Who was the Merman?

After mom and I had our breakfast, I quickly rushed to Cynthia's house so we could go to school together. I really enjoy going to school and coming home with her, especially when we are coming home and she is often tired and tends to rest on my shoulders. Hmm, what a sweet feeling! Aha! I remember that I've told Cynthia not to tell Herm that I'm participating in the competition; in fact, she must not let Herm know anything about the swimming competition, as I told her, though I did not truly give her the reason why. I just told her that my mom does not like me indulging in anything that is not study-related in school.

"But mom already knows that our school always hosts a swimming competition called the Merman." But she does not know that we are about to start the competition.

Cynthia said

"But she is not aware of its commencement, right?"

"Yeah" 

"Well, let it be that way."

So we discussed the day before in the cab on our way home.

When we got to school, it was like moving into another world; my story was still on the lips of the students. Chinwe and Charity were already at school when we got there; there will be no assembly session today; it will just be practice and more practice. Well, today it was going to be the red house that would start with their screening first before others since they were the last the day before. I told the Super Cee that I would like to see the defending merman swim. As you all already know, Kunle Adewale was the defender of the school; he had comfortably acquired the title of the Merman for the last three years without any challenger good enough to dethrone him.

Well, when we went to the poolside, we saw him already in his swimming suit, which was different from the ones provided by the school; it was obvious he got that from home. His friends all surrounded him, discussing and laughing, but once they saw me, they stopped laughing as one pointed at me, and they all moved towards my direction and started muttering something I know not—well, I don't know because I really don't want to know. I think I'm satisfied with only having Bright and his crew as my antagonists in this school; I wouldn't want an additional one.

"Look at them; they are scared already." "An inferiority complex has caught up with the Merman himself."

Chinwe sang as we all laughed. But, in fact, I felt like I was the one who was scared and feeling inferior at the moment. Looking at Kunle, you will know that he was built for the water, but what about me? I'm just a cute dude who just had his first swim the day before. Now I found myself thinking the thoughts of "what if".   Yeah!   What if I forget how to swim again? Yeah, it's possible; I probably did not swim during our last training; all I did was flap my legs with my hands straight forward like Superman during his flight scenes. What if that worked for me out of pure luck? What if I lose to Bright? There are so many "what ifs" in my head that I just don't know which to attend to first.

Well, after the students of the red house were done with their swimming, just as expected by the whole class, Kunle won again with a great pace against his competitors. When he got out of the water, he came to me directly even before going to his friends, and he said:

"You are next, and you know you can't beat that new kid."

So he said and laughed as he left my side with water dripping from his body.

"Arrogant Yoruba boy."

Chinwe said.

"Hey!   You better stop; what did Yoruba do to you now? "You are fond of generalizing Yorubas with many things, and I don't like it; please don't do it when I'm with you."

Charity burst out with an attack against Chinwe for connecting Yoruba to the arrogance of Kunle. Charity was a Yoruba girl who would never sit and watch anyone say anything against the Yoruba culture. They called her the Yoruba activist.

Well, after the swimming, several houses swam, but we were not interested in any of theirs, so we decided to stroll around as we waited for our turn. Since we started first the day before, we will be the last to practice today. So I felt pressed, and I excused the Super Cee to go ease myself. Well, as I got there, it felt like déjà vu, but this one is not really a déjà vu; it's real. I met Sank and Ojo around the bathroom side, almost like they were waiting for me, but I looked around in search of Bright Cut and couldn't find him there; he was not with his clique today. When I saw them, I tried to ignore them by pretending I did not see them, but my attention was rudely called by Sani, the houseboy.

"Common, will you bring your dirty demon self to this place?" You think pretending like you did not see us will save you today? "Look at him, stupid idiot." "After we deal with you today, you will not have the hands to swim today." 

So he said.

"Hahahaha!" "Your own has finished today."

Ajo added.

"Please, I don't want trouble."

This was what I said as the scenario made me flash back to the last incident in Anambra, where I found those boys all broken and terrified of me.

Now the two boys walked up to me and asked me to kneel down, which I refused.

"I said kneel down." "Are you mad?" "You think we are playing with you?"

Sani shouted at me, trying to instill fear in me, but hell no, I refused to be intimidated. Where I got my courage from is something I cannot explain, but all I know is that I refused to be intimidated. When Sani and Ojo noticed that I was still standing my ground, they decided to strike me with a blow to the belly to show me that they meant business, but as Sani delivered the blow towards my belly, something happened to me. I felt this possession, like there was another personality in me, and my confidence and boldness rose to a hundred percent level.