Senior Year

SENIOR YEAR: CLASS OF 2019

Chapter one: Meet the elites

“I need him gone by the end of this year; I can’t afford to have him ruining everything”. “Do you understand me?” the voice yelled over the phone. Desperation or fear was not the motive, this was nothing short of pure evil, typical human nature and it was the only explanation as to what would transpire a few months later.

*September 2018*

“Now listen to me Mr. Davis, I will under no circumstance tolerate any shenanigans from you this year, not this year, do you hear me?” Mr. Adebayo said, putting down his coffee mug in a bit of rage. “You are a messed up kid, expelled from 2 high schools in 2 years, charged with vandalism and loitering, you get in fights every other day, skip classes often and last year you almost… you know what never mind, but still any school will be glad to have you, why? Because you have a spotless GPA, which baffles me but still you do”. He continues with a piercing look right at Davis like if he stares any harder he world see right into the boy’s soul, “Davis, I have tolerated you for the past year because of how smart you are and I’ve had enough of you thinking you are untouchable, because young man if you mess up one time, just one time this year so help you I will kick you out of my school without any hesitation”. “Sir but you do know I haven’t done anything wrong, at least not yet”, Davis replied with a bit of a smirk on his face, he did feel like he was untouchable. “I know kids like you”, Mr. Adebayo says folding his arms, “you’re a rotten kid with an exceptional brain, you are angry at the world and you feel you need to act out, take your anger out on everyone so people hear you and respect you but I don’t care about all that, all I ask is that you don’t cause any trouble for me and do us both a favor and graduate this year”. “Do I make myself clear Mr. Davis?” “Yes”, Davis stutters with his head down, the anger brooding in him was obvious in his answer. “Yes who” Mr. Adebayo says standing from his desk, “Yes sir” Davis replies with his right fist clenched in rage. Good now you can leave I’ll address the rest of you when you all resume.

Davis stormed out of the principal’s office slamming the door behind him, but, he was barely angry by the time he got to his locker, he was used to Mr. AB’s insults by now, “that man is always out to get me, but it’s not like he’s entirely wrong” Davis thought smiling to himself in an satisfied way. Mr. Adebayo was a cruel stuck up bastard, but he was also right about Davis. Davis was trouble, big trouble, his entire being screamed ‘danger ahead do not proceed’ to anyone who tried getting close, but everyone loves taking risks once in a while don’t we, plus he was also part of the elite 6 and that was the tie breaker even for Mr. Adebayo. Now Davis was my guy, no not my guy as in we were dating, even I wasn’t that stupid. My guy as in we had each other’s backs and I’m pretty sure without me he would have gotten himself expelled ‘again’ and then killed cause his father would have killed him for getting expelled you know for the third time. He had demons, we all did and they were coming to hunt us, but why senior year.

‘The elite 6’, Wester high most valued academic squad, it was a group of the six brightest minds in every senior year class of Wester, they were like the chosen ones, or should I say we were like the chosen ones and it was the only reason Mr. Adebayo couldn’t kick Davis out of the school. The school put all their pride in the elite 6, exceptionally brilliant students who always raised the school standards every year by winning numerous academic competition trophies, and Principal Adebayo did not joke with the elites. He as a man enjoyed being on top and always made sure the school was indeed on top. They were the pride of the school and year after year six of the brightest minds in every senior year class were separated from the rest of the year and ‘groomed into achieving academic greatness’ and getting into Ivy League schools, which they all did. The elites were not only chosen based on academic achievements but they each had some special they brought to the table. And this year was no different, well maybe a little different.

“Eniola” a loud voice called out for me in excitement, I was sitting on a table in the music room now I wasn’t playing anything but it was the only place I could be alone, deep in my thoughts and plugged in with my earpiece before assembly started, I heard cause I wasn’t listening to anything, but I like to keep them on so that you know people don’t try to talk to me or something. But I knew that loud squeaky voice anywhere and she knew I would be here so I stood up, adjusted my skirt that barely reached my knees and braced myself for the entrance of the owner of the voice. “Ahhhhh” Rayo shirked, jumping up and down as she opened the door, she was always like this, always hyper and over excited. Rayo was the also in the elite 6, we weren’t that close but it always seemed like we were and she was well Rayo. She ran towards me and pulled me into the tightest hug, “oh my days I missed you so much, I have so much to tell you” she said, “but let’s go now we’ll talk on the way” she continued, pulling me by the hand now and leading me out of the music room in a haste. I was about to ask go where but then I remembered we had assembly so I didn’t. This is why I had to brace myself earlier, she’s very expressive and I don’t really like to be touched by people. “Lol, calm down a bit” I said slowly freeing my hands from her grip, “how was your holiday”, I added with a little smile on my face.

Our morning assemblies happened in the schools MPH (multi-purpose hall), and everyone sat according to their year, senior sat all together too there was no special sit for the elites. Rayo and I sat at the far back of the hall with the rest of the seniors, Obi, Sharon and blaze (and yes he was as stupid as the name) sat on our roll which was a mistake because we almost got in trouble with ‘Baba’ for “making a noise” as he likes to call it. The rest of the elites were not yet back in the country, the king boys were to arrive this morning and Sophie tomorrow morning. Davis was not at the assembly, I checked, at least not yet. The hall was busy, the school band all dressed in uniform had already started beating their drums gently at the band area just beside the stage and the choir, proud as ever were sitting at the far end of the stage. A couple of teachers were in the hall, year tutors sat with their years and subject teachers stood at various sections of the hall, ready to start a whole new year of inflicting pain on students. Mr. Richard had the entrance, which was the best teacher to have on entrance duty on Monday, cause unlike the rest he was calm, young and relatable.

The assembly went on for quite a while like it always did…

“As part of our partnership with the national education board, I am pleased to announce that today we will be launching a new set of the famous and prestigious ‘elite 6’ program on students of this year’s class of 2019. We will be having six students as always, three male and three female. They will be treated like any other senior year set as they will start and finish the senior year together, just six of them”.  “Students and staff lets all give the new senior year class of 2019 elite team a big round of applause”, the entire school erupts into applause, being an elite was a very huge deal and everyone respected that. “Davis Afolayan, Motunrayo Oladele, Eniola Akintola-Bello, Jamil King, Jamal King and Sophia Ali and the entire senior year class, we wish you all best of luck this year and we know you won’t let us down”, the principal concluded and the assembly was dismissed with the school band beating their drums loudly in some afro beat style as the students left the hall.

 Principal Adebayo of Wester high school was an overconfident one. He spoke with so much confidence and pride whenever he addressed the staff or students. It was obvious from his firm looks, piercing gaze and well built physique for a middle aged man that he was a very strict and ambitious person, no wonder he managed to get this school all the way to the top as the best in Nigeria, he loved to win and not shockingly he always did. The entire school already knew about the elite program but Principal Adebayo saw it fit to remind us all about the details of what was going on as he expected nothing but perfection as he always said.

Assembly was over now and everyone was busy, it was the first day of school after all. Rayo had mixed up with a couple of friends; she loved the attention so I just slipped out of the group. The corridors were packed, and as expected the walls were covered in tons of cliché “welcome back to school posters” all very bright and colorful, maybe a little too much but whatever, they had all been painted in a fresh new coat of cream paint and the main entrance was now completely made of glass, “well that’s not going to last” I thought, thinking of the guys in this school and how rough they are. I stood for a few seconds reading one particular poster which said “WELCOME CLASS OF 2019” I was finally a senior, this was the year and I could not wait to be done with it already. There were quite a number of students just standing around, talking excitedly in groups and some in pairs about how much fun the summer was, how they missed each other and all that stuff, they were all smiling and laughing, you know, that first day of school feels. Uniforms were still sharp and spotless-guys in their slim fitted light brown trousers while girls in light brown high waist skirts, on long sleeved white shirts with a red, blue and white patterned tie, most students wore the navy blue blazers to complete their uniform but few wore the grey sweaters instead. Everything screamed first day of school.

I tried to walk past it all on my way to the dome for the meeting with the our form tutor but a couple of juniors stopped me to say hey and engage me in small talk, I didn’t like the attention and I hate small talks even more but I couldn’t say no because everyone knew who I was, after all I was an elite. I saw Dami Adedeji, who Is a G but has had the biggest crush on me for two years now and was in a year below me, he was hanging around some friends with that dumb smile on his face, he looked funny but in a cute way, he had definitely grown taller over the summer, mans looking like Lebron now, he definitely hit the gym too, the moment he saw me he ran over pulling me into a awkward bear hug. Dami and I used to be kind of close but he just doesn’t take a hint, we both knew that I didn’t like him but boy didn’t quit and the more he tried the more we grew apart, now I’m just trying to keep my distance. "Hey babe", he said waiting for a reaction from me, and I was going to give him one. "Heyyyy you know I missed you so much baby" I replied and immediately we both burst into laughter, “ok that was weird” he admit still laughing… “I’ll catch you later Dami, I have to get to the dome” I said trying to sneak away after we had talked for a bit longer.

The “dome” as students like to call it was just past the reception and it was quite big. Although no one really knew why we had that office, it was basically where all seniors had meetings with the principal, it was also like a hangout during free periods. Juniors always wondered what secret things went down in the dome, the truth is nothing really goes down there; we just hang out and play games.

You see the thing is anyone who ever went to secondary or high school will tell you the exact same thing, which is that the most important part of the entire experience is senior year. You get that feeling where you can’t wait for something to start but you’re already dreaming of the end but still you don’t want to miss anything in between because I mean its senior year. It’s that last chance to leave your mark, or have has much fun as you can, for most people study harder to get into that dream school, or talk to that one person you’ve been meaning to, last chance to make as much memories with your friends before college or university or getting a job, maybe even discover who you really are and where your place is in this messed up world. The fact is it is very important, so there is so much pressure surrounding students in their final year of high school to make it count. We all have high expectations for that final year because it’s the big one and we can’t wait to just get out of the hell that is high school.

But in our case things didn’t quite go as expected for us, and the six of us had no idea what we signed up for when we agreed to joining the elite 6 of Wester High school, Lagos, Nigeria. The thing is Wester was quite different, well very much different and we were not expecting what was coming next or the fact that we would end up doing the last thing anyone expected this year.

You know how all the teachers always says ‘this’ set is the worst set the school has ever had to all the sets, yeah this time they weren’t bluffing. Senior year class of 2019 was the worst.

*January*

“Now listen to me, a person is dead, so you all better start talking cause I need to know what the hell is going on”.