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I bowed my head after confessing that I had failed and the silence that preceded it was killing.

After minutes of an engulfing silence, I decided to look at my parents who didn't say anything after what they'd just heard. Not to my surprise, they were staring back at me with their murderous eyes.

I thought of what to say or do at the awkward moment. And all I could think of was nothing. To tone down the tension that was already building in the room, I decided to say something. Anything.

"Mum, dad, i ca—"

"Shut up!" Mum bawled. "You lied to me Ruby. Despite the fact I am your mother who you should tell almost everything to. But instead, you felt I wasn't worth hearing the truth. You think I'm a fool?" She sounded hurt and annoyed.

"Mum, I can ex—"

"Don't you dare!" Mum yelled, her index finger pointing at me, which sent a cold shiver of fear run through me. "Not another word from you!"

"Enough of all this!" Dad said, with his commanding voice. "Where is your result? Bring it to me, I want to see it now." His voice was so commanding that even the head of police could obey to him.

"Dad, the results were only announced to us and not given to us." I said nervously.

"What kind of school is that? We are going to that your school on Monday whether it would take me to skip work for that day. So be it."

About my dad, he was a very caring and gentle man. He hated it when the family was disorientated.

You know, as the bread winner of the home, he made sure to put things in place to make ends meet. He was also a disciplinarian. He didn't entertain ill mannered behaviour from any of us. He was quite a responsible father and I loved him a lot.

———–—

The day played out not so well. Mum treated me like I did not exist in her life. She didn't spare me a glance, not to talk of speaking to me throughout the whole day.

I felt disowned by my mum.

On the other hand, dad welcomed me whenever I wanted to say or ask him anything. Despite the fact he was angry with me, he didn't let it reflect in the treatment he was giving me. Having to be a man and not just any man but a busy one, he couldn't stay the whole day talking to me. He had other important things to do. So i was left to be on my own, just fiddling with my phone.

Thank goodness phones existed in this world because if it didn't, I would have slept throughout the whole day.

It was 7:36pm in the evening when mum called us to come have our dinner. I was reluctant at first but when mum came herself to call me, i went.

I apologized to her and she forgave me quickly.

After we had our dinner, we all dismissed to our various rooms to get ready for the next day, which was Sunday.

Rachel and I were in our room. Rachel was searching the cupboard for the cloth she would wear, while I was with my phone chatting with the head of the choir department to know what went on throughout the rehearsals in church.

The room was very quiet that if a pin dropped, you could hear the resonating sound of it. The silence was deafening. I pondered on why the room was very silent. It was then realisation dawned on me that Rachel and i hadn't talked since today. She wasn't one to keep malice though. I guess she just wanted to give me space to settle my mind, body and soul.

"Rachel, any problem?" I decided to break the silence.

"You mean to say, why haven't i talked to you since today?" She said instead. I felt shy. It was indeed an awkward moment. "Well, isn't it obvious." Rachel said further.

"What?" I asked confused.

"You."

"What about me?" I furrowed my eyebrows. I was more confused this time.

"Nothing."

"Why are you answering me in monosyllable?!" I raised my voice at her. I was getting angry already.

She dropped her cloth that she had picked from the cupboard on her bed and walked to my bed where i was sitting. She folded her arms together and faced me squarely.

"You see, that's the problem. You are still not calm. I didn't talk to you throughout today because of the condition you are in."

"Oh puh-lease, spare me that! Did you know how I felt today? All of you just decided to leave me in my toughest situation where I needed you guys the most, except from dad who cared a bit. Yeah, I can understand mum's own. She was mad at me. She was infuriated. But you, the one person I look upon, no. Yeah, I always looked upon you. I just admitted it to your face if that makes you happy!" I was the one folding my arms together now. I looked away to avoid her gaze.

Okay, I think I was being a bit too overdramatic.

She placed her hands on my shoulder and sat next to me.

"I am sorry." Rachel said in her most calm and caring tone. "Yeah, I am—"

"Shh.." I placed my hand on her lip not to make her repeat what she said. "Not another word from you." I removed my hand from her lips and hugged her immediately. "I am sorry too." I said, before she returned the gesture by hugging me too.

The next day, i woke up feeling quite energetic unlike other Mondays where I felt so enervated. Reason, I didn't know.

I got up from the bed and checked the time on my phone. It was 7:41am. 7:41am! Oh my God! I scurried to the bathroom like a rabbit.

When i was done using the bathroom, I dressed up and rushed downstairs to the living room.

Dad was supposed to take me to school today to make enquiries about my result.

"Dad, I'm ready!" I screamed so he could hear me.

"Ruby?" I turned back to see Rachel treading down the stair case. "What are you still doing here?"

"I am waiting for dad. He's taking me to school."

"Is he still around?" The look on her face made me think that he was not around.

"Ruby, let's be going. We are running late already." Dad voice boomed as he descended the staircase slowly with mum.

"Bye Rachel." I waved at her as I left.

"Bye."

————

We finally arrived at the school after two hours of driving. Dad had to take mum to work first, before we went to my school.

Getting to the gate, I felt a bit nostalgic. I didn't know why. Not like I had left the school totally, maybe it was because I was in mufti. I never for once wore mufti to Benson college. This was my first time.

We got into the building and it was very quiet. All the students were in their classes probably having lessons. It was only my dad and I that were outside.

"So who do we go to see now?" Dad asked.

"Let's go and see my class teacher."

"Wouldn't she be having a class?"

"I don't think so."

"You don't think so or you don't even know at all." I rolled my eyes at his statement. "Where is her staff room?"

"It is just up here." I was glad my class teacher's staff room was the closest to us from where we were.

I didn't want a soul to know that I was in the school so I rushed upstairs immediately and entered her staff room. There was no one there except for her. She was sitting on her chair and reading a book.

"Good morning ma." I checked the time immediately to be sure if it was still morning. And yes, it was.

"Ah! Ruby Ruby. How are you?" She closed the book she was reading and focused her attention on me.

"I am fine ma."

"Is this her staff room?" Dad asked, while entering inside.

"Ah! Good morning sir." Mrs. Seun greeted and stood up to shake hands with dad. Mrs Seun was probably in her late 50's.

"Have your seat sir." She gestured for him to sit down with a feigned smile on her face.

Don't ask how I knew it was feigned.

"Thank you very much." Dad said and took his seat.

"So how may I help you sir?"

"Okay, it is concerning my daughter's result. I heard yesterday that she failed and was advised to repeat but there was no evidence to prove it. I mean, she was supposed to be given a dossier, at least, to even show that she wrote the exam in the first place." Dad said, with seriousness laced in his voice.

Mrs Seun looked at me. "Please could you excuse us. Your dad and I need to have a serious conversation concerning your result." She gestured for me to walk out.

I obeyed. I had to. I went outside and released a heavy sigh. The fresh breeze that was blowing hit my skin and it made me less concerned of what dad and Mrs. Seun wanted to discuss.

I decided to relax a bit on the pillar that was beside me before I sighted Blessing and Kelechi coming out of the class with a book in their hands. They were so neat, obviously because it was Monday.

I hid immediately behind the pillar to avoid them seeing me. I thought of waving at them, but I brushed the idea off my head. I kept on hiding till their shadows could not be seen again. I peeped to see if I would see anyone. Luckily, I saw no one. I heaved a sigh of relief and got out of my hiding place.

"Ruby!" Mrs. Seun called me from the staff room. Finally! I didn't bother responding, I just entered.

"Sit down." Mrs. Seun ordered and gestured with her hands. She loved doing that a lot.

I felt a sting of nervousness attack me while seating. I looked at my dad's face which wasn't pleasing a bit. My nervous state rose to peak and it made me feel hot inside. I felt sick already. What could they have talked about that made dad look this grave? My heart was pounding really hard in my chest that if you listened closely, you could hear it beat.

"So myself and your dad had this very..umm..what word would I use now? We had this very serious, let me put it that way, a very serious conversation and it was mainly about you."

I looked at dad in askance but he didn't spare me a glance. He had a firm look which made me feel very uncomfortable. Then I focused my attention back to Mrs. Seun.

"I think I need to stop beating about the bush already. Okay, we couldn't do anything to make you get promoted to ss3. So we came to a quash. Now, the conditions laid before you right now is to either repeat ss2 or go to a tutorial lesson which your dad suggested. So, which do you want to go for?" Mrs. Seun asked.

What!

****

Dun! dun! dun! The big question? What would be Ruby's reply? Read on to find out.

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