It's beautiful. So beautiful. The view from here. It's beautiful. I feel blessed, standing here and performing before gods and the highest of men. Am i not fortunate? And it is all thanks to Him.
"I give all thanks to my creator. He is the reason I am here", she spoke, smiling from ear to ear.
The applause was deafening. Loud and flattering. It got louder and louder and soon the audience began to chant her name.
"Bisi...Bisi...Bisi...BISI", the chant went on and as it did, it became less and less admirative. The voices of the audience began merging into one, it stopped sounding like collective voices, chanting in admiration, it began sounding like a deep, annoyed one. "Bisi!"
Bisi was startled awake. She instantly was met with her brother's annoyed and tired eyes. "What?"
"What? You should be thanking me. Don't you have a test this morning? It's Monday, idiot!", her older brother, Tobi told her. "I can't believe you slept through the whole alarm, it's after seven!"
Hearing it was Monday, Bisi's eyes sprang open and she jumped off the bed, promptly running out of her room and into the bathroom.
"How could you not wake me up earlier?", Bisi yelled at him as she began running cold water to have her bath.
"How is that my responsibility? Stop yelling. Mummy and daddy are still sleeping", Tobi hissed.
"Leave me alone", Bisi hissed back.
"I hope you get punished when you get to school", Tobi retorted.
They didn't dislike each other. Both of them just weren't morning people.
♤
Bisi walked through the school gate and instantly bumped into Aisha, one of her classmates, a petite girl with round big eyes and a rounder pair of glasses.
Aisha was the closest thing Bisi had to a friend. And even at that, they weren't very close. Aisha was just the friendly type that everyone got along with.
"You're late too?", Her big brown eyes looked at Bisi, relief clear in them.
Bisi didn't reply. She very well knew that because the head prefect had taken a liking towards Aisha, she wouldn't get punished.
Bisi, on the other hand, wasn't the type everyone usually liked. In fact, no one really liked her. It wasn't like they didn't try, she just seemed too cold or even distant.
She wasn't doing it intentionally, it was merely her personality. People only mistook her silence for arrogance, and her indifference as pride.
Hence, to some people like the head prefect, she might have come off as overconfident or proud.
The bottom line was, she never escaped the head prefect's punishment.
After her punishment, as Bisi made her way to her class, the bell for the beginning of the test rang. She hadn't studied for the test at all. And the period she could've used to do a little bit of cramming, she spent it doing her punishment.
She was so going to fail.
"Oh my gosh, Bisi!", Aisha rushed over to her desk just as she was settling down. "I forgot my pen at home! Do you have a spare one?"
Bisi stared at her, her eyes still tired and lazy. It seemed a little annoyed too. "Do I look like I have one?"
Aisha flinched from the tone Bisi used to reply. It was obvious she was not in the mood to be annoyed. "Don't be annoyed. A simple no would've sufficed"
Aisha retreated, leaving Bisi to prepare for the test.
It didn't take long for the examiner to enter the class. And immediately he did, the test began.
The first paper for the day was maths. Bisi lowered her head and began to solve all the questions she could.
An hour and a half later, Bisi raised her head. She was done with the math questions and had solved every question.
The problem was, she knew atleast half of them were solved incorrectly.
Looking about the class, Bisi stared at her classmates. Some were focused, violently writing on their scripts as the time for the exam was almost up. Others were looking around the room, staring at the ceiling or playing with their pens or pencils, overcome with boredom.
Either they were done with the questions like Bisi, or they had given up answering and were merely waiting for the end of the test.
Bisi's attention was brought to the back of the room. The classroom was huge. And had a storage room at the back where brooms and mops for the class were stored. The storage room was small and dark. It gave off a lonely atmosphere and because of this, Bisi found it creepy.
The door was cracked open and the darkness from the room looked even darker. She wasn't sure if she was imagining things but she felt goosebumps on her skin as a cold wind made its way out the storage room.
Bisi frowned at the dark room. Why was it ajar?
Looking away, Bisi's eyes locked with one of her classmate's. It was one of her least favourites, Michael.
He smiled at her and gesturing towards the storage room, mouthed, "Are you scared?"
Bisi's frown deepened. "No"
"Are you sure? You're directly at the back of the class, closest to the storage room?", Michael chuckled.
Bisi rolled her eyes, choosing to ignore Michael. "Annoying-"
"Bisi, who are you talking to?", Bisi didn't get time to finish insulting Michael. The teacher had caught her talking.
Bisi's eyes widened in panic. "I wasn't talking to anyone"
"So you're saying I'm lying?", the examiner asked. It was just Bisi's luck that the examiner happened to be her least favourite teacher.
"No sir-", Bisi tried explaining but was cut off again by the examiner.
"Stand up when I'm speaking to you!", he yelled.
Bisi stood, shooting an angry glare at Michael who had turned and was pretending like he hadn't spoken to her in the first place.
"Since you have the time to talk and lie, you must be done with your test. Submit it and stand by your seat till the next bell rings"
Bisi sighed, taking her paper from the desk and walking to the examiner to hand it in.
Returning to her desk, her eyes caught a shadow move swiftly in the storage room. Unfortunately, before she could tell what it was, it vanished....so fast, Bisi wondered if she had imagined it.
But she hadn't. She had seen it. It was black, shadow-like and had an unhinged grin on its face.
But what was it? What was that creature?
She sighed, feeling her eyes droop from tiredness.
She always knew that storage room was sketchy.