Itohan left the office again, so many thoughts spiraling out of her head. First of, Father Chibuike did have a pet. It wasn't just the pet she thought of. So he didn't have the cat? Was it really a wolf that killed Sister Omo? A real animal wolf and not one shape shifted into?
Then a thought rang in her head. What if the cat had shape shifted into the bird? Father Chibuike did mention something about Ivie being surprised at the bird. Maybe she would have been surprised because she was expecting to see a cat and not a bird.
"Ivie!"
She looked up immediately. She had practiced getting into role so many times while Ivie was still around that she didn't need to be frightened into remembering it was now her name.
Gaga ran to her. "Where have you been?"
"I submitted my letter to Father Chibuike."
"You're done with that? You're fast. You're going to have to give me tips, I can't begin to think up five hundred words."
"You can have mine then." She thrusted it into her hand.
"Cool. What did Father Chibuike say?"
"That it was boring."
"Hffff." Gaga laughed. "You went through all the trouble for him to say that. Tell me, you did not strangle him in there, did you?"
"I'm not surprised, he usually likes to annoy me," Itohan said, borrowing Ivie's favourite line.
"Still. No matter how often he annoyed you, you'd never get enough of it."
Itohan shrugged. "Where are the others?"
"Waiting. We're going to start our punishment by cleaning the West Wing."
"Oh," Itohan groaned.
"Let's go. I'm glad you're not letting Father Chibuike get to you."
She had a plan, of course she wouldn't make such mistake. "I have a question, do you remember what I told you about Father Chibuike's cat?"
Gaga looked around. "Lower your voice."
"Do you?" She asked again in a whispered tone.
Gaga nodded. "It was the day he came, he was carrying this black bag. He walked in front of the students and he stayed in front of us longer. After he left, you asked if I'd seen the cat. Crazy, there was no way he would have had a cat that day and no other person would have seen it. I suspected you had seen something, but when I asked you later you brushed it off."
"Seen something?"
"You know, the thing you do when you touch people." Gaga took a dramatic step back. "Don't touch me! I have tons of secret."
Ivie saw things when she touched people?
"So you suspected I saw something?" Itohan pressed further.
"Yes. But you didn't even touch him, you were carrying my placard. At last, I concluded that it was just hallucinations. After all, you haven't see the cat since then. Why do you ask, don't you remember?"
"I just wanted to be sure of what I remember."
"I know you and Father Chibuike have your differences, but he's nice. Don't dig up dirt against him."
"I'm not trying to."
They joined the others by the West Wing and took their cleaning equipment. Gaga immediately changed the subject. "You'd think Father Chibuike loves us with his rant about being our form teacher all the time, but this?" She looked at the entire block, "Is too much. How on earth do we finish this?"
"We wouldn't be here if he had listened to Ivie and not humour Itohan," JohnMary said. "You weren't agreeable with me before, hope your stand remains the same?" He directed that at Gaga, the sarcasm palpable.
"Fine! You don't have to rub it on my face that you were right."
"But Itohan has a far more worse punishment than we do," Aisosa said, holding a mopping stick.
"Which serves her right. By the time her suspension is over, she'll be full of remorse."
"How do you think she's doing?" Aisosa asked.
Gaga came to her and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "IT is fine, she's a biatch and she'll be fine. I'm also worried about her, but she'll scale through. She has to in other to receive a good beating from me."
Aisosa smiled.
Itohan took a rag and started dusting the window pane. From what she's arranged, Ivie, or as they know, Itohan, was never coming back. She did intend to re-switch, but that would be after she's done a lot and made Ivie's life a mess.
She wiped the glass quickly, getting into the other. After a while, tired, she stopped. "Do we still have a detention this evening?"
"Tell me about it," Gaga cleaned the sweat from her face. "Don't you just feel like killing IT?"
"Hmmm."
She did feel like killing Ivie, but Ivie was more useful to her alive than dead, especially with a power like hers. Did it mean she now has Ivie's powers? She doubted it. If the switch had happened that way, then she wouldn't have her magic either, but she did.
After their cleaning session, they headed for detention. Father Ekene welcome them. "Who would have thought a day would come when y'all will grace me with your presence."
Itohan had always found the priest a little too hyper, too active.
"Have a seat," Father Ekene motioned. "Or if you prefer standing then be my guest."
But they did seat. There was a seat for everybody and on top their desks was a clean sheet of paper, a pen and three rayons; red, blue and green. The room was almost full, it seemed more people received detention than she knew.
"You're going to turn to your neighbour and give him or her a welcoming handshake." Father Ekene acknowledged.
Now this was what Itohan was talking about. She glared at him.
"Ivie doesn't want to have a handshake with her neighbour, such disobedience. But not to worry, by the time you leave here, obedience and patience will become a virtue you've accustomed yourself with. Now, hurry before I decide to cut off your hand and initiate the handshake myself."
The other students laughed. Itohan managed not to flicker her eyes at the priest. Whoever thought living as Ivie was easy, all the attention was annoying especially coming from people she didn't like.
Her neighbour was a fresher, and as she gripped the girl's hand in a shake, she could feel her frail fingers pressing together.
"Ha-ha, Ivie has such unreal imagination of what a handshake should be, ending with broken bones. It's a good thing you're here. Up?"
Itohan swore under her breath as she obliged.
"Now step forward like the bad student you are."
"Do you derive joy in picking up on students?" Itohan couldn't stop herself from asking.
"Avoid detention if you don't want to be picked up on, when you decide to dance with the devil, you don't get to complain about the song. Stop being a cry baby and step forward."
She heard more snickers behind and she turned around to bark, "What are you laughing at!?"
It was Father Ekene who replied, "You. Silly, who else will they be laughing at, you're the one being ridiculed here?"
Itohan held back her tongue walked to the front of the class.
"You know how to catwalk but not how to give a handshake, too bad. But not to worry, we unlearn all the bad behaviours in detention. If you had come earlier then we would have discovered this lacking of yours and fix it. Trust me, you'd have been better refined."
"I think you talk too much," she murmured, but loud enough for him to hear.
"Learn how to give a proper handshake and try me later."
Itohan clamped her mouth shut. It did feel like all the other times Father Chibuike would pick on Ivie, only this time it was not Father Chibuike, and she was the Ivie.