Saint Patrick's College

Chapter Eighteen

Visiting day at Saint Patrick's College was a cluster of kids and parents who brought provisions and gifts for their kids. It was held in the middle of the grassy lawn crisscrossed by sidewalks. The air was fresh and crisp and the day promised possibilities.

Adaeze sat on a straw mat with her parents and her siblings.

She couldn't deny it. She'd been missing them.

"Thank you again for coming." She said with a too-big grin on her face. She wanted to personally thank Ifanyi for listening to her and bringing her phone. She would thank him on his way out.

Now, she could feel more like her classmates, more like a Saint Patrick's kid.

"You're welcome, but when were you going to tell us about the girl that died?" Ijeoma asked opening a food flask filled with Jollof rice. She set it down in front of Adaeze.

"Someone died?" Ifanyi frowned. "And the school is still operating?"

"School's don't close like that." Chinedu explained. "Especially since the death wasn't connected to the school itself." He explained. "It was a suicide wasn't it?" He asked just to be sure.

Adaeze nodded. At least that was all they knew so far. As far as Adaeze was concerned it wasn't over. There were too many loose ends. Too many things that didn't make sense.

She dug into her Jollof rice even though it was clearly too big for her alone. It had been weeks since she'd had her mother's cooking.

"The school could have mentioned this the day we dropped you, wasn't it that day they found the body?" Ijeoma looked like there was something foul smelling in the air.

It was yet another day that the woman and her husband were dressed to the nines.

"You would have withdrawn her that same day, that's why they didn't tell you." Ifanyi pointed out.

"Who was the girl?" Chinedu wanted to know. "Did any of your friends know her?"

"Some, but they said she kept to herself before she died." Adaeze clarified around a bite of food.

"Don't talk with food in your mouth!" Ijeoma chided.

Adaeze nodded and buried her head in shame. It wasn't the first time the woman had warned her about that.

She swallowed.

She apologized.

"Poor girl. Her parents must be devastated." Ijeoma shook her head. She was silent for a few seconds as if she were respecting a moment of silence. "Anyway, where are your friends? Aren't you going to introduce us, or are you yet to make any?"

Adaeze immediately remembered her first day and her irrational fear of not fitting in. In the time since she enrolled, she'd made more friends than she could count. Because not only did she fit in with Ayomide and Segun, thanks to Femi, she had friends from a whole other world. She chuckled at her mother's comment. "I've made some." She smiled. "They're with their parents." She said looking around her. She wondered if she could spot Ayomide from where she was sitting beneath the glaring afternoon sun.

She placed a hand over her head to shield her eyes from the sun. She scanned. The only familiar face she could make out was Segun and she didn't think her Christian mother would take lightly to the fact that she was friends with a boy and he was the first person she thought to introduce. "I can't find them but if I see them, I'll introduce them."

Ijeoma nodded clearly dissatisfied. "How have your grades been? I hope you're not slipping like how you were in Nnamdi Azikiwe?"

"No, Ma'am. I have been doing very well. When you come for Open-day you'll see." And this time, she was being honest. Her grades weren't as bad as when she was in her old school. Perhaps because this time she actually had friends that challenged her.