Chapter 3

Arlene was in the classroom scribbling something in her book while her mates were in the theatre auditioning for the new play. She kept writing till she was interrupted by Derek, who snuck up on her from behind. She screamed at first, and then sighed when she saw he was the one.

“Don’t ever do that again, you scared the shit out of me” she said with furrowed brows.

“Come on, it wasn’t even that deep or can’t you take a joke?”He replied, and she continued with what she was writing without uttering another word to him.

When he noticed she wasn’t going to say a thing, he went on to ask about the auditions and why she didn’t want to be part of it. She told him she wasn’t interested in acting and she had better things to do like what she was writing before he interrupted her.

“I’m sorry if I’m bothering you,” He said, and then he turned to leave.

Arlene felt bad for being mean to him; she stopped him half way to the door and told him she had changed her mind. She packed put her book inside her tote bag and swung it on her shoulder, and then she joined him on the hall way to the theatre room.

The theatre room was dark, and one could barely find their way through the descent of steps, so Arlene found it difficult to see. Derek took her hands and walked her down the auditorium till they found empty seats. The auditorium was very silent that one could hear the drop of a pin; everyone in the drama team was focused on the students participating in the audition. For about thirty minutes the audition seemed like a mess, some people couldn’t memorize their lines properly and the rest didn’t show enough emotion.

Arlene rolled her each time the judges screamed next, because to her they were wasting their time, even though she wasn’t much of an actor she could tell a good one if sees them.

“Wither not my princess for I have been sent to redeem you from your misery………” The person on the stage said and this caught Arlene’s attention.

Everything about this person fascinated her, his voice was firm while speaking, he didn’t stutter at all, he got his lines perfectly and he gave them a show. Arlene wasn’t the only one thinking that way because the judges didn’t even know when they started clapping, and then everyone in the audience joined. He was just too perfect for the lead role, ranging from the sonority of his voice to his physique.

“Who’s that?”Arlene asked Derek.

“Are you really asking this? I mean are you even in this department?” Derek asked narrowing his eye.

“Derek always with the drama” Arlene said under her breathe.

“I heard that,” Derek said immediately.

“Well that’s Cody Yan; he is a very popular art student. He is in year 3, he is also known for his prowess in drama, that performance right there isn’t what you’d see every day except it’s from Cody Yan”

“I forgot to mention he is Afro-Asian”

“That explains his eye and facial look. He reminds of Nigeria’s Afro-Asia model, Han Hyun Min,” Arlene said.

Derek didn’t stop at telling her who he was, he went on and on to explain a lot about Cody and even went as far as comparing the both of them.

According to him, people called him junior Cody because they were alike, smart, handsome, wealthy family, e.t.c.

But then something distinguished them, and that was the fact that Cody hated history, he believed a lot of them were factual and he said it was a waste of time learning things that were probably made up by ancestors with shallow minds.

Ouch! Arlene exclaimed because it was too much. In as much as she wasn’t fully African, she believed that culture slander should never be approved. Even the Asians had their culture, and they practiced most of it till date, it was actually we Africans that allowed our culture fade because of colonization.

After a while Arlene got tired of Derek, he had been talking for a while and she regretted ever asking him a question. When she couldn’t stand it, she excused herself and left to the rest room.

She picked her steps up the stairs because she could barely see, and Derek wasn’t there to help. It took her a while to get to the door because she walked like a blind bat and an owl trying to fly in the day. After she left the auditorium, she walked straight to the rest room in the theatre. She heaved a sigh of relief when she got to the restroom, boy was she tired of Derek’s chattering, she really needed a break.

She quickly checked her phone for notifications and there was none, so she slid her phone into her side pocket.

Arlene washed her face immediately, and then walked to the end of the restroom hoping to find a corner like that of the rest room in the class building. Luckily for her, there was a corner and a chair, so she sighed then pulled out her book to write.

She sat down on the chair and continued writing from where she stopped before Derek interrupted her. She wrote for a while enjoying the calm serene environment, away from Derek and the rest of the students.

Arlene put a full stop in her last sentence when she heard one of the toilets flush, she became alert immediately because when she walked in she checked all the toilets and they were empty.

“Who’s there?” She asked while she closed her book and placed it inside her bag.

When she got no answer, she stood up and peeked a little from the corner. At first she saw no one but then when she turned to get her back which she left on the seat, she heard the front door open. She quickly looked again and this time she caught a glimpse of the back of a person. It was a girl but then she looked strange and tattered, she wore a torn cloak which isn’t something you would see on a normal day, except it was because they were having an audition.

She grabbed her bag immediately and went after the girl. She wanted to know who she was and how possible it was for her to get into the restroom quietly.

The girl walked straight without turning back, she ignored all Arlene’s call and walked into another room. Arlene followed her inside the room without taking note of the place she was going into. When she got inside, she walked into a different world.

The air in there was humidly thick, and the darkness was worse than that at the auditorium. Arlene couldn’t see a thing because she suffered from night blindness (nyctalopia), and there was no one to help. She reached for her pocket and grabbed her phone, and then she turned on the torch light. As soon as the light came on, she realized she was in a cave, she was a bit scared but when she caught the sight of the cloak she had seen earlier on, she walked further. She kept calling out to the strange girl but she never answered, when she got close enough to pull the girl’s clothe, someone tapped her from behind and she heard a familiar voice.

“Ms. Goodman, do you mind telling me what you are doing in the boy’s dresser?” the person asked and she turned around to see the drama lecturer, Mrs Ekoro.

She looked around to discover she was really in the boy’s dresser, and Mrs. Ekoro seemed to be happy she crossed paths with her again. The first time they crossed paths was about a month ago, when she was first transferred to their school. They were having tryouts and Arlene followed the multitude of students to the auditorium, she voiced out her mind because the play was wack. Mrs. Ekoro picked an offense immediately and gave her 10 minutes to come up with a better storyline, or she would ban her from attending drama classes. To her greatest surprise, Arlene came up with a modified and better version of her drama. Even after that, she scolded Arlene and caused a very big scene, which left poor Arlene confused. That was the first day she realized college in Africa was different from the one in Southingham, in Africa, honestly voicing out your opinion could land you in a mess. She was asked to leave the front seat and move to the back row where she wouldn’t see her, and she also made sure Arlene never sat in the front row in her class.

“You better start explaining yourself. Well, Good thing you know how to write because it’d come in handy while signing your suspension letter,” Mrs. Ekoro added.

Arlene swallowed hard, while thinking of what to say, this woman right here was either picking on her because she beat her when she least expected or she was simply a racist. She had heard other rumours about Mrs. Ekoro requesting her story to be scraped off from the magazine because she wasn’t African enough.

“I left my book in the auditorium, so I asked her to get it for me,” a familiar voice said from behind Mrs.Ekoro, and she turned back to see her star student, Cody Yan.

Something was fishy about what Cody said,and Mrs. Ekoro didn’t seem like she was buying the story. She asked Arlene to show her the book, and luckily for her she had an empty note with her, so she got them out with shaky hands. Mrs. Ekoro flipped through the book, and when she found nothing in it, she pressed further on the issue. She asked Cody if it was really his, because it was purple and had butterflies all over. Cody said he loved butterflies and he got the new book because of his lead role, he had a lot to study and memorise. Well that did the trick.

“I want you to know that I don’t totally buy this story, but I’m letting you out on this one because of Cody. He is one person who appreciates my work around here,” she said and left with Cody who walked her outside.

Arlene heaved a sigh of relief; she stood for a minute to catch her breath, because she had had enough drama for the day. While Cody was still outside with Mrs.Ekoro, Arlene saw a piece of black clothe at a corner of the room, she walked closely to examine it. Then she remembered pulling the girl’s cloak in the cave, this proved she wasn’t seeing things, the girl was there before Mrs. Ekoro appeared, she imagined what would have happened if Mrs. Ekoro didn’t show up.

“You are still here?” she heard Cody say from behind, and she quickly put the piece of clothing inside her bag.

“Ye.. yes,” she stuttered.

“The new white girl from Southingham,” he said immediately, extending his hands for a shake.

Arlene reluctantly returned the hand shake, in order not to seem rude; after all she owed him one. Cody introduced himself properly to her and said a couple of stuffs to her, which she wasn’t really paying attention because her mind drifted to the girl on the black cloak and the fact she was in a total different world a while ago. Everything felt surreal but she knew she wasn’t dreaming, and the piece of clothing in her bag was proof.

“So, what about you? I have heard a lot about your works and how you beat Mrs. Ekoro,” she heard Cody say.

That was the only thing she heard when she zoned in, so she didn’t know what exactly he was asking about. She looked at Cody who had his eyes fixed on her, waiting on her reply. She was silent for a while and the only thing she could make out of this was the fact that Cody really looked like the Nigerian Asian model.

“Sorry if I’m prying, I know we are just meeting for the first but then I get really fascinated when I meet writers like me,” he said.

Arlene was going to ask him if he was a writer because she was shocked he said he was, but then she remembered she had zoned out earlier on and he’d have probably said something about that.

“What type of writing do you do?” he asked further.

“Oh, fiction, solely fiction but then I can never turn down a no-fiction gig”

“You are truly a writer,” he said when he heard she extends her hands into non-fiction anytime an opportunity opens.

They talked more on the things they had in common, and Arlene was impressed with Cody, his humour matched with hers and her preferences too. As a writer she was inspired by nature and calm environments and so was Cody, he loved going into the woods or anywhere that had nature written all over it. His ears were so sensitive that he’d notice the lowest sound, because he drew his inspiration from these little and overlooked things.

They were cut short in their conversation when they heard the voices of guys from the drama team as they approached their dresser. Arlene stopped the conversation to leave, even though he assured her nothing would happen, but she didn’t want to hear stories or rather gossips about her. The room was by the left of the T-junction the hallway made, so she left and hid in a dark corner which was close by before they made a left turn. She watched them from the corner, till they all disappeared into the dresser and shut the door.

Once the door to the dresser was shut, she quickly rushed towards the auditorium and at the corner of the T- junction before the main path of the hallway, she collided into someone. She fell to the floor holding her head while the person stood holding their chest. When she looked up she saw Derek, and she sighed then he helped her up.

“Where have you been?” he asked her still holding his chest in pain while she rubbed her sore head.

“I told you I was going to the bathroom” she said.

“You’ve been gone for two hours Arlene, who stays in the bathroom for two hours; you are not even in labour,”

“And last time I checked, the female bathroom and dresser is on the right, but somehow we are standing on the left,” he added.

“Huh? So you are saying I’m lying?” She asked Derek with crossed arms and a serious face.

Even though she was lying she wasn’t going to lose this one to Derek, because what was his business with her being in the boys side? She could do whatever she wanted and he shouldn’t have any say in her life.

“I know what you are thinking Arlene, I’m not trying to control your life, but you should have given me a heads up since you knew you wouldn’t come back immediately,” He said and left Arlene all alone,in the middle of the hallway.