Filling the Depressions

Image Source: Gemini AI

Open days were very important at my school, Brighter High. On Tuesday, a staff meeting was organised, but it didn’t last long because a loud noise came from the school gate. Brighter High Memorial School is located at the second depression on Papa Road, Yaba, Lagos. This area is full of hills, so much so that once a car climbs one, it needs to gain a substantial amount of momentum for the next. It happened that on this day, the government was trying to fill up these depressions, which meant the school might end up situated below the height of the main road.

Upon seeing the bulldozers and caterpillars, the Managing Director of Brighter High Memorial School could not contain her anger toward the contractors. She said there had been no prior information that these depressions would be filled.

The contractor smiled as this is not new to him...

He saw right through her; however, he told her not to worry since the new road design didn’t fully cancel out the depression. He added that there would be a proper drainage system and a link from the main road to the school.

The MD breathed a sigh of relief.

“Come on, let’s have the meeting online after school hours,” she said. “You can all go back to your classes.” She said and then continued her lengthy conversation with the contractor!

The following day, I put on a holier-than-thou look, trying to create the impression of a good student. I didn’t know that Mr. Fafore, the English teacher, was waiting for me at the interaction table. When he saw me, he smiled. I smiled back. To me, that smile had this shitty way of saying, You’re the criminal. I was told to bring my notebooks which I did. They were quite rough, and my mum had been a bit pissed off about it. After all this back and forth, I was reprimanded and promised to correct myself.

However, after the open day, the MD called the teachers and the headmaster to a short meeting. Mr. Audu faced a lot of insults. He loved to let one particular student copy notes on the board because she had good handwriting. This wasn’t fair to many of us. The MD said he would face a panel. Still, I knew many more teachers were guilty of favouritism, but Mr. Audu was not amongst them.

At home, my mum told my dad about the new development at the second depression where my school is situated—and sure, she didn’t forget to mention the open day palaver. A

Finally, we had a nice dinner and went to bed.

Thanks for reading.