CHAPTER EIGHT: FACING FRANCIS
We walked to the dining hall together and mehn! You could smell the yam from outside the dining hall.
The smell made me hungry; I just hoped the taste of the yam would be nice.
We sat on a long bench and long tables where other students also sat.
There were many benches and long tables in the dining hall. There was even a demarcation for junior school dining and senior school dining.
Also, inside the junior school dining, there were three rows, one row for each class (Grade Seven, Grade Eight and Grade Nine) since the rows were long.
Hungry students walked into the dining hall, both male and female, in junior school uniforms, some in groups and some alone.
Then after waiting...
A prefect counted the students on my table.
Seems they were ready to serve us our breakfast.
I knew she was a prefect through the badge. No one needed to tell me that because my brother had that when he was in junior school and now has it in senior school.
He was the head prefect in junior school and in senior school, he is the assistant head prefect and president of social activities in the school.
My brother is intelligent? Yes, born with a big brain.
My brother is social? Well, a gift from God.
Then the prefect brought a very big cooler to our table and another cooler, then serving spoons and twenty plates since we were twenty students on our table. Only females, to be precise.
She served two pieces of big yam on each plate, then served the fish sauce as Morayo called it, because there were always plenty of fish in the stew. The prefect then put plastic forks in each plate.
After serving, the plates were distributed to each student on the table.
I got mine, then prayed over it before eating.
"Yum... As I always expect it to be," Morayo exclaimed as she ate her food happily.
"Yeah, it is delicious. I never expected it to be this good," I said as I cut my yam into smaller sizes before eating.
After we ate,
"Let's move to assembly before the teachers start punishing students," Victoria said as she carried her empty plate with her.
I stood up and backed my schoolbag well as I took my empty plate into the big bowl of dirty plates, since Victoria also put hers there, same as Morayo.
We walked out of the dining hall together and just then I spotted my brother walking with a girl wearing a prefect badge.
"Francis!" I called him.
Victoria and Morayo looked towards my direction and noticed the person I called.
"You call your brother by name?" Morayo asked.
I nodded. What is bad there?
"I call mine with 'brother' as the prefix, like Brother Francis," she shrugged.
Well, not everyone is the same.
"Francis!" I called again and this time my brother looked towards my direction, the same as the girl, before the girl walked out.
"I am coming, I want to go talk to my brother," I said as I excused myself to walk towards my brother's direction.
"Hey sis, it seems you've got yourself friends already?" Francis smiled.
"Talk to me, tell me the things you never told me that you guessed I would hear from other people," I said, ignoring the part he said.
"I told you not to pay attention to rumours," he said, looking away.
"Tell me the truth, Francis!" I ordered.
He turned to look at me. "Okay, talk!" he said.
"Did you kiss Gabriella, mouth to mouth?" I asked him, seeing the frown on his face.
"Floral, do you believe that?" he asked me, looking into my eyes.
"I asked you a question first, yes or yes? Did you kiss her lips to lips, yes or yes?"
"God, Floral!" he called my name, already frustrated.
"I trust you, Francis, but you know the rumour is spreading," I said, looking at him.
"Yeah, I know. I am already getting used to it," he shrugged, looking at me.
"But I can't still believe Gabriella would say that."
"Yeah, I heard she did. You know who Gabriella is already. She is like a snake in human body," he said with full sincerity.
Yeah, I know that. Gabriella is the kind of person that looks down on people, betrays, cunning, and not someone to be trusted with secrets.
Well, I don't hate Gabriella but love her since she takes us as her siblings, as she doesn't have one.
Francis has hated her since the time she was six when she did something unbelievable to him and now, the rumour she spread before leaving for China. I can't blame him for hating her.
"I need to go for dining, my school dining staff prepared us potatoes," he said, mentioning his favourite food.
So weird!
"Francis, trusting you now doesn't mean I will trust you later on. So don't do anything annoying or I will pull your ears," I said, smiling.
"Yes ma'am!" he said and left for his dining.
I watched as he walked to his dining before going to meet my two friends waiting for me.
"Let's go!" I said as we walked on.
"The two of you together is so cute," Morayo said, smiling as she looked at me while we continued walking.
I smiled back without saying anything.
We got to the assembly just in time, it was about to start already.
Victoria, Morayo and I queued according to our classes, as the students joined in.
By my right, Grade 7C boys queued and by my left, Grade 7D boys queued.
The assembly went on with Christian prayer and the Muslim prayer before the national anthem, then the pledge, school anthem and school pledge, followed by announcements made by the principal.
After the assembly was held,
I followed Victoria and Morayo to our class. I decided to get a vacant seat to sit on, since all the tables contained two seaters and Morayo and Victoria had already gotten where to sit.
"Sit behind us, the boy sitting here sits alone," Victoria suggested.