CHOCOLATE & MILK🍫🥛 Episode 4

PERKY'S STATUS

Lin 101 online assignment is the worst! Just when I was complaining to my noble alma mater over the unfairness of the deadline, bam! GSP 207 presentation hit me 😭 Well, this lioness's not backing down. How hard can it be? I feel confident thanks to Dave, our very helpful NALLS 024 friend 😌 I have a question though. Is he just being helpful or is there an ulterior motive? 🧐

NARRATOR

"Why can't all the lecturers use one class list?" Dinah whined as the cyber cafe owner told her the price.

"You can ask them," the guy said with a chuckle.

Dinah frowned and sent the soft copy of the list to his system. He kindly offered her a seat which she accepted. On a regular day, she would have refused but she was much too tired. She had been to several lecturers' offices listening to their various requirements for the class CA compilation. She hadn't even been able to attend a lecture! She had sworn to make her father proud by never missing a single class. It was clear the circumstances were against her.

"Should I print it?" the guy asked. 

Dinah looked at the monitor and nearly said yes when her phone vibrated. It was a message from Janet. It read, "Ahanna Unini Janet. 2021/112263"

"That's all? No apologies for the late compliance, because I hammered over this for nearly a week! Also, when no one wants to pay a class due of three hundred naira, how can I afford to throw away a class list simply because someone's name wasn't included?" Dinah fumed.

Dinah replied the message in her anger. She didn't even give it a thought that Janet was one of the girls that had befriended her. She accidentally added "mbok."

Quickly, she added the name to the list. Just as the guy poised his finger over the control key, another message came into Dinah's phone.

"Why are people daft sometimes?" Dinah exclaimed after reading the message.

Dinah wasn't smiling when she walked in with an envelope of fresh papers. It was the class list. She dropped them in a bag and took her seat beside Jude.

"Was it stressful?" Jude asked with a smile.

She let out a groan and whispered, "Why are some people so annoying?"

Jude looked at the girl whose assignment he was about to collect. She was peering at her phone. He said in a whisper to Dinah, "You just have to be patient with them. At least you've seen what I go through."

That kept her from complaining further. She asked instead, "Do you need help collecting the assignments?"

"No, thank you. Just rest. You've done a good job," Jude said kindly and sighed as more of his coursemates joined the queue with their term papers in their hands. 

Jude remembered his primary school days and wondered why collecting assignments in university had to take more time. Did Mr Okafor have to ask him to use the GS dues list to collect the assignments? It was a good strategy. He planned to employ it to make his coursemates pay their class dues. He had made so many expenses for the class from his money already.

"Hmmm," Dinah sighed gratefully and rested her pretty head on the desk. Jude looked at her hair which she had packed neatly. It was long, curly and black. Her earrings fitted her beautifully. All Jude needed was her iconic infectious smile.

"Dinah," Jude called slowly.

She looked at him. Her expression was dull.

"What does the name mean?" he asked as he ticked Nene's name and received her term paper.

"Have you read the book of Genesis?"

"Yes."

She nodded and said nothing more.

"Why answer the name of the first woman in the Bible to be raped?"

Jude slapped his mouth later that day when he remembered this question.

"That isn't all there is about her. She was the virtuous and beautiful daughter of Jacob, remember?" Dinah said boldly. She added, "Also, my daddy's a pastor."

"Where are you from?"

"I'm an Akwa ibomite. Proudly!"

"I see."

"You?" she asked in a gentler tone of voice.

"Imo state."

"No wonder. Imo people. Always wearing this same kind of watch," she said and flicked his red and black digital wrist watch he had owned since secondary school.

In response to this tease, Jude touched his pen on her elbow mischievously. It left a blue streak and she groaned and eyed me. He winked at her and she hissed, but still, the corner of her lips curved in a smile.

"Jude, can't you do this faster? I have somewhere else to be besides here watching you two make love," a girl with very long braids and lots of piercings said impatiently.

Dinah sprang up, "What is that supposed to mean? No one is holding you here. You are free to leave. As if he doesn't have somewhere important to be too."

Jude had no time to delight in Dinah's defence because the girl said, "And what are you doing? I don't see how you are assisting him now."

A number of supporting mumbles followed this and Dinah kept silent. Jude spoke over the complaints and the croaky voice of Emma who was singing Dinah's name. He said, "You guys should please calm down. Dinah has actually been very helpful."

The girl, Sally cut him short, "Oh, spare me that shit. I don't care what you think of your girlfriend. Mine is that I need to leave I have better things to do."

This was too much for Jude. His father had taught him to be kind, but he hadn't taught him to receive insults meekly. He said in an angry note, "If you have better things to do, go ahead and do them. Who is stopping you?"

With that, Sally threw her term paper at their desk and walked out of the classroom.

That incident kept Jude heated throughout the day. He kept ranting to all who wished to hear about the issue. All the time, he defended Dinah and didn't spare a word for himself. He spoke firmly of her great assistance to him and how much easier his work was thanks to her. This troubled Dinah who wished he wouldn't be so passionate about her defense.

NENE'S JOURNAL

I was angry over the rude remarks and messages directed at Dinah after the GS 101 assignment issue with Sally. It was as if most of the girls in my class had waited for the opportunity to reveal their dislike for Dinah. It was so infuriating because I had chatted with Dinah for some time already and she was always very kind. I had never met her in person though; I preferred anonymity at the time. What I could say about Dinah was that she was smart, funny, kind and had the sweetest smile. Her smile... I so admired it. Contagious! She also had a cool composure and a confident carriage. Dinah to me was perfect.

That was until a certain Thursday when I had to show myself. I had been unable to collect my philosophy textbook on Friday. I hadn't been feeling too well. It was important to get the textbook because I had to read it before the test which was on Monday. Luckily, she agreed to meet with me the following day at the quadrangle. She also hinted that she would finally meet me because I had refused to send her my picture. It wasn't out of spite; pictures just wasn't my thing.

I was excited about the meeting. I even wore my pretty pink gown which my roomie complimented to my delight.

I skipped happily to the quadrangle looking like Barbie, and met a dull faced Dinah pressing her phone. I tapped her shoulder and she looked up at me. I presented myself as Nene and to my dismay, she didn't seem happy to meet me. "Oh, I guessed it was you," she said to my disappointment.

"Say what?" I thought. What killed my love for her was when she added under her breath but loud enough for me to hear, "You're the shy girl in class."

That statement made me wince. It hurt me that I was shy but it hurt more when someone told me about it, especially in Dinah's snobbish tone. I was shy, no doubt. All of Lin 025 knew that. I had embarrassed myself by falling from the podium in theatre A, but she reminding me about it was far from helpful. Plus, she didn't act friendly at all. She just gave me my new textbook and casually pleaded with me not to make her work so hard like the others.

Like the others?!

Then she left without asking me if we could go together.

This first impression (not counting the chats) left me puzzled, then angry. I tried to excuse her sour temper but I muttered as I went home, "No matter what, she shouldn't transfer the aggression to me."

I stopped chatting with her. I began to agree with my coursemates and their complaints about Dinah. I even thumbs-uped a message that said, "She's rude, unfriendly and is only good at sitting idly bedside Jude." That message was from Pre-ti and I never liked any of Pre-ti's messages.

I typed, "Did we make a mistake voting for her cute smile?" After some hesitation, I refused to send the message. The group chat was already heated with hate. One more person might not make a difference to me, but I thought of Dinah regardless. I thought, what if that was me?

NARRATOR

One hundred and seven messages and all were about Dinah not meeting Lin 025's expectation. Some, mostly boys, defended her. Yet Dinah wondered where she had gone wrong.

Was it because she had snobbed Natasha one day? She had been very busy and had not even noticed Natasha had been talking to her until much later.

"Big mistake," Dinah said with a groan. Natasha was a close friend of Precious (aka Pre-ti) and Precious had a strong dislike for Dinah. Dinah disliked her too particularly because of her dressing and the much she had observed of her lifestyle.

Dinah felt sad. She knew she had faults. She knew she wasn't always kind but she was human for crying out loud. She had feelings and she could take corrections.

"Dinah, never mind the messages. None of them are true. I personally know how hardworking and committed you are..."

Dinah wiped her tears and smiled at Jude's message.

"Thanks for the concern," she replied and removed the accidental crying emoji at the end before sending.

Jude sent another message, "From all they sent, I noticed there's no unity among the girls in our class. No vex but your gender too get wahala. 🤦"

Dinah laughed.

"I have an idea on how to fix that,"he continued.

What, she wondered.

"025 Linguistics Girls' Group."

Jude created the girls' group chat with the hope of fostering unity among the females in his class who held the majority while the boys held the minority in terms of population and problem. He entreated the girls to use the platform to socialize and solve their problems maturely. The girls reacted indifferently, except Precious who raised a tantrum over the number of group chats she was in already.

"All I'm saying is that this is very unnecessary. Also, why don't the boys have their group chat? What are you insinuating, that we women are problematic?"

"Yes!" Jude shouted in his room. It caused Cheta to look up from his books and stare curiously at him.

Sally didn't help matters as she pointed out why it was improper for Jude to be in the group. On top of that, he was an admin!

Precious took the issue up and championed the cause of kicking Jude out of the group chat. She succeeded and afterwards, left the group for she found it "... disgusting to stay in the same group chat with a snob like Dinah."

A few others left the group but Nene noticed with some interest that Natasha, Precious' bestie, didn't leave the group. Natasha had other plans like promoting her modeling ambition by sharing links of her posts on Facebook and Instagram for the girls to like and comment.

"Bummer," Nene muttered and laughed heartily. There was always one drama in Lin025. The drama reached its climax when Nene, and everyone else, noticed that Natasha and Precious no longer went about together. In fact, Natasha spent her time in the company of Dinah.

To be continued.