The teacher.
Well...to be honest he wasn't what I had expected to see.
I expected to see a short pot-bellied man in his mid forties, sporting a beard.
But this....this was even better.
Our teacher looked to be in his mid twenties with freshly shaven facial skin,which made his hard jawline more pronounced.
His dark skin was an intriguing contrast against the white button down shirt he wore,black jeans completing his look.
His white shirt which he had folded to his elbows were showing off his muscular arms with prominent veins popping out.
"Isrealla do you need my notes?" Someone spoke.
I ignored the voice and continued to stare at him. He was cleaning the white board. The muscles in his back constricting as he moved his arms to rid the board of the marker stains.
"Isrealla?" The voice spoke louder this time. Breaking my inspection.
Lord I was oggling my teacher. This is so embarrassing.
I turned towards Anna. She looked curious. I hope she didn't notice. I felt blood rush to my cheeks as the thought of her catching me popped in my head. Thank God for my dark skin which is very useful in times like this.
"Yes,you were saying?" I spoke nonchalantly. I didn't want her to think I was nervous.
She stared silently before repeating herself.
"Do you need my notes?" I nodded immediately as a yes. She hummed in response and silently turned towards her desk jerking the top open.
Ohh.....
No wonder they looked like wooden boxes.
So this is were they keep their stuff.
I peered at the opened locker thing, watching quietly as she rummaged through it.
It was neatly arranged,surprisingly.
She had placed her texts books on one side starting from the biggest to the smallest. And her notebooks on the other side were in the same order.
"Take this. They are my maths,English,and physics notes,my chemistry and biology notes are not available right now so you will have to borrow them from another person". I hummed a quiet thank you, retrieving them from her grasp and shoving them in my bag. I would copy them later today. I'm a pretty fast writer so notes wont be a problem for me.
"Ok class,settle down please". A deep voice spoke. I directed my gaze to the owner of the vibrating vocal.
It was our teacher and He had his own books scattered on the desk in front of the class and was leaning against them. His hands on either sides of the desks.
English language was half hazardly scrawled against the top part of the board.
So he was an English teacher. That's a very interesting discovery.
Not....
" We will begin with prefixes and suffices" he said going back to scribble something on the board.
Urgghhh.....not to brag or anything but am pretty sure that am way past their class syllabus so this class is just like repeating junior year all over.
I was tired and sleepy. My eyes were slowly dropping the more he talked.
It was like he's voice was a lullaby lulling me to sleep.
I turned my tired gaze towards Anna and noticed she was wide awake and listening attentively.
I huffed out a breath and took out my scrap book and my pen.
I rested my chin on my left hand as I got to work on a blank sheet of paper. Tilting my head slightly to get a better angle.
Whenever I drew,I always noticed that I was at peace with myself.
I always that noticed that a part of me would let go.
The scared part of me.
It always found refuge in drawing randomly.
Scribbling sketches and bringing them to life. It was like each sketch represented itself as part of my pain but instead of making it worse it lessened it.
As cliche as that sounds it's the truth honestly.
I concentrated on the getting the shades of my drawing. Putting pressure on my pen to give it a dark glow.
I was still trying to get the edges when a hard nudge on my shoulder brought me out of my drawing trance. I almost snapped at the person untill I noticed it was Anna.
She was giving me an alarmed look.
Something was wrong...
Well I didn't know what it was untill a booming voice called out to me.
" You! With the long hair come".
It was the teacher and he was referring to none other than me.
Of course my hair stood out.
Stupid hair products
I shifted timidly slipping past Anna who was cagging me before.
I knew he was watching my every step,he's gaze practically burnt a hole through my skull.
I walked briskily but gracefully.
This was not the time to be clumsy when all eyes were on me.
I stood at least ten feet away from him.
Up close he looked more intimidating and scary. He's brown eyes looked almost black from lack of light in the room and he's lips were set in a thin line. He was pretty handsome to be honest.
I gulped visibly,praying to God that I wouldn't choke on my spit.
Why was I staring at him?
I quickly averted my gaze to the wall behind him.
A crack ran through it in a zig-zag line.I Imagined drawing it and realized that it was drawing that brought me into this mess in the first place and so I returned my gaze back to my English teacher.
My..... It sounded so foreign coming from my lips.
" Give me two words ending with the suffix 'ness ' ". I folded my hands behind my back and bit the side of my lip.
"Dizziness and clumsiness". There were resounding ohh's in the classroom. Even the teacher looked shocked for a moment.But he quickly recovered and wrote down what I said on the board quickly.
I already know why they were shocked and I also know it has nothing to do with the fact that I answered he's question.
It was my damned accent.
"What is your name?". He asked his eyes scanning my face.
What?!....
Did he think I was an alien already.
For God's sake I only spoke.
"Isrealla sir". I answered earning more shocked looks and mumuring across the classroom room.
It went along the lines of,
"Wetin this one they talk".
"What is she feeling like".
"She's speaking like one oyinbo. It doesn't even fit her".
Well I've heard worse so.....
"Keep quiet ". The teacher ordered making the class go silent.
Untill a boy dropped something that sounded like metal to the floor,making the teacher glare at him and the students insult his life.
He dropped a metal cup.
" Tobi if I hear any noise coming from you again you will spend the rest of this class clearing the fields" he spat making Tobi's already big eyes become bigger as he hurriedly picked up the cup and sat silently mumbling an apology.
"Isrealla". The teacher turned his attention back to me.
" What school did you transfer from".
Wow,I wasn't expecting this question anytime soon.
"Wesley high school". I answered as politely as I could.
He looked lost in thought for a while before he replied.
" I have never heard of it. Where is it located?".
God help me...
I swallowed the saliva gathering in my mouth and answered. "Canada sir".
Howls and whistles circulated the class as the teacher eyes glazed over in thought again.
"So you left Canada to school in Nigeria?" he said stating the obvious.
I was about to answer before I was cut off by a voice at the back of the class which said something along the lines of "nawa ohh". I've heard grandma say it when ever she was in a state of surprise,but I couldn't help but think that whoever said it this time was trying to mock me.
"Sarah leave my class". He heard the person too. Or should I say the female whose name was Sarah.
"But sir...." She didn't get to finish her protests because he was already dragging her by her red sweater towards the door.
She silently walked outside but not before throwing me a glare over her shoulder. Her size was quiet intimidating to be honest,but she didn't scare me the slightest bit. She was going to have to try harder than that.
"You were saying something my dear". I didn't miss the fact that he addressed me as 'dear' and am pretty sure my nosey class mates didn't miss it as well because they looked so relaxed and into the whole exchange between me and the teacher.
"Well yes sir,I left Canada to school in Nigeria. My parents are busy people and am always left at home so my grandparents decided it was time for me to come back to my origin. Besides there are many racists abroad and am absolutely ok with staying here". I finished with a smile making the teacher smile in return.
It was the first time I've seen him smile since I walked into this class. And am pretty sure I was right from the faint gasps I heard go round the class.
But he looked really good so it was absolutely worth it.
Gosh, Ella get a hold of yourself. He's your teacher for heaven's sake.
"Ok Isrealla,you may go back to your seat". I mumbled a thank you and strolled back.
"And please pay attention". He emphasized before turning he's back on me to continue he's lesson.
I nodded in reply and turned my gaze to my scrap book.
That's when I noticed what I had drawn.
It was a heart.
A broken heart. It was very much detailed almost to perfection by the blue ink I used.
Vines ran along side it. Why did I draw the Vines you might ask. Well the Vines serve as a binder or a mender to be broken heart.
The Vines surrounding it are trying to keep the divided heart in place.
It's already broken though. But the Vines are using their strength and their unity, They are using their ability to work together to keep the heart from falling apart.
The Vines are a family.
My family...