow ladies, without knowing anything about them. On the flip side, I would not totally blame Nneka because Ada did not make liking her an easy task. She still had not come to the terms with the fact that we were now in Awka, a town where majority of the people did not speak Queens’ English. I mean, even our lecturers found it difficult expressing themselves properly in English. No, Ada was in UNIZIK, Awka physically but in UNILAG, Yaba mentally. She hated this place and would never become friends with anyone who reminded her that she was here.

The fear of my mum, made me careless about these things. I did not want to fail and if making friends with the most unrefined humans was my only route to success - I would gladly do that.

Anyway, for everybody’s water to boil without obstructing the other person’s own, I always avoided talking about Ada with Nneka and Ndidi whenever her topic came up. I had come a long way with Ada. Besides, I only had the two of them for the books. My routine was a weird blend but it worked perfectly well for me. I would attend lectures and stay back in school with my reading partners, till about 7pm, studying. Then head home to the most interesting character I know, Ada.

Our first semester examination came and went very well.

I have a special gift of communicating in the examination hall and it came in handy: I could whisper my whole answers to the person behind me and no one would figure out that I was ever saying a word. So throughout our first semester examinations, I sat directly in front of Ada and taught her everything. The invigilators kept on complaining about hearing someone’s voice but never found out who it was. This helped me bag As and my girl, Bs.

Some days to going home for our first semester vacation, I literally went into a mild depression. I was not sure of what to expect. I had gone close to five months without the watchful claws of my Mum and I had gotten used to it. The evening before we went to Lagos, Ada, who had now broken up with Nnamdi and was dating Kola, came home from spending the weekend at Kola’s to meet me in tears on the bed.

“What is the issue, my dear?” She asked, as she placed her hand bag on our blue plastic reading table, set neatly at the left corner of our room.

“My mother.” I replied.

“Ahn ahn, is that why you are crying? What about your mother?”

“I have not seen her in a while and I do not know what to expect? She does not yet know that I moved out of Aunty Chika’s house to live off campus. I don’t know how she would take it when she finds out.”

“How is that possible? You left your Aunt’s house a long time ago. So, how is it that your Mum does not know this yet?”

“Well, I begged my Dad not to tell her and he did not.” I replied.

“I will never understand how your family works, but you need to stop crying. She is your mother, no matter what, she will not kill you. Now stop all this silliness and let me tell you what Kola and I were up to the whole weekend…” Ada replied, making her usual mischievous face, that told me she has been up to something really bad.

“You finally gave him your virginity.” I interjected, with all my hopes high in anticipation that her response would be no.

I was of the school of thought that we keep our virginity for the man who would end up marrying us, but Ada thought differently. Her usual response to me on this topic was that man you plan on keeping it all for, has taken away that of a lot of ladies. So do not be fooled. Sometimes, I wondered why she was still a virgin till this time.

“Lol, no joor. Slowly, but surely, we will get there. Just know that we did everything that could be done except that one. Slowly but surely my friend.” She said giggling as she got up to take her shower.

By 6pm the next day, I was home and back to my usual chronicles with my Mum.

*************To be continued*************

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