FEGIDO TALES (Episode 3): The first Crush and the first Run

 ‘The first Crush and the first Run’

So first term was a breeze-through. I made good friends, had a good school mother, learnt how to endure punishments, and most importantly went home with most of my possessions which was a miracle, because most new students never did. My guardian had a ward who she had to sew school uniforms and house wears, twice before the end of the first term, the boy didn’t even have a belt and he had to use rope to hold his trousers because he lost a lot of weight and none of his clothes fit. It was funny but I couldn’t help but sympathize with him. He reminded me of myself, we were both in a new world and didn’t have it easy, for him it must have been way more hard, because boys will be boys.

Read more: Memories – The Birth of 16set

On the day of vacation, the joy on the faces of students was so disarming. You could see the happiness in the atmosphere. The only ones who weren’t to elated about going home were those who had guys and babes (the official words for ‘boyfriends and girlfriends’). I on the other hand was on cloud 9, anyone who saw me would think I wasn’t coming back, Senior Winner, who by then was officially my school father, teased me about my happiness, he came to my bus and ordered me to come down. I was a little bit scared even though I knew he was joking. When the bus drove out of the school gates, I breathed in deep and held the air in my lungs for a while savouring my freedom. Three weeks later the freedom was over and I was back to Fegido for the second term. But unlike the first term, I was familiar with a lot of things and wasn’t scared or lonely as I was before. I looked forward to reuniting with my friends and seeing Senior Winner. The new term started out good, Layo, Rukewe, Amara Amara and I made life easy for all of us, Senior Yeni was still as sweet as always, the punishment and beatings did not go away though, it only increase but we got use to the pain, to the point where we began to expect it.

Read more: Fegido slangs you might have forgotten

In class, I finally got my desk from the workshop, I was to share it with a girl named Uche, we were not best of friends but we got along. But Uche didn’t want to sit with me so most times I sat alone. A new student came into the class on one particular morning, the entire class was shocked that the school still accepted students in the second term of a section, will all wondered how such student will cope with the academic work. I had about the new student but hadn’t seen him till the next day, I was in class early, settling in and getting ready for the day when someone sat beside me, I thought it was Uche and didn’t bother to look up from what I was doing until he spoke.

Read more: Federal Government College Idoani

‘Hi, my name is Dennis, you must be Moyin’. I looked up and felt my teenage heart skip a beat. I had just started seeing my period at age twelve and was warned by my mother that with my period came hormones, hormones that will make you want to get closer to the opposite sex. Maybe this was what she meant, I thought to myself. But I had other mate boys but never felt this way. My face was warm and I felt hot all over, I couldn’t even reply him without stuttering. ‘Hi… you’re… I mean are you the new student?’ ‘Yes’, he replied smiling more, the pounding of my heart in my chest tripled. I hated and loved the feeling at the same time, I hated it because it made me lack my usual confidence and I loved it because it made me feel fuzzy and warm. But I ignored this innocent feelings and buried them in me. I avoided talking to him and only spoke to him when he needed my note or help with a class work, because I was sort of an efico (a slang in school used to refer to a nerd or a really smart kid). He didn’t seem to notice that I behave different with him and this made me really angry, so when I got the opportunity to own a one-peron’s desk, I jumped at it, sitting with Dennis was just so hard and still the clueless human being didn’t notice, at that moment I concluded that boys, especially teenage boys are dumb.

Read more: After my Last Visit to FGC Idoani, I would say the place looks totally Different

Weeks passed and I was able to slowly but also painfully get rid of my crush on Dennis, turns out he liked another girl on Js2 A then. I couldn’t blame him, Arewa was prettier and most boys in Js2 even senior boys liked her, so Dennis just joined the queue. This was what I thought until rumours went round that on different occasions Dennis and Arewa have been seen blocking and sitting together in the dining hall (they were both in Ose house). Rukewe was the one who brought the gist to us, I felt angry and snapped at her, Layo and Amara were shocked at my outburst because I rarely showed anger, but with a joke or two I was able to change the topic. The events that followed later on made Dennis and Arewa’s relationship the last thing on my mind.

Read more: FGC IDOANI 2013 set

Never in my life did I ever think I’ll experience the horrors of boarding house, all my elder siblings went to different boarding schools and always came back with stories of either Miss Koinkoin or bushbaby and so on. But in Fegido, the first event that made me run in the middle of the night was ‘the maskman’. Don’t ask me who this maskman is because we never found out, hence his name. On this particular night, in the wee hours of the night, Senior Yeni woke me up and threw my daywear at me. She didn’t wait for me to dress up but kept pushing me to run. The entire hostel was in chaos, people were jumping bunks and pushing one another just to get to the door. I felt the fear run down my spine, I was cold and hot at the same time. I could feel my heart pounding in my ears, I thought I was the end for me. With the help of senior Yeni I was able to make it out of the hostel and into the dining hall, I lot of girls were with only wrappers or in their undies, security men came around with their large torches and any weapon they could lay their hands on, some had big planks, others machetes. After an hour or so later, we were instructed by the matron and some teacher, who rushed down from the staff quarters when the noise, to go back to the hostel that it was a false alarm. Boys were also hanging around, some senior boys followed the security men to the hostel but they all found nothing.

Read more: MY JOURNEY TO MANGOE LAND

In fear and trepidation, we all went back to the hostel. I slept in my daywear, just in case we had to run again. The next day, I went to my guardian to call my parents, I didn’t want to school in Fegido again, I was tired and frustrated, the boy I like didn’t see me and I couldn’t even sleep properly because of maskmen, but I couldn’t say anything because my guardian warned me not to and I didn’t really want to leave Fegido. I couldn’t deny that even with the shortcomings of the school, the school and it’s environment had began to grow on me. So I stayed.

Read Previous Episodes

FEGIDO TALES (Episode 1): The world after the gate

FEGIDO TALES (Episode 2): So it Begins

Written by Chidiebere Ogbonna 

Add me on IG@Ebbiedavies