Finally the moment I had been dreading had arrived. The only thing separating me from an imminent mental breakdown being the metal door standing in front of me. I faintly heard the song Egedege by Larry Gaaga playing from the other side which meant there wasn't any teacher in the class.
I had hoped there would be a teacher to at least stop my classmates from saying anything to me. I finally mustered the courage and pushed open the door. The song paused playing as the door opened and most people turned their attention to me.
They all stared at me as if I was an alien that just landed on the planet. I tried my best to avoid eye contact with any of them as I took two reluctant steps forward. I was still looking around when I saw Angelica's mouth start moving.
"Class complement!" She said surprising me and I turned around to see the Mathematics teacher staring at me, the classes greeting blurring behind me.
"Good morning sir," I greeted hastily. He nodded in reply instructing me to take my seat. I rushed to my seat receiving a questioning look from Alesscia.
I sat down for the first time grateful to be having Maths class. I had initially thought that the Maths teacher's inability to be absent from a single class was a curse until today.
I stared at the board as he wrote down the topic Calculus intentionally ignoring a few stares and glares being thrown my direction.
The class lasted for almost two hours encroaching into the next teacher's period. By the time the Maths teacher left, the Civic teacher came in not giving my classmates a chance to say anything.
I noticed that a lot of people were already exhausted after the long Maths class and wouldn't have even said anything to me if the Civic teacher hadn't come in. I kept monitoring my time until it was break and I left the class with the last teacher not wanting to give my classmates any chance whatsoever.
After asking for directions, I finally got to the Guidance counselor's office. The room was creepily less lit than the rest of the rooms in the building. I found the guidance counselor seated in a leather cushioned single chair. I greeted the chubby short dark woman. She responded to my greeting with an exaggerated amount of kindness which made me feel highly uncomfortable.
"Take a seat," she said gesturing to the rows of steel chairs opposite her table. I sat down not feeling very comfortable with this whole arrangement.
"We can begin. Your name is?"
"Alya Chizitaram," I replied.
She looked at me as if she was expecting me to continue speaking. "Is that all?" She asked after a while.
"Francesa is my first name but I'm hardly addressed by that," I said.
"What's your last name?" She asked.
"Chizitaram."
"I mean your surname," she said.
"My surname is Chizitaram!" I stated again.
"No, it can't be!" She said earning a glare from me. So she was the one to tell me my own surname?
"I mean... Chizitaram is not a surname. It is more like a second name. You are sure it is your surname?"
"Yes I am."
"What's your father's name?" She asked probably still refusing to accept my surname.
"West," I said finally deciding to give in to her nonsense.
"So you are Alya West?" She asked.
"Can we stop talking about what my name is now? You either call me Alya or Francesa. Do not address me as West!"
She seemed surprised by the way I spoke but I didn't give a fuck.
"Okay, I will call you Chizitaram. Is that okay with you?"
"You can call me whatever you want as far as it isn't West."
She nodded noting down something.
"So Chizitaram, I'm sure you are wondering why you are here..."
"Get to the point already," I muttered causing her to stare at me.
"As I was saying, the reason for this sudden visit is because it was brought to the school's attention that you don't exactly have the best relationship with your roommates. Of course that is normal and shouldn't be a reason for us to just summon you but then it has gotten to a very big issue now," she said.
"I don't grab ma'am, can you be a little more specific?"
"Okay, let me just put it to you in a simple question, have you ever done anything that could cause harm to Chiamaka Ugonabo?"
Where on earth was this coming from? Don't tell me Chiamaka did something yet again.
"No, I haven't... At least not yet," I said knowing I shouldn't have added the last part judging from the look Miss Guidance counselor cast me.
"So you plan to cause her harm?"
"No, I don't. Where is this all coming from?"
"We were informed that Chiamaka Ugonabo tried to commit suicide..." she started saying but I interrupted her.
"So because a deranged idiot tried to end her sorry excuse of a life, I was summoned? How on earth does this have any fucking thing to do with me?" I asked.
She tapped her pen lightly on a small notepad she had been holding since I arrived.
"It does have a lot to do with you. When I tried questioning Chiamaka about why she would want to commit suicide, she said that a classmate of hers was threatening her and making her do a lot of things she didn't want to do. The said person has been manipulating her and has also threatened her several times and even went as far as to invade her personal space to collect information to blackmail her. She apparently couldn't bare all these things and was forced to end everything. According to her, if she didn't end her life, the person would eventually do it for her. And the person behind all this commotion is..."
"Lemme guess, Alya Chizitaram?" I asked already feeling my anger swelling.
"Your guess is accurate. According to her, you are the number one reason she had to end her life. That's why I requested to see you. I spoke with your hostel mistress Mrs. Okoye to know how you and Chiamaka's relationship was and to confirm if Chiamaka had been saying the truth or not.
"Mrs. Okoye said that you didn't have the best relationship with your roommates and you were very insistent on changing your room. She also said that you had a specific problem with Chiamaka. When I told her everything Chiamaka had said and asked if she thought you would be able to do such a thing she said..."
"Lemme guess again, she said yes?" I asked interrupting her once again.
"You're right again, she said yes."
I sighed. What had I gotten myself into?
"According to her, from your recent behavior, there wasn't a single doubt she had that you could be capable of doing such. Even your second hostel mistress, Mrs. Ejimbe, had confirmed that your behavior of recent was really strange. Mrs. Okoye even stated that you might be consuming drugs."
"WHAT?!" I yelled absolutely annoyed. That I didn't do as she asked me to gave her no stupid right to slander my name like she was doing.
"Please keep your voice down, we are the only ones in this room and the statement was hers, not mine. Besides, while you were home for the past few days, a search was conducted and a bottle of fairly used Percocets was found among your things..."
"That you found Perco... Whatever it's called in my belongings doesn't mean I'm the one using them. I didn't even know that there was a drug by that name!" I stated angrily.
"Chizitaram relax! I said the exact same thing because the drug could belong to anyone and they could have easily put it among your things. Besides, if you actually consumed the drugs, there was a high possibility that you wouldn't have left it behind."
Her statement calmed me down a bit.
"I called you specifically to gather my own opinion about you and hear your own side of the story. I have been observing your behavior from the moment you stepped into this room and I have come to the conclusion that Ugonabo just might be saying the truth after all," she paused briefly before continuing.
"From the moment you entered here, I noticed your extreme impatience and the way you spoke without much regard. How you sounded rude without even meaning to and I also noticed from your small episode of insisting that your surname was Chizitaram that you probably don't have the best relationship with your family, most especially your father..."
"That doesn't prove anything..."
"Don't interrupt me again Chizitaram, I think I have had quite enough of that today," she said sternly.
"As I said before, your impatience was made manifest in several ways. And then when I finally gave you a chance to defend yourself by a simple question that required a yes or no answer, you gave a rather incriminating answer. I asked if you had ever caused any harm to Ugonabo and you said you hadn't caused any harm yet meaning that you actually intend to cause her harm. That only proves that Ugonabo was not lying!" She stated with confidence.
Confidence that only made me shake my head at how foolish she truly was.
"I don't know if the school will take any actions yet and I don't know what actions they'll take but for now I want you to tell me a reason you would have to threaten your classmate?"
"I did not threaten anyone, I definitely did not harm anyone and I sure as hell did absolutely nothing to Chiamaka which is probably a huge mistake on my part..."
"You're still passing threats even after everything?" She asked interrupting me.
"Threats or no threats, just know that I did absolutely nothing, not a single thing to Chiamaka Ugonabo..."
"You can't exactly prove that. Besides I am trying to help you. I'm not against you, I am just..."
"Save your sermon please. You don't believe that I had nothing to do with Chiamaka's attempt to commit suicide, that's good for you but I am not going to hear you fucking preach to me about some shit I am not even guilty of. I think I'll have my leave now. Have a good day," I said and left her office without her making a single attempt to stop me from leaving.