Finding my Light

It was a new school term and I dreaded going back to boarding school that day. I must have taken a thousand deep breaths, paced back and forth around the house, sweating profusely on my palms almost as if I had reached out to the heavens for a pour of rain. I hated boarding school just as much as every student who had to endure the uneventful assemblies, strict rules, and limited choice of food and clothes. I felt a rumble in my stomach, which may have easily been caused by the overwhelming quantity of food I had shoved into my mouth. One would have asumed it was my last meal before the electric chair.

I heard a loud bang from upstairs, it was Nnem (mum) coming out of her room as she yelled, "Ready?", I replied in kind, "Yes Nnem".

I of course was not ready but oh well, I guess there was nothing I could do about that. My mum was not the one to play the pretend sick game, that would have only warranted an agonizing and unending archive of stories from her childhood. She would go on to tell my siblings and I about how back in her days, she had to do several house chores and ate cold chicken before walking several miles on end to school. I mean, who wouldn't like some chicken for breakfast. Anyways, that is beside the point. I wasn't ready to hear all of that on my way to school, especially because I was already on edge.

We left the house around quarter past eleven, but first, we had to make a quick stop at 'The Plantain and Chicken Place' for some plantain and chicken. I know right? very original. And before you judge me, I would like to mention that Plantain and chicken is till this day my favorite food of all time. There was no way I was going to the belly of the beast without putting some plantain in my belly. I definitely was not done eating, the show wasn't over until the fat man eats.

Nnem was more than willing to do the needful, we at least had that understanding. When we arrived at the restaurant, I hurriedly pushed my door open, mistakenly hitting the car door beside ours. "Could this day get any worse?" I said to myself as the owner of the car, a muscular six-foot-tall man exited the car. He looked like he was very capable of squashing me with his pinky fingers, so without hesitation, I began to apologize. "I am so so sorry sir", I exclaimed as my mum gave me the 'you foolish child' stare.

Whilst she apologized on my behalf, from the corner of my eye, I saw Amara, my crush since second grade. What were the chances that of all cars to hit, it would be her dads' car?

"Noo!!!....this is not happening", I said.

"It is...", she softly replied.

Did I say that out loud? I thought to myself as she gently tucked her neatly braided hair behind her right ear whilst walking towards me. She had the most gorgeous smile that till this day I have convinced myself was a dream and that I had probably made up in my head. The brown vermillion of her lips was perky and glossy on the account of her lipgloss. And as she got closer and closer, I kept saying to myself, she is a dream, this is a dream I have fallen into.

"Hey!!!", she said, as she stood right in front of me, she had never been that close to me. I could smell the flavor of her lipgloss when she spoke, it was strawberry. Her eyes were like nothing I had seen before and her melanin skin glistened like the blue sea under the starlight. Her gorgeous earrings nowhere compared to her beauty dangled on her perfectly shaped ear lobe, as her hair laid still behind her ear, 'K.O'.

All that went through my mind was "Say something, anything, you foolish child, don't blow it, don't lose this opportunity, say something".

Without thinking it through, I said "Nice hair, where did you get it? And upon realizing what I had just said, I quickly corrected myself,

"Sorry, I meant, where did you make it?"

Where did u make it? why would you even ask her that, Ahhh!!! what the heck is wrong with me? This was the longest two minutes of my life, and before I could make it any worse, Nnem came to my rescue. "Let us go eat", she said.

Whilst walking towards the restaurant, all I could think of was, you idiot!! idiot!! idiot!!, and as we got to the restaurant door, I pulled it open and held it for Nnem to go through. Upon realizing that Amara and her dad had walked right behind us, I held the door open a little longer. As Amara walked through, oh my!!! she smelt so good too. what sorcery? she was like the perfect girl.

When we had all gotten in, Nnem said whilst pointing, "you guys should go sit in the corner over there, Amara's dad and I will go get you some food.

"Wait, what!!!", I exclaimed, "both of us, together?" I muttered.

"Yes", she replied with a mild irritation to the question I asked. "Okay ma" I replied, as I began walking with Amara at my back and my heart shooting out of my chest.

Upon arriving at the table, I deliberated on whether or not to pull out Amara's sit. It was a fifty-fifty shot, either she thought I was a misogynistic male who assumes all girls to be weak and unable to pull out their own seats or, she sees me as a gentleman who values women as should all men. You see, she was not only beautiful but was also one of the brightest girls in school, and I really wanted to impress her and couldn't afford to mess up a second time.

I had to go with my guts, so what I did was to pull out the first seat in front of me and immediately ask if I could sit on the adjacent seat. That way, I don't emphasize the gesture but the question asked. But as I previously said, she is a smart girl and so replied,

"Yes, of course, you can sit next to me", while she pulls out the other seat for me. Upon sitting, she smiles and says, "thank you for pulling out my seat Jessy". And there it was, she knew my name and I immediately could not contain myself.

We sat down in silence during the first minute, and I suddenly became overly conscious of my hands and did not know where to put them. It was nerve-wracking for both of us, as we would simultaneously try to steal a glance but will be caught and then quickly look away. It was intense, just as you would see in those chizzy scenes in high school romance movies. I also kept looking at my watch while I desperately thought about a topic of discussion so that I dont utter any foolish words like last time.

She finally broke the ice as she said, "I can't wait for the plantain to get here, it's my favorite".

What is she trying to do, set me up on fire? At this point, I was no longer hungry but I replied without hesitation, "me too!!!". Her face lit up, and I immediately went in flames, there goes the green light. The conversation got easier from there henceforth and it seemed like we couldn't run out of topic. That faithful day set a precedence for how our relationship navigated further on as we returned to secondary school.

That went on to be my best school term because we became great friends there on after. I found out that we had a lot more in common, and our differences only enriched us with perspectives we both learned from. We laughed a lot, cried sometimes, shared our past experiences, and made new ones. Suddenly, I didn't notice all those things that made secondary school unbearing anymore. Maybe, not everyone was miserable in boarding school.

Getting to the end of the term, the inevitable happened. We started dating. She was unexpected but was an absolute miracle, the light of my life. We carried on caring for one another for years, and that was how I met your mother, children. Through eating this tasty plantain and chicken we all have on our plates today.

Sitting adjacent to me was Amara as she smiled and said, "he still pulls out my chair till this day".

The End.