I ate and ate till my little tummy bulged. Mom asked me if it was okay for me to take back some snacks to the hostel and I told her that we were allowed to do so, even though I knew it was against the school rules and regulations. I knew I wouldn't be able to eat dinner today after having a taste of home-cooked meals again.
"Time's up. We have to leave." Dad announced as he looked at his wristwatch. A habit I grew to dislike throughout my high school days.
I hissed and sighed at the same time while Fred started throwing tantrums. It felt like the first day again and after what seemed like forever seeing my parents off, I went back to the hostel with my stash and the items they bought for me.
**********************
As soon as I got to the hostel, I saw a little crowd right in front of my corner and wondered what was going on.
I tiptoed to my bed from the side and pulled out my bucket and placed my stash in it before dropping my items on the bed.
Stacy, Jessica and another girl who was there with them were conversing amongst themselves. They were so engrossed in their conversation that they didn't notice when I walked in.
"Hi guys, what are you girls talking about?" I greeted as I sat down on Jessica's bed.
"Ooh! Elsie, you are back. We thought you would even go back home with your parents." Stacy teased me.
I chuckled and didn't even respond to her teasing.
"Elsie, you didn't tell me that you are a mommy's girl." Jessica chirped in.
"What do you mean?"
"I saw your mom cuddling you earlier today," Jessica replied with a huge grin on her face as if she made a huge discovery.
I rolled my eyes at Jessica and kept quiet.
"There's nothing wrong with it. I am proud of it." I blurted out. I felt I had to say something because I didn't want them to make fun of me with it.
"There's nothing wrong with it. It's just that I was surprised." Jessica waved her hands in surrender and sat up.
"You hardly show your emotions and while we were all crying during our first week, you didn't even shed a single tear." She pointed at me while looking at everyone.
They all nodded in unison to show that they agreed with her.
"That's by the way. Elsie, meet your new corner mate." Stacy gestured to the girl sitting beside her.
"Say hi to her." Stacy nudged the girl.
"Hi, I am Elsie. What's your name?" I reached out to her for a handshake.
I decided to introduce myself to the girl first because I noticed that she wasn't comfortable being there with us and was very quiet. She seemed like she needed space before she could start socialising and Stacy decided to introduce her to me to dissolve the tension in the air as a result of the little banter between me and Jessica.
I kept my hand reached out for a handshake for a while until she responded.
"My name is Evelyn." She said in a tiny voice while smiling at me. I smiled back at her.
Evelyn's bed was opposite Jessica's bed but the bed opposite mine was still unoccupied and we converted it to a temporary storage place for our stuff.
I tried my best to make Evelyn feel at home and after a while, she slowly began to warm up to us. We all ditched dinner that night and went for prep on an empty stomach and shared our secret stash later in the night when we returned from prep. I was very relieved when I found out that I wasn't the only one who smuggled food into the hostel.
*******************
Everyone was in high spirits for school resumption the next day except me. I found myself lagging in all the activities but my friends dragged me along.
We were introduced to our form teacher Miss. Christine who explained everything about the school system to us. She was very friendly and warm to us throughout our stay in high school.
By the end of the school day on that Monday, it finally dawned on me that I was now a high schooler and needed to work really hard to keep my scholarship.
After our first day of school, my classmates all began to take their studies seriously and were no longer rowdy that the .... no longer made frequent visits to our class. I and Stacy were still struggling to stay awake and read during prep, we would sometimes sleep throughout the prep and even after being woken up, we would go back to sleep. Stacy was making things worse as she would also sleep whenever she noticed that I had fallen asleep.
After one week, we adjusted to the system and began to stay awake a bit and to make up for the lost time, we began to use our afternoon prep time judiciously.
I looked at the wall clock in our classroom and it was still 9 pm and I hissed. Time has been moving very slowly today.
"What's wrong with you?" Stacy asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"I am tired and feel sleepy," I yawned and stretched myself.
Stacy looked at me for a while before she began to laugh, "You are tired. Isn't today the first time you are staying awake during night prep? You must be joking."
"Whatever!" I covered my note and textbook and laid my head on the desk to sleep but Stacy kept poking me with a pen. I finally gave up on my plan and we both began to solve mathematics questions together.