My Nigerian Fairytale (Completed)

Chapter 41-Guilty, Not Guilty

Someone’s incessant shakes wake me and I turn to see Emmanuella and Patricia giving me worried looks, “What did they say?” Emmanuella immediately ask.

   I lift myself up and rest my back on my pillow, “Where is Naomi?” I ask in a monotonous voice.

   “I haven’t seen her since she was at the principal’s office. If I get my hands on her,” Patricia growls, her anger is obvious.

   “Miracle that’s not what I asked,” Emmanuella says and I sigh.

   “I’m suspended the rest of the term…and I’ll be flogged tomorrow morning during assembly,” I say calmly. I’ve withdrawn into acceptance, Amelia is always going to win no matter what.

   They are both quiet before Patricia finally says, “We can’t take this. There has to be a way.”

   I scoff and smile sadly, “Too late, my step mother is coming to pick me up tomorrow. There will be hell to pay at home,” my hands grip the bed hard at the thought of what step mother would do to me. What would Mrs. Adetoye say when she hears of this. Shivers run up my body and my head starts spinning, before the familiar feeling of lacking air comes I black out.

   When I open my eyes I’m in the sick bay. Of course. I sit up and immediately take notice of the two figures resting their heads on my beds, one of them moves and the person lifts her head, its Emmanuella.

   “Oh thank God, you are awake,” the other person immediately gets up, its Tobi. He grabs my hand tightly, concern evident on his face.

   “How are you?” he asks softly.

   “Fine,” I reply just as soft. We stare at each other silently neither of us taking notice of any other thing. He suddenly grimaces and looks away before his face hardens.

   “I am not going to let Amelia do this. I begged the principal and Richard even got some of your classmates and mine to plead on your behalf for the Principal to investigate before making her judgement. She finally agreed to consider our plea when I called my mom and she talked to her.”

   I’m dumbfounded and I all I can muster after a while is, “How did you get them to beg on my behalf?”

   He smiles, “Richard can be very persuasive, that coupled with people who owed him favours and his girl fans. We had a substantial amount of students.”

   “And your mom?”

    “I only gave her the basic information. She knows you were framed but she doesn’t know by who. She is going to demand an explanation,” he gives me a pointed look and I look away.

   “I was beyond shocked sef. How did he get so many people to help you?” Emmanuella says to herself. I look at her, suddenly noticing her presence in the room.

   “What are you guys doing here?” I ask.

   “I’m here because I fainted,” Emmanuella makes air quotes around the word ‘fainted’, “And Tobi is the health prefect. He came to check on the students.”

   I laugh a little, “I’m curious how you staged your fainting.”

   Emmanuella makes a face, “It was not easy. Patricia was too busy looking for Naomi or she would have been the perfect drama queen for the situation. And Richard was beyond dramatic as he carried me here, he kept jiggling me in his arms and I know it was intentional.” We both laugh at that.

   “Miracle,” Tobi draws my attention back to him, “We’ll figure it out. Amelia won’t get away with this.”

   I shrug, “I’m not sure how they are possibly going to find anything against Amelia.”