"Attention, 025 Jacksonites! It is with deep regret that I announce the cancellation of all possible classes. And, by the power invested in me, Chukwuralu Jordan, your class captain, I declare today... Lecture free!"
Nonye rolled her eyes at the message on her screen. Why did the dude have to be so dramatic, she wondered. What pissed her off was the hundreds of reactions his proclamation always got.
"What's the fuss? Fridays are always lecture free. No lecture or rumour of lecture has held or probably ever will!" Nonye fumed.
"Did Jordan send you another message?" Chisom asked. Nonye looked across her to the left corner of the room where her roomie was sitting and staring at her. Nonye grimaced tightly when the consciousness of having fumed out loud discovered her.
"Not just me. The entire class," Nonye grumbled and got off her bed to pull on a yellow sweater comfortably.
"I thought you were over that," Chisom's baby face quizzed Nonye.
"Yes. That's why I'm going to forget about this conversation and leave," Nonye said as she slipped on her black handbag. She stroke her hair while gazing at the mirror on the wall. Her breath caught a little when she realized she was all set. She dreaded what she was set for.
"Come back soon," Chisom pouted.
"Young psychologist, you have other roommates," Nonye retorted with a small smile.
"Tammy left for the market while Melanie..." Chisom winked and said, "went to see an Adam."
"That's her Adam. You should get one too so you stop bugging me," Nonye grumbled.
"After you, ex Miss Ralu," Chisom whispered. Nonye made to leave, stopped, picked a pillow and threw it at Chisom who laughed heartily.
Nonye strolled out the doors of Okpara and put on a carefree aura. Today was day one on her mission board. The day she would infiltrate Pharmacy Building and search for clues. The plan was very simple. She only had one problem; a camouflage.
"Their first years don't wear uniform, sha," she mumbled and looked at the driveway that led to the building nervously. All the students she could see were dressed in white and ash. Infiltrating was going to be harder than she thought.
As she quietly motivated herself, she couldn't help noticing a breezy fair girl skipping towards her. The girl was light skinned and pretty. From a distance, one could perceive her rich scent. Her bubbly gait and smiling mouth exposed her freshness. Nonye could tell without a doubt she was a rich Lagos-bred mummy's brat savouring her first days in a university. She glared at the spirited young thing and involuntarily envied her. Then she looked away.
"Excuse me," a squeak-pitched voice turned Nonye around. It was the fresher. At a closer glance, Nonye could spot the uncertainty hiding below her fine lashes. She was probably lost and wanted directions to GS building.
"How do I find GS building, please?" the little thing asked. She wasn't so little; she was above average, almost taller than Nonye. Still, something about her seemed little.
Nonye's annoyed eyes quit rolling when she remembered that famous clip posted every session. It was the clip about a naive penguin asking his seniors for directions to GS building. Nonye smiled and braced herself for the lie she was about to tell.
"Over there," Nonye pointed at the huge creamy building with shiny blue roof. The fresher first looked at the giant pestle with the insignia of pharmacy on it. Then she looked at the magnificent building pouting curiously. Nonye held her breath as the girl contemplated slowly. Too slowly.
"Thank you!" The happy smile returned and Nonye gasped for air. She watched the naive little fresher walk down the driveway to the entrance. Nonye contemplated hiding under the busstop shed near by but the girl walked in without looking back. Nonye waited for half a minute. Then she punched the air in triumph and walked cautiously towards the door that had swallowed the poor naive fresher. She stared at it like a sleeping lion and smiled at the thought of touching its tail without it waking.
"Hey, you! What are you doing there? Get away from there!"
Nonye froze with her hands making a "Me?" gesture. She locked eyes with a gruff short lecturer in glasses. His grey hair and beard suggested he was a professor in the faculty. They also suggested Nonye would lose a limb if she didn't scat.
Nonye turned and fled with as much composure as she could salvage. When she was a good distance away, she saw the professor bark at another student in mufti. As he barked, he kept pointing at a certain direction. That was when it hit Nonye. He had thought she was a pharmacy fresher and had ordered her to go and stay with the other freshers, wherever they were. Nonye slapped her forehead in distress but didn't will herself to continue her mission. The professor's beard and hair still looked gruff and vivid in her mind.
"He must be the great grand-capon," Nonye muttered trying to calm her revving nerves.
After several hesitant attempts, Nonye headed back to her hostel. It was no use. She would have to find another way to tear pharmacy down, brick by brick. Infiltration wasn't as easy as the spy movies had made them look. Sure, she had expected laser beams and booby traps, but she hadn't expected a barking old man. "A glorious day wasted," she sighed angrily and headed for Okpara. She stopped, snapped her fingers and asked aloud what became of the naive fresher. Had she been snapped at too? Had she gotten lost inside the building? Had the cultists kidnapped her for their next sacrifice?
"Karma, why?" Nonye hissed and rubbed her forehead. She felt bad about the lie and worse about the fate of the innocent fresher with the skip in her step.
A high pitch laugh whizzed past Nonye's ear just as she entered the doorway. Reflexively, she looked back and saw a pretty young girl with a skip in her step. She was walking and laughing with a tall young man dressed in white and ash.
"Well, you're welcome," Nonye said shrugging off the guilt. She couldn't shrug off the sour feeling of having all one's plans for the day ruined though. "Till another time, Pharm," she whispered under her breath and opened her room door gladly.
"Revenge!" Chisom's voice startled her before her vision was muffled by a pillow aimed at her face.
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