The very beginning

Chapter one

As usual, I woke up that morning to turn on the television set in my room. I walked lazily to the set that was just beside the door and then pressed the power button. It turned on and soon the reporters began to present their news.

It had become a tradition for me to watch news every morning before preparing for school as my father had trained me . News were always boring to listen to for me, but I loved to entertain myself with the latest updates in town and also because I was a Geography student, not only that, I usually presented news during the assembly often as part of the routine of the press club society of which I owe a membership allegiance to.

As I was listening to the news, I took out my jotter to jot down headlines. Most of them were terrific especially those regarding the killings from the herdsmen and the recent kidnappings going on. Some were good and interesting too, like the current earnings of Otedola, the billionaire and the three Ferrari car he bought for his daughters.

Among them was the one that shook me most. The headline stated 'A pastor caught having it with his church member' and also 'A prophet who impregnated a mother and her daughter', these where shocking indeed. I sat down thinking over it, what is our pastors turning into, they are disgracing God and choosing the path of the world. If I had my way, I would go straight to their houses and killed them all. That was my thought though, but seriously it is getting worse by the day. I am a christian and whenever I see such headlines, it makes more sad as it mocks my religion or at least disgraces me.

I got over it and kept my jotter at the top of the shelf in my room. I stood up from the bed and stretched myself to go brush my teeth. I wanted to prepare for school that day although not feeling stable because of the other night. I had been awake all through writing my new novel 'ghetto lord'. I had promised my friends and followers on social media that I would be releasing it the upper week and so I had to work on it. My laptop lay on the bed there where I had dropped it after typing.

I began writing right from when I was 12 and now I am 16. I was actually in grade 11 now. I enjoyed many things due to the kind of money I make from my novels. My titles were really thrilling and the contents was amazing – am not trying to boast about it. I wrote 'my baby twerk for me' last year and it made over ten thousand sales. Amazed at the way it sold, I had to come up with other interesting titles that would shake the market.

When I began writing, I started with fables and articles and the zeal and support from my parents made me more conversant. I wrote my first fable 'the lion's tribe and other stories ' and my father supported me by publishing it both as an e-book and and paperback and it was sold in many book stores. My mother told me that I could be one of those great authors that would change the world someday with my pen and that has motivated me even when I try to give up.

Anyway, I had everything I needed: A laptop, a library, unlimited data connection, love and support and what more can I ask for. My parents were very wealthy and supported me in all my endeavors. This things didn't affect my morals or academic performance either,as I have been a very brilliant student from birth and my parents made sure they provided for me any type of book that I needed even if it meant buying it from online stores outside the country and have it imported.

My mother is a banker and my father a lecturer. They weren't usually at home but I didn't abuse that opportunity to live a useless life. I wanted to be a computer engineer, so I spent most of my time indoors learning from online streaming services especially YouTube and Udemy. I had only one friend who usually visits me at home, as he too wanted to be a computer engineer like me so I shared most of my videos with him and we practiced together since he couldn't afford money for the tutorials and I was happy to help, always will.

“Joshua, what is keeping you inside. You are supposed to be out here. Your father will soon leave for work and you haven't prepared yet”, it was mom.

“Mum, I would soon be out. Just taking down a few headlines from the television”, I said as I stepped out of the room and wore my flip-flops to move to the bathroom.

I removed my cloth and tied my towels firmly to my waist and then straight to the bathroom before my dad took over. I knew that once my dad takes over, he will surely not take me to school because he waits for no one, not even my mom meaning that I will take a cab or wait for my mom who normally delays me. If there was one thing I hated in my life, it was attending school or other occasion lately.

After I took my shower, I went straight to my room and brought out my uniform. It was a blue trouser and a white top striped with a little blue on the collar. I can assure you it's not be best uniform around town, but it is very beautiful compared to other schools in my locality.

When I was set for school, I came to the parlor and sat down waiting for my father to get set. I took out my biology note and then I began to summarize the notes as I glanced through it. My mom too got ready as she came to the parlor sorting out her files.

It was around 7:30 am in the morning when my father showed up with his files and briefcase and I followed suit returning my notebook back inside my School bag.

“Josh, Are you ready”, he said calling me by my nickname which my classmates usually called me.

“yeah dad. I am set”, I said and he opened the door and we left. I bade my mom goodbye as she was applying her make-ups and she reciprocated.

When we got to the car, my father gave me some money for snacks. He started the engine of the car and we zoomed off. On the way , I saw two girls fighting, the sight was unusual as only girls in my classroom usually fight over one boy or the other. As for me, six different girls had fought because of me but I had declined their offer of being my girlfriends. For me, having girlfriends would heavily affect your seriousness in academics and studies, and also knowing how naughty our classmates can be gave me a well-grounded reason. To be more premise with my point – I don't want to impregnate any girl and become a father at a tender age and maybe ruin my future.

My school was not so far from my home, about 800 meters away. When I reached school that day, I knew that they would be another gossip as usual. I got down and bade my father goodbye as he drove off.

The previos night still had an impact on me, as I walked sluggishly and weakly, maybe that is the reason I rarely have time for people

“Josh, how far”, Kingsley my friend said as soon as he saw me entering the classroom.

“Hey bro. Am cool”, I answered as we exchanged handshake.

The Morning assembly hasn't commenced yet as it usually commenced around 7:45 in the morning. I used the few minutes left to discuss with my friend Kingsley.

We discussed some bugs that had occurred in the chat system we were coding. I told him of a better way of securing the log-in form so users don't have have to insert malicious data into the database causing it to crash and he showed me a sketch of the message page which I loved.

Kingsley was learning really fast and I was very happy to be his partner. Six moths into learning the PHP programming language, I had created a website for storing digital files and he had created a forum for quote lovers.

I planned on launching both of them since he didn't have money for maintenance and hosting and because he was my good friend. Though, I was way better than him when it comes to code since I spend more time learning and I am more advanced.

“glam!!glam!!glam”, that was the school bell and we walked to the assembly ground. Some of us went to catch the latecomers and punish them. It was the third term and the final year students were already preparing for their WAEC examination so we were now in charge of the whole school and the authority was bestowed on us.

I wasn't interested in the post at all because I believe that it was a waste of time standing by the gate to get students who were late for school. What I do majorly is to advise the students to be careful with the way they live their life and also to control them whenever their teachers were not around which I did rarely.

During the assembly, we started with praise and worship. After that, I stepped up and read the headlines for that day and then I also told them the scene I witnessed while I was coming to school. The students enjoyed my speech whenever I step up while others might expect boos. My school was a free one or should I say open source meaning you can contribute to the activities of the school without being penalized or questioned making way for many innovations in the school.

My school is meant for high classroom individuals and prominent men in the school and we were more exposed than others in the average standard school. By the way, the name of the school is Ivory International School in Abuja.

After my speech, a sound applause was carried out to ovate me. I never allowed those claps to deceive me, I know I could do more. After me, came the senior prefect came forward and laid announcements. It was the end of the week, Friday. When she was done, my principal showed up

“Well done students. You have been coming to school early this days except for those potential latecomers. After all, you know that in every 12 a Judas is present. Anyway, I am here to inform you of a competition coming up next month for the senior secondary section. I got the information this morning so I decided to disclose it to you so that you can begin your preparations early. It is a mathematics competition and I want you to get prepared. I will give you the in depth information later in your classes, but for now get it that I want you to be prepared. Thank you”, said the principal and he left.

We were given instruction to match to the classroom as we matched. I knew immediately that I would be representing the school and that was another added responsibility. I already have 'ghetto lord' to complete that weekend, our chat system to host that month too and my intermediate classroom exam on PHP programming. I passed the beginners and the intermediate I couldn't wait for.

When we got to the classroom, as usual, the normal classroom gossip before the teacher enters.

“Guy, you see that news. Otedola bought Ferrari for his daughters”,divine started. We normally called her elaborate lips due to the way her lips were – pink and skinny making it heavy.

“Yes oh!!, I saw it. Tell these girls oh, it's Otedola that bought the Ferrari for her daughters not their boyfriends ”, Richard, one of those girls that liked rapping in classroom.

“lol, so if you break the record and buy a Ferrari for your babe, you will die ba”, Henry said to Richard.

It made me laugh but I didn't show it at all before I will attract unexpected visitors. I brought out my 'code diary',to fix the designs. Kingsley soon came and we continued our conversations.

“Kins, so are you done with the styling. Cause I want to handle only the file uploads and data structures in database myself.”

“yeah!! done that already. I will visit you today after school since my parents traveled. I will come with my laptop to send you the files”

“That would be cool. I have already finished with the image handling, I would do the video and audio handling today. I seriously want to launch it this month”

“don't worry. You've got me, whenever you need me to do anything, just tell me”

“No P bro.. what of the pop-ups with JavaScript, have you done it or should I do it. ”

“I think you will do it. They won't be much, just the normal alert box for incorrect passwords or invalid user..”

“class compliment”, our classroom prefect shouted to bring us back to other.

“invalid username”, I completed as Kingsley went back to his chair.

It was our mathematics teacher. He brought up the matter of competition again and told us that we would be having a test to qualify the best candidates. I wouldn't have thought of it but the teacher said that the winner will take him a huge sum of a million naira. It amazed me and I decided to put in my best.

Not as if if my parents couldn't afford to give me the money but I felt that winning it would give me more respect and I would gain more fame adding to the fame I had already. I would be a youngster.

The lecture was not boring at all, we were thought 'trigonometry' , a more advanced classroom though. I couldn't wait to see Kingsley again so we could finish our discussion.

When the teacher left, Vivian came to my seat and whispered into my ears.

“Amajos, can we see later?”, she left after making that utterance.

Amajos is actually my name on Facebook and Instagram, but only at those social media I used those names. I curled it from my names Amaobi' and 'Joshua', you understand now right.

I didn't understand what she meant but I didn't let that bother me after all, I already had things going on in my mind. During the break period, Kingsley went downstairs to buy sausage roll,my favorite snack for lunch.

Vivian used that opportunity to come to me but I simply ignored her, I just told her to say what she wanted to say.

“I think you are not in the mood for it right now, I will chat you up later. Hope you will be online?”

“No. say what you want to say now”, I lied. Actually, I never miss going online daily especially to see what people are commenting on my updates and timeline and also to reply messages from my followers but I don't stay that long there, probably one hour is okay.

“Okay, I will send it as a message later in the day”,she tried to get to me through another way.

“My phone would be switched off then. I don't want disturbance today. I would really be busy”

“Amajos, don't be that harsh. Just a message”,she persuaded me as I reluctantly accepted.

Just then, Kingsley returned and looked at me. I knew what he meant by that look. I had never talked to Vivian before, just normal greetings.

“Its nothing. Give me my sausage roll please”, I smoothly convinced him and took my sausage roll.

Vivian was notorious as a relationship breaker in my classroom. She never starts a relationship but comes into it and destroy it. She was so attractive that no boy could desist her in classroom, well except me, Kingsley and a deeper life church member, Gideon. Her front were full and her back, you should figure that out yourself. She was also beautiful and intelligent.

Not only did she relate well with guys in my classroom in my classroom but the teachers also and I suspect that she would have been banged a lot of times. You will know what that means soon.

I continued to discuss to Kingsley how I wanted to the site to look like and he gave his own suggestions and together we made a sketch of how it would look, it was a nice template.

After the break period, the footballers among us came back sweating and you know what I mean by real sweating. Their body were covered in sweat, as if they had went for swimming, the sweat soaked their clothes which they had already changed back to their normal uniform. They used to bring sports wear for football and later change back to their uniform.

I have never played with them because I didn't like football at all. I didn't even like watching it whenever my dad sits to watch it. I thought it a waste of time. I love watching adventure films to improve my vocabulary to help me when writing my books.

School closed at 12pm that day because it was Friday and so I went home expecting Kingsley as he had promised.