Aida woke up more than three times to check the time. It seemed the time was moving slowly.
"Time is slow when you are waiting" she murmured under her breath and went back to sleep. She didn't know why she was anticipating this but somehow she didn't want to be late, not to even think about missing it. She wanted to get there early, just so she could get a seat closer to the stage where all the discussions would be held. She couldn't go back to sleep even though it was only 3am in the morning. She took a book and decided to read to kill time.
"Wake up, Aida! Today is Friday! You can sleep enough tomorrow, hopefully" Mary, her grandmother, said as she patted the curtains in the room.
"What's the time, grandma?" Aida asked sleepily trying to remember when she dozed off.
"6:26 am"
"What?" Aida jolted from her bed. "Why didn't you wake me up, Gran Gran?"
"You looked so cute, that's why I didn't wake you up"
Aida rushed to the bathroom only to find her dad fixing her shower. She looked questionably at her dad and remembered her shower was faulty and she complained bitterly about it to him not long ago.
"Dad, can I use your bathroom?" Aida asked Raymond, her father, desperately.
"Yes, you can!" Raymond replied wearing his usual grin on his face.
Aida bolted towards his room. Mary looked at Raymond who raised his shoulders and shook his head at the same time.
"I wonder why she's so energized this morning" Mary said after Aida had left.
"Perhaps, an early morning interview will do. How about that?" Raymond suggested.
"She doesn't seem to be in the mood to be interviewed by me this morning" Mary replied with a knowing smile playing along the corners of her lips.
After bathing, Aida got ready and decided to pack her breakfast and take it along with her in order not to be late for the discussion.
"Aida, why are you in such a hurry?" Mary asked unable to ignore her curiosity anymore.
"Some visitors will be coming to my school today. I want to get a seat near the platform so that I can hear all they're going to discuss" Aida replied.
"I'm sure the school is going to use a PA system, so why are you in such a hurry?" Raymond asked.
"I just don't want to be late" Aida replied and kissed him on the cheek, rushed to Mary and kissed her on the forehead. "Bye, Gran Gran, Bye, Dad"
"Bye, Aida" they replied chorusly.
"Take care!" Mary added.
"Be careful! Just don't cross roads haphazardly" Raymond added before Aida closed the door behind her.
Aida was so lucky not to miss the early bus.
"Good morning, Miss Michaels" the bus conductor greeted.
"Good morning, Mr Newton" Aida replied.
"What's up? You seem to be in a good spirit today"
"Yeah, sort of"
"I'm glad to hear that. There's a seat there" the conductor said pointing at a seat.
"Thank you"
After sitting, Aida began think about why she was desperately expecting the discussion to be held and why she wanted to be near the platform.
'Why am I anticipating this open forum discussion today? It's not the first time people have been invited to the open forum discussions held by the school. Is it because of the theme; Things mama never told you about the vagina. It can be the theme.'
There's been a lot of changes in her body and she found it quite embarrassing to ask Gran Gran about them. Maybe she could find all the answers she needed from the discussion.
When Aida arrived at school, she noticed some students had already arrived and were already seated. Much to her delight, the students at the auditorium were few. She chose a seat in the front row, enjoyed the music which was been played and waited patiently for the program to be commenced. Almost an hour after she had arrived, the auditorium was filled with students who were all girls (because the school is a girls school) and they were looking forward to the arrival of the visitors. Their headmistress used that opportunity to address the students. When the visitors arrived, the senior girls prefect alerted the headmistress and she nodded.
"The moment we've all been waiting for is finally here. With a round of applause, let's all welcome our visitors" the headmistress, Rosemary Archie, said as the visitors walked in.
Aida who had been anticipating this discussion couldn't hide how elated she felt due to their presence. But then something struck her. One woman among the visitors, looked like an older, more beautiful and richer version of herself!