Saint Patrick's College

Chapter Two

He pulled out a letter from his drawer and began signing it.

She tried begging, pleading. Her parents were going to kill her. She couldn't get expelled. No. This had to be a joke. A bad one. She didn't even do anything wrong! Okay, not entirely wrong! They were the ones sneaking around why was she getting punished for it?

"Don't beg me, you're no longer welcome in our institution." He didn't even look up at her. And all the while Vice Principal Mrs. Hanifa Hassan was standing there quietly.

Adaeze turned to her. The woman was staring at her shoes, suddenly fascinated by them.

"We've had enough of your shenanigans." He continued. "I'm calling your parents, you will explain to them what you were doing out of your line when the assembly was going on."

No, no, no!

Her palms were clammy.

There had to be something she could do.

"I won't tell anyone please."

But he kept shaking his head. He had made up his mind.

She wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. She should have listened to Temi. God, Temi, what was the girl going to think? She was going to say she told Adaeze so. She was going to rub it in that she warned Adaeze.

No.

There had to be something she could do.

Anything.

In truth, there was nothing she could do, but thinking back, she was desperate.

That morning, they expelled her right then and there, called her parents in and signed her expulsion letter.

Sure, her parents tried to appeal, but that fell on deaf ears. She was immediately asked to clear out her locker and without arguing she did and once she had everything piled into the car, she met back up with her parents in Principal Adebayo's office. It wasn't the first time she and her parents had converged in the man's office. It was the third. The first time was before she officially enrolled and the second was to discuss her slipping grades. She wasn't the best, sure, but she didn't deserve to be expelled. Not for this.

She stood wordlessly behind her parents as they fought for her place in the school. They were both seated facing Principal Adebayo's large desk. Her Dad had his hands folded over his chest and her Mom had a hand on the table curled into a tight fist.

"She had no business wondering the school during the assembly." Principal Adebayo grumbled. He sat menacingly behind his desk like a force to be reckoned with and not like a man who was just caught cheating on his wife by one of his students. Adaeze was surprised Mrs. Adebayo wasn't even called in for this. She deserved to know what her husband did during school hours.

"We understand that and we are here to apologize on her behalf." Her mother, Ijeoma begged. She looked like she rushed over from work. Adaeze didn't want to think about that. Her mother wasn't one to leave work until the day was done. She owned a kiosk at Wuse Market where she sold clothes for women and children and made it a habit of working herself to the ground.

If Adaeze was being honest, she didn't think her father, Chinedu would make it either. Like her Mom, he was a busy man that hardly ever made it for any of Adaeze's races when she ran track in junior secondary school. He was a banker and worked in the UBA down the road from their house.

A lump wedged itself in Adaeze's throat.

She didn't want to think of how much trouble she was in for dragging them from their respective workplaces.