Arlene jerked up from her bed and realised it was all a dream, “saved by the bell” she kept muttering. until she noticed her roommate Olivia Natu, cowering in a corner close to the door. she was wrapped up in a blanket. It happened that while Arlene was having her nightmare, Olivia lived through it in reality. She hadn’t slept since Arlene started screaming. Also, Arlene made weird body movements. When her attempts to wake Arlene failed, she ran to a corner with her blanket over her face.
“Liv are you okay?” Arlene asked as she stood up from her bed and made her way towards her roommate.
When she was almost close to Olivia, someone landed a heavy knock on their door and it was accompanied by Sarah’s tiny voice.
“Liv, is everything okay? I came as soon as I saw your call.
Olivia struggled to get her hands out of the blanket. As soon as she did, she pulled the door open to reveal Sarah’s face. Olivia sprang up and held Sarah’s hand.
“Get me the fuck away from this weirdo” She said.
Sarah who was still confused stood and watched Arlene to get her reaction.
Arlene did nothing but stare till Olivia forcefully dragged Sarah to her own room, leaving her roommate in awe. Throughout their walk to Sarah’s room Olivia didn’t stop ranting about Arlene, and how she was a white witch who had come to destroy her life.
When they got to Sarah’s room she pulled Olivia by her shoulder to get her to stop, because ever since she got to Olivia’s room till that moment she was jabbering.
“Take a chill pill and say something articulate, I don’t understand what you are saying and don’t you feel sorry for hurting that poor girls feeling?”
Sarah said raising her tone which still didn’t express how angry she was. Because her voice was too tiny and could only go at a particular range.
Olivia took in a deep breath and spelt out in one word to Sarah that her roommate Arlene was either a witch or her village people were after her. She went further to explain how she has had to live through Arlene’s nightmares for several nights but then this one was different, it felt real like I could actually feel a presence.
“Liv I’m ashamed of you” Sarah fired back cutting her short from her fantasy.
“You still believe in superstitions in this century, like what century are you from?” she added.
Olivia who was getting pissed walked over to a bed in the room to sit down without taking cognisance of whose own it was. Sarah went further to roast Olivia, she reminded her of how she was all over Arlene on the first day Arlene’s aunt showed up with her to their college. Arlene couldn’t breathe for about a week because Olivia wanted to show her new white roommate off, she took her with her everywhere and as a fresher, Arlene didn’t object because she barely knew her way around.
“Even though, even though” Olivia said letting out her very thick Niagua accent.
“My own is let that girl be, she just in her first year. You were the one that fought tooth and nail to have her as your roommate. Now you want to subject her to maltreatment. What if she has nightmares because of school and all, have you ever sat her down to ask how her academics are going? All you care about is a flex partner....”
Olivia was about to cut Sarah short when the door swung open and Sarah’s roommate walked in.
“Who’s that on my bed?” she asked in a coarse tone, smeared with anger.
Olivia stood up from the bed and moved to Sarah’s which was opposite. Sarah’s roommate Chloe who was raging with anger dropped her school bag at the foot of her bed and started dressing the bed. While she dressed her bed, she muttered some things which included Olivia being among Sarah’s stupid friends that came to mess up her bed each time she wasn’t around.
Olivia was already having a build up of anger from Sarah’s comments, and now her roommate was insulting her. What pissed Olivia off the most was that Chloe wasn’t her mate; there was a two years age gap between them.
“Chloe say what you said to my hearing if you are not a coward,” Olivia said, pulling Chloe by her hand.
Chloe calmly shoved Olivia’s hands away. She was very tired from the night class she had attended, and needed to rest. As expected, Olivia stopped her from lying down again. This time she got extremely angry and shouted at Sarah to warn Olivia to leave her alone. Sarah who hadn’t uttered a word because she didn’t want to be part of their petty drama had to intervene.
The drama was slowly turning into a real fight, and there was really no one to blame, they both were at fault.
Olivia shouldn’t have sat on Chloe’s bed and she should have apologised too. But then Chloe should have guarded her tongue. Even though she really couldn’t be blamed. She was probably very tired from class, waiting to see a crisp and orderly bed, only to return to find her bed unarranged.
“Liv, I think you should just leave, please” Sarah said stopping Olivia from dragging Chloe for the third time.
“God, Sarah I can’t believe this. You are ordering me out of your room because of this thing,” Olivia said giving Chloe the evil eye.
At this point Sarah could no longer stand Olivia. The room belonged to both her and Chloe, and if Chloe wasn’t comfortable with Olivia, she would have to leave. It was her space too.
“It’s my fault for coming to your room, I will never do that again,” Olivia said, storming off angrily and slamming the door on their faces.
“Like anyone wants you,” Chloe muttered, and then she turned over to face the wall.
When Olivia got to her room, she saw that Arlene was already dressed. She wore a loose blue jean trouser with a large sweat shirt, and sneakers with her tote bag hanging on her shoulders. The environment became awkward and mundane as soon as Olivia walked in.
Arlene quickly finished up what she was doing, and picked her glasses from the table and made to leave but she was pushed to stop.
“Look Liv, I’m sorry for whatever happened this morning, I can’t guarantee that it wouldn’t happen anymore but then I’d appreciate if you talked to me nicely. Thank you,” Arlene said with a straight face, without turning back to look at Olivia.
Afterwards she walked out of the room and headed for class.
Olivia mimicked Arlene and her accent immediately she left, then she kept saying “You and your village people will kill yourselves and not me.”
When Arlene got to class, there was barely anyone around. The lecturers were yet to come and most of the students were still in their dorm. Arlene took her favourite sit which was in the second row. She enjoyed going to school, yet she didn’t want to seem bookish. Everyone for some reason believed the front seats were for the nerds, and she avoided being called that. Even though she looked like them because of her glasses.
Arlene’s favourite part of being an art student was writing, she loved everything about it. Writing was a way of expressing her thoughts, and penning down her imaginations. She never failed to take up any writing challenge she came across, no matter the genre at hand. Her dream was to be recognized someday just like the popular Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She wanted to make everyone proud by being a prodigy to her country Niagua.
“Hey Arl,” someone said from behind and Arlene turned to see one of her course mates Derek Fawa.
“Oh hey Derek,” she replied bending her head while pretending to scribble something in her book so he would leave her alone.
Derek didn’t get the message, or he pretended not to because he still hung around her pestering her with questions. He was a popular and smart kid in their class. His parents were wealthy but he never rubbed it off on anyone’s face. And lately he had developed a certain likeness for Arlene which she wasn’t comfortable with.
Everything about Derek seemed off to her. The worst part was he shared the same name with her dead father, Derek Goodman.
“Take your seat everyone,” professor Kare said as he walked into the class with his laptop bag swung on his shoulder.
He took the bag off his shoulder and placed it on the desk in front of him, and started bringing out the materials for their class while the students moved around noisily to take a seat.
When he was done with setting up the projector and sound system made available to teach the Eastwood College, year one faculty of arts students, he gave out a loud clap to stop them from chattering.
Professor Kare was the head of department of the history and international relations department. His classes were boring and everyone hated it, except Derek who was deeply fascinated by African traditions, myths, and origin.
These were one of the things Arlene found strange, from what she has heard he barely left the house as a kid, and at a point they lived abroad, so she couldn’t tell why these things fascinated him when he had never seen them before.
“Today we’ll be looking into Cota, the capital of the upper Eastern region in Niagua. We’d look at their origin, myths, traditions, and some of their practices till date.” He said.
By now Arlene and the rest of the class would have dozed off because Kare’s voice sounded more like a lullaby than a lecture to them. But then, the fact he was teaching about her town Cota caught her attention, and the sleep in her eye fazed away.
As expected all the students had their heads bent except Derek who was always excited, but then today was different Arlene’s head was up. This caught Kare’s attention and he was prompted to ask why.
“Ms. Goodman I see you are still following up to this point, and it is quite surprising because by now Derek would have been the only student left in my class,”
“Do you perhaps, by any chance know someone from Cota or did they teach you about Cota in your white school at Southingham?” he asked.
“I’m from Cota sir,” she replied immediately.
Professor Kare was still trying to comprehend why she had a white surname and not a Cota native name.
“My father picked up the name Goodman after he got married to my mum in Southingham”
“Your father must be really be a Goodman for thinking it wise to bring his daughter back to Africa to trace and know her roots. No way they are stealing you from us. I was already jealous you were taking a lot of credit in school, not knowing you were one of us. Keep it up lad!” he said commending her.
Arlene didn’t know how to feel because his last statements had a strong stench of racism attached to it, but what could she do? Their lectures were mean and they barely had a voice, unlike in Southingham.
“By next week, I want you all to place in your assignments on Cota, do your researches and add to the much I have said. If you need help, I’d recommend Derek or Ms. Goodman because they are the only ones who attended my class. “ Kare said to the slumbering students before he left.
As soon as the lecturer left, the students put up their heads and Derek walked up to Arlene who had been praying he wouldn’t.
“I honestly didn’t know you were half-caste, I mean you talk like a white lady, you look like one and...”
He was about to finish his statement when she pulled up her hair a little bit to reveal her real hair. Unlike the silky blonde extension she wore, her real hair was black and thick like every other African girls hair. She just didn’t feel comfortable in it because people had made awful comments about it and about how it didn’t fit her. The afro hair was made especially for African girls, so stop wearing it because you aren’t African enough; she heard her aunt’s voice echo in her head.
Derek expressed shock at what she had just revealed to him; underneath her extension was her beautiful Afro virgin hair. He wanted to tell her it was okay to wear her hair and what anyone thought didn’t matter, but then he didn’t want to sound nosey. While they were still in the middle of their conversation, Derek’s friends showed up to pull him away from Arlene.
Before Derek left he made sure to get her digits for later. Once he left, Arlene reached for her pocket and took out her locket which had a picture of her best friend Eun-ji. She was Asian, and they got separated after the incident at Arlene’s place. Her mother shut Eun-ji out of her life and every other friend she had. Memories of their child hood flashed through her memory, they always raced down the streets in their tiny bikes, and whenever Eun-ji fell she would tease her saying it was her tiny eyes that made her fall. She believed Eun-ji could barely see because of how tiny her Asian eyes looked.
“Arlene!” she heard someone call out.
The voice sounded a bit loud from the normal tone you would use to get someone’s attention when calling on them. When she finally zoned in to reality, she slipped the locket quickly into her pocket.
“Sorry I had to shout a bit, I wanted to borrow your history note and I’ve been trying to get your attention.” The person said again, and Arlene looked up to see a light skinned slender girl in a tight leather leopard skin skirt, mesh black top and gladiator sandals.
Her face was familiar but Arlene couldn’t place it, “I’m Faith Tono,” she said extending a hand which Arlene accepted reluctantly. When they broke from the hand shake, Arlene reached for her tote bag and pulled out her history note. Faith thanked her for the book, and they exchanged contact incase something happened with the note.
Once Faith left, Arlene took out her locket again and glanced at it for the last time before putting it in her bag.
Back at the dormitory, Derek and his friends gathered in a room belonging to one of them. They were a group of four boys which included Derek, Jay, Bergen, and Kent. All of them lived in the dorm except Derek who came from home, the four of them were known as the male elites in their class, and they had the latest and coolest stuffs. They were very popular, and everyone dreamt of being in their gang, girls dreamt of going on dates with them, and they were first class play boys, except Derek of course. Most people didn’t totally believe he was a saint, they held onto the fact he stayed with his parents as the reason why he behaved like a saint.
They were having an all guys discussion and all of a sudden, Arlene came into the picture.
“Arlene seems very difficult,” Jay said when she became their subject of discussion.
“But she responds to Derek,” Bergen added.
They went on about how Derek was the only one she wanted to talk to, she seemed reserved and she barely said a word to anyone.
“I think Derek has a soft spot for her, and I think she does too”
They all diverted their attention to Derek who had been silent throughout since she became their subject of discussion.
“You guys are getting it all wrong, Arlene is great but I don’t think I feel that way about her yet, I just really want to get to know her a bit. I found out a lot about her today”
“Precisely what Bergen said, she only responds to you. She has even upgraded to telling you secrets, how cute” Jay said intending to mock Derek.
“call it whatever you want Jay, but Arlene and I are just friends”
“Okay let’s settle this” Kent chipped in.
He asked Derek to text Arlene and invite her over, if she showed up then she had a thing for him, and if she doesn’t then Derek has been successfully shoved to the friend zone. Derek was reluctant at first but then a part of him was very anxious to actually know what Arlene thought about him.
After much persuasion from his friends, he pulled out his phone from his pocket and texted her.
When Arlene got a text notification from Derek, she shrugged before she opened it. He asked what she was up to and how she was going about their history assignment. After much contemplation, she replied the text. When Derek got a reply, his heart started beating very fast and he couldn’t understand why. It was just Arlene and there was nothing special going on between them, she was just a course mate who he found fascinating and different. His main aim of getting close to her was to pump out lots of knowledge from her, he wanted to know more about her people but it turns out she is from Niagua.
Derek’s friend sighed at the message he sent and they gingered him to send the risky text, it was going to be a yes or no situation. If she said yes it was a win for him because at the moment, Arlene was believed to be the hottest girl in their faculty and level. And if she said no, he would take his L in peace.
Derek typed out the message asking Arlene to come over to Jay’s room which he passed off as his, he obviously couldn’t invite her to his parents house because that would require her to leave the school premises and he could bet on anything that would never work. After typing, he contemplated on withdrawing the text but then Bergen pushed the send button without allowing Derek thing it through.
When Derek saw Arlene had read the message and she was typing, he threw his phone up in the air and buried his head in Jay’s pillow. His friends gathered round Bergen who caught Derek’s phone and they laughed at him while awaiting Arlene’s reply.
“I wish I could make it because the history assignment is very important to me too, but my cat died” The three friends read out to Derek’s hearing.
“I can bet she doesn’t have any cat” Jay said immediately.
No one really paid attention to Jay because he had been sounding a bit jealous since the game started, to them Derek had scored a point, whether she had a cat or not. A normal girl in their department who knew Derek was hitting on them would want to be chased around first before they’d accept to be wooed which was quite tiring.
Arlene hissed at the message she got from Derek, somehow she knew he wasn’t the only one behind the texts, because when it comes to romance, Africa was many steps backwards than the Europeans, Asians and American. This trick had been pulled on her countless times in middle school, and she got a hang of it in high school, so no way she was going to fall for it in college. If they were planning to set her up with their friend, they’d have to pullout the big guns or they’d get nowhere.
A lot of time had passed after the history lecture and no lecturer walked in. Arlene swung her tote bag on her shoulder and left to the dormitory since no one wanted to show up. Hours later, she got a text from Derek asking her why she missed fiction writing class, and he filled her up with the class details and assignment.
