C8 THE ARROGANCE OF A RARE GIRL 2

Non of them dare to move closer, they only begged Ewanimi to please let her go, but Ewanimi mocked them and say,

"Why did you people warned her not to slap me? You thought she could beat me right? Were you not waiting to watch her grind my mouth on the floor? Now, enjoy the show or are you not happy that the table turned against your champion?"

While she was mocking, the girls were begging her and Gloria was screaming, their principal who was passing by their class heard the commotion and rushed to the spot. When Ewanimi saw the Principal she shoved Gloria on the floor and stood up.

The principal was shocked to see that the slim Ewanimi was the one who made the bloated Gloria to cry without shame like a baby!

The principal led all of them to his office, when they got there and he heard from all of them the reason for the fight, he vehemently rebuked Ewanimi for been an insensitive snub and bully!

He did not leave Gloria and the rest without blame, he told Gloria she should not have taken the law into her hands and slapped Ewanimi, because she thought she could beat her.

At the end, he dished out punishment to all of them according to their level of involvement in the crises. To the ones who did not engaged in the fight but did not do the right thing to stop the fight or report it they got mild punishment. He punished Gloria harshly for been the first to throw a slap when she could have reported Ewanimi to the school authority.

Finally, he punished Ewanimi the most and also asked her to come to school with one of her parents. The rest left the principal office sobered, but not Ewanimi; her arrogance gained more wings because she knew all of them will henceforth fear her; since they now know she is not a spineless or delicate doll that anyone can bully!

After this, even boys in their high school were secretly afraid of her because many of them could not handle the over bloated Gloria that she beat. Apart from this, non of them could match her brain for brain, and they now hear that she was a trained fighter

At that stage of her life, the other thing in Ewanimi's life apart from her uncommon brilliance was that she was not whorish. Who even among her mates would dare to court a girl whose specialty is to mess people up?

On one occasion did one tried, his name was Omoboriola; but shortly called Bori by all his mates. He was the only person in the entire school's history closest to Ewanimi in brilliance. He has done all he could do to dethroned Ewanimi as the school academic champion; but somehow she always dust him behind with few marks in one or two subjects

He was the only guy Ewanimi used to wholeheartedly played with in the entire school, because she saw him as a propellant force that drove her not to lower her standard in her studies; for she saw how rigorous he was trying term in term out to beat her.

She even used to boastfully joke in their Yoruba dialect with him saying,

"Bori, ye da ara e laamu o ko le Bori mi" meaning, Bori stop troubling yourself you can't beat me"

Bori too often answered with enthusiasm,

"Bori loruko mi mo ma bori eni term yi" meaning, my name is excel (Bori means excel) this term I will beat you!"

They joked often like this and threw banters to each other, but Bori one way or another always failed to rise above her at the end of each term. At the begining she was a mystery that Bori was obsessed with and despised, but over time he developed secret affection for her that most of his mates tried to kill, to this end they called Ewanimi all kinds of evil names, but Bori was not moved by all the bad names all of them used to call her.

Some of them called her "OGBANJE" which mean evil mermaid, because of her flawless light skin.

When they freshly resumed into their final year in that high school, Bori encouraged himself to lay his heart bare to her before they will both leave the school and not see each other again. So one day he boldly cornered her after the school hours and told her that he loved her and he would want her to be his girl for life.

Ewanimi was shocked to hear him, but wittingly she hid her shock, as she instantly made up her mind to use him to teach all other boys who has been gawking on her lustfully a lesson, for prior to this time she had noticed that some of them were becoming indecently bold toward her; this she knew in some of their jokes.

With this decision Ewanimi with smile told Bori to let them discuss the matter during lunch break the following day. So during lunch break the following day, when others left the class for lunch she did not leave and Bori took this as a green light to approach her.

When Ewanimi saw that others quickly left the class and there was no one to watch the show she has prepared, she pretentiously picked her food flask and began to munch away at her food. Bori tried to talk to her but she told him she does not talk while eating, so Bori waited for her to finish with her food.

Leisurely, she ate her food while Bori was boiling with anticipation as the clock tick and the time for lunch break was running out

Once she noticed that the class was getting filled again with their classmates, because the lunch break was almost over; she put down her food flask, turned to Bori and said with a voice that is loud enough for their mates in the class to hear,

"Bori, what do you say you want?"

Her question drew the attention of the whole class to them, she has prepared that if Bori chickened out and could not repeat his proposition she would blurt it out as a question back to him and then messed him up.

And if he swallowed the bait and repeat his proposition the better the game she wants to play with him will be.

When Bori who was a bit nervous heard her question, he became jittery as all eyes came upon him. At first he thought he should stand up and walk away, but he encouraged himself to be strong as a guy; that only by been fearless can he win Ewanimi's affection

With this thought he calmed his nerves, drew more closer to her so that he can talk in whispers. Once he achieved this he tried to move his mouth close to her ears and say what he wants to say, but before he will say a word Ewanimi violently pushed him away and jumped up with a shout in her dialect

"Se eleyi fe ki enu bo mi lenu ni, o de ro pe emi le fe iru e? Meaning, "Does this one want to kiss me, do you think I can befriend your kind?" With her outbursts the whole class became a sudden hall of laughter and ridicule for Bori

And Ewanimi continued,

"Oh, is it because I used to crack jokes with you that you developed this silly boldness to try to kiss me or say dirty things to me? Look at yourself and please sincerely tell me if I am your sister, will you advise me to befriend a guy who at his best is always second behind me? On top of this, you are so ugly! Please pack yourself off and allow fresh air to blow upon me; I am not in your league!"

It was like the ground should open up that Bori might dive in and hide there forever! He was greatly ashamed that he could not get up from where he sat. The whole class was agog with laughter!

And so till the end of their time in the high school all their classmates called him Bori the lover of evil mermaid, though non of them dare to do so in her presence, but she somehow knew they called her evil mermaid; but she did not care because she had achieved her purpose.

Like deadly coiled cobra, Bori avoided her till they finished in the school, so did all others who were before the incident priming themselves up to approach her.

This was how Ewanimi finished in that high school, she could be the most respected and most sought after of all her classmates due to the academic record she left behind in the school, because she had the best record in the whole of West Africa for that year.

Since the high school final examination is jointly conducted by a body for the high schools in West Africa (WAEC). But her arrogance and haughtiness made non of her mates to deem it fit to connect with her after their days together in this high school.

By the time Grace reached this point in the story, Emiola her husband was yawning and slightly dozing, because he came home from the office very tired.

Jiire and Itunu on the other side were completely taken with the story and they want to hear the story to the end, but their mom stopped because she said her husband need to rest and she cannot be cruel to send her to bed alone.

She promised to continue where she stopped the following day, at this point she suddenly heard Jiire said, "That Ewanimi is a monster!"

His mother hearing this looked at his face and instantly replied,

"Then you should kill the monster in you too, I am telling you her story so that you can see yourself through her eyes"

Jiire sadly answered, "But mummy, you are judging me wrongly, I am not like that person at all! "

"With the way you behave this afternoon, I am afraid that you don't know yourself, there is a beast in you which you must kill before it will unleash itself - goodnight"

Jiire rolled his eyes and went to his bedroom not happy to hear his mother's thought about him, but Itunu was very happy that her foster mother stood by her against her own only son; by this she believed Grace truly saw her as her daughter.