Ifeoma, do you know you are a very beautiful girl?” Ifeoma’s face blushed; she smiled and fingered her ears shyly.
“Thank you,” she forced a reply.
“What are you thanking me for?” the man asked, and nudged forward towards her, “You should answer me, and not thank me,” he said with a smile.
Ifeoma had be warned by her parents to always beware of the male folks. Her mother however, did not tell her in details what was expected of her to do when she was faced by an opposite sex in a secluded place or when they make attempt to come close to her unnecessarily. Her mothers word kept ringing deep down in her mind. She was scared of the man, though she was enjoying the soft words from Ikenna. She just listened to him. Ikenna who held in his hand, Mathematics textbook moved closer to her and dropped the textbook on the bench on which they sat. He touched Ifeoma’s hands and held it, feeling the tenderness of her skin. At this point , Ifeoma felt uncomfortable with his domineering presence. She tried to remove her hands from his, but his hands tightened in a firm grip.
“Ifeoma, I am beginning to fall in love with you. What do you think?” Mr. Ikenna said, his eyes rested on her innocent eyes.
“Uncle Ikenna, I am just scared. My mother has always warned me to beware of the male folk, especially bad boys.” she replied shyly.
“I am not a boy, but a man. Am I a bad man?” Ikenna asked with betrayal in his voice.
“No, you don’t look like a bad person. It’s just that I don’t feel comfortable with this. If my parents get to hear of this, I will be in trouble. My father is a very strict and I don’t want to disobey him,” she shyly replied. Ikenna ignored her, and pushed his face forward towards her, feeling her breath. He looked straight into her eyes.
” I love you very much,” Ikenna said, and as he wanted to plant his mouth on hers, she turned her face away. Just then, Ifeoma’s youngest brother Chukwudi ignorantly ran into the place. His presence prevented Ikenna from having his way with the girl. Startled at what he saw, Chukwudi ran off almost immediately towards their mother to report what he had just seen. Ifeoma had been in a corner of the compound, taking her supposed extramural lessons from her teacher, Uncle Ikenna. When Chukwudi returned to the place to monitor her behaviour, as their mother, had instructed him, he saw what shocked him. Ifeoma had moved closer to the man and was in a warm embrace with him. The boy ran to inform her mother of the unfolding drama.
“What!” Her mother jumped from her position and made for where Ifeoma was having the extramural lesson with the man.
“Ifeoma! Ifeoma! Where is that stupid, good for nothing girl?” she said furiously as she re-knotted her wrapper in readiness to confront the man. Just then, Ifeoma slowly walked into the house, like a chicken that had been drenched by rain. Her mother walked up to her and lashed her mercilessly with words.
“Where is that useless man that called himself lesson teacher? where is that dog of a man?” the angry woman squinted, in search of Ikenna, who himself had escaped when he noticed the scene, his action had created. The woman slapped her daughter on the chin when she didn’t see the man.
“Mummy, please let me be,” Ifeoma retorted and fired back, “Why did you slap me on the chin? You didn’t even care to find out if what Chukwudi told you was true. Instead, you acted on his blind accusation.” She looked at her mother scornfully and hissed, infuriating the woman the more. She gave her another slap, this time on the back. The sound was so loud that it attracted by standers. She barked at her daughter, “Ifeoma, you are a very stupid girl. Look at this idiot I carried in my womb for nine months. This little brat of yesterday,” Her eyes popped in their sockets in anger. “I will deal with you mercilessly.” Ifeoma’s voice was loud as she charged back at her mother, “mummy you must kill me today!” She cried as she held onto her mothers wrapper. It took the intervention of their neighbour, Mrs Nwokedi who saw the girl charging at her mother and rushed to separate her from the woman. That evening, when Mr Okonkwo came back from work, his wife narrated what had transpired earlier in the day to him.
“So, Ifeoma wanted to disgrace me, right? I assumed getting lesson teacher for her will help her academically. Now, I know better. As punishment, I shall make the rest of her holidays unbearable.” Mr Okonkwo snapped and sent for Ifeoma immediately.
“What nonsense have I heard about you? You were flirting with the lesson teacher I brought to help you academically?” Ifeoma was quit. She had eyes on the floor, counting the small patches that made up the rug.
“Answer me before I descend on you,” her father thundered.
“daddy, I didn’t do anything with him! He said he liked me, and that was all”
“Oh! I see! He said he liked you and that was all. Her father repeated after her. His mind drifted to where to he had kept his raffia palm cane. “Your mother had already pleaded on your behalf about your waywardness and arrogance, otherwise, I would have taught you the difference between gun and kite,” he threatened further.
” A young man I brought to help you, deviated and was telling you he liked you. What did you do to stop his advances? Did you warn him to stay away from you or what did you do? Of course you didn’t do anything,” the man’s voice grew louder, “You were enjoying his sweet talks and felt very comfortable with his hands on you.”
Ifeoma lowered her head and became speechless. He warned her seriously that he did not want to see her near Ikenna anymore and ordered her out of his presence. He confessed, “imitation” does not usually work. My wife wants to imitate our neighbours by getting a private teacher like them. But she had no time to monitor what was actually going on. Thank God for Chukwudi. Ikenna would have destroyed this little girl. He would have tainted her innocence to our detriment.” As far as he was concerned, Patrick had been fired. He would simply send for the young man, pay him off and warn him to steer clear of his children.
The next morning, just as her father had threatened, Ifeoma was asked to remain indoors all through the remaining days left in the holidays. She was not allowed to watch TV or play games with her siblings.
While at school, Ifeoma tried to read her books in preparation for her Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations, but sometimes she slept off while reading. The examination date drew closer, making everyone that would sit for the exams increase the time and intensity of their studies. Ifeoma had not made any serious effort but was almost nonchalant in her academics. Her friends had since avoided her company. They had very little or nothing to gain academically from her during the examination periods because she was not intelligent. She spent a great deal of her time, loitering and engaging in other activities instead of reading her books. She had resolved to rely on luck during exams. Each time she picked up a book to read, she would simply flip through the pages, taking no time to read in details. She would comfort herself that there was still time and that she would read all her books later. What she did not know was that procrastination is a dangerous habit.
When the Senior School Certificate Examination started, Ifeoma went in with other students to write the first paper. As she was not prepared she managed to attempt only four questions out of seven on the question paper. She wrote her other papers without being sure of the answers. On the fourth day of exam , she resolved to help herself with whatever means she found available in order to pass. The teachers and invigilators had ushered in the students to their seats in the large expensive exam hall. The environment was very serene that the external examiner commended the principal and members of staff for a job well done in training such a well behaved group of students. He had noticed that all the students simply concentrated on their scripts without cheating or indulging in any form of exam malpractice. Ifeoma’s seat was close to the window, as she sat to write Economics. The questions were not strange to her. She had never been so confused like she was in the hall. She never really liked the subject and did not follow very well during classes. She did not make any effort to study it. She resorted to cramming. In the examination hall, she gazed at the question paper as though the answers to them were embedded in them. When she seemed to have exhausted her knowledge in providing answers to some questions, she turned to her friends for help. Judith, who sat close to her, did not pay attention. She simply looked at the other side when Ifeoma threw a folded piece of paper at her to make her look in her direction. Still unperturbed, she tried other means to help herself but to no avail.
Ifeoma was confused about what to do. One hour had already passed, yet she had not written anything meaningful. She just answered objective part of the questions and left the theory part. After about fifteen minutes, the hall was a bit rowdy. Some students had already started submitting their answer scripts while most pages in her answer sheet will still blank. Ifeoma tried everything possible to put down something, but nothing appeared to be coming to her mind. Just then she had an opportunity to peep into her neighbour’s work, attracting the curious squinting eyes of the invigilator. He walked forward and saw the anxiety in her eyes. He asked, “Hey you, there, what is the problem, why are you peeping into your neighbour’s script? Didn’t you read for the exam?” She lied to him that she had read for the exam, but that she was currently experiencing exam tension. The invigilator stared at her for a while and left without cautioning her, an indication that she was free to continue cheating in the hall. Ifeoma began to interact with some students and all she had memorized the previous night came unexpectedly to her mind. She seized the opportunity and wrote as much as she could before her paper was collected from her. She walked up to the invigilator and greeted him, making him pick interest in her. The next paper would be Mathematics, her dreaded subject. According to the exam timetable, it would be the first paper she would write the coming week. She did not want to take chances, so she made up her mind to do anything she could to succeed. All she believed was that she was going to pass the exam, by hook or crook.
During the weekend, she learned a few simple Mathematical techniques and formulas. She couldn’t practise tougher exercises and did not bother approaching her intelligent classmates to help her out. When Monday morning came, the students were arranged in their seats in accordance with their registration numbers. The examination was delayed by some minutes because the female external invigilator read the rules and regulations of the exam to the students and warned them to concentrate on their scripts and avoid trying to get help from one another. She made them understand that she was not going to tolerate any form of exam malpractice in the hall. She took time to enunciate the severe penalties that would befall anyone who would be caught cheating. The person’s result would be seized and he or she would be charged to court for criminal offence. All students had known the point she was trying to make and took precaution in the hall. They didn’t want the dreaded word, ‘cheated’ to appear on their answer sheet as those involved would be made scapegoats.
When the examination kicked off, Ifeoma scanned through the questions and realized that she could only provide few answers to the questions. In that state of anxiety, she remained calm and avoided the invigilator’s roving gaze as much as she could. After about one hour, some students had finished answering the Objective questions and submitted their scripts to the invigilators. They were just marking time, waiting for the invigilator to give them the go ahead order to continue with the Theory questions. The woman noticed that and promptly gave them the permission. However, she advised them to cross check their answers very well before proceeding to the second part.
Ifeoma noticed that a boy sitting close to her was brilliant. She begged him to put down the objective answers for her on a clean sheet of paper. The boy did and skillfully passed it over to her, without the notice of their invigilators. Ifeoma hurriedly transferred the letters onto her answer sheet as fast as she could, after which she destroyed the paper and submitted her script. Relieved that the first part of the exam had been surmounted, she relaxed and waited patiently for the boy to tackle some questions in the second part. Being in that relaxed mood, the invigilator’s attention was drawn towards her. The huge and heavily built woman came to where she was sitting to inspect her work.
“Young woman, are you through with providing answers to the questions in section A?” she asked, as she observed her from her big rimmed spectacles.
“Yes Ma,” Ifeoma, nervously replied and bent her head towards her script, an act to deceive the woman into believing that she had been serious in the exam.
“What are you then waiting for? Continue with the second part and start solving. You don’t have all the time in the world at your disposal,” the woman advised and walked away. When the invigilator’s gaze returned to Ifeoma again, she noticed that the girl was then very nervous. The boy, sitting beside her had already finished answering the questions and was about to give the paper where he had copiously written the answers to some questions for Ifeoma. He became scared when he noticed that the invigilator’s gaze was fixed on their direction and waited, ignoring Ifeoma’s pestering. But when he finally summoned courage and passed the folded sheet of paper to her, the invigilator caught them red-handed. She saw the white paper and raised alarm and immediately disciplined them.
The rest of the examinations were very disappointing to Ifeoma. She barely read for them. While other students were hopeful, Ifeoma was filled with anxiety. She had known she performed badly in the exam, and the thought of disappointing her parents haunted her. ‘If only I had known, I would have been more serious with my studies,’ she lamented.
Four months after the exam, the results were published. What she saw, when she printed out the result online brought tears to her eyes. She covered her face in shame and ran off to a secluded area where she looked at the results more carefully. The only subject she passed with credit was Economics. She failed the rest of the subjects. Her results just had one C, and 7Fs as grade points. When she got home and reluctantly showed the results to her parent, they were very mad at her poor academic performance. Her Mathematics was not released. Her accomplice in the exam, Charles, passed all his papers, except Mathematics, which was also seized. He greatly regretted offering help to Ifeoma in the exam hall. The day he saw her at school, he scornfully looked and did not utter a single word to her.
Ifeoma’s parents did not expect such a woeful failure from their daughter, whom they had spent huge sums of money to train. They knew that their daughter had some academic challenges. Little did they know that she was not as intelligent as they had once believed. Her father did not spare her at all. He scolded her and threatened to give her away to any willing man for marriage if she continued to fail her exams. Her younger sister, Anurika who had sat for the Junior School Certificate Examination about the same tome, had P’s and F’s as grades in her result. However, she was promoted to the next class, since she luckily passed both Mathematics and the English Language.