CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: Jollof rice cake

                                    

                                          
The next day on the morning assembly. Mrs Khadija officially announced what happened yesterday with Zakariya and Mr Joseph to the whole school. 
                          
The matter had already been taken to the disciplinary committee. They were still trying to decide what to do about it. 
                          
Neither Zakariya nor Maimuna came to school today. The anticipation about what was going to happen next was the only thing anybody could talk about. 
                          
On Friday, Zakariya and Maimuna finally came back to school. They were both called to the stage during the assembly. 
                          
Mrs Khadija then announced that Mr Joseph had been arrested by the police. Zakariya and Maimuna's family apparently filed a case against the school. They wanted to ban the use of canes on the students. 
                          
Immediately she announced the news about the canes the school started celebrating. All the teachers tried to calm us down. 
                          
She then said that Zakariya had been issued a strike from the school. If he got his second strike he would be facing suspension. His third strike would mean expulsion for him. 
                          
As for Maimuna, all she got was community service around the school. No doubt their family had a hand in their lenient punishments. 
                          
I didn't need anybody to tell me that fighting a teacher on school premises was a grievous offence but thank God for money and powerful connections. 
                          
By the end of the week, nobody seemed to be bothered that Mr Joseph was supposedly still in police custody. Zakariya had already become even more popular for being the boy that ended the reign of Mr Joseph and his canes. 
                          
Meanwhile just as our third term exams were drawing closer so was my birthday. I had one more week before I officially turned 16. 
                          
I had already planned to watch a movie with Kolade since it was the only day that I was sure that I'd be allowed to go out. I was even lucky that it also happened to fall in our midterm break. 
                          
I was sure to expect rice on my birthday. My mom had stopped making Jollof rice cake for us when Nenye and CJ started complaining about it. 
                          
I actually had no memories of how the Jollof rice cake looked like. I used to think that it was Jollof rice that had been mashed and moulded into a cake. 
                          
You should have seen the look Nenye gave me when I described it. Jollof rice cake turns out to be just normal Jollof rice cake that mom served in a very wide plate so that it looked like a mountain. 
                          
The icing on this kind of cake would be different pieces of chicken placed around, inside and even on top of the rice. You can imagine how it would look like. 
                          
I almost wished Mom would make a cake like that for me this year. Almost. 
                          
***** 
                          
The next Friday was Open day. Our school had started this thing recently where they made Open days look like a SWOT analysis. 
                          
The Open day started with the parents reviewing their child's Strengths, that is the subjects that they were most excelling at. 
                          
Then next would be their weaknesses, that is the subjects that they were failing or at risk of failing. 
                          
Most students hated this point because Nigerian parents had a tendency to openly scold their children no matter where they were. 
                          
This was the main reason why the school's security personnel were always around the hall to stop the outbursts. 
                          
One time this particular woman got so angry at her son that she removed her slippers to start beating the child. It took two security men to restrain the woman.