Chasing Annabelle

Chapter 2: Leaving Footprints-1

Chapter 2: Leaving Footprints

IT WAS THE BEGINNING of a new session for the computer science students, a matrix of a little over a thousand students, of which Honor, Somtoo, Annabelle, Tunmise Badero (aka Skillz) and others were part of. They were the most populous of all the departments in the physical science faculty and so were invariably the social capital of the science village, producing most of the faculty presidents and such influential icons like Honor, whose reach were far beyond the department alone.

The generator was big and rusty. It powered the third year class for such times as this when power was out, and so it helped, especially by working the high ceiling fans that in turn helped with the tropical heat in rainy seasons, but it was also getting old, and so it made this annoying knocking sound and quaking that forced lecturers to often use microphones to amplify their voices, and students to almost shout just to communicate. It set off an irritable atmosphere most of the time, but it worked still – so it was not to be replaced yet.

Excited for the new semester, boys and girls dressed in their bests and sat in series of small round cliques distributed in no order, some on top of the desk, others properly seated and the rest standing and perambulating. Some were loud, while others spoke in whispers, discussing a whole bunch of nothing. Hugs were being exchanged, and David could be seen at the first row with a girl named Nenye, whom he was apparently teasing, opening arms to enclose. He wore a big grin, a big pendant, new clothes, which forced Somtoo to look around and observe that most people appeared this new semester with a new wardrobe. This made him wish he was a snail, to be able to retreat into his shell, hiding from the shame of being in a hideous old T-shirt that he had worn even on his first week in the university. It was washed out and did not flatter him, but it was not his fault. Honor had made him wear it; even after he, Honor, had implied that the shirt was hideous and old and belonged to the trash.

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