CHAPTER FOUR
We all alighted from the taxi when the driver stopped us at Henrieth's parents' house. I paid our fare because I was arguably the richest of them all. We entered her house and changed into some of her clothes since we didn't want to dirty our clothes and let it become a tell tale sign of our unpermitted adventure. We watched movies, ate snacks and planned out how our final days in secondary school would look like, we talked about how we would spend the vacation. Chioma and Lucy were cousins and they decided to travel to Dubai. Lucy was going to see her God mother in the states while Sarah and I had not planned anything out yet. We talked about many other random things until Chioma's mum called and asked her and her cousin (Lucy) to go pick some clothes for their travel. I checked the time and discovered it was 3:30pm, taking that as my cue to leave I bid my friends goodbye and left. I took a taxi home since I had earlier told my driver to go home without me.
On arriving home, I walked up the stairs to my room. When I opened the door, my brother was lying on my bed with my headset on. I quickly went to take my bath, changed into a modest cloth then lay on the unoccupied side of the bed.
"Kedu" my brother began
"Am fine, what are you up to"
"Nothing of importance, I was just tired of studying so I came to borrow your headset. And since you don't like it leaving your room without your permission, I stayed here to listen to music" he explained
"What was your position?" he asked
"19th"
"Hmmm, daddy will not be happy"
"That will not be the first time then" I replied "I was appointed main academic prefect"
"Wow! Daddy's handiwork right?" he inquired
"Yup" I replied
After some minutes of silence he asked "Where went you after school"
"I hung out with the girls after school at Henrieth's house"
"Maryann make sure daddy doesn't here that" he warned and paused for effectiveness "When will you be showing him your result?"
"If he is at home now, I will show it to him before going to legion society'
"Ok"
"Will you like to come with me today?" I asked
"Nope, I want to finish some solving before it gets dark. I will go with you some other time" he assured
"Ok" I yawned "Please wake me up by 4:30"
"Sure" With that, I slept off
I felt someone shake my shoulders not up to two seconds after I closed my eyes.
"Leave me to sleep" I muttered
"Maryann wake up, its 5pm already" that was my annoying elder brother.
"But I just started sleeping right now" I whined
"Wake up, you know that mummy would notice if you don't attend legion today. And daddy just left for evening devotion"
That last part made me jump out of the bed and fall to the ground with a thump making my brother to roll his eyes as he left my room. If my father already left to church without asking my brother to wake me, then he wasn't in a good mood. And if I miss legion coupled with my not so good result, I would be as good as dead. I immediately grabbed my scarf since I was already dressed for church; I ran down the stairs and shouted a good bye to my bother before rushing to church. The Catholic Church my family attended was only a stone throw from my father's house so I ran. Luckily for me, the opening prayer was being sad so I was spared the embarrassing moment of explaining the reason I was late. I quickly knelt down with the others and joined in praying the rosary. After the rosary and legion collection, new members were introduced. We had two new members, I can't recall their names because I wasn't listening. I searched for Juliet with my eyes but couldn't find her and resigned to my fate of going through a boring meeting alone.
"Report of last week's active work" announced the legion president. That part jolted me back to reality as I couldn't recall if I carried out my work. I was asked to lend help to the poor and aside from giving some money to Juliet for snacks and paying for the girls transport fare to Henrieth's house, I didn't lend help to anyone. Well I was not a stingy person, but I was an overly pompous person. I believed that the poor should eradicate their poverty themselves by working extremely hard. I had heard tales of how my mum and dad started off as dirt poor but worked their way to the top of the money hierarchy in my state.
"Sister Maryann, report your active work" that was the secretary politely reminding me that it was my turn to report.
"I paid the transport fare of four people who were stranded in a motor park. I bought launch and clothes for a beggar and her daughter" I lied.
"Next person" continued the secretary. Yes I lied but so what? I stopped caring when the former president who happened to be our house-help reported that she saved a drowning child in a public swimming pool somewhere in GRA. While in truth she had prevented my puppy from entering the swimming pool in my father's house which was nowhere near a GRA.
"AVE!"greeted the president
"Maria" responded the congregation.
"I thank you all immensely for dutifully carrying out your works last weed. And I pray that the Blessed Virgin Mary will continually intercede on our behalf as we all strive to make the world a better place for all in Jesus name"
"Amen" we all answered
"We have a visitor in our midst I will take the honors of introducing him myself. Let us all welcome the vice chairman of our parish council Engr. V.C. Udeh, a round of applause please" he announced. At that point in my life I wanted the ground to swallow, because I couldn't come up with a good reason why my father was showing up in the legion meeting. It wasn't enough that he decided to attend evening devotion today since he was never home to meet up, he went to church without dragging along his irresponsible daughter, now he is showing up here! Does he want to openly tell the society members of my bad behaviors? Or does he already know my position?